Bubli is one of the kids in my street in Pushkar. I love her because of her ability to hold a conversation with an adult. She is like most Indian children, quite confident in her ability to express herself which is encouraged by the local adults. I bribe the local kids shamelessly, Bubli is only one of my gang of junior girlfriends in the street. They have taken to calling me Rosie Miss, a name i was given by another of the Girlfriend Gang, Sanu.
Today Bubli arrived at the gate at lunchtime looking to see if Rosie Miss had any spare toffee ( I told you, I am shameless; in my journey to the Heart of India, there are no holds barred!) Instead I gave her puri and kicheree. She gobbled it up after telling me that it wasn’t proper kicheree because I had added Vegetables.
She is quite happy to chat to me in my appalling Hindi and correct my pronunciation and grammer, anyway I just add all the verbal encouragers to let her freestyle conversation develop. Talking about a cat who has become a nuisance, here is her conversational stream of today.
“If the cat is bad it has to be taken out, nothing is really good or bad because God made everything. But if you are naughty then its not good. So you have to go Out.”
“Did God also make you Bubli?”
“Yes, God made hair and teeth and ears and eyes and skin and me. God made everything in my body.”
“If you eat too many toffee then God might take your teeth back,” I suggest to her.
She thinks about that for a minute and agrees but adds;
“God wont come and get the teeth, you have to go to Ajmer and a dentist man takes them out for God.”