Peter and Repeater
Athak is Pari's first cousin, almost 7 months elder to her. Mummy has spent a lot of time playing and helping take care of baby Athak when she was carrying Pari. Baby Athak had a doll with onion-coloured pink head. He would poke her eye with his little index finger. So when he saw baby Pari, he probably thought of her as another doll, and so he used to try to poke her eye too. Mummy and Aaji had to be vigilant when the two little ones were kept together. Pari inherited most of Athak's toys and clothes. She was also put in his cradle. Athak was already crawling when she was born. She was introduced to him as younger sister and he seemed to have liked her from the beginning. Mummy even has a video of him singing 'aaaa....' while rocking her cradle. Aaji helped him stand with the cradle's support. The two kids were separated when Pari was 2.5months old. They later met for Pari's naming ceremony in her fifth month in Vizag, where she kicked him the eye, as if taking revenge for all the eye-poking he had attempted earlier.
The two were re-united around Athak's second birthday and since then both are living under the same roof. He being elder has learned stuff earlier, and she has been following him in almost all the things and has also been his partner-in-crime. Athak has always been the more physically active and proactively innovative of the two. He has learnt things from the elders or TV or movies more by visual observations. Whereas, Pari's learning cues are more dominantly audio. She repeats whatever people around her say, and the elders include Athak Dada too. Athak and Pari are now seen as what Mama and Mummy used to be in their childhood. Playing together, quarrelling over petty matters, beating each other, getting jealous, caressing when happy, looking out for each other when required, in short doing everything that siblings do.
In spite of the difference of just a few months, from a very young age, Athak has got the typical elder brother thing in him. On Pari's 2nd Birthday, which was celebrated in Kolkata, the whole extended family went out for dinner. When she was wandering around, little Pari hit her head on a table. While Mummy got busy consoling and caressing the crying Pari, Athak's immediate response was to hit the table hard thrice with his little hand with all the anger visible on his little face. Later he went around telling everyone that she got hurt on her forehead. Once, at around 3yrs of age for both the kids, Aaji got angry with Pari and kept her out of the house. Her little big-brother came to her rescue. He hit Aaji, opened the door and got his little sister in. He holds her hand while walking and tells her to be careful with her steps when he sees uneven ground.
Athak's interest is more in watching TV or mobile, while Pari is more of a book-loving person. But when it comes to toys, or jumping around, running around, making noise, that is behaving their age, they do it together where mostly Pari follows suit. Afterall, she has been hearing this from the beginning: "See Dada/Athak does it like this" or "he doesn't do this" and so she is also expected to behave the same. One day, all were in the living room, Athak was jumping from one piece of furniture to other, and she followed (as far as she could) and repeated whatever he said in the act. That is when Mummy pointed to Athak and said, "this is Peter" and to Pari, "this is Repeater". Then when Athak was asked who they were, he said, pointing towards himself, "this is Peter", and pointing to Pari,"This is repeater". Same question was put to Pari, anticipating a repetition. But to everybody's surprise, she answered "This is Athak, this is Pari!"
The two were re-united around Athak's second birthday and since then both are living under the same roof. He being elder has learned stuff earlier, and she has been following him in almost all the things and has also been his partner-in-crime. Athak has always been the more physically active and proactively innovative of the two. He has learnt things from the elders or TV or movies more by visual observations. Whereas, Pari's learning cues are more dominantly audio. She repeats whatever people around her say, and the elders include Athak Dada too. Athak and Pari are now seen as what Mama and Mummy used to be in their childhood. Playing together, quarrelling over petty matters, beating each other, getting jealous, caressing when happy, looking out for each other when required, in short doing everything that siblings do.
In spite of the difference of just a few months, from a very young age, Athak has got the typical elder brother thing in him. On Pari's 2nd Birthday, which was celebrated in Kolkata, the whole extended family went out for dinner. When she was wandering around, little Pari hit her head on a table. While Mummy got busy consoling and caressing the crying Pari, Athak's immediate response was to hit the table hard thrice with his little hand with all the anger visible on his little face. Later he went around telling everyone that she got hurt on her forehead. Once, at around 3yrs of age for both the kids, Aaji got angry with Pari and kept her out of the house. Her little big-brother came to her rescue. He hit Aaji, opened the door and got his little sister in. He holds her hand while walking and tells her to be careful with her steps when he sees uneven ground.
Athak's interest is more in watching TV or mobile, while Pari is more of a book-loving person. But when it comes to toys, or jumping around, running around, making noise, that is behaving their age, they do it together where mostly Pari follows suit. Afterall, she has been hearing this from the beginning: "See Dada/Athak does it like this" or "he doesn't do this" and so she is also expected to behave the same. One day, all were in the living room, Athak was jumping from one piece of furniture to other, and she followed (as far as she could) and repeated whatever he said in the act. That is when Mummy pointed to Athak and said, "this is Peter" and to Pari, "this is Repeater". Then when Athak was asked who they were, he said, pointing towards himself, "this is Peter", and pointing to Pari,"This is repeater". Same question was put to Pari, anticipating a repetition. But to everybody's surprise, she answered "This is Athak, this is Pari!"
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