Kats let luppy out of the bag!

Kats has been doing a lot of things unexpectantly. I suspect that it has got to do with either Doraemon or Barney, not sure which one of the two have been guiding her; it doesn't matter who it is out of the two of them, I like them both! :P

Luppy, our puppy has been our combined secret from Kats's class XII. We found him in our back yard, shivering in the morning sun. Covered him with an old rice bag made of jute and hid him away from Mummy and Daddy. Mummy doesn’t like dogs you see. Their fur all around, their language of talking or barking as we call it and they don't know how to use the human-made toilets. Being on four legs all day long and then trying to use a human invention which needs you to be on two legs is quite tough.

No one except the two of us knew about Luppy till yesterday. It was out promise to each other and we had kept it to ourselves that we wouldn't let anyone know about Luppy till we felt Luppy was strong enough to shake her hand with a person. Doggy's found on the street are not liked by all because they live amidst all, dirty plastic bags, dirty cats, dirty water, colourful wild flowers and strong trees that grow without being planted; street doggy's are strong, always cheerful and happy, ones that listen to the melody of the wind and that are not exactly very good with instructions. So we thought that if Luppy grows enough to be able to shake hands well with a person we would tell everyone about her.

After spending an entire day in her room with books, me and luppy forced Kats to take us out. Being rapunzel is not exactly fun, especially when you have a big wide door and big window that has a wonderful view of all the green trees outside. It was strange, just the three of us walking. We usually have something to talk about, a game to play, but being rapunzel all day long does bring some serious starting problem. And when ever we have a problem or any exciting news, we first share it with mummy. Though we did manage to keep the exciting story of Luppy in our tummy, and we also managed to smuggle her from Here to the hostel. Kats called up mummy and Mummy shared all the news from Here, from all the tasty food that she cooked for dinner to the cats in the colony that make mischief. Luppy hates them you see, and at their mention Luppy expressed her anger in doggy language and Mummy caught the sound.

Usually Luppy listens to us when we ask him to be silent, but this time he didn't. He has some serious problems with the cats you see. Mummy laughed when Luppy barked again and asked, “Your dog is quite impatient.” We were quite shocked, how did mummy know? Who told her? Kats was suspicious about me, and I was suspicious about her sleep talking. And then Kats told Luppy's story to mummy. We thought Mummy would be really angry at us. We did all the things we could to keep lice, and germs away from Luppy. Kats at the end of the story told mummy, “We wanted to surprise you on mother's day with Luppy when she masters the handshake. But we are still not happy with her handshake..” And mummy's reply simply made our day, “It doesn't have to be perfect, it is the spirit behind it that matters more..”

And so, since Kats has told Mummy about Luppy,I wrote about our cute one-little-now-little larger-doggy Luppy. Guess Mummys are difficult to impress, but it gets easier when you don't forget that they love you the way you are.

Surprizes at the Saloon

Kats is becoming better as the days go by,no she is not yet not-thinking about numbers like marks in exams and her weight on the scales. She cut her hair short! I know its not exactly nice, long hair looks very fairy tale princessy, but for long I used to have short hair for which I would put colourful clips,hair bands and tiny beads. You can't do all of that easily with long hair; but don't be under the impression that she got it is for those wonderful things that she can't use.

Her reasons are pretty serious. One morning when she applied coconut oil and combed her hair she lost some hair, she took head bath and combed she lost more. I must confess, even I felt if she combed once again it won't be too soon before she wouldn't have anything left to comb. Because as she said that day, “Its better to have short hair than have no hair at all.” And so she decided to get her hair cut.

She spent the whole day thinking of a hair style, different movies, different actresses, pop-stars, friends, neighbours. Mentally, it was like flipping through a thousand photographs over and over again looking for some hair style to whipser into her ears to choose it. I gave her a suggestion, to get a hairstyle like Rihanna (she is one of Kats's favouraite pop star), and she does have a funny hair style. One side of her head is a clean shave and the other side has almost shoulder lenght hair which has been cut in a manner that the top ones are short and as you go down the hair gets longer. Kats says it called a step cut, but I wonder for whom/what are those steps for? Lice can crawl on hair easily na?

It was almost at lunch time when she declared, “Chulbuli, I'm getting my hair cut, just like it used to be long back. ” At first i wasn't sure how long was her long back, but later she drew line in the air above her shoulder.

Rekha and I gave her company to the salon, being in a bigger city it was all like the ones on TV, not like the tiny ones in Here. Everyone was wearing black tee shirts and jeans at the salon, but they didn't look like the people in the salons on TV, they looked like people who travel with us in the bus.

The lady who was supposed to cut her hair was suggesting haristyles for her, another reapeat of the thousand photorpahs that she had gone through. I was scared that she might choose one of them. Why was I scared? I don't know...

But she told the lady “No cut it short, upto my shoulder. Just like i used to have, long back..” Later I asked her why she choose it, she said “Cause I am my favourite model, and there can be no better inspiration for me than me myself.”

2013! The year of change is here!

Wishing all of you a hap-hap-happy new year!

I'm having a not so good start of the new year here with Kats, we are travelling to the great city where Kats studies, thousands and i-don't-know-how-many miles away from Here. We took the early early morning flight. Had to get up at four in the morning! Who gets up at four in the morning and takes a bath in winter? Don't you worry there are plenty of crazy adults like Kats who do so!

Hope this year makes Kats listen to me a little more. The whole early morning flight idea was Madam Kats's by-the-way. She has oh-so-many things to do, and since her classes begin from tomorrow she wants to be all-set before hand. :| I know, first day of the new year, who leaves home to the hostel. But I must admit, I am liking travelling.

I have often wondered how easy life would have been had dragons been real. No need to stand in a queue/go online and book tickets, all you need to do is fix you mind, wear woolens and explain the route map to your dragon using google maps I guess. Woolens are needed I think, no its not the Kats syndrome that has got to me, but its supposed to be really really cold up there.

So imagine this, instead of coming out of Here, getting ready early in the morning, going through crazy queues of booking your luggage and all, me and Kats could have happily got up at 8:00 am. Had a nice crisp dosa made by mummy, bathed at our pace, pulled our lugage to the football ground tie it around the dragon and just sit on. As for the route map, our dragon woud have been driven nuts by repeated discussions and description of the route map with a print out by Kats dearest, weeks, no lets be realistic, MONTHS in advance. And once all set to travel we would have one woosh into the air. First the large houses would have become a littel smaller like the ones in the park where we used to play. Then as the dragon raises higher the whole twon would have looked like a lego town. When the dragon goes a lot more higher we would have crossed the layers of clouds to almost cruise over an ocean of clouds. Well thats how it is when we travel by the jet plane.

What I am not sure of is whether one does get wet when one passes through a screen of clouds, after all 'clouds are condensed water masses' as Kats told me.

The crusing on top of the clouds is the best thing of travelling by the sky I guess. Its like you are floating on a sea of white cotton candy and if its sunset or sunrise time, the sky has so many wonderful colours to show. And the rainbow Kats tells me won't we visible if we are above the clouds, so when it rains not too many colours above the clouds. :(

Clouds reminds me of another thin apart from white cotton candy, friends. Friends are like clouds, when the sun is too angry and has too much heat to give away, the clouds cover it; friends too help you keep the heat of so many things like crazy competition,stress away. They cry with you sometimes, sometimes for you; sometimes when you need to soak in a little warmth they move away. Some friends get anry quickly like the thundering clouds, some are like the sheep-shaped cloud that floats around in the sky on a normal day, and if you are bored and alone asks you to paly tag with it. Clouds can never stay with you forever, you can't pin it down or close it in a jar take it with you where you want. The winds decided where the clouds go,but you can simply not live without clouds. When one set of clouds leave, there would be a clear sky but you can't forget where your favourite cloud stood; you can't forget the clouds.

Sometimes ou really want to keep a cloud in your jar forever, but if you try to do so I think you'll never have a cloud in the jar all you have is water(cause Kats says clouds are masses of condensed water you see). And water in a jar you won't like it either, because it isn't the same as the cloud, it isn't freely floatinglike in the sky but just takes the shape of what you push it into. It obeys you and doesn't talk to you...

December rain, walking on water and WHAM!

Last evening was fun! Mummy, daddy, Kats and myself walked down to the sports Centre that was opposite the house where we lived for the first 14 years in Here. It used to be one building before, a badminton court, a gym, a table tennis space and a room for yoga. But now its a giant, its expanded and has become HUGE. almost three building, vivid colours, looks beautiful. Opposite to it is the lake, where many of our paper boats have left voyages.

If you walk straight down form the lake, till you reach a fencing end you'll find the house where I spent some of the most fun moments ever. It was all very different before. Things change with time, some times changes are pretty, but a change with the past wiped away is not very nice. From the lake you could walk into the sports centre, but now they have a fence, a fancy walkway with benches, almost like from the Wizard of Oz; and loads of colorful lights have been put up. When its dark, its like watching a sea of glow worms, only difference that these are larger and they don't blink. It was not so fairy tale like before. There were only yellow lights, like the burning flames.

The back of the sports centre had the 'SUPER-DI-DUPER' eat out, which was run by a Mami we knew. Some Saturday nights long long back we used to order dosa, sit on one of the red plastic chairs and watching the mosquitoes and dragon flies dance on the lake's surface, looking at the tiny island floating in the middle. I always thought the fox that used to cry at night came from there. I still think so. That island is full of tall trees and I don't know what else. Maybe someday, I would make Kats move her lazy legs and take her with me to actually find out what is there.

Everything is fairy tale like there, but it is not familiar anymore. The 'SUPER-DI-DUPER' eat out isn't there anymore. The flooring is not the normal cement one, tiles everywhere, tall columns, fancy black window panes. You know this the place, but it doesn't feel to be the same!  I know! I complain so much! The Kats habit, finally rubbed off on me too. The school where Kats studied is going to be broken down to build another castle from some fairy tale, when she gets older and comes back, I am sure we would be able to say that thats where the school stood, but we sure wouldn't be able to feel that before the fairy tale castle stood a not-a-very-perfect-but-pretty-lovely school stood.

By the time we walked to the sports center the clouds that grumbling with anger decided to make one wish of mine and Kats come true, that is to watch the lake when it rained. Thanks to Ms. Busy Kats we have not had the time to be here in summer or in the rainy season. So many seasons of Here missed. But the cute clouds were sweet enough to make us feel in the cold December how Here looks in summer and in rain.

There is something about the rain that makes it so awesome, I don't know what. It is the almost underwater-but-on-land feeling that it gives and the nice little puddles that it makes for us to set paper boats afloat that maybe are the nicest parts of its awesomeness. It gives you a feel of feeling the scary adventures of being underwater being safely on your two legs on land. That is how we are! We wanna taste the hot pakora without burning our tongue.

 We watched the rain; most importantly Kats watched the rain, and its amazing that we had the same thought! About how we knew we had been to this place so many times before, but it seemed all too new. The only difference is that, I thought of running out in the rain and dancing for a bit, but of course Kats wouldn't even think. But in the end she did get wet.

All four of us were walking along the corridor of the sports centre facing the lake, it was just like I would have liked it, filled with water :P After the rain stopped we had to walk back on water.  Mummy and Daddy didn't mind much about their feet gettin wet, but our dearest Kats was too worried about wetting her socks and while trying to walk on water WHAM! She fell down on her back. And this happened again this time it was just fate. Guess what? She didn't have a frown on her face when she fell. Think she finally did learn that

You don't need to be perfect always to have fun.

Chulibuli feels sad for Dadu

The door bell rang once, but we were too busy with Lego to rush and pay attention to it. Also it was an odd time when it rang, it couldn't have been mummy, daddy and Kats's friends normally don't come to visit her. The bell rang again and the door 's latch was used to knock. It was then that I understood that it was Dadu.

Dadu is a really old man, who sells eggs, agarbattis, chanchur/mixture, and buys old paper from us. One of his eyes have almost become completely white and poor Dadu can see properly only form the other eye. he had told us once about his grand daughter, she was in school, and wanted some of Kats's old note books for her to write. I remember spontaneously making Kats ask about her granddaughter's Daddy and mummy, and he was silent. It was a strange silence, Dadu seemed very sad then. Dadu as much as we have known him has exactly 3 pairs of clothes and a sleeveless sweater and a brown full sleeves sweater. When it is a little cold he wear the sleeveless sweater and colder the full sleeves one and the coldest both together.  His slippers have been the same for the last so many years that we have seen him. But unlike other adults he smiles a lot. When he smiles I think he forgets that he has lost so many teeth. I often wonder how difficult it must be for Dadu to brush, because with such huge gaps between his teeth insects would find it very easy to enter his mouth.

Dadu's son has vanished, Dadu is very old and he still works. I remember making Kats ask mummy once that when one is old one usually shouldn't work, but why is that Dadu is working. Mummy said to me, "Normally when one is old, one expects ones children to look after and do no work. Dadu's children are not there. Dadu has a little grand daughter to take care of. And isn't it a good thing that he is working? Instead of sitting at home all day long, all lone he goes around, sees the world, meets people of all kinds. He can tell better stories to his grand daughter. " so true, the more people you meet, the more places you see the better stories you can tell. But why do children vanish when their mummy-daddy grow older? I always had that question, but somehow could never ask anyone yet.

It is good that Dadu gets to meet so many people and tell better stories, but sometimes when it is too cold or too hot and his legs ache too much to ride his cycle with the box of eggs on his carrier and the bags of agarbattis and chanchur/mixture hung along his cycle's handle he still comes.  And it is then that Chulbuli feels sad for Dadu.

Chulbuli sang with Arial! and another thing Kats doesn't know

I have been having so much fun that I almost forgot to share it with you all!

If  someone asks me from now on my favorite month I shall surely say December, because the first week has been nothing short of total fun. Cold mornings under warm blanket, getting up when I want, bathing when I want, eating what I want and what I like. Its like how it used to be when I was in control of Kats. And Now I think it is so. MUHAHAHA ! the adult finally listens to the child.

Everyday is a fun-day, everyday is a Sunday! We get up with no plans, we follow no timetable. We read what we like and play as much as we want. Oh I must tell you! We fold colorful paper into beautiful things and fly like birdies without wings.

We have watched so many nice movies over the last week or more I think (I have stopped counting days and seeing the calender you see, after all they are just numbers) Harry potter and the deathly hallows both parts, Sound of Music and the Little Mermaid. The first few ones were nice, but the Little mermaid was nicer, no maybe nicest of them all. Why you may ask? Because it is about Arial who just won't stop listening to what her heart says, she is not always in control like Kats, she is like the on the hill top, she just flows, nothing can stop her from what she wants. She does get into tiny-winy bit of trouble, when she does I really did get scared, but her Daddy, King of the Sea saves her. But does someone always come to save one when one is in trouble?

I remember this song which I sang with Ariel, Part of that world. Ariel says in that she wants to be a part of our world, walk with legs, and dance with them, and watch fire burn, all of what we find so-normal she finds it special. Maybe everything is special, but for those who don't have it? Because I feel what Ariel has is very special, a tail, a fish friend, and a crab friend, and so many more fishes of all colours around her, you don't find so many people or animals or different colours staying together here. I remember asking this to Kats that why is that I feel Ariel is special and she feels that we are special and she smiled strangely while replying, "Remember the song Under the sea that Sebastian sings? The first line he says that the sea weed is always greener in somebody else's lake. He means to say that to you it'll seem that the other person and his or her things are always better than yours." And I asked her, "Who is really special then?" And she said, "I don't know Chulbuli."

There you go Kats another thing you don't know. I am making a list of things that Kats doesn't know, because all these older people have an answer for everything, they think they know everything, and when they say they don't know its worth playing the flute and dancing around like an elf.

I also asked Kats, while watching the movies, both Sound of music and The little mermaid, "Do you remember how you felt when you were sixteen?" Both Lisel from Sound of Music and Ariel from The little mermaid are sixteen, that is why I asked her. And Kats replied again with an I-don't-know and more,"I don't know Chulbuli. I was sixteen for a year, I can tell you all that happened then, but how does it feel to be sixteen I don't know; or rather, I don't remember." 

Is it that because like an adult I tried to connect a number to feelings she couldn't tell me? Or you simply don't remember how it feels to be of an age after you are older than that? Again the numbers are bothering me!

No answers to Chulbuli's questions!

After Kats's 'exams' got over she had a long list of things to do before leaving for Here. She walked with Shanti, Sanjeevani and Rekha from her hostel to Himadrija and Indigo's room in the hostel that is like so many miles away. The walk is like almost a walk through a jungle to reach another country, where on the way there is a brook(tiny version of river), big rocks, and monkeys, peacocks. Like the journey the nomads make.

Most of the times when she travels to Indigo and Hima's place, it is like a turning point, a point form where things change.While we were walking, I asked Kats, "Wouldn't it be fun if we could do this walking around everyday? See all the beauty around us." Kats rolled her eyes in reply, "And darling, who would attend the classes for me? The lizard in our wing's bathroom?" Lizard attending was not a bad option at all according to me, but for a few problems. No it is not Kats's desk partner, she doesn't have one, she refers to sit alone on the first bench in the corner of the class, it is the girls who sit behind her. Both Shanti and Rekha are scared of lizards. Also, to be able to take notes for Kats in her absence would be difficult for it(we don't know whether the lizard is a boy or a girl you see) with all the yummy distractions buzzing around, also to be able to talk in our language and ask the teacher the questions she has would need a long training.  After all of those thoughts I forgot to reply to her and I am sure she thought I had not solution to it. Before I could choose to speak about it, she spoke, "Chulbulli, you know something? If you played the same game everyday, you'll get bored too soon. Similarly if we do all this excursion everyday, it'll lose its charm. " Is it true what she said? Some games I have played everyday like hide and seek, but I am still not bored of it, what changed though was the people with whom I played. So.. is that its not just the journey but the people, the things, the sky, the moon everything that makes every journey different?

Later that night we sat in the balcony of the 'wing' of the hostel where her room is. For those who don't know about hostels, hostel is like mini home, without Mummy and Daddy, you have new and different family members. Some like to talk, some don't; some study in the same class, some don't; some are older than her, some younger, some as old as her. What is common in them all is, they have left their own families and traveled a large distance to learn. As for a wing, a wing  is a bunch of rooms that are close together, one after the other. In Kats's case, her wing has a door, their own bathroom, two basins and a balcony where the mango tree's branch spreads out its arms. 

So under the dark sky, with a few twinkling stars, and the dark green mango leaves hanging over our head as the cold winter was punching us I asked Kats that if she had the chance of doing what she really wanted to do, what she thought she really was sent to do by leaving everything now would she do it? She didn't reply! She was so silent that i could hear all the leaves above our heads rattle,  I even tried to count the number of rattles that the leaves made as she stood in silence. Then I thought maybe I asked a difficult question, so I asked her again, differently, "So if you were in a closed cold stone-made cave like room like the ones where the Flintstones live in, with a window, and there was a huge garden outside with flowers of the colour of the rainbow, and a pond with swans like in the fairy tales. What would you choose?" She was still very silent. I didn't know what was wrong with the question. She finally answered when 50 or more leaves had rattled, I think the tree was curious too. She said, 

"I would stay outside during the day play and enjoy. And at night would come back to the cave."

And then I understood what I forgot to ask her, what if she could choose only one? I asked her. And again there was silence. I started to count the stars, that is what daddy had taught me to do when I can't wait for something, and after that all I remember is black.