Yeh toh bata, tera naam hain kya.

               Yuhaan Mhadesh Vanchanchan or sometimes Van-chavan-chavan. Shakespeare would have been so proud of you. You firmly do believe in 'What's in a name'. But, this is not for all names. You can pronounce Pooja, Shubha Aatu, Piya (Priya), Sannah, but have problems with your own, mine and Chhappa's name. More than Shakespeare saying 'What's in a name', 'Haanta' (hansa) saying 'What's your name' a 100 times is very irritating.

             What a sea change last 3 months has brought in your speech abilities. From absolutely nothing to some gibberish to some sporadic words here and there, your speech was mostly about screaming to the top of your voice. But, nowadays you sound like a 5th standard english medium marathi balbharti book. It had sentences like 'kamal, paani aan', 'chagan, khau kha'. Yours are no different. 2 worders like 'dadda utthu', 'kkkhhali buss', 'ubha matti'to more complex 3 worders like 'aai aat ye', 'mau paa de', 'aai AB laav'. Ofcourse there are times when you speak the old gibberish with yourself, but you are not far from adding grammar to your sentences. While going out, u always want to go to either 'D-maalt' or 'Jen-Daaldan' on our 'Bhrmm-Bhrmm'. When hungry your demands are restricted to 'Pav-bhaji', 'Pijja', 'Momo' 'Bhaat', 'Laassi'. Relations are your strong point. Aai, Dadda, Mau, Aaba, Aaji, Aajoba, Aatu, Taya, Di, Tai, Dada, everyone is called perfectly. Even the occassional Dudu Kaka, Kava kaka, Kabu find the right mention. Bhrmm-Bhrmm (scooter), Pum-pum (Car), Babbag (Truck/Tempo), Tlain, Buss seem to be your favourite vehicles. Accent in your 'Rs' and 'Ls' make Apple and Ball sound like exotic words. You can make us keep our mobiles aside by saying 'dadda, phone bupp' and shut down our singing by saying 'aai, tond bupp' You have started saying 'yes papa' and ' no papa' in response to 'Johny Johny'. You know your Humpty Dumpty as well and have started singing 'Dum Dum Diya Diya, Mausam Biya Biya with the most adorable Allah ever heard.

              If your speaking abilities are in the 2nd gear, your other activities are in the 4th. Your sleeping patterns have drastically changed since last month. You sleep till 9, then at around 3.30 -6.00 in the afternoon and then are wide awake even beyond 12 in the night. Your hunger has reduced a bit, ,maybe due to drinking lots of water due to the heat outside. But, you are not yet a complete nuisance regarding food although can be a headache sometimes. You do not wake up in the middle of the night anymore for milk and have completely forgotten bottles. 'cuppat dudu with bikki' is what you like now instead of 'batlit dudu'. We have a hard time from stopping Aaba from giving you 'gems' or 'amul cool', but he does find ways to spoil you somehow. 

              You are rediscovering your old toys, but have special liking to some cars and all ABCD games. Even on Youtube, to your Aai's dislike, you have forgotten Jingle Toons song and choose ABCD, Phonics, 1234 songs, besides watching your favourite 'Dhutt-Train'. (Last few weeks you have taken a special liking to Jhanvi Kapoor's song 'Nadiyon paar'). Your performance on '5 liitle monkeys' brings a smile to our faces and the way you and your aai sing the last part of 'nakavarchya ragala aushad kay' is a treat to watch. You know all the alphabets and numbers from 1to 20 (ononon is what you call 11). You can recognize all colours and many shapes. At home, your games are 'Ubba Matti, Pathi Udya, Brave boy, Ek paay-don paay'. You always want to go outside, be it at Aaba's place or Aatu's. The long walk at IC road where you now have started running is keeping your aai at tenterhooks. The garden though is your favourite. The swing, seesaw, duck come second best to the slide. It is difficult to take you off it. 

              Corona's 2nd wave is here and cases are increasing again. Butti kaka, Tungare aaji, Pradnya aatu and nimit kaka and many others have tested positive. Taya is in our building nowadays for her studies and has her meals with us and you do not let her go back. There are talks about lockdown or atleast more restrictions. I hope it gets over soon. I want you to join a playgroup from June. It is heart wrenching to see you knocking on the bedroom door when aai is taking a lecture inside. (You now can turn doorknobs with ease). I will love to drop you, your bag and your water bottle to school everyday on our Bhrmm-Bhrmm. When i will sit behind you on your bike, it will remind me of these days when you stand in front of me on my scooter counting the bus and trains, watching the kabus and 'MOOON'.

As you grow to a boy learning languages in school and a man impressing people with your articulate speech, i will be still see in you the little 'Haan' saying the most endearing version of 'Nay Nay No No' and 'Solly'.

 

He was a jolly good fellow

            Weird, Sceptic, Critic, Inquisitive, No-nonsense, Called spade a spade, To your face,  Dutiful, Tarak-mehta fan, liked being alone, maintaned relations but not too involved, very few friends, loved aai, adored you. Seems a lot like I am talking about myself. But, I am talking about a person who was like a Sun amongst Kelekars. He stood alone, but shone the brightest. The heat was unbearable for some and gave warmth to some others. He was my favourite Kelekar. I called him Kaks, your aai called him Kaka, Bhai to Mah-aaji and aajoba, and Bhai-aajoba to your Kelekar cousins. Unfortunately, you were not able to call him with the word i wanted you to address him with - KAKOJA.

           I dont exactly remember our first interaction, but I took an immediate liking to him because he was 'not fake'. He was a bit weird like his brother having similar traits - discipline, OCD habits, clock-watcher, train-travels, stubborn to a fault. He was special to me as his residence in Dahisar was the first thing that brought your Aai and me closer during our initial pre-marriage chat. And he became more special when his unfortunate illness landed him in the hospital and by this time u must have realized that once a close one lands up in hospital, i suddenly lose my clarke kent look and fly away in a red cape. Aai fell in love with that and the rest is history. (There is a shev puri story here, but u need to ask your aai about it)

         Kaka stayed in Gomant nagar, dahisar west. That made him a regular co-passenger in our car during our return journey from Vagdevi. Being close to our home, he occasionally visited us. Before your birth, it was to learn about operating a smartphone and later, he came to watch you play. Smartphone was his life. He had hundreds of questions and aai had the patience to answer all of them. Watching Tipre or Tarak (only for 30 minutes), listening to songs (only 10 at a time) and playing carrom. Doing these 3 things on his phone made him love his phone. But the marketing calls, the marketing and bank sms, notifications and lot of forwards on whattsapp pissed him off.

          He had a special relation with aai. People called your aai his 'poski'. Teaching her, pinching her (janghol), guiding her to topping school exams, giving her extra pocket money, calling her on exact time on fixed time like clockwork when she was in Milwaukee. She was the link between him and other Kelekars. She understood him better than others and he respected her word more than others'. He had broken his rules for her and attended an evening party at our house. Just for her sake, he came all the way to China gate where we celebrated his 75th birthday. And just for his Poski, he visited you in the hospital when you were born, which he had done for no other grandchildren of his.

           He had a special relationship with you as well. From staying at a distance initially, to coming closer and then to holding you took a long time. But, then as you two became comfortable with each other, he played with you for hours. He was always on the watch, lest you fall from the sofa, sometimes irking Aai. You were quite fond of him too and the last 5 months of togethernesss made the bond much stronger.

           The last 5 months..... Covid lockdown was announced by the government with strict regulations and i decided that kaka should not stay alone. I discussed with aai. She talked with him and in the next hour, i was at his doorstep to bring him to our place. I never had thought the ride on my scooter with him and his bag will end up in another ride in an ambulance in next few months. His home was his soulmate for last few decades and he must have left it hoping it to be a matter of a few days or weeks. Those downtrodden walls never saw him back. 

         After a little hesitance initially, he tried to blend in, became a part of our daily routine. He was there awake to say you good morning when you woke up and made it a point to say good night when aai took you to your bed. He played various games with you with the ball and toys.He cared for you, rather was quite afraid that you will fall from the edge of the sofa. He was of immense help to aai to look after you, since rohini mavshi was not coming during the covid times. He had started humming your jingle toons songs and the song 'shubham karoti' will always bring back his memories. You may never recollect the old, thin, toothless image of your Kakoja wearing that blue lungi and white sadra, but trust me, wherever he is, he will never forget those little hands and little legs which gave him joy of a lifetime in just 5 months. 

         For your aai, it was a devastating loss, taking a toll on her physical and emotional health. Crying did not stop for days together and still happens occasionally. (Every chance she cried when she read this blog for the first time). She blamed herself for his death. Every small thing reminded her of him. Things went from bad to worse and she had to take the help of a psychologist. 

         You know i dont cry when someone dies. Bringing kaka to our place was my decision. I never treated him like a guest. Those 5 months, he was like a father to me. I took care of his breakfast, his lunch, his evening snack and his dinner. His medicines, his biscuits, his chocolates, his occasional craving for sweets. We had even booked a ground floor flat on rent for him to shift close to us forever. I did everything i could to keep him happy..... till i became the carrier of his death.

         5 months he was locked in our house with us. It was his first experience of a family, a belonging, affection in decades. He never complained, He never gave us any trouble. He was emotionally strong till his brother-in-law's death took a toll on his health. But, he recuperated from it and was coming back to normalcy. And then covid struck us. I wish i had not got him tested. I wish i had not admitted him in the hospital. I wish i had done something to save from the torture of those IV, injections, medicines and ventilators. I wish i was there by his bedside when he was going through all this. I wish a man who led a lonely life, did not die a lonely death.

             I wish i had not brought him home on my scooter that day.