Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Where are you?

I keep asking this question atleast a hundred times every day....not to myself, but to my son...
"Sacheth where are you?"
With the magnanimous level of energy that only toddlers seem to have is really mysterious. He is always at work....sometimes happily running around for no reason; sometimes jumping on the mattress or the sofa; sometimes putting all his energy in crying to ask me for water, making people around feel that I am his stepmom who deprives the poor child of the basic need of water.....and only I know that he wants it to spill it around.....with all this he keeps his brain running too, as he knows when I am angry and gives me the warmest smile which calms me down instantly..

Basically....I cant keep him tied at one place for sure...so when I am in the kitchen or totally engrossed in something on the laptop, my little son escapes to his space out of my sight. He keeps blabbering something or there is some or the other noise with his toys that keeps coming when he is away....and I know where he is. Then there is silence which is a signal that there is danger........not to the child, but to the things around him.
Some instances I am sharing here, which could not have happened if I wasnt lazy, more vigilent and blah blah blah....but heck, I am not my mom....I am just too imperfect for situations like this...I am hoping that I will grow wiser by the time I have a grandchild atleast. Ya just hoping.....not confident!

Scene 1 :
I forget to keep away the paper towel roll away from his reach....dont even remember why it had reached down there...I went to see the answer to my question "Sacheth where are you?"
I see the complete roll torn to pieces. On a positive side, I see he is very skillful in that...he has control of his hands to tear even the tiniest paper to pieces. So you know I was late to the scene, the bigger pieces of tear were long gone.

Scene 2 :
I take out the dried clothes out of the drier, feel too lazy to fold them then and there and dump it in the room thinking I will fold it a little later. I go to the kitchen to make his meal. I can hear Sacheth's toy talking in the room....so I know he is playing with it. Then there is silence, then there are giggles...silence again. I decide I need to check. And yes let me tell you all this happened in probably less than 2 to 3 mins.
"Sacheth where are you?" I have never verbally got an answer........he hasnt grown old enough to tell me the truth about where he is....and he has some more years before he can lie me about where he is not.....but I ask anyway.
I see the answer. Clothes thrown in every corner of the room...I feel an urgent need to check the weather channel to see if there was a tornado that just struck that room.

Scene 3 :
Old McDonald rhyme is playing on youtube. I am trying to make him eat his lunch at a rate of atleast one bite a rhyme. There is a knock on the door. I leave the laptop, the kiddie, the plate and spoon together to answer the door. A courier man, I sign.....the rhyme stops playing in the background. I keep the parcel in its proper place.....by this time it seems like eternity of silence....I start panicking for my foolishness of leaving the room in that way....as usual "Sacheth...."
You have by now guessed it... Let me try to reconstruct what would have happened.
As soon as I left, he should have tried to grow up and eat the lunch on his own. Hand went to the spoon and tried to pick up some rice...in this process, a lot of rice went down on the carpet...some stuck to his little fingers. In the meanwhile the song stopped. He wanted it to start singing again....Realising the gravity of the situation that he is on his own, he becomes responsible and tries to put on the song. His fingers went to the keyboard.....hit some keys slowly....song did not start...he hit some more with some more force...
so basically when I saw my answer I saw his plate almost empty, carpet having relished most of it and some tasted by the keyboard...The next second some strange combination of his hits seem to work and the rhyme plays again...he sighs a sound of relief, smiles....looks at me points his fingers to the monitor and says 'eeya eeya'....I dont know how I should react.

Scene 4 :
Yaa the same thing...I am in the kitchen...there is silence from the room and the usual "Sacheth where are you?"
I go to see him.....he is tapping his chest to show me where he is and laughing uncontrollably thinking we are playing 'peek-a-boo'..... I was totally drawn to his smile.....played peek-a-boo with him for few more mins just to see him enjoying it... I was suddenly brought back to my world when I remembered that I had spread dosa on pan before coming here......I reached the kitchen in time to save my pan, if not the dosa.

Scene 5 :
Once I saw him in the below position :)
I need to run as there is silence again...."Sacheth where are you?"

15 comments:

A Sunny Yellow Window said...

hahaa hilarious Rithe! The build-up which ended in the pic was super! Such a cute naughty boy Sacheth is :))

Arpana said...

hahaha..i thought of ending my longggggggg day by just reading ur "my words.." i was almost dozing-off, but still managed to read it completely and wat shud i say, meri neend ud gayi..coz i jus could not stop laughing out loud!! i can say it was visual treat coz i was actually visualizing the scenes..beautifully written..kudos to u..

Who Am I? said...

:)

chandini said...

:)...Sacheth...Where are you...Mommy is all free writing up her words....:)

Manoj said...

Wow!!!!
I was literally visualizing the scenes...and could not stop laughing out loud!!

Unknown said...

Thanks Ambike :)
Arpana....thanks for reading it even when you were sleepy, and I am glad you were not disappointed
Arcs...I know its you :)
Ch, he was jumping on the bed :P
Manoj thanks for taking time out of apple to read it :)

A' nil said...

Good observations from a 'care about kid' mother. Your thoughts are indeed good. I like it!! :-)

I also want to add something here other than what you have mentioned.

What I feel is that we all 'must have' thrown some tantrums like these when we were kids, and our parents must have got angry on us. Appreciating or showing surprise then, was niche! The difference lies between generations. We did not do what kids of today are up-to. They have access to things that we didn't even dreamt of then. Even today, our parents rarely compare between our childhood and our kids because they know the difference, and we are still yet to get acquainted with parenthood. Again, their maturity is unquestionable. There's a sea of change between then and now. And just because we didn't do something like what our kids are doing these days, we find their pranks amazing, surprising, interesting, entertaining, awesome, and all the metaphors that I can think of! :-)
Let us cherish our childhood, too. I am sure, most of us climbed trees, balconies, and other things. Rarely does a kid of today gets to do this. :-)

Stay happy! Keep up the good work! Stock these thoughtful memorabilia for Sacheth, and present him when he grows into an adult. I am sure he will like it! :-)

Unknown said...

sooo sweeeet

Unknown said...

Hi Sravan :Jr.Bill Gates...ya :P
Anilanna : Wonder what his kids will play with :)
Arun :)

sushma shanbhag said...

i was expecting Sachu to wear some good shoes n play" Kere- DaDa" on the laptop...

prajna said...

rithakka..super writing.. i was just laughing out loud at monitor that too in office :)and u know what there is no cubicle :P people infornt of me are thinking whats wrong with me :P..
its superb rithakka.. keep writing..u have the power of writing in which we feel we are also experiencing / watching that..keep writing.. :)Sacheth rocks ;)

Unknown said...

Sushma : adondu baaki
Prajna : Ha ha....your collegues would have thought...work pressure se aadmi kya kya karta hai!

Yaji said...

Awesome post!! I hope you write more, as I just can't get enough of Sacheth and your writing!!

Unknown said...

Thanks Manu...keep reading :)

Divya said...

Hilarious!!! Can actually see him doing all these.. Very well written.. Ritu, you should resume writing...