Words, Hindi Songs and Family

When our older niece Manya says, 'she does not want to wake up now', Vivek sings to the younger one also still in bed, “Aye pagli tu kyun ro rahi hai” (Altaf Raja’s) and the little one laughs silently with her face covered by her long hair that she’s growing- 8 yr old Diva… This was after I had called out to Manya by the name Vivek had given her at birth, ‘Strawberry’ and he corrected me, “Strawberry gaay ka naam hota hai”…

One morning, Vivek sang the second line also, “ke daag chhoRna hai mere muqaddar mein”… I pointed out that there has to be some other word, let’s listen to that song; this does not make any sense… My brother explained, ‘May be, it’s like the Bill Clinton thing’…

Another day he admitted, it must be “Ke gaanv chhoRna hai mere muqaddar mein”… Yes, it makes absolute sense. He also pointed out that when his friend (they were quite young at the time) Gaurav Tondon used to

listen to “tum toh Thehre pardesi, saath kya nibhaaoge”, Vivek used to find it very strange. Gaurav, perhaps, this will bring back memories… I don’t know… I hope my beautiful bhabhi teases you tooJ

Of course, Diva and my favourite song is “Let’s Nacho” from Kapoor & Sons.

At one point, to pressure her into resuming Sudoku for her holiday homework, Vivek used all the difficult Urdu words at Diva (we had learnt those while studying "Oedipus" back in Lucknow), like “tumko behboodi

ho rahi hai” and “belaus”. 



When Barkha, our elder sister asked what they meant after we had burst out laughing, bhai, (I suspect, must have forgotten the meanings) instead of explaining, with a sombre expression, turns to the other side, as if to rest and says, “Itni urdu sabko aati hai, didi”.

When we were dropping them off at the airport, since, Manya had announced she does not wish to hear about studies anymore...






 Vivek asked Diva to promise (to repeat after him, like ‘shapath-grahan’) that she would allow her sister to study without disturbance for the next three years. Diva did not promise any such thing.

Now, when I miss Barkha, Manya and Diva, can you blame me? I’m making sling bags for Diva and myself, just saying… will share photos… 
What started as a way to document the kids' sayings turned out to be that of my baby brother's, which has been long pending, a dream to share our good fortune:)