lazy bones!

Its early in the morning and Mowgli and I are snuggling to ecah other. Suddenly he sits up and says, "mama, athenthu sounda?" (What is that sound?)
I tell him, "The birdies are telling you Get up Get up".
A big smile and eyes tightly closed, the reply comes " Alla Mama, birdies parayuva, Sleep Sleep"!!!!

He has inherited his aunts' ( both paternala nd maternal) laziness!

Of small boys and big dialogues!

I ask the BH to press my legs.
Immediately a small voice pipes up " Venda Dada... athu tanne marikolum!" (dada, no need. It'll go away on its own!!!!) I'm rearing a teeny weeny chauvinist at home!!!

The Threes begin!!!

Happy Birthday Mowgli boy :-)

Time does fly, isnt it. Three years before this time, I was still in the hospital starving and scared and sick of the whole thing. I just wanted you to come out and finish this pregnancy business!!! Who would have thought that you would grow up to be this cute boy ? (P.s.Cute is a very relative term and something which I think we will use sparingly and your grandparents will find it inadequate to describe you and people who see you for the first time will gasp in shock if they hear Cute associated with you!)

You have grown up to be a very very naughty boy! A nice kind of naughtiness but.
You love to hug and kiss other people especially children and there have been many instances where the other kid has pushed you away and said "No. Enough!"
You have to hear at least three stories every night and most days you give us the list of the animals that need to be in the story. Like the other day , you wanted a story about the "kubcow". It took us some time to figure out that you meant a "calf"!!!
Cocoa is now your friend and ally. You have been heard threatening random people with the phrase " Cocoa will come and bite you!" You are yet to realize that your big bad doggie is a pure softie and will happily go with all your enemies if they would just pat her!
And you are a riot at times like when you tried to give a Hi-Five to the priest who did your vidyarambam.. The poor man didnt understand and we converted it to a hand shake. Or the time when you dismantled the almost broken lift handle and brought it home without me seeing and when asked for an explanation told me " Mowgli repait cheyan konduvanatha!(I'm going to repair it). Your dada was unaware of this and screamed at the security guards about how the handle was missing from the lift door! Or the time when we were on the terrace and you were kicking a ball and suddenly stopped and told me " mama, clap cheyu. waka waka paadu. Mowgli fooball kalikuva!" ( Mama, clap your hand and sing Waka Waka. I'm playing football!)
You are just waiting to be a big boy to get that guitar and set of drums. I'm also waiting...with dread though!!!
We are friends most of the days though we fight every single minute.You are your dada's pet. The limits are more relaxed there and you take full advantage of that. You like music and one day on seeing a random cd asked me if it was "moyt chofan". Well,it was not Mohit Chauhan, but you did make my day.. hehehhehe.
So today as on all other days I pray for your wellbeing, that God will take care of you always, help you decide between right and wrong and be with you always.
We, tho are a constant!!!
Cheers!
Mama

P.S. you have gone to your daycare very excited about your 'Lion Cake' and how You and Dhruva and Rehaan will finish it all off!

introspection...

Most problems come from the insecurities within… of fears that once surfaced and now refuse to die down…. of not trusting the other enough…. of judging too soon and too harsh.

Two religions.. different rituals.. different thoughts.. but are they also different? The thoughts? Shouldn’t they be the link that bind?

Who is family? when do we move away from our parents? Treat them as extended family and not immediate.

Is trust overrated? Why cant we just let go? Believe that the other will be fair. Believe that we are priority. Believe in the decision. Treat everything else as noise. Cocoon ourselves in this family.

In our hopscotch world, we need to create our own family traditions.. borrow some.. make some.. but all those that we believe in… both of us.. for our family and the ones to follow….

Look at the life ahead and the years wasted… make an effort to reclaim lost land… realize the happiness in being together with each other.. for each other always…
Life…

And wat somebody told me very recently.. we create the atmosphere which determines how people will react to us/behave with us…

From the mouth of babes!

Me : “ Mowgli, what did you do in daycare today?”
Mowgli : “ mama, 3 moskikos bite me!” and proceeds to show me three minuscule marks.
Me grinning widely at the mosquitoes from Moscow! : “ and then what happened?”
Mowgli : “ Then three bluds came!”
We all lose it at this stage…

At night I’m singing some old song to him. “mama, ee paatu venda.. Mowglinte favrit paatu kaito aanu.” ( not this song. My favourite song is kaito). I totally don’t get which song this is. He gives me long explanations of how he used to listen to this song and all. Finally he gets totally exasperated with me and runs and gets my mobile. “ ithilanu kaito” (kaito is inside this).. and then it strikes me.. it was Kahin Tu from jaane tu ya jaane na.. that used to be the only song stored in my mobile and long time back it was kept on loop for him to sleep. Don’t know why he suddenly remembered that song.

From God who was an abstract, Mowgli has somehow understood that God can get things done! One night in our daily prayers the first line by Mowgli was “Dear God, mowglinte toys loftinu eduthu taaa!” ( Get me my toys from the loft!) . Because he was naughty and was not keeping his toys back, I hid them away and told him that he’ll not get it again. And the again another day, he got these Bible quotes and was pretending to read them. I told him he was too small for this and maybe once he starts big school he can read one everyday. The reply I get “ Illa mama.. Mowglinu vayikaam. God parayuva Mowglinu 1 kinderjoy and 1 car also venam nu” ( No mama, I can read. God says , get Mowgli one kinderjoy and one car also).. Really?????

early teens?

There is something about a kid's responses that can leave you shocked and rooted to the ground!
The BH is away on a 10 day trip and we are alone. And as always whenever the BH is not there, Mr. Mowgli is invariably more cranky, Cocoa is definitely more naughty and I am certainly not at my best managing the two. Trips to the terrace lugging a dog, a cycle, a cover full of broken precious cars and a pint sized kid who throws a tantrum at EVERY single step! The first one is for forgetting to get the football ( did he think I have hidden arms?) , the next for not carrying him, the next for not allowing him to say Hi to all the neighbors on all the floors, the next for God alone knows what. The neighbors give me weak smiles wondering why I’m such a irritated person. I really don’t know why I take the trouble to do this . But once we reach the terrace everything is forgiven and forgotten. Cocoa is happy and running about like a crazy dog, Mowgli has arranged his toys and is playing with them quietly and I slowly exhale. The cool breeze sort of cools my heart also and I stand there lost. One of my close friends once said “ You need so little to be happy” . Yes, its true. But the reverse is also true, a little hurt can plunge me into depths you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to go”. I’ve tried controlling the intensity of my emotions and I’ve realized that it’s not possible for me to scale it down. There is only black and white in my world. Either I love you or don’t. It’s as simple as that. I might rage against you, make you laugh crazily, make you want to tear off your hair in frustration but all that only if I love you. If I don’t then you don’t even exist for me. You can do whatever you want, it will not make any difference to me. As you guessed it I can be a pain in a relationship :-) I try to be stable, God knows that I try..i rarely succeed though.

But I digress. So after the terrace thing, I again repeat the steps – lug dog, pick up cars, leave a howling Mowgli in the terrace and slowly make my way down. Mowgli after howling the place down realizes that its getting dark and his cruel mama is not going to carry him and slowly walks down to the flat.

In two seconds flat he has arranged all his toys on the table again. I try to clean up the flat from one end, he clutters it up from the other! I shout at him and a pitiful voice pipes out “ why mama you are like this?” and that is the final straw. It is a direct hit to the heart and soul and whatever and its all that’s needed to make me feel like the biggest failure ever! Tears tumble down and the usual blame game starts within my mind- how I’m always shouting, not happy with anything blah blah blah.. I’m sure he doesn’t even realize what he’s just said. I don’t even know from where he learnt this. Maybe from the same place that he heard “Go away. I no your fren.”

I leave him with his toys, go to our balcony and stand there looking at the plants. Soon, a wet nose snuggles in to my legs and tries to push me down. I sit down and hug Cocoa and start to cry again for everything and anything. It’s that moment when I love cocoa with all my heart, whatever I do to her good or bad she is always there.

Some time later one small boy comes upstairs hunting for me and hugs me hard and asks “ Mama, you are my fren?” We hug each other and stay that way for a long time forgiven by each other .

Till the next fight!

Mowgli-isms!!!

Irritated mama: “Mowgli put away your toys. I’ve told you NO toys on the dining table”
Rebellious son : “ Mama, I play on table okay? You no disturb me. Go do your joli (work). Okay?”
Hello??? Are we having parallel conversations here?

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The BH is busy packing his stuff for a week long trip. Mowgli comes to me and starts complaining “ dada notty boy! He no play with me. I no frens with dada. Notty boy”

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In the morning while we are seeing off the BH. The little imp hugs the BH hard and says “ Dada, office ponda.. nammaku kettipidichu babo veykaam” ( don’t go to office. Lets hug and sleep). The father melts into a puddle on hearing this and is almost ready to bunk!
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“Mowgli wear your monkey cap.” Mowgli on turning the cap all around,” mama monkey ebide?” ( Where’s the monkey?) . Good question. Why is it called a monkey cap? God alone knows!

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And yesterday, in front of me my little boy who was scared to sit on his small chair a year back because his feet would not touch the ground, he climbed on to the kitchen counter using the drawer handles as steps!!!! There is no safe place in this house anymore…