When Puchi had her first son, Akber, we were all thrilled. He was a cutie.

I never pictured Puchi as a mother. Let’s just say, maternal is not one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about her. That said, her boys, Akber and Abbas, turned out pretty good, so she did something right.

When Akber was a baby, maybe about 8 months old, he started saying a few words. Puchi had begun to teach him what she thought were interesting sounding words, not necessarily interesting in their meaning. She started with relatively innocuous words like feminist and mountain. She would say “fem-i-nist.” And Akber would repeat, “fem-i-nist.” She would say, “moun-tain.” And he would repeat, “moun-tain.”

Then she started teaching him more complicated words, like phen-o-barbi-tal. She would say, “phen-o-barbi,” and he would finish it, “tal.”

He was a fast learner, and began to repeat other words he heard around the house. We were at the Large’s house one day, and Mrs. Large, who had just returned home from Church, was fixing us a snack. And Akber cooed, “bong hit?”