Tales of Sir Calm-a-lot

 

My almost 13 year old boy, Yash, has taught us so much during these turbulent times. I've found a new found respect for his really calm, composed demeanour. 

During school days, whether it was online school or physical school, the rest of us at home would be scampering to get everything ready for him so he is on time. Yash would just slowly waltz in, as if there is no reason to rush, have his breakfast, get ready on time and sit for his classes (or walk to his bus). If you were to watch that scene as an outsider, it would be as if the rest of us were in 1.5X speed and he was Neo from Matrix!

Here's an incident- In a first of its kind, Yash went to his friend's place for group studies (how it qualifies as a group when it's just the two of them, I dunno!). Come evening, he called up my husband to book him a cab home. Since the location wasn't getting identified, he had to walk a bit to get to where the cab was. Calls going on between my husband, Yash and the cabbie. Unfortunately, Yash's phone died and there was no way we could get in touch with him since he had already left from his friend's house. My anxious husband ran out the office (read as flew out), got into his car and started driving towards where he thought Yash might be waiting. 10 mins on, my husband gets a call, 'Appa, I'm at the corner of the street, near Coffee Day. Can you come to pick me up? Oh, you're on the way, then I'm waiting, don't rush, take your time'. There he was, our precious little boy, confidently sitting and waiting where he had mentioned. He got into the car and narrated his thought process. Yash had recalled his dad mentioning that there was an Apple store nearby. He decided to walk towards that since his phone died, so he could charge his phone at that store and call us. Unfortunately, he walked in the wrong direction. Since he couldn't locate the store, he asked a stranger for his phone. After narrating his story to the stranger, the kind gentleman agreed to let Yash borrow the phone for the call. Yash accompanied my husband back to our office and when he reached, he was cool as a cucumber. 

Cut to a month later, final assessments are underway. Yash, as always, taking everything in his stride. The system of the assessment was that students would write the answers while keeping their cameras on and submit the book at the end of the day to the person coming in the school bus to collect it. Day 3, when the assessment started, Yash realised that he had given the wrong book the previous day. Hence, he didn't have the question paper. He came out of his room calmly and explained the situation to me. I was flabbergasted, yelled at him and asked him to 'deal with it'. In his usual composed manner, he raised his hand, indicating me to relax and went into his room. He emerged two hours later after having successfully completed the assessment. The bugger had reached out to his teacher, who mailed the question paper to him. Bless her for understanding our son and accommodating his request. 

The whole of last year, having seen a lot more of Yash since he was schooling from home, has been a revelation. Like I mentioned right at the beginning, he has taught me to take it easy, just like a walking talking poster that read, KEEP CALM. Whether through our stint with COVID as a family, having to lend a hand in household chores during the lockdown, or just dealing with all of life's googlies, he has been an inspiration for me and my husband.

He's a tween, not devoid of his outbursts and fair share of fights. I just hope that his calmness outweighs his rage at all times. That's our wish today, growing up with Yash!

Thank you for reading through the little anecdotes from our life! We'd love to hear about your life too, so feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Parenting!