All I Want Is You

Shabd has been sleeping these past few nights at his Dadi’s (granny) place on account of me going for an operation. He loves his grandparents to bits and they are exactingly attentive to his every whim, but it’s not home. And this morning, Shabd threw a mammoth tantrum to remind us of just that.

All he wanted was to sit on my lap, with Rudolph the red nosed dog and cuddle. If Papa or Dadi or Nounou even so much as came within a 5m radius of our couch, he started screaming and thrashing his head until they humbly retreated leaving mummy with her cub. No one was even allowed to talk to me without this cub letting out a ferocious roar!


Fifteen minutes of cuddling and humming and soothing was all he required. Just as suddenly as the tantrums had started, it concluded. Shabd calmly slid off my lap, said something in Shabdish (his own language) to his Papa, had a good laugh and tottered on to play with his blocks.

Kids are tough. Mine is tough, this I know. But even tough kids need their mummies. There is a limit to how patient and understanding even Shabd can be. I’m proud that my son has a voice of his own, that he is not yet inhibited by constraints of self-consciousness. It is my job to ensure that no matter what life throws his way, same as my parents did for me, Shabd will always be confident enough to speak his mind. And that he roars when he needs us.

Spin Spin Spin

Dipika masi taught Shabd the most adorable thing; how to spin. He suddenly remembered this very fun lesson and decided to practice yesterday afternoon. Whirl he went, round and round and round until he was absolutely and totally giddy. And the even after he had stopped spinning, he stood rather awkwardly disorientated as the world kept spinning around him. Isn't life just like that. We wind ourselves up into such a tizz that even during those quiet moments, when we've stopped spinning, life keeping going incessantly round and round and round. Maybe it's time to take a page out of Shabd's book and just spin around. Spin until you're giddy, drop to the floor, gaze up at the blue sky and allow the world to continue spinning. There is something childlike and innocent in letting go, in accepting the world as it is; where one can spin and not worry of where one will fall or how one will get up again. But rather to laugh gleefully, spin wildly and allow the giddiness to infect you with joy. Every day, in every way, I learn about life from my little boy. Now if you'll excuse me, stiches and all, I have a date to spin with a certain special someone.

Tie and dye Shabd

Life is quirky. There are highs and there are lows. I've learnt that one cannot exist without the other, and as human beings we cannot fully experience the one without having felt the elation or depression of the other. These past 10 years have been filled with "highs" - mind numbing, earth shattering, fantabulous tiggerific highs! My siblings have succeeded in their respective endeavors, my mum has done me so proud, I met Akash (let's be honest, I'm high maintenance!). And Shabd was born. Life has been a blur of happiness. We took Shabd to SA for the festive season and boy oh boy did he have an absolute ball. I cannot think that we did any one thing that made the holiday memorable but rather that the holiday was a collage of happy moments all rolled into one huge smile on Shabd's little face. Shabd learnt to roar like a lion. He played in the sprinklers, jumped in his jumping castle with his cousins Ela and Sejal. Tried to teach little 6 month old Raviva to spin a ball. Played catch with lightening fast Yash and Nishka and learnt to run up a slide with Niyati and Sohum. Being half Naran, Shabd is a tenacious fellow and tried every which way to get Trishul mama to let him drive. He trained Kamal mama to play ball with him. Wrapped Ba round his little finger ensuring a never ending supply of fresh papad and rotli. Was totally adorable with Desh masa and kept Dipika masi fit as a fiddle running up and down three flights of stairs! Yep! Mission accomplished: Shabd had dyed everyone happy.