my scrawny hulk

Dear Darsh, 

your father got back from his annual ten-day US trip last night. By last night, I mean around 2 am. Obviously I was waiting up for him so slept after he arrived. You woke me up at 6 am wearing a Hulk face mask. An angry hulk face mask which was quite scary. I tried to go back to my dreamless slumber after that but at 6:20 am you woke me up to show me your Captain America ensemble. After that, you showed me Batman bedroom slippers, your avenger lego set, the minion play dough set and the list can go on but the excitement level at so early in the morning was just too much to handle. Have I told you that the pitch of your voice is indicative of your excitement level? You were practically shouting in the morning. You also had a ‘welcome back’ chat with your father where you took details of his trip, asked him why was he back and why did he go and did he miss you? somewhat in that order…

The whole of last week you did not go to school as you were down with fever and cough. So you tried to babysit your little sister Tia. Day one was successful and your lullaby and gentle touch made it easy for her to doze off. Day 2 she didn’t want to nap but you kept forcing her to lie on the bed. She still got up as she wanted to play. That was not your plan. After several more failed attempts to put her to sleep, you cried yourself to sleep in frustration.

And this month has been quite frustrating for you and not just because of your ill health. You had made a card for your bestie and wanted to invite him to your house for a playdate but this being the season time it was not possible to make this happen. You wanted to accompany your nana nani to France first and then you wanted to travel to Allahabad with them. You were unhappy with your father as he went to USA without you... I think you have acquired the restless genes from my father which forces him to be in motion even in his 60s. I don’t remember a single month in which he would have not travelled across the state on some pretext or the other. Sadly your restless genes only want to do long distance and not short distance trips – i.e. the park in our society or even for cycle ride!

Every year, the day your father leaves for usa is followed by the day my bestie comes over to stay for a night or two. We try to do these annual meet-ups without your father because girls like to talk and some of it might be too much for your dad to handle so yes we look forward to these annual stay-overs. Not anymore though. With three children in the house, the fun-stay became a nightmare with you kids fighting, brawling, throwing up or sulking (you). You were jealous of the other kids too. Perhaps I should not have paid her child too much attention but you litereally sat on her, pushed her, hurt her and I was shocked, embarrassed, repulsed and felt really sorry for the child and angry at myself. I do pity you for not having a sibling but what you did was unacceptable so I told you to get out of my room and my sight. That, I think hurt you like never before and you have since then not forgotten it.

Now let me tell you about your hulk obsession. But that is what I am going to call it for now. We have 2 hulk toy models in our house. We also have the other super heroes like spiderman, thor iron man, etc but hulk is your favorite. Even in comic books. Infact you are not even interested in what spiderman is upto in the next story. If hulk is not there, you are not ready to listen to any story. Sometimes he sleeps with us even when there is no space in the bed. You also talk to him and make him beat Spiderman pretty often. After you bugged us for his costume, your father got one from USA. He also got you Captain America costume but that you have not worn at all. For the last 2 days you have been wearing hulk costume. You went to the park and scared the children and their oarents by making some extraordinary hulky noises. Your father is worried. He is wondering why have you chosen hulk as your hero and not any ‘positive avenger hero’. Because we all know hulk stays angry and grumpy all the time. I think he is wondering why are you gravitating towards aggressive heroes. I have a different take on the whole issue. At this stage you are exactly 4 year 8 months old but you still look too small for your age. You are underweight and maybe you want to grow big and strong really fast so that you are treated as an equal in your peer group. Maybe in a class full of older boys, you want to be a force to reckon with. Maybe you just want to see what does it feel like to be with fake 6 pack. In any case I just think it’s a phase that you would outgrow soon. You need to too cause the hulk costume will not survive if your wear at ten am and get out of it at ten pm. Frankly my dear, there is never a dull moment with you so with or without hulk’s meanness, you are still my little baby who sucks his thumb when he wants milk in the morning :*