Shaurya's Chronicles

Happy To You....

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I know I have written after a long time. Well if the wait has been long, the post has to be a special one and what better than one about my Hero's birthday celebrations as he enters the age of 'Troublesome Two's'.

His birthday was on January 8 and was attended by a few close friends and family members at a Pizza Hut outlet in GK-I. There were no kids his age as he still has no friends around but I am sure he did not mind that and really had a great time, as there were so many of us to pamper him and dole all our love at him - our little prince.

For the occasion, I dressed him up in a nice black coat, with a tie and a matching cap and I guess he knew it too that he was looking very handsome and he posed smartly for a couple of pictures that we took.

Now as soon as we got the cake and laid it on the table, he was all set to cut it. I was kind of surprised that he did not have to be told what to do and was all ready with the knife on his own. He readily passed the knife through the cake and clapped on his own and sang, “Happy To You”.. We all couldn’t help laughing and I was smiling at the fact that he finally is learning things at school. And even when we all were finished cutting the cake and having it, he still wanted to carry on with the knife and kept singing his "Happy To You" song.

The next thing he did was even funnier than his version of the birthday song. My hero caught hold of the match box which was used to light the birthday candles and in no time, he was playing with the match sticks and suddenly we saw him put a drinking straw in his mouth as he was holding the matches.

Well, for him it was just another prank, but for us, it appeared as if he was trying to light a cigarette. His activity continued for another five minutes and the only thing we all did was to observe his prank. We all started laughing and he was taken aback at our behavior. May be he just got surprised at the way we all laughed at his antics. I am not sure if he saw someone light up a cigarette before him and just aped the exercise or was it just some innocent child play. What ever it was, it just cemented my belief further that we as parents need to be very watchful of our actions and careful of the words that we use when he is around.

I guess I shall leave it to him about the choices he makes in his life and things and habits that he wants to pick up. Who knows if he would even care for my opinion then? But then all this while as I watch him grow and take decisions and make choices and mistakes, I wish to stand guard and protect him as much as I can..but then I know that someday I shall have to let go..but until then, I am all there for you son, whenever you need me.

Love you and God Bless.

Shaurya goes to Play School

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A mother is the first teacher a child gets. It is very important that the mother be open to ideas and is able to logically evaluate a situation and take sound decisions which can help her select and develop the right kind of environment a child needs to be brought up in. I guess during these early years, extrinsic factors play a pivotal role in channeling a child's energies and developing his interests which become instrumental in later years for him to pick the right career and a better life. 

We, as parents held different views at the notion of Shaurya going to a play school as young as he is. I was both anxious and nervous at the idea of his being out of the house initially. However, after many discussions and arguments, we finally agreed on sending Shaurya to a play school.

Luckily for us, we found a good place nearby which functioned both as play school and a day care. We were yet to know how Shaurya would react to the situation and were apprehensive if he would like it there, so we took him along with us when we went to seek information regarding the admission process and all.

My little champ, much to our delight was happy to be there and as soon as we went to check out the classrooms, his excitement knew no bounds. He kept running around and entered a class higher than his level and quickly pulled a chair, took a sheet and picked up a crayon and began drawing lines all over the sheet. Well, on a closer look I noticed that he actually tried using more than a single crayon on the paper and I am more tempted to call it as Shaurya’s first drawing than a spaghetti of lines. 

I guess all our apprehensions were put to rest that day and we completed the necessary formalities and had Shaurya finally admitted to his first school.

THE FIRST DAY: His first day at school got him even more excited. As soon as he entered the school gate, he went directly up the stairs to his room and then he wanted to be all over the place. I had to go downstairs to fill up his form and fees and all I could hear was Shaurya’s loud ‘Yeeeeeaaahhhhh', & ‘Woooooooow’.. which meant that he was having a great time.

He was given a school diary, a bright red book with his picture and our details inside, along with a round hand painting which read "Welcome to the Circle Family" and he was all happy and charged up about it. 

I was so excited to see all this and the only thing he did was to yell and cry to go back to his class. It was kind of difficult to get him out of there. Luckily one of his cousins was with me and could divert his attention and I could bring him back home without much cry & hullabaloo. 

I am glad that he has taken well to his new school and that he is all too happy to be out there and do his own thing, be with other children his age and play and learn new things. I really hope and pray that he continues happily so and in turn really cultivates an inclination for school and education and well...make me proud some day.

I as his mother, hope to stand by him, watch him grow and be a man of values and able judgement, caring and praying for him and all that is within my capacity for him to reach great heights.

"All the best, Son."

Mother's Panic, Baby's Ride

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At times life catches you unaware and turns the otherwise seemingly mundane events into frantic adventures. Well, I had one such misadventure lately and without offense to anyone this one goes as a lesson to all the mothers who trust their babies to babysitters and friends and others only to find them locked up inside their cars... yeah with keys inside the car.

Shaurya lately has started seeking company and often urges to tag along with anyone who passes by the main door of the house. At times he gets so aggressive to move out of the house that it seems as if he hates staying at his own home. He has made a few friends around and quite often loves spending time at the neighbour’s house. And it seems that he has a good time there too, may be because they have a dog or may be he gets too much of attention, and then comes back loaded with candies.

Very often our neighbour’s young daughter takes him over to spend the evening with them. Just yesterday evening, she took him along to park her car onto one side. She put him in the passenger seat and parked the car and came out of it to take him out from the other side and suddenly realized that she had locked the car and had even left the keys inside.

I was watching all this from the balcony and was horrified as soon as I realized that something was wrong. And to top everything she didn’t even have the spare keys to the car.

I was frantic and kept banging on the windows seeking Shaurya's attention and using all signs and all of ‘his languages’ to get him to pull up the lock on his own, but all in vain. My little champ was oblivious to all the commotion around him and busied himself playing with the steering wheel and the gear box and was laughing at the way we all were running around like crazy.

After having tried looking up for spare keys, searching for locksmiths and all things in the vicinity, we tried forcing the lock using a foot ruler but even this didn’t help. And all this while my little devil kept looking at us from inside, laughing and enjoying the circus around him.

I was beginning to get all tense and worried now and was on the verge of losing my composure and would have broken down crying had it not been for a good Samaritan who came over and helped us out and to my relief opened the door by forcing a stick through the window.

The interesting thing was that once the door was open and when I tried taking Shaurya out of the car, he was totally unwilling to get out of his play area. He had no idea of what his mother was going through and how worried I had been.

I guess this is how life goes. A mother would wail her heart out for his child and the child can be lost in his own world. Anyway, the only meaningful lesson that I could get out of the entire episode was to never trust some one you love more than yourself, to anyone else.

"Nai-Nai" & Here Y' Go

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So, one thing that my little champ has been fond of and which I still have not put in, is his natural liking for water and his eagerness to be in the shower.

I have, personally come across many a children who detest taking a bath like anything and it is usually an uphill task for their mothers to have them cleaned up without being audience to a huge uproar from them. Luckily for me, my Hero takes in after me on this aspect and loves to be in water - be it his bath tub, shower or when in pool with me.

Now the down side of his affection for bathing and water is that he wants to accompany everyone who is heading for a shower. He keeps chanting ‘Nai Nai’ which is his own term for bathing.

One has to see the smile on his face to understand what I am talking about. His happiness knows no bounds and he is his joyful best and keeps reciting “Ba Ba Black Sheep” and “Johnny Johnny” when in shower. I guess he really loves this particular time of the day.

However, the easier it is to get him in the shower, the difficult it is to get him out. I have to throw a dozen reasons for him to be out of his bath tub at times, luring him with toys and God, knows what.

And then the shower ritual has to be succeeded with a fixed pattern of post-shower activities. As a routine practice, I apply baby powder, lotion and hair oil to him after he has had his bath. He has now become smart enough to know that all this has to follow once he is out of the water and now asks for his 'cosmetics' by chanting "Here Y' Go" on and on. (I reckon he picked up this "Here You Go" phrase from me, as I used to say it to him when powdering him and stuff)

Anyway, it so happened that I was down with a backache a few days back and his Daddy volunteered to give him his daily shower. When it came to drying him, he had no idea that powder, lotion and oil had to be applied and he made Shaurya wear his clothes right away. I guess my little  prince was quick to point out that some thing was amiss and kept on chanting, "Here Y' Go"

His Daddy was just not able to make out what he was trying to say, and as it had to be after a while my baby started crying. All the commotion made me get up from bed and once I understood what the situation was, I could not help have a hearty laugh despite all my backache.

Later, in the day I was reminiscing about the incident and could not help wondering at my little bundle of joy. Maybe one of these days when I grow old and want things, he would bring me my stuff and tell me "Here You Go, Mamma" !!

Shaurya still doesn't speak properly and picks up words at random, but I guess that hasn't deterred him from learning his first lessons on cleanliness.

I am kind of particular about keeping the place neat and tidy and really prefer having things around me spick and span. It so happened that, the other day, the household help didn’t turn up and I was doing the dusting around the house. I did not notice this but my little prince, as usual, was keenly observing what his Mom was busy with. 

So away he went and got his shorts from somewhere and began aping me. I took it as an opportunity to teach him a new word and started repeating.. ‘Dusting’ and then brushed on a decoration piece to help him correlate the word. His little mind did work hard at it and the next thing he did was to come near me and started dusting me. Probably this was his way of reminding me that I was messy too from the morning chores and needed a shower. I could not help being amused over the fact that of all things in the vicinity the only thing that my Hero found worth dusting was his Mamma. 

Talking about cleanliness reminds me of another of Shaurya's antics, this time for brushing his teeth. While in US, my sister used to make it a point to hand him a toothbrush in the morning to get him to inculcate the habit. He did pick up the habit quickly, may be because he used to see my sister's daughter, who is not much older than him, do it and he learnt how to do it on his own.

And, now when we are back home, he kind of lost the trick and now I have to force him to hold the brush and then he throws all his tantrums so as to avoid the morning routine.

However, for past two or three days now I suddenly noticed that he was onto brushing his teeth again. But only when I looked close enough did I realize that  my little champion was at his naughty best and had just been fooling me with the pretence of brushing his teeth. Actually he was just licking the toothpaste on the brush, which happened to be a nice bubblegum flavor and instead of brushing his teeth he was just rubbing it on his tongue, so as to enjoy the tooth paste.

It became amazingly funny see him apply his little head and come out with such tricks. At all such times I just sit back and wonder at the presence of mind that kids tend to possess.

I guess parenting also teaches you to be a good learner all over again. Since the kid would copy you most of the time and so learn his lessons, it becomes imperative that you put up your best act for the child to follow suit and learn from your actions.

"I guess when a mother teaches her child, at times she learns more than the kid does."

Shaurya & The Washing Machine

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I often wonder at the way people are now dependent on machines and household appliances to get basic tasks done at home. The advent of science in the recent years has been simply mind-boggling. I am sure 10 years from today, no child would want to believe that there was a time when color TVs did not exist and we had only one channel on TV which again was not 24 X 7. The young minds today are ignited and sparked as never before. Every kid today wants a mobile phone for a toy and more amazingly learns to operate it and use it even as the parents are fumbling with the pages of instruction manuals for feature specifications at times. I guess these little ones are way ahead of us in understanding and using all such things.

Washing machine is another appliance which I guess just cannot escape the eye of any child, may be because it makes a lot of noise when it’s drying clothes or may be because the front loading ones look very fascinating when the clothes go round n round in them. Shaurya too is very fond of standing and watching it perform its functions. I can say that the washing area is one of his favourite corners in the house and the washing machine is his favourite place for hiding things..

If anyone in the house loses anything, it can be easily located inside the washing machine. The things to be placed inside can be toys, his own clothes, newspapers, diapers, books.. anything. He took me by surprise today, when he looked at me and innocently picked up my slippers and took them to the washing machine, opened the door of the machine and put my slippers inside it. He even went to the extent of touching the buttons, pretending to turn it on and then took them out in the most unconcerned fashion, as if the job was all done..

I wonder at the thought process of these kids, really can’t make out what is going on in their minds and what all things they are observing. The only way you understand it is when you see the way they behave and that too behind your back..

I guess the very thought of a mother hiding behind a curtain, just to see her child playing oozes warmth and sheer joy. I guess being a part of the child's play is as important for the mother, as it is for the child.

I guess, the pleasure of rediscovering excitement and mystery of our world and the little things in it reincarnates you in the same life.