When No Means Yes

FROWNING PROHIBITED

- JAS KOHLI

When I was seven years old, an aunt handed over a crisp ten rupee note (a princely sum in those days) to me before leaving our home—probably to reward my non-mischievous conduct. I was aware that the cash was synonymous with ‘aish’—I could buy lots of yummy candies from the corner shop. But as soon as I showed the banknote to my parents, I was labeled as a small-time crook. ‘You have been greedy. Shouldn’t have accepted the money so easily from her,’ I was told by my dad. ‘Baap re baap!’ I said to myself. In retrospect, I feel that my parents were just trying to make me a ‘sanskari’ child. They had implied that I should have accepted the money but only after making her chase me in the way I got my mother to pursue me when she tried to hand over a glass of milk to me.