Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Oh, the places you'll go!

The Age of Perception

Nino, to Nino's Mum, who is trying to get her son to sleep before she falls asleep in exhaustion: Where's Dad?

Nino's Mum, trying her best to keep the irritation out of her voice at the daily ritual question: At work (silent #$%&*!), baby.

Nino, very matter-of-factly: Is he poor?

Nino's Mum, caught between guffawing and concern at her son's perceptive economics: Why do you think he's poor?

Nino: Well he works hard all the time. He's working all the time. Yesterday (Nino's concept of 'when I was younger' is usually yesterday) he din't work so much.

I liked the fact that Nino thought only his dad was poor, and 'we' were not (must have been all the books I bought!), but I thought it was time to explain to him time difference and the consequences for working for an American company.

***

Nino, spying Nino's Mum watching bits of some random movie on HBO in silent mode, smiling away: Are this kaka (gujarati for uncle) and kaki (gujarati for aunty) married?

Nino's Mum, wondering if her son's moral standards are her punishment for her belief in live-in relationships: No, baby, they're just friends .

Nino, after having watched the uncle and aunty in question, kiss and embrace: They're definitely husband and wife, mama.

The Age of Wisdom

Nino's Mum, walking in on Nino and his cousin, viciously caning a plastic dog-toy: NINO! Why are you hitting the dog?

Nino: He was naughty.

Nino's Mum launches into this great-big explanation how animals can't really express their pain and they're ours to look-after, much like babies.

Nino's Mum: We can't hurt babies, can we?

Nino: Why do you hit me?

***

Nino and I are parked on the side of an extremely congested road, waiting for Nino's Dad to come. Honks abound, and so does guilt, I'm obviously contributing to the congestion.

Nino: When is papa going to come?

Nino's Mum: Bhagwan jaane. (A often-used Gujarati curse, that means God only knows).

Nino: What's he doing with Bhagwan?

Nino's Dad finally arrives and I rant and yell and nearly explode. Nino's Dad catches Nino's eye and grins.

Nino: Mamma must be hungry.

The Age of Gluttony

We're at this nice restaurant for a Sunday brunch along with my sister and nieces and we're oohing and aah-ing over the perfect consistency of the risotto and the melt-in-the-mouth ravioli.

Nino, making clean work of his spaghetti aglio olio: This is impeccable work.

Nino's mum, wondering where Nino picked up the adjective from: What do you mean impeccable work?

Nino: When we do good work at MM (name of school), S (teacher) says impeccable work because impeccable work makes her happy.

***

Nino, pointing to the sponge-like substance inside the picture of a bone in his anatomy book: What's this?

Nino's Mum: That's bone marrow.

Nino: Like in mutton?

Nino's Mum: Yes, like in mutton.

Later that night, Nino's Mum is trying not to smack her son who is blowing, sucking and drooling on her elbow. Attached to the elbow should be the new phrase, she mutters to herself.

Nino's Mum: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Nino: Your bone marrow's very yummy, mamma.

26 comments:

nitya said...

I enjoyed that... thank you for the mid afternoon LOL.

Anonymous said...

ROTFL!! totally enjoyed these snippets. specially the mamma must be hungry one! :) didn't that make you forget all your gussa!

Manjushree Abhinav said...

fantastik work, nino's mum. impeccable, indeed.

sole said...

How cute..Nino sounds so adorable and very well articulated by NM. Kids..I say have their own ways to everything :-)

Choxbox said...

he's the cutest!

btw which language do these conversations happen?

dipali said...

What an observant child and what amazing perspectives! I can't decide which one had me laughing the most:)

Sands said...

how sweet? They bring a smile to our face with their simplistic understanding of things :) In my household you can replace the mom's hungry comment with a mom's stressed comment :)

Swati said...

I really must me you two - er, three!

VJ said...

LOL !!!
enjoyed eveyone of them.. cant beleive Nino can use words like impeccable already !!
and love the hungry part!!
is it true though?

Anonymous said...

These are life lessons too funny to be missed :) Nino your little one is really cute.

Best wishes,
Anjali

In love with my life said...

We so need to meet you and Nino. He could dicuss the 'today and tomorrow' concept with V while we could lament about poor fathers..

Good to see a post after a small hiatus

Anonymous said...

When I was young and I always asked my dad what he did in "office", he and my mom would tell me - oh today I meade rasam and brinjal sabji, washed the utensils....
Even at that age the image of my dad doing any of that seemed preposterous but I did believe it for a long time.

Poppins said...

:) Delurking to say Hi and that I enjoy your posts.

OrangeJammies said...

aWWWWW! It sounds crazy but I've missed the little guy in all the time I've been AWOL.

Choxbox said...

paacha khovaay gaya?

Gauri Gharpure said...

catching up on Nino tales after a long time and thoroughly enjoying..

maidinmalaysia said...

i added a widget, and no one noticed.:-(
where are you?

sole said...

A tag if you would please like to take it up.

Where are you these days?

Serendipity said...

:):)
how cute!

Nino's Mum said...

guys - apologies - work is a monster right now, a very carnivorous one.

chox - I put Nino's comments Verbatim: they're just the way he says it, mostly in English, with Gujju words thrown in.

MinM - how I mourn not being able to follow the firstborn's tales, MinM, and our food talk. soon, promise.

sole - thankyou so much - I've just lost most of my team to the 'downturn' and it's a lone-warrior phase at work. thank you for checking.

sole said...

dear dear NM, there are two tags waiting for you. I hope you get on to both hopefully soon ;-)

http://liferightnow.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/whome/

and

http://liferightnow.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/top-5-things/

Anonymous said...

great to see you back! wrap up that busy piece and we'l be waiting ..

dipali said...

Tagged!

Rohini said...

Yup, I got the hitting one too when I scolded him about whacking another kid at the park :(

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the mad momma said...

:) you rich woman, that is probably why your bone marrow is so yummy!