Muhammad & Laiba……

Muhammad is my bratty almost 4 year old cousin. Whenever he is around he tends to destroys everything in its path. Once he drank up my grand mama attar bottle. (Thank God nothing happened to him because he spilled it more than he would drink) When somebody asked him whether attar tasted bitter , he agreed. Then we asked him why in the world he drank a bitter thing. He went like “Because I wanted to”. This is not the only thing on his mischief list. Whenever he is in my room and I’m working with my laptop he will come and bang on it. But no matter what Muhammad does you will always love him because he is so loving. And he has this most innocent smile so you will believe all the stories and lies he will tell. :D

Laiba is the youngest of the family. She is just 1 year 4 months old. She has learned the joys of walking two months back so she is still exploring the whole villa. Unlike Muhammad who tends be destructive of everything in its path Laiba is inquisitive and want to learn different things. For example some time she closes her eyes and spins around the room trying to make out the room. Or she will look and observe all the plants that are growing. Everybody ADORES her and wants to play with her. She is the apple of our eyes. And although she doesn’t mind us disturbing her , she always prefers to explore on her own. Now Muhammad loves to make fuss over her. Whenever she enters the room still trying to maintain her balance he will run towards her and hug her. And tell her in cooing voice “Woooow laiba itniiiiiiiiii pyariiiii lag rahi hainnnnnn laibaaaaaaa”. Muhammad will actually fight with Hasan (Laiba’s brother) claiming that he is laiba’s brother too. And Hasan will always tell him that Laiba is only his sister. Laiba always ignore Muhammad fussing but when he tries hugging her or to lead her away to play with him she always give him whack with her hand and go her own sweet way. I always see this scene and laugh to myself. And I always laugh because laiba is the only person immune to Muhammad’s innocent smile.

But yesterday during iftari some thing happened that I will always remember. Muhammad got the scolding of his life because he was being destructive as usual. This time he had tried jumping fromthe bed to reach the emergency light on top of the wardrobe. Obviously he would of broken his neck so his mom gave him a thrashing of his life so he wouldn’t repeat his action again. Anyway when Muhammad came in the room with his mom , he was howling and crying. His mom sat down for iftari. Laiba was also in the room with her mom. During iftari Laiba always sits quietly with her mom and never disturb anything or anybody. Anyway suddenly she got up and walked towards the crying Muhammad who had his face hidden in his hands. I was so sure she was going to whack him again for howling. But you know what she did ! She first sort of whacked his hand. Muhammad who was hiding his face looked up to her. Then when she got his attention instead of walking away as she usually does she actually patted on his head like she was giving him comfort. And she walked back to her mom. I smiled for I realized so Laiba wasn’t immune to Muhammad's smile after all.