Bihari Babu, English Mem

Venky and our little next door neighbor Keya, meet after a long time (first Keya went on a long vacation to USA and then we did to Ranchi). They jump around excitedly visibly happy to see each other. I try to make conversation with Keya and ask  her “Where’s your Baba Keya?”
Keya chooses to answer to Venky. She goes to him and says in a very accented English – “My Baba has gone to U.S”. (Oh, I wish I could let you hear the accent. It was so cute!!).
My son, amused at her new found language skills laughs out loud and replies – “Humka Papa office gayen hain!”

Sigh. The way those  two sentences were spoken was a delight to hear. The post misses the impact. 😦

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And the two weeks flew by. Came back to office with a pile of workload and a bad habit of napping in the afternoon. I am sitting in the office craving for a bed right now.

I had really forgotten what a big festival Durga puja is in Bihar. With “pandals” at every half a kilometer, conitunous bhajans on loudspeakers, decorative lights on virtually all streets and food stalls on side walks, 80%+20% discounts and crowd, crowd, crowd everywhere. Its been over a decade since I witnessed such festivity and how I loved it! I also took Rikshaw rides after ages. And the best thing about visiting sasuraal is that hubby and I can sneak out shopping and visiting relatives, leaving Venky with his grandparents. Heh heh.

Venky knows the story of Durgaji and Mahishasur now and listens to it during every meal. Sometimes we have to play act with either me or his dad playing the Mahishasur, the other playing Durgaji and Venky playing Durgaji’s Lion.

Venky made friends with all the new faces, learnt to do “pranam” as against “hi” and returned with lots of new clothes. We were worried that he will refuse to go to the school after such a long vacation, but my smart kid happily waved goodbye.

I better get back to work now. How have you guys been?