What are you going to do about this girl?

"Papa, where are you going tomorrow? " - Nischal seeing my packing.
"Mumbai" I say.
"Why are you going there? " - comes the next question.

We are sitting in the office.. Anu is sitting in the living room. Nischal is sitting at the computer table.. so his back is facing the other room.

"I'm going to a marriage there" I answer.
A brief silence.
"Then, what are you going to do about this girl? " comes the next question.

I look up to see his palm pointing to the room behind him over his shoulder.
I'm confused - for a moment - before I recover.
"What about her?" I ask.

He thinks for a beat before he says " Oh.. your other girl is going to stay back in Mumbai? "
"She can come here also, you know. If you like" I counter with a smile.

He puts down his pencil casually. "I want to go to Amma "
"Not until you finish writing that 49" I reply - not fooled by the nonchalance.
The page is filled up with number 49 in record time, making me think I should emulate Calvin's dad more. He runs out to his mom. I follow him.

"Amma.. pappa is getting married!" . She gives me a puzzled look, but catches on quick.
"Good for you. You're always complaining about how much I hug you, kiss you and all"
He is now taken aback by this turn of events.
"No.. I'm fine with your kissing. ... I like your kissing. But I want you only, Amma " The panic in his voice does it for her.
She hugs him and says "No my little baby, I'll only be your Amma. Pappa was just joking! " He's not fully convinced. Then she picks him up and the kiss assault starts.

Only when I see his escape attempts start, I know he's convinced .. or dad's bigamy is not a priority item anymore.

Fun with 'Pun'

Nischal's homework today was to write a page full of 'un' words. After losing a long negotiation  that he'd do it tomorrow coz 'tomorrow is a holiday!', he finally got his pencil and eraser to the book.

"I can't write! I don't know any 'un' words!"  was his declaration, threatening to drop it all and go back to the soccer ball.

Mom pitched in "I'll get you started. Ff .. un! "
"Fun?" Nischal said, although he was clearly re-evaluating mom's sanity associating this word to his current situation.
"What else?" mom asked.
"Pp - un. Pun!" he said.

I too nodded in surprise, wondering if he knew what it meant.

"What is 'pun' ? " asked his brother.

Before either of the adults could form their words, Nischal screamed out " I know, I know ! "
As we looked at him expectantly he blurted out "Pun means babies!"
As I slowly shook my head to correct him, he repeated " Yes. Our teacher told us. They do good things to everybody, and they look like babies!"
Looking at our disagreeing faces, he repeated with confidence, and said "yes, they also cover their heads like this" making a motion with both hands starting at the top of his head, down his cheeks and ending at his chin.

Mom realized first and laughed out loud. "No chinna, that's  'nun' ! "

Nischal just gave his mom with a "now who taught you english?" look.

What do you want to be when you're grown up?

Papa, what do you want to be when you're grown up?

I'm already grown up, Nischal.

But what do you want to be ?

Well, I suppose I'll be an engineer.. like I am now.

I mean when you are even more grown up than now. What do you want to be?

hm...

I'll tell you what I want to be ?

yes..

I want to be a Ninja. Like in Lego Ninjago.

[ He's been watching a lot of this video ]

We went to malaria today

"We went to Malaria today" Nischal said.

After a couple of fruitless whaats,  I moved on to "What did you do there?"
"We had dosas there" he said ".. and then we saw planets"
"We saw Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Earth .." he said while swinging arms to make a circle each time, and ended with a shake of the head - "..But no Pluto".
"Why didn't you see Pluto?" I asked
He explained, shaking his head, " Pluto is not a planet, Papa. It has been taken away"
Avaneesh jumped in "pluto is a planet.. it's a dwarf planet"

I had to interrupt the 'yes-no' argument that went on for a minute - " What else did you see at the malaria?"
"We saw stars.. and also one girl crashed in the rocket"

Avaneesh explained to my puzzled face "They must have showed him Kalpana Chawla"

 "What else happened, Nischal?" I asked.
"They told Mangala (Mangalyaan) is next to that planet.. that Mars" he said. Avaneesh was puzzled at "Mangala" and his mom explained it as the Indian term for Mars.

"They told the Earth is moving, and the sun is in the middle. The Earth is moving around the Sun. And.. we had to sit in the dark.. "
He came up to sit on the sofa next to me and demonstrate " and we had to sit like this (folding his legs) .. it was very difficult"

I nodded with empathy (a physio had recently lost a few kgs trying to fold & flex my legs).

"When the second movie was coming, okay, everyone was laughing laughing laughing."
"Why" I asked
"Because of the God song there," he said " then .. they showed a lot of rocks following the planet"
"It's called the asteroid belt -" explained his brother.
The little guy cut his elder brother short and continued   ".. then they showed Earth .. and everybody was jumping around for that. Then they showed a rocket, Kalpana Chawya.. and they were all in the rocket that went up & down again and again"

Then his voice went up a notch "Then, there were two naked girls" .
My eyebrows shot up with alarm - what were they showing at this planetarium ?!?
"..They were doing potty everywhere ..and messing up the plants.." he continued
"Oh .. you had come outside ? " I asked .. relieved this wasn't part of the show.
"yes.. and I got to see their bums also" - apparently it was - as far as he was concerned.

"Then?" I asked.

"Then we all came back in the bus.. and everybody was laughing and shouting.. Kalpana Chawya! Kalpana Chawya!"