Boys and their toys

A five year old who doesn't just want to ride his bicycle, he wants to ride it FAST, even before the training wheels have been taken off.
Teenages sneaking out their father’s cars and driving them in fifth gear even before they’ve cleared their driving test.
Thirty somethings drawing six figure salaries spending a perfectly good weekend watching a bunch of cars go round and round the same circuit.
A mature corporate citizen introducing into already overcrowded roads a not too safe car that costs less than many high end bicycles.


What is it about boys and their automotive toys?

On Gudi Padwa

Among all the young girls looking very uncomfortable in their nine-yard saree, she stood out because of the grace with which she carried off her everyday attire.

The music started, the girls all began to dance. You could see she wanted to join in, but she didn’t. ‘Why?’, I wondered. Though older than the rest, she seemed fit for her age. Surely it was not an arthritic back or bad knees that was keeping her from dancing.

None of that. She was encumbered with a heavy polythene bag. The moment she handed it over, she joined in all the fun.

My favourite day

“Sundays is my favourite day”, said my son a couple of weekends back. They hadn’t done anything too special that day– just run around the building a couple of times and played in the slightly rickety playground. What they treasured was a day when they could do as they pleased.
I did feel a teeny bit guilty- did I have to go to work? Could I not give them a day like that everyday?
But the kids who run wild everyday take it as their due. My kids value the day when they don’t have restrictions- they appreciate it more.

Venus shining star

“Nine children of the Sun, planets they are called.”
I was singing the song that my five-year old was taught in school to the three-year old.
“Mercury is the hottest one, Venus shining star,
Earth is the planet…..”

His glare told me that something was wrong.
“What?”
“Why are you saying Venus is a star? You only told us Venus is a planet.”
Caught. In. A. Blind-Alley. No. Chance. Of. Escape.
“I’m sorry, baby. You are right Venus is a planet.”

How could I know he was processing the lyrics when he was supposed to be concentrating on the tune?

A Wednesday - the movie

‘A Wednesday’ was a movie almost everyone I met and didn’t meet said was a Must See. Finally managed to see it over the weekend, and was not disappointed.

To someone who knew the ending was unexpected, the outcome was quite predictable. But the climax was not the climatic action scene, it was what could have been a boring monologue, or worse, a harangue, but which, post-November 26, was just grim reality beautifully articulated.

I’d recommend the movie to everyone, but going by my normal track record, I was perhaps the last person who hadn’t seen it before this weekend.

Bonding with the blue

Ever since my son nearly drowned, I have stayed away from the pool. Not because I fear water, but because I just couldn’t bring myself to go in. So when a friend told me she had bonded with the blue, I knew I had to make peace with Water, and do it NOW.

There were dozens of reasons not to – I was in office, I haven’t been getting enough sleep and was drowsy, my swimming costume was close to falling apart, my cap was missing – but I decided to ignore all of them, left early, changed into the threadbare costume and gingerly stepped in.

The water exactly how I remembered it – cool, inviting, friendly. My body knew exactly what to do, and the slight numbness that settled in my arms during the second lap disappeared completely by the sixth. I have never done more than a dozen laps before – today I comfortably did twenty. And when I got out, my drowsiness had vanished, and I was feeling more perky than I do after my Sunday lie-in.

I owe myself many more hours in the pool, even if it kills me to schedule them in.

Spiderplants for his birthday

On my son's birthday, I went to my Nursery to pick up plants to give his classmates. Since they were learning all about plants and seeds in class, I thought the spider plant would be most appropriate.

"Do you want normal ones, or the ones which give baby plants?", the gardener asked.
"The ones that give babies", I replied immediately - that is the whole point of spiderplants, isn't it?

Three months to the day after I got the plants home, the plant flowered.

The baby plants will grow into big plants someday, but it is the memory of the flowers that I will treasure forever.