Names and Roles

“Jarim du sa ,jarim dusa , who is that girl?” I sing teasing my almost three years old daughter. “A..aa…aa..” she snaps at me, “ I am Aunty!” Her toys lie sprawling all over the rug.
Well, what role she is playing at what time is an interesting guessing game I have picked these days. If she is seen with the kitchen stuff toys, she is either playing ‘mommy’ or ‘aunty’ and is miffed if we call her by any other names.
But on many occasion it’s very difficult to guess what she is playing. “Ta..tu,” I call out lovingly but there is no guarantee that she would respond with the same love in her tone, I have to be ready to hear lines such as, “ I’m not Tatu, I am Shizu ka or I’m chutki.” It depends on her mood and none else gets to choose who she is.
But she definitely won’t ever take terms such as ‘madam’ or “girl”,even when it has the prefix ‘beautiful’. When she asks me things I say,”lasla madamji,” and that sets her into a foul mood. “Mama, I am not a madam.”
Sometimes, she goes out of bound to get a role to play. I mean just two days ago we were sitting in the sun when she decided she is Jigsel, a boy from her elder sister’s class and her sister is Patuli, another boy in the class. I wonder what makes her play those roles. I can understand the characters from the television but real life characters, such as these boys leaves me spell bound.
While she plays these various roles, even the others in the house have to be ready to play the roles she confers upon us. When she is Shizu ka, her sister has to be Doreamon and I have to play Nobita’s Mom. When she is Chutki, her sister has to be Chota Bheem and I have to play Dholu while their papa gets to be Dholu’s partner Bholu. When she is mommy, her sister has to be either aunty or papa, while I always get to play her baby.
But when we put off the light and after she turns on the Dorea mon night lamp, I have to play mommy, always. “What does the sun say mommy?” she asks me. That’s my cue to start our nightly lullaby session which I always begin with,
“When the blazing sun is gone
When he nothing shines upon
Then you shine your little light
Twinkle twinkle all the night.”
And there are endless rhymes I sing in my hoarse sleepy voice, smiling at the two angels all set to step into their dream world with my tunes. Life is beautiful! Truly remarkable!