Fast Forward

Venky - "I am growing so fast, I will become 11 years very soon."

I - "Yes, you will."

Venky starts counting and stops only at 40.

"I will become 40 years very soon."

"When you will be 40 years old, you will also have a baby like Tunmun."

I had promised myself that I will not nag my kids to become parents after being at the receiving end by all the ladies of the previous generation. But I see myself not letting a chance go already!

"Mommy, what will you name her?"

"You will name her Venky." Secretly, I am thrilled at the prospect of him letting me name his babies

"I will name her Aditi"

"That's a nice name."

"And Tunmun"

"Tunmun"?

"Yes, like you call her Tunmun" Venky points to his baby sister.

"You mean, ghar ka naam (pet name)"?

"Yes, ghar ka naam."

"Do you know, what is your ghar ka naam"?

"Yes, house no 47 ....." And Venky recites our full address :). That is where our discussions on his future end.

The Night Owl

is what Tunmun has become. For the past week she has been sleeping like a log during the day and been up all night. This has resulted into Vibhu and Venky shifting into another room so that Venky can be up in the morning to go to the school and me struggling with her alone till the wee hours of the morning. Sigh .. the joys of parenthood !

And Miss T, I am the one who rocks you throught the night, but you chose to give your first smile to Big B. That is fine. But that you smile ONLY at him is JUST NOT FAIR! I deserve at least that much for .. well, I don't want to cite the old hindi movie dialog "maine nau maheene tumhe apne kokh mein pala hai.", but heck, that's true! I've worked the hardest. Now c'mon, give me that heart melting smile of yours!

And please, please, please start sleeping during the nights again.

And the first smile goes to

The BiG B. Who else ? While Vibhu and I were making funny sounds at Tunmun, she looked away in a 3rd direction. Venky came there and cooed "Hi choti behena" and lo and behold! He gets a smile!