Sunday Stories- Story 1

My name is' Dada'

Actually ‘Dada’ is the babbling baby Sujatha. She belongs to a middle-class family. she is one and a half years old. Her mother is Meena and her father is Suresh. Both are working in very famous companies. Just as a middle-class lady Meena wants to overcome or at least stand equal before her colleagues who are in the upper-middle class. Meena wants to get admission to Sujatha in the famous school in the city where her colleagues' children are studying. She wanted to prove to them “ I can also”.

Today is the interview for Sujatha. Meena taught the child how to tell her name when they ask ‘what is your name?’ in the interview. But in the interview, Sujata didn’t open her mouth.PoorMeena! She doesn't know what happened to Sujatha. For the past few days, Meena taught her daughter how to tell,” my name is Sujatha”.But the child babbled as,” my name is Dada”.Meena just fed up with the babbling child. So she stopped teaching to tell her name Sujatha. Sujatha felt very happy with her answer. So when her pappa returned from the office, she ran to him to tell,” my name is Dada” But pappa who was already in tensions of office work, could not pay attention to the babbling baby. The baby did not want to give up. She ran after pappa, telling again and again,” my name is Dada”.Pappa got disturbed and shouted angrily at the baby,” will you stop and shut up”.That reflected in the interview.No admission.

Returning home, Meena started to shed tears. This is the problem of working ladies of the middle-class family. They are running from home to office and office to home. They are homemakers. Electricity Bill, phone bill, gas, servant, in-laws, husband, siblings,etc.etc…….In-office…Manager, colleagues, egos, prestige, comments, promotion,etc.etc……

Meanwhile, the maidservant came before her to tell she is leaving. In the greedy of raising the salary, maidservant decided to go. Already Meena did not like the behavior of the maidservant. So she said that you may go. Sujatha also said,” bad aaayah”.Usually, Sujatha has to be with her toys, blocks, books, teddies, remote cars,….. only. Suresh returned from the office and came to know what happened. He consoled Meena telling, “don’t worry, dear!” Both of them had their lunch chatting about their office work.

Baby Sujatha looked at her parents. Actually she wanted to make her mother happy. She wants her mother to stay with her at home. In her view, pappa is going…. Mummy is going….aayah is also going..all are going leaving her behind at her room all alone. What can she do?

The next day morning Suresh entered the house with his mother who came from the village. The night he talked to his mother and explained everything on the phone. So mother came morning itself. Baby Sujatha has no mood either to welcome or to wish her grandma. When grandma started to unpack her things from the suitcase, Sujatha looked at the Pooja things that grandma started to arrange on the shelf. She started to babble,” what Id this? What is that?”Now baby Sujatha looked at the grandma hopefully and asked her if she is going leaving her behind just like mummy and pappa. The grandma took her on her lap and said,” no, dear. I won’t go anywhere leaving you.”Sujatha hugged her grandma and said,” Thank you, grandma!”