Saturday, November 11, 2006

Is it a pig? Is it a pig tail? NO! It’s a Song Bird!

The first nursery rhyme that I recited on auto play was Piggy on the Railroad.

My parents apparently thought it very charming to see their little girl in two pigtails singing Piggy on the Railroad with gusto, and they rarely hesitated to include others in this happy ritual. Only thing was, once I started I wouldn’t stop.

These singing sessions would invariably start like this:

Mum: “Baby, sing a song for Auntie X”

H [deep intake of breath. gulp. Eyes shut, mouth opens, top volume]:
“Pigggy on the raaaaaailroad, piccccking up stones
Daaaaauwn came an engine…”

Clap clap clap clap clap!

Auntie X: “That’s lovely little H!”

Mum: “thank you baby. Now run along and play”

H [another deep intake of breath. gulp. Eyes shut, mouth still open, top volume]:
“Piggggggy on the rrrrrrrrrrraaailroad…”

Mum: “Ummm baby don’t you want to go play with your toys?”

Blink blink

H: “..picking up… “

Auntie X: “Look at what I’ve found in my bag! Only for little H!!!.“

H: “… stones…“

Auntie X: “Who’s going to take this chocolate from auntie?! Who’s going to pop a nice sweet chocolate in her mouth [and shut the bleeding hell up]?”

H: “…Daaaaauuuun came an engine and broke piggggggy’s bone
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa said the piggy…”

Mum [smiling purposefully]: “Baby that’s enough.”

H: “… that’s not fair!
Oooo said the engine driver…”

Mum [gently, firmly steering me back to my room]: “Baby really that’s enough. Auntie’s going to get a headache now.”

H “… I don’t care!”

After one particularly intense session of piggy getting mauled on the railroad, repeatedly, this ritual stopped. Mum didn’t seem to want me to sing for nice chocolate carrying aunties and uncles anymore.

I didn’t really think about it till a few days ago when I remembered this.



Copyright to this masterpiece belongs to little H [5yrs].

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha! What a cute drawing. You must've driven your relatives nuts with that rhyme when you were a kid. I never performed in front of mine when I was a kid!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...fodder for truth-or-dare. =)

n.g. said...

that mustve been soooooooooo long ago na.
before alcohol and the delhi metro.
muahahahhahahhahaha.

NanNan said...

That was soooooo cute, little H!!! Early grooming in the art of people pleasing------if only I had cyberchocolate to offer you, but my undying adulation and adoration must suffice------ Unlike your aunties, we blogfans are never sated!!! Thank God for relief of painful cerebral constipation--- I think it most definitely is right brain dominance---- such creativity and artistic talents at so early an age!! :) Encore, encore,

The One and Possibly Only said...

Awe, that was cute.

H said...

Lizza: Ummm. well you see in India, we call anybody older [who's our parents age or older]Aunty/ Uncle. So it wasn't just limited to relatives... hell no. grin. I'm known to be quite democratic in dispensing torture. :-)

HB: ? explain that. :-)

NG: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah baby, long before Johnny Walker, JD and ummm... even milk, in your case. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa.

NanNannnnnnnnn: what you write is cyberchocolate, power packed. Hug. Well at age five I think that's terribel isn't it? I remember thinking I'd done a brilliant job when i finished it and I went around showing it to everybody, and like you, my mum's response was super-enthusiastic... and then i showed it to my sister. WOW. She laughed and laughed and laughed and then she said "yeh kya hai?" [What the hell is this?]. Now I understand why she said that. to me then is was the best looking pig EVER!

Robert: grin... Is little Ben sulking? Tell him this one's for him. And you cheer up too.

Prometheus said...

ROFLMAO and other such acronyms that convey the mirth of Prometheus at this post. (he knows H hates LOL).

Prometheus is connected to the piggy rhyme is a different way. In his poetry book, there was picture of the small maroon boxy diesel engine used by Indian Railways for shunting goods locos. Little Prometheus identified that engine, as different from the long electric ones and the massive diesels used on the Rajdhani, as the "Broke-Piggy's-Bones engine".

H said...

Promeeeeeeeeetheus, suddenly i feel a wave of twinliness towards you!

Rather pleased about this little twist in coincidence.

No, actually this is Soo-farkin'-perb!

:-D

Ben Ditty said...

was little H called lowercase h?

wish I could see a pic of you back in the day, must have been exceptionally cute

H said...

Ah ha ha ha ha... lowercase h. that's a goood one.

the pic... ummm. who knows. someday that might come up too. grin.

zap said...

violence is a big theme in nursery rhymes eh?

H said...

yep Zap [kind of like the zippy sound of that]. violence. and death and incest and a whole lot of other gharsley things.

houseband00 said...

Welcome to beta, H! =)

H said...

ha.
yeah well i thought I'd see what the fuss was about. only thing is... can't seem to undo it. damn.

I hate change.

fossilize me somebody.

please.

houseband00 said...

You can't undo it. =P

Anjali Sinha said...

heyyy new entries lil piggy. read read. read

Ben Ditty said...

H you must post one of your enlightening, lovely blogs again