Our world, being turned around!

For the ones who had an impression that this would be a serious discussion about the financial or political condition of the world around, or the distressing news of the demise of Steve Jobs, kindly apologize. I am here to talk about my tiny world which consists of my spouse, child, parents, brother, grand parents and in-laws!

Every mother takes pride in calling her child naughty. I am in no way different. My daughter Siddhi is now 1 year and 4 months old. She is turning our world around by her many innovative ideas of having fun and throwing away all the primitive ideas of safety to air!

My house does not look the same anymore. The moment you pass the gate, you might find buckets stacked near the water tap. That's Siddhi's greatest time pass. She carries buckets (yes, not just one, but one in each hand) to the water tap and orders who ever is around to open the tap. After a while, that same who ever would carry a wet cat inside and change her clothes for the hundredth time. I cannot really count the number of times this ritual happens everyday.

Stepping further inside, please don't be shocked to find waste bins inside the show case. Siddhi has this special liking for waste bins. She picks it up, smiles at you and then pours it over her head. Apparently, my mother could not find a better place to keep it.

My house is currently a weapon free zone. You would not find a single safety pin, blade, nail cutter, knife or anything remotely dangerous anywhere near. This reform happened after she cut her hand with a stray blade some time ago and thereafter when my mother found her happily holding a knife in her hand and offering it to anyone who wants it.

Now don't be even more surprised if you hear my helpless mom talking in English to my even more helpless dad! English is the favorite language of communication in Vidya Vihar(that's my house) these days. This is because Siddhi, albeit her limited knowledge of Malayalam, seems to understand everything we speak. My mom plans to take a bath, tells my husband or my father that she is off to the bathroom, and whoosh, Siddhi is in the bathroom before she even collects her bath towels. And yeah, the only option is to bath with Siddhi inside, oblivious to anything happening around and joyously playing with all the water she wants. So then we devised a plan to use English in such emergencies. Knowing my daughter, it is just a matter of time before she would learn this foreign language too. I am starting to train my parents, brother and husband in Hindi and in a short while would be teaching myself Spanish, Chinese and Greek in that order so that we can somehow survive until she gets older!

Feeding Siddhi is a challenge which is usually bestowed on the person after an impartial coin tossing process. The ritual takes a minimum of 2 hrs during which she changes her mind as to riding her cycle, playing on her swing, turning over her huge kit of toys from the bottom so that the room is flooded with her toys and walking around the house. And after all these, you would be left puffing and panting and the plate would still be half full. Sometimes, after all this effort, she suddenly feels that she has over eaten, so she sticks her finger into her mouth and throws up the efforts of 2 hours all over you and off you run to the bathroom, ofcourse with her running ahead of you by several paces.

Now after such a hectic day, if you are planning to stay over, please get ready to sleep without pillows. Siddhi has mastered the art of climbing the window. Once she reaches the top, she looks at you, smiles benignly and leaves her hand for a sky diving. The bed was there to support her though my mother, witnessing this act of valor, almost got a heart attack. As a result of this, all the 20 pillows in and around my house are stacked below this particular window to catch her fall.

One day, my mother entered the kitchen and saw an yellow baby, aka Siddhi. She had managed to get the turmeric powder from the rack and had bathed herself in that. As my mom fled with Siddhi to dip her in a bucket, she thanked God that it was turmeric and not chilly!

Taking Siddhi out for shopping is more fun that you can imagine, ofcourse, I am talking from her perspective. As far as you are concerned, it is a messy and sweaty process. My uncle, the policeman and my aunty, who looks after her in the day time, in one of those disastrous moments which you might later want to rewind, decided to take her out for shopping in the nearby supermarket. My daughter has the habit of calling anyone remotely resembling my brother by the name Mama(uncle) and anyone a little older as Appooppa(Grandpa). Thankfully, my husband is the only person she calls as Acha(father)! So on this particular historic day, she entered the supermarket, spotted her victim and started calling him Appooppa. To be fair to the man, he wasn't all that old or anything and he was clearly offended. From my aunt's report, my uncle had the most embarrassed smile of his face as he apologized to the offended man and just has he was doing it, Siddhi shouted her lungs out 'Appooppa' and everyone blushed! As if that was all. It must have been a pretty sight with Siddhi running around the supermarket, treating everything around her as a hindrance, toppling things over, with my uncle running behind her to catch her and my not exactly slim aunty, painstakingly picking up and rearranging things that Siddhi baby had deranged!

The story repeated at Udumbanchola too, my husband's place, where we took her over the weekend. Again the voltage step up was relocated to the top of the almirah because Siddhi wanted to stick her finger into it, the weapons like nail cutter etc was over the cot for the obvious reason, the phone was over the television because she suddenly wanted to talk to everyone and the television itself barricaded through all the furniture available to avoid a serial toppling of all the antiquities that the television was housing. As we started to leave, I heard my father in law saying something about building some racks high up and my mother in law evidently was still panting.

All through the daily reports that I get from Rajeev, my mom and my aunt, there is only thing that comes to my mind. I am missing a large part of it. The fun and the pain both. I miss you baby and I promise that we would be together as soon as we can. I love you darling!!!