If any of you wondered where I was since my last post, I have to say, I was very much at home with all the elders around and with many of them NRI blood relatives swooping down! Well you know what happens when people arrive - suddenly your home, your space, your sanctuary is invaded. Its a war-zone. My older cousins and their families arrived for a reunion of sorts.

5 kids running around the place is no joke and I was assigned to maintain peace. But my biggest discovery about kids these days, and brace yourself - is that kids flirt with one another all the time. I swear upon the swing of my hammock that lil 2 yr-olds and above...Oh yes them - the one-digit-age wonders are always flirting with one another these days.

Cousin Junk-food"s daughter, all of 6 yrs Ms Bratz, is very heavily into Barbie, Bratz and Dora and is a born celebrity. She can do a mean pout and expert shy eyes glances like a diva. So she did all this to her 9-yr-old cuz Dimple-boy (my other cousin Serpent-hair"s son). Dimple-boy is no innocent one either he has had a new girlfriend who sits with him on the bus every year in all his long nine years on this planet. Inhibition is not their forte I’m afraid, ;) and so when I got back one day Ms Bratz announced Dimple-boy kissed her!!!

I was shocked to say the least I never got kissed so young and that too on the lips… hmmmph.... time to play spoil sport… After carefully broaching the subject with some reverse psychology and other crafty tactics I saw the baby-whisperer err or was it the dog whisperer do on Discovery Travel and living – my mom’s favourite channel, and by going down to her bratty level I got the whole story.

They played in the new tent shaped like a castle in the lawn and for some reason known only to Dimple-boy, he took a toy gun and shot Bratz.She being the nascent drama-queen that she is, decided to play dead and dropped to the ground. But Dmple-boy, an astute swashbuckling hero as he sees himself as, with some uber cool moves managed to scoop Ms bratz before she reached the grass!

Ah the stage is set!  Ms Bratz all of six years saw herself a princess, a Snowwhite cum Sleeping Beauty mutant and decided dimple-boy had saved her and kissed him in gratitude. He kissed her right back and so… they kissed!!! I tell you!!! What are kids watching these days and what the hell happened to me and why didn’t I get kissed that early….

But I digress... so appalled and jealous I was that I decided to moral police them  and my days were spent jumping at them whenever they were alone. The two even took over my hammock to tell secrets to one another. The more I policed them the more they whispered and there I was screaming “ you two are cousin brother and sis” not girlfriend and boy friend” I was morphing into aunt Agatha! Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!

The thought jolted me and made me realize, that this is way over my head. So with some clever maneuvering I handed over the worry to the concerned parents in a very casual manner… “Oh by the way your girl thinks she’s a princess and she will kiss all boys who save her in her imaginary game and as for you - your boy loves to save lil girls who think they are princesses! Good luck!”

That was it ..... the two sets of parents no more enjoyed their flirty kids’ mannerism and some good Indian-style slapping did the trick I was told! All’s well with the world now and no one I know is getting kissed by the age of six! Na ah... no way not when I missed my chance!!! ;)