Bobby and Sunny - Twin Delights and Troubles - Part 2
Dissimilar Characteristics
As kids, Bobby and Sunny spent a lot of time in their
neighbour Aunty’s house. Uncle and Aunty pampered them a lot. They had two
grown up daughters – Meena and Veena - in college who just loved the two little
fellows. Every day the girls would spend the evenings with the twins. The kids
called them both Neena akka – since both their names sounded similar to them.
Despite being twins, there were a lot of differences between
the two little fellas.
The Foodies:
The twins loved to eat. But there was a difference. While
Bobby was a fast eater, Sunny took his own sweet time to eat. While
Sunny adjusted and ate everything, Bobby was pretty choosy and
would push away the plate if the food was not tasty. But they were
always well
behaved when they went out. They would never complain and eat anything
they
were given.
The case of the excess Guava:
Once
Aunty gave them guava to eat. She sliced them into pieces and gave each
one a little bowl full of guava. She also sliced one guava for herself
and kept it aside. While Bobby gobbled it up in minutes, Sunny as usual
ate it slowly. Now Bobby had the unenviable task of watching Sunny
relishing the guava. He looked around and saw the cupful of Aunty's
share of guava.
He went over to Aunty who was busy preparing lunch in the kitchen.
"Why aren't you eating your guava Aunty?" he asked her.
"I will eat it later my dear", replied Aunty without turning around.
"You better eat it otherwise it will be over" advised a very concerned Bobby.
"Why would it get over?" asked a rather confused Aunty who now had Bobby's full attention.
Seeing the longing look on his cute face she smile. "Do you want it?"
Bobby nodded shyly. Aunty took the cup and gave it to him. He happily went over and sat with Sunny and had his second bowl faster than Sunny.
Bobby - Promises are for keeping
If
anyone ever promised anything to Bobby, then he always expected it to
be kept. He generally builds up a huge expectation around that promise
and its heartbreaking for him if the promise is not kept.
By the time, they were two years, Meena and Veena had
completed studies and had started working. Meena got an apprenticeship in a reputed concern
and everyone were happy about it.
“Boys, we will go and have ice creams when I get my first
salary,” announced Meena to the two little guys.
The two immediately perked up and
smiled widely. Ice creams were something they both loved. The
next day after she came from work, Bobby came up to her, with his usual
sweet smile. Leaning on her legs, he beckoned her with a smile. Meena
bent down so that he could whisper in her ears.
“Did you get your salary Akka?” he asked in a whisper.
“You will have to wait some more days Bobby” said a smiling Meena as she softly pinched his chubby cheeks.
From then, everyday Bobby will ask her the same question
with a lot of expectations. But sadly it turned out to be the same 'No' everyday.
"What is this salary? Why is it not coming?" a perplexed Bobby wondered to himself.
“Even you don’t care as much as my Bobby. More than anyone
he wants me to get my salary” said a laughing Meena to her mother.
Then one day the No turned to a Yes. He was absolutely thrilled and
smiled.
“Come lets go”, said
Meena as she took the two excited boys
for the promised Ice cream treat.Off they went wearing their squeaker
shoes holding Meena's hands that evening and had an assortment of ice
creams.
One day the girls took the two brothers out to lunch at a restaurant.
"We will have ice creams after lunch." declared Meena.
"Do they have ice cream in this hotel" asked Bobby in a whisper.
The
two fellas never talked loud in public. Veena nodded a yes and a smile
spread on his chubby litte face. As they were having lunch, Veena and
Meena decided to have the ice cream at a nearby ice cream parlour
instead of the hotel.
So after paying the bill, Meena told the two kids -
"We will go out and have ice creams at the parlour". Sunny nodded an
immediate yes. In the meantime Bobby's face reddened though he too
nodded slowly. Unable to take the disappointment, his eyes started
filling with tears. As he blinked sadly, a teardrop flowed from the
corner of his eyes. The girls started to shake their heads.
"O my ghosh. There he goes again" said a bewildered Meena.
"You should have never told him about the ice cream at all" warned Veena.
"Lets order ice creams and have it here", said Meena, much to Bobby's joy.
"We should never promise him anything and then change it", said Veena.
"Yeah.
Lets stick to that plan from now on", said Meena as a matter of fact.
"I just cannot see these two in tears. Batting those lovely lashes, he does
get away with everything".
Accident Prone Bobby:
Sunny was more of the careful type while Bobby was a bit too
casual. That was evident when they climbed down a chair or table. While Sunny
would take care to look around and climb down his chair with utmost care, Bobby
would end up falling down the chair in a heap.
Hearing him fall Meena would often quip “I think our little
sack of potatoes has fallen again”.
But Bobby also had the will to take in a lot of pain. Once Bobby fell from the sofa as usual. Despite the pain in
his leg, he did not cry. But he was limping as he walked. Seeing him continue
to limp, the second day, Daddy got suspicious. They took him to the doctor and
the little one had a hair line fracture in his leg. He spent the next 2 weeks
sitting with a huge bandaged leg.
“My sweet baby. Just how much it must have pained?” wondered
a sad Mummy, as she carried him around.
On their second birthday, the entire family went to the
church. Mummy always took extra care in buying them, cute yet similar dresses.
They looked absolutely adorable in their teddy bear shaped dresses. They came back
home only late in the night. A sad looking, red faced Bobby had a big bandage on his
head. The front of his new dress was stained with patches of blood. The
neighbours who were waiting to wish the two were alarmed. He started sobbing as soon he saw them.
“What happened ?” asked a tensed Aunty as she took the
sobbing Bobby from his Dad’s arms.
“They were walking down the stairs of the church when Bobby
slipped and fell. His hit his head and there was lot of blood.” explained a
saddened Mummy.
“Poor kid. He didn’t stop crying for a long time”, lamented
Daddy.
“Come. Come. It will be all fine.” said Uncle as he pacified Booby and took him in his arms.
Meena saw a neglected Sunny looking up from below, as
everyone were taking turns to carry the injured Bobby and pacify him.
She took Sunny in her arms and asked him “What happened?”
“Bobby fell down and there was so much blood,” said Sunny
sadly.
“Its okay. He will be fine tomorrow. By the way happy
birthday”, said Meena kissing him on his forehead. Immediately Sunny brushed
his forehead with his hands.
Clean boy Sunny:
Now everyone loved to kiss the chubby and cute little ones.
The kids also loved to give kisses. But Sunny would immediately rub his cheek after
anyone kissed him. He cannot stand the wet feeling of a kiss on his cheeks.
Bobby was least bothered about such things. He liked being pampered.
Veena and Meena noted this habit of Sunny and would annoy him
with regular kisses.
After giving him a kiss on his cheek, whenever he was about
to rub, “Don’t you dare rub it.” the girls would admonish him, acting to be angry. He would
go out softly when they were not looking and rub his cheeks. Meena and Veena would
always follow him silently and catch him red handed. But his guilt ridden smile
would always make them laugh.
From then on, whenever he kissed the two girls, they would
immediately rub it of vigorously and look at him smugly.
“If you rub it off, we will also rub it off” said Veena
mockingly.
He was annoyed and did not like it at all. So he stopped
rubbing his cheeks in front of them.
But he always rubbed them after sometime, when no one was around,
just to be sure.
Chatterbox Sunny/
Attention seeker Bobby:
Sunny was very easy going and outspoken. He didn’t have any
problems talking to anyone. He was always the centre of attraction due to his
talkative nature.
Bobby was more of the silent type and did not mingle too
easily with strangers. But he did not like all the attention going to the
chatterbox Sunny, especially among known groups. He would sulk and get a bit
jealous. Aunty and everyone else understood this little problem and
they would see to that Bobby got equal attention.
Sunny loved to talk. At times he used to chat incessantly, that there was no way to shut him up.
"O
boy. You better stop talking because your brain is coming out of your
ears", said Veena mockingly. "Then you wont have any brains left."
Sunny stopped for sometime just to make sure that it was not true. Then he started again.
“Why does he talk so much Akka?” Bobby asked Meena
sitting on her lap, watching Sunny chatter away with Uncle.
“Oh! That’s a secret. Do you see that dimple on his cheek?
It’s that dimple that makes him talk” replied Meena looking pretty serious. “ All dimple
cheeks are chatter boxes.”
“I don’t have a dimple. What do I have?” asked a worried
Bobby.
Meena didn’t know what to tell. She just looked at him and
smiled helplessly. She then noticed something.
“Oh. Don’t you see? You have a little mole on your nose.
That makes you very cute.”, said Meena touching the tip of his nose.
Bobby
touched
the tip of nose and felt very proud. From then on, one of his favourite
pass time was to admire himself in the mirror especially the little
mole on his cute nose.
Annoying habits: Sucking Thumb and the Pacifier:
Bobby
was used to sucking a pacifier. He would never keep it down. His teeth
was going upwards and his lips were always swollen because of the
pacifier.
Sunny was used to sucking his left thumb even as a baby. Whenever he was
not talking, he would be busy sucking his thumb. The poor thumb was all
wrinkled and wet. He would cry if anyone tried pulling it from his mouth
especially when sleeping.
These annoying habits continued for almost two years. They tried different ways to getting rid of this habit – but
to no avail.
Doing away with the Pacifier:
Aunty and Mummy started thinking of ways to get rid of
Bobby’s pacifier. They smeared the outside of the pacifier with Bittergourd
juice. But after the initial unpleasantness, Bobby continued with the pacifier.
Then
they extracted the juice of neem leaves and this time filled it inside
the pacifier. It looked dark and creepy. They also put a small hole so
that the bitter liquid would ooze out every time Bobby sucked it.
As Bobby took his pacifier, he noticed that it looked very different. He put it in his mouth and started sucking it.
As
Mummy and Aunty watched, a disgusted look came over Bobby's face. He
took the pacifier and threw it far into the yard. After that he never
ever touched a pacifier again
Accidentally doing away with the Thumb Sucking:
Mummy
and Aunty tried rubbing some neem juice on Sunny's thumb. But it was of no
help. He found that the bitter taste disappeared after some time. So he
continued to suck despite the bitter taste.
Meena
always used to cut the overgrown nails of the twins with a nail cutter.
On a Sunday she cut their nails as usual. While cutting the nail of his
left thumb, Sunny jerked his hand and inadvertently the nail cutter cut
in a little deeper that usual. He pulled his hand back in pain and his
eyes filled with tears.
"Oh God! I am so sorry"
said Meena as she took his hand and caressed the thumb gently. A small red patch formed on the top of the thumb nail.
"Is it painful?, she asked him with a concerned look. He shook his head in agreement as the tears flowed.
"Don't worry. It will be okay soon" she pacified him and gave a toffee to cheer him up.
The pain was gone in a few minutes and Sunny went back to playing.
As
he sat looking around after sometime, he put his thumb in this mouth as usual.
When he sucked it, the pain was unbearable and it cut skin started burning too. He started crying and went and showed his thumb to Aunty and Mummy.
They tried pacifying him, But every time he tried sucking, the pain
started all over again. He tried putting the thumb in everyone's mouth
so that the pain would stop. But it was of no help.
"You did that purpose didn't you?" asked Aunty looking at Meena, mischievously.
Meena had a tough time convincing everyone that it was totally accidental.
Sunny had trouble sleeping because every time he sucked his thumb,
he would wake up with pain. He stopped sucking and after that
night, he stopped sucking his thumb completely.
Sunny - The Brave One:
Sunny
despite being the careful one was always the one to step forward in
case of any difficult situation. He was not afraid to face anything.
The case of the Stunned Mouse:
Once
they had all gone out to a party and came back home late night. As
Daddy unlatched the door and let them in, the two walked into the back
yard. Suddenly they saw a little mouse scurrying along.
"Look Sunny! A mouse" cried out a scared Bobby. "Come, we will go and tell Mummy"
"Wait. Lets see where its going?" said Sunny stopping Bobby from going back to the house.
"Don't go near it. It will bite you" warned a frightened Bobby.
Sunny
looked around and found a wooden ruler lying nearby. He took the ruler
and ran towards the mouse and hit it. The mouse sat still not able to
move. As he approached the stunned mouse, Bobby ran inside.
"Sunny hit a mouse!" he shouted.
Daddy ran out to the yard with Bobby in tow. He found Sunny
sitting, bent over the poor mouse, with the ruler in hand. He pulled
Sunny away and saw the mouse sitting still. He carried the mouse and
placed it on the street. The two boys followed him and watched intently.
Suddenly the mouse moved a bit and ran for its life.
"Don't you dare do that again", Daddy warned Sunny as he carried the two kids back home.
The next morning Sunny's antics became a talking point.
"I think that mouse must have had a heart attack", opined Veena.
"Maybe the blow to his head stunned him that he forgot everything for sometime." added Meena.
Sunny was mighty pleased with his bravado.
"Don't you ever do that. The mouse will come back and bite you," warned Aunty looking serious, seeing him smiling proudly.Sunny shook his head seriously in agreement.
Bobby - the Lazybones
Bobby
was a laid back boy who loved to laze around and enjoy things. He did
not like to exert too much. The two had a tricycle to play with, which had a
front seat and a back seat. One could always see Sunny cycling around
while Bobby sat in the backseat and enjoyed the ride.
Veena and Meena watched this routine for sometime.
"Now you get into the backseat and let Bobby cycle it for sometime." said Veena.
"Look at him sit back like a king while poor Sunny is pulling him around", said Meena
Veena
and Meena made them exchange the seats, much to Bobby's annoyance. He
cycled slowly for sometime. The two girls went into their house, leaving
the kids to play. When they came out, the positions had changed, with Bobby in the backseat again.
"Why did you get into this seat? Get up." demanded Meena. "You lazy little fellow, always making Sunny to pull you around."
She
again made Bobby sit in the front seat. But after sometime it was back
to the same old story again. After trying to make Bobby ride the tricycle
in vain, the girls left them to play as per their wish. Much to their surprise, the chirpy Sunny didn't seem to mind the cycling
at all. He in fact enjoyed cycling than sitting in the backseat while the King -
Bobby always sat back with satisfaction and enjoyed his backseat ride. This routine stopped when both were given single seater tricycles a few months later.
