Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sleep baby sleep .



" .... and the fox ran away .", father puts a full stop to the story he made out of nothing .But the kid pulls his hand and demands him to tell what happened to the wise rabbit who taught the fox a lesson. "The rabbit went to his burrow" .Kid raises her head from bed and asks "if the fox returns....if there is another fox " , "No baby , the rabbit reached home safe.Now you sleep" father pats her back and the kid sleeps with her l'il right leg resting on father .
Next day she demands a song .Father sings the only few lines he ever know , night after night whenever the kid wishes.Father sings a lullaby that was written for a young prince.He explains the sights Bhima saw on his way to fetch Sougandhikam and another poem that the kid 'd learn in school after 5 years.Every time dad explains the meaning of each line and some times the kid helps him to complete a story. Kid never thought her father has a terrible sense of music.
Mother has a huge repository of stories but she rarely manages to finish her chores by kid's bedtime.Kid likes to hear the stories that the great grand mother once told to mother. "Bhishma was their grand father ..." , the kid imagined her grand father in a war field which is almost as big as their back yard .She wondered if Bhishma had taken his grand children to the rice fields to show the white cranes as her grand father does.She likes to rest her head on mother's hand and fell asleep.
She dreamed of uncle moon who had followed her all the way that evening in the sky .She had hidden herself inside the house to see if moon follows , to her wonder moon was looking for her right outside the window in the sky .She stopped peeping and shouted loudly ,"I'm here ."

Years went on , she read stories herself , told that to younger cousins and forgot many . But still father and mother stay awake to call the girl at bedtime and make sure their kid is all set to go to bed. Moon is no longer her uncle. The time machine never runs in reverse.

Pic courtesy :storytime

14 comments:

Randeep said...

Nostalgic.. A few stories from past. Thanks for make remember those.

Anonymous said...

A beautiful nostalgic sequence of childhood. It conveys well.

Bhavya.B said...

@ Randeep & Sandeep

Thank you .

mithunviswam said...

short n sweet...:)

rohini said...

haaahhahaha.....same scene goes in our family every day....

Bhavya.B said...

@ Mithun

Thank you for dropping by and commenting .

@ Rohini

:-) Hope the lucky kid sleeps tight .

Nazeeha said...

nice one dear... nw i remembr my cousin sistr.. she use to tell me bed tim stories.. but tht ws one made by herself.still i remembr it .a story wit a good moral.....

nice post .. lovd readin it

Bhavya.B said...

@ Nazeeha

Thats great .I too used to tell bedtime stories to my sis and cousin when they were kids ...usually a series of stories but I never cared to impart morals in it. 'll do that when I get a chance next time.

Prashanth said...

Indeed a nice one.. Enjoyed a lot reading it....

Bhavya.B said...

@ Prashanth

Thank you very much .

Randeep said...

@ Bhavya
Of course you can add morals to ur stories. But never listen to Nesi's stories. It will spoil you ;)

Bhavya.B said...

@Randeep
Is that what happened to you ? :-)

Backyard Bargain said...

I heard the bed time stories from my gradma and also I also do the same with my younger brother... I remember all that after reading your post... Thanks...

Bhavya.B said...

@ Backyard Bargain

Thank you :-)