Hello World!!! Now, there is a statement every computer programmer knows ;-) and yes, that is exactly what I feel need to be my first words in this new piece(I am learning a new language)... It feels like I have been out of touch with everyone and everything for so long, what with the pregnancy and the baby...
Yes... The baby... Arjun!
Now, what do I write about this little bundle of joy? It has been total bedlam from the second he was born. Here he was, a tiny little being, just opening his eyes to the world and he was already making those around him laugh, cry, dance, talk, awe struck and dumb struck and all at the same time. I had a vague recollection of a Hindi movie song 'choti ungli pe nachayegi tumhe...' only with 'nachayega' in that line. It's been 10 months now from that 'second' and yes, we are all still dancing to his tunes, and he seems to have made a special target of me.
The sun, moon and earth's rotation do not define my days and nights any more... He does! My daily routine, learnt and perfected over a period of 30 years has been declared useless by His Majesty, the little Arjun, and now I have been forced to follow a totally different one approved by him. I was proud of the fact that I could speak 4 different languages fluently and understand and speak a little of two others... but now I am at a loss. He has his own language and looks like he is the only teacher and I have no choice but to learn this new language consisting of gurgles, cooing, shrieking etc from him and boy! is he a hard task master! Some people in Chennai who failed to persuade me to learn 'Tamil' must be having a good laugh now.
As if this was not enough, Arjun seems to think he is some kind of a human volcano... Always ready to spew lava... and from both ends too! Never thought I would be thanking diapers! Also, all my relations have been redefined now. My parents and my darling sister prefer to be related to me as Arjun's grand parents and aunt. Now, I have to deduce what my relatives are to Arjun before addressing them. They seem to want to be related only to him... Might be a blessing in disguise in some cases... Let me wait and watch...
I pity the great leaders of this world. They seem to worry about trivial matters such as world peace, internal security, Bin-Laden, Gadaffi etc. etc. I am sure they would envy my leadership in dealing with more urgent and pressing issues - 'Oh why hasn't Arjun had a bowel movement two days in a row?' , 'Oh God! Stop Arjun. He's trying to eat an ant again!', 'Stop tripping the broadband, Arjun!', 'Right, he has painted the walls , the furniture, the duvets and the floor with with mashed bananas...', 'The refrigerator is open, the wardrobes look like they were in the path of a tornado, the bed sheet is on the floor, the toys are in the kitchen and he is playing with pots and pans...'. They say, the hand that rocks the cradle is the one that rules the world...
I would have tried to rule the world if it was not for the fact that the one in the cradle has rocked my world so completely that I cannot recognize it!
All said and done... he is still the 'Apple of my eye', my 'chaand ka tukda', nanna 'baalina belaku', yenna 'bolli bangara' and any other such cliched idioms and phrases that get quoted once too often by proud mothers of the world. Today, I am richer than I have ever been, emotionally, mentally and with my swear words vocabulary.
P.S: Written in a haste. My new manager makes absolutely sure that I adhere to deadlines by bawling his eyes out and I assure you, you cannot imagine the decibel level of that episode.
