Bacche bade ho gaye :|

There has always been this half finished portrait of a lady and her cat ( done by yours truly :) -This painting is a copy of some original work. ) on the walls of my house. I know for some this portrait looks great and for some of you , not so much. But for me, even in its unfinished state , this painting has always been very enduring. I love the lady, the cat, the apples, the mountains, the cloud, the lake behind - everything. - But thats not the point of this post.

We have had a very old friend Ravi, who's been our ( Raghav and mine ) friend ever since the Wipro days( For people who dont have much background about me - I am talking of atleast 10 years back ). Ravi , though , just 5-6 years older to me, had got married young and had two wonderful children Santosh and Bhavani - who probably were between 7-9 years at the time we first met in Wipro.

And as with friends, we loved visiting this family and the family loved visiting us. Every time the family visited us- the next day during lunch, we would have long, entertaining discussions about the time spent the previous evening. And Ravi would tell us how much his children enjoyed the party, the house, the food and the companionship.

Among the other things, Ravi once told me how much the children gushed over the painting. He mentioned that the children kept talking about the cat and how alive it looked! I would be amused at that . In my mind , I would think - is that all these kids noticed in this painting? ( If you notice, the cat doesnt even take a 5% of the painting ) ! :|

But then, I would laugh it off and regale myself in the compliments. :)

After that for around 7-8 years more, due to various circumstances, the family never got to visit us at our home. And one fine day, last year, we had the pleasure of having this family as our guests.

By now the children were around 14-16 years old . They were teenagers now and behaved like one:) Both of them talked about their school/friends, joked the way teenagers do, looked around the house and - they spotted the painting again! They were enamored by the painting and praised the painting - all over again! They had completely forgotten about having seen this when they were kids.

They mentioned how they looooovvvved the painting and then - they look at me in wonder and say - 'Aunty - the lady in the picture is soooooo beautiful !Appa - look ! isnt this lady beaaautiful !!'

I was stumped ! :|

I look at them and I smile in my mind :)

Shaking my head, with a smile on my face, I say to myself - Bacche bade ho gaye ! ( The kids have grown up now ! ) :)
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Ravi - This post goes out to you , Mamata, Santosh and Bhavani. :)