Is she a butterfly or a female animal? I met Nikki in the house of my daughter in Virginia USA. She is fair in colour, noticeably tall, with sharp features, sizzling eyes with long eyelashes, mischievous smile, brown black long hair falling below her shoulders; neck like a heron, sharp mind with supple body was looking like a divine being as if she had descended from heaven. Her agility was marvelous, and within nano-seconds she moved up and down the stairs like a pet kitty, matching in style and behaviour. Initially she was shy of nature, but started talking to me when I used to create an occasion to let her sit close to me.
She was expert in caricature and one day while looking at me time and again, she started drawing lines on a sheet of paper. I was quite oblivious of what she was doing. It was dinner time when she pranced up the stairs and hurried back with a paper in her hand. She was looking at it intently and was quite serious. My daughter snatched the paper from her hand and showed it to me. I was astonished to see my face drawn with so much expertise, that I could not spare myself guffawing, looking by turn on the caricature and her face. It was the comic exaggeration of my face, which was funny, humorous and successful version of her attempt. She joined us in our raucous laugh, and I appreciated her art.
Do you feel offended? Don�t you like this cartoon?� She asked with a guilty grin. �No. Not at all, I am quite happy with it and feel grateful to you,� I intended to enthuse her. I gave her a warm smile, reassuring that I really liked it and impressed on her to make another one of my wife. Another act of her preference was to stand before the mirror so often, making funny faces, correcting her posture, pulling her dress down and sideways to observe how she looked. She changed her costumes thrice or four times a day and her people felt agitated about it, but she didn�t bother and wanted to look like a model doing a catwalk on the podium.
She was having number of dresses, purchased and gifted to her by close relations. She usually put her things in a haphazard way and her dresses usually lay in piles here and there and she was often treated sharply for this negligence. People in USA don�t put their costly things under lock and key, as if there are no burglars. My daughter kept her jewellery in a drawer, which Nikki tried on her but didn�t care to put it back from where she had taken. My daughter used to hide the jewellery away from her gaze but she searched every nook and corner of the house, and ultimately located it.
Once people around her felt shaken up at her behavior, and she immediately headed to her room and slammed the door after her. My daughter felt bad about it, her heart melted for her and both of them reconciled when she hugged her and told her to be cautious. Her grandmother gave her a printed Punjabi suit she brought from India. It fitted nice on her and she wore it daily until its stitches went off and it looked a tattered piece. Her mother threw it in worn out clothes restricting her to wear it again. She felt an uncontrollable urge to wear her mother�s jewellery, and thereafter flipping up and down giving a mellow smile to entertain her family members.
To put on nice clothes at least thrice a day was a daily affair with her, and she astonished the guests with leap-playing and gymnastic exercises. She emerged all of a sudden dancing, singing, frolicking and doing aerobics, which was mind-blowing. She sang the national song of USA alone and collectively in a melodious voice. Whenever she conversed with her sister in an American accent it was beyond me to understand. She was fluent in her talk to others as she was agile in her body activity. Mimicking others was so easy for her and she used to do it so often to please herself and others.
Once I was doing yoga on a carpet in the drawing room when she suddenly emerged and started doing yoga the way as she had been practicing for a pretty long time. She used to squabble with her sister if she complained against her for any untoward reason growing up between the two. They encountered a free yell, rage and clash, but the next moment they behaved as if nothing had happened between them. Parents took both the kids regularly for Piano class, swimming, skating and ball throwing to keep them physically fit. I saw her moving with skates in the arena and she was doing it with full enthusiasm.
She used to swim like a flamingo. Taking maximum rounds of the pool and remaining under water for a pretty long time showed her stamina, which could only be due to her regular swimming practice. On her graduation day she invited grandparents to witness her performance on the stage and I got an opportunity to visit an American school of repute where she gave her dance performance with no stage fear, and later came in a fancy dress. The school authorities entertained us with snacks, fruits, ice-cream and soft drinks. Finally the girls came in a queue and got their credentials. Her father clicked his camera and took her photographs from various angles, and she felt very happy, smiling from eyes to ears.
I received her photographs by e-mail in India, while she was enjoying snowfall, lying in an igloo, when massive snow fell in Virginia. She is at eight, my little frisky granddaughter, whom I meet once in few years, when I visit USA and stay with them.