How long will I survive?

DS loves anything with wheels. Anything. 

So when we went shopping the other day, he insisted he'll pull the shopping bag. 

"Sure" I said, finding this obsession finally useful. "Just let me know if it becomes heavy and you find it difficult to pull."

We completed our shopping, and Ady and I were walking ahead of DS. As we were walking the sidewalk, I saw some grates on the road. 

"Son, be careful when you cross here," I told him. "Just use the ramp. Avoid the grates."

He was so happy he was pulling the bag all by himself, that he didn't hear me. I ran towards him, as he was maneuvering over the grates.  I caught his hand just as his leg slipped into the grates. I pulled him up carefully, but the shock of having his leg stuck between the grills really scared him. 

He started crying out loud. I held him close and consoled him. There were no visible traces of an injury. Just a slight scrape.  I called Ady, who was a few feet ahead of us. He ran to us hearing his son cry. 

As we inspected his leg together, the scrape started to become more visible with slight traces of blood. 

This scared the little one more. 

"Hold" I said. "You're fine. It's just a scrape on the skin."

"But there's blood" he wailed. 

"Let's go to the doctor, just in case" Ady said. "It was an iron grate, and God knows what else was in that ditch"

"We don't know what was on that ditch?" DS started screaming his lungs out. 

"You'll be fine. There isn't anything." I said. "But we'll go to the doctor, to be doubly sure."

"Ok, call the ambulance!" He said, slowly calming down. 

"Ambulance?" Ady and I asked in bewilderment. 

"Why ambulance? Can you walk?"

"Yes, but ambulance will take me to the hospital sooner"

"Oh my God, he has the mancold!" I signaled to Ady.  He smiled. 

"An ambulance won't come for this" Ady said. 

"Why? This is an emergency. There is blood."

"But it isn't gushing. It's just on the skin. An ambulance would come if there is a lot of blood, or the bone is broken, or...."

"Is my bone broken?" DS started crying again. 

"No. Babe, if we call the cab, it will come sooner than the ambulance, because it's just around the corner" I offered. 

"But it can't take us sooner, like the ambulance can." DS argued. 

"The hospital is just around the corner, sweetie" I said. 

That seemed to have calmed him. 

"How long will I survive?" He suddenly asked. 

"What?" 

"How long will I survive with this hurt in my leg?"

"Sweetheart, you'll live to a 100"

"But how long will I survive with this?"

"You mean a scar?"

"No, what will this hurt do to me? Will I become ok?"

Oh my God, this boy has a severe case of the manflu! I wondered. 

"Yes. You'll be perfectly fine. You won't even have a scar. We're going to the doctor, just to make sure we're not missing anything."

"What are you missing?"

"That's what we're going to find out sweetie."

Once we reached the hospital, the doctor looked at the scrape, at us, and back to the scrape. 

"He fell through a sewage grate. He wasn't sure he'd survive" I offered, realizing how foolish we must be looking. 

He smiled, cleaned the wound, and put some ointment on it. 

"It's just a superficial scrape. He must've already had his Tetanus shot. I've cleaned it. So he should be fine. Just clean it again tomorrow."

"Doctor, can you repeat the part where you said he is fine?"

He looked at me again, this time as if I was daft. 

"Yeah, he is fine."

"Did you hear that, sweetie?" I asked. 

He finally smiled. "I can walk?" 

"You've been walking...well, yeah" I said giving up. 

"I am worried" I whispered to Ady. 

"Why? It's just..." he started reassuring. 

"No, not about this. About the person who will marry this boy. I hope that person's a Doctor!"

 

Image credit: https://www.rawpixel.com/image/7580094/image-cartoon-illustrations-public-domain

Happy Deebavali, Pa

 

Diwali brings in so many memories. The last few Diwalis have been bitter-sweet.

Kids looking forward to the new clothes, the sparklers, meeting friends and family, and I remembering my childhood, my Appa.

Every Deebavali (that’s what Tamilians call it), Appa would wake us up at 4:00 AM to burst some crackers to commemorate the death of the evil Narakasura.

Appa would insist that we take an oil bath – apply oil on our head and body, and shower with a few drops of the Holy Ganga mixed with our bucket of water.

“Ganga snanam aayacha?" was the standard way Appa and Amma would greet friends and family to wish Happy Deebavali. “Did you take your bath with the Holy water.”

We used to hate waking up so early, but bursting the crackers, Amma rubbing oil on our heads and us taking our baths and accepting our new clothes whilst sitting on our old clothes in gratitude, are all traditions etched in my memory.

My kids also have developed their own memories. They know to expect Indian sweets, chaat, new clothes and crackers. But I don’t wake them up at 4:00 AM or rush them to take an oil bath. There’s a chance I don’t do this because I don’t like waking up so early, but also because my kids are more vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with the situation than my sis and I ever were.

Nevertheless, the smell of freshly made delicacies, the laughter of the kids, M.S. Subbulaxmi in the background, reminds me so much of Appa doing puja in the morning, Amma by his side. I miss doing namaskaram to him before accepting our new clothes. I miss getting the prasadam from him, before he offered an entire plate of Deebavali foods, I miss giving both my sis and I a warm hug and wishing us the best in everything we did. 

Appa, I wish you were with us; I wish you would spread the cheer of festivities like you always did. I wish you held my children and gave them a warm, loving embrace like you always did to us. I wish I could have so many more Deebavalis with you. I hope you had your Ganga Snanam ‘pa.

 

 

 Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kdinuraj/4012378376

The Villain of the Story

DS fights with DD – a lot. 

She takes up his airtime, when she talks to us, obviously – she likes talking – a lot, and that eats up into his time.

He won’t talk a lot when she is not around, but when she’s there, that’s it, that’s the only time he wants to talk, and Dika is “just mean”, that she “does not let (him) talk at all!”

DD has a minor case of Misophonia, so he’ll go chew closer to her ears. He’ll make loud gulping noises and eat crunchy foods, so she’ll react.

To her credit, DD does not initiate a fight, but she also doesn’t let him be. “You need to teach him that he can’t get his way”, she’ll teach me.

“I need some peace and calm” I’ll react. “Just let him be.”

“Tough luck. You taught me to stand up for myself. Now deal with it!”

If I am greying, I’d say the biggest reason is their bickering.

This is how a typical fight gets resolved -

“DS, let’s just go, you, me and Papa, to some place for a vacation.” I’ll offer. “Let’s leave Dika at home.”

“Yes!”, he’ll exclaim between sobs over some random fight – maybe she stared at him, or maybe she just existed.

“Why would you do that?” DD will quip back. “But wait, are you planning to go to the beach? If yes, then yeah, go ahead, I don’t want to come. But any other place, I want in.”

“Ok, let’s go to the beach DS, you love going to the beach.”

“Let’s not leave Dika behind,” he’ll whimper. “She’ll feel left out.”

“But that’s what you want?”

“No. I don’t want her to feel bad. I just want you to scold her. We can’t leave her behind. I don’t want her to be alone. I love her.”

“I love you too, DS”, DD’ll hug him. “I love you the most.”

“Yes, both of you love each other. Mamma made a bad suggestion.” Ady will swoop in when all’s well.

“Yeah, Mamma, you made a bad suggestion” DS and DD will agree.

This is how almost all fights end... they’ll bring me in their fights,  somehow resolve it, and make me the bad guy.

Hey, if that leads to them becoming a team, bring it on. I have no qualms about being the villain to their happy sibling story.

 

Image credit: https://www.deviantart.com/daviddv1202/art/Revenge-of-the-Disney-Villains-872211233