Kutti's Saree

I noticed something beautiful yesterday while cooking; from my kitchen window I can see the terrace of the adjacent building, I see a lady and her daughter Kutti, well there's a lot to tell about Kutti, but let's just concentrate on this bit.

So, I see Kutti and her mother(who happens to be a maid) on the terrace where the mom is drying some clothes which might very well be of Kutti's size, but no, it's not those clothes that tempt her, but a dupatta which is very similar in print to her mom's saree. She runs with it while the mother screams for her to return it, and quietly gets behind the tiny room on the terrace, maybe mimicking her mom's action when she changes clothes, innocently hiding from the only person she knows can see her changing. Little does she know that the side that she's hiding on directly faces my window. Now, this tiny girl, 4-5 years of age, all excited, starts draping the dupatta on herself like a saree, and as I notice, yes, she's good. She knows all the tricks of draping the saree. The one round on the waist, the pleats, resting the remaining length of the cloth on your shoulder, making the pallu. I look at her and am amazed, I still can't get the hang of wrapping a saree perfectly.

What amazes me further is when done she runs to her mother to show it and is screaming 'Bilkul aapke jaise!'. This reminds me of how I wanted to be just like my mother when I was a kid, I wanted to dress like her, look like her, and yes, for a brief time I even wanted to be a lawyer like her. All I can hope is that Kutti dreams of something better,that all the hard work her mother puts in to have a decent living for her child pays off, and we see a Kutti who makes her mother proud, the same way she did when she jumped outside the hidden wall to surprise her mom in the saree.