Pari says...

Pari has, like any other person in the world, a mixture of qualities (some good, some bad, as per the societal norms). She is possessive about her stuff, wants everything to her and needs a lot of convincing to share. She only shares with people she really likes. She is a little short-tempered and somewhat jealous too. All this has come naturally to her, inherited mostly from her mother. An attention-seeker, but not adventure-loving, she hates to take risks. All these bundled and wrapped in her innocence makes her a sweet little devil sometimes. Most of her quarrels are with the people she is closest to; Aaji being the first in the line, gets to hear the music more. Mummy and Daddy are seen less, so are adored more. The other day for some mischief she was scolded by Baba, so she declared that he is bad, she doesn't like him and he should be thrown away. (Throwing people away, to pigs, is the best way of getting rid of them).  Aaji said to her, "If Baba is bad, so is your Dad...

Pari is one of those fortunate children whose parents have an inter-religion inter-state marriage. While her father is a Telegu-speaking Christian, her mother is a Marathi-speaking Buddhist. The first 1.5yrs of her life had alternate exposures to the two cultures when both her grand mothers took turns to come to Kharagpur. But since the time she actually started understanding the world around her and learning to communicate, she has been surrounded more by people from her mother's side. As of now she doesn't understand the difference though. But she has learnt to easily code-switch between Marathi and Hindi when she is talking to her Mummy and Daddy at the same time. Her everyday questions to both on the conference call are: Mummy, tu kaay jevli?, Daddy, aapne kya khana khaya?, Mummy, tu kaay karat hoti?, Daddy, aap kya kar rahe the?... and so on. A few days ago, when she fell off the bed and hurt herself while doing some mischief, she cried and complained like this to Mummy, ...

Pari's time to talk to Mummy and Daddy is daily before bedtime. She asks what they were doing, what dinner they had etc. She is used to Mummy eating Oats almost every night, and so her response everytime is, "oats are not to be eaten at night, but in the morning". (She has oats with milk in breakfast twice a week). Some random day when Mummy ate chapatis, she was suprised and asked, "why didn't you eat oats?". Mummy said, "Tomorrow onwards I will eat oats. Is that ok?". She paused, and replied, "No, you should eat oats in breakfast". From Daddy she remembers hearing 'brinjal fry' more often than any other vegetable. One day she noticed something else was told and again the same question popped up, "why didn't you eat brinjal today?". Sometimes she asks Mummy to sing a song, one of the many that Mummy has been singing for her since Day 1 to put her to sleep. Her all-time favourites are "Chanda taala wala gaana...

Since Pari lives in her mother's hometown, where her grandparents have relatives and acquaintances all over the city and around, she gets to attend many family functions throughout the year. The situation has become such that she knows and recognizes more people than her Mummy does. She knows that in birthdays, cake is cut and gifts are given, and there is a huge variety of food in weddings. Her third birthday was celebrated in Nagpur, of which she remembers that it was on 14 October and she had invited her Mummy and Daddy for it. Most of the functions she attends have a common set of relatives who always wonder how this little girl stays away from her mother. In spite of the fact that its been more than two years now, they marvel at the strength she, her mother and her grandmother have for doing what they are doing. Once in such a function, one of her Mummy's quite elder female cousin asked her why she didn't bring her Mummy along. To this Pari replied that her Mummy has ...

Like all other kids in the world, Pari too is a curious child. In her childhood, her Mummy asked funny questions too, a couple of which Aaji and Baba had written in their diaries. The idea of this blog has come from there, because the amount of interrogative words Pari uses everyday is far far more than any child people around her have seen ever. Everything happening, or even not happening has a question, and most of the times the same questions are repeated again and again expecting the same answers every time. How many kids you know who ask every time when they go to pee or to poop, that why does the poop go in the water in the commode, and while in the process who has used the bathroom before them and why? Since Pari lives among a lot of relations she has been trying to understand the complex network of family and relatives. Her Aaji and Baba are also Athak's Aaji and Baba, but her Mummy and Daddy are his Aatya and Mamaji, respectively, while his Mummy and Papa are her Mami an...

Due to the inability of Pari's parents to keep her with them, she lives with her maternal grandparents (Aaji and Baba) in Nagpur from the time she was 1.5yrs old. So she thinks that her home is in Nagpur, and her Mummy's home is in Kharagpur, and her Daddy's home is in Kolkata. In last two years she has learned that Mummy's train that comes to her every month is blue in colour and the train that goes to Daddy is purple (local train from Kharagpur to Kolkata).  She has learned that Mummy is studying for becoming a doctor (little one does not understand what PhD means!) and so she also will study hard and become a doctor (the one that gives medicines and injections!) too. She has mostly seen Mummy wear salwar-suits or kurti-leggings, and so she says when she grows up she will wear salwar-suit and go to college on a bicycle. She actually aspires to someday become everyone she sees around her. When she becomes Aaji she will wear Saree and a bindi, when she becomes Baba sh...