Growing up with Yash

  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....

PC: Yash the poser, Vickram behind the lens. 'I see trees of green, red roses too, I want to watch our children bloom, for me and you!' -Louis Armstrong Show them it's a wonderful world, a beautiful life, We learn from our mistakes, encounter challenges and deal with strife! As a parent, it is our constant endeavour to keep our children out of harm's way, an instinct if you please. So the first time I heard about the Netflix release, 13 reasons why, I was aghast at why a young girl would want to give up her life and document the reasons too. I struck up a conversation with my teenaged nephew, asking him if he had watched this series. He had, and he advised me not to watch it as it was too depressing. Though I haven't watched it yet (I've taken the advice of my very insightful nephew), I believe that it is important to fill our children with positivity, just in case... I was talking about this over lunch today with a very dear friend, a lovely huma...

Today, I dropped Yash at his friend's place for rehearsing his lines for his upcoming school day. As we reached close to her place, Yash mentioned 'I think my tummy's telling me I'm shy'! It was so 'matter-of-fact'ly that I looked at him to see his expression. I am amazed that he interpreted his feeling of excitement and anticipation coupled with feeling shy, so well. We all get the butterflies, but for a boy of 6.5 yrs to understand what it means is a little achievement in the 'emotional development' department. I remember when he was younger, maybe about 2.5 or 3 yrs old, once he had gone upto his dad and said 'Dad, I am feeling cranky'. At that time, he was sleepy and was tired of playing, but he had understood his feelings and had felt the need to tell his dad about it. It hasn't all been rosy, he has had his fair share of tempers and tantrums, fights and breakdowns too. But overall, he has been in touch with his feelings and...

When it comes to the food department, I have been extremely lucky! I started Yash on solid food from his 6th month onward, with Ragi mixture and cerelac. By the time he was 8 months old, I used to give him mashed rice with vegetables and dal. By his first birthday, he was eating almost every variety of the South Indian breakfast consisting of Idlys, Dosas, Chapatis and so on. From then till now, when he is all of 5 yrs and 7 months, I have never had to cook for him separately.  I have seen mothers who've had to run behind their toddlers, cook up not just food but stories too, coax their little ones for hours on end, just to get a morsel of food in. Well, touch wood, I have had the great fortune bestowed upon me, I never had to do these things ;) Blessed, right? Me and my husband have always encouraged Yash to eat by himself. Even if that meant a fight with messiness, hours of him and his plate conjoined, and maybe a little less than usual nutrition. By two years, Yash was able...