June 3, 2016

Dear Darsh,

Brace yourself because this is a long one…

Your nani was pretty mystified when she saw you crying today. After much cajoling you told me on the phone that the reason you were crying was because you broke a fridge magnet and because you do not want to go to Angad’s birthday.

Till date your attitude towards broken thing is that ‘it’s okay, we would get another one!’ Broken things do not cause a calamity in our house as much as a lost hand or the missing toilet roll of your lego people. So I guess you were majorly upset because of Angad. I am quite sure you will not be friends with Angad ever and here’s why: You both have hated each other at first sight and even though the moms get along pretty okay, there has always been a lot of friction tempered with jealousy between you two. You pretended to be excited about going to the party last evening and even today morning when I said bye to you but I guess you must have reflected over it during the day and you must have decided that you hate him after all. I am sure you will make lots of friends and enemies along your way but I am happy that you have finally decided to be honest about your feelings to me and to yourself.

Summer holidays are becoming unbearable for you I guess because you have been watsapping like crazy to your aunts, uncles, multiples grand parents and your dadi. You are luring the oldies with food and movies and you tempted your Simmi mosi with a pair of red stilettos. She came of course.

She has been mollycoddling you like a baby and you are thoroughly enjoying every bit of it. She litereally does everything for you and everytime she asks you who is your favorite mosi you tell her it is neha mosi!

The superhero drawing have gone beyond me as now you draw all of them together and then ask me to identify them. Most of the time they look like ants crawling on a paper so then you patiently point out each by his and her name and then expect me to remember it for next time. And if that is not enough to torture,  you are also planning to recite a superhero story in school as part of your summer assignment even though it clearly says it has to be story from a “book” and not an imagined war scene!

Btw did i tell you that you drew/inserted an ironman in the 3 bears and Goldilocks story?

We went to Hon Kong in May for a week again this year. You bought more than a sozen lego superheros and villains and I really thought we were done for now but you have already started your new shopping list on amazon.

You have started reading on your own these days but we always end up arguing when I try to correct you. You still hold the pencil awkwardly but atleast now I know you prefer to use your right hand.

We spoke on phone yesterday and because I was in office I did not say those 3 words so you kept waiting for me to say it and when I didn’t you started it this time. You said mama I love you and then waited for my I love you too my baby. Really, I think I can do with some raised eyebrows in my office these days J  

4 elephants on my wrist: 16 may 2016

4 elephants on my wrist: 16 may 2016: Dear Darsh, Your new best friend’s name is scratchy. When you come home from school, that’s the first thing you grab on to. It literal...

16 may 2016

Dear Darsh,

Your new best friend’s name is scratchy. When you come home from school, that’s the first thing you grab on to. It literally hangs around your body all the time, especially when you are sleeping. Yesterday I had gone to pick up my parents and you insisted on coming along. With Scratchy ofcourse. That’s what you call it. I don’t know why since it does not scratch at all. The journey down those 12 floors to the basement has never been this embarrassing. People in the lift would look at you and then at me. I simply shrugged. Scratchy in this lemon green flower printed summery blanket that I cover you with when the summer bedroom temp goes south of 20 degrees (yes the a.c., my age old nemesis). For some unknown reason you have adopted the blanket it as your pet, but since you have not started feeding it yet , i should probably just call it your friend or your inseparable companion. Your father likens you to Linus - the younger brother of Lucy. He made sucking thumb and holding a security blanket normal for kids his age. He also gave rise to the dictum – “happiness is a warm blanket, Charlie brown”. You are way past his age. But yet you remain happy with the oversized blanket.

You broke my favorite pie dish yesterday and when you saw me distraught over the loss you simply said we would buy another one mama. I could have never gotten away with such a statement at your age. Someone would have disciplined me then and there and there were so many disciplinarians in my house as it was a joint family… Anyways you also locked me while I was taking a bath. Thankfully there were people around.

The weekend school project was to aesthetically create a“self portrait” with dead leaves from the garden. Basically the school wanted you to re-explore the natural surroundings of the park in our society, at ground-level to be exact. You are ofcourse a cleanliness freak and found gazing up at the sky more interesting so I had to get down and point out the leaves/ grass etc for you to pick up. This went on for a few minutes until I pointed out something that wasn’t really decayed leaves and flowers …. yup dog poop. And then you spotted a very scary frog. After that you ran home and I had to follow you. I told you to draw yourself on a paper as we had to then stick dry leaves on it. The self portrait was more like “Wilson”, the friend that Tom Hanks had drawn in Cast Away. and if the self portrait was not scary enough already, it looked even creepier after it got adorned with the park fauna. I wonder what your teacher has to say about it.

You really enjoyed the zumba class on Saturday even though it was for women and you were the only kid around. You also enjoyed the skating class last week and we were amazed to see you move around so effortlessly in skates. I have plans for you now :D

Keep smiling my baby, my superstar my little Linus

hulk vs ultron lego

LEGO Super Heroes Mighty Micros Hulk vs. Ultron 76066 https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01AW1RAVI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_qY.jxbG28Q9E0

LEGO Super Heroes Mighty Micros Hulk vs. Ultron 76066 https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01AW1RAVI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_qY.jxbG28Q9E0

Earthquake and get-together at nani house

Dear Darsh,
Last wk was yr first real earthquake expwrience time because it wwnt on for sone time. And you saw a lot of people out of their apartments. You saw a lot of people taking stairs for the first time. Therefore you found it exciting. That day became more memorable for your advay dada as he got his fingers crushed in the car window. You of course found that incident also very memorable.
The next day you discussed the eaethquake with your other cousins. The ones who have just started speaking. It was obviously one-sided conversation where you tried to explain the earthquake and the mayhem it caused.

We went for the annual nani house stay over last week. You were one of the 4 kids but naughtiest of the lot. I was actually embarrassed. And three people told me you have become such a brat. You tried to confiscate advay's ben ten shoes. You tried to wear his spiderman wickets as your shoes and you fought with two of your cousins for the bat. And you hit onw of your little sisters. But you were a cool cook. You also wereterrified of the brown lizard and the dead cockroach.

When you became too impish for anyone to handle your nana decided to do an in-house poll to find out who is the cutest brother in the house. Since you must have known by that time you would lose any such popularity contest you revolted in style. You got up and told the audience that advay dada'a fingers got crushed in the car window. And then you literally pointed a finger at your nana and told everyone that he did it. Advay obviously stormed off after being reminded of his pain so eloquently. The favorite boy poll was not taken eventually and everyone was amazed at your incredible polticalness. I am ofcourse beyond any embarrassment now. Your ability to turn around a situation like this has left me slightly petrified of your talents now.

Stay sweet my child. Don't grow up so fast 😚

3rd day of new school but No comments pls

Dear Darsh,

You started school on monday. Today is Thursday. We still don't know what you do in school, who are your friends or most important - whether you are eating anything at all because you come home hungry and dull.
You refuse to give us any details of your school and whenever we ask you about anything at all you start making bird  language or tell us a superhero story or break into some random song. Obviously to stop any interrogation. What is less obvious to us is whether you are still making up your mind of liking this place or if you already dislike it too much to talk about it.
This school is slightly different as it is too big with too many kids. In short no more personal attentiin. I was scared earlier that you might get lost in the crowd but i know now i was wrong. I guess this new experience will give you a chance to shine brighter my dear. You will have to struggle a bit more to be heard. It will help you polish off your skills better and not get arrogant like i fear you were becoming. I am proud of you but i don't want you to be proud of your accomplishments... yet.