The boy agrees. “Thankfully, the teachers have stopped treating me like a star in my school. But the children keep following me even when I go to drink water. I think they want to see how much water I’m drinking. Abhi ho gaya na, picture khatam ho gayi, now it’s no more TZP, it’s DZP… Darsheel Zameen Par,” he declares with a devilish glitter in his eyes. Then he proceeds to spell the name of his school, Green Lawns School. “So that people believe that I’m not dyslexic in my real life,” he says.
That did it. I was sold on the little tyke. After all which woman can resist such charming humility and a sense of humour? So we made a deal. We won’t bring up TZP in the course of this interaction. “That’s coolicious,” my new best friend winks at me. “You can call me Dash, that’s my nick name and you can talk to me while I have lunch.”
The lunch is a simple affair. He sits cross-legged on the floor in his study room with a patla (wooden stool) kept in front of him. “You know why we keep food on the patla,” he asks me. Before I can reply, he enlightens me, “To give respect to food. It should always be higher than us.” Mom, Sheetal nods with approval. For all the gyan, Darsheel doesn’t really want to eat the food in front of him. “I want dosa,” he shrieks. His mom promises to make it tomorrow. He doesn’t like the rice. “Mummy, I told you not to cook rice in the pressure cooker, chipak jaata hai, “ he complains.
He stops eating after a few bites and lies down on the floor. “I’m tired,” he declares. After taking some exaggerated gulps of air he asks me, “Do you like dosa?” Again without waiting for my response he says, “I love Mysore masala dosa with extra butter and full of lal mirch.” Then he proceeds to list his favourite food: dosa, pav bhaji, paani puri, paneer and Smoking Joe’s Tandoori Paneer Pizza, “but the Jain-style ok, without green chilly and onion,” he says. His mother tells me that her son is particular about eating Jain cooking, without onion and potatoes. The traditional boy that Darsheel is, he’s soon going to start his Dharam studies also. “It’s called Jain Dharam Ki Pathshaala and not Masti Ki Pathshaala,” he laughs hysterically at his own joke.
... contd.
