When people tell you their kids
have started talking and this is if you do love kids, I suggest paying them a
visit. Why? Because it’s free entertainment! There’s nothing more funny and
awe-inspiring than the things kids can say, in any given situation once they
have discovered their tongue has other purposes besides just tasting food and
licking off the dust from their favourite piece of furniture. So Pihu has, to everyone’s delight, started
talking. And like all things she takes seriously, she has already begun to show
a resolute mind to master the art of right speech, constructing full, clear
sentences that have no room for stammer, lisp, conjoined or missing syllables
or broken vocabulary. It’s almost like
she has decided, that if I have to talk, I might as well get it right from the
word go. So now we have all kinds of situations where you can rest assured that
Pihu wil have something to add on or express, her word usually becoming the
last word in a house full of so-called responsible adults.
Matching pace with her growing
strength of speech is her ability to come up with some pretty interesting quips
at the opportune moment, that make her constant chatter rather amusing. This is
compounded by the fact that she is getting exposed to three different languages
as she grows up- Hindi, Bengali and English. It means Pihu is a budding
multi-lingual proponent of our national diversity. So what if that means she
even combines words of two languages to make a very own imaginative mash up!
Studies prove that exposing a child to more languages than one at an early age
boosts the development of linguistic proficiency and this is probably why she
may just learn these languages faster than most other kids. It doesn’t help
that having been a writer for most part of my life, I am continually correcting
her grammar and trying to verbally edit her lines when she so much as falters
through her attempts at self-expression. Minor OCD, hmm, may be!
One of the earliest people she
learnt to identify after birth have been kids younger or older than her. If she
looks at any such being, she will immediately exclaim, “Chota Baby”, and point
excitedly in his/her direction. So once on this flight to Delhi, on hearing a
baby who could barely be a few months younger to her, cry away to glory all
through the journey, our wise little counsellor couldn’t help but advise,
“Chota baby ro raha hai, usse duddu peela dona.”
Extending on her knack of
identifying people, she has still not understood that while there might be one
papa, one mummy and a pair of grandparents on both sides, there may be more
aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers and the like than she can count on her tiny
hands. So every snow-haired man is
‘Dadaji’, any chubby faced man in specs with a side parting could be a
potential ‘Nanaji’ and ahem, quite a few actors she sets her eyes on on TV
could be her ‘Papa’. So far Arjun Kapoor (only in 2 States), Ranbir Kapoor and
Fawad Khan have laid claim to this title. Uncannily, she hasn’t quite
pinpointed more ‘Mummies’ at the same time, which only makes me quite the
philandering wife I suppose with an insatiable, salacious taste for our
Bollywood stars. Speaking of whom, she is a self-confessed Salman Khan fan and
loves most of his songs on TV, calling him ‘Sallu-bhai’ everytime he appears on
screen.
She can also react very
formidably to situations, admonishing me with a stern ‘Gandi Baat’ when I
cajole her to change her clothes or a ‘Bachaoooo’ when I tighten my grip around
her in a bear hug.
My Dad couldn’t stop guffawing
when he heard her laugh and exclaim, “Mazaa aagaya!” after a particularly
energetic, fast-paced jig to her favourite song in the drawing room. And my Mom
was rendered speechless when she interrupted her mid-way through a conversation
during bed-time with me, reprimanding her saying, “Nani, so jao!”
From the time she gets up to the
time she sleeps, one common question that becomes a conversation-starter and
reflects her curiosity to learn fast, is “Ye kya hai?” So she already knows to
recognise and name her hair oil, baby lotion, baby cream, baby powder, diaper,
my cosmetics and hair accessories like comb, deo, facewash, mouthwash etc. as
well as differentiate between everyone’s clothes and belongings. This extends
to identifying what type of vehicle is plying on the road, Ganpati, a flying
aeroplane or bird, lights, colours, toys and so on.
Even my maids aren’t spared her
verbal volley. So my cook was taken aback one day when it was Pihu who
instructed her about the menu that day, “Chaawal banao, chicken banao, roti
banao aur soupy banao.” I swear I hadn’t prompted her or mentioned this to her
earlier.
Her longest sentence till date:
“Main Mummy saathi pam pam gaadi mein baithke ghumi ghumi jaa rahi hoon shoozy
pehenke...shaam ko.” Enough said.
Next challenge:
Teaching her Marathi which is her Nanaji’s native language and Punjabi from her
Dad’s side. After all, you don’t carry Bong, Maharashtrian and Punju genes
together without making the most of it! What say, Pihu, my little dove?! Did I
just see her scamper away to hide somewhere. Sheesh! So much for good old
enthusiasm.
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