Cucu

My blog on small beautiful things would be incomplete without a mention of the small beautiful angel who took away my heart when I was on a longish teaching assignment in Jordan, away from my family for the first time. Cucu, the little one in discussion, was my managers daughter, a little moppet, 2 years and 6 months old. I recall vivdly my first meeting with her, it was early in the morning,Cucu was disturbed out of bed with the commotion of my arrival, she stood at the door holding her mother's hand, her face, a cute little question mark. She had ample reasons to dislike me, I was to occupy her room, later Jaya, her mother told me she had to be cajouled into giving me the room that housed all her precious toys. I was intruding into the privacy of the little girls territory which she closely guarded.
It didnot take me more than a day to break ice with her, and within the next few days we were thick as thieves. From then on, life with Cucu was a series of memorable events that I hold very close to my heart. She would come with me to the office for the day with the maid, and during my class hours would get all restless constantly asking "when Jayanti free?". Once she heard the students at the corridor she would know her time of waiting was over, her peculiar endearmeant would be to hold my face within her palms, bring her face very close to mine and say softly"jayanti had a little lamb"... The expression on her face when she needed support when her parents scolded her is etched in my heart...soulfully she would look at me, wondering why I was not picking her up and taking her to my room!
My return to India was going to pain her, and what was amazing was that she could sense it and became more and more possessive about me, even when I went into the washroom she would hover around waiting for me to come out. I left her stealthily, like a thief, in the middle of the night when she was fast asleep, dreading to even think of how much I would miss her.
Often I sit and wonder, and feel like Tagore's Cabuliwala, who still imagines her to be the little moppet, not realizing that years have rolled by and she is no more the little girl I left behind who sang, "jayanti had a little lamb....".