Little Snippets

Maths and Career Prospects

A regular chaotic day in the Kapoor household (no leap and separation in this story)

"Pihu, I am really sorry beta" Ram said apologetically as he held his ears looking at his daughter who was sitting across the dining table while Priya sat in the middle chair turning her head back and forth looking at the 5 year old angry child and the 44 year old child who was trying to pacify the 5 year old.

"Apki mistake ki wajah se mujhe sirf one star mila. Mere sare friends ko 2 stars aur smiley mila" Pihu cried again as tears rolled down her chubby cheeks.

Ram sighed. He was listening to the same line for the last 10 minutes and he did not know how to apologize to her anymore.

He had returned home after an extremely busy day in office with back to back meetings lined up for a new project. But when he set his foot inside the home, he found his daughter sulking and he knew it was going to be a long day before he would even reach his bedroom. And so he was summoned to the dining table for an urgent family meeting and he could understand that the culprit in question was him.

"See" Pihu forwarded her maths notebook to him. He looked at the homework sheet which he had helped her complete last night. The teacher had checked the work and out of 15 questions, one was wrong where Pihu had written 12 as answer for 6+7.

"Pihu, it's a silly mistake, ye to maine apko kal btaya tha na. It should be 13" Ram said and Pihu narrowed her eyes.

"Apne kal 12 bola tha papa. Aap galat padhate ho" Pihu cried again and Priya could not control herself and laughed looking at Ram who could not digest what his daughter had just said to him.

"Main galat nahi padhata beta, maine sahi likhwaya tha. Apne galti se 12 likh diya hoga" Ram said exasperated.

"Mumma, papa jhooth bol rahe hain"Pihu said and ran into Priya's arms who grabbed her making her sit in her lap and wiped her tear stricken face.

"Papa ne bola imagine kro unke pass 6 cupcakes hain aur Pihu ke pass 7 to total 12 hote hain." Pihu explained the whole scene to Priya.

Ram tried to remember what had exactly happened. He was simultaneously talking to Adi on the phone and they were talking about a 12 crore expense which was over and above the projected cost for their new project. Ram did a facepalm when he realized that was how 13 turned to 12 since he was constantly talking about that figure and by mistake told Pihu the same. And now his daughter was crying over a star made by her teacher in the notebook.

"Yaadashat bilkul maa par gayi hai. Kisi se galti hui nahi ki dono chad jati hain" Ram muttered under his breath and then turned towards Pihu.

"Papa se galti ho gyi, aage se main dhyan rakhunga" Ram pleaded

"No, main nahi padhungi aapse. Aap galat padhate ho" Pihu repeated again and Priya chuckled thinking how tables had turned today. When Priya was pregnant, ram had told her smugly that he was going to help their child with Maths and Science. "Tum na ye apne halke subjects padhana jaise English, social sciences. Ye maths aur science tumhare bas ka nahi hai" she recalled his exact words at that time and so they had followed the norm set by Mr Ram Kapoor. He helped Pihu complete her maths work while Priya took up other "halke" subjects which did not require using brain.

"Beta, papa apko real stars le denge. Ye notebook pe bne hue star ka kya kroge" Ram remarked which only made his daughter more angry.

"Priya...." He pleaded to his wife to help him get out of the situation.

"Its okay Pihu, papa ne bola na unse galti ho gayi. Unhone jaan bhuj kar nahi kiya"Priya tried explaining it to Pihu who just cuddled her mother.

"Wo kya hai, papa na old ho gaye hain. To unki memory weak ho gayi hai isliye unhone galti se 12 bol diya instead of 13" Priya said and Ram looked at her angrily. How could she leave a chance to mock him.