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.