A New Spin To Khandala

Note: "Aati kya Khandala?" (something like "Wanna come to Khandaala?") was a rather silly but very popular Hindi movie dance number of the late nineties. Aamir Khan had acted it out and probably sung it too.

Sometime in the summer of 2006. The Sinhagad express, bound for Pune. Afternoon. Next to us sit an elderly couple and a nearly three year old girl - must be their grand-daughter. They have been very quiet, mostly - even the child - the weather is torrid, sapping...

The temperature gets milder as the train creeps up the ghat. It then pulls into a small station. The old lady tells the kid: "See that, Khandala station!". The girl says: "Gun-daala!". The grannie corrects: "Naahi, KHAN-DAA-LAA!" And the little one tries again: "Gun-Daa-Laa" and then suddenly takes off: "Gun-Daala, Bun-Daala, Gun-Daala, Bun-Daala, Gun-Daala, Bun-Daala, OH!" - an impromptu parody of the title-song in the movie 'Mangal Pandey' (again starring Aamir Khan). Grannie, totally floored, exclaims: "Arrey waah!"

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Update(Feb16th 2010)
Today, I read Jnanpith winner U.R.Ananthamurthy's preface to an omnibus edition of his works. Even as a child, he was known to be highly gifted with words. He says the adulation could be traced back to him as a 4 year old declaring: "Abbkkanna gubbakka kachchikkondu hoyithu!" which meant "A little sparrow (gubbakka) carried off Abbakka (the proper name of a maidservant at their home)!" - the alliteration and endearing nonsense therein totally floored both the lady in question and the writer's own mother who would go on to proudly refer to this event all her long life.

So, in the years to come, if I get to hear of a lady writer from Maharashtra with a profound gift for words - and born around 2003 - well, I don't need to say more!