By Golly!

The term 'Golly', is usually an expression. To my family, it is also, the name of my three and a half year old neighbour; who was originally christened Gauri.

A more amusing kid, I have not seen. Unable to pronounce her 'r's yet, she proudly named herself Golly. Understandable. But then, she also named my sister Pikala (Originally, Malika) and named me 'Choti Bori' (!). We attribute 'pikala' to mixed up sounds in the kid-brain; but not 'Choti Bori'. No. That has a proper explanation. Follows:
In winter, Gauri used to wear several sweaters. This attire caused her to closely resemble a little sack. So, everytime I saw her, I said 'Hello, Choti Bori!'. I think she replaced the comma in my greeting with a full-stop and assumed that I was obviously introducing myself over again; and Choti Bori was how i wanted to be addressed. And Choti Bori I came to be called.

Till date, her entire family calls me that. Regardless of the fact that the subject of my post can say my original name perfectly well. Some things just remain. Such, I guess, is life. :D

At one point in time, anything that moved on four limbs was 'cow'. Pronounced 'khowww'. So all cars, buses, dogs, cats and any other four-legged/tyre creature came under the category of 'cow'. If one fell about on hands and knees looking for some fallen article, Gauri would rush to the person, stare him/her in the face and inform him/her of the recently acquired 'cow' status.

I am going to refrain from writing of her adventures at school, for fear of being sacked (I'm supposed to be working). There is one thing, however, that I simply cannot omit. After the recently concluded Filmfare awards, she went and told her mother that she wants to wear the kind of dress that Deepika Padukone wore to the Awards. Being extremely particular that the neck and shoulders must be bare and that she has no use for straps.

All I can say is - Golly!