Tringgggggg!!!
Oops!
And then she ran down the stairs and jumped two rhythmically till she reached the end and hid behind the electricity meter box.
Wow!
That was fun. That was certainly not what good girls should be doing in the afternoon when their dad's are at work and mum's are trying to catch some shut eye.
But when you are all of seven years old ,living in a totally calm place where nothing ever happens and you are boringly single without any sibling to have any sibling rivalry and fights with , you really don't have too many options.
And then you have new neighbors, who have an equally restless, trouble seeking single child, only that boy is a couple of years older than you.
Awesome.
And then the afternoons became even more fun...
Just when the aunties and didis and bhaiyas settle in to enjoy their afternoon siesta, Gudiya and Ankur would attack...
Ankur was smart enough to realize that if caught , he'd be thrashed with his dad's belt (This is from the time when parents believed that sparing the rod would spoil the child ) , so he made sure that Gudiya would be the one to be the face of the mischief.
So Ankur would decide, what the agenda would be and then between the two of them, they would manage the mischief. Could be anything like ringing doorbells in the dead if the afternoon and running, removing clothes pegs from the washing lines ,deflating tyres and footballs with pins and opening gates and unleashing pets and many many more crazy things.
Well ,the two musketeers let someone's pet guinea pigs taste freedom and left someone's pet turtle on the beach and soon the mums and dads began looking at Ankur with suspicion. Gudiya's mom knew better than to trust her beady eyed ,pig tailed little dolls innocent looks. She began keeping a check and even made sure that madame was kept busy with new paints and books for a while.
But Ankur was not the kind to be bound and would extol his fun filled escapades to Gudiya in the evening when they played .
A few days later , Gudiya managed to run out in the afternoon when Ankur had caught hold of a small container of Kerosene oil.
New agenda ,a bonfire .
That had to be done away from the houses maybe where the bachelor's had their rooms...
So they gathered a few newspapers and old books and a few twigs ,just like the ladies who carted firewood for their homes...
And then they settled to make their bonfire. Little did Gudiya realize why Ankur was smiling so devilishly...
The bonfire was directly under a washing line that had only vests , underwear and socks to dry.
And thanks to the addition of the kerosene, the line caught fire and all the undies and socks were partially singed...useless.
This was the first time Gudiya realized they had done something awful.
And to make things worse, as she ran she saw that Ankur had been caught by the man who owned the smalls...
Obviously, not for the first time Ankur was thrashed by his dad...
But no one said a word to Gudiya.
She was terrified of such a thrashing for herself.
It took her all evening before she burst out crying and howling. She was totally inconsolable...
Only when her mom and dad asked her if she wanted to tell them something important did she stop crying.
She then admitted hoe she had helped Ankur build up the bonfire and how she ran and how Ankur was caught.
Many apologies later she drifted to sleep.
Next morning, she went to the bachelor's house to apologize.
The long and short of it...Gudiya never stopped her misadventures, but she realized the magic of words.
And the magic of the truth.
She still is a wee bit crazy and is quite capable of puncturing someones foot ball if they dont allow her to play , but she will stand up to the truth and make sure the others do to.
She is yours truly.
She is Shalini.
This is a happy hours post for Indiblogger and Kinley ,Coca Cola.
Image Courtesy Kinley ,Indiblogger