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14/06/201015/04/2017

Operation friendship

April 2010

Day 2 and operation friendship is well underway. However I’m not sure this is the direction I intended it to take. Things got a bit out of hand yesterday evening.

We were down as usual and the regular kids came along. It’s a bunch of three kids including the one who Hrit Naisha had had trouble with earlier.

Well the other kids were playing and I encouraged Hrit Naisha to join in. They did. That kid was again being himself again – jumping around Hrit Naisha and calling Hrit ‘naughty boy’. Hrit took it all in his stride. He did complain to me once and that’s it. However after a few minutes I found Hrit Naisha had ganged up with the other two kids and the four of them were literally heckling that other kid… they were running around him chanting ‘naughty boy, naughty boy’. Oops.. bad start. I mean making friends is nice but NOT at the expense of that poor boy. I tried to patch up – hand shake, huggie routine but I’m not sure it made much difference. That poor kid looked quite woebegone as his mom took him home. I do hope today is better and they all play together.

I’m sure he and Hrit will become the best of friends – the boy Hrit fights with most always ends up as his best buddy. Oh and his mom becomes my best friend too.. what with all the apologizing and empathizing. Archana what say?

14/06/201015/04/2017

Desperately seeking friends

April, 2010
I’d been preparing the kids for a quite sometime for the shift to Pune. Since they had plenty of friends in Bombay I was apprehensive they’d get lonely. I’d been giving them lessons on how to make friends. However, I was quite sure none of it would work. I have always felt that friendship, like love, can’t be sought. It just happens.. that’s how it’s been with me. The best friends I have always ‘found’ me rather than me going out ‘looking’ for them. (Lazy??)

However I tried to put aside all my doubts and repeated over and over how the kids should go about making friends. Repetition, according to psychologists, is the only way to get across to your kids. (Weird or what?)

Anyway so this is what I told them to do…
Hi I’m Hrit/Naisha. What’s your name? May I play with you? Do you want to play with my scooter/ball?
I was specially worried about Hrit because the last time we’d shifted he’d taken about four months to settle down and find friends. Till that time all kids by default were enemies. It was tough.

Yesterday while we were down at play along came this kid. Without any provocation he spread his arms and barred Hrit’s way. Uh oh.. thought I.. now begins the fight. I sprinted to the scene of action ready to mediate. But surprise surprise.. when I reached there Hrit was in full swing. “My name is Hrit.. aap ka naam kya hai? Meri behen ka naam Naisha hai,” he parroted. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. Naisha I would have expected to do something like this, but Hrit, never.

Naisha, on the other hand has been a handful. She’s refusing to share her toys and not interacting with the other kids at all. Like I always say.. between Hrit and Naisha one has to ALWAYS give me a hard time. On the positive side.. one is always a dream. I do hope Hrit’s ‘good’ phase continues. Naisha will come around soon too. Meanwhile I’m trying to apply the Secret, think positive.

20/05/201015/04/2017

We’re in print!

Despite Hrit’s completely disobliging behaviour (Lights, Camera, Disaster) it seems the editors were magnanimous enough to include us in the article. So here we are in ‘Mother and Baby’ May 2010 issue. The picture says it all….

It’s a strange feeling to make the transition from an interviewer to an interviewee. I remember being annoyed when people would constantly call up and ask, ‘when is my piece appearing?’ Now I felt like doing the same (but restrained myself). Then I wondered whether she’d do a decent job of the piece, while I confess I wondered secretly if I could have done it better. Egoistical, I know.. However, I must mention that the journalist did give me the option of writing myself which I had to decline because I was in the middle of shifting. Another journalist friend suggested I ask for a draft and that reminded me how I didn’t quite like it when people asked me for a draft (I’m not a rookie, you know..I’d feel like telling them..I will do a good job). Besides, the real people of substance never asked for a draft.. only the nitpickers did.

And so I decided to trust her and here we are.. the three of us with Sunil making an appearance in the copy. Not bad at all.

12/04/201015/04/2017

Another birthday

Hrit Naisha celebrated their birthday in school almost two months in advance because they’d be leaving school.. Here’s what they looked like.. Naisha can’t forget to pose and Hrit.. well he just won’t.

11/04/201015/04/2017

Lights! Camera! Disaster!

A freind’s friend happened to be doing a piece on twins for a magazine. Once earlier Hrit had missed a modelling chance (Brush with fame) so I was pretty excited. There we were, Hrit Naish and I, readying ourselves for a photo shoot. Now Hrit and Naisha might not be the best looking kids in the world (even though that’s what I tell them at least ten times a day) they do look nice enough for about five minutes after they have been showered, scrubbed and cleaned. The challenge was to extend those five minutes for the duration of the shoot.

By the appointed hour we were all ready and waiting and clean. I’d prepared the kids the best I could (An uncle wll be coming to click a picture of you) and motivated them (read bribed and threatened) to behave themselves. That was my only concern.

The photographer came, surprisingly punctual to a minute. As expected Naisha was a dream.. she always is.. she posed and smiled and acted cute.. oh she’s good at it. Hrit on the other hand is totally completely hopeless. He played with the reflectors and grinned at the photographer when he told him not to. He refused to look at the camera.. slouched on the sofa, then decided to recline and finally lay down flat on Naisha’s lap. If the photographer said smile he put on that totally fake smile he has.. if he said ‘sit on the sofa’, Hrit slid to the ground or climbed onto my lap, if he said ‘okay sit on mama’s lap’ Hrit was on my shoulders. We tried bringing in soft toys.. then we tried switching on the television.. useless.

We decided to work arond Hrit.. Naisha and I positioned ourselves beside Hrit.. but the catch was he was never stationary.. Finally he said ‘let’s do some masti’. Now that’s what Hrit specialises at.. but when the camera was on him.. he just didn’t oblige.

I think the photographer must’ve given up. He did take a lot of pictures but didn’t seem too happy at the end of it all. I felt bad for the poor guy.. he’d travelled all the way from Chembur. However there was little I could do… Kids are and will always be unpredictable.

So that’s how Hrit Naisha’s brush with fame comes to an end. One thing is for sure modelling is certainly not Hrit’s cup of tea.