Dancing Without Rhythm

A few weeks ago I changed some of the ringtones on my cell phone. Every time my sister calls me, it plays, "Come on Barbie, let's go party....I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world." I think it's funny mostly because you probably couldn't find two more un-Barbie girls than us two.

Well, it didn't take long for Benja to start singing the song, but it took on a whole new meaning for me when I'd hear, "Come on bobby, let's doe potty--ah! ah! ah! ah!"

Last night as we were finishing up the bedtime routine, he, clad in his superman pajamas blurted out, "I'm a superman in a Barbie world!"

He is indeed.

J is gone for another 11 days.
He gets home on my birthday.
My birthday is in 11 days.

I remember a long time ago my older brother telling me a little about the Indian culture and the way they speak in their native languages. They don't use superlatives. For example, in the English language we might say, "It's VERY purple" or "That is so totally and completely, way cool" but to emphasize something is more than "normal" they will just say the word more than once. It's purple purple. It's cool, cool, cool. I'm pretty certain they don't say "cool" so much in Hindi or Bengali, but it's just an example.*

So, Benja has adapted this method of superla-fying in his own vocabulary. Every night he asks for "told, told, told, told TOLD water" sometimes emphasized with a body shiver and fists clenching. When J is in town he will lay with Benja for a couple of minutes each night. It used to be a treat J would sometimes allow and now it is a requirement that we are suckers for, and Benja will head off to bed saying, "Lie with me in two minutes dad, two minutes." (he consistently interchanges prepositions and it makes for some adorable phrases at times) Well, tonight he upped the demand with me, at the same time implementing his Hindi manner of speak." "Mom, lie with me in five, five, five, five, five minutes. It was too cute to resist. He got one of those five minutes.

It seems Benja brings us much entertainment around bedtime. Two nights ago J, my sister, my niece, and I sat in the living room watching a movie. (We are BIG Tyler Perry fans around here). Benja left his bedroom, to check out the scene and found us all watching the movie. He quickly said he had to go to the bathroom, as his excuse for coming out of his room. After finishing, he came back to the living room and made like he was obediently walking back to his bed but asked for a "sticko". A sticker that he USED to get for going potty. A sticker which he hasn't received in at least 3 months. I said, "Benja, get to bed, I don't even HAVE a sticker to give you---I'm on to you boy!" He smiled, sauntered off to bed and yelled good naturedly over his shoulder, "Fine, you duys just be a joke (jerk) watching a movie!"

The next day when I asked him where he learned to say that (I can usually get a straight answer from him) he told me "Uncle Dick". This is my mother's brother with whom he has spent a total of about 20 minutes of his life. I have no idea where he learned, "Fine, be a jerk!" Although it's not really okay for him to say things like that to the general public, we sure get a kick out of it here!

* I have absolutely no way of knowing if this is true, as I retell it I'm taking a risk. This will be the ONE post someone from India finds my blog and reads me totally making up crap about their language. It's okay, it makes good copy and it's a risk I'm willing to take.

Posted by Angela on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 7/10/2006 | Permalink