Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Why does it happen to me only di?

Chandana is my PG caretaker’s  seven years old cute daughter.  Since I spend hours reading newspaper after breakfast, she is used to me perhaps. This morning, I was reading Hindu, when she came near and started, stomping her foot. She said, 'Why does it happen to me only akka?' in her adorable telgu englishu. What to do she chided herself, as if, she was forced to lift the whole world on her tiny shoulders.

So I asked her what happened and she said about her packing woes. She had packed 4 bags and she could not find any space to keep the exam pad in any of her four bags. She was going to Nellore -  her maternal grandparents’ home. So I asked her why she might need exam pad during 10 days holidays. She said some assignment with papers.

She is so lovely. With glowing baby skin and a nose that cringes with her expressions. I remember reading in samudriki lakshana that a girl with such a nose is a lucky mascot. Just in 2nd standard, she prepared a soupy maggi noodles for her younger brother at 10 pm. Just like all siblings growing together, she knows just to love and take care. Always forgiving and forgetting anything whatsoever. Her younger brother pushed her down on rough hard concrete floor in a fight and the skin came off her nose and elbow. The next day, she was playing around with her brother as if nothing happened.

She would show her maths exam question paper, and how she didn’t have time for the last few questions and how her tiny fingers hurt holding the pen after 2 hours. She would show me her assignments with her baby handwriting and amusing grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. I had to control so much, not to point out mistakes and take away her bubbliness as she explained. She would take up Men are from Mars series that was lying nearby to read along with me. Since kids just imitate elders, the best way to inculcate reading habit in children is perhaps to read in front of them.

That evening, my housie poured out, again why does it happen to me only di. This Lucknow babe is cute and I realized, why she is pouring out when some don’t. Another Aslesha. There is a repeating pattern of the people who open up to me. Once my roomies used to be karkas, now recently it is Meshas  - Ashwinis to be more specific.

So I told my apartmentmate about Chandana’s WhyDoesItHappenToMe predicament and she started laughing. Sometimes I wonder, elders in 80s would be amused the same way, when I talk about why does it happen to me only? Perhaps, evolved souls above would be amused the same way, when men bemoan at times on seemingly trivial things.

Sometimes I wonder, what is that am doing. Aimless. I wanted to see her – she offered to come to MDC and see me. But since this morning, some sort of ennui took over me. I took out the yoga mat, but my femur was glued and I ended up doing just pranayama instead of routine asanas. After reading newspapers, I could hardly take another step, implant was jammed thanks to prolonged sitting position.

Metal expands on heating, contracts on cooling. Why does implant not hurt in summers but hurts during rainy and chilly weather.  Postponed meeting her  - the girl who could speak, by lipreading, without hearing a sound.  Sometimes, I wonder about life without music, soothing melodious notes. Apart from the beautiful world of sounds, the practical reality of crossing roads, attending to a crying baby or a call for help from elders.

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