Saturday, February 13, 2021

Kiddoland

"Kittuuuu come fast else I will not take you to the play ground." 

Mohan was not in a good mood. He had lot of office work pending but Kittunni would hear none of it. 

"Acha I was a good boy in class today", Kittunni had declared the second his online class got over. "I logged in on time, I kept my mouth shut until I was asked to open it, I even didn't do shake-it-baby-shake-it with my butt to Sulochana Teacher today. Do you know how difficult that was? Promise is a promise mister. Now take me to the playground."

Mohan knew Kittunni was right. Somehow Kittunni had put on his best performance in class today. No complaints at the end of class. It was indeed a miracle. So he had no choice other than to keep his end of the promise.

"Acha one doubt". Kittunni asked, as he put on his chappal to get ready. "If you get sunlight, you get big muscles no?"

"Why do you ask Kittu?", Mohan enquired. 

"Simply. To build up my General Knowledge", Kittunni replied.

"Oh that's good. You see our body makes Vitamin D from sunlight and then..."

"Stop stop stop". Kittunni interrupted. "Answer to the point. Don't write an essay for one mark question. Will I get muscles or not, that is all I asked. Seriously how did you pass your school exams Acha?", Kittunni asked, nodding his head from left to right in apparent disgust.

"Yeah yeah you will get muscles", Mohan replied haughtily.

Kittuni points to biceps. "Here?", he asked. Mohan looked confused. "Here what?", he asked. "Will I get muscles here?", Kittuni clarified.

"Yeah ok you will get it there", Mohan replied.

"Hmm...how about here?", Kittunni points to stomach.

"Yeah there also. Can we go now?". Mohan was getting restless.

"Here also?". Kittunni points to his butt.

"What? Why do you want muscles there?", Mohan asked, eyebrows raised.

"You have any problem if I get some muscles there?", Kittunni asked with arms crossed.

"Ok Whatever. You will get it there also. Happy? Now let's go."

"Cool let's go then. We have some serious muscle building to do", Kittunni replied excitedly.

Seeing Kittunni's excitement Mohan knew they were not going to come back anytime soon. "My manager is going to cut me into pieces and feed me to the wolves", Mohan thought to himself.

Soon Kittunni and Mohan reached the playground. They could see that some kids were already playing in the ground. Among them were Kittunni's friends - Karthik and Ruhan - both of whom were couple of years older than Kittunni.

"Hi Ruhan", Mohan called out. "Hi uncle", Ruhan waved at Mohan. "Hey Ruhan I heard you had a fight with Varun yesterday. Why did you fight with him?", Mohan asked Ruhan.

"What? I didn't fight with Varun, uncle", Ruhan replied shaking his head.

"But yesterday Varun's Dad told me that Varun complained to him that you hit him", Mohan said.

"Oh he told like that?", Ruhan asked in a confused tone. For a couple of seconds he was in deep thought. Then he replied. "Hmm I think I know what happened uncle. I think yesterday he didn't love me."

"Err...he didn't what?". Mohan looked perplexed. 

"You see uncle, yesterday Varun and me were playing rock papers scissors and he lost. So after the game he was not loving me. So he lied to his Dad that I hit him."

"Hmm", Mohan replied with a smile

"Mother promise uncle, yesterday he didn't love me",  Ruhan said, feeling that Mohan didn't somehow believe him. "And today we played police and robber. He was the police and I was the robber. He ran fast and caught me. Then he started loving me again. So today he won't lie to his Dad."

Mohan's head was swirling. "Did I grow up in another planet or is this how today's kids talk? Generation gap I guess", he thought to himself.

"Hey Karthik, what did you do today", Kittunni asked, trying to get the latest update from his friend.

"I saw Avengers Endgame today Kittu", Karthik replied.

"Wow very good Karthik. Me too", Kittunni said, with a broad smile. Mohan turned and looked quizzically  at Kittunni.  "When did you see Avengers Endgame?"

"Something similar. I saw Dora the Explorer", Kittunni retorted angrily, throwing an angry stare at his father for "embarrassing" him in front of is friends.

"How in the world are they similar?", Mohan wanted to know. "Have you seen Avengers Endgame?"

"Oh yeah? How do you know they are not the similar? Have you seen Dora the explorer?", Kittunni shot back.

For some moments the father and son duo looked at each other angrily. The "audience" waited with bated breath to see who will blink first. Finally Mohan turned to face Karthik again.

"So you liked the movie Karthik?"

"Oh very wonderful movie uncle", Karthik replied.

"So what is the story of Avengers Endgame", Mohan asked. He was not sure how much a 7-year old can understand from that movie.

"Story is simple uncle. Once upon a time there were many heroes - Ironman, Spiderman, Superman."

"Superman?In Avengers?", Mohan asked in surprise.

"Yeah. But he looks little different though. I think in Avengers, Superman wears his red underwear on his face. His face is red in this movie", Karthik explained. 

Mohan's eyes widened. "Oh boy he is talking about the Vision guy", Mohan thought to himself. The story telling continued.

"Then these heroes fight and defeat Thanos. Story over."

"Really? That's the story?", Mohan asked incredulously.

"Yeah", replied Karthik confidently.

Kittuni turned to Mohan. "See I told you the story is same as Dora the Explorer",  he shouted in anger. "In Dora the Explorer there is Dora, Boots, Diego. They fight and defeat Swiper the Fox. End of story."

"You keep quiet", Mohan glared at Kittunni. He was already going crazy in this Kiddoland.

Turning to Karthik he probed furthur.

"So what is the difference between Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame."

"That's easy uncle. In Infinity war Thanos defeats Ironman, Spiderman and Superman. In Endgame Ironman, Spiderman and Superman defeats Thanos", Karthik answered

"Wow never ever can anyone explain a story as good as you folks", Mohan "complimented" Karthik. Karthik's chest puffed up in pride. And why not? After all Mohan uncle has just given him 5 stars, just like how he gets from all his teachers at school. "Thanks uncle".

Mohan turned back to Kittunni. He couldn't take this any longer.

"Enough muscle building for the day. Let's go back."