Skip to main content

My Goodness, your eyebrows !




Dear daughter,
Of the many words and phrases you've championed in your cute little way "my goodness !" is by far the cutest (yet). I don't know if its your sweet pronunciation of it ( I dare not try to recreate it, lest I spoil it for myself) or its the fact that its a fairly heavy exclamation for shoulders your size. It puts a smile on whomsoever hears it, coming from you, with or without context.

A few days back, we were playing and you uttered these sweet words " my goodness!". I just repeated it, without realising that in doing so I had just lured you (successfully) into our game of 'mine versus yours'. So off you went defending your goodness by saying " No Dad, its my goodness". And we kept at that for a few times, responding with "my goodness".

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, your eyes focussed onto my eyebrows and you burst out saying "Your eyebrows". Immediately, in the flow of our game, I blurted out "your eyebrows, my goodness!". Without skipping a beat, you went on to repeat "your eyebrows, my goodness"
And so the game went for a while.

Dear daughter, while that was a fun little im-promptu game, without much rhyme or reason, there is a battle between goodness and eyebrows as old as civilisation and as pervasive as bad breadth. For every time there is a hint of your goodness, you would notice someone else's eyebrows arching up to take aim at you. Especially in this world of ever more disconnected discussions and expressions. Opinions are cheap, words even cheaper and intellect as precious as the sorcerer's stone.

Your dad's way of life and humble advice would be to go back to that little game of ours - trust and follow the good-ness of your own heart and politely but firmly ask the raised eyebrows to stay with the eye of the beholder.
There is a little phrase in India - हम नहीं चंगे, बुरा नहीं कोई - loosely translated, "I'm no saint but no one is evil"

People are not evil but more often than not, they have agendas to either see you weak or get you to succumb to their own convictions. Listen to them but believe your own instincts.

Your good-ness, your own common sense is the best friend you'll ever get.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Helps Those ...

"My aappey aappey" is your En-jabi (English + Punjabi) phrase to tell the world that you want to do it yourself. At times it is followed by a 'My Help' as a push back to any help offered to your little bundle of effort. Each time the door to your car seat is held open, it is like a challenge assigned by yourself, for yourself to climb the Everest of that seat - your own 'aappey aappey' self! There is a certain self-assured, confident style to your ascent too, even at this age. On my car, with a fairly high child seat for your little hands and knees to mount, you start with touching, toying and fumbling with the various knobs and hooks on the frame. When an easily bemused Dad gently cajoles you to proceed with your mountaineering efforts, you start climbing on the various toys, bags and other assortments lying there, before getting a foothold on the car seat itself. It doesn't take you long from there to latch onto your car seat. Once there, you make ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daadi's next Innings

       It’s been a year since Daadi left us. It's not my intention to share the many phases and facets of my grief with you as it would be both unfair and impossible in equal measures. Impossible because its literally unlike anything else that anyone could come across and therefore words would simply fail. Unfair because my grief as a son is exactly that - mine only. Like everyone else, you would have your own version of grief in parting with your parents so there is no real need for me to make you feel mine.  Instead, I will try and share how I am coping with what is now a life that I have never seen before.  I started my earnest efforts at regular meditation a few days after Daadi left us. Although it helped in some little ways, my big reward came with a glorious vision of my mom one day. It might have been a split second glimpse of a fleeting image but it was worth the wait and one that would last me the whole lifetime.  There she was, literally o...
2 comments
Read more

Of Super Heroes and Super Mom

“I like the super hero music” - you whispered in my ear while watching the first thriller sequence during Incredibles-2. Its summer vacations for you and both of us had gone to watch the movie together. So far you were not so keen on watching movies in cinemas or watching superhero stuff at all but somehow I think watching miarulous ladubug has helped convert you into a fan of the genre. You liked the movie and came back with a couple of favorites - unsurprisingly teenaged Violet and the toddler ‘Jack Jack’ were the ones that caught your fancy. I guess you are too young to appreciate the super strengths of the dad and mom in the movie. Dear Daughter This one is short on details about you and more about things happening around you. For this has been a strangely disruptive summer and not always in a good way. Your Daadi, my mom, has been with us in UK for a while now on an Indian Passport. This summer we had a major victory. After years of complicated efforts involving money, mettle and ...
2 comments
Read more