A third slice of life

Close Shave:

At a Christian Youth camp, my group was led by a young lady who was friendly, pious and prayerful.

On day 2, she was just finishing up some inspirational story from the Bible, (I don't have the vaguest idea what it was about, all I remember is what followed. Wicked me!). She paused, gazed at each one of us to see how much of her teachings had been sown in our hearts.

"Now, if you have any questions, you can ask me." She said earnestly.

"Neenga shave pannuvingalo? (Which translates to "Do you shave?") asked one girl from my group.

Stunned silence ensued.

"I wax".

(Then in an undertone: "Ennatha kaeka sonna ennatha kaekura paaru." (the closest translation comes to : What I expected them to ask, and look at what she asks)

That she had uttered anything out of the ordinary didn't occur to the questioner. She seemed satisfied with the answer given.

Predictably, I was beyond hope of recovery. I was thankful for the long prayer that followed.

The fight for Liana's tooth:

Liana's baby teeth seem to be in a hurry to give way to new ones. When the first one came off, she asked if tooth fairy was real. She was hanging on my word. Even after more than 6 years, we are still undecided whether to encourage the kids with ideas of Santa, magic and the like. So I said, "I am not sure. Why don't you get it nice and ready and keep your teeth under your pillow tonight?"

At night we took away the tooth and placed a baby fork and spoon instead.

(Tooth Fairy drawn by Liana)

Liana woke up early next morning and sat up. She kept looking straight ahead for sometime, as if trying to decide something. Then she took courage and cautiously peeped under her pillow. Then she grinned wide. "So the tooth fairy is for real..." she exclaimed excitedly. "I am going to keep this safe forever."

Two more teeth went to the tooth fairy.

I was running out of trinkets. But with the 4th Liana started crying and saying she didn't want to part with her tooth. She cried defiantly, "I don't want to give this tooth to the tooth fairy. It's mine." I tried convincing her that the poor tooth fairy wasn't a thief who stole teeth by night.

When the 5th tooth fell, Liana was toying with it, with a shrewd expression on her 6 year old face. When I asked her, she said sounding preteeny, "Why should I give this to the tooth fairy? I'll get only one present anyway... I get lots more for my birthdays and Christmas. Hmph!"

I was glad Tooth fairy wasn't real. She was saved much embarrassment.

Face Saver:

I was wondering why we were being directed to the men's section for Liana's haircut. Apparently, only the men were trained in hairstyling little girls. 

The staff assured me there was only one gentleman in the gents section. And he also had his daughter with him. So I agreed. The 'gentleman' turned out to be a man, 'temporarily blinded' with some Green paste. It was applied with finesse, covering even to his eyelids. He seemed content, and blissfully ignorant of my presence. 

A small voice broke the silence. "Poo" it said, and Pandemonium struck.

The father sat up, as if lightning had struck him. But he couldn't open his eyes for all the money in the world. 

The staff started running around with no clue as to why. Instinct told them they 'had' to run.

(Our expression candidly captured)

"Papa is here, papa is here" said the poor father with a deep chord of panic in his voice. The little one was running around holding her bottom.

One lady staff was noosed and brought to help clean up the child. She clearly resented her gender at that moment. But the child refused to go to her and she was saved.

To escape from everyone, the child sprang on to her father's lap - to her safe haven. A minute later, there was silence. She had fallen fast asleep.

No one dared to break the silence.