Wednesday, September 14, 2016

10 years of Abhayhood!



It’s now officially a decade since Abhay came into this world and while he is at the cusp of tween or pre-teen years before heading into the dreaded (so as far as parents are concerned!) teen years, there are many angles and moments during which he still seems like a little boy! Though he looks every bit and probably as cheeky as any ten year old, there are some elements of his personality that continue to remind us of his toddler or pre-schooler days ….. like he still winces as the pressure cooker whistle goes off or still employs toddler lingo references to some everyday things. Though he may not like my bringing this up, but as parents we cannot be blamed for finding the same endearing as we try to hold on to some of the last traces of his early childhood. Somehow as he turned ten on September 11th, it felt different as if he were going to be in a different league now…..and I could only think of the famous ABBA song….to paraphrase the same…. …..

Slipping through our fingers all the time…                                                                
As we try to capture every moment……  
Slipping through our fingers all the time    
Do we really see what’s in his mind               
Each time we think we’re close to knowing      
He keeps on growing                                                                                                                     Slipping through our fingers all the time…. 

As Abhay hit the first big ten, he was very clear that he wanted a birthday bash thrown at home, and presented us with  a big list of do’s and don’ts, with invitees being all his favourite people, including close cousins, schoolmates and neighbors. Though it was a particularly hectic week for both of us, we hurriedly managed to put together a decent show  - a birthday party with games, gifts and a quick-fix-easy-to-make piñata that the kids enjoyed breaking and smashing. Finally as the guests left and it was time to clean up, Abhay announced the party to be a grand success…..and Boy! Were we glad to live up to the expectations of our big little man!! :-) 


On the occasion of celebrating ten years of Abhayhood……..we went on a philosophical tour on life and living from our all time favourite author Ruskin Bond “What’s your dream?”, that we read as  a part of the compilation “The Room of Many Colours”, a thoughtful piece on dreams and life. Written in first person (as most of Ruskin Bond’s stories), the story involves a young boy’s encounter with an English speaking beggar, who stumps him with one question “What’s your dream…..something you wants most in his life?”. As the boy answers that his dream is to have a room of his own, the man begins to probe further leading to a intriguing conversation on the significance of dreams in one’s life, with the old man giving out pearls of wisdom drawn from his own experience on how it is important to work towards your dream and move towards it all the time, and most importantly, if you don’t expect too many things too quickly, you’ll find your dream. While children are natural dreamers, they end up losing their natural ability to dream as they grow up. With a layered narrative that likens dreams to freedom and growing up to losing that freedom, the story beautifully conveys that while it is important to follow your dream, it is also important not to take other people’s dreams. The story ends with the boy left to ponder over the old man’s words of wisdom….and is the reader. As this is the age for Abhay to dream and build castles in the air, we couldn’t have asked for a better story to celebrate his foray into pre-teenhood….So here’s wishing Abhay a very happy birthday….dream on…my boy as there is no life without dreams! :-)

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