043 Aunty

What was the happiest period in your life?

For me, it was the past two months.

It was the summer holidays for Anu. She was always home and created multiple disasters, elder sister Priya left us, we also got a younger sister and a younger brother, we won the election, Arjun became a frequent visitor at our home and many more incidents. Elder sister Priya leaving us wasn't exactly a happy incident. But I was happy that she could finally enter the next phase of her journey.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

Schools reopened after the holidays.

Anu has the habit of wearing school uniform on the first day of school. Normally, there is no need to wear the uniform on the first day of school. But Anu was different. Every year, on the first day, she went to school in full uniform.

As usual, she was cute in the uniform and she even had a colourful umbrella. Even though the first day was only up to noon, mom packed lunch for her as she was excited to use her new lunch box. Mom and dad were happy to see her enthusiasm.

But not everyone was happy.

Doodu and I were sad.

I threw a tantrum and tried to stop her from going to school. After all, the first day wasn't that important. I hugged her leg with my four limbs and cried. Mom forcefully took me away and I scratched her face.

In the end, I got punished and Anu went to school.

Once Anu started going to school, the days became boring. I would play with Doodu for some time. Then talk to the babies and bit and then some playtime with mom. The rest of the time was for sleeping.

Once the school bus reaches our home, everything would change.

I and Doodu would jump around Anu demanding her to play with us. But there were strict rules. First, she had to give her lunch box to the kitchen. Then she had to keep her bag at her study table. Finally, change her uniform and put it in the laundry bin.

After that, she would get to play with us for a long time. If it is not raining, then Arjun would also join us.

Arjun was slowly becoming an elder brother for me. He recently started giving me piggyback rides. Then he would complain that I am getting heavy.

Once the playtime is over, Anu had to take a bath, change her clothes and have snacks and milk. In between, she would wake up the babies and talk to them a bit. The babies would simply cry and poop. In the end, mom will have to feed them and put them back to sleep. But strangely, mom never told her not to wake up the kids.

This was similar to how Anu used to give me small kisses every five minutes when I was a poopy baby. Or how she used to tickle me to wake me up. Neither mom nor dad stopped Anu from it.

Once Anu started going to school, we started getting calls from her teachers.

One day, she got the idea that if they eat their lunch early, they might get to go home early. So, she convinced her classmates to eat their lunch early. When the teacher came to teach them after the first interval, she found all the kids happily eating their lunch. She and the caretaker had to spend a bit of effort to stop the kids.

Another day, she convinced her friend that when moms eat too much potato, it causes 'gas' in their belly. Then they would let out a big fart and a baby will come out.

She also got admission to Sunday school. There also she was making trouble. But the teacher was dad's friend and she easily handled Anu.

One day, we got a call from an angry parent. Mom had to apologize to them many times to appease their anger.

"Explain." Mom turned towards Anu after the call.

"She... she told me that she was very beautiful and intelligent," Anu replied.

"So?"

"She was talking like that a lot. And... and didn't stop. So I got annoyed."

"and?"

"I told her that she is beautiful because her parents selected the most beautiful kid in the orphanage. It is not my fault. She was asking for it." Anu's voice became low towards the end. She clearly knew she had done something wrong.

So, the story is that Anu was annoyed by her friend who was boasting non-stop. So, Anu convinced her that she was adopted. She even used the argument that her parents chose the most beautiful kid in the orphanage and that's why she was so beautiful.

This girl was heartbroken and couldn't stop crying. She cried a lot even after reaching home and in the end, the girl's mom had to call mom.

Mom was angry.

"Get ready. We are going to her house to apologize." Mom got up.

"It's ok. I will apologize tomorrow in school." Anu replied.

"No. I have told you not to lie. You will tell the truth and apologize today. Also, no tv, phone or computer for one week." Mom was very serious.

I knew Anu was in trouble.

It is not the first time she was doing something naughty. But this time, there was a small difference.

She lied.

I don't know why my parents were so strict about lying. Whatever the reason was, she was grounded for one week. This wasn't a good news for me either. Because if Anu was grounded, then her only entertainment would be playing with me and Doodu.

I like playing with her. But her energy is not something we can match up to. Especially if she has nothing else to do.

Mom packed us kids and threw us in the car. The babies and I had tiny seats with seatbelts. Those tiny seats were attached to the backseat with seatbelts.

Mom took us to the new house of Aunty.

When the new babies were born, aunty was very excited. By now, you might have noticed that we don't have many relatives from dad's family. That's because dad and aunty lost their parents when they were young. They didn't get any help from their relatives either. So aunty hated all their relatives. The only person in her eyes was her brother. She even changed our family name so that we won't be related to the other relatives.

When mom gave birth to Anu, aunty was disappointed. Because a daughter cannot continue the family name. Then I was born and she was happy. Later, Prince and Priya came and she was excited. So she spent a good amount of money to buy four plots of land in the name of us four kids. She also moved to a new house that was in a village near our village. Since her husband returned, she was planning to move out of the town.

When aunty was young, she used all their inheritance to start the business. So according to her, dad is the owner of half her wealth. But dad believes that she had done more than enough for him. So he wasn't so happy about aunt buying land for us.

Anyway, we reached aunt's home, mom gave us three babies to the aunty and went to Anu's friend's house with Anu.

"Moomoo..." I demanded milk.

A few weeks ago, dad started a new habit. Every day, he spends almost an hour talking to me. He would try to teach me to count and show me pictures of animals. According to him, it was crucial in developing my skills.

A few days ago, dad showed me the photo of a cow and said "Say 'coww...'"

"Waaahhh..." I replied with random noise.

"No. Cow! It cries moo... moo.. and gives us milk." Anu corrected me.

"Moomoo" I said pointing at mom.

Mom stared at me dumbfounded. Anu and dad started laughing. I also felt a bit happy about the joke I made. But soon I regretted it.

Mom stood in front of me and glared at me.

Mom didn't like the joke.

I started sweating. Angering mom was not a good idea.

"Moomoo..." I immediately pointed at her breast.

"Milk?" Mom asked.

I nodded vigorously.

She thought I named milk as 'moomoo'. Anyway, I managed to avoid a disaster. Ever since then, moomoo became my word for milk.

Naturally, aunty also learned about it and she fed me happily.

Once I was full, I started playing with her. Her husband, Joji uncle talked a bit to me and returned to his business. Aunty told me stories of dad. She also tried to make me call her Jeena. That was the name people close to her called her. She was really like a grandma. I felt so blessed to have her.

Then I noticed something.

A strand of white hair on her head!

How can this happen?

I am just a one year old baby. I have barely started enjoying the company of my loved ones. How can they have white hair already?

I couldn't accept her hair getting white.

So I grabbed it and pulled it out. It was just one strand of silvery white hair. So it came off easily.

"Ouchh... Why are you plucking my hair?" Aunty rubbed the location of the hair with a finger.

"Wait! That's my lucky white! How dare you pluck my lucky white? I was saving it." Aunty suddenly scolded me.

I don't care whether it was your lucky white or not. You are not allowed to have white hair.

"No" I replied.

"No? Do you want to say no to me you little rat? Even your father wouldn't dare." She playfully slapped my bum.

Although it was playful, it did hurt a bit. So I bit her. That made her angry.

Soon, we started fighting.

I toppled the chairs and ran all over the house. I opened and threw away the clothes she folded. I woke up her youngest and caused a lot of trouble.

"Can you stop eating that newspaper and help me?" Aunty finally asked her husband for help.

"Huh? Umm... No. Didn't you handle his dad? How can you not handle him?" Joji uncle asked with a smile. He was clearly enjoying it.

"I could have handled him if he was just the son of my little brother. But his mother is that lady. He got some of her characteristics also." Aunty was finally ready to admit defeat.

"Still no. I made an important discovery. I found a new and easy method for finding the life expectancy of people from our district." He rejected aunty's plea for help again. He also proudly declared that he made a new discovery.

"What is it now?"

"You see, the obituary page of the newspaper has the list of the people who died in our district. It also has their age. So all I have to do is check multiple newspapers and take the average of their ages to find the latest life expectancy of our district." He was pretty proud of his idea.

I had mixed feelings about his idea. In simple words, his idea sounded stupid. But when I thought about it, it felt like it was really possible. After all, life expectancy was something like the average length a person lives.

"It's too late for regret," Aunty murmured and gave up on getting help from him.

"Just ignore him. He is playing with you. If you ignore him, he will behave. That's what his mother does." Joji uncle said without looking away from the newspaper. He had taken a pen and paper and started calculations.

He was right. I hate mom's punishments. She would ignore me when I am misbehaving and punish me by taking away my dolls for a day. I hated it. But Aunty was different. She believes making me surrender was the way to do it. I was actually enjoying it.

"I don't want to take parenting ideas from that skinny girl. I was taking care of her husband when she was pooping on bed." Although aunty was happy with mom, she still had resentment towards mom.

That's it. I won't allow anyone to bad mouth my mom.

"Where is he?" Aunty turned around and found that I was missing.

"He is hiding under the bed." Joji uncle said without looking away from the newspaper.

"Come out."

I crawled out of the bed with a triumphant smile.

"What are you smiling at? Where is your trouser?" Aunty questioned me.

"Poopoo." I replied and pointed under the bed.

"Did you poopoo?"

I nodded.

Aunty got on her knees and checked under the bed.

As I said. I pooped under the bed. That too, at the extreme corner. She will have to move the bed to clean it.

"Did he?" Joji uncle asked.

"Yes."

"That's going to be difficult to clean."

I smiled proudly. This is what you get for fighting with me.

"I give up." In the end, aunty surrendered.

She first cleaned up me and then cleaned the floor. They had to move the bed to clean it. I felt a bit guilty for making trouble for uncle.

She then sent me to play with her children. She had a son and two daughters. I played with the eldest son. By relation, he is equivalent to my eldest brother. But I really don't like him. He is the carbon copy of his dad. Lazy and does not do anything without the permission of his mom.

Soon, the babies woke up. Aunty started playing with Prince and Priya. She fed them also. I knew that these two rats were going to steal my spotlight. I have no complaints though. Because once they grow up, I will be their hero.

Mom and Anu returned after a while. Dad had also joined them.

"There was no need to apologize like this. She could have done it tomorrow in school." Aunty criticized mom.

"We had more reasons," Dad answered.

Apparently, dad was trying to dominate the PTA of all the schools in our area. The majority of the families have at least one child studying in school and PTA is the association of parents and teachers. So if dad can place members of KDF in high positions in school PTAs, then he will have another channel to reach potential voters.

In Anu's school, dad was planning to place mom as the president of the PTA. In return, he promised a children's park near school. The school will have permission to use the park however they want.

I knew about this park from my previous life. Although it was a public park, the school somewhat had complete control over the park. Except for some families living nearby the park, outsiders were not allowed in the park.

The park will be built with the MP fund of dad's boss. In simple words, he was using government funds to make a park in a government-owned land and dad was all the credit for it.

So he had been visiting parents of other families and spreading this rumour to get support for mom in the election. The school was also happy about it. Having the support of an MP was very helpful for the school.

"Did he make any trouble?" Mom asked.

"Yes. A lot. I didn't know he had this much energy." Aunty replied without holding back.

"Yea... Sometimes he goes berserk." Dad replied proudly. Neither mom nor dad apologized for the troubles caused by me.

"I thought he was like his father. But he's more like you." Aunty told mom.

"Thank you." Mom looked a bit happy to hear it from her.

But I wasn't exactly sure whether aunty was praising mom or making fun of mom.

"Give a kiss for peramma." Aunty requested me as we prepared to leave.

'Peramma' is the local term for dad's sister. In my previous life, I called her that.

I hugged her head and kissed her nose. She also covered me with kisses.

"I found a new way to calculate the life expectancy of our district. It is 84years." Uncle proudly declared. He was eager to tell someone about his idea. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a proper reason to say it during the conversation.

Aunty sighed.

"How did you find that?" Dad asked curiously.

Uncle excitedly explained how he went through four newspapers and found the average.

"But the obituaries do not include most of the infant deaths and accidental deaths." Dad pointed out an issue. The obituary page does not cover all the deaths. Especially the death of newborn babies. So the data was wrong.

Uncle froze for a few seconds. Then he took a look at the calculations he did. "I just wasted two hours of my life."

"Please find a job for him. He is driving me mad." Aunty pleaded to dad.

Dad smiled. He neither accepted nor denied her request.

We said bye to them and returned home. I was fed and bathed. So I fell asleep before reaching home.

______________

Sorry for the delay. I unexpectedly got busy. I will try to release the missing chapters as soon as possible.

One of the movies that were shot in our village finally got released. Its name is 'Kuruthi'. Unfortunately, most of the scenes are at night. So our area isn't that visible.