An accomplished acrobat.

I was lying on the sofa watching evening news. Sindhu was in the next chair, completing the Sudoku in The Hindu newspaper.

“Where are the kids?” I asked.

“Remya is busy sketching something. And Renu is studying in her room.”

“What, studying? Did she get a bad report card or something? Why else would she be studying on a Friday evening?”

“I asked. She said she had lots of homework.”

“Hmm. You are too trusting, Sindhu. She is up to some mischief, I am sure. Let me go and look.”

“She did seem a little bit moody today. She had only one piece of steamed banana.”

“That decides it. There is something wrong.”

I walked to Renu’s room. I wasn’t a parent for fourteen years without knowing that there is something seriously wrong when Renu did not finish her steamed banana. I knocked at her door, the things parents had to do these days! My father would rush into the room I shared with my brother any time of the day, and no questions asked. If I start doing this, I would hear, “What about my private space?” You would think they discovered privacy.

“Come in” I heard Renu’s voice. I went in. Renu was sitting in her chair, one of her books open before her.

“What are you reading Renu?”

“Just some History, Papa.” Renu replied, looking at her book.

“Since when did my daughter become so interested in History to read it on a Friday evening?”

Renu did not answer. I sat down on the bed waiting. I knew she would tell me when she was ready. Super Papa never interfered.

“It is good to see that you have already started revising for the final exams. I mean this is the second term only and you are rereading the first chapter.”

She closed the book and turned towards me.

“You know that Maya? She is such an idiot. She keeps poking her nose into everything.”

I nodded. Did I detect a jibe aimed at me? Pinocchio is my middle name.

“Yesterday, some of us were talking. We were planning to go see a movie tomorrow.”

I started to see where this was going. “And..”

“We saw Maya and stopped talking immediately. But she had heard about the movie. And she wanted to come too.” Renu put on her sulky expression.

She looked at me as if I had just landed from another planet.

“Of course it does. When it is Maya. Maya doesn’t even like Hindi movies. She just wants to come because she wants to break into our circle somehow.”

 “Aha, now I see. Well, I don’t blame her. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with the prettiest and most ‘happening’ girls?”

“We don’t want her tagging along with us all the time, with her whiny voice and all that. She is not very good-looking, but that is okay. We don’t mind that. What we do mind is the way she keeps sucking up to every one around her. She really tries too hard. That is what puts us off.”

Renu was talking more to herself than to me. Fourteen-year-old girls did not really need a parent to discuss their problems; they need a sounding board, a punching bag and a nodding doll. So I listened, with appropriate ooh’s, aah’s and that’s sad’s.

After some more minutes of Maya-bashing, she was willing to let things be, for the present. Then we heard Sindhu call her,

“Renu, phone for you.”

Renu rushed out. I followed; maybe I could catch the rest of the news. But one look at Renu’s face told me I could kiss goodbye to TV for some time more at least.

The conversation went something like this. Not much of a conversation. Renu was only grunting out some words.

“Yes, Priya but..”

“No I agree.”

“Don’t you think..”

“Okay, I will call you.”

Renu banged the receiver back and ran to her room.

“Now what, Super Papa?” Sindhu looked at me quizzically.

I shrugged and waited. I didn’t have long to wait.

“Papa”, I heard a shout. “Come here for a moment, please.”

I walked back to Renu’s room.

“Things are bad, Papa. I just don’t know what to do. That was Priya.” I knew Priya. Priya and Renu were the uncrowned leaders of the gang. What they decide normally came through. I personally thought Priya was a bit too selfish, but Renu would consider it treachery to even harbour such thoughts.

“Papa, Priya made a plan to keep out Maya tomorrow. She said we could call and tell her we are not going for Chak De, but for Hallo.”

“Isn’t that the movie you said you wouldn’t even want to watch if that was the last movie on earth?”

“Yes, but that is not the point Papa. The point is we will actually go for Chak De, while Maya will wait at the other theatre.”

My face clearly showed what I thought of the plan. Renu looked at me sadly.

“I know Papa. I thought it was horrible too. I don’t want to fool Maya like that. I mean, she is an idiot, but she doesn’t deserve this. No one deserves this. How could Priya have thought up something like this?”

“And what do I do now? How will I make Priya see some sense? When she is in such a mood, I mean, you heard me. She didn’t even give me a chance to say anything.”

Poor little girl, I looked at her tenderly. Teenage was so fraught with problems. I wished I could kiss and make her worries go away like I used to when she fell down and scraped her knee. But no, it was time she learnt to fight her own battles. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t have any brilliant ideas right then.

“Maybe I should call Vidya. She might be able to convince Priya better than I could.”

Yes, when in doubt, delegate. My daughter would make quite a good manager.

Again, she went out running. Who said teenage girls don’t exercise? All this running around to the phone was exercise. I should never buy her a mobile phone; I made a note to myself. I followed at my own pace. Time for Super Papa to relax, this would definitely take time.

Half an hour of intense conversation followed, during which Sindhu finished the Sudoku and I switched channels to watch the news analysis. I heard the telephone receiver bang again.

“Ok, dear. What happened?” I asked curious to know the outcome.

“Later, Papa. I have to make another call.”

Sindhu looked at me. She didn’t like the girls’ on the phone for so long.

“Let her, mother, this time. She has to finalize the nuclear deal.”

“Don’t listen to him, Amma. It is one of his usual PJ’s.”

Mother and daughter laughed. Whatever happened to Super Papa, I wondered.

Another twenty minutes. I spent the time listening to Remya explain her sketch of the park. “That is a swing, Papa. And that is you, watching me on the swing, while your eyes are looking for the ice cream man.”

I was amazed at her talent. Not for drawing, the paper looked as if someone had been using an eraser all over it, which apparently was quite a close guess. But her talent was in reading the mind of the brilliant person who was her Papa. She did not seem to be too impressed while I explained all this to her.

From art critic to agony uncle, I transformed, as Renu appeared again, with a huge smile on her face. She sat on the sofa, legs curled up under her.

“It’s okay Papa. Vidya agreed with me that it was a beastly thing to do. She called up Priya and gave her a piece of her mind.”

Vidya was a young lady capable of giving a piece of her mind liberally to everyone around her. I have quite a few pieces of her mind floating around inside me somewhere.

“Vidya even told her all of us would go to see the movie with Maya instead of with her.”

Renu appeared to doubt this bit of wisdom.

“It did the trick anyway. Priya backed off and everything is fine again.”

Hmm. Maybe I should take a leaf out of the Vidya-Renu approach of tackling potentially serious situations. What about inviting both of them to give a lecture at the office?

My face gave away nothing of this. Instead, I said,

“Well done, daughter. I am proud of you. You have proved yourself a worthy daughter to me.”

I pretended not to hear three different giggles of the feminine kind.

“Since you didn’t have your steamed banana in the evening, why don’t we have a dinner of wheat dosas with ghee and sugar poured over it?”

See, I knew how to turn the tables exactly to my liking. Parenting is a tight rope walk, and I am getting to be quite an accomplished acrobat.

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