My little monkey's adventures

One little monkey jumping on the rocks

One fell down and broke her chin

Mamma got worked up and mamma said

No more monkey jumping all the time...

I guess it's easy to figure out who I'm talking about. As if the adventure in my life was not enough, looks like my daughter too inherited it from me. I've kind of lost track of the number of times Srishtii got hurt in the past 6 years with the latest injury happening just three days ago - she was running, fell down on some stones and badly injured herself: a deep gash on the chin, scratches on her tiny palms, hands and knees. Looking at my daughter's track record, this is nothing I guess. 

S's first injury happened when she was just 11 months old. My husband was out of the town on an official trip then. I came back from work at 8.20 P.M. on that fateful Wednesday night and found my daughter's lips swollen. My tearful mom told me that she fell off her pram earlier in the evening when she saw that my brother and his friend were going out. The guys were forced to cancel their movie night and rush her to the doctor. She had just started teething and cut her upper gums real deep, so the doctor wanted a surgeon to sew up the gash for quicker recovery. We were at the hospital till midnight as the doctor cleaned up the wound and had to put 3 stitches... :( The nightmarish experience is unforgettable to this day!

Guess my daughter didn't know how to stop since then... she went on embarking on one adventure after the other, each time the injury being different, severe, and sometimes scarier than the earlier one. Let me recollect and list out each of her adventures:

• Just a few months afterward, when I was mixing food for her, she tried reaching out for me from her swing, lost her balance, and almost fell down upside down - her legs got tangled in the swing while she was dangling ulta and crying for help. 
• Almost a year later, S fell off her rocking horse (it wasn't a wooden one but a rather sturdy plastic red, blue and yellow one) when she got up and tried to run to me. Yet another deep gash on her upper lip, right at a time when we ourselves were tensed up about my sister-in-law's post-surgical care as she was to be discharged the next morning and brought home. 
• Six months after this incident, S inserted a doll's eye in her right ear - the ENT specialist struggled for an hour to remove it carefully while she was on sedation. My husband was out of the town again! 
• Once she had swallowed a 10-paise coin and we had to wait eagerly for her to poop next day. Thankfully it came out that way without doctor's intervention :-). 
• On another occasion, we went shopping (with our niece in tow) at a store in White House building in Begumpet. Despite our repeated warnings, S kept running around, fell down and fractured her right hand :( . She was just about three years old then. 
• Last year, when I was away in the USA on an official trip, my husband and daughter visited his sister. While returning, as usual, my daughter was jumping and running on platform 2 of the Brahmapur Railway Station. In no time, she fell down and hurt her knees and hands real bad and was bawling away all the way to Secunderabad on board the Falaknuma Express. 
• Just last month, she was playing in her new school (where they have a huge ground and enough time for play), fell down yet again, and hurt her knee in the process. 

The list is actually endless and I've only listed out the major ones while ignoring the minor cuts and scratches. Sometimes I wonder if it is actually a good thing to keep falling frequently and getting hurt. At other times I feel it's okay if she falls and hurts herself just a little... she'll learn to face other major things in life with more confidence, and experience. 

Also, come to think of it, it's not possible for children not to run around and fall. Without getting hurt, nobody grows up. If you expect a child not to jump about and be quiet, it's like expecting too much... and you're probably not giving your child enough opportunity to be a child and explore things. I feel these injuries are just minor hurdles but if we stop them from falling, exploring and experiencing, then they'll end up being sissy-ish and cowardly. I might be talking like a cruel, hard-hearted mother, but I only don't want my sweetie pie to get hurt too much later in life!!! What say!

Hats off to a zealous spirit

Okay, finally I managed to make a few amends to my daily routine and moved away from the 5.30 to 11.30 regimen... :-) Don't worry guys, I'm not going to repeat the entire timetable again. I was feeling kicked about the few changes in my life right now, and wanted to share it with you all.

But before I proceed with my own story, I want to congratulate two of my cousins through this post. While one of them finally mustered the courage to go ahead with her 'second innings of motherhood' after a gap of seven years, the other cousin's wife is expecting their first child. Hearty congratulations to both of you, and all the best for a safe 'innings'.

Now about me: I have some good news to share too (not the 'innings' kind, okay :-)! The major change is that I've started giving English tuitions to about 6 kids (of different age groups and backgrounds - I'll talk more about them in another post), and have been considering teaching English (weekly once/twice) to the inmates of an orphanage in the next lane. Only I need to find the time with a flurry of activity happening on the plot we have bought.

YESSSSSSSSSS! There's some progress with regards to the construction of our dream house - the sea-facing villa (well, not exactly a villa but it's nice to keep dreaming of one!!).

I managed to find a watchman called Heenu a.k.a. Prabhakar who's the most enthu person I've

come across so far in the past four months of my stay here. Without this 20+ young man's enthusiasm and passion for work, I wouldn't have been able to clear the 1/2-acre plot of weeds, chop off unwanted trees, and get a tractor owner to agree to plough the plot for just Rs. 750 :))).

Ain't I lucky to get an educated watchman who completed his metric exam, and can speak/ understand a bit of English too? Now he wants me to teach him "best English" so he can "talk to me in English properly":)))

A talented young guy, Heenu teaches students some dance moves during school annual day celebrations or dance competitions. He even travelled to Hyderabad to help young Hyderabadi school students get their dance steps right. That's our enthusiastic Heenu for you!

And yes, here's a glimpse of our plot and our spirited good Samaritan watchman. Thank you Heenu for just being there, and helping me with a lot of things without me ever having to ask you! I keep wondering if the world is a better and happier place because of nice, simple and hard-working people like him... Three cheers to his zealous spirit!

The story of a changing city

Hyderabad, I've realized for the second time in a very short span of time, changes every second. It didn't feel the same when I arrived a few days ago for a brief visit - I had to take care of a few pressing personal issues (read money matters - hahaha!!!).

First things first - let me make it very clear that it was cough, and not my husband, that greeted me and my daughter on platform number 4 at the Secunderabad Railway Station as soon as we got off the Visakha Express. And we kept coughing without a break till about an hour after we reached home! No, it's neither cold nor swine flu, or the AC compartment, that made us cough incessantly. It was the pollution levels in the city that caused it. Either the pollution was rather high than the last time we came (which was just about a month ago) or maybe our sensitivity level has changed.

Hmmm, looks like the Hyderabadi roads are never bereft of vehicles or people. Unlike in the USA where you'll need to hunt for a single soul to help you find the right direction, Hyderabad is just too full of inquisitive onlookers who're ever willing to offer unwanted help.

Having come from a small sleepy hamlet for a sojourn, we felt burdened by each extra vehicle and human being that appeared on the city roads. As most people in our tiny beach town either walk down or go on the completely environmental-friendly bicycle, I find it particularly suffocating when I see a lot of vehicles moving fast, mostly vying for space or attention.

The next thing that caught my attention was the nonstop blaring horn(s) of the ambulance. It wasn't like I didn't know of the existence of ambulances earlier but the lack of these vehicles in our part of the country probably makes me react much more strongly now. I was kind of scared by the increase in the number of ambulances and the frequency of their trips on the roads.

While things I found in excess suffocated me, things which I found to be fewer, scarce and rare left me feeling deprived!

Stars (not the acting types but the twinkling little ones) are a rarity here. Even a quiet walk on the terrace didn't help me spot even a handful of them on a so-called starry night. Bright lights from every nook and corner of the city lit up the sky and dominated these celestial bodies.

For a beach lover surrounded by water mostly, accepting that water is another rare commodity in this city was difficult. For most part of my trip I felt like a fish struggling to survive in a polluted lake.

And I kept feeling sorry for all my city-dweller friends who're forced to bear the cacophony of vehicles and the constant honking which make it impossible to listen to the voice of the nature. It is really sad that we don't listen to or acknowledge simple sights and sounds anymore; something as simple as the sounds of chirping birds, raindrops falling on soft sand or even on a concrete road, rustling of leaves against the blowing wind or the soft breeze - both sounds are different if you listen carefully - are lost on the Hyderabadi crowd.

Isn't it sad that it is so very difficult to spot simple species of birds like sparrows and crows in a crowded city? Don't people feel suffocated breathing the polluted air every single minute of their lives? I wonder if immunity is a good thing, after all!! Isn't it strange that nobody wants to break away from the shackles of the city, and experience/enjoy the difference? With these thoughts troubling my mind, I just had to run back to my quiet hamlet...