One more birthday....

Dear Ninni

Ahhh....it,s over..your fourth birthday. We had fun..lots of it.

A day prior we sent a cake to your school ( your birthday being on Saturday we celebrated a day ahead in school), sorry we did not click a pic of it ( read your father did not). A dry tutti fruity cake as instructed by your teachers, and i was more excited about the fluorescent brasso frock and the matching floral clip i got for you. As it was, morning i was in the office also i had the car with me so you went with your Pishi by rickshaw and your Baba followed after much fuss with a large cake ( don,t know why he ordered a ' 2 kilos' cake for kids in my absence) as it was raining and both of you just hate getting wet.

Actually we did not understand how things were in school and was it really a nice idea to send a cake for your birthday. Anyway we picked you up from school (a thing we hardly do together) and went off to Ambience mall , basically we wanted to look for some furniture for our living room and also let you play in the game zone. The idea of leaving you alone in the game zone along with our cell number did not work at all and within minutes we left we got a call from the attendant you have begun howling. Rest of the time we spent in the game parlour...and err... i just get the feeling what a waste of money... and i know you won,t agree with me but i feel awful dishing out hard earned money for absolutely nothing and that too it,s non refundable...nothing less than loot but who is listening to me with onion, potato prices rocketing sky high..and money just flies out of purse into nowhere. Really when i think of money and how to curtail expenses... i,m absolutely clueless... yes i know like all women i do indulge in excessive shopping which just feels so right...
But this is your fourth birthday post so i,ll leave my worries elsewhere for a while.

In Ambience Mall

Your birthday morning we began with some fight before we went to attend your PTM in school , bickering over some petty issue...and i want to tell you whether this is the right time or not i am not sure.. we do fight very often, over all issues under the sun... parenting being one of the primary ones as of now, from there we take on to each other,s upbringing, parents, home, family, tastes... sometimes issues would be a huge debate between an ox and a bull, about my 'on paper' principles and so many things. Your father and all people who love tells me repeatedly not to fight in front of you.. but this keeps happening. So Ninni, your Ma will confess we are not an ideal romantic couple or doting parents you will set your eyes on...we argue at every thing we can get our hands at... and being 'middle classy ' there isn,t much public display of affection ( of whatever affection we have!!) and may be that is why you have learnt to take ' sides' , mostly my side against your Baba and take full advantage of our squabbles.

While we were attending PTM listening to your teacher complaining about you making fuss and wail...

Credit to Pishi for a home cooked lunch while i was out arranging for the party ( including visit to the parlour)

Something about your growing up... you are growing up to be an extremely gizmo friendly person... the i pad mini we had to get  you and loads of you tube videos you watch of some Tutitu, Dora and host of other cartoons....and now we are tearing our hair out as internet usage has been exceeded way past the limit and the huge bill staring at us... finally we are going to change the plan. There is my perennial dilemma whether we are indulging you too much...but as my Baba always said and i myself believed in too... banning things which others have easy access to isn,t going to help.Till now we could not get you interested in reading, i know you are too little and it is not that you do not like books but other gizmos attract you too much...let us wait and see.. and perhaps a reminder for me to put more books in and around you... You are quite comfortable in school though we have regular complaints that you cry and make fuss at the drop of a hat so much that even teachers are scared to say anything to you!! Anyway that is their problem for me if you wake up, have your bath and go to school without a fuss...is a big achievement and while you chatter all the way as we drive back from school.. i am happy. We love to hear about your friends in school who incidentally change every alternative day!! Few days you were gushing about some ' Jhanvi', then came Anusha,s turn who would happily grab your lunch, from the last week it was ' Ananya Tushi' ( No idea what Tushi  actually is)... your bosom chum..both of you waving at each other madly, only yesterday ' Ananya Tushi' was being dismissed and Shubham became your best friend and another day Paranjay became your friend as you had slipped and fell in the class and everyone laughed and Mr Paranjay came to your rescue!! Though you never mentioned him again....

Also i love the excuses you give for not having fruits in school... Harpriya said ' bohot jyaada hain' so i did not have!! Another day.. Shubham ne itna shor machaya...so i could not have!!! Wonderful. One thing i will admit...i have a feeling you are not going to trouble me much in your normal academics and i am happy with that and without claiming to be ' different' i would like to say that my expectations aren,t sky high...watching you grow up and have fun is a delightful thing for me. We enjoy our moments with you, listening to your chatters.... if i say ' who was it  who didn't look at your ma,m in the eyes and always looked idhar-udhar... Avni?' and you quip in immediately ' Nahi nahi Soumya... who always look upar neeche when ma,m asks her something' raising your head from you tube..Yes Hindi rules at home , though i try to speak Bengali you manage to distract me and i clip into Hindi again... only when we go to Guwahati...i can get to hear you speak in Bengali.

Couldn,t have enough of the pink frock......

Coming to your birthday party... we kept it very simple ( You know ' firends-and-family' kind as celebrities put!!!)... but your pink frock , balloons , Dora cake and  two bullies around i think you did enjoy and so did we....i enjoyed my excuse to indulge myself at the parlour for a few hours, your father rushed around getting C R Park Kolkata Biryani amidst rain...

So our four years together have been exciting, confusing, vexing and gave an entirely different perspective to our lives. I remember your father told me the day before you were born, ' Our lives would change from tomorrow and all our priorities would be decided by this one inside you'.... I didn,t understand then as much as i do now...and yes in this routine life.. your school, our jobs.... all routine tasks...you are our constant source of happiness and growing up with you is something we cherish and love.

Love
Yours Ma