Babysitting with BoJy

Awakening from sleep, the Infant lets out a warning cry to get the attention of a family member and whimpers till taken out to the balcony. Meanwhile keeps gently rubbing away the remnant of sleep from the eyes. Then, a brief smile appears on the face, probably assessing the worth of sparing a full blown smile.

When the other person responds positively, this brief smile changes to an acknowledging ‘Donald Duck’ brand smile; a wide grin accompanied by twinkling eyes.  A favourite babysitter has been chosen for the occasion. After enjoying the daylight and fresh breath of air, the Infant remains in contemplation for a while, all the while pouting. The babysitter is kept in the dark about the plans drawn up for execution.

The morning fresh air might have kindled the Infant’s botanical interest. Tiny flowers or buds from the garden get a special attention. With focused eyes, the hands stretch out slowly as if trying to catch a gadfly. The bud or flower receives an affectionate caress and then the fingers slowly close over it.

The next moment the flower or bud gets separated from the plant. As an afterthought, the Infant turns back to smile, mischievously at the babysitter as if thanking for the physical support rendered to lean and reach the plant. After a cursory inspection, the flower or bud either gets tasted or discarded.

This Infant’s playful mind and body is ever alive to curiosity; eyes constantly surveying for objects or obstacles, and vocal cords ready to render stirring background score. Thus an outlet, for converting the stored potential energy to dynamic energy, has been found. All these assessments are completed in the blink of an eye of the babysitter.

The act of learning to crawl is like swimming, no matter how hard the floor is. Arms fly forward and then by arching the back, pushes with the legs, to undertake a tour of inspection. If you have never seen a caterpillar learning to swim, don’t miss your chance to watch this live demonstration! Like champion swimmers, looks back with a cackle (laughter) as if expecting a thunderous applause for the effort.

Exhibiting an acute sense of taste, the Infant gets drawn to any object of interest lying in the path - a toy or a feeding spoon or a piece of paper. They are left behind, only after giving them a affectionate ‘saliva wash’ as if to stamp ‘OK, passes taste’. If nothing else is available within easy reach, a printed bill or the fingers holding the bill enjoy the same treatment.

A bean bag, a sofa, a bookcase, a coffee table or a rocker is an object to be scaled and conquered. The whole affair of climbing reminds the babysitter of a caterpillar trying to swim on a vertical/sloping plane. Hands gripping at a vantage point, manoeuvring to place the legs somehow on the object being climbed, bend at the knees and then try to hop like a worm. Loosing hold or repeated falling is simply forgotten after a brief cry. Finally the assault to reach the summit succeeds and with a mere 70cm of height, the Infant tries to stand as tall as possible.

Spoon feeding, at meal time, is the ultimate endurance test for patience and perseverance. The Infant demands for a spare spoon and shows annoyance when unable to scoop up food or deliver the scoopful into the mouth. Undaunted by these failures, tries to use the spoon as a mouthorgan. If bored with this activity, takes on a new avatar as spray painter- mixing saliva with food and dispatching it at the same rate as being fed.  Is it not enough to keep the babysitter on toes?

Once on the road (sightseeing?!), the head and torso of the Infant twists and turns like a periscope, not to miss out on anything that is of interest. Being automobile-crazy, the tail lights get maximum attention and are watched till they disappear from sight. The blinding head light beams receive a cursory glance and are dismissed like flicking dust from the shirt sleeves.

On these road-walks, the Infant becomes a human CCTV camera with pan, tilt and zoom facilities. To get a clear view or wanting to react to a particular type of engine sound uses body language to convey the message to the babysitter – grunts combined with twist and turns of the body. If in excited state, forcefully nudges with the legs, like a jockey urging the horse, to demand immediate compliance with the conveyed message.

The Infant’s sleeping time is a different story, altogether. The babysitter has to perform a variety entertainment programme involving crooning, dancing, fencing, swinging and may be a walk in the park, even if it is midnight!

Occasionally the Infant likes to play hide and seek before calling it a day.  Yet to go verbal, the Infant’s body language throws up a question:  where am I?  The snuggling up implies the answer: In your heart! - as if  granting  a good night’s rest for the babysitter.

Are these not a heady mixture of high octane activities to keep any babysitter busy? Bones ready to fall apart, muscles strained in all the 360° possible. The aching body is left reminded about the long forgotten lessons on ‘parts of body’. This anatomy class, for the babysitter, is free and conducted without the help of external aids such as X-ray and scans.

Having said all the above, Babysitting BoJy isn't something that I'd forfeit.

Incessant rains

Bystander literally swam through the rushing water on the arterial highway.  As far as his eyes could see there was nothing but flood water. For the last two days, he has been forced to live like a man marooned in an ocean. He was shivering with cold and seething with anger. The second reason for his anger was, he did not know swimming and felt pathetic when he had to “hang-paddle” along with a neighbour, whom he never knew existed till now.

The third important reason happened to be that the neighbour appeared more courageous though not a swimmer. The fourth one was the sight of a stray dog lunging through the flowing water, driven by fear or courage to safeguard its life. The cumulated anger became so intense; the flood water swirling around him started feeling the heat.

Somehow he managed to reach a high ground, in this case that happened to be the stump of a felled tree. Even in his distressed state, he admired the stump which in its heydays might have supported a very big tree.

He chose the weather and rains to vent his anger, in copious measure, standing at the border of illogical reasoning. “Why the rains which usually visit in meager millimeters should suddenly decide to up the ante to centimeters? Why should it graduate from millimeters to centimeters, in a hurry,   within 8 to 12 hrs?” On realizing his futility in shouting at the rain, he directed that unqualified anger at himself.

The first shot went aiming at this impulsive decision to meet Muser living about half a kilometer away, from the tree stump where he was now. The second one was for taking that decision expecting nothing but a deluge of words to greet him on arrival, at Muser’s house. Cursing weathermen, who continued to bless the city more days of more rains, and intuitively avoiding potholes and manholes, he reached his destination without any mishap.As he had anticipated, the reception was worse than the rain.

“Are you mad and a fool to come in this sort of a weather, instead you could have called me?”

“Cell phone battery is down; the land line is dead. How could I have called you?”

This answer sounded kindergartenesque reply to Muser. Bystander felt like a frog happily croaking away, inviting the snake to complete the kill.

“The weather was worsening and had you been alert, at least cell phone would have worked till the towers shut down and electricity was cut”.

“I did not expect the weather to become so bad and serious like this”.

“So, you still don’t believe in these weather predictions! Even, after experiencing the the last month’s heavy rains?”

“You know my nature very well. I have not taken them seriously and so far had been getting away with predicted heavy to very heavy rains, lightly!”

“How are you managing for water? Did you arrange to install a hand pump as I suggested last time?”

“Not yet. But somehow we are managing with the water from the underground sump and water cans”.

“From all these preparedness of yours, I guess you have no stock of provision, milk, drinking water, candles why even a spare match box. You will buy milk at Rs 100, a candle at Rs 20 and a match box for Rs 10 or what. My dear friend when you will learn to take care of such elementary things, after another spell of bad weather?”

Getting no reply, an exasperated Muser said, “Come over with your family and stay for as long as this weather conditions last. This is the best I can do right now. Let them not suffer on account of your foolhardiness. About correcting that, we will see later. By the by, did you hear anything from Tom?”

At that moment Bystander felt “the incessant rain was better, it was not pointing out his mistakes but straight away meeting out punishments”.  Mentally appreciating Muser’s thoughtful planning for a rainy day; he started his wet walk back home.He chided himself for not even procuring a portable generator which Muser had. “Then again what is the use; he would have certainly not stocked the fuel for it!”

The realisation that the commissions and omissions committed by him have only brought him to this hapless state now, struck like a bolt of lightning. What sickened him most was, the list itself could have drowned him on a sunny day!

He was perplexed too. Why Muser came down harder at him, of all the people. Why to enquire about Tom as if it was his look out?

The incessant rain, having exhausted its resources, started abating, feeling weak. To further debilitate its weakness, the noon sun broke out through the anaemic clouds as if it had waited too long to venture out. The siege on the city has been lifted and nature in all its unpredictability suddenly decided enough is enough.

Ignoring Bystander’s habitual grumblings, the city decided to move on.With the ray of sunlight, the marooned humanity trooped out, like ants in search of food, to take a stroll, a ride or hurried out to get on with their life.The domestic & international carriers have started flight operations. Air passengers with disrupted travel plans received the news as a marooned population would greet the air dropping of relief materials, in their midst.

More than nobody else Bystander felt relieved “no more swimming in water or words, for the present”.If Bystander happens to be an acquaintance, the last phrase will be understood  as: “no more swimming in water or words, till next rains”.

If Bystander happens to be an acquaintance, the last phrase will be read as: “no more swimming in water or words, after next rains”.

The frozen heart and Insectanimosity

The Heart in deep freezer:

Truth is a statement and is as unique as darkness. Delve deep into darkness to know whether it has absorbed all the lights and colours (or) had renounced them all? When this understanding dawns, truth is born.   Till such time truth remains merely as a statement. 

Shadows cannot manifest in pitch darkness. Thoughts in human minds can cast shadows, lacking illumination of a different kind and not the one from a light source. The predominant human emotions such as hate, pride, sadness, anger, defeat, disappointment, guilt, subjugation etc only act in the pitch darkness to cast those shadows. There is a puppet master to these shadows – fear.

Fear, the chief architect employs mistrust, ill-will, thanklessness and lack of self confidence to design and cast these shadows in the minds. If life is a tree, then the stem & branches become the lineage. The hidden roots not only nourish   the tree but water and germinate seeds of traits in any individual .We call this as genetic manifestation.

A confused mind develops the habit of using different yardstick for different persons & times. This confusion is not because of lack of analytical skills but due to the tendency to fudge reality with perceived hurts or deemed hurts some might experience. Such persons do forget that even this sort of selective gradation might be hurting someone else. This predilection to take off at a tangent, hyperbola or parabola leads to nowhere but distancing away from close contacts. The essence is to understand that ‘some’ and ‘someone else’ together constitute a family.

This analogy might help a little. What happens when a prism is used to view an image? It gets split, coloured and distorted. For the mind seeing only shadows, distorted images offer non-existent comfort and safety. They don’t stop with this. The highly attuned ones develop the habit of using a microscope instead of a telescope. Microscope magnifies and terrifies; telescope shrinks as a point of light. Which will be better – the magnification or an insignificant point of light?

Life is all about riding the learning curve. However deeply mired the person might be, there are remedies. But the difficult part is to shed the darkness willingly without expecting an overnight miracle. It starts with opening up of the eyes to take a fresh look at the world without the prism or the microscope. Use the selective amnesia technique, wantonly to shelve preset notions from the mind.

                                          

The Insect-animosity:

Insects abound around us like the countless bacteria. In both, useful and harmful types are present. Other than these classifications, we may need one more – nuisance type. Cockroach, house fly and mosquito are harmful as well as a nuisance.

The harmful part of the above mentioned insects is related to health – they remain healthy and pass on the diseases to us. The harmful part is tackled on a war footing using insecticides.

The nuisance part begs description, as each one of them has a differing style of attack. The fly and mosquito swatting is the simple standard practice in all the households. But the swatting of cockroaches need a broom and invariably beaten to death!

To live up to the name, the mosquitoes drone around our ears, searching for suitable landing site. After hearing the music you feel a sting or it gets crushed depending up on whoever has the quickest reflex action.

This heat-seeking guided missile goes about the war on human beings on 24 X 7 basis. The ‘tortoise’, being proverbially slow is of no avail. The ‘bottled’ magic has not done much to diminish its enthusiasm. Still the mosquito stings with a contaminated needle and gets ready to sing for another victim. A tennis elbow results if you resort to combat the menace with an ‘electronic bat’!

Though not similarly nicknamed, the flies copy-cat the humming of mosquitoes. Its main hobby is to land and merely irritate on any exposed part of the human anatomy.

Its colour and the compound eyes start the ball of annoyance rolling in us. To sweeten our welling anger, it mockingly wipes its antennae on its forelegs. Like migratory birds they descend in a group and take turn in carrying on with these antics. In the end, we get our leg and arm muscles brought to shape from incessant wielding of the fly swat. For a swarm of flies, the pest-o-mat is of no match.

When serious, it tastes edible items left uncovered and while partaking the a la carte meal leaves a host of germs as if to settle the bill!

The odd insect out of this group is the cockroach which has its own unique style to irritate and intimidate.

Its colour sets fire to our nervous system which reacts by raising the hate level. Its ungainly flight and landing, on or in front of the person is the last act that uncorks the bottled up anger. To make the matters worse, it emerges from sink holes and drain holes with disdain.

Whatever be the state of agitation in the mind, one cannot hide admiration for its ability to contort, compact and burst in to freedom from the hell hole of a sewerage drain.

Then it finds its way in to cupboards or stowed carton boxes as a fugitive from law. The drain hole or a dinner plate means the same thing to it – an invitation for food.

The bolder ones mock at us by waving their feelers, throwing a challenge for a sword fight. Their challenge always dies at the end of a fat broomstick.

So far we have seen the reactions of a normal person, who has dislike to these insects having harmful intent and nuisance values. Now let us get the views of people with different mindset:

A philosophically oriented person will ignore or accept their presence saying, “live and let them also live”.

An entomologist will spend time watching every move they make, to study their life and leave them alive for another scientist to gain knowledge – so no harm done.

One in the Public Health Division will look for ways to annihilate the menace so that he can also sleep peacefully.

The one carrying out R & D in a Health Products Division will come up with new medicines to kill them all!

The counter attack:

Oblivious to my surroundings, I was immersed in solving a problem of my own making. In the midst, I heard the impatient knock on the door, which sounded like heavy hammer blows. Who else has the temerity, except the Little Typhoon, to disturb my tranquility or thinking in such a fashion?

I gave her a cold welcome with minimal words. She quietly came and sat on the sofa, strewn with books and papers. Silently she started riffling through the pages of a picture book. This perked up my annoyance a little as she had already brought that book to a dilapidated condition – hard covers amputated, pages soiled and the binding stitches ready to hang their threads.

In not so a kind voice, I accused her of mutilating a good book and going a step farther, called it an act of sin. I indicated to her, my intention to tell her mother for appropriate action. 

She did not take the ‘sin’ part kindly and immediately retorted saying, “you might have also torn books and have disobeyed your mother in your childhood”. She asked, with slightly flared nostrils, “If those were not sins, what else they could have been?”.

With this angry outburst, she had deftly deflected my intention of informing her mother about Little Typhoon’s handiwork. For.For awhile, I kept a little low profile mainly waiting for her imaginative listing to continue or commence.

May be she mistook d this silence as a sign of weakness and confidently said, “I can cite ten sins you have committed, are you ready to listen to them?”

She had decided to wave the red rag to the bull! The conversation was getting more and more interesting. To goad her further, I said “yes, I am ready to hear them”. Holding my breath, I waited for her to commence.

She gave a recap of the ‘tit for tat’ statements and declared, “Add these two also to whatever now I am going to list”. 

“You speak louder than usual, whenever you don’t like my coming to talk or play with”. Immediately I made a mental note to moderate the decibel level, in future.

“I rarely see you smiling and always appear serious or worried”. This was a bull’s eye hit! Probably it was way above her age to know that a serious or worried person has no time for calibrated smiles.

“Saturdays and Sundays, you go to office and your clothes appear dirty when you come back home”. 

“When I am in need of a little help, you are unwilling and say I have to go to office, right now”

There cannot be any other understatement like this. Helping her is like fighting in a war. Missiles, shells and landmines are liberally used by her, albeit playfully! The reader will now understand why going to office is safer!

“How many times I have reminded about this? You are still closing the door with a bang” .A second bull’s eye has been scored. I agree but I do have an intensive, hard touch.

“You always find time to uproot and replant new types of plants or look at the leaves and branches of trees”. A keen observer indeed! Will she appreciate that by doing so, I am munching on a technical issue or training my mind to remain focused.

“When I ask a little doubt, you end up giving me a lengthy lecture”. A sniper shot. Less said about this is better for my image!

At this point, she seemed to have run out of steam and paused a little. I gently mocked at her saying, “For all your boasting, you are not even able to complete the list”

She responded haughtily saying, “Is it not a sin to tease a little girl like this. Can I add this to the list?”

This quick repartee sat well with me and I let out a broad smile at her ingenuity in somehow completing the list. She knew that I knew the count has come to exactly ten. After a few moments of silence she left as gently as possible.

Reminiscing I saluted her keen observation of my personality and agreed with her innocent, honest assessment. Is she going to be a psychoanalyst? Is she planning to excel in competitive exams? What will her future goals be?

Disturbance or not, I liked her company for the sheer joy of hearing her concocted logic and the ever present never-say-die attitude.

Lazy Afternoons

A lazy afternoon and listless mind made me to visually survey the room from where I was trying to unsuccessfully fight a war with ennui. The first glance fell on the roof, as it required minimal body movement. I did not want to sacrifice the comfort of a well cushioned sofa.

The inventory came to  cobwebs in assorted shapes, dust coated light bulbs and fan blades. The ceiling fan had four blades and cursed myself for selecting that in the first place.

Not liking the reminder on pending works from the roof, I shifted my gaze to the two corners of the wall, just in front of me which again required little effort. Surprisingly the corner on the right hand side had no reminder to send and somehow had managed to be free of cobwebs at least.

Feeling a bit elated, I ventured to have a look at the second corner but it chose to deflate my happiness balloons I had just floated. A confused mass of wires meant for telephone and DTH, each of them sporting a noose as if ready to hang in shame for my laziness greeted me derisively.The wires had a point: I had let them to dangle and act as aerial dust bins.

Continuing with my least energy expenditure policy, I gave a once over at the left and right side walls of the room. The roof and the left side corner of the front wall have already signed a pact with the walls being looked at by me. The visuals I got from the side walls were depressing.

Like an extremely stressed person drawing on the last ounce of energy and courage, I stood in front of the fourth wall, so far hidden behind my back, to complete the inspection whatever may be the outcome.

An oily halo, wherever I have rested my head, wire running to my makeshift reading lamp and the usual gathering of dust were all there to greet me (or mock at me?). 

Suddenly I remembered this line: ‘every day starts with a ‘now’ and ends with a ‘then’!

A new fountain head of energy coursed through my mind and body, sweeping away the laziness. I found a pen and started to capture the thoughts at that moment. Though the attempt needed a thorough revision, I was satisfied with my outpouring.

Any one suffering with boredom on a lazy afternoon, like what I endured, is welcome to help me with the revision. Who knows it might help you to chase away the boredom of a lazy afternoon!

Another lazy afternoon:

I have found out to my dismay that these lazy afternoons have no holidays. This was a rude awakening as I had been consigning them to only Sundays and national holidays.

Confronted with the task of passing the intervening hours from lunch to sunset, my mind went into a tizzy as it was like a genie out of the magic lamp, demanding work. This left me in a fix since I had no plans for such an eventuality.None of the pending works, begging for completion, interested me thus compounding the misery on this lazy afternoon.

All of a sudden, a spider dangling from the roof caught my eyes. The Sherlock Holmes in me wiped the palms together in glee. What will be a better bargain than the mysterious appearance of a spider in the room?

The solution to the mystery lay in the answers I set out to find:  “where from it came, why and when? How come it escaped my attention, so far?

I set to unravel the mystery where it could have come from? It took the best part of half an hour to inspect for openings through which the spider could have ambled in to the room. There were no opened windows or doors, thanks to my habit of locking down everything when thy air conditioner is on. Further efforts produced a viable clue – DTH cable entry! I spent some more time to confirm the possibility of that insect slipping through this tiny opening. May be was the conclusion.

Not to be left behind, the ‘why’ and ‘when’ were impatiently waiting for resolution, which I promptly complied with.I suspected that the roof must be an important link in this affair and accordingly looked for hidden clues to solve this ‘why’ mystery.  The roof must have been kindly remembering my act of personally painting it to give a fresh look. In that process all its old scars have vanished as if a cosmetic surgery has been carried out. It blurted out the story of mosquitoes residing there, without valid permission. The ‘why’ has been answered!

The ‘when’ stumped me like a ‘nicked’ ball sticking itself to the wicket-keeper's glove, refusing to get spilled, to end a batsman’s tenure at the crease!

This is when I recollected my act of omission committed during the last week: I had left the doors open for awhile (a good part of the day) to allow fresh air and sunlight to come in and forgot to close them later. Alas!The mystery was dissolving like a bank of summer cloud – threatening to develop in to a thunderstorm and ending up in a whimper!

Engrossed in solving the case of the errant spider, I did not notice the passage of time. A look at the clock startled me;I could not even see the hands on its face and from the angry growling of my stomach, I could easily guess it was dinner time.

Along with the evaporated mystery of the spider, my lazy afternoon had also vanished. I trudged along to the dining table, feeling happy to have made Mr. Sherlock Holmes a little proud, of course posthumously. 

In my reminiscence, I almost heard him whisper “plug the hole you have made for the cable entry or you will have another spider in the room”.