When I was a little girl...

Dear Piya,

The subject line of this letter may have misled you.

To clarify, this isn't a letter about the time when your old woman here was a little girl herself. She was, yes, and that time seems to belong to another era, altogether, now, but let us not get me started on that one, now, shall we?

This is about the time when you were little; about how you have become obsessed with this one phrase "Jab main chhoti thi na...", these  days.

I must have you confused again.

Yes, you are three years old today.

And yes, you love going over the times when you were little (as if you have become a big, old granny now!).

But that is the fun element riding on this letter!

I know I haven't touched this topic a lot, but we are currently in the middle of a major shift across the world, and when I say shift, I mean 'standstill'. Years from now, you will ask me more and I will have an endless stream of documents across the internet to tell you from; but for now, know this -

We are at home these days. We have to stay at home, in a manner of compulsion, for our own safety, as there is a global pandemic going on, by the name of 'Covid19 Corona Virus'.

It is a serious topic and that should tell you why I am not going to write much about it.

I would rather we talk about things that will make us remember this phase with a smile as opposed to a sadness drawn all over our face.

So, where was I?

Oh, yes!

We are home.

And we are bored; more than I can tell you.

And so in order to pass time, which you, my little girl, don't make an easy task with your super-active self competing with my senile body all the time, when you asked something fun of me to do with you, for the hundredth time, some days back, I asked you, "How about we go through a photo-album?"

"Woh kya hota hai?" you asked immediately.

I felt so old in that one moment...my 3-year-old was so used to seeing people click & watch pictures on their cellphones that she did not know of the existence of physical copies of photos too! I think I experienced some of the weight of 'generation gap' between you & I, a little, just then.

As we looked through the pictures, a beautiful album of a photoshoot we had with you when you were a year-old, opened up. You were mesmerised by it, instantly!

The idea of your body being littler than it is today, fascinated you to no end.

"Is that me?"

"Main itni chhoti thi?"

"Main baat bhi nahi karti thi?"

"Main roti bhi nahi thi?"

You loved the idea of yourself being a baby, one smaller than what you are now. You asked me endless questions about why, when, what & how you did things as a little baby.

Your eyes grew bigger in awe with every answer.

You started connecting with this baby in the picture in a funny way, by drawing connections between 'Then and Now'.

As I said, you were fascinated.

And with that fascination came the string of statements that always began with "Jab main chhoti thi na..."

I have started enjoying these stories you tell, in this format. And I enjoy them for a full time period of 10 minutes, every time you start with this penchant for 'When I was a little girl...", only to ask you to give it up after that!

Yes, the chanting bugs me after that, love, I am sorry...

But don't get disheartened, because the 3-year-old-you doesn't stop just because her mother asks her to!

No! You chant it louder then, by coming nearer to my ears, making sure I don't miss out on every detail of your yet another 'When I was a little girl' story...

Funny or dancing right on my nerves, you surely know how to makes days fly by, and that is something that has made staying at home seem like a memorable period, for sure.

Love,

Maa.