Her face is like potty

I didn’t know what to do? OMG, Pitthu, my poor sister, is getting the yelling of her life. It’s a scene that is a nightmare for a small five year old child like me. Bua is standing in a corner, howling. Why does she make such ugly faces, when she howls? She wrinkles up her nose and purses her lips and her chin looks like it’s going to turn to jelly.

Another wail from bua and I came out of my reverie. I looked at Pitthu, my God I knew the look on her face. I was going to be dead, once this mayhem was over… Dadi (my grandmom) was yelling, papa was looking daggers at Pitthu and mom looked ashamed. Poor- poor Pitthu…

You must be wondering what’s all this about.

So here’s the story of Pitthu’s plight, actually what had happened was- my sister Pitthu and I had a fight, like a big- big fight. She pulled my hair in anger and I kicked her and we fought like the angry cats fighting for a piece of roti. Anyway, papa came and separated us and told us not to talk to each other. When I didn’t hear from Pitthu for over an hour, I went into peep to check what she was up to.

I peeped into all the rooms and found her in bua’s room. She was standing in front of bua’s open cupboard and trying bua’s heels. Pitthu was looking so stupid, her eight year old feet was no match for bua’s big burly white sandals. I giggled and Pitthu turned and saw me. She came charging after me and I ran to save my skin. I kept on yelling at her, “Leave me alone or I’ll tell bua.” But Pitthu wouldn’t listen to me, so I ran into the verandah, where I knew everyone would be sitting.

“Don’t hit me, I’ll tell bua”. Unfortunately for Pitthu, bua heard me. And that’s when the whole thing began…

Bua asked me, “What’s it Bittu, what has Pitthu done?” I started telling her and I heard Pitthu’s pleading voice, “No Bittu!” Now, how much ever I hate my sister, I cannot have her looking so frightened. But then it was too late, all eyes were on me and bua was asking me firmly, “Come on, out with it, what has Pitthu done?”

And you know, I didn’t know what to do? Coz now I had to tell bua that Pitthu had worn her heels and I knew Pitthu would be badly scolded. I could hear papa snarling at me, I could hear dadi snorting angrily and the only sound that mattered to me was my Jiji’s (Pitthu, she’s my elder sister na…) sobbing. So, I thought I will have to tell something, let me tell them something smaller, coz wearing bua’s heels was blasphemy. Bua was so- so possessive about her things, especially her gargantuan heels. So, I did some quick thinking and came out with the lesser evil, I said, “Pitthu said that bua’s face is like potty.”

It turned out that it was not the lesser evil, it was actually something grand…

You can’t even imagine the wail that came out of bua’s mouth? It went like, “Bhainnnnnn bhainnnn…” and just went on and on…

And that’s when I realized that I’d said something outrageously wrong. Mom looked at me as if she’d kill me. But then the deed was done and Pitthu had to listen to a tirade of what a naughty little girl she was and mom had to listen to how she was not raising the kids properly and how now we should not be allowed to play so much and how a tuition teacher should be employed to teach us manners.

When it was all over and mom was done with giving her piece of mind to me, I wondered, I’ve seen my potty, it comes out in interesting designs, why did bua go all hyper about looking like potty,

“How could having a face like potty be such a bad thing?”

Well, grown- ups, ughhhh…