My maid and the balloons

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • indianlooner3
    Member
    • Aug 2017
    • 32

    My maid and the balloons

    Parents sometimes apply a very primitive concept when they discover that their child has a fear of something. They make their child face the fear. If a child fears a dog, they make him sit on a huge dog for sometime. If he/she is scared of firecrackers, they burst a cracker in front of them. Sometimes they literally take the idiom - “Face your Fears” but they forget kids have a different psychology. They feel the fear will fade away with such instances.

    Well I too had to face such a treatment for having a fear of balloons.

    Well I was 7 years old and was invited to my niece’s 2nd birthday. Birthdays were obviously uncomfortable for me because of the balloons of various sizes. But I was mostly comfortable as I knew the balloons would be burst just after the cake cutting and in 30 to 40 secs all balloons would be eradicated by all the happy kids who just wait for the moment to dig their fingers in the tightly inflated latex.

    So we played the usual games and when the time came to cut the cake, I sneaked up to the terrace as I heard the faint noises of the apple shaped balloons being burst.

    I showed up back again just in time and had a piece of the cake. That's when my maternal aunt came face to face with me and asked - “Where were you during the cake cutting ?”
    “I had to go to the bathroom.”, I said the most common lie in the 90s.

    “Hmmm..” exclaimed my aunt and walked away.

    I was happy. I attended a party and also managed to workaround my fear.
    But happiness sometimes is shortlived and I got to know the following weekend.

    My mom was out for the afternoon and I was under the watchful eye of Shobha, my maid, that afternoon.

    Shobha was a lovely lady too and had known for a huge part of my childhood. Thus me having a fear of balloons was also known to her. She knew this because at times when I would go out for my evening walk with her while she shopped the essentials for the homes. As we would pass by a balloon seller who would sell an assortment of apples, hearts and bladder balloons containing smaller balloons, she would ask me if I would want one, and I would decline. On one occasion as we were passing by the balloon seller, I saw him blowing a heart shaped balloon which had a very common tendency to pop those days. Seeing it, I quickly tried to cover my ears. “You are scared of balloons ?” she said smilingly.
    But luckily we just passed by.

    Well that afternoon, my aunt stopped by to meet my mom for some work I guess. But apparently she wanted to meet and give me something too. The maid opened the door and she walked in.

    “Hi sweety..”, said my aunt. “How are you? “

    “I am fine.” I replied.

    “Did you enjoy the birthday party ? she asked as she started looking for something in her big purse.

    “Yeah I did. ” I said.
    “Then why did you run away during the cake cutting ?” she asked quizzically

    I was a bit taken aback.

    “Are you still scared of balloons ?” she asked and presented a packet of those apple balloons R2000.
    It was already an opened packet so perhaps they were left overs from the party. But it still contained about 30 to 40 balloons and 2 huge bladder balloons. I started warming up a bit probably with fear.

    “Shall we blow up some balloons ? I feel like playing.” said aunt in a childishly fun way.

    “No..Thank you aunty.” I carefully declined.

    “Shobha do you want some balloons?” asked my aunt which I found a bit funny. I mean why would my maid want balloons.

    “Sure I will take some. Infact I will blow some right now too.” she said and grabbed some from my aunts hands and sat down near me.

    That's when I realized the adults had once again schemed this trap. Neither wanted to play with balloons they just wanted me near the balloons. But to be honest, even though I was scared, I wanted to see them being blown up. I liked watching them being inflated by mouth.

    Now i had never seen my maid blowing up any balloon forget these big R2000s.

    She started stretching a dark red balloon and probably gave 3 to 4 good stretches and then held it sideways towards her left with the mouth of the balloon docked with her lips. This itself confirmed me that she is used to blowing balloons. She gave mouthful of air and the balloon simply swelled up from the middle portion. Soon she was giving rapid blows to the balloon and it was growing at an alarming rate. But she wouldn’t do one thing. She would never check the tightness of the balloon while blowing. She would occasionally stop and stretch the neck more and continue confirming my theory that she is like those people who keep blowing balloons till there is just enough space in the neck to tie it up.

    Well this was bad news, for me.

    The balloon was now its rated size. And thank God she finally stopped and started tying it. But then.

    “Shobha blow it more. It can become bigger.” said my aunt about whom I had totally forgot.

    “Oh sure.” the maid responded and gave 2 more stretches to the neck of the balloon before latching it back to her lips.

    She started blowing again but this time slowly probably because she too expected a pop.
    But now the neck started really swelling up. The red orb looked fantastic in her puffed up mouth which was ready to give one more blow. But I was equally scared and my fingers immediately responded by inserting themselves in my ears.

    She gave one more blow and still the balloon took it bravely and held on. This time she removed it and stretched the neck once more which was very little in my knowledge.I thought atleast now she would tie it up. But she smiled looking at me and put the balloon back in her mouth for more blowing.

    I wish she had tied the balloon. Because as her puffed mouth started pushing more air inside the humongous balloon, it gave up.

    BOOOOOOMMMMMM

    Even with my covered ears, the boom was still hugely audible.

    And both my aunt and maid were laughing. Probably they had their share of childish fun.
    I thought my maid had had enough. But no. She grabbed onto another balloon. This time she started stretching a bright yellow balloon.

    “Ok Shobha, this time blow it nice and tight and tie it up.” said my aunt which confirmed my theory that she somehow indirectly asked her to deliberately blow to pop.

    Anyways my maid managed to blow up 5 more balloons upto the max capacity. Well lets just say she had managed to overinflate and still tie them up. There was an Orange, Red, Dark Blue (my favourite), a Dark Green and the bright yellow. By now even the room smelled of the latex. I was under some impression that my maid would take them away because she wanted the balloons, but somehow my tiny logical brain wondered why would she blow them up if she wanted to take away with her ?
    Somehow, I had figured out the answer that the balloons were there to stay and were probably for me.

    “Wow, So many nice balloons. So pretty they are.” exclaimed my aunt who just came to the room after being away for a while.

    She bent to grab the orange one and no sooner than she touched them, the balloon burst with another bang. And the blasts vibrations were probably too much for its dark green neighbor and it burst too.
    Total Hell lost. Bangs everywhere.

    My aunt was just laughing. And I just ran off from the room

    But some amazing balloon blowing.
  • blfun98
    Member
    • Nov 2018
    • 46

    #2
    Re: My maid and the balloons

    Nice story, It brings me back my childhood feelings

    Comment

    • palloncino90
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2018
      • 391

      #3
      Re: My maid and the balloons

      I always appreciate your stories.
      Thank you for sharing.
      I want to live surrounded of big and colorful balloons

      Comment

      • indianlooner3
        Member
        • Aug 2017
        • 32

        #4
        Re: My maid and the balloons

        ohh how nice of you..
        thank you..

        Comment

        Working...
        😀
        😂
        🥰
        😘
        🤢
        😎
        😞
        😡
        👍
        👎