Milk pilli

My nephew Karthik calls in saying that he wants to talk with Icy. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Icy is still a baby and that she can’t talk yet. So I adopted a baby voice and softly cooed a hello. He was over joyed. He replied “Helloooo cutieeee” going weak at the knees and blushing like a bunch of roses.

“Are you shy karthik?” I heard his father question him.

“Just a little bit” karthik replied. My brother laughed heartily. Fatherly pride echoed in his laughter. 

“you should not be shy nanna. Come here. Talk to Icy. She is waiting on you” he said encouraging his son to get vocal.

“cuite, how are you” karthik strikes a conversation.

“I am goooooooooooood” I replied in a mock Icy voice.

“What do you like cutie? I like cars, trucks and sky scrapers” karthik shared his interests.

“Wot aare sky..scra..pers? I questioned innocently on behalf of Icy.

“Come to Canada. I will show you” he offered. “We can go on a picnic.”

“Ooooo…kay” baby icy replied. “mayyyy..beeee…neeext…yeeeear.”

“You know Cutie! I can speak te-lu-gu too” he boasted. “Niku te-lu-gu vas-ta-da?” he questioned.

Icy “Ummm”ed.

“What do you like to eat?” he asked perhaps to make sure that he serves her the same when she shows up at Canada as their guest.

“I? I eeeeaaat oooonly miiiilk” icy replied.

Karthik guffawed for what felt like eternity. Finally when he was catching up on his breath I asked him “what is so funny nanna? Why are you laughing so much?

“Cutie sounds silly atta” he chuckles. “She says she eats milk” he giggles again. Addressing Icy he says “cuite! We don’t eat milk. We drink it.” That made all the three of us go bananas once again.

“I eat pizza, macaroni, pasta, cereal, lemon chicken, eggs, prawns, pappu annam and pe-ggu annam” karthik showed off.

“When you were a baby you too had milk all the time” I spoke up in defense of my daughter. “Icy is too little to eat these stuff karthik. Her tiny tummy cannot digest anything but for milk” I explained. The word milk hangs in the air for a sec before karthik cracks up again. 

He thinks of Icy as a mini version of Tom who fights with Jerry over a bowl of milk. The wise mouse puts a straw-in-a-straw and drains out the bowl of milk in a single gulp. Tom wakes up just in time to find a last drop of milk hanging from the whiskers of Jerry. He hurries to mouth it banging pots and chairs on the way but jerry manages to suck it back just in time. Karthik rolls on floor laughing at his imagination.

“you know what? I am not going to call you cutie anymore. I am calling you milk pilli” he rechristened her.