Mantamisms and Teachers Day cards

I wrote about BB’s demise in my previous post. Today morning, Tammu woke up and came to the kitchen to say ‘Good morning’ to me. She spotted a pigeon walking over the terrace of the opposite building. She says ‘See Mamma… Amake pata hai. Yehi pegion BB ko maara hai. Aur abhi shayad wo cage ko hi dhoond raha. Usko nahi milega na? Cage to hamaare ghar ke andar hai. Agar mila bhi to, hum pigeon ko ek thappad maarenge’ Trust her grand mom’s genes to speak breathlessly! And I was aghast at the usage of the word “thappad” which we never ever used in front of them…

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Tammu keeps a keen watch over the birds as they are now placed indoors in our drawing room. She scolds them with a scale in her hand when they fight. Today I saw her banging the cage and shouting at the birds. On being inquired, she justifies her actions by saying “Ye baba mamma birds sirf baba mamma birds ko hi pyaar kar raha hai. Babies ko kaun pyaar karega?”

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Mantam’s latest favourite song is “Jo tera hai wo mera hai” – the airtel jingle

Mannu sings it as “Jo mera hai wo mera hai, jo tera hai wo tera”

Tammu sings it as “Jo tera hai wo mera hai, jo mera hai wo mera” 🙄

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Ma left for Kolkata on Sunday. Generally before she leaves, I send her to a beauty parlour for threading eyebrows and a facial coz once in Kol, she never goes on her own.

After coming back from the facial, Ma enthusiastically asks Mannu – “Do you see any change in my face? I had got a facial done.”

Mannu says – “Errr… But you are still black”!!!

Ma herself discusses about complexion in front of them as she is obsessed with fairness. So I sneaked a serves-you-right sneer under my nose

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One day Mantam are playing beautician (B) and customer(C). Tammu being the B invites Man the C,

B: Come come sit.

C: Call me madam okay?

B: Okay madam, what you want to do?

C: I want facial

B: Okay, facial-aa? Sit here.

C: I working on my latop, you do facial okay?

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I’m looking for my Zandu Balm which I generally keep below the pillow.

Me: Mantam, did you see my Zandu Balm ka dabba?

Tam: Oh, Jandu gumm-aaaa?

Man: Ta… It’s not jandu gummm! It’s jandu bummmm

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Man: Arey Mamma, kal school mein cucumber diya tha na? Sab amar hi khaya. Taaa kheyechi na. Taa ka hair long hobo na. Amar ka hair long hobo, hai na?

Me: Errr… (Ever heard of cucumber consumption yielding hair growth? ??)

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Tammu has conferred a title to one of her day care mates Nishtha. It’s ‘Acting Nishtha”, apparently becoz the girl acts a lot.

Look who’s talking!!!

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These days Mantam respond to whatever we say with a cookedup story , this is how:

Me: You know Mantam, both of you were in Mamma’s tummy…

Mannu (brings her doll): Ye baby amar tummy se nikla hai, pata hai Mamma?

Me: ????!!!

Me: Tammu, don’t stand on the stool’s edge,, you’ll fall and hurt yourself!

Tammu: Mamma, ek din kya hua pata hai… Johny stool ke edge pe stand kiya! Maine usko kitna bola – mat karo mat karo. Phir bhi baat nahi suna. Gir geychi aur kitna blood aa gaya.

Me: ????!!!

Abbas: Mantam, I’m so sad coz my Mom went to Kolkata…

Tammu: I’m also sad Baba… Johnny’s sister went to Delhi 🙄

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We had been to Mantam’s school for their PTM.

The teacher (S) was all showering praises about them. Whenever they do that, I wonder if they say it to all parents 🙄

But one conclusion we could draw from the meet was that S ma’am was very fond of Mantam. We talked to her about our plans to move them to a different school next year. And her eyes welled up L

She told us about an incident which melted us completely…

She usually draws a star on their hands whenever they complete their class work well. Once, she saw that Mannu had done her work well but Tammu hadn’t. So she gave a star only to Mannu. Apparently whenever one of them gets a star they ask for the other one to be given too. This time S didn’t give it to Tammu. Tammu was sad and Mannu realized that ma’am was not going to give her ‘Taa’ a star. So she rubbed her own star and showed it to Tammu and said ‘Taa, see, even I don’t have. Don’t be sad’

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Concluding the post with the Teachers Day card that Mantam and I made together. All thanks to Shruti .Mantam enjoyed making these cards.

Sun card made with styrofoam plate

A greeting card made with party leftover streamers

 

 

 

When the entire family cried

Last Friday, when I was at work I received a call from Ma who was at home. Her voice trembling and heavy, she began the conversation with “I called you to convey a bad news” and my mind went into thinking of a million possibilities in a nano second. After a small pause, she broke into uncontrollable flow of tears, when she told me that one of the bird babies was no more. I was too stupefied to react. She continued to tell me how it all happened… The cage was in the balcony as usual. The first two bird babies had begun coming out of the pot on their own and roaming about. One of them (let’s call it BB) was out of the pot and sitting at the edge of the cage. A pigeon had come to our balcony, attacked BB by penetrating its beak into the cage and grabbing hold of BB’s neck. It brutally pecked all over the neck and let no trace of its head. When my domestic help had entered the balcony for her regular cleaning work, she spotted the headless bird with its body inside the cage and the pigeon trying to pull its remains out…. The pigeon flew away on seeing her. But the damage was done and we lost our li’l baby.

I tried to appear very calm and controlled to console Ma. I then called Abbas and tears came flooding down my eyes as I narrated him what had happened. It was his turn now to play the that’s-okay-tears-wont-bring-it-back-calm-down role that I played to Ma…

In the evening, when I told Mantam about this, I didn’t know how they would react. They had never known about death. They asked me questions as to how it happened. Mannu was furious with the pegion and asked me not to keep food for pigeons any more in the balcony. Tammu asked me where the bird was now… I said that M aunty (domestic help) took it with her. And then she asked me if M aunty was taking it to the doctor to heal it. It was excruciating to tell them the truth but I did. I told them that BB was never to come back again.

Tammu shed buckets of tears for Mannu to follow suit. She desperately prayed to God to send BB back to her. The way she cried was heart wrenching. All I could say to console them was to pray to God for Potli to lay eggs soon, so that BB would come to us as a new born.

I also forgot to mention that, we gave away the white pair of birds – Ghotla Ghotla for there were constantly trying to harm the babies by entering the pot. The youngest one was brutally attacked but it being strong survived twice. After Ghotla Ghotli’s exit, the chicks had begun coming out fearless. Who knew that an external predator would bring this fate to the chicks?

That morning, when I was watering the plants, I had noticed BB sitting down in the cage. I admired it’s beauty and made a mental note to click a picture in the evening. BB was entirely different from the rest of her siblings. It was stagnant for most of the time while other babies tried to flutter their wings and learn to take flight. It’s lethargy cost it’s life. Had it moved when the pigeon approached…..

RIP BB!

A pic of BB. The right most one with a blackish body is was BB.