Sweetheart

In all my long distance road travel (bus), I have never been lucky to get a chic (age 18-24) near my seat. Hopeless.

In all my train travel, at the max the compartment itself had only 1-2 chics. Worst part was, those chics cannot be seen from my seat; their seat were placed in such a way! Design!

In all my air travel, most of the time the seat next to me was empty. When it was occupied, it would either be a male or a grandma. Combination cannot be better than this.

Mr. Fate has tried all possible dance styles on all my travels. Mr Fate makes sure that I don't even a chance.

But, the travel from Bangalore to Chennai (April 26) was good. I boarded the train at 6.30 AM. Needless to mention, even in this journey, a 35+ aunty was sitting near me in the train. But, she had a kid. The kid was sleeping when I saw her. Deep sleep. To spend time - I was solving puzzles, then listened to music. Bored to death. So, started looking out at the fast moving lands. 3 hours went by. The kid was still sleeping in her mom's lap.

The kid got up. 'She' kid :) She looked like an angel. Black+Yellow color tops and red+white mix skirt. I actually don't know whether to call it as skirt. Not sure on girls dress. Naive. (Mr KP, do you expect somebody to teach you all the girls dresses? Huh? You could have directly written that here. Any takers?). Till the time the kid was sleeping, I could feel silence. The kid got up and the silence was gone. Whatever was sold in the train, she wanted it. "Maa, get me this ice cream. Maa, get me samosa. Maa, get me cutlet. Maa, get me lays. Maa, get me juice." Her voice was very * very soft. Her mom got most of the stuff she asked for. But, she did refuse to buy some stuffs (samosa, ice cream). 'She' kid started crying loud. Loud enough to make the entire compartment people stare at her mom and make her feel embarrassed. When the 'She' kid cried, I was very sad and feeling bad. She's such a lovely looking angel. I would have got her whatever she asked for. I actually cursed her mom for letting the kid cry. Finally, 'She' kid's trick worked and she had an ice cream at hand. I was looking at her continuously for 15 minutes - watched all the actions she did. 'She' kid couldn't open the ice cream scoop's top cover. She don't know how to open. She tried to find out the cover by looking at all possible angles. When she lifted the ice cream scoop and looked at the bottom of the cup, a water droplet fell on her nose. She immediately shaked her face like a pomaranian dog. She was so * so cute to look at. 'She' kid finally asked for help to her mom. Her mom opened the ice cream cup's top cover and gave the ice cream cup to the kid. She dipped the ice cream eating stick into the scoop of ice cream and took the stick out and licked it :) Thats how she eats ice cream. Kid kept licking at the ice cream stick. Soon the ice cream melted and most of the cream spilled in the 'She' kid's skirt (again, I don't know what to call the dress as). Her mom cleaned it and she started having the rest of the ice cream. Poor 'She' kid. Kid started crying thinking that her ice cream was over. I was a silent spectator till now. It was 4 hours since our departure. I didn't even utter a word. I kept looking at the kid. Her mom said "Boomika, don't cry. Have the rest of the ice cream." Ok, she's Boomika, the 'She' kid.

Boomika had a heavy lunch, her stomach was full. There was very small gap between me and her mom in the seat. She tried to squeeze between us and sit in that small gap. The gap might be of the size of a palm. I smiled at her and moved aside to make the kid sit comfortable. She smiled at me. Wonderful it was. From that moment, till the end of the journey she was with me. I had my earphones ON. She wanted it. I gave her my mobile first. It was heavy for her to lift. She holded it in two hands. She pressed all possible buttons to unlock the phone and see the bright screen. I unlocked the phone for her. She smiled. She asked "Aaataaa" (meaning 'Song' in Kannada). I gave her my ear phone. She had it in her hand. She tried to figure out where in the phone to insert the ear phone plug. She took the plug and inserted in all possible holes in the mobile (charger point, key chain holder, etc). I inserted the ear phone plug in its port and played a song for her. I took one side of the ear phone and kept it in her right ear. She jumped. She was so happy. She took the other side of the ear phone and placed it in my left ear. I wanted to take her in my lap and kiss her. We listened to one entire song, with one side of the ear phone in her ear and other other side in my ear. Then she removed the ear phone plug from the phone, the song output could be heard from the speaker of the phone. Her face was bright lit on listening to the sound from the phone speaker. She kept the mobile very near to her ear and banged her head like a rock music star. She would have banged for 2-3 minutes continuously. Then I played her different songs and put both the ear phone ends on her ears. I played "Nenjukkul peithidum maamalai" song from Vaaranam Aayiram twice to this little angel. I also took couple of pictures of the kid in my mobile -- normal pictures, pictures when she was listening to music. When I showed her the picture, she showed it to her mom immediately and felt proud. She said "innondhu photo" (meaning "One more photo" in Kannada). She posed for it too. Some pictures of Boomika:

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

With ear phones ON.

I enjoyed her company for almost 2 hours. When our train reached Chennai, I felt "I wish I have a kid like her after my marriage". Such a cute, heart-stealing, lovely angel she is.