A dad’s dilemma!

It was bedtime again the other day. Our son had slept off already and our four year old girl was on the bed, but as usual resisting sleep big time with her condition yet to be met that Amma (mom) needs to cuddle and be with her till she sleeps!

Here is exactly how the conversation went between mom (M) and daughter (D):

M: Why don’t you sleep dear? Amma needs to finish something.

D: No! I need you here next to me.

M: Wait, let me ask Appa (Dad) to come and join you.

D: No, I want you.

M: Oh, so you don’t want to cuddle Appa and sleep?

D: No, I want to sleep only with you.

M: Shall we then send Appa away?

D: What?! Send Appa away? No!

M: Why not?

D: Of course not! Because he is our Appa!

My heart was filled with all the love this sweet little world could offer! But soon came the remaining part of her statement.

D: Who will then drive us around?

Dedicated to all the loving dads around the world!

The story in between...

It was bedtime. Our elder one being blessed with the ability of instant sleep was already half way through his slumber. The younger one had developed an insatiable appetite for bed time stories. This time she wanted to hear a story involving an animal.

I tucked her under the blanket and started telling her an adventure her appa was involved in, many years back. I told her about a visit to an uncle’s place at Koottikal, a beautiful hilly region in Kerala. There was a large rubber plantation there. At one of the corners of the estate there stood a cave which very few had explored till date.

It was a considerably big cave and I was all excited at the prospect of getting to explore a natural cave right in the middle of wilderness! As I was about to step into the cave, my cousin who was with us stopped me. There were certain sharp looking objects lying around the mouth of the cave. He carefully picked up one and showed us. It was a quill of a porcupine!

My four year old didn’t quite understand what a porcupine was and so she stopped me promptly there. It took a few minutes before I could make her understand what a porcupine is and how it uses its quills to attack its enemies.

I told her that the porcupine had gone away and we collected a few quills. By the time the narration reached this point, amma, her mom came back finishing her bath. It was time for me to go and shower. So amma took appa’s place with the offer that she will complete the story.

As I moved out of the room, I could hear my daughter tell her mom. “Amma, the porcupine just left. You continue with the story"! 

The Purple Carrot

Mia, my four year old, called it a day and closed her colouring book. She was quite fond of the book and experienced the bliss of giving life to the black and white images by doing her magic with the bunch of colour pencils she has. The book she was colouring, had a lot of images with jungle theme including a few rabbits and carrots.

Keeping aside the book, she jumped on to the bed and snuggled under the blanket and hugged me tightly. Then came the default demand for a bed time story. Since she was colouring a few rabbits and carrots earlier, I decided to tell her a story of a rabbit searching for carrots through a jungle. Even before the story got over she slipped into a sweet dream where she found herself following a cute little rabbit in a jungle that was known for its bright orange carrots!

Eddie, just like any other rabbit loved carrots. He was out on a stroll searching for the sweetest of the carrots the jungle could offer. He searched and searched the various locations where he could possibly find carrots. Finally Eddie came across a large area where he saw countless carrot plants. He jumped up and down with joy!

Mia followed Eddie as he dashed across the garden of carrots. As soon as he found a plant that seems to carry ripe carrots he dug up the earth and promptly pulled out the carrot bunch from the soil. He gave out another cry! But this time it wasn’t a cry of joy. He cried in surprise to see a bunch of carrots which was purple in colour!

Mia saw the colour of carrots and was totally taken aback. She was equally confused as Eddie about the purple colour carrots. Carrots ought to be orange in colour and why are these purple?! That’s when it dawned on her. 

A while ago, before she closed her colouring book, the last picture she was colouring was a bunch of carrots. She looked for the bright orange colour pencil. Since she couldn’t find it, she made an announcement, “Dad, I can’t find my orange pencil and so I am going to colour the carrots purple!” I remember asking her to find the orange colour pencil since carrots cannot be purple. She didn’t bother to find the orange colour pencil, instead coloured the carrots purple as she said.

“Goodness! What did I do?” thought Mia. “I turned all the carrots in the world purple!” She had a very disturbed sleep and woke up the next day with a heavy heart. I had never seen her with so less energy levels in the morning. I asked her what was wrong. She said nothing except that she badly needs an orange colour pencil. She pestered me so much that I had to find the orange colour pencil for her and only then she let me head to my office.

As I was starting from home, she gave me a hurried kiss and saw her heading to the colouring book. Since I was getting late I didn’t ask any further.

It was evening soon and I returned home. I had a grocery bag in my hand. I placed the bag on the kitchen table and started taking out the groceries. As soon as I placed the carrots on the table I heard a gasp followed by a cry of joy behind me!

Mia was standing right behind with a beaming smile holding her colouring book and looking at the carrots on the table. She held the page open where I saw a bunch of bright orange coloured carrots!

Forsaken!

The train rolled on to the darker side of platform number 13 at Bangalore City Junction. The ominous number made Alex a bit uneasy, yet he got up from his seat even before the engine reached a full halt. Travelling by train along with Nisha and two of their little ones was his last preference. But this was a trip that was forced upon them since no other modes of transport were available at such a short notice. Luca who turned six last month and Leya his little sister who will soon celebrate her third birthday were still sleeping on the middle berth.

Alex started pulling out the luggage and told Nisha to take care of the kids while he unloaded the bags to the busy platform. He had to struggle a bit to get the luggage out and still keep a check on all the pieces from the prying eyes of possible luggage snatchers. Nisha somehow managed to wake up Luca and gave a helping hand to Alex to offload the last piece of luggage, it was the biggest of the lot. He placed all the pieces safely on the platform and helped Nisha get down by taking Luca in his hand. That’s when they realized, Leya is not with either of them!

“Daddy!” A spine chilling cry came from the compartment where they were! Alex felt his heart in his mouth as he dashed back into the compartment where Leya was left sleeping. In a flash of a second he reached the middle berth where a few minutes back the little one was seen cuddling her favourite teddy and covered in a baby pink blanket, for she loved to be wrapped even when it wasn’t cold.

The blanket and teddy were still there. Only them! Alex for a moment felt completely drained off his blood. But he gathered himself quickly and looked around. All of a sudden he got a glimpse of a man, face covered with a chequered woollen shawl carrying something on his shoulder trying to head to the other end of the cabin.

Alex saw what was on the man's shoulder. It moved and a tiny hand reached out to him. The very hand that he had held numerous times in the past and lifted all the way up to his shoulder. His precious little gem, daddy’s adorable little princess was struggling for dear life in the arms of a stranger, trying with all her might to reach out to her hero, her dad.

He sprinted at the stranger who was seen stepping down at the end of the compartment. Alex barely reached the exit when he heard the shrilling sound of a whistle and felt a jolt. The train took off with him trapped inside.

Alex looked through the window. The little hand was still seen at a distance stretched out with the hope of her dad coming and rescuing her. As the train chugged ahead, Alex stood there not able to move but merely stare at a warning sign board posted inside the compartment. It read, “The railways will not be responsible for any valuables left unattended".

When my niece stopped a plane!

Bangalore, the beautiful garden city was engulfed in a thick blanket of fog at 4 o’ clock in the morning that day. Getting up that early was not my usual routine, but it was meant to be a very special day. I was to drop my dear cousin and her little one to the airport. My cousin had a trans-Atlantic flight to catch from Bangalore all the way to Chicago with one stop in-between. It was going to be an affair with the skies for more than 20 hours! She was quite tensed thinking of the long journey with my niece who was just a few months old. The very first flight for the baby!

We reached the airport before time so that she could comfortably finish check-in related procedures. These were the days when online check-in was yet to become the norm. My uncle and aunt, her parents, were with us as well to see her off. Uncle informed her that we’ll wait outside the airport till the time the flight departs. It was probably one of the finest decisions uncle took which I’m sure made him happy later.

The sequence of incidents that unfolded later was to be termed nothing less than a real-life-drama. My sister along with the baby completed the check-in procedures pretty well. Being a mom for the first time and travelling with a few days old baby is never an easy combination. She somehow managed to complete the process and moved to the boarding gate. Soon enough she found herself seated next to an American guy who was destined to have a flight of his lifetime!

Shortly before the take-off, my niece decided that she had enough of being a nice kid and started acting cranky. My cousin used every possible arsenal she had to pacify the little one. This was the first of a million times she was to realize that there were certain moments when no tricks what-so-ever worked with an angry baby. What she wouldn’t have known then is that she was to become an expert in all such cases soon with God blessing her with four more such angels in future!

The baby continued to act difficult and started crying incessantly. My cousin could see the American gentleman starting to get a bit uneasy in the next seat. Somehow he seemed to have got a vision of what’s going to happen next and was mentally preparing for the worst. The cabin crew started to take notice of the situation as well. While the drama was on, the captain of the flight announced the immediate departure of the flight. The tyres started to roll.

My niece promptly elevated the tension of the scene by shifting her crying to top gear. Soon she was competing with the vibration of the flight taxiing to the runway with her earth shattering scream. She realized that something needed to be done immediately lest the flight will take off. The moment of truth arrived! She took her full strength and with a loud cry splashed an entire load of vomit right on to the lovely wrinkle free shirt of the American. This was the very moment when flight touched the runway!

The whole scene on-board turned quite chaotic. Everyone around my cousin’s seat started getting panicky. The cabin crew decided to intervene. Without wasting a moment they informed the dire situation to the captain. This was moments before the flight was given clearance to take off by Air Traffic Control.

Not knowing any of these dramatic events, we remained at the airport parking lot awaiting the sight of the departing flight. Shortly after my niece finished executing her final scene of the play, my uncle got a call on his mobile. I could see his face muscles getting tightened as my sister gave him a quick summary of what happened. In a few minutes, we greeted her along with my niece at the Arrivals area of the airport.

My sister narrated the unbelievable story again to all of us. I looked at my niece and there she was, peacefully lying in the arms of my aunt. She even had a smile, the one that is seen only on the face of those who created history!

Pappam or Papam?

One of the most recent debates that is taking rounds in the social media during March 2018 is attributed to a cover photo on a Malayalam magazine. Published from Kerala, the southernmost state in India, portrays a mother who is feeding her baby and has a tagline that says “Moms to Kerala: Don’t stare, we need to breastfeed”.

The girl in the picture is in fact a model who posed with the baby of a mother who was also present during the photoshoot. The big question that is trending now is, ‘Was she / magazine right in doing this’? There are quite a few supporters as well as critics for the assignment taken up by the young model.

The more I think about this debate, two words in Malayalam come to my mind. First one is ‘Pappam’ a term which babies use to denote the most natural feeding bottle available in the world. Second one is ‘Papam’ which means ‘sin’.

It is quite a strange situation that a simple organ in human body is looked at with such a wide spectrum of meanings. What is stranger is the fact that, sheer perception of human beings is what gives one the most innocent and an almost divine aspect whereas the other makes it an object that precipitates a state of a sin being committed that the society almost considers it a taboo!

A baby says ‘Pappam’ and look forward to the mother for quenching her hunger. The act by which the mother and baby becomes one again, is probably the only time after the umbilical cord gets severed. It is an experience something short of being one with God where you take part in sustenance of life on Earth!

The other side of debate borders around topics of sexuality and societal norms that demands women to cover their chest while feeding or otherwise. It is quite interesting to observe that not long ago, when caste system prevailed, there was a revolt in the state of Kerala among the lower castes fighting for their right to cover their chest!

Back to the big question, what is right? I doubt if we’ll ever get a single answer. What is the right thing to do when the same object is perceived by some as a symbol of selfless love and others as eternal icon of lust?

We’ve both sets of people around us and hence I think it is wise to leave it to the prudence of mothers to apply their judgement on what to do when they’ve to feed their little ones. You’ve a million pairs of eyes staring at your chest, of which some are of babies whereas others definitely not; both with an intention to satisfy hunger, with totally different perspectives!

Love your baby & stay safe!

Deputy of God!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Mar 2018

It was a few minutes past midnight on a cold and dark winter during January 2018. My two year old daughter woke up screaming ‘Amma’! She scrambled out of the bed and dashed towards the living room through the darkness, totally ignoring my attempts to pacify her. I switched on the light and it took a couple of minutes before she realized that we were still in the middle of the night. Fortunately I could calm her down and soon she was back on the bed sleeping peacefully through rest of the night.

This was just a beginning! One of the many incidents that made me realize that we’ve a very special person in our family, whose absence is too significant to be filled by anyone else. A few hours before the incident, I had dropped my sweetheart at the airport. She had to leave to India, alone, for an unavoidable trip for 3 days. With full confidence and days off from office planned, I took charge of our little ones, 6 year and 2 year old assuring her that everything will be alright. Little did I know what I was signing up for!

Our son had earlier showed signs of a developing cough and cold. It was as though the cold and cough were scared of the mother that soon after her flight took off, it broke all barriers. He was coughing and sneezing badly. I had initially planned to send him to school the next day, but with this, I decided otherwise. I couldn’t have imagined what I’ll end up with this decision.

I’ve two little monsters on the loose in a recently moved in house void of a very important person and there I was, like a man on a boat sailing on a seemingly peaceful river in an unexplored jungle with a blind turning ahead, beyond which awaits a steep waterfall to take me all the way to the rocky bottom into a mysterious abyss!

Next three days were filled with lots of incidents, some of which were thankfully managed and others where I felt like being driven to my wit’s end. I always thought and was even proud of myself that I am one of those husbands who helped their wives at home, the ones especially without a maid, so as to bring in an element of balance in the family. I was totally mistaken.

There have been multiple times during these three days when I stopped for a moment and wondered how in this world did my wife manage to do all these in a day?! All of a sudden I found myself attaining an enlightenment on the world of a ‘maid-less housewife with kids’ and the battles they’ve to fight on a daily basis while their spouses think that the petty issues they face in offices are nothing short of a World War.

I am now blessed with a completely renewed respect for such super humans who qualify for a title nothing short of ‘Deputy of God’. The amount of challenges they have to juggle around with are simply endless. This is something which others in the family will never get to know unless experienced first-hand.

It is quite natural for a lot of us to take our dear ones for granted. We’re not tuned to look at the daunting tasks each of our family members go through every day, especially the ones who choose to stay at home and look after the kids. This does not mean that the work done by the traditional bread-winners are less important. From the incident portrayed above, I would even strongly recommend every bread-winner in a family to go through such an experience which I’m quite sure will help you turn out to be better human beings and even result in a more loving family.

After what seemed like ages, finally the day came when the life of our family returned. We picked her up from the airport and as soon as we were all together back home, we gifted her with a beautiful picture frame where the letters read: “World’s Best Mom”!

Dedicating this to all loving mothers across our families and all those fathers who take an effort to appreciate these unsung heroes!

God bless. 

Demons from Heaven!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Jan 2018

I remember seeing an advertisement a few years back. A young father is shopping with his son in a supermarket. The little boy keeps a big packet of chocolates in the shopping cart. The father keeps it back. The son promptly returns the packet to the cart and stands there with his arms folded as if challenging his dad. The father keeps the packet again on the stands. The kid takes a deep breath and starts screaming on the top of his voice. The whole supermarket comes to a standstill and stares at the kid but even more at the dad. The ad ends with the face of a completely helpless dad with a caption showing the brand of a contraceptive urging the viewer to use it!

The above scene is not completely alien to us. We all must’ve seen or experienced similar scenes while shopping. There are quite a few couples in the world today who get influenced by the message passed on by such an advertisement and decide not to have kids in their lives. For them, kids are nothing but a nuisance or little devils. There are also a few couples who decide not to have a second child for the same reason or think that they have served their purpose as parents in this world by having one child. Ads like the one I mentioned above masks a complete spectrum about kids from the viewers. A prospective parent or a bride and groom to be who sees such an ad won’t see the other side of fence. Though having kids can be argued as a purely personal choice, here are some of the thoughts related to parenting.

Yes, kids can be demons at times, but they are demons from heaven! No kid in this world has ever asked their parents to bring them to this world. It is a choice that the parents make. Hence as parents it is not ethically correct for us to blame the kids for their behaviour which by itself is inherited from us or our ancestors.

One quite interesting fact which many of us don’t realise about parenting is that both the ‘parents’ and the ‘child’ share the same age, especially with the first child. A parent is born on the same day as the first child. Parenthood is a completely new experience for the couple who till that day didn’t experience a third person in their life. The magnitude of change that brings in with this new status in their life is huge, most often a bigger change than getting married itself! Obviously it will take a long time for anyone to get adjusted to such a change.

Your second child arrives and a magic happens! Without you even realizing it, you mature yourself as parents. You are no longer the same novice parents when you had your first child. Being more matured as parents equips you to handle the tantrums of kids better. What’s even more interesting and at times embarrassing is the truth some of us realize that you could’ve loved your first child even better if you’d known what a child really needs. It is very similar to getting experienced in a job that makes you do the job better than having no experience at all.

There is more to parenting than just the experience of being a parent. You will become better in managing finances since you’ve to now plan for additional member(s) in the family. Every other expense in life will now be multiplied with the number of kids you’ve. Decisions on careers many a times get influenced based on kids. Some of us stop working altogether whereas others have to shift jobs to ensure financial freedom and security. Without these little devils we would’ve just continued working where we were earlier. The choices you make on almost everything in life get influenced with kids. The movies you see, the cars you buy, the vacation you plan or even a simple decision as a restaurant to have dinner are just a few examples where kids directly or indirectly influence your decisions.

All these and more are nothing compared to the beautiful sight of your little ones hugging you dearly and sleeping peacefully looking forward for another bright and beautiful day where they can spent time with the God that they can see in this world, that’s none other than you!

Here is wishing you a beautiful parenting experience which is nothing short of being one with God.

Wish you all a very happy new year! God bless! 

Being a child

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - July 2014

I’ve been noticing one thing off late about the conversation with folks back home. Every phone call is laced with adjectives such as “tough days, lot of work, hectic” etc. I was wondering what exactly is happening in my life that things are becoming so complex. That’s when my two year old came up with a ‘major’ problem he is facing with his new toy truck. The truck has a major section and an attached trailer as well. The part where trailer is attached came off and he was really worried his truck got damaged. I took a look at it and applied some glue and the trailer was working perfectly fine. I was quite surprised to see the amount of happiness on his face. That made me ask the question, when was the last time I was so happy on such small things?
 

Probably it is not a small thing for my little one; nevertheless the fact is that he found happiness in every little such thing that we never found him unhappy over a prolonged period of time. This is quite unlike most of us who are worried about something or other all the while.

It may sound a bit similar, though there is a subtle difference between being happy about small things in life Vs quickly recovering from your sadness. One of the biggest lessons my son taught me is not just how to be happy about the small things in life. He also showed me how to forget completely about the sadness you felt till a moment ago and enjoy the happiness you now possess.

Another major trait that you lose while you grow from being a child to an adult is your ability to have zero ego. Have you ever noticed a baby or a child? How much ever you do something which they dislike, it takes minimum or even little time before they come back to you with another question or request. They are not tuned to think that this is the same person who did something they didn’t appreciate a little while ago. For them it was a moment in the past and past stays in the past. They live in the present. A huge lesson to be learned from these tiny wonders!

It is no wonder why most adults in this world love kids. Babies or kids predominantly have one agenda in life. They just know to love forever and most importantly express the love too. You don’t see them fretting over insignificant nothings and losing their day that should be filled with happiness. It is such a pleasure to watch a little one running across to you to give a hug at the end of a very tiring day. All the worries about that day seem to disappear into the thin air. That’s the magic of being a child!

Most likely one of the key factors that differentiate a child from an adult is the gift to approach everything in a simple manner. Kids really do not know how to complicate things. They only know and are interested to see the way things are. It makes life much easier to live. The moment we try to bring in unwarranted complexities to simpler aspects in life, we feel being weighed down by difficulties in life. Guess the mantra is to learn to look at life around you in a simple manner. Do not complicate what can remain simple.

Guess I realize now why one Man had said more than two thousand years back why it is important to be like a child. At least this should remind us that life was much happier being a child and there were reasons why it was so. Hence while you know you can’t become one anymore it is quite important for you to realize why you should learn from one.

That surely must have been one of the thoughts that crossed the mind of Wordsworth when he wrote, ‘The child is father of the man’. Be like a child and bring back the happiness in your life!

Do you touch wood?

Ever since I started to converse with people around me, there has been one phrase that I used to hear from many of them. It was natural to have conversations about someone related to you or some material possession you have. Good natured comments about these people or things will obviously find its place in between these chit chat.

I’ve observed with a strange phenomenon that each time a complimenting word is spoken about the subject in discussion it will be promptly followed by a frantic search for an article made out of wood so that they could touch it and say the magical phrase ‘touch wood’!

Recently I did some research and Wikipedia gave me some facts about this act. The practice comes from the Greek tradition in western folklore of literally touching/knocking on wood, or merely stating that you are doing or intend same, in order to avoid ‘tempting fate’ after making a favorable observation, a boast, or declaration concerning one's own death.

The bigger question that remains is how this tradition is an oxymoron in view of religious beliefs. Most of us belong to one or other religion that exists in this world. For all those who do not belong to any religion or do not practice a specific religion, this tradition could be an acceptable norm. For the rest of the humankind isn’t this practice anything but a sheer blasphemy?

Almost all religions teach to believe in the existence of a super natural power which guides the world and the events around us. Some people call that God and we have innumerable names given to the concept of ‘God’ across these religions. All these Gods have taught people to believe in them to have a good life. I’m sure no one prays to get a horrible life.

It has a historical aspect that people have been following rituals like these to ward off evil from casting its shadows on their lives. It is fascinating to see people being made to think that a natural grown piece of wood has celestial capabilities to do away with the unnatural being supposedly existing in this world awaiting its turn to strike on those who do not touch wood!

Being an ardent believer or not, there are situations that lead some people to start thinking in these lines. This is especially true when it comes to the little ones at home. Your baby could be all well, kicking and alive making your life one of the most envious to all those who are not that abundantly blessed. One fine day this relative or friend of yours come home, looks at your child and exclaims, “Look at her; she is such a cutie pie. I’m sure this little angel can never give you any trouble whatsoever”.

Soon after the person leaves all the while appreciating your hospitality, the little angel somehow turns into the most violent monster you’ve ever faced! The baby who was sleeping peacefully till that day refuses to sleep, develops some sort of uneasiness, does not take any food given including the forbidden sweets and totally becomes a moron with not even a shade of the angelic tranquility that was attributed a few moments earlier!

It takes all the effort in the world for you to bring back the cutie pie and you almost thought your life is back on track. There comes another friend who will have something similar to say as the previous one and life takes a full circle again.

You become paranoid to such an extent that you start believing in the apotropaic tradition and your hand will be auto programmed to reach a wood as soon as you hear or say something good about your baby!

The irony of life can go to such depths that God himself may start growing a forest to enable people to knock the wood. The heights of such an incident was when the other day a couple was seen reaching out to a blessed wooden rosary when something nice was spoken about their kid, since they could not find anything else made of wood and exclaimed to their heart’s content - touch wood!

Babies make you happy, even if they're …

It was a lovely Saturday morning and winter was still playing around with the calendar sporting the last days of January. Even the Sun God seemed to be shy to fully rise and shine. While the weather was perfect to just cuddle up with my sweet heart on our lovely bed, unfortunately that was not the case to be! It was a working day for us in lieu of a compensatory off for one of the weekdays earlier that week.

As I got ready, leaving my girl to continue her engagement with the early morning dreams I was making some mental math about returning early from office in the evening. As if out of some reaction my better half suddenly decided to make a cup of coffee for me. Happy I was and I helped her with breaking a coconut so that she can make a proper breakfast, the caring husband I am!

I put on the jacket and picked up the book on Jinnah I've been reading off late and started off to the bus stop. Reached the stop and I saw none of the usual gang and then noticed the missed call on my phone. A colleague of mine tried to reach me to inform that the bus was early. I missed it! So much for the lovely winter morning, the shy Sun, the hot cup of coffee & the coconut! I was irritated was the least I could say and walked back home. Need to mention here that it is definitely a pain to miss our office bus since the travel time is almost an hour with close to 25 kilometers of distance to cover.

Reached home and with great restraint I told her that I missed my bus. The sweet little thing could make out the burning furnace behind the serene wallpaper pasted on my face then. I politely denied her offer for breakfast with a smile, the type which you get only when you are mighty pissed. I'd heard earlier that chocolates are really a stress reliever and it proved pretty much true with a Cadbury Crackle which we got the previous day disappearing in no time while I collected my helmet and got my bike to reach office.

I tried playing some songs en route that normally ease my mind in such situations, but didn't help much. A few minutes before reaching office I offered a ride to a hitchhiker who turned out to be a nursing student at a college nearby. Felt good. Reached office, parked the bike and walked towards my building. A couple of good morning wishes from the support staff whom I know made the day better. The 'furnace' didn't get switched off completely though.

Decided to take the elevator instead of the usual stairs and a wonderful sight welcomed me beyond the glass walls. A small family near the bamboo plants in our campus was busy with their breakfast. A couple of them had tiny little babies hanging on to their dad & mom and were trying to have their share of food! I forgot everything else. Watching those babies were nothing but sheer bliss! It was a lovely sight and I wished to be there forever! Acknowledging my wish or otherwise, the elevator took its own sweet time to reach my floor.

I always knew babies make you happy, realized today that it need not be humans always! I messaged my love that watching a couple of baby monkeys made me really happy for which she replied, "So now you know"!