Nishka's park friends

My daughter Nishka, who is 14 months old now, is a very social person. She enjoys going out in the parks or malls and calling out to people. Invariably there are a few people who 'ooh' and 'aah' over her and she revels in the attention. Of-late she has been making friends in the apartment too.

A few months back (which means when my daughter had just turned one year old,) my husband's three young cousins (girls in their early twenties) took her for an early morning walk. When girls came back, the little one was in one of the girl's hands and was holding a huge bunch of bananas with both her hands. The girls couldn’t stop laughing narrating what had happened. Apparently an old ajja (an old man around 70 years of age) was going home holding a walking stick in one hand and a bunch of bananas and a newspaper in the other. The little one on seeing the bananas got excited and started pointing towards the bananas and squealing loudly. The old man couldn’t help melt at the little one's gestures and gave away the whole bunch to her and blessed her as he went his way.

On another day, I heard a ting-tong on my house bell. I knew my daughter and Kamala, her caretaker were back home from their walk. I opened the door quickly to take Nishka in my arms, only to hear Kamala point the house to someone and tell her, "Ide mane, Ide mane" (This is the house.) Curious, I looked behind her to see an old rolly-polly lady (around 65 years of age) wearing a worn out old white flowery salwar kameez and a white dupatta, hurriedly limping her way out of the lift. Looking at me, she said excitedly in a Punjabi accented Hindi, "Mein dekhne aayi.. mein dekhne aayi ye ladki kahan rehti hai.. mujhe roz 'hi, bye' karti hai. Aaj tho maine soch liya.. mujhe dekhna hai iska ghar."(I came to see where this girl lives. She waves me a ‘hi and bye’ everyday. Today I decided I need to see where she lives.) And then she relaxed and told me, "Bohut pyaari bacchi hai. God bless"(She is a very cute kid. God Bless.) And she smiled her way back into the lift. I smiled back to the old lady. I could hear the little one blowing ‘flying kisses’ to her behind my back.

Unknown people come and wish Nishka when we (my husband, Nishka and I) go on our evening walk these days. They say ‘hi’ to her and have a little conversation her and she responds back in her baby language. It is really nice to see my little one forming her set of friends.

As for my husband and me, we are now grappling with a new identity, ‘Nishka’s daddy’ and ‘Nishka’s mummy.’