Life's lessons from Junior

When junior gets really cranky, the only option that would calm him down would be a walk down the road. I hardly go out and wifey is worse than me, which leaves junior frustrated like a caged animal. But when I do take him out, it’s me who enjoys the most, looking at his antics. Many times, I over think and over analyze and it is not off limits from junior as well. I’ve never been able to quite comprehend my childhood on how I turned up the way I am today and always try to watch him closely to see his reactions. It has helped me a lot in understanding my own psyche and some key reasons behind my personality. Having grown on a steady diet of Amarchitra katha and jataka tales, I try to infuse those stories and reading as an habit into him. At the moment it’s a grand failure with any book going into tatters within minutes. Padhichi kizhichathu is happening literally.

On our late evening walks, he would exclaim with joy in identifying the name of gods he had seen on the videos and book covers. He would be counting how many ganapathis’ and krishnas’ he had seen on the way and would report back at home to his paati and mom. Last week, while walking across a convent, he was fascinated by the multi coloured star decorations and was awestruck for a while. He was tracking the colors it was displaying and noticed the statue at the entrance. He immediately called me out and said “Anga paaru…Yashodha and krishnar”. I was searching around, wondering what is such a painting doing in a convent only to realise that he was referring to Mother Mary carrying baby Jesus!! Semma bulbu. No wonder children are equated with god. They are without any prejudice or bias and are unpolluted. I am not reading too much into the religious aspects of it, but wish adults have that maturity displayed by toddlers.