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ShareAround two weeks ago, we had an unexpected guest. My husband's niece was to intern in Mumbai and her father had called up his counterpart in our home to find out if she could stay with us for three weeks, just the day before they were to arrive in Mumbai.
While I fretted about the responsibility of having a young girl whom I had never seen before in my life on my hands, my son and daughter showed curiosity and excitement. "Where will she sleep?" was one question, easily answered as we normally pull out extra mattresses and plonk them down on the floor, either in the bedroom or in the hall. "What is she like?" was a more difficult one to answer.
The three of us (my husband had stayed back to welcome them) had gone to Pune for a day and returned to find Priya at home. My kids tiptoed in -- and while my son ran in to ostensibly check his homework, my daughter made polite conversation.
Come dinner time... and I got A-class behaviour all around, with the 'Pleases' and Thank yous' floating around in the air. Having settled her in for a day and shown her the way to work, her father flew back leaving her to my and mine tender mercies. Two days went by in a similar fashion as the youngsters walked around each other on eggshells but soon with familiarity, voices were raised again in the house. "You clear the table, I did it yesterday and now it is her turn!" No guesses on who said that one.
Morning times were a scramble to get ready as they dashed off in different directions for school and their internships. In between, my twosome did hushed comparisons about relative time spent on the mobile, food eaten or not eaten, likes and dislikes, the laptop owned.... and lots more!
The first Friday night, the three settled down with a board game. Soon questions flew fast. "Why does your dad call you Macchoo?" Gaurav asked her. "That's because I keep on saying 'Don't touch me," she laughed. My eyebrows rose as far as they could, for that was a familiar line in my home too, as the kids had long since outgrown maternal hugs. Sigh!
And Priya said, "Do you know that when the three of you walked in, I was scared of Gaurav the most. He looked the most stern." Well, appearances are deceptive -- she soon realised that. Running up the seven flights of stairs after a late night ice cream with his cousin (his sister had stayed at home with a cold), he crouched down and waited for her to reach our landing, before he erupted, scaring her out of her wits.
The house has partially emptied --with my daughter having left for a new academic year. I have seen my son filling the vacuum with time spent with 'Macchoo'.... And, in two days, she will be gone, as swiftly as the hot chocolate cake did one night they sat down to play Judgement! But what the three thought of each other, they are not telling! After all teens -- and their cousins never -- tattle.
