Lyrically Yours!

“What are you humming to yourself?” she asked him, as they sprawled on their couch on a super lazy Sunday afternoon. They were not in a mood to go anywhere, so they were just lounging around in the house.

He said in a phony serious voice, “I am deciding to find out a novel way to annoy you today. I am going to hum some unheard songs and drive you crazy by plugging these earworms!”

She sighed. She knew he could get extremely irritating if he wanted to. She had to think on her feet. Distract him. Engage him with banal nothingness. She had a sweet idea.

She said quickly, “Why don’t we do something different today?”

She paused for dramatic effect, to gain his attention, as he started to play with her hair clutcher. She slowly took the clutcher away from him. She didn’t want him to break another one. God knows how many he has broken so far!

Sometimes when he gets into one of his wayward phases, it just becomes a task for her to even keep up with him without getting exhausted.

Once on a whim he had taken her on a trek to a nearby hillock, which turned out to be a hill and quite daunting as they started trekking through the narrow path. They got utterly lost, like their mobile network, in the middle of the hill. Then came the rain. They somehow managed to crouch under a boulder and waited for someone to rescue them. Anyone else in her position would have been furious, but she just melted in his arms as they snuggled to keep themselves warm. He told her stories, numerous and she felt at peace listening to his voice. Thankfully, some shepherds passed by and rescued them.

Since then she has come up with this plan of distracting him with alternative ideas from his original devious ones.

She said again, “Let’s do something different today.”

Finally paying attention, he asked mischievously, “What do you want to do?”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “How about talking to each other in lyrics?”

Interested, he suggested, “That’s intriguing. Let’s make it more fun. How about using only Hindi songs’ lyrics?”

“Done,” she said hurriedly. Anything to get out of his earworms, she thought.

“Let me begin. Tujhe dekha toh yeh jana sanam, pyaar hota hai diwana sanam, aab yaha se kaha jaye hum, teri baho mein mar jaye hum,” he said with a straight face.

Trust him to turn this into a hysterical ‘nightmare’ too. She didn’t want to give up too soon.

“Raat barati kandha kothe tap tap ke jaana. Tu saukha samjhe laggiyan tod nibhaana,” she countered him.

“That has Punjabi lyrics in it,” he protested.

“It’s just a game, so suck it up. Plus, almost every Hindi song has some or the other Punjabi lyrics. And, it is your mother tongue, why are you protesting?” she stated. She was not giving up so easily.

He pouted and said, “All’s fair then… brace yourself… Jodi tor dak sune keo na ashe, tobe ekla cholo re, ekla cholo, ekla cholo, ekla cholo re…”

Even before he could finish, she was rolling down on the floor, laughing her gut out.

She really didn’t think this through. Now she would have to endure his earworms. Or maybe, she can distract him with something mischievous, she thought with a smile.

Life with him doesn’t have a dull moment.