Acha Nahin hai! It is No Good!

All three of us had to rush to Chandigarh on Thursday night as we had to be there to complete some formalities related to Chhavi’s adoption. We got to know about this only by Thursday afternoon. Due to previous such visits (but minus Chhavi) we knew that there are Volvo buses available for Chandigarh from the Gurgaon bus stand itself. Luckily we have a friend at Chandigarh where we can go and crash at such short notices.

We reached the Gurgaon bus stand at 10.00 pm and we thought that there was a Volvo bus at 10.40. But we were wrong. The next Volvo was at 11.50 pm. There was no light at the bus stand due to a power cut, it was full of water due to the recent rains and it was no place to wait with Chhavi for nearly 2 hours!

So we decided to take an ordinary bus that was leaving at 10.20 pm. As soon as we got inside the bus Chhavi announced to everyone with a lot of waving for her hands- “Ye accha nahin hi” (this is no good!). We pacified her somehow and then Sesha took her down, while we were waiting for the bus to start. She repeated her “ye accha nahin hai” many times again. Luckily the bus was not crowded and we had a seat for three between us. So Chhavi could lie down and go to sleep. But the bus was full of mosquitoes and the memories of reaching Chandigarh are not too pleasant.

Sometime in the dead of the night we arrived at Chandigarh and went to our friend’s house. All of us were too tried and we just crashed. When Chhavi woke up in the morning arond 8.30 am she started howling, “Ghar chalo” (lets go home). Sesha pacified her by letting her play with water while I caught on some more sleep, my entire week had been way too hectic and every day I was working at the night to get things done.

Our friend is a bachelor and an avid trekker. He is Sesha’s classmate from his undergrad days. And he is not a trekker like us, he has a trekking companion and both of them carry all their weight, no pony or cook for them! But this also means he uses a Butane gas to cook things at home too. So that is what we used to heat the milk for Chhavi.

By the afternoon we went to the magistrate’s office to get some stuff done with the help of Haryana State Council for Child Welfare staff. Otherwise the whole procedure seems like a maze to me, the staff of the Child Welfare council is really helpful in these matters. There were two more families, and all three of us have adopted girls. It was such a delight to see the other two little princesses. One girl was roughly Chhavi’s age and the other even smaller! It took us hours to get our work done and Chhavi howled only once because she was hungry. She had her first roadside food, some Kulfi apart from her regular Chips and Biscuits.

It was past 5.00 pm when we found ourself sitting in a restaurant and eating something. After making a ruckus with the spoons for a while Chhavi climbed in Sesha’s lap and quietly went to sleep. We came at the friend’s home, put her to the bed and started breathing a little. Sesha was way so tired that he too slept off with Chhavi a bit. That is when I go out and clicked a few sunset pictures.

Chhavi was so tired that we could keep her awake only from 7.00 pm to 8.300 pm and that too she was just barely smiling sitting in the bed ready to drop off. Thankfully she slept through the night. Our friend and Sesha went out to eat and I agreed to baby sit and read a book in lieu of getting packed dinner at home. I bolied some more milk on the Butane gas for Chhavi. While the milk was about to boil, Chhavi woke up and started calling me and at the same time Sesha and our friend arrived knocking at at the door. I dealt with milk, Chhavi and the door in that order.

We had decided to book a Volvo for the next day and the only tickets we got were for the 6.20 am Volvo. The return journey was a little less eventful. Chhavi still said “accha nahin hai” to the bus but this time with a twinkle in her eye. All three of us slept till we reached to a mid way resort near Karan lake in Karnal. The place looked beautiful and worth exploring later. We had some breakfast here. But after this for the next three hours Chhavi was awake and kept telling us to get out of the bus, and take her home! Our only task was to distract her somehow. And to think that nearly nine months before she came with us from Chandigarh to Delhi on the Shatabdi Express without speaking a word and sleeping throughout! She is no longer the same girl, not even a trace of her former self!

Finally an auto ride later we arrived home. Any plans for taking Chhavi out on a trip seem to be on a hold till I have sufficiently forgotten this experience!

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