It’s a lazy Saturday morning. It is sunny and bright outside our room. Somebody knocks at the door. You get out of the bed to check. You are wearing a white sleeveless vest and underpants and then put on a Capri. Your hair is untied, filling the room with your fragrance.
The moment you open the door, our son comes in running and leaps into the bed and says, “Good morning daddy!!!”.
“Good morning tiger!!!”, is my reply.
You complain, “Gentlemen! There is somebody else is in the room, too.”
Ignoring you, he whispers in my ears, “Daddy, I don’t want to go to school.”
“And the reason is??”, I reply in interrogative.
“Don’t speak so loud, mama is here. I want to play the game that we bought yesterday. I can’t wait till evening.”
“Ok, let me try” , I said and turn my face towards you. You are making a knot of your hair.
“You know, sweetie, I feel, we are not giving enough time to our son. What if he bunks school today? We’ll have the whole day together, what you say??”
You are the discipline keeper of the family and I am the lenient one, who loves to do small naughty acts with the kid. The acts that he missed in his childhood and wants to relive his most precious time with his son.
“No way!!! Nobody is skipping the school. We have Sunday to spend together”, you say and give him a toothbrush with toothpaste on it.
We have lost the very first battle of the day to you.
Our son is furious. I take him in my lap and go to the washbasin, you follow us and say, “I’ve been watching you, you are getting out of control, I don’t like you making faces every day.”
He doesn’t know that you are following us, our son says in rage, “Daddy! Mama itna gussa kyu karati hai? Aapko aur koi ladki nahi mili thi shadi karne ko? Bas yahi mama hi mili thee? ”
The moment you hear his words, you break out laughing. You give him a kiss on his cheek and hug him tight from behind.
His anger is not subdued and he says,” Ab maar hi daalogi kya?”
“Haan”, is your reply and you give him another hug followed by a kiss.
I pretend to be jealous and I say, “Ham par to kabhi itna pyar nahi aataa aapko. Junior pe sara pyar deti hain. Ab samjha hamare hisse ka pyaar jataa kahan hai."
“Senior had his quota last night. And by the way he is becoming more demanding and wilder every day, I’ll have to do something”, you warn me.
“You don’t need to do anything, just stop becoming more beautiful with every passing day and thanks for giving me the most amazing kid of the world. I am indebted with my life to you”, is the thought that comes into my mind. And I smile to myself.
I look at you and my son, and challenge the whole world ‘is there any better family on the face of earth??’ And I am the one who wins the challenge every single morning, because I know the answer. God, please please shield my family from all the evils. Amen.
[I woke up sweating, I'm thirsty. I don't want to lose even a single bit of this dream. I am writing it and it is 4 in the morning. What a way to start a day. A sleepless night.]
