The first in the series

On the fore head. Right below the hairline. About 2 cm long.

Venky chose perfect timing. It was a birght, sunny Saturday morning. Vibhu left for his cousin's marriage in Jaipur. Venky and I had our breakfast and Venky played around with his football as I sipped my coffee. Our driver returned after dropping Vibhu to the airport and I decided to dismiss him for the day as I did not have any plans to go out. I was looking forward to a lazy Saturday with the TV remote all to myself :-).

I called up the bride to wish her on the wedding day. The moment I heard "Hello" from the other end I heard Venky give a loud wail from outside. I rushed out and saw his hand covered in blood. Then I saw further and saw his head covered in blood. The blood was running down in a stream down his ear. I panicked. I called out to my maid to get some ice. Then I asked her to find some cotton. Both of us could not remember where it was. My Tshirt and pyjamas were already covered in Venky's blood. I started getting desparate, I had heard somewhere that if the child loses a lot of blood he may go into to coma ( Probably it was the bollywood movie "Bhoothnath". I don't know if the information imparted in the movie was correct, but that is all I could remember at that point of time)

Our next door  neighbours who saw everything from across the wall, came down running with the cotton ( Thank God, I live in India!). Once I pressed cotton on Venky's forehead, the blood stopped in sometime. I also saw a deep long cut. Venky had tripped while playing and hit his head on an edge. Our neighbors adviced me to see a doctor. Now that the blood had stopped I regained my composture. Venky had stooped crying too.

Our neighbors are a big joint Telugu family and one of the DILs (Shobha - Thank you so much), took out her car and offered me to drive to the nearest Apollo clinic. While on the way, I called up my driver and asked him to come back and bring the car to the clinic.

At the clinic, the doctor did the first aid and advised me to visit the main hospital as the cut would probably need stiching and it required an expert. Meanwhile my driver had arrived with car. I thanked Shobha for her help and proceeded to the main Apollo hospital.

I was more calm and could think better now. I remembered that one of my bachelor cousins lived close by. I called him and picked him up on way to help me out at the hospital (Thank God again that I live in India!). We went straight to the emergency section at the hospital where they saw the wound and called their plastic surgeon for an opinion.

We waited and waited for the next 2 hours. Venky started coming back to spirits and started demanding a "banana". The doctors had advised us not to feed him anything as he would be administered anesthesia for the stiches and he had to be empty stomach for that.

My cousin did all the running around to get the hospital formalities processed while I stayed with Venky. Venky cooperated will all the medical procedures (Oh! my rock star!) and was back to his chirpy self. Finally, finally the doctor arrived. One look at the cut and he says - "Oh! its close to the hairline, we'll just glue it up."

He then gave me further explanation - "The scar will be covered by the hair. To stitch, we'll have to administer general anesthesia to such a little boy. Its not worth it. He'll have a masculine scar to show off, its all right! :-)"

I was sooo relieved. All this talk of taking him to OT and anesthesia was really making me nervous. I quickly agreed. My cousin got the glue. The doctor applied it and we were done!

On the way back Venky (and the two of us) had his banana. We came home, had a huge lunch, after which my cousin left. Both Venky and I crashed soon after that slept for 3 hours.

In the evening Venky was back to his normal self. Back in spirits, back in energy. Everytime, I asked him if the cut was paining, he replied with a big "NO".

So, that was the story of how Venky got his first scar. I have 3 such scars (knee, elbow, other  side of palm) and I have broken my shoulder twice. Vibhu does not have any. Probably that is why Venky to chose to fall when his dad wasn't around. Sigh! It all comes back to you in this life and for once, I am desparately wishing that Venky does not take after me.

Its tough to match up

to the next generation. Only 2 years into the world and Venky is already teaching me that. And he is making me feel really dumb. Alright Mr. Darwin. You win. Evolution wins. GenX is smarter. Almost always.

We went grocery shopping with Venky. One of those Relaince fresh kind of stores. You know how they are. Hardly any spces between the aisles. Lots of people. Overflowing stock of goods.

Venky decided he was not going to behave himself. And while we were standing in long long queue waiting to check out, he kept picking up stuff and pushing stuff off the shelves. Finally Vibhu had to take him out and I had to wait alone to pay up.

Next stop was the Fruit/Veggie shop. We decided to teach Venky a lesson. So, only Vibhu got off the car while Venky and I stayed inside. Venky was told he cannot go to the shop as he does not behave himself. Now, Venky does not like not being taken to the shops so he cried. Softly and loudly. Pleaded I'll-behave-myself-I-promise.

Once Venky realised that there was no go, he sat quietly. I felt quite sorry for him as he watched his dad pick up the veggies from a distance with longing. However, I was determined to finish the punishment. Moments passed. Vibhu was in the check out queue now.

Venky - "I want to pee"

I - "After a while. Let papa come."

Venky - "I want to pee now."

I - "Can you not hold on for sometime?"

Venky did not answer and I thought it was not urgent enough and decided to ignore his request. But after 2 minutes he made the request to pee again. This time around I felt it was urgent.

I went in and took Vibhu's place in the check out queue and sent him to help Venky. Soon, they were back in the shop. Venky jumped around excitedly and Vibhu reported that Venky hardly pee-ed a few drops. Threre was no urgency and we had been fooled into taking him out of the car. Venky made a request that he knew would not be denied.

I am dreading teenage already.

Our 911

The area around Venky's school is a mess. The drains are being laid and the road is under repair. Everyday we have to discover a new bylane to reach there. A few days ago, when Vibhu was driving to pick Venky up from the school, he tried to be adventurous and lo! his car was stuck in loose gravel that was laid down for the road repair. The more Vibhu accelerated the car, the more the wheels sank into the gravel. Soon, it was clear that there was no easy way to get the car out. Classic case of "stuck - in - nowhere - call - 911".


Only in India there's no "nowhere". Even before Vibhu could get out of the car, there were 20 odd people around him. Giving suggestions, pushing the car, digging the wheels out the gravel, some even brought tools to help push the car out. After 45 minutes of everybody's effort, the car was on its way. Most of the people vanished as soon as the car was out and even before Vibhu could thank them. Others just happily accepted whatever little money Vibhu offered them. Venky, Vibhu and the car reached home safe and sound.

We live in a country of 1 billion people. Our people are our 911.


P.S - Venky loved all the commotion and was super excited. He's desparately waiting for the car to get stuck again.

Leading Questions

We usually drop Venky to his pre school on our way to office. One of us picks him up at 12.00 pm and drops him back home. His nanny takes care of him till we come back from office. When I/Vibhu are dropping Venky back, he is keen on keeping that parent with him at home. We usually tell him that the other parent is in office and needs to be picked up. This convinces him and he lets us go without a fuss.

One day, only Vibhu dropped Venky to school and I went a little late to office by the other car. Vibhu was the one who picked him up too. This is how the conversation went

Venky - "Has mommy gone to the office?"
Vibhu - "Yes"
Venky - "How did she go to the office?" (Since I did not accompany them in the morning)
Vibhu - "I came back and picked her up." (Vibhu had sensed the purpose behind this question)

Venky switches to other topics and they arrive home. Venky notices that the other car is not there.
Venky - "Where is the other car?"
Vibhu (in his gullible self) - "Mommy has taken it to the office."
Venky - "So she can come back herself!!! You can stay with me!!! :) "

We get a lot of such questions now - which have "purpose" behind them. Its becoming more and more difficult to bluff him and we are becoming easy targets :(

Bihari Babu, English Mem

Venky and our little next door neighbor Keya, meet after a long time (first Keya went on a long vacation to USA and then we did to Ranchi). They jump around excitedly visibly happy to see each other. I try to make conversation with Keya and ask  her "Where's your Baba Keya?"
Keya chooses to answer to Venky. She goes to him and says in a very accented English - "My Baba has gone to U.S". (Oh, I wish I could let you hear the accent. It was so cute!!).
My son, amused at her new found language skills laughs out loud and replies - "Humka Papa office gayen hain!"

Sigh. The way those  two sentences were spoken was a delight to hear. The post misses the impact. :(

Back

And the two weeks flew by. Came back to office with a pile of workload and a bad habit of napping in the afternoon. I am sitting in the office craving for a bed right now.

I had really forgotten what a big festival Durga puja is in Bihar. With "pandals" at every half a kilometer, conitunous bhajans on loudspeakers, decorative lights on virtually all streets and food stalls on side walks, 80%+20% discounts and crowd, crowd, crowd everywhere. Its been over a decade since I witnessed such festivity and how I loved it! I also took Rikshaw rides after ages. And the best thing about visiting sasuraal is that hubby and I can sneak out shopping and visiting relatives, leaving Venky with his grandparents. Heh heh.

Venky knows the story of Durgaji and Mahishasur now and listens to it during every meal. Sometimes we have to play act with either me or his dad playing the Mahishasur, the other playing Durgaji and Venky playing Durgaji's Lion.

Venky made friends with all the new faces, learnt to do "pranam" as against "hi" and returned with lots of new clothes. We were worried that he will refuse to go to the school after such a long vacation, but my smart kid happily waved goodbye.

I better get back to work now. How have you guys been?

An obidient kid

is the one who stops bouncing the ball off the neighbor's car when told "Uncle gussa karenge".
A smart kid is the one who then walks off to his mom's car and starts bouncing the ball off it.

That's a 2.5 year old outsmarting me. Folks, this blog is on a 2 week break as we are on vacation. But before I leave, I have to complete this tag by Trish. You know what, this is the first time someone has really tagged me and am so excited about doing it. Here I go ...

The first alphabet of my son's name is 'V' - God! this is going to be a tough one

1. What is your(child’s) name: Venkatesh
2. A four Letter Word: Very  (this is all I could think of)
3. A boy’s Name: Varun
4. A girl’s Name: Vishakha
5. An occupation: Vet  (as in the doc for animals)
6. A color: Violet
7. Something you wear: Vest
8. A food: Veg Noodles (or any thing veg :p)
9. Something found in the bathroom: Vivel soap. (Really can't think of a common noun)
10. A place: Venice. I've taken THE romantic canal ride there. Long before Venky was born
11. A reason for being late: Very sick :p
12. Something you shout: VENKYYYYYYY STOP.
13. A movie title: Vaastav (this was some stupid Sanjay Dutt movie)
14. Something you drink: Vodka (I don't drink it though).
15. A musical group: Viva. I think these girls had won the Channel V competition and formed a rock band for some time
16. An animal: Vulture. Okey, that's a bird but belongs to the animal kingdom.
17. A Street name: Visp  (I think its one of streets in switzerland Valais region)
18. A type of car: Volvo . Okey that's a bus. But its really getting tough to think stuff starting with V
19. A song title: Vada raha sanam ....
20. A verb: Vent

Phew. This was not easy.

I'll tag Bubble's Mom. Anybody else who wants to do it?