Just me and Sanna-ajji!

Today is my mom’s birthday, my mom who is now more known as Abhay’s“Sanna-ajji”(meaning the younger grandma). Abhay, who has always been grandpa’s little fella has now grown attached to his grandma too. In fact, I should say that grandpa has been unconditional (read blind) in supporting his grandson whereas grandma has been more practical, often chiding Abhay when he is wrong. What I mean is, when it comes to disciplining my five year old, I can count on Abhay’s grandma to side with me more than his grandpa and it’s not only me who has realized this distinction! Abhay knows whom to look for, when in trouble! At the same time, Abhay knows whom to look for when he wants a story time sans books! Sanna-ajji’s stories aren’t the run-of-the mill grandma’s moral stories you’d expect. But hers are more state-of-the-art, meant for five year old boys who love the fast and the furious -   stories revolving around race cars, regular cars, trucks, buses, sleeper coaches, trains, jets –  you name the mode of transport and there is a story on it! All of a sudden when Abhay declares his fascination for a certain type of transport for the first time,  you can be sure that his grandma has started a new series of stories! Despite a hectic eight hour work day, she is always all ears to Abhay’s stories and ever ready to regale him with hers! No wonder my five year old can’t wait for Thursdays and Fridays when he has his fifty-nine year old “Sanna-ajji” waiting to pick him up from his school bus! Happy Birthday to Sanna-ajji!

So today on the occasion of her birthday, I had Abhay’s grandma read “Just Grandma and me” by Mercer Mayer, part ofthe  little Critter series. Little Critter gets off the school bus to have his grandma plan a trip to the beach. On the beach, the wind is too strong to set up a beach umbrella and so they decide to fly a kite. Little Critter then buys some hotdogs for his grandma. As he walks up to his grandma, he drops them on the way only to wash them with sea water and offer the salted hotdogs to his grandma. Determined to do something nice for his grandma, he unearths some sea shells  but finds them full of crabs. His grandma helps him blow up his sea horse tube and takes him into water where he pretends to snorkel with grandma holding him afloat. Little Critter returns the gesture by digging a hole and covering up his grandma with sand and tickling her toes. Finally as they both head back home, grandma appears tired and Little Critter offers to watch for their stop while she rests, but instead it is Little Critter who is seen dozing off after a day trip with just grandma and him! So …how about a trip to the beach this summer…sanna-ajji?