Nights and Nursery rhymes

It’s night time. The Doreamon lamp lends its faint light while we prepare for our ‘honing the singer in me’ session, I call it. My li’l one starts, “mama, what does the sun say?” I wonder why she doesn’t like the beginning part of this nursery rhyme. So I’ve to begin from “when the blazing sun is gone…” and then only come to ‘Twinkle Twinkle li’l star.”
As soon as I finish that, my li’l one looks at me with her eyes squinting in the dark. That’s my cue to begin the next one which is always “hush li’l baby, please go to sleep…” But before I can continue further, I am interrupted, “tatu ban na,” or if she is in the Shizu ka mood, she would say,”shizuka ban na.” So I have to repeat from the beginning to alter the address from ’baby’ to either ‘tatu’ or ‘shikuza’. So I go, “hush li’l tatu/ shizuka please go to bed…”
“Arko,” she nudges at my chest. Its “On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed,” I have to wait for my li’l one to actually sneeze, Achooo. Then she giggles in the dark. I complete that with the meatballs growing on the trees. Some children songs can be really silly, I tell you.
“Row, row row your boat…” Both of them wait for the new addition part at the end. “If you see an alligator, don’t forget to scream.” Both of them join me with a shrill “a..aa…aaa” and the three of us giggle like three teenagers. So much for an aged mother and two tiny girls trying to lull themselves to sleep.
“Doctor Foster went to Gloster in a shower of rain,” I sing. Before I can end that line, my elder daughter adds, ‘splash!splash! splash!’ There is another bout of giggling in the dark.
More rain songs motivate me and the next in line is, “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring. Went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning.” “Mama, why does he bump his head?” my lil one asks with concern in her voice. I drag her closer to my bosom and kiss her lips and continue,’ rain rain go away, come again some other day…”
“The ennsy weensy spider went up the water spout…” I know sleep is still a faraway dream so I walk my fingers shaped like a spider on their arms and make it slide with,”..down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the eensy weensy spider went up the spout again.” Again my fingers travel up their arms while they wriggle in glee.
“Oh when the saints go marching in…” My li’l one loves the second line better so I quickly finish off the first line and jump to, ”oh when the band begins to play….”
“arko,arko,arko,” she pouts like a spoilt brat. I pretend to be fast asleep ‘cause all these singing makes me drowsy. “owww mama,” both of them nags at the same time, pulling my arms from each side and tickling me. Well, what option do you have when you are outnumbered?
“Jack and Jill went up the hill… and don’t you dare ask me why jack fell down,” I warn my li’l one before she can open her mouth to ask me the same. Mothers need to have patience like the most elastic rubber, for the kids can stretch you off limits at times.
“Sing that song about the bird taking the nose,” it’s more of an order than a request. I start grudgingly, “sing a song of six pence, a pocket full of rye…” I almost look at them with angry glare for making me a singer for so long into the night. Sometimes I wonder, “What would somebody listening outside our window think of all these crazy singings?” Not that anybody would be there outside the window, listening, but suppose there is somebody listening?
“Wee willie winke, runs through the town,” is next. The song should end with,” …are the children all in bed its past 11 O’ clock, instead of 8 O’ clock.” I look at the wall clock ticking with a vengeance against the wrong timing I’m singing about.
Knowing they simply adore my singing (that’s a lie!) I clutch one tightly in my arms and pull the other with my other hand and sing the last song,” Hush a bye baby, on the tree top, when the wind blows…” I add if you don’t sleep you are gonna fall off the bed just like this baby. That silences them. I repeat the refrain,”…and down will come baby, cradle and all.” Softly, softly , repeating it in whispers until Their eyes close. I see them closing their eyes like a magic with this refrain. I am left with my eyes wide open watching the two princesses already lost in the dream world while I lay awake feeling a faint flicker of admiration at my own mirror images lying on the either sides.