Play date

                                                Abhi’s first play date with Icy.

Abhi was told that they are leaving to Chennai soon to see (me) his paternal aunt’s baby. Abhi loved to travel in trains and his fantasy is to travel in a double decker train. This is the first time ever that something else caught his attention better than the prospect of travelling in a train.

“Does atta have a tummy in her baby…oops…I mean…baby in her tummy?” he lost himself in a fit of giggles. “yes nanna! She has a baby in her tummy” his dad confirmed. “A boy or a girl?” he perked up.

“What do you prefer?” his dad side stepped answering his question. “Of course a baby boy” he said without thinking twice, his wide eyes twinkling with anticipation. “Why?” his dad frowned, pinched up with inquisitiveness.

“Look nanna! I know what to buy if it’s a boy” Abhi replied with a casual flick of his hand dismissing any scope for discussing otherwise. “I can gift him James train, Thomas train and those perfect cars. I can teach him about the parts of train, manual brakes, couplings with magnets, cargo bogies and lots more. We can watch ‘how accidents happen?’ videos from you tube. I am clueless about girls” he nailed it. PERIOD.

“You know what! Karthik tammudu also thinks the same. He says girls like only girls” his dad doled out. “yea” <rolling his eyes > Abhi more than agreed. “But…” his dad continued “you guys could be wrong you know. Nani is a girl. Amma is a girl. Atta is a girl. And they like you” his dad tried to reason with him. Abhi laughed that ‘you-silly-dad’ laugh saying “They are not girls nanna. They are women.”

How can anyone beat that?  It’s like a Yorker. Bowled and sent to the pavilion. However my brother thought that the gender stereotyping is growing out of spiral and is determined to curb it.

“Abhi! Atta delivered a baby girl but she likes you so much. You will love to play with her. She is so tiny you know. I mean really tiny….this small” his dad made animated hand gestures.

“What? A baby girl? Oh no! NO No Nooooo. It can’t happen like this. I am very upset” he said with an almost tearful face. “All my plans are shattered” he wailed like a business tycoon who just lost a fortune. “She does not like trains. I can’t play with her” he complained.

“The baby is very tiny nanna. You have to wait until she grows up to play with her. Who knows! She may also like trains someday” his dad consoled him.

“Tiny? How tiny?” Abhi asked skeptically.

“The size of a rabbit” his dad answered.

“What? Did atta deliver a rabbit?” Abhi asked innocently. Laughing uncontrollably my brother replied “No nanna. She delivered a baby girl who is as tiny as a rabbit”

“A rabbit sized baby? Really? That small?” he was awe stuck.

“yes nanna! You probably haven’t ever seen anybody like that. She is smaller than Aamna and Jeffry” his dad successfully invoked enthusiasm in this revolting kid. 

“okay! Let’s do some shopping for this rabbit baby then” he declared. He spent the best part of the day picking dresses for his cousin which were way far larger for the bub. Finally he zeroed upon a pink onie with a bow and a towel set beautifully gift wrapped with a cute teddie before he called it a day.

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An enthusiastic 7 year old Abhi stepped in to the hospital and stood by my bed. I am taken by surprise by his growth spurt. His porcupine-like-spiky-hair looks a little disciplined by the school, however those dennis-the menace eyes look the same. The last time I saw him he lost his incisors. I noticed gap between his secondary incisors which made him look even cuter. I couldn’t stop myself drifting back to the day when he was born. I was in the O.T when he was delivered. I was the first person to hold him and swaddle him. His rooting reflexes were strong and I had to chide him “I am not your mum. Wait baby. Wait.” And here he stands after 7 years which fly away in no time, eager to hold the baby I just delivered. He felt like my first kid rather than a nephew cos in many ways, though I never expressed, I felt more maternal about him.

“Whoa!!!” he exclaimed falling short of words. “woo hooo” he cried sealing his mouth with his palms, his eyes sparkling as if he witnessed a gem.

“How is she?” I asked encouraging him to get verbal.

“TINY. VERY TINY” he parroted his father’s words. He gently touched her fingers, her head, her cheeks giggling to himself. Icy opened her eyes to see who the heck disturbed her in the middle of her blissful siesta.

“Hey look! She opened her eyes. SHE OPENED HER EYES… OPENED HER EYES…O.P.E.N.E.D E.Y.E.S” Abhi shrieked which startled Icy. He was as hyper as an electron in the E1 state. He tried to snatch Icy from my mum. My heart just skipped a beat. My brother jumped at my rescue. He had to wrestle with Abhi and pull him apart. He was ferried to the canteen to chill off, where he had a milkshake and a chicken puff.

Sometime later, when the electrons from E1 state discharged energy returning to E2, Abhi initiated a sober tete-a-tete with me. “Atta! You better think and plan about her schooling.”

“I was planning to send her to your school. I heard it’s the best” I replied suppressing a smile. You see! When he is sober, he behaves like a grown up and he doesn’t like it when people giggle at him.

“Oh no! Please don’t do that” he warned me. “We are a gang of naughty guys. We tease girls of lower classes. What if she happens to be among them accidentally? I can’t promise you that I can protect her.  ” he confessed sincerely. I literally laughed until my sutures threatened to tear open.

“How do you tease them rey?” I nibbled him to elaborate on those juicy lines.

“When they walk by our bus we comment ‘yeh papa LKG da’ ‘yeh papa ukg da’ like that” he said as a matter of fact.

“kay. Chill abhi. I shall send her to karate classes so that she can defend herself” I replied unburdening him of the responsibility to protect her.

“But that’s such a bad idea” he responded. “In the name of teaching her karate, the master fights with her and makes her cry” he pointed out.

“

Is there any other solution?” I asked naively. He never gives a “no” for a reply.

“Do one thing atta. Send her to a different school. Or send her to school when she is older so that she can skip LKG and UKG” he advised me like a pro. I nodded. “By the time she grows up, I will probably be a man” he doled out unexpectedly. His words sent us all in to a fit of laughter. “Wot? Why are you all laughing? Am I not right?” he complained. We agreed that he is right. He continued “And when she grows up, she has to go through all of this like you” he enlightened me.

“what do you mean? I didn’t get you abhi” I replied genuinely puzzled.

“I mean when she grows up she has to carry a baby in her tummy just like you did” he patiently explained to our ignorant minds. That was the final straw. I laughed and laughed and laughed until I was literally in stiches and those stitches threatened to burst open forever.