Tammy Tales

Last post talked about Mannu all the while. I have gotten into a habit of striking a balance between my actions so that none of the kid feels I'm favouring the other. I have got to do a separate post on that.

Well so here I'm with a few events where Tammy came up with dialogues worth documenting!!

I had given Guava in their tiffin box to be had in the evening. On the way back home in the rick, the interrogation begins.
Me: Mannu Tammu, Did you eat Guava today?
Mannu: Tammu has caught cold na? So don't send Guava for her Mamma. Send only for me.
Tammu: Mamma, you heat the Guava and send for me. I will not catch cold then, hai na???

I go to pick them up from school and they see a Pizza delivery boy! Tammu says "Mamma, mujhe Pizza khana hai." Me astonished at her having identified the thing in the boy's hand as Pizza ask her again "What?" And she thinks I dunno what a Pizza is!!! To my further surpise, she says all this at a stretch - "Mamma! This is Pizza. Ye round hota hai. Isko kitchen mein fry karna padtha hai. Upar se cheese daalna padtha hai. Phir cook karna padtha hai. Uske baad cut karne se ye triangle ho jaata hai. Ok mamma?" I was staring at her with my jaws dropped.

Background: They had caught this habit of saying NO on my face to each and everything I would ask them to do. It would really piss me off. I mean, I wouldn't mind it if they don't do what I say. But I don't want to listen to a NO from 3 year olds after all! I had freaked out BIG TIME and warned them to think 100 times before uttering the N word. Yeah I can be a Rowdy at times to bully them.
One day, MIL asks me "Seemu, did you take bath?" And I say "No".
Bang comes Tammu's question "Why did you say no to Didi when you told us not to say No?"
Sigh!!!!


Warning- Bit mushy ahead (Blush blush)
Background: Tammy is a replica of Abbas. She even smells like him. Whenever I kiss her, I sniff her sneakily and it does feel good. She caught me sniffing her smell once and she thought it was an act performed post kissing.
One fine morning: I wake up and I planted a routine small kiss on Abbas's cheek. Boy, I turn back and see both the kiddos awake. Maanu says "What did you do to Baba?" Me (all blushing) - "I gave your Baba a kiss". Tammu says "Did you smell him or not?" I feel like crawling under a rock all ashamed.


These are the recent few dialogues which I'm able to recall at this moment. To be contd...

Naariyal Paani - Bachhon ke Muh mein paani, mere maathe pe paani (Pasina)

Thursday morning - Abbas driving Bulu (our Blue car). Me and kids sitting in the rear seat. Me combing their hair and tying 2 ponies on each head. Mannu suddenly spots something on the street and goes 'Oita dao!' (meaning give THAT to me) I inquire what she wants. She repeats those two goddamn words for like 1024 times (yeah I'm into IT industry, u c?) and Abbas and I both start asking her cross questions to find out what this mystery thing was that the daughter was going bonkers over... We both are ready to tear each other's hair unable to treasure-hunt it. Abbas, regaining his cool (trying to concentrate on his driving skills) asked her politely "Mannu what do you want?" And she again says for the 1025th time - "Oita dao"!!! I go grrrr.... and then I remember this game called Hangman that we used to play as kids. 

So there I go - "Did you see OITA?" 

Mannu - Yes

Me - "Do you want to eat it?"

Mannu - Yes

Me - "What colour is it?"

Mannu - Mmmm (lost)... after 5 secs pause - Green

Me - (Unsure about what to ask next) Are you sure???

Mannu - Yes

Me - (I'm the lost one now, bring out my lifeline - asking the other kid) - "Tammu, what is she trying to say?"

Tammu - (Thinking, please don't involve me in this for God's sake) "I don't know mamma"

God came to rescue and she again spotted OITA somewhere on the street and she remembered it's name finally! Phew...

Let's go to flashback...

There is a Naariyal Paani wala cart exactly opposite Mannu Tammu's school. On Tuesday, when we crossed the road to catch a rick, Mannu spotted that stall and 'Mujhe wo chahiye'. The girl didn't even know its name but wanted it. Huh! Well, I assured her by sugar coating my words "Tender Coconut?? Tujhe chahiye? Main Friday ko khareedke dungi Okay?" She happily nodded, little did she know that Friday is yet another 3 days away. Now the reason why I said Friday is another story altogether. My domestic help comes at 6:30 PM in the evening. Although my MIL is here now, I ask her to come in the evening so that she can wash truckload of tiffin boxes of kids and me. She comes in the morning on Weekends so, she washes Friday's dabbas Saturday morning. So I couldnt afford to be a minute late or have to face Meena Aunty's wrath. Although I am not afraid of her as such, I would perhaps be better off without looking into her questioning eyes.

Back to the present...

We reached my office by then and I waved bye to them and like a wicked politician I gave my assurance yet again "I will buy you tender coconut tomorrow for sure, okay???" And both fairies now took their fav seat (front seat which is (il)legally my right when their Baba is driving) and waved back to me smiling!!!

Today...

I might be wicked but I don't make fake promises. If I promise I ensure I deliver it. I bought a Tender Coconut for them and the three of us also went into a Fancy shop to buy a clip for me and ended up buying rubber bands and clips, bangles for them!

PS:

I also picked up one tender coconut for MIL. And Mannu was thoughtful in asking how her Didi will drink it as there was no straw at home. 

Coincidence or Causality???

As a kid I was timid and and lika a recluse, I secluded myself from the crowd or strangers. More often than not, I found it hard to mingle with people. I preferred to stay in my cocoon and hardly socialized. At school, I was good at academics but  a zero when it came to sports or dance or even elocution's for that matter. I would participate in offline activities like drawing, essay writing, rangoli competitions. You get the drift right?? But there were a few exceptions like singing and fancy dress competitions where although I had to face ogling eyes of audiences, I fared considerably well (nevertheless I shivered out of nervousness from within). Post marriage when I was posted to unknown city and I lived on my own, my personality took a 360°turn and I became an extrovert. It was a turning point in my life and realization set in of all the opportunities I let go out of my coyness. That’s when I decided I will push my daughters to grab opportunities that come their way and teach them that “Participation is more important than the outcome”

Last year their creche was planning to observe Children’s Day and conduct Fancy Dress competition for them and also a Dance programme. I jumped in joy full of enthusiasm.Pumped all my gusto into my daughters by means of narrating to them how much fun it will be, and how they will get to wear new dresses, and so many uncles and aunties will say they are ‘Good girls’, exclaim and cheer when they dance and the euphoria hit them too... I decided on dressing them up as Krishna and Radha. On November 13th they ran temperature and the zeal all three of us deflated just as a balloon that got pricked. That night once they went to sleep, I packed all the dresses and accessories hoping against hope that they would be fit to atleast go on stage with costume and come back. (Yes, I’m a crazy mom!!!) Next morning, the temperature was slightly above normal but weakness prevailed. They were dull yet asking me when was I going to dress them up? They went on stage as Krishna and Radha for the first time. Then came back, they changed into white party frocks and again went on stage with rest of their kins and shook a leg to ‘All is well’!!! All was well only till then coz fever increased by a few notches by   evening. We took them to their paediatrician and they underwent a three day course of medication and were back to normal.

In May this year, we had Family Day function at work. They were organizing competitions for kids in the age range 5-12 years. Hyper-excited me, sent a reply to that mail asking if we could get three year olds to participate too. The response elated me coz they said three year olds could participate with parental supervision. This time I was brainstorming for something new coz I learnt from my previous experience that dressing up as Krishna and Radha was very common. One of my colleagues suggested ‘Cheerleader’. I got pom poms, brought gift wrappng sheets, cut them into stripes, stapled them into a backless top that they already had. I cut a long stripe out of drawing sheet and dangled colourful stripes from that sheet all over and made it as a mini skirt, attached same stripes to the stockings and made matching wrist bands. For the other one, I planned to dress her as a tribal lady. I asked my domestic help to get some mango leaves, made crown, necklace, and skirt out of leaves the previous night. Packed paint bottles to paint  her body with colourful stripes, some flower rakhi to tie on arms, wooden bangles and a  wooden flute. The night before the event was a nightmare, Abbas and I slept quite late as we prepared the tribal costume and also were googling for some tribal song. By the time we called it a day, Mannu had begun showing signs of diarrhoea. Phew! We spent the whole night cleaning her bum and changing her diaper. She was quite alright by afternoon but weak, her excitement uncluttered. Both of them jumped and did their small bits on stage with audience going ‘Ooh’ and ‘Aah’. I loved every bit of it. Back home all 4 of us curled into our beds to get a good night’s sleep.

This time when their school had intimated about sending kids dressed as Krishna and Gopika on Srikrishna Janmashtami, I was a little apprehensive. I suppressed my enthusiasm down and only announced about this event to kids a couple of days back. All was well till the D-Day morning. Mannat woke up earlier than usual and first thing she asked was “Are you dressing us up as Radha Krishna today?” I exclaimed “Yesss!” We were all set to leave home with both of them well made up in their new avatars, when Tammu tripped and fell down. She began crying and showing her knee which was in pain. We smeared an ointment there and told her she will be alright. Memories of previous two instances had faded from my memory but they hastily came back to me when I went to pick them up from the day care in the evening. I saw Mannat quietly sitting in a chair with her left heel neatly dressed with a bandage. Before I could inquire what had happened to her… the caretaker told me that they had a Matka breaking ceremony and a teeny weeny piece of Matka must have bee lying in some corner. Mannu’s heel got pierced by it and she kept mum without informing anyone. They only came to know when they saw blood red footsteps all over the floor. Sigh! The wound was a minor one, thank god for that!

I always do the ‘Nazar utharna’ act when we take kids out among crowd and have people’s eyes fixated on them. I am not sure if it works at all, but it’s just for self-consolation. But ultimately all these incidents have thrown me in a fix. Are they mere coincidences? Being an optimist, what I want to deduce from all these happenings is  “ There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.” ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross