the cattle family!!!!!!!

Some cute snippets, which I realised today, were a little connected to each other. The first story is about me being called “gaay” because of my name being Gayatri. The oldest memory I can recall of me having this name would be when my mami would call me Gaay 1, gaay 2, gaay 3! Since then, I think everybody started calling me “gaay” and I never felt uncomfortable with the name. Even in my tuition my friends used to call me “gaay” and tease me about eating grass and hay. It was one of the most common pet names for me in my family too. Everybody used to call me gaay even in public places without realising how awkward that would make me. It was one such moment I am going to share now. Once I had gone to the market with my sister to buy vegetables during monsoons. As a rule, every Indian vehicle stops working properly at such times. So after buying the vegetables, we tried hard to start our TVS scooty, which was very stubborn to switch on. When we had lost all our hopes for it to get going, it finally gave in with a little cough. In all the excitement to see the scooty finally on, my sister hurried to the driver’s seat and thought I would do the same and sit as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I was not quick enough, and before I could climb into the bike, she speeded away thinking I was already comfortably seated behind her. So there I was, like a dumb little girl in middle of a crowded market, not knowing what to do. At that age, I never used to take money with me and it never stuck me that you can get the money from the house to pay the auto-wala when you reach home. So I thought of walking back home, which was far away. This is half the story. My sister for a long time was unaware that I was not sitting behind her while she was driving merrily. The reason she didn’t realise that I wasn’t there was maybe because lately I had stopped holding my sister tight while she drove, boasting off that I was big enough to balance myself without having to hold her. She even tried talking to me on the way (as we usually did, we also used to sing a lot) but thought I might have been angry on her for some reason, which I often used to be for silly reasons. Hmm… so it was quite late (she had almost reached home) when she realised that I was not with her. And she got very tensed. And here is why I narrated such a long story (you might be wondering how it is related to me being called gaay). As she frantically looked for me everywhere, she started calling my name loudly. And as smart people can guess, she didn’t call out gayatri but “gaay” in the crowded street. At first she felt weird by the glaring stares of the people only to realise much later that it was because to people it seemed she was looking for cows in the market and searching for cows just by calling them was outlandish. Embarrassed by the unwanted attention, she started calling gayatri instead of Gaay. The rest of the story is not worth mentioning. To brief it up, she finally found me and we happily went back home. So this is my story of being called “gaay”.
Interestingly, my elder sister, with no connection to me being called `gaay` is called “saandh”(bull). The whole story for the name can be read in my sister’s blog. In short, she once slept a lot in a train and as a result failed to get down at the desired station and reached the last station instead. And when she finally reached home, taking another train from there, she slept for another 10 hours or so, only to be baptized by my sister as saandh (because she sleeps like a saandh). Hmm… so there is another connected story I recalled today. Once it was she who was coming to drop me off to my bus stand early on a chilly day of Indian winters. To protect myself from the cold I had worn, in accordance to my school uniform, two maroon sweaters, a maroon scarf, maroon gloves and was carrying a red water-bottle. At the entrance of our colony gate, we saw a cow coming towards us. As soon as my sister saw the cow, she warned me that it might be a bull and bulls get attracted to RED COLOUR. And since I was wearing everything maroon, I should better be careful. It was exactly at that time that the cow shook its head aggressively and moved ahead, shaking its forelegs forcefully. My sister seeing this screamed with all her might for me to run as fast as possible. I obeyed instantly (maybe for the first time) and ran with all the power I could gather, throwing my sweater and scarf on the way and shouting ‘bachao, bachao` much to the interest of people around. All the “uncle’s and auntie’s” of our colony asked me with great concern whether I had seen a snake (spotting a snake in our colony which is full of trees is quite common). And my reply in all the nervousness was “nahi, nahi, SAAAAAAAAANDH!!!”. I went back home drenched in sweat (in extreme winters) and told my mom the story. My mom listened to it patiently and asked me to go back to the bus-stop. The “saandh” would have probably gone by now. With much reluctance I went back to my bus-stop, looking everywhere for the saandh and ready to make a run again. And yes, I also had to wear my sweaters and scarf back which I had thrown away in all the panic. The bus was made to stop there for me for almost 15minutes and when I got inside everybody was curios to know the story. Well, I was smart enough not to make a fool of myself and only selected few were lucky enough to get to hear the story from me.
P.S. by the way it turned out that it was not saandh at all but only a cow. It had stirred its head violently because there were many mosquitoes around and had moved its legs fiercely (as we had thought) because it was crossing a line of pipes at the entrance of the colony!