Memories of a Little Girl Called Dolly! (IV)

My Dad had some work in Chennai, once. Before leaving he wanted to give Dolly a chocolate. Mom went to fetch her. At that time, she had just finished her bath and was wearing a towel around her little body like any older person would. When she saw my Mom, she ran into their second room calling her mother, “Give me a frock. Mummy Aunty has come.”

Cut to, today. There is this woman called Vaishali Jagani, our next door neighbor. She would let her daughter, Hitakshi come to our home, wearing only transparent panties and those would be sogging wet. With that she would jump on our sofa. When my Mom and I told her not to let her out without a proper dress, that woman started damaging our reputation here. She said that she has been training her daughter very well. We suppose this is the way she was training.

Back to Dolly. Dolly’s brother’s (Ronak) was in the first standard and his school once insisted that all the students should participate in some art contest or the other. If nothing else, they had to join at least the rangoli competition. Ronak ran to his Mummy Aunty for help. Dolly also wanted to make a “langoli (Sic)”. Mom gave her a paper on which she had made a design and told her to overwrite on it for practice.

She then taught Ronak a new design. He said that he could participate in the contest only because of his Mummy Aunty. Mom thought there might appear some problem in their home because there was always the saas-bahu clash in their home. So she called his mother and told her to give some shine and diyas to be added to the rangoli. Ronak won the contest and came running to inform that to his Mummy Aunty. He said that he bagged the first prize because of her. But Mom told him that he won because of the additions that his mother had taught him. Their mother dropped the kids in school – Ronak in first standard and Dolly in playschool – and came home to talk to Mom. She held my Mom’s hand and said, “You are not just Mummy Aunty for my children, but also me.” Since then Mom had 3 daughters.

There was one more little girl in our building called Prachi. Dolly insisted that no other kids would share her Mummy Aunty’s love. So when Prachi came for similar help, Mom gave her another design and sent her to her mother to ask her to teach her the design. She got the consolation prize.

One day, Dolly’s mother called Ronak back home for something, while he was playing on the other side of the building. Dolly tried to assist her by calling, “Nonak. (Sic)” When she called him, she would call him, “Bheiya.” When her mother needed, she would call him “Nonak.”

To be continued…