My weekend went like this, what about yours....

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Naina drew this picture from one of her story-books

Nikita: u should have come for the movie with us Mama, u really missed it.

Me: I know but I got you some good books didn’t I.
[Raising voice slightly]Nainaaaaa, have u kept your timetable for tomorrow???? And Nikita, what about you????

Nikita: I already kept mine Mama. Captain Haddock was too good, he made us laugh soo much, I had the best time of my life today. Papa when is the next Tintin movie releasing???? You must take us for it. 

Me: Naina  what are you upto….have u or have u not kept ur books ready for tomorrow??? And you have to go for your bath after that. U know[directed at better- half] if I had hung around for some more time I could have met Shobha De & MT Vasudevan Nair. And Shashi Tharoor is going to be there tomorrow.  [After a pause]Gimme a word for ‘one of the radial rods which form the centre of a wheel’???

Naina[a faint impatient voice from another room]: I’m keeping, I’m keeping it in a moment.

Better-half: How many letters??

Nikita: Mama, Naina cant find her Science project book, that’s why she’s taking so much time. Snowy was really cute but he doesn’t talk like how he does in the comic books, he doesn’t even have speech bubbles with his thoughts in it and Professor Calculus wasn’t there at all in the whole movie.

Me: 5 letters & ends with an ‘e’.  What about Thomson & Thompson??

Better-half: Try Spoke

Nikita: Oh yes they were there, they were soo silly & made us laugh so much. Papa got us nachos with cheese & salsa & also a huge bucket of popcorn. It was so yummy. 

Me: Righttttt ‘spoke’ fits in perfectly. I suppose you are full now after eating all that junk.  NAINA if I get there & find out u haven’t started on your time-table.......

Nikita: Look mama I know how to wipe a smile off my face…look, look.....

Nikita plonks herself right in front of mama & smiles widely. Then places her hand on the top of her face & brings it down sharply to reveal a face so very serious. She did it 2-3 times[up, down, up, down] in quick succession making us shake our heads in amusement.

Me: Now u go change & come back to clear the table for dinner. And check what Naina’s upto…its awfully quiet in there.  The Arabic books aisles were so empty whereas the Indian stalls were so crowded.  And you know, there was  a cooking demonstration by Sophie Grey. She showed us how to make Whoopies from her book. There was a good selection of childrens book also. I didn’t want to pick up the usual Enid Blyton books this time… how are the books I got for the kids??? Good na.

Better-half who was idly scanning through the books nodded.

Nikita: MAMAAAAAAA…..Naina’s not keeping her time-table, she’s sitting here and reading a bookkkkkk.

Me: Nainaaaaa…..u have 5 minutes to pack your school bag, have your bath and present urself at the dining table otherwise no dinner for u. I’ve finished the crossword, hopefully I’ve got all of them right, don’t forget to fax it tomorrow.

A loud THUD & sounds of a scuffle reach the living room and the better-half goes to investigate. Loud protests & complaints were heard before the matter was sorted out and peace restored.

Conversation resumes during dinner.

Nikita: And u know mama Tintin screams ‘put out the fire, put out the fire’,  Captain Haddock pours some water from the bottle he was holding & it goes BOOOM. You know what he did, he poured whiskey instead of water……hahahaha.

Naina: Look at me I’m a Walrus.

Everybody turns to look at Naina who had 2 rib bones from the mutton curry sticking out of her mouth. She really did look like a walrus.

Better-half: Stop playing with your food and eat Naina.

Nikita: Papa what if we watch the movie on our TV…will we still need 3D glasses???

Papa: If we buy a 3D copy then we’ll need 3D glasses but I’m sure they’ll sell normal copies where we don’t need 3D glasses to watch them.

Naina: Whats the meaning of 3D????

Nikita: 3D is when the cartoon figures are life-like….

Papa: They'll have depth.

Nikita: yes…and 2D is like Tom & Jerry…they are flat figures….we cant see their backs....no depth like papa says.

Naina: What about vondy???

Nikita: There is nothing like that Naina.

Mama[who had blanked out the rest of the world to concentrate on her dinner suddenly came to life]: Yes there is,  Vondy means vehicle in Malayalam.

The family burst out laughing. U see Naina was asking if there was anything called 1D.


[Incase u r wondering what all that was about……Nikita was discussing the Tintin movie she and Naina had seen at the cinemas along with their father. I was talking about a book fair in Sharjah my friend & I had gone to. Time-tables, crosswords, arguments, walruses all comes with the territory]