Jellybean and sister

Before the Jellybean takes over a very delayed but much important news relay

"My sister delivered a healthy baby girl on the 8th of August. The little one came out 4 days late and had the whole big bang family waiting for her to arrive. People had their tentative plans all chalked out which she kind of walked over sweetly. Sis and kiddo and granny(the VVIP) all doing fine. The li'l girl looks exactly like the jellybean. Only God knows how jealous I am."

In a week after the li'l one arrived, my other sister came over to help. So we had 5 kids all under 5yrs under 1 roof. It was like we were in a mela (fair). One jumping off the sofa, one trying deliberately to push stuff inside the sofa through the cracks, one under it, one lying on it the other sulking in a corner. And then you had 3 of us discussing our stuff right over all the noise. And a granny who walked in and out of it changing diapers for one, maybe feeding another or sometimes just asking us to "stop yapping and LOOK OUT". We had a good week until my sis left with her son. Now everything is very much routine. The girls are having fun. The peapod goes to school, comes home, plays, sleeps and plays a little more till I come and then back home.

Meanwhile the Jellybean at home seems to be honing her skills at wise cracks such that she has us gaping at her after a retort only to pick up shreds of our pride off the floor in good time to salvage whatever is left of it.

After a busy morning one Saturday, I fell asleep with the son at mom's place. The Jellybean was busy playing in one corner of the bed. I suddenly got up to the noise of a 'thud', its got to be the son and it indeed was. I had my heart in my mouth when I saw the li'l fellow on the floor and setting his pitch for the loud cry. In a feeble attempt at self redemption, I asked the jellybean why didn't she wake me up when the li'l fellow was crawling to the edge. For a sec she stared into my eyes like 'oh so now this is my fault' and said "Why did Suni mummy sleep? that is why he fell" - Ofcourse like any wise adult, picked up the child and left the room before I let that reach my mom.

Since the Jellybean is at mom's place so no school for the last month and this month too. So I generally carry her around on my Saturday errands. Every time she and me get on my scooter, she will ask me "Suni mummy, why are you driving so slowly" and this is at 30-40kmph, "My pappa drives very fast and my hair flies like this, when you drive my skirt also does not move". I threaten to leave her by the road sometimes, I have some pride ..don't I?

My mom's sis was home a few months ago and during a hair oil massage session at home the oil bottle slipped and broke. After the pieces were carefully and thoroughly picked and thrown off, she couldn't stand the wastage of good almond oil. So she opened up her waist long tresses and tried to mop up the oil on the floor using it. The Jellybean who saw this told my aunt that the maid had already mopped the floor and there was no need for her to mop again. You can imagine my Aunt's plight - ofcourse like any wise aunt, she asked her to get lost :).

Kids & racism

This one is from my drafts. This one was written when blogdom was discussing racism-shilpa shetty issue remember.
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Color discrimination is something that Jellybean doesn't understand yet. But I know, she is a little disappointed when stupid neighbours and strangers indulge the peapod and act as if she isn't standing right there. My heart breaks when I see that look on her face where she is staring at the lady who is not looking her way but all eyes for the peapod. I pick her up, hug her and tread off in a different direction. But she keeps struggling to get a glimpse of that stranger with the peapod. I keep thinking, can I shield her? Should I? I can not keep educating stupid people but I just don't entertain such people. Maybe its human behaviour, I don't know. The twins were like this years ago. The jellybean's mom wheatish and the other fair and people kept discriminating even in school. There were kids younger than us who would call her the black-didi. There were people who used to identify her as the black child. It hurts a child and I do not know how people can comfortably be blind to that fact.

Inspite of it all she never got into a complex over her complexion or hated the other twin because she was fair. It was because my parents never made a big deal of it. Infact my mom used to call her the black beauty. Straight facts. My Dad used to just say how he thought she was the prettiest of the 3 anyway. He wasn't exaggerating, he wasn't pampering, he would just state it. He wasn't even looking for approval from any of us. She was punished everytime she went out of line, even if it was because someone called her black. There have been times when I thought it was bloody unfair and have fought dad. But nothing changed. All 3 of us were dealt with equally, no bonus points for being either fair or dark. The one girl I haven't spoken to after a fight in school was the one who hit the jellybean's mom. I don't remember what trigged it, but I was really mad. I hit them back and walked(ran) away never to talk to them again. The families were family friends then and even now, but we kids have never spoken after that. Its probably also because we havent met since school. I remember her everytime I go for my communion. Silly, I know but its never come to me from within. I was just too hurt.

I have no doubts the Jellybean will grow to be a charming & confident little girl like her mom and all these will be forgotten. She like her mom will sit and make fun of it all one day. She will find her own ways to tackle racism or discrimination based on her complexion. Parents will discipline kids with broken hearts knowing their kids were provoked. But its a lesson to teach our kids to love beyond color & appearances by doing so ourselves.

Shrill shrieking Fun & Maka naka Bella

Yesterday when I went home, the duo, were all upbeat. The Jellybean complained that Ammachy had smacked her and the peapod went on about the yummy chocolate Dada got them before he left for office. After the hugs & kisses they both went back to playing their own games. During their play, both got to searching something, I don't quite recollect what. They started pulling out drawers and upturning stuff. I could clearly see it in a small container right between the drawers they were yanking open and the toy basket they were ruffling. Sitting on the couch with my legs stretched out lazily I kept asking them to look in the blue basket. Both looked at me and then went back to the drawer or the basket but very clearly acted as if the blue basket did not exist. Finally they emptied the entire toy basket on the floor, pulled over stuff from the drawers to the floor and I didn't know where to jump. It was very clear that they weren't searching any more, probably forgotten too, but having fun annoying me. Because, after creating that mess, they both look at me and when I chided them for their behaviour they smiled, laughed a little, looked at each other and then screamed their lungs out like it was bliss.

The more I tried to shut them up, they laughed and screamed some more. My sister had got them a doll that sings "twinkle twinkle" and says "Mumma, Daddy I love you" and then shuts up untill you pat it again. For some reason this doll seemed sensitive to our milk cooker whistling. Whenever the milk cooker whistles, the doll perched on top of the refrigerator starts singing & talking. That is untill yesterday. So y/d when the duo screamed and the noise reached deafening decibels, the doll perched on the refrigerator started talking. We all laughed and ofcourse regretted it immediately. The doll sang and talked and stopped and the girls would scream again. Again and Again, I was scared the neighbours might call the cops in with all the shrieks going on in here. Finally I switched the battery off. That made them mad at me and so they kept screaming at me totally annoyed. I was almost deaf. Finally I had to threaten them with "A little more noise and I will shut you up in the dark" to get some silence. After 2 mins they cried TOGETHER. Aah!!! They both slept after 15-20mins of book reading leaving me totally drained :).
So that is why the wise say never get the kids very excited because then they do not know how to calm themselves down and then they cry.

On a different note, both the kids are trying to form sentences with all the words they know. Its fun deciphering what they actually mean. While we are successful 99% of the time, the one word which is yet a mystery is "Maka naka bella". Last month , most days when I got home, the peapod greeted me with "Maka naka bella". On the phone, after the customary, hello mumma comes "maka naka bella". Ask her to repeat it and she will oblige as many times. We laughed and rolled on the floor just hearing her say it in her serious, no-nonsense tone. My take is, she was with my sis-in-law for a day. Her cousin, my sis-in-law's daughter speaks only Hindi. I think this is something she picked up from her and ofcourse I have no clue what is she trying to imitate. Whatever it is, it is soon fading and I don't hear it a lot these days but it was so sweet I had to save it in here.

Peapod @ 2years-2months & Jellybean at 23 months

The Peapod's current favourites are her puzzles and books.

I bought her 2 wooden jigsaw puzzles, one which is a duck made of 8 blocks and then a couple of teddy bear puzzles. These are the only ones that appealed to my adult mind as jigsaw puzzles. I realized latter, it was difficult to get her started. I spent some time in the mornings doing the puzzle & showing it to her initially. She picked up and seemed quite interested latter on. She was quite busy for a few days untill she had mastered it all. It was fun to see her sit with it, turn the pieces around, trying to fit them in and many times she would be throwing the pieces and the wooden board around in frustration. My sister bought a couple of more puzzles of various shapes from local train vendors in Mumbai. The ABCD puzzle with 26pieces used to keep her occupied for a long time. I could actually flip through a magazine while she was at it. With every day, she is getting faster and I am wondering what to get next? Since I have never done or seen kids do jigsaw puzzles so young, I was very amused and am proud of my bacha.


Books. She loves her books. Whenever we buy books for the peapod, the grandparents are wondering if we are planning to get her to graduation directly. She has around a dozen books. To add to it when P returned from his onsite, he bought more books. I hid all of them and introduce one book at a time. Reading peapod a book during her bedtime was something I looked forward to when she did not seem to show much interest or around the time she had just begun to pay heed. These days I dread the bed time for the book reading. why you ask?

When I summon her for bed, she immediately starts pulling drawers, frantically searching for her books chanting "endiye..endiye"(where..where) and would tuck a book under each arm, then 2 in her hands and hug on to 1 or 2 and dump them all on the bed. I have to read each and set them aside. I yawn, pretend to sleep, try to skip pages, but none work. Sometimes I even switch off the lights but she would still make me read and enact ALL THOSE BOOKS. She has a color book, which she loves. After the lights are off, I just keep blindly mumbling stuff to get to the end of each book as fast as I can in between yawns and tears and blurred vision. So when the color book goes up in the dark, I flip through each page and she will say "black" each time. Let me see if I can click a snap of her going to bed with all those books balanced on her little frame.

The jelly bean on the other hand is not interested in puzzles or books. She knows to place a couple of pieces here and there but would never sit still to complete a full jigsaw. She watches the peapod though while she is building them. Books, she will just stay quiet the whole time the book reading is going on but would never want to SEE the contents of the book except for a few random glances. But she surprises us by pointing out to 'Abacus' in a word book and I am left wondering, how come?. She is more interested in holding on to small, tiny-weeny things in both her hands like buttons, crayons etc and keeps checking them every 10 mins interval. She knows how many she is carrying and no body can fool her with the number or color though she can not count in numbers or name the colors. The other thing about her is, you can ask her where is the toy she was playing in the morning and she can go and point to it under the bed or behind the sofa. The peapod has no such recollection. She will just act all innocent, as if she has no clue what am I talking about.


(They are selling potatoes. They roam around shouting "potatowala..potato")

The Jellybean, when she arrived was a clinger, would cry at the drop of a hat, and was a shy child. The peapod, in her bad moods would actually hit her, scratch her and all she would do was cry and yell back. Now, she hits back and because she retaliates the peapod is more careful. So overall the hit and scream have reduced a lot. Jellybean is still not very out-going but if you have met her twice and you encourage her, she would gladly come and join you in.


(There, raiding my dressing table)

They both start dancing around even to the music blaring in the streets. They can sit beside each other play their own stuff. They will exchange toys after a while. Both can say "pleashe" and "tanku" and charm you endlessly. They even imitate the other crying and make fun of each other.

The story of the Please and the Crow

Like I said earlier,ever since the peapod started walking and discovering new heights in the house, I was always pleading before I ran out of patience and would smack the little butt. I was tired of the pleading business and the smacks which got us no where. More effective measures were required for the little terror that did not understand "No" or ignored my sterns like I was the mouse in the house who had no business acting strict or stern. A variation of the "Time out" started getting me the desired effects. Since staying still in a confined space was not a concept that could be taught easily to these tods, I used to just lock her up in a room for a minute. She would cry, howl for a minute and come out and be a good girl. She would clean-up or the message of no hitting jellybean was drilled in. I don't remember when was it exactly I stopped using "Please". But these days the "Please" has come to haunt me.

Girls: Mumma choclate
Mumma: You just had 2, we will have after dinner now.
Girls: Mumma please (with the head tilt, just like how I used to do it)
Mumma: No Kuttu
Girls: Mumma please ..please ..please.

Girls: Mumma duck quack quack(for the 10th time)
Mumma: Three little ducks that I once knew...
Girls: Mumma duck quack quack
Mumma: No Kutta, Mumma is tired.
Girls: Please ....Please duck quack quack

Mumma: Kuttu please keep the spice dabba back
Girls: Please Mumma ...Please

I still have to figure out how to deal with the "please" and not refuse all their pleads, least tomorrow they turn the tables back on me.

My sister is very found of crows. Her solution to all problems are crows.

Kids: Mumma choc late
Sis: The crow took it away (with a lengthy description of how the crow flew in when they weren't looking and how it flew away.)

Kids: endiye...endiye (after the spice dabba went missing mysteriously when they had just looked away for a second.
Sis: Oh the crow came and took it away.

Now the crow haunts her

Sis: Where is the spice dabba you were playing with
kids: Kaka poi (the crow took it away)

Sis: Where is my Dupatta you were playing with
kids: Kaka poi

The crow story is always narrated only to my sister never to me and I am always countered with Please. They play really fair. Such brats I tell you.