The mind of a child

The human brain is an amazing thing. A childs brain is probably even more amazing than an adult brain, from a thought perspective.

The whole separation anxiety post should be seen in a different light.

Today the Little one came and kissed my boo boo. Bumped my hand somewhere and she came running to kiss it. In her mind, daddy cannot get better without her kiss. It definitely makes me feel better when she comes running to kiss. She associates my smile to be healing and extrapolates it.

The whole time I was away, she was probably worried about me, not about her. What would this big baby do if he were to get hurt in Texas? How would be survive without my healing kiss? How could he possibly go to sleep without me on his hand?

Today she said "Dont worry daddy. You are here now. I will kiss you and everything will be all right!". She was so serious when she said it.

As an adult I fail my wife and kids so many times because of being in my own self centered world. Most adults are self centered! That is the way of the world. You have your work, your family, your home, your this, your that.. It is at the end of the day all about "you", "your perspective", and "your world"!

There is not a lot of options here. Even when you think about your kids, they are "your" kids and the thought is usually about "your" worries on how what "you" are doing affects them as they grow up!

Once in a while "you" get the view from the childs point of view and it boggles "your" mind!

ps. Was accused of being very selfish earlier today, which I probably am. Tried to see how often the word "I" is used in my posts. Not a lot. But when you always tend to write in second person or as Daddy, you are doing the wrong search to determine "% self centeredness"!!

There is a lot more "you" and "daddy" in this blog to prove that point!

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Separation Anxiety

Traveled to Texas from Wed to Friday on business. The kids saw me on wednesday morning, when I dropped them off, and got to see me again only last night when they woke up in the middle of their sleep.

Why is this a big deal in today's small world where our jobs take us to all parts of the globe on a routine basis?

Well, this is the first time daddy did not put the little one to bed, since she was BORN! Jr. went through the same thing three years ago when Daddy went to Minnesotta for a whole week. She lost a few pounds, managed to lose her voice just by non stop screaming. The two things that mitigated the side effects at the time were, my parents were here to give her extra attention and she was not talking that well. She was only 16 months old.

This time, Jr. adapted well. She talked to me on the speaker phone. Said she missed me and wanted me to come back, and understood that Daddy will come back.

The little one on the other hand, just went beserk. Even after I was back, she did not know how to accept me! She woke up at 1:00 AM and did not know if it was really daddy who had appeared on the bed. She had delayed the bedtime in hopes of daddy arriving on time, but the flight did not co-operate.

To check and confirm she sent daddy through the usually expected tasks, much along the lines of Hercules being sent on errands.

Daddy Paal (milk)
Daddy Dipee (change my diaper)
Daddy mook (get a tissue and blow my nose)
Daddy Valikaadhu (I have pain) give me medicine (!!!!)
Daddy mudugu (give me a back rub)
Daddy I am scared (this means I have to take her to the pooja shelf and put some ash on her forehead)

Daddy would normally not complain for this, were it not for the fact that he had got up from bed at 5:30AM in Texas (which was 3:30AM California time) and it was a loooong day with a three hour flight staying in the air for four hours! Also there was no break time between the tasks. It was practically back to back errands. Finally she slept at 3:00 AM.

The hope is that she will get used to dad's disappearences and reappearences with time, now that she knows that the guy actually does show up after a few days! She is probably going to hate the word "Texas" without ever actually going there, much like how San hates Minnesotta without ever having visited the place. Used to leave San all alone and disappear for a week at a time when we were just married. San has not forgotten.

The little one is her normal smiling self again. However she is extremely clingy with daddy. Even if dad goes to the bathroom we hear the "Please take me with you daddy!". Based on previous experience with Jr., this phase will last at least a few days.

This post is specially for the Little one. Remember, if some day you disappear on me for days on end when you are in high school or college and you are wondering what all the fuss is and why daddy is all worried, READ THIS POST, to see what you did when daddy went away for a few days!

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Of Jasmine flowers and Mike shoes

San Francisco

Hong Kong

Bangkok

Mumbai

Goa

Ahmedabad

Chennai

Thiruchy

etc.

etc.

Baby doing her business after a 15 hour flight in Hongkong amidst a beautiful backdrop!!


Fill up the blanks to be done by : Daddy Narayanan

Jr. enjoying Jasmine flowers..


Daddy's new Mike sandals. Purchased from a street corner vendor who probably sells more shoes and sandals than all the shoe stores in Santa Clara put together !! Price : 5$ !! Keebok, Adibas were available as well !!

Currently enjoying the land of Jasmine flowers and Mike Shoes..

Will catch up soon..

In other news, Jr. who has never killed an insect in her entire life (thanks to me teaching her that killing innocent spiders or ladybugs is wrong), came to me today and said
"that mosquito came to bite me again. I swished one guy away and I killed the other guy so he wont bite me again!". Two proverbs need a rewrite..

Hell hath no fury than a girl bitten!
Once bitten, twice:you die !