Cubby laughing at "Tolly! The Grapes!" as i try to feed him some warm milks after getting wet in the rains at Horsley hills! :)or not so happy endings!
I wrote about Cub's favourite books coupla posts ago. The reason we also end up buying lots of books apart from an obvious love for them is his parents' complete inability to use imagination and create new stories. M is marginally better, but couldn't bother too much. Cub also is a slave of routine and has his own favs and would not be talked into listening to something new till you beg him to.
Now my Dad can make up stories about everything under the sun! So for a few days after he left Cub made random demands about stories about an omelet or a shoe or whatever else that came to his mind! He soon realized that his parents are not as gifted as his Ajoba and settled for ghisa-pita stories that we churned out for him.
That said he is a story freak and blackmails us into telling him one or more to get anything and everything done from him. So if he is to eat his food, we need to tell him story. Ditto if we are to get his inhalation done. Needless to say the activity undertaken lasts for as long as the story does and we need extend / modify the standard stories to suit the expected duration of the said activity.
One of his favourite modified stories is the Fox and the Grapes. He was quite disappointed with the fox walking away saying "the grapes are sour" when he could not reach them after a lot of effort. He said Nahhii much in filmi fashion and I had to change it quickly so that we indeed reached a happy ending, moral be damned! :p
So in our version the Fox firstly does a happy dance when he finds an entire garden of grapes. It has green, red and black varieties. He tries jumping and reaching the said grapes with no luck. But fox being a clever animal, goes home and gets a stool. He still cannot reach the grapes. So he realizes he needs something taller and rushes home to get a ladder and still falls a wee bit short. Now he is very disappointed and worried. Suddenly he has an idea!
He rushes from the garden and huffing and puffing reaches his friend's house. Tolly - the giraffe! (Name flicked from Toot). He is breathless and says "Tolly! Tolly! The Grapes!" Tolly a l'il confused says "I am NOT Tolly the grapes. I am Tolly the Giraffe!". (This part brings a whole lot of chuckles from the child). The same is repeated when the Fox says "Tolly! The garden!"
Soon enough the fox is able to catch his breath and manages to tell Tolly how he has found a garden full of grapes, how he cannot reach the grapes and if he will help him pluck them. Tolly readily agrees. Fox is now thrilled and happily point to grapes he wants which Tolly obligingly plucks and gives him.
When he has had enough he tells Tolly also try some. Tolly makes a face and says "main grapes vapes nahi khaaata. I eat only leaves and grass!" The fox tells him there is no harm in trying it once and he can always refuse next time if he does not like them. Tolly agrees and takes a few and quite likes them.
They both then take some for their families also and happily run home.
story khatam! :D
Then there is the Hungry Crow and the Thirsty Crow, in both of which the crow goes to least 10 homes including our own, friends' and relatives' asking for either chapati or water (depending on whether he is the bhooka or pyaasa Kauaa). If he is asking for Chapati, all the folks give him something to drink. The kauaa then slaps his forehead with his wing and says "Arre! I am the hungry crow, not the thirsty crow! I want something to eat!" Of course it goes vice versa when it comes to the Thirsty Crow and he gets offered something to eat in all the homes! :p
I heard M extend the Monkey and the Crocodile story yesterday and I am sure there are more modifications in store for us!
:)
