Memories of a Little Girl Called Dolly (II)

When I am at it, I decided to continue talking about Dolly. There were 3 coconut trees in the premises of our building. Once, the society decided to remove the well-formed coconuts from the trees, which they did every few years. Dolly was standing in between the coconuts calling my Mom. When she went out to the balcony to find out why the little girl was calling her. She looked up at my Mom to ask, “Did you receive the coconuts, Aunty?” She hadn’t. So, Dolly and her brother lifted a few coconuts for us and brought them up from the ground floor with a lot of difficulty to my Mom!

Once we were going to Chennai and she ran to us, when we were loading a cab with our luggage. She said, “Meko choke ja rahe ho?” Meaning, “why are you leaving me behind?” Dolly’s mother said, “It’s ok. Take her along. I will be able to do my work peacefully.” But Dad was against it because once the newness of the travel would wear off, she might ask for her mother. So Mom told her we would bring a live elephant for her to play with when we return. The girl remembered it so well that the moment we returned she asked her Mummy Aunty, “Hathi laye?” or “Did you bring the elephant?” Mom said that the elephant is very little and it needs its mother so we left it with the mother. She was surprisingly convinced because her Mummy Aunty had returned to her!

One day I had work in the bank. This girl came along and insisted that she would come with me. While walking along with me she stopped and would not move forward! After a few seconds, I realized that she wanted me to pick her up. I took her into my arms and hailed an auto-rickshaw. At the bank, I was waiting for my turn for withdrawing the cash, when she asked, “Aaaka nubber nahin aaya? Aaaka nubber?” Meaning, “Your number hasn’t come?”

During that time, I was studying and needed to go to the University for some reason. This girl wanted to come along. I told her I needed to go to the University. She said, “Main bhi aaaoongi nuniversity.” Meaning, “Even I want to come to the university.”

This is not all. There is more to come. Stay tuned.