Today in the morning, when someone opened the main gate and my sister Pinki went there exclaiming “Babu”. My face gleamed with joy. So a Dennis the menace arrived here. And this Dennis is my Mridu, my nephew (Didi’s only son). They came by the morning train which today reached in time. Now he is two and half years old and enough honest to recall me. This time he came here after 3 months. And he can speak some kind of Bhongali language, which seems to be a mixture of Bhojpuri and Bengali. His parents reside at Ara (Bihar). He has learnt more Bhojpuri from the neighbour’s kids than Bengali. We were just laughing at his activities and language. He found out all of his toys at our home which he used to play with, during his stay here for 10 months. He was in our care when didi was at BHU. Now today his toy tube-well (hand-pump) has non-ending supply of water to serve everyone in the home. So everyone took more than 10 glasses of water (air) from his tube-well. For me I could not count the number of glasses. Being a cold season I was inside the quilt to play hide and seek with him.
So if you tell I am childish some time, I honestly accept it. And his childish plays and pious attitude reminds me something. I think if Mridu will grow, will he remain same kid for me or matured one to talk in a reserved manner? Will he play with me in the same way? This kind of thinking strengthens my attitude towards my elders for whom I used to be the same kid. So if I expect Mridu to be same innocent for me after 20 years, don’t my elders expect same for me? So I am still childish with my grandma, who is luckily at our home these days. I am mamma’s boy, it’s only because I am still a Mridu for them. The elders in front of whom, I learnt to creep and due to their upbringing only I am here with their blessings. I accept the missing innocence in myself but I am still a Mridu.