It was a breezy afternoon, surprisingly not all that hot and as usual i was checking my mails and scrapping people in orkut, a social networking site. One of my relatives had come home and my mom wanted me to atleast smile at them , if not inquire about their folks or exchange pleasantries.I always put on a straight face when i am disturbed ,i know disturbed is too strong strong a word, but i usually get ANNOYED when people just ask me to get up from the computer.I get bored easily by people,just at the thought of stupid conversation,i get sulky and i prayed i shouldn't put on a false front and fidget.True to my virgo nature,I always fidget when things don't go the way i want them to be. So,that particular day i was putting on a straight face just to hide my annoyance and my mom has this expertise to make me get up from the PC in seconds.It was just as she had planned and as usual,I got up and went to the living room where this couple, distant relatives had come. They didn't notice me at first as they had been talking to the others and i went up to them and the pleasantries ,thanks to the couple who too didn't know to broach anything other than asking "How's life and how do you study?" were over by a matter of seconds. I had forgotten their child's name , which i tried recollecting but couldn't and somehow managed. i said to my mom in hushed whispers that i'd check only the offline messages in yahoo and glaring at me , she cocked up her head to listen to the couple's ramblings about their financial status. They had gone by the time i went to bid them bye after replying to messages and my mom was a "bit" angry with me for not bidding them good bye.They had supposedly asked for me ,i presume and i had no qualms.Way to go,people!
After they had gone,things were going on as usual and there was this child in my room looking angelic and very bright. She should be around 6 i guessed correctly ,for the first time in my life as i had no contact with a child.I am an only child and i have never been all that besotted by kids, in general.One of the reasons for that would be their precociousness. How can i like them when all of the kids i met were like that?I want children to be children.I'm very particular about that and don't feel comfortable with ones that don't act their age.The lively ,exuberant kid walked upto me and called me "akka" while i was still scrapping vigorously.I continued typing,though not ignoring her and smiled .She held my hands with a grip that i was afraid she would pull me off the chair but the excitement that shone in her eyes made me talk to her pleasantly , as older ones would do with a child.She wanted me to go somewhere with her and i thought, oh!ringa ringa roses,not again!One of my cousins had demanded that i play it with her a few years before and i could hardly get up.I had even fallen down just to make her laugh and the pest told it to all at home, much to my chagrin.From then on i never played with children and
While I was still afraid that this kid will want me to play with her, I felt relieved when she took me to the place where the fish tank was placed and asked me "Indha meenu ivlo kutti aa irukku la , appo adhu veedu ivlo chinnadhaa irukku?Adhu epdi adhu veettu kulla nozhaiyum?"(When the fish here is very big and the house it has is very small,how can it enter the house?")
I was bewildered and knew not how to answer her question.I liked her innocence and thought of a wise answer i could come up with , and told her.The issue was over.She attacked me yet again(this time with love, i guess) and asked me what my name was,a little preoccupied.She was doing the interview part,alright and it went on well.My mom also liked talking to her as she was a cute kid with big eyes and a pleasing face and the conversation grew on without me knowing anything about her.Her parents had actually come to see my uncle and had brought her with them.Like all kids,she started behaving precociously at some point of the conversation and this was anathema to me.I warned her sternly while my mother gave me a don't-you-know-how-to-treat-a-child? look.She of course knew what i was feeling and i let that pass.It was when my mom started talking to her patiently that she became normal,as per my definition.She was talking cheerily to my mom and i was a bit jealous,i agree and admired her ways with children.They were talking about the kid's school and siblings and her best friends while i was into blogging.I was angry with the kid , no doubt and knew not why i didn't feel all that comfortable with kids.There must be something wrong with me, i mused and what i heard from the kid made me stop dead in my tracks.They had been broaching the topic of her family and if i was right,the kid was saying in a not-so-happy voice (i'm roughly translating) " My amma doesn't love me at all.She just loves my brother and she beats me very time he makes a false complaint against me.When my mom says she loves me,it isn't so and when she says she hates me,she says that with all the vengeance in the world".I looked at my mother helplessly while she clung to the child and told her she was all wrong.The child asked her how she know.It was further my mom's business to console her saying that all mothers loved their kids and blah blah blah.In a matter of few minutes they were talking about pokemon,much to my amazement and my jaws nearly dropped.I felt sorry for the kid and wanted to reach out to her.She gave me a an angelic smile while i was looking at her blankly.It was as if someone were hitting my head with a club and I could never imagine children would go this extent of thinking and was ashamed for once, and all along I had been ignorant and stupid..Precociousness,no,never again!And ignorance hasn't been bliss , in my case.
