Puck and all that.

I'd been returning home from office, when on the stairs, I bumped into a kid A who looked like he'd be in the 4th standard, running to hide before his friends could seek him. Smilingly, I heard his friend call out his name and say that he'd been found. Kid A grimaced and brushed past me, grinning at being caught. And then a stream of profanities flew from his mouth.

B words and F words and A words and God-only-knows-what words! Words I wouldn't have anybody hear from even my mouth, and definitely not shouted out loud for ALL to hear. And this was a kid I knew by sight. Who thankfully was older than Sonny boy, but who was still friendly enough with him.
What zapped me even further was that no one who heard seemed to object or take the kid to task. I mean, if it was one of Sonny boy's friends who I'd caught doing that, I'd have scolded them and definitely made sure their parents knew. But then again, none of the other kids turned a hair either. Which means that they were used to it.

I was totally shocked and commented on the same to the husband. He shrugged his shoulders and told me that there really was nothing much that could be done about it. The school bus apparently was a source of more information and knowledge than the school itself.

Sigh! I swear it almost made me want to ditch Bangalore and get Sonny boy schooled at home, which might have been a small-town comparatively, but it was a place where kids were kids. Mischievous and naughty, with all the kiddish stuff, not adult stuff.



And so today, when I'd had to hound an upset Sonny boy away from his toys and get him to get into the bathroom for his bath, when I heard a loud "PUCK", I rushed in and glared at him.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" I demanded angrily.
Sonny boy knew that I was mad. Though he didn't know exactly what for.
He lowered his eyes and mumbled something "-uck".
"WHY did you say that??" I asked again, not really sure of how to react and take him to task.

"Because the scooter made that noise, Amma when I threwed it into the water."

And he proceeded to show me again how his toy scooter made a PUCK sound when he threw it into the bucket of water. Phew!