On Mumbai Street (Published)

Chapter 2

The earth was unusually going up and down and I was going up and down with it too.

I woke up with a start and found three kids jumping on my bed all around me.

"Trish didi woke up!" they all shrieked and clapped as if I had just done a wonderful job that required immense talent and strength.

What a great start to the day!

Note the sarcasm, people.

"Trisha didi, let's play Barbie," the eldest one said, holding up her hand to show me a Barbie whose one cheek was punched in and had a leg missing.

Yes, that was one of my Barbies when I was about their age and I am pretty sure that they had removed it from the storeroom and injured the poor thing. The kids were my first cousins who lived in Mumbai too. Tanay and Tanya were the children of my mom's younger brother, aged two and five and then there was Aparna, aged four, the only child of my dad's younger sister.

They were really cute and all and they think I am about their age too, but just a bit too gigantic. They follow me everywhere around the house whenever they visit and I have to explain to them everything I do and they have to go through all my drawers and play dress-up with my clothes and attempt to tear all my books and try to annoy me in the best way possible. That's it.

Were they annoying?

No, they were not annoying at all! Who said they were annoying? They were too cute to be annoying!

"So didi let's play!" all of them screamed again, continuing their jumps on my bed.

I could hear chatter and laughter coming from the living room. The adults! The sly adults who brought their kids and sent them away to my room saying-"Go kids, play with didi," (who was apparently sleeping but apparently no one cares). I wondered when they came home. I hadn't heard a thing, but honestly, even if there was a real earthquake and my entire building falls down, they will find me buried under all that debris and I would be asleep. Yeah, I am an amazing world-class sleeper.

I peeped into Rohit's room (that's my brother, in case I forgot to mention) which was adjacent to mine. He is two years elder to me but judging by his mental status, I think he is a toddler or even younger than that. It was empty, as I thought it would be as he always vanishes whenever some relative comes home.

"Let me brush my teeth first," I said grumpily trying to get up from the bed. But the kids kept jumping.

Finally, I struggled myself out and they all stopped jumping.

Thank you.

As I was reaching out for my towel that was lazily draped over my balcony's wall, Aparna reached there faster and came running towards me with the towel.

Oh! How sweet of her, I thought.

But instead of giving it to me, she wrapped it around herself like it was a sari and started to parade around in my room.

"Aparna, give it back to me!" I screamed running after her.

She was running faster than me all around the room while the other kids cheered her on. She climbed on my study desk and stomped on all my books. She climbed on my dressing table and kicked away all my stuff before running into the living room.

"Aparna," I screamed, one last time but I could already hear the adults asking her what happened. The kids ran after her and I sat on my bed, exhausted, looking at my room which was now a total mess.

***

"Mom, please!" I whined as I watched my mother pack the sarees, we were supposed to give the boy's family.