100 Paths

This weekend, I had the task of picking up my younger one from a friend’s birthday party at a mall. When I got there, I was unceremoniously dumped with the duty to take home not just my own kid but two others as well. Since my car already had three of us in it (myself, my elder one and the driver), there was no choice but to pile up on top of each other in the backseat.

Giggly and fun-loving as all 13-year-old girls are, the three in the backseat with me began playing on unseemly apps on their various gadgets. One was called ‘The Great Indian Honeymoon’ and involved ‘pleasing the parents-in-law by making an omelette’ and ‘saying the right thing to the husband’ to ensure a good honeymoon. Another was a ‘Fart’ app, which had some 50 different kinds of fart noises to go with pictures of a woman’s butt in different stages of undress.

Now, I haven’t laughed at fart jokes in many years. But this particular app had some really hideous sounds going, and the girls were in splits all over each other. I just could not help joining in the hilarity. The real explosion happened when my elder one, sitting in the front seat, called out while distractedly fiddling around with someone’s Blackberry, “Stop it, guys, you’re so gross, it’s stinking in here.”

When our laughter finally subsided, the girls began to get uncomfortable all squeezed up, but good-naturedly teased one another into better sitting positions, joking about butts, farts and smells. On the 45-minute drive home, I saw examples of friendship, adjustment, innocent joy and guileless playfulness.

Sometimes, it takes a fart or two to bring out the best in us.

(Okay, that does sound gross.)