The adventures of Laurel & Hardy

I had the habit of telling my daughter bed time stories till she was 5 years old. It had to be a new one every night and also it had to be really interesting with all the sounds and other expressions to suit the mood. I used to break my head for a suitable one to tell her. To help myself, I got few bedtime story books too, but nothing helped. She won't want anything from them. She wanted me to think and tell. So it had to be all imaginative all the time. Since it had to be imaginative to boot, I did what I was best at. I would include all things that I would want her to do on daily basis and what good habits babies should have. It was fun watching her do it as she was happy to do them if it was told as a story and a morel behind it. At one point, I used to have nightmares thinking what to tell her. And moreover it had to be in telugu with all the sound effects. One night I hit upon Laurel and Hardy and cooked up a story with a theme that's so dear to her heart. She is very fond of birthday parties and will always keep asking when her birthday will come. Her birthday falls during summer when the school is closed, so just that she doesn't miss treating her friends, I send her with box of chocolates for her friends during the last few days of school before the school closes. But still she never gets over it.

So this story caught her imagination and I repeated it many times to her. Not sure if the Emotion and meaning gets conveyed through this media as I tell her in telugu. I always have this problem with translation. But I remembered that I forgot many such stories that I used to cook up for her. These pencil sketches were done much before my marriage, but I took them down to show her the characters. Its been quite sometime since I told her any stories before she sleeps. After the twins, its been extremely difficult to give so much attention to this, it pains knowing that she must've missed that part of her growing up. Hubby dear promised to address this. Infact after the twins birth, for more than 4 months he was telling her the story of Moogli the Jungle boy. It ran as a mega soap. He was frustrated beyond his means to work up his imagination to keep pace with her but he completed the series quite successfully.

Let me get along with the story before I forget

Once upon a time, there lived two friends called Loorel and Hardy

One day, their friend came to invite them for her birthday party!

"Loorel and Hardy, tomorrow is my birthday and

will you please come to my party?" said the friend.

Next morning both of them got up from bed, yawning and stretching from sleep.

As soon as they got up, they brushed their teeth! Both thought loudly

"Eh, What shall we do today?. Suddenly they remembered their friends birthday party.

Arre, its our friends birthday and what else we get for her???..ahhh...she likes flowers

Lets go buy some for her now. " said Loorel "Okie lets go then' agreed hardy

So they took their bicycle and climbed the uphill to buy some flowers.

They were going on and on, suddenly BANG they heard a noise. Wondering from where it came,

they looked down to see their tyre punched. Aer! cycle tyre is punctured, what else we do now.

It will get late for the birthday party. Said a dismayed Hardy

They pushed their punctured cycle down the hill, when suddenly they heard a lorry coming their way. hah hha a lorry is coming, lorry is comings, lets ask it to take us down. so they ran towards it and waved their hands.

The Lorry driver was one mean looking guy. He started at them and shouted "hey why didn't you stop me?"

"Xcuse me, Xcuse me, sorry about it, but can you give us a lift" said Loorel and hardy in unison. We have a birthday party to attend but our cycle got punctured and we are still looking to buy the flowers. But we so desperately want to make to the party. Please please give us a lift.

Ok, they climb fast and don't keep talking. Hey what's that you have there? asked the driver.

This is our punctured cycle, we can't obviously leave it behind. The driver was very angry but seeing that the guys were pleasant, he helped them move to the lorry. The lorry moves ahead once all are comfortable.

Suddenly Loorel shouts "A Look over there, driver stop driver stop!. The driver jumps on the brake and asks what's the matter now??. See there is a flower garden over there, since we couldn't get the flowers for our friend from the market,

we will try to get from there!

Ok if you want to get down, then make it fast. But I will not stop for you guys. That's ok, thank you very much for the lift, said both the friends. And they hurried to the garden. Inside a beautiful garden with so many flowers, they saw a stern looking person watering the plants. Xcuse me Xcuse me, can we pluck some flowers! pleaded Hardy. The gardener got angry and sniffed at them saying "Don't you know you should not pluck flowers from plants???"

"Sorry gardener but today's is our dear friends' birthday. We came to buy flowers but our cycle got punctured and we couldn't go to buy the flowers." said the Loorel. Can we just pluck few for her, please! Its her birthday and we don't want to go empty handed and she loves these flowers. "Oh, for a birthday, fine, just few and not many Ok," said the gardener.

The friends happily plucked few flowers and ran down the hill rolling their bicycle along!. They reached the friends' place just in time. There friend was so happy seeing them. Oh Loorel and Hardy, so sweet of you to come. I knew you would come, we are waiting for both of you. Shall we start!!. Loorel and hardy were so excited. They jumped and said yes.

The cake was brought and all of them gathered to sing. "Happy Birthday to you", Happy Birthday to you". Happy Birthday to you dear friend. And may God bless you". They all clapped and wished her. When they gave the bunch of flowers, their friend was so so happy. She hugged and jumped seeing her favorite flowers. Thank you thank you, so sweet of you to get me flowers. I just love them so much! said their friend.

Now lets go eat the cake and other goodies that we have for you! Both Loorel and Hardy went and joined their friends and had a great time laughing and talking. Suddenly they saw the watch and exclaimed," Oh its very late, we got to go to bed, it will get late for school tomorrow! Bye bye friend. Thanks for inviting us for a great party" they said to their friend.

After bidding everybody bye, they came back home. They changed to night dress, brushed their teeth and had a hot bath and went to bed thinking of the lovely time they had with their friends. Hardy was about to ask something to Loorel. But Loorel said "Go to sleep hardy, it will get late for school tomorrow".Good night sweet dreams!

So saying this, he is off to sleep the moment his head hits the pillow!

Come back tomorrow for the next action in Tom & Jenny's Love Story!