Saturday, January 20, 2007

bacchhe man ke sachhe , akal ke kachhe !

I share a weird relation with kids [of all types]. I like them.. from a distance. I have nothing against them. I dont belong to the class of Ogres [or Ogresses] who goes behind them with a cudgel. But, guess the kids somehow never seem to take me for one of those people that they pull to join in their game, and, to be frank, this fact never bothers me! :) I am happy with this arrangement. Relatives come home, bringing thier kids and I can 'entertain' them [translates as "look after them, and take care to see that they dont set the house on fire or throw my cat down from the terrace] for a couple of hours. More than 2 hrs and "I am really sorry, but I have an assignment to submit for tomorrow" :D
Just today, I bumped into a kid on the way back from lab. The kid reminded me of one from my street [back home] who used to be one of the few I really liked. I smiled at this kid, thinking of my little buddy. Now, I am one of those people who is said to have "a smile that lights up the place.. like the sun coming in" :D So, for the sun to come in, the blinds have to be pulled up right? that's just the way my nose crinkles as my lips part ! :D So, lots of people pull my leg abt my 'crinkly' smile [cant think of a better way to put it] So, the Kid [the one I bumped into] looks at me and says "Yeh kyun aisa kar rahe ho?' As he was walking alongside me, I thought I would hunour him, and asked "Kya?" (crinkly smiling again) The kid said "yeh" and tried a imitate me [A poor imitation I must say .. coz , my style is unique! :D] I smiled again and asked "Kyun ? acchha nahin hai?" The Kid said "Nahin, dekho , aise acchhe se hasna hai.. dekho aise karo.." and made a gesture as though he were ironing out the wrinkles on his nose. I decided to humour him further and repeated the gesture. Then the Kid said " Ab haso" and I tried smiling.. keeping the top half of my face completely immobile, and moving my lips by half a milimetre. The Kid seemed pleased by this infinitesimal upward movement of my cheek muscles and said " haan, yeh theek hai" . His inspection of my smile was so funny, I couldn't stop myself from bursting into laughter and ended up with my same old Colgate smile [complete with the crinkled nose! ] This seemed to offend the Kid and the demon [which, by now, I am sure exists in all kids] within him suppressed the 'Godliness' [ which people say exists in kids and I hvae not been able to witness so far!] of his nature was pushed aside. He said "kya aise karte ho! Aap ko hasna hi nahin aata hai! " By now, another lady walking behind the two of us, looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, thinking, she was this Kid's mother. And when I mean Smile, I mean I smiled the way I have been smiling for the past 22 years of my life. The Kid [my 'smile' teacher] was terribly offended that I hadn't learnt how to smile inspite of him teaching me twice!! And he decided to let me have it! He turned to that lady and said "aap ko pata hai? Is didi ko hasna aata hi nahin hai! pata hai woh kaise hasti hai? yun!!" and the imitation came on again! Both of us [me and the other lady] laughed . The lady, then, walked past us. And I realised she was just a passer by ! Now the Kid-turned-Devil went on to show all the passer-by's on the road as to exactly how I laughed! He stopped two BTechs walking by, pointed at em and gave a demo. Then he told aloud.. "chalo , inko bhi batate hain!" and caught another guy and told him! By this time, I was regretting the moment , when, I, in my foolishness, fiirst smiled at this Devil! Then, As I started turning towards the SAC [where I was heading to] , I could still hear the Kid telling yet another guy, and the guy asking "kaun" and the last words I heard were the Kid clarifying "woh, white waali didi" And thankfully, I moved both out-of-sight and out-of-earshot!!

Now seriously considering if I should give the "upper-face-immobile-half-mm-movement-of-lips" smile a shot... but, well, you cant teach an old dog new tricks [holds good for a bitch as well! ] .. and, how to unlearn smiling? guess I ll continue with my crinkly nosed smile after all! :D

2 comments:

Karthik Nayak said...

maybe u don't use Colgate
noses tend to crinkle when near a bad odor and it is but natural when u open ur mouth and show ur teeth

Bastet said...

dayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! buzz off!