“Appa, is it okay if we don’t go to Chandra Uncle’s place today?” the girl said to her father as her younger sister, age five, pretended to busy herself with her toys.

Appa looked questioningly at his teenage daughter as he buttoned his shirt.

The family was supposed to visit ‘Chandra Uncle’, Chandraswami to most, who worked at the same office as Appa. He was a childhood friend of Appa and they visited him quite frequently, about four times a month. Appa really looked forward to these visits. He and Chandra Uncle had been in the same class in the same school, and then the same university, and now, after a brief separation, in the same office.

“Why, what’s the matter?” Appa asked, combing his hair.

“He’s such a bore!” complained the daughter.

“Bowwwwwwwring,” chipped in her younger sister.

Appa smiled. He realised that the kids might be out of sorts in adult company. Chandra had never married, and as would be generally expected of unmarried men, he didn’t have any kids. But Chandra was very good with children. He spent a lot of time talking to them about a lot of interesting things.

“Did you speak to Amma about this?” asked Appa, almost as a reflex action. Most contentious issues were passed on to Amma to take care of.

“She said we should talk to you,” the elder daughter said. Appa stole a look at the clock. There was enough time to have a conversation with the kids.

“I don’t think he is boring. I enjoy his company. What’s boring about him?” he asked, sitting on the bed.

“He goes on and on about his plants and the birds, and all that stuff!” said the elder daughter.

“No TV!” complained the younger one, making her case.

“So, what’s wrong with plants and birds? Don’t you like them?” Appa inquired, a trifle hurt that his friend’s interests were being listed as boring.

“Tch! You don’t understand Appa,” said the elder daughter. “He’ll tell us about the Queen’s crepe which grows outside his house. Which is also called Jarul, and which is the official tree of….”

“Marashtra !” said the five year old triumphantly.

“Or he’ll tell us about the Persian Lilac that grows in his garden, also called Bakain, mistaken for Neem, having berries that are narcotic but which strangely have no effect on…”

“Bulbuls!” the younger one completed for her sister.

“Then there’s the dwarf Chiku tree in his garden, called the Chikle tree by the South American Indians who chewed the gum of the tree which is now used to make chicklets!”

“Gaba!” prompted the younger one.

“Yes, the guava growing in his garden has five times the vitamin C than oranges. In Cuba its leaves are also used in barbecues providing a nice smoked flavor and scent to the meat,” continued the elder sister. “Or the balsams growing in the garden which are also called touch-me-nots because when you touch their pods of seeds they….”

“Esplode!!” the younger one completed, waving her arms to mimic an explosion.

Appa laughed. “Rascal!” he exclaimed picking up the younger daughter and sitting her on his lap. “Rascal!” she mimicked, tweaking his moustache.

“I heard that!” said Amma from the bathroom. She was always reproaching Appa for using un-parliamentary language in front of the daughters.

“That’s a lot of interesting information, you know. I am sure your friends in school don’t know all this,” Appa said.

“But it’s boring to hear it over and over again! Remember the two different hibiscus trees in his garden. It’s not enough to admire the red and white flowers. You have to know that the flowers are used as an offering to Goddess Kali and Lord Ganesha. The bark is made of strong fibres which are used in Polynesia for making grass skirts. The red hibiscus is used to treat falling hair and dandruff. Varieties of it are national flowers of Malaysia, Hawaii and South Korea and of the indigenous aborigines of Australia!”

“Hmmm, I know that,” said Appa, stifling a yawn. He had obviously been informed about all this earlier. He looked at the clock and wondered why Amma was not out of the bathroom yet. “I find it fascinating, though,” he said, defending his friend.

“Sure Appa! Then you must also find the Stilts fascinating which are seen at the lake at this time of the year. They are world record holders, having the longest feet-to-body ratio in the bird kingdom!”

“Gilaff?” said the younger sister.

“Yes, the giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch tongue. And not to forget the Adjutant Stork which is so named because the English found its appearance like a human being wearing a stiff dress pacing on a …”

“Palade ground,” the dutiful younger sister completed, and then remembering something else, she shrieked, “Pal-pal More hen!”

“Yes, the purple moorhen. How it presents weeds to its mate during the mating season,” said the elder one.

“He told you about the mating season?” asked Appa, a little surprised.

“Come on Appa, we know,” the elder daughter said, continuing, “We also know that there are 93 kinds of birds that live around our colony, and there are 6 species of European ducks that migrate through here every winter, and how many birds come here from the Himalayas. Oh Appa! It’s all so amazingly boring when you hear it for the fifth time!”

“Okay, okay. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Appa said, finally giving in. He wondered if Amma’s long stint in the bathroom had anything to do with all this.

As the daughters celebrated their victory with whoops of joy, Appa dialed Chandraswami’s number and waited for his friend to pick up the phone. “Hello Chandra…I am feeling quite bored, er… sick today. Shall we shift this to the next weekend?”

“Oh, don’t be such a bore!” came the response.