Talk softly

Hi Aaliyah,

Once again, after a long time I got the chance to sit down alone while you are busy playing with your cousin gowri in the other room. You love it when someone visits. You just get attached instantly and you dont like them leaving at all. Infact I am very very worried how you are going to handle it when Gowri leaves.

About a year back, Cheeku (my sister vidya) came for your last year graduation party and was there for a couple of days. This was the phase when you were picking up a lot of conversational skills and every time you wanted to say something you would shout out so loudly or sometimes throw a tantrum too. Everytime you did that I used to tell you 'talk softly' and you would lower your voice by half,sometimes it would still be loud and I would say, 'more softly' and your voice would turn into a soft and polite tone and then I used to honor your request. So your understanding was that everytime you lowered your voice your request would be met.

When cheeku was about to leave, we tried to tell you how its important for her to return to Mumbai and she would come back soon and you just did not want to understand it at all. You kept distracting us with something else, probably thinking that we will forget about cheeku leaving.

As we reached the airport, you were inconsolable, we had to peel you off Cheeku as she left heavy heartedly. As we forced you back into the car you kept screaming,banging on the glass,'Cheeku, come back, come back, dont go,come back'. You went on and on and we became quiet. It was very very sad and I too felt so bad for you. Suddenly, you spoke softly between sobs,'Cheeku,Please come back' and then you paused and spoke even more softly sobbing more,'Cheeku please come back,dont go'. I then realised what you were doing. You thought that maybe by talking softly she would get the point and return to you.

That made tears flow down my eyes too as I too started to miss cheeku and seeing you so sad made it all the more difficult. You were fine in a couple of days but, it left a lasting impression in my mind of how you thought you could turn around the situation.

Cheeku means the world to me and so do you. To see you both bonding just made my heart go gooey :)