Notes from an almost-empty-nester
There was a time when Hrit was happy playing ‘bat ball’. Now that he’s growing up he likes to call it ‘cricket’. Only he’s a little confused. Instead of just calling the game ‘cricket’ he now calls his bat and ball also ‘cricket’. Confusing? Well it’s like this, if I tell him to get his bat and ball he’ll say, “it’s not bat and ball it’s cricket. I’ll get my cricket.” Crazy.
Holi is Hrit Naisha’s all time favourite festival. Where else will you have permission to play with water, dirty water at that, to your heart’s content? Hrit was as usual down and on two-hourly nebulisation so I was a little reluctant to let them play but there’s no way he would miss holi. I’d been holding them off for pre-holi playing and that was bad enough. (I did allow them to play in the bathroom). Anyway on Holi day I made a special ‘vest’ for Hrit out of a plastic bag and made him wear it on his regular vest and over that came his kurta. yes he wore a kurta dhoti because obviously Naisha would wear her chaniya choli.. It was a fastabal (festival) after all. So they went down all set with their pichkaris. When I went down a little later.. there they were colour splattered, drenched to the skin making gulal bhel. Don’t know what that means? Well there were many gulal heaps kept for everyone and Hrit Naisha were busy mixing them together. Thankfully it was Holi and no one was really bothered about what colour the gulal really was.
After about an hour of water play I dragged them home. And surprise surprise Hrit’s vest was almost completely dry. Three cheers for a good idea.
How can someone short be old – that’s Naisha’s latest query. According to her as one gets older they just get taller. The idea that people stop growing taller at some point is alien.
I was telling them the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. When I came to the part where Snow White is ‘dead’ and the dwarfs are watching over her Naisha came up with an addition saying, “Woh log toh school bhi nahin jaa pate the.” Then I had to explain that they were old and didn’t go to school. Then followed a host of questions on how come they were old but were not tall (She’d seen pictures in her book).
Concepts which seem so simple are sometimes not so simple to explain.
Papa and mummy are here and no one could be happier than Hrit and Naisha. When Hrit woke up, the first thing he said was, “mama should I run and see if Dadu, dadima are still there.”
Naisha agreed to let mummy feed her.. a first. And she chats away non stop. She was telling her, “Dadi jab main kuchh sweet baat karti hoon toh mama kehti hai main dadima hoon.” Can’t deny she does chat like a dadima often.
While leaving for school she’s telling papa and mummy, “Apna dhyan rakhiyega.” Gawd!
Yesterday we spent over half an hour trying to convince Hrit to eat a chocolate. Not that he didn’t want to eat it… it’s just that he wanted Naisha to eat her’s too with him. He just refused to eat it alone. Poor chap followed Naisha arround saying ‘Please khaiye na, Naisha.’ Unfortunately she didn’t want to eat her’s. No matter what we said to tell him it was okay to eat alone he just wasn’t convinced. And he went on and on begging Naisha. She got so irrtated that she whacked him and things just got out of control. We told him we’d get him another one to eat with Naisha.. no use. Then Papa (Sunil’s) said he’d give Hrit company… no use. Then we all begged Naisha to eat a little bit… no use again!! I thought I’d have to yell at both of them (unfair to Naisha, but too bad), to break the stalemate. But suddenly Hrit bhai decided that they’d both keep away ‘this’ chocolate and eat another one together. And they both agreed.
I have NO idea how that sorted the problem… why Naisha was ready to eat the second chocolate and why Hrit was okay with that or where that idea came from… but the crying ended with that thought.
And by the way… they didn’t eat even that ‘other’ sweet! Will someone try to fathom this out for me?