A 'mermaid' out of water... in the woods!

As I'd mentioned in the previous post... the three of us stooges decided to head to watch Kailash Kher at Stern Grove... the setting was very interesting.. set in a grove... with lines of tall redwood trees up a hill on which you could sit and enjoy the beetiphul meesic! I was confused, as I had to be at two places... but eventually decided on Sat to become one more of Allah Ke Bande...

The train ticket adventure all done, and the sandwiches smelling real good (they were from one of my fav places.. 'witchcraft,in SF).. we were on the platform.. trying to figure out the next train to take.. with the Google App for Blackberry (it works better than Shank's iPhonva.. hee haa!) working overtime.. we were joined when we got down at the station near Stern Grove by a lady, who'd come from the East Bay and heading to the same concert... and her toddler.. who already looked travel weary, having taken two trains to get here. We walked towards the grove and the conversation moved to the kiddo's name... As soon as we heard it.. we were all smiles... it was.. well ....that cute.... Jalpari( or Jolpari.. in bong) meaning , a mermaid.. the lady stressed the use of 'o' in the name. Having had some real good bangla friends (and having taught them enough tambi,tamil, for them to survive in south interior tambi-land) we had picked some bits of bong.. and most of the pronunciation. The lady though was pleasantly surprised that south indian looking fellas got it right. :)We found out later that Jolpari was her pet name.. and her real name was.. well.. I forgot what it was, but it had something to do with water too. I quipped that water seemed to be the 'concept' (with Shank giving me the 'You better stop chaating her now')for the names and that we loved it.... and she agreed, having come up with them :))

We walked along, as she negotiated some stroller traffic on the path.. and were confused to see the route we had to take to get to the entrance of the concert. It was a narrow hiking trail, with a pretty steep gradient and tree roots all over the place... and we wondered if that was the only way to get there. Everyone around was taking it... but we realised that Jolpari's mom would struggle. Shank made sure she was fine.. while Nag and I gave the kiddo a sweet smile, made sure she was ok.. and walked the stroller down.. rather.. carried it down!A few twists, turns and tossing around and little Jolpari finally landed on the concert floor... rocking with the thump from the nearby speakers. We were to look after her while her mom went to look for the tickets. She was amazingly unperturbed but seemed to be enjoying.. smiling at the music in the air.She had to climb some more though.. to meet her aunt who was to meet the little princess.This time it was steep and narrow path to climb onto the hillside... and a few minutes later came two people beaming with smiles and arms wide open ... Jolpari ... they exclaimed!The mermaid had made it to watch Kailash Kher... with even a majestic view from up in the hills.. while her mom explained to her folks that that the three gentlemen(clearing my throat) helped her tame the terrain! :)) We waved at little Jolpari and bid goodbye to her... hoping she'd enjoy the music and the setting and would someday be told of this story by her mom.. while playing Allah Ke Bande.As for me, in those minutes when carrying her down,I was as careful as when climbing Yosemite's upper falls last year on a rainy and ridiculously cold day.. the responsibility I guess. All for the little mermaid. Long after we'd danced to Chak de Phatte and clapped our hands until they were red.. when there was a rare moment of silence(considering the two of us chatterboxes hated silence) the first words uttered were...... Jolpari.The most interesting name I'd heard in a while.... Khoob Suonder Naam! :)