AMUSING GRACE

My little girl always amuses me. Maybe all little girls amuse their mothers or rather maybe all mothers are amused by their little girls.

When she was a tiny tot, her school used to provide her lunch, so every day I used to ask her what she ate in class. Not knowing the names of the various dishes she used to describe them to me. Today we had a green coloured soup and some pieces of bread with some butter on it...today we had rice with a yellow coloured soup with a ball floating in it. Of course I had an Idea about the menu but I just loved to listen to her fantastic descriptions. The cutest one she came up with was: today we ate rice with this dal (lentil) which had lips like these and she puckered her lips.

Then she reached that stage when she wanted to know everything. So from morning to evening, it was quiz time. I always gave her an answer to all her questions, no matter what. One day she led the neighbours daughter (who is older than her) to me and said, "Amma (mom) she has a problem, can you help her, she cannot find some answers for her homework, and I've told her my mother knows everything."

Then there was this other time when she was having a conversation with a close friend of mine and she proudly announced: "My mother is a very good cooker." That was long ago, but my friend never let me forget that. Till date she calls me 'cooker'.

Just the other day she was lying beside me while I read a book, she fingered my face and said Amma, there is this strange design on your face. What does it look like honey, I asked? She said, "It looks like cream that forms on top of my glass of milk before I drink it." I smiled and told her that these designs were called wrinkles and they were for keeps.