So, we are back to sharing journeys in the morning. After a gap of a good two and a half years, I am now available in the mornings to get you ready and drop you off to school before going to work myself. Yes, during those 2 and half years, I did do it every now and then as well but its a bit more on a regular basis for now. It does come at some financial cost and it might not last too long but I am thankful enough for the option nonetheless to grab it in both hands with a lot of gratitude.
I say ‘again’ but there is a sea change in the journey since your nursery or even pre-school days.
What a massive time 2 & a half years could be, when you are going from age 3 to 5 and beyond !
We share part of the journey with Aadya and its a great chance for me to be a witness to your exchanges. Its like literally having a front row seat on a window to your world. Like any two friends, the two of you have a unique chemistry. At times, either of you would have a very exciting announcement for the other, even before she has stepped foot inside the car. At other times, both of you take your own time to start talking, as if there is an ice to be broken, carried over from the previous day. The two of you have arguments, crack jokes, play games, exchange notes on all matters under the sun and even beyond, tease each other about your very happening social lives and sing songs – all during that 15 minute or so journey.
The album for most of this term was ‘The Greatest Showman', getting both of you to break out into a
synchronous 'Woohhhhhh O O ohhh' as soon as it starts!
You wear this grey cap to school with a sleeping owl face on it and two braids. That and your interactions bring out a different Rheya to how we know you at home. And I love this Rheya too.
Going inside your school, walking through your classes and corridors is another perk of the job. I can't help but feel a bit privileged to be sharing that space and going through the environs where
you spend so much time. Its not at all lost on me that these same walls adorned with charts and pictures – some of them your handiwork, the little routines, your teachers and friends will forever be etched on your memory. Howsoever faded it might be, amongst these will also be my shape as part of that entire scene. Also, while it might be just a routine for other parents, for me it is a long pending intersection of family & school life. The two were mostly parallel universes for me, at least from a parent - son perspective.
Dear daughter,
One fine day, you and Aadya broke into a nursery rhyme called 'This old man’. It might be just another rhyme about numbers but it got me thinking about my 'old man' – my dad as the Americans
say. Maybe I got there because at one point your song went –
"This old man, he played seven
He played knick knack up in heaven"
This was nearer to what would have been his birthday – 75th one at that. Got me thinking how he and we missed out so many of his big celebratory birthdays.
On the day of his birthday, I mentioned it to you - that he would have been 75 today. And you promptly said "But he's already with God!"
As true as that is, somehow I still wanted you to think of him. I read somewhere that maybe our afterlife lasts as long as you are remembered here on earth by our loved ones. So we get to stay in a blessed existence for as long as we are remembered lovingly.
Just maybe I want you to keep his memory alive. Maybe I want to make sure that once I’m gone too, you would remember both of us. And if that’s how after life works, there would at least be a chance of me spending some quality time with him in that after life existnce.
I say ‘again’ but there is a sea change in the journey since your nursery or even pre-school days.
What a massive time 2 & a half years could be, when you are going from age 3 to 5 and beyond !
We share part of the journey with Aadya and its a great chance for me to be a witness to your exchanges. Its like literally having a front row seat on a window to your world. Like any two friends, the two of you have a unique chemistry. At times, either of you would have a very exciting announcement for the other, even before she has stepped foot inside the car. At other times, both of you take your own time to start talking, as if there is an ice to be broken, carried over from the previous day. The two of you have arguments, crack jokes, play games, exchange notes on all matters under the sun and even beyond, tease each other about your very happening social lives and sing songs – all during that 15 minute or so journey.
The album for most of this term was ‘The Greatest Showman', getting both of you to break out into a
synchronous 'Woohhhhhh O O ohhh' as soon as it starts!
You wear this grey cap to school with a sleeping owl face on it and two braids. That and your interactions bring out a different Rheya to how we know you at home. And I love this Rheya too.
Going inside your school, walking through your classes and corridors is another perk of the job. I can't help but feel a bit privileged to be sharing that space and going through the environs where
you spend so much time. Its not at all lost on me that these same walls adorned with charts and pictures – some of them your handiwork, the little routines, your teachers and friends will forever be etched on your memory. Howsoever faded it might be, amongst these will also be my shape as part of that entire scene. Also, while it might be just a routine for other parents, for me it is a long pending intersection of family & school life. The two were mostly parallel universes for me, at least from a parent - son perspective.
Dear daughter,
One fine day, you and Aadya broke into a nursery rhyme called 'This old man’. It might be just another rhyme about numbers but it got me thinking about my 'old man' – my dad as the Americans
say. Maybe I got there because at one point your song went –
"This old man, he played seven
He played knick knack up in heaven"
This was nearer to what would have been his birthday – 75th one at that. Got me thinking how he and we missed out so many of his big celebratory birthdays.
On the day of his birthday, I mentioned it to you - that he would have been 75 today. And you promptly said "But he's already with God!"
As true as that is, somehow I still wanted you to think of him. I read somewhere that maybe our afterlife lasts as long as you are remembered here on earth by our loved ones. So we get to stay in a blessed existence for as long as we are remembered lovingly.
Just maybe I want you to keep his memory alive. Maybe I want to make sure that once I’m gone too, you would remember both of us. And if that’s how after life works, there would at least be a chance of me spending some quality time with him in that after life existnce.
Ranjan, while I was reading this, I was almost walking with you in this journey, partly seeing / sharing the same views as you did (for the obvious reasons that I am part of our daughter's return journey from school).
ReplyDeleteI may have never said this in past, however I do enjoy reading your write ups. Thanks for this beautiful share. Its special and I am going to remember this for years to come.
Just saw this comment after so many days. Thanks a lot !
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