Walking the talk

Leena started working here and another chapter of hectic schedule in our life has started. She goes to Manhattan (New York City) every day which is a train journey of an hour and a half from Morristown which makes me a close-to-full-time home maker.

Amiya had the habit of putting her toys in the mouth or biting them and I used to tell her not to bite the toys lest she get worms in her mouth…

Yesterday, we were coming home and I had parked my car in our parking lot and was helping Amiya to get out of the car – The car seats and regulations in the US is a bit annoying especially when you are in a hurry, though it is meant for the safety of the kids – I had the laptop bag on my shoulder, had to keep the door open and pick up her from the seat. After picking her up, I need to lock the car and was lazy to keep the keys in the pocket and take them back again! I held the keys with my mouth and was picking her up when she gave out this statement – “Thakkolu vaayilu vekkallae pappa…. Puzhu varum…” (Transalation – Don't keep the keys in your mouth, Pappa… You will get worms in your mouth!) I was stunned for a minute hearing this and then realized how small kids catch even the small statements that we make, watch every thing that elders do and even try to emulate them…

Yes, charity begins at home, Walk the talk – A quick lessons learned for me!


Note: Text in italics is malayalam, my mother tongue

Save their souls

I had been dropping and picking up my daughter at the play school for the past 4 weeks now. The look at her eyes when I say bye to her at school, slowly watering, yet trying not to cry, it pricks me hard some where in my heart. Both of us know that we will meet again in another few hours, but for some reason my soul clenches when I see that look on her face.

And when my wife calls me up to find out how she did when I dropped her, I would lie that she did well (And in all practical sense she did well - except for mothers). The interesting fact is that she knows that I am not going to tell the truth and I too know that she is not going to believe what I said. Still, we do that. Mothers - They are a different species. I keep telling my friends that there is no two, but three sexes - Male, Female & Mothers.

Last day I was driving back from the Indian store in Parsippany and I had this CD playing in my car. "Aaalaapanamm... Thedum Saanthwanam..."; This is a very touching song from a beautiful 80s malayalam movie (Endae Sooryaputhrikku) acted by Amala & Sreevidya. The lyrics & the melody really touches you. And the story line is about somebody forced to being an orphan because of the social stigma associated with un-wed mothers in a conservative society like India.

At one point of time, I tried to draw a correlation between my experience of dropping my kid at school and this story line. If you ask me, my daughter is my life; She is all that I have got and I will go to any extend to take care of her. I was trying to correlate the pain in her eyes when she is left for herself for a few hours with a child who has to face it right through his/her childhood. The caring and love is any child's birth right; irrespective of being in any country. The thought sent a shudder through my spine and I did not have strength to think of that any more...

A parting thought to all the fathers & mothers who has created so much of orphans in the world (Ofcourse, cloning is pretty new to the world!) - If you cant take responsibility of your orgasm, please use what ever preventive mechanism you have (pills, condoms... what ever). The cost of that is very less compared to the trauma and pain that you put those children through.

Atleast save them from that!