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Happy 10th
Toyna will celebrate her 10th Birthday tomorrow! Like all mothers, I am feeling happy, proud and a little bit bewildered. Where did the time fly? Is it really 10 years, or am I counting it wrong?? Sigh! 10 years it is! All though, I will admit that all of them were not equally glorious. The first 5-6 years after having Toyna, I was just another super paranoid mother constantly worried about providing a perfect childhood to my daughter. I used to constantly worry about her being too weak, too dark, too serious, too naughty, too fussy, too skinny, too small,…. About her watching too much TV, reading too few books,…
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Taming the Ladybird
Like most urban parents, we indulged Toyna, as a child, with all possible toys that our economic condition allowed. She had a walker even before she could stand and a cycle even before she could run. Over time, some toys got passed on to younger cousins and some piled up in our home. She was gifted a new Ladybird cycle by her grandmother for her 10th birthday. With that the count of children’s cycles in our house went upto four. Toynas grandmother and I conspired to skip one stage of cycle in between and ended up buying this last stage cycle for Toyna. I know Toyna would have been comfortable…
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I Believe I can Fly
I was born in a small paradise in India. Clean, beautiful, small and self sufficient, it is a city which is the envy of most bustling capitals across the world. Chandigarh – one of the only two planned cities of the world is the capital city of both Haryana and Punjab. But that is not what makes it unique. That is not what I remember when I think of my days in Chandigarh. When I think of Chandigarh, I think of the long cycle tracks, hidden between thick, green, shady trees; running criss cross through the entire city. It is on these tracks that I have spent most of my teen…
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The Perfect World
Three days of utter chaos finally settled into a calm and peaceful evening as Yog recovered from a bad flu. High fever running for three straight days had left the entire home overcast with dull grey clouds. As we returned back from the doctors visit, reassured that Yog was going to be fine soon, the silver lining to the clouds was slowly becoming wider. As Yogs Grandfather navigated the busy roads of Hyderabad during the peak evening office hours, Yog, Toyna and me settled down comfortably on the back seat of the car. The long drive, the weakness from the illness and the soft music made sure that Yog soon…
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One Afternoon
The afternoon clock said it was 2:30 p.m. The caller on the phone was desperate. My heart grew heavier as I listened in. Not again, not today. I just couldn’t manage to leave office today. I pacified the caller with an assurance that I would come home if the situation did not improve in the next ten minutes. I looked again at the clock in the corner of my laptop screen. It was not cooperating. It was just 2:31 p.m. There were 89 more excruciating minutes before Toyna would get home. I pushed my chair and got up from my seat. The document on the screen was no longer important. I…
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Creating Happy Memories
Human mind is a very powerful thing. Irrespective of what is physically happening around us, it is capable of creating a world of it’s own making, for us to live in, not only for the present but also the past and the future. I learnt about this fact from Toyna when she was six years old. When Toyna was 4 years old, she had a freak accident playing on a slide in our neighborhood park. Her right elbow was smashed and a sharp bone piece also injured the nerves in the arm. The injury was so severe that at a point there was little hope of ever recovering the movement of her…
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Love you Mom
What is that about being a mother that brings out the worst behavior of your child in front of you!?!! This question has been bothering me for days now. My kids, behave very well with grandparents, school teachers and others, i.e. till the time I appear on scene. The minute they see me, all their bottled up emotions, spill over in one devastating flood. Whenever I pick up Yog from school, I try and observe him from a distance before he gets to know that I am around. He seems to be all happy and playful and not the least bit stressed out. But that is until he sees me.…
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Read Me from Inside
When I was growing up, I used books to help me find my way in life. Not the way, one would traditionally expect books to be used (by reading them). Whenever in doubt, I remember opening a random book at a random page and reading out a random line from that page. I was once told that random lines, like these, can help one find the answer they are seeking. Looking back, I understand how it worked. The random line helped put into words, the deepest thought that I was not able to find on my own. The answer was always there inside me, but sometimes it needed a…
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Physical Change vs. Chemical Change
. Teaching Science to a nine year old can make you learn some deep lessons yourself. We spoke about matter today and the fact that it is made up of molecules. We also discussed the various states of matter namely solid, liquid and gas. We then talked about the difference between physical change and chemical change of matter. Physical change is defined as a change in matter, where only its physical form changes but the molecules remain the same. For example, cutting a paper into two pieces. Chemical change on the other hand, is a change where the molecules of the matter themselves change. For example, burning the paper makes it into…
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The Default Settings for Our Body
When Yog was small and didn’t know any of his sign language, it was often a challenge to make out what he was trying to communicate. Over time, experience taught me that there were only a limited number of things that could make an infant cry. These include – milk, when they are hungry; sleep, when they are tired; hug, when they need to feel loved; blanket, when they are cold; fan, when they are hot and lastly a change of diaper when the diaper is wet. So when an infant is crying, you normally check on all these things and address the one that needs attention. Surprisingly, few days back,…
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