Innocence is one thing you can never ignore. It is like that wild flower in a desert. You see it, and a smile flashes across your face! :D
So it was one lovely evening when I went up to the Pantaloons to get a shirt for my dad. (I know, I know, I know as much about shirts as Thala Vijay does about acting.. just read on.. plz) I had my brother along with me, who helped me find the right shirt. Whenever he felt like throwing up, I knew the shirt in my hands was a disaster. So well, after quite a bit of almost-throwing-up-stashing-the-disater-away, my bro took up the job on himself, while I,... err.. like any other species of my kind went up to the ladies department. While I was there I spotted this bright kid. (Pssst..Now I'll let u on a secret of mine. I can do that Kathakali thing with my eyebrows, where they just keep dancing their eyebrows up and down). Now like most involuntary reactions, as soon as I see a kid, my eyebrows start dancing right away, and I must tell you, they love it! Or so I thought!
This kid promptly turned to his father, who was waiting for his wife to come out of the trail room, and started pointing at me.Yikes! I knew I was in trouble! I quickly ducked under some clothes rack, and was pretending to be absorbed in a plain gray t-shirt, when I felt a tug. It was the same kid!
"Ello, Ow-er-u" [hello, how are you]
"Oh.. I'm fine.. how are you?"
"You go to play-shhcool a?"
Now when a cute little 3 yr old, dressed in those over-sized shorts, sneakers and shirts with all big designs asks you some buzzer round questions in a kiddo voice that went 'shhhcool', you get all tongue-tied. Well, I did. Err.. you see that last question was a real bumper!!
"Err.. no-"
"I go to one. Ajay can jump like this only thee tiimes. I jump fiiiive times. And my shhhcool is there only..."
So on.. and on.. for another 15 mins it was like a new language that I learnt from him. Since I'm quite a fast learner, I was somehow able to reply back. Sample this.
"you terra kitnera?"
"ya..terri ponsalaa"
Well, he was satisfied with that answer. Right then, I got a call from my bro, asking me to get going as he had found a good shirt at last. Sadly when I turned to my new friend to bid goodbye, he went "You going? ok Shee you" with a resounding kick aimed right at my ahem-ahem.
His father's "No fighting or beating" apparently didn't include kicking. Owww!
We were at the billing counter though, when we discovered that that shirt was apparently a defective piece, and my bro has to resume his 'search-for-the-right-shirt'. But there was somebody right there to give me company.
"Hey.. nee polaya? Inge vaa" (Hey.. you didn't go yet? Come here]
(Apparently he had included me into his friends list, since we started conversing in Tamil and English there on. :hude-grin-plastered-on-my-face-now:)
We played hide and seek, among the clothes racks, looked at each mannequin there in detail, as to what each was wearing, and why there were no shoes on. There was another insight too from my little friend, as to how tall those mannequins really were! Brilliant I tell ya, my buddy was going places. Well, but by this time, since all the store-assistants had become his thick friends, anywhere I hid, the little sonny found me out in no time, with this HUGE grin that just lit up my day.
But you know what? Even these little fellas fall for a girl. Guess what happened? At the billing section this guy met a new kid (girl), and forgot all about our hide-and-seek. He was so overjoyed. He introduced her to me, and showed her all those mannequins we had so sincerely studied. But well, he tried this big fighter hug thing, and ended up falling over her and hitting their heads. Well, being the superman my little buddy was, he moved on like the Rajdhani and we were back to our little games.
After a while, his parents found us, informing that it was time to leave. My buddy, was perched up at the billing counter, lest he ran off somewhere. We kept signaling to each other, since I was standing just 2 places behind them.
"Bye bye"
"Bye bye"
"Shee you"
"See you"
"Shvuit deems"
Eh?
Oh
"Sweet dreams :D"
And then the best part.. he blew me a flying kiss!!! :D :D. (I so resembled my profile pic then. :P :P)
That little kid's innonence had spread its warmth all over. It was the best evening I had in a long time, and I'll never forget that little bugger! :)
