I met two new girls yesterday. They were sitting on the stairway and painting their backpacks.
One was named E and the other one was also named E, but said like Y. They were 12.
The most interesting conversation I had in months was with these two girls. It is easy to hit it off with kids. I smiled when I saw them sitting on the stoop, decorating their backpacks. Y had already done her bag and was helping E to do hers. They were writing E’s name in fancy letters, filling it in with sparkly colours. Except the bag was black and it was quite hard to see anything written on it.
I smiled as I walked past them, thinking about the time when I tried to decorate my black backpack. I used a whitener to write what I thought were rebellious, deep quotes on the bag. And drew a “peace” symbol as well for the heck of it. I was 16.
Waiting for a friend to call me, I hung around watching them till they introduced themselves. I squatted on the floor with them, trying to figure out the best way to get the glitter to stick.
“Paint glue and pour glitter on it,” I suggested and they both instantly took to the idea. Except the had only a glitter pen and the packet of glitter was in E’s sister’s room. The 14-year old sister who wouldn’t appreciate the brat stealing her precious glitter. Oh to be 12 and 14 again!!!
As we spoke, E squeezed the tube of paint to hard and it fell on her skirt.
“FFFFish!” she said. For a moment, I expected the other F word to come out of her mouth and realized it was pleasantly cute to realize that kids still used Fish. Fish is good. Fish is fun. Fish is kids.
Girls being girls… they liked my earrings and my shoes. And my phone.
“I thought of buying this phone actually, when I needed to upgrade to my third phone but then I went with something else,” E said.
I stared at her dumbfounded. My precious phone. Which cost 20 grand. That I was reluctant to part. I mean 20 fricking grand!!! And here is this 12-year old brat who casually is talking about how she wanted my phone and the features in it, better than I could’ve known. Will these kids be born with electronic chips in their heads next?
They spoke about Halloween and weekend plans. E’s parents were taking her away for the weekend for a trekking thing. Y was annoyed. “I hate you and I hate your parents, no offence,” she said.
Of course, E was a city girl and hated trekking and the mosquitos and all that. Having just returned from an awesome trek myself, Y and me bonded. And E was curious enough to give it a real shot this time. Glad to have helped, aunty.
They even knew about my college. “That is the coolest college ever!” they both said, adding that they had cousins who attended there.
Good to know that I’m still among the cool crowd.
12 year olds. Wow.
Link of the day: Actually a photo
InterSecting Lines 