Pari - Musical Role Reversal

Pari, my daughter, is almost 20 months old now. Though she occasionally utters words like Papa (sometimes when prompted to speak – she doesn’t yet address me as “Papa”), Mamma, Mum-Mum (for water), she has not gone beyond that and some other gibberish which is a dialect privy to her alone. Needless to say, we are anxious to hear her start to speak words and sentences cutely. And it’s a seemingly long wait….

These days, one of her favorite pass times is listening to songs and dancing. She dances by lifting her shoulders up and down, twisting her hands or jiggling her waist. It’s a funny sight to watch. She likes all new Hindi songs on TV and starts gyrating when one of her favorite numbers is playing. These days, she just cant seem to get enough of the song, “Pappu cant dance saala”. At some parts of the song, when the choir goes, "Hey Hey Hey Hey", Pari also joins in saying "Hey Hey Hey Hey" with the same rhythm and a lot of enthusiasm. So much for music sense!! Whenever I am singing the song for her and I pause at the right time, she fills in with the four Hey's with applaudable energy. At times, we would play Duflee (Indian percussion instrument) and sing songs, she would start dancing the way I have described above. If we ever pause for breath, she would cry (artificially) till we start singing again. When we do start singing again, she would stop crying and start dancing immediately. This rapid change of mood she displays always makes us laugh uncontrollably.

Two days ago, I tried a variation in this routine and it had an extremely comic outcome which I am now blogging about.. Pari was playing the Dufflee which was emanating sounds like "Chann Chann". All of a sudden, I started imitating her dancing style. If she paused, I would start to cry artificially like she did. She immediately resumed banging the percussion instrument and I started dancing like a carefree child. She surely must be wondering, "Whats happened to my dad, he is acting like I should!?" Now she is absolutely loving this change of routine. When I am playing with her and say her name "Pari" in a wailing voice (like I am about to cry) she would just get down on the floor and start beating it with her two hands if she doesn't see the dufflee lying around. And, as if on cue, I would start dancing again..!! She would have that great smile on her face and would let out little chuckles when she sees me do this...This is the smile I love to see. I am willing to act like a clown, jump around like a frog and make silly faces all day to see her smile, my biggest stress reliever. It's doesn't make much difference to me if the world feels that I have lost it temporarily.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this…and I hope Pari likes it too when she is old enough to read and understand this blog.

More soon....

VJ