Friday, October 14, 2011

Changing Strategies

Sid’s methods of persuasion have changed rapidly in last few months – from requests to threats.

A few months back, if he wanted something, he would use the following sequence of statements:
  1. )    “Mummy/papa, … kar do” 
  2. )    “Please … kar do na” 
  3. )    “Main please bol raha hoon, ab to kar do”.
Now, its “Mummy/papa, … kar do, nahin to …”, a common one being “nahin to main aapke saath kheloonga nahin”. A few times we tried responding with, “Ok. Hamare liye to accha hi hai”, but sarcasm is obviously lost on him. But often we humor him, and say, “Nahin, aap please khelna mere saath, abhi kar dete hain”.

A few days back, when I was putting him to sleep, he again tried the his tried-and-tested stratagem:
Sid: “… kar do, nahin to ….”
Me: “Nahin to kya karoge?”
Sid: [thinks for a while] “Nahin to main aapko chod kar chala jaoonga”
Me: [suppressing my laughter] “Kahan chale jaoge?”
Sid: “Main aapko chod kar bahut door chla jaoonga” [and, adds as an afterthought] “papa ke saath”
Me: [Now laughing] “Accha jaao”
Sid: Nahin kal jaoonga. Abhi jane ka time nahin hai.

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