Where are we going now?
To Delhi
Why?
To take our flight but we'll be stopping for a while before that.
Why?
To see Ashish.
My friend Ashish?
No, Ashish Mohan.
My friend Ashish?
No, this is a big Ashish.
Big Ashish?
I mean Mister Ashish.
Mister Ashish, oh we are going to see Mister Ashish.
Where does Mister Ashish stay?
What does Mister Ashish do?
Mister Ashish is in Delhi?
Mister Ashish has a big car?
On Arrival:
Hello, Mister Ashish where is your big car?
Thus, was born 'Mister' Ashish. Dhruv passed it off as his name in the two hours we spent with him, his patient wife Ritu and his Mum at Defence Colony. Ashish happens to be my rakhi brother, our childhood neighbour from Doon, our best pal who always won all the games we played. We scaled neighbour's roofs, jumped off them, got smacked left, right and centre by our parents who witnessed the scary sights. We hadn't even heard of Spider Man or Superman then and we behaved like them. What were we thinking? We hated home work and were duly punished for the extra play time we indulged in.
It was great to look back at those times, playing stapu in the rain, with our rain coats on, cycling to the river, fishing in the stream that barely had fish. It was great to relive those days, with my children rolling their eyes in awe. The ordinary sure seemed a little extra-ordinary.
