Our books

When I pick up books for cheeky from the library I base it on a few things 

-Books that relate to specific issues we are dealing with

-Books that keep him interested (not too verbose)

-Books that teach him things in a way he’d be willing to learn

-Books that has characters he can associate within immediate family and friends

-Books that are just plain fun for him 

So this time around I picked

 The boy who wouldn’t share by Mike Reiss: Cheeky has not been too happy to share his things with his sister and no amount of explaining or reasoning worked to the extent we would have liked, so I found this book and wanted to give it another try! 

The book has two main characters – Edward and his baby sister Claire. Edward is a really grumpy and grizzly boy who never shares his toys. He wouldn’t let his sister share his teddy bear, rocking chair or even his slinky. He says ‘they’re all mine’ and doesn’t let her even touch it. As a result he is snowed under his toys while his mum comes in with some yummy fudge. She can’t see Edward and gives it all to Claire. It then goes on to say his sister Claire was really kind and knew that it was only fair to share and she shared it with his teddy bear. Edward understands how nasty and mean he’s been. Claire then shares with him as well and he realizes his mistake. And at the day of the end he says the day turned out just fine  ! 

A lovely book to drive home a simple message. In cheeky’s language ‘nini’ is any treat. He has used that word since he was 10 months old. So, it was simple and easy for me. I said  amma came in with ‘nini’ and since she couldn’t find Edward, she gave it all to Claire and left. When I said that his eyes popped and I am sure his mind registered the message. It is work in progress and we are much better than where we started, but we are far from the goal. With all his books he loves to associate the familiar names/people he knows, so as you can imagine in this book ‘Edward’ was Cheeky, ‘Claire’ was Smiley and ‘Mother’ was amma and of course teddy bear was ‘bluey’. 

Goodnight Andrew by Guido Van Genechten: A few months ago we were having a tricky time with getting Cheeky to bed. He wanted to play non-stop and not go to sleep. I thought Goodnight Andrew might help. 

This book was first first published as: Het grote slaap-boek in Belgium. In 2002 it was published in English as Goodnight Andrew. This book basically tells children everyone goes to sleep and goes on to tell how each animal sleeps. For eg the bat sleeps upside down and the crocodile sleeps on his belly in the sand, the snake sleeps up high in the tree and the elephant sleeps standing up under the tree. End of the book it says Andrew sleeps on the bed cuddled between his bears.

 So, Andrew is Cheeky and his bears are bluey, anu meenu, ajju meenu and titey. For a brief background go here. Worked like magic . This is always the last book we read and cheeky automatically knows it is sleep time after that  ! 

From Head to Toe/ Brown Bear Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: Eric Carle is a hot favourite in our household. I picked these because it was fun, colourful, vibrant and educative for cheeky. 

From Head to Toe is a fun book where you can get the kids to stand up and do actions and enjoy. Introduces them to their various body parts and also actions they can perform with those respective parts. Smiley joins in the fun too when we read the book. It goes like this 

I am a gorilla and I can thump my chest

Can you do it?

 I am a monkey and I can wave my arms

Can you do it?

 I am an elephant and I can stomp my feet

Can you do it?

And cheeky screams

 ’I can do it’  with the accompanied action! 

Smiley follows cheeky and does the same action. It is so much fun and they love it. We’ve learnt animals, actions we can do with coordination and it is also fun for them. The fact that they get to do activity while reading a book makes it so much more fun! Kids are so quick at grasping things, they even know the order of what animal and action comes next ! 

Brown Bear, as I mentioned in this post, is just a matter of associating the colours of the animals and the animals itself in the book. There are just 3 lines in each page and so it is easy enough for a toddler to learn and repeat. 

Both the books, From Head to toe and Brown Bear Brown Bear is a true confidence builder in kids. Gives them confidence in the actions they can do when they affirm it ‘I can do it’ and also makes them confident with their ability to read on their own as opposed to being read to (well from their perspective it works, right). 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is again one of our top favourites around here. Absolutely lovely book – colourful, vibrant, shows kids little concepts they can grasp easily – days of the weeks, numbers 1-5, fruits, introduction to various kinds of food, concept of opposites big/small, colours and also concept of growth – an egg becomes a caterpillar and then a butterfly. Perfect for a toddler to grasp and enjoy the concepts and it brings a smile to the adult who is reading the book too. An infectiously happy, fun and plesant reading experience. 

 Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson – This book is the story of a little monkey who has lost his Mum and a butterfly that tries to help him find the little monkey’s mother. The little monkey begins to describe his mother in ways he can articulate. So, first the monkey tells the butterfly that she’s bigger than him and so they begin the search. The first animal that the butterfly offers to the little monkey as his Mum is an elephant! The little monkey sees the elephant and says “My Mum isn’t a great grey hunk. She hasn’t got tusks …”
The butterfly then takes the little monkey to the different animals that he thinks could be the moneky’s mum based on the little monkey’s description. So for example when the monkey says she’s got more legs, he takes the monkey to a spider and when the monkey says my mum leaps and springs, butterfly takes him to a parrot. So they pass many animals and the monkey finally says after getting frustrated, Butterfly, butterfly, can’t you see? None of these animals look like me. But the butterfly then says you never told me your mum looks like you. So, the monkey says I thought you’d know and then the butterfly goes on with how would I – this is followed by a picture of its baby the caterpillar who looks way different to himself (the butterfly). The book finally ends with the little monkey finding his dad and then his mum eventually ! 

We love this book. It is a little more verbose than the rest we’ve seen, but he loves the colourful illustration and the different animals. It is easy to talk about the characteristic of that particular animal and the fact that the little baby monkey has lost its mum gets a very ‘pavam’ look from cheeky! He sympathizes with the little monkey and is happy when he finds his mum and dad finally. A very very cute book for toddlers.

Cheeky Charlie by Ben Redlich – This book is about a cheeky monkey who keeps teasing and poking fun of others. He makes fun of everyone who comes his way just because he is bored. He goes this way until he is reminded by a fellow monkey that his bottom is no different than theirs. Does he at least get the point then?

This is the least favourite of the books. May be because cheeky is not at the age where he understands making fun of other’s behaviour and being rude to others. May be between 4-5 years this book would have made more sense to him. So, when I start reading this book he is happy to sleep !

We are looking forward to the next set of books we are going to pick up. Any recommendations for a 3 yr old?

 

Basking in ‘Monkey see Monkey do’ happiness

Motherhood is guilt ridden most times. There is always something that gets your goat and makes you guilty. The one that I’ve had utmost difficulty dealing with is the fact that I’m unable to spend quality time with smiley like I did with cheeky (just me and him before she was born). The other way around feel guilty about making cheeky a big boy way too soon, when he was still a baby himself. That I didn’t give him his due time in growing up like a baby! So, it is always one or the other clogging my head and makes me feel crap!

 The last month though, I have been basking in happiness. I have cherished every little moment and have felt blessed that I made the right decision by bringing them close to each other and it wouldn’t have been good any other way! The pleasure derived from seeing them play together is not something that can be easily described. Smiley idolizes her brother. She knows he goes to ‘chool’ 3 days a week and when he returns she follows him like a little puppy and tries to mimic every little thing he does. It goes both ways, he absolutely adores her too. Hates to see her cry and will go straight to get the person who was responsible for her tears. This doesn’t mean they don’t whack each other and pull each other’s hair. All that totally happens too ! Thursday and Friday it is party time at home with double dose of havoc. The grandparents dread those days when they need to deal with the double dose of everything. The otherwise well behaved smiley rightfully turns to her brother for all the excitement, activity and destruction too! 

If she sees her brother jump, she has to follow, he throws a ball she has to, he rides a bike, she has to, he draws, she has to. They feed each other, they play with each other in the tent, he picks a book to read, she has to get a book. He wears his sunnies; she has to wear it as well. If he drinks water, she has to, so it is basically ‘monkey see, monkey do’. She has to type just like him on the comp, run like him, do ugly faces like him, roll on the floor like him and has to bathe with him too. Cheeky, poor thing, doesn’t get a single second by himself other than when she is sleeping. 

So, it has been fun, fun and fun watching them bond. I don’t believe words will do justice to what I see, so I’ll leave you with some pictures !

 

Good-bye already

 We are in the process of saying good-bye to some items that have been left untouched by the kids for a while . Cheeky’s toddler bed is one of those. We bought it for him a couple of months before smiley was due, so she could use his crib. We thought with his own new fancy bed, he wouldn’t be too upset with giving his crib away. Somehow, he didn’t sleep in it for long, hardly even 3 months. We left to India 3 months after smiley was born and when we got back he was used to sleeping with someone. He either preferred our bed or his grandparents. Now, he simply prefers the double bed in the guest room as his own and wouldn’t sleep anywhere else! These days kids make their own decisions, pretty much! 

Next step is moving smiley out of ours and putting them both in one room. But I just can’t get myself to do it…just can’t let go off the little one from our room. 

But I’d like some suggestions based on your experience for when I do decide to move the little one out  

• Should I buy a bunk bed
• 2 king size single beds
• Get them to sleep in the same double bed 

until they are keen on having their own separate rooms. From past experience I think the toddler bed was total waste of money. Spent over $200 but lost half the price for it just sitting pretty at home. The same might become the case for bunk beds too, but somehow they seem fun and exciting for little kids. I know if I buy the bunk bed I will have to get rid of them again in may be 4-5 years and lose money again. I am more inclined towards buying 2 single beds but bunk beds are tempting too.  What should I do? Hmm..choices…choices !

 

Brown Bear logic

Cheeky and I have been reading Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle. 

“Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? 

I see a red bird looking at me 

Red Bird Red Bird What do you see? 

I see a yellow duck looking at me”

 and it goes on .. 

As one can tell, it’s just matter of identifying the colour of the animals and the animal itself. He knows them and so, he loves reading it. He doesn’t let me read it for him and rather he reads it for me ! Ah..the pleasure I say ! 

Now this book was lying around at home. It was a gift for smiley and I was trying to read the words out to her while cheeky had another activity. Cheeky got hold of the Numbers book, which had an image of the ‘Brown Bear’ and guess what, he started reading it. 

Brown Bear Brown Bear

What do you see? 

Looks at the next page and says 

I see a green tree looking at me  ! 

Green tree green tree – What do you see? 

I see yellow star looking at me 

Yellow star yellow star – What do you see? 

I see penguin looking at me 

…and goes on to finish the book.

 How cute I thought.

What was really going on in his head when he started reading it? All books with brown bear’s image would say the same thing (not really, coz they had different images and he knew them all)? This book didn’t have words but he still read it the way he reads the other Brown Bear book. Does he realize that words mean anything at all? Was there any cognitive thinking involved or was it just plain picture association. Same picture same logic. These are times I feel I should have done early childhood learning and child development. Must be so interesting to learn the insides of how they function. 

He is also getting the concept of opposites right now 

He turns and tells me ‘amma this is small brown bear book and points to the actual and says that’s a big one’. 

He was sharing grapes with his sister and he gave her two big ones. Silly little one stuffed both in her mouth and had the ‘hanuman look’ and was ready to choke. So, I told him she is little and you need to give her small ones. So, he picked the little ones and reconfirmed with me if they were indeed small and if he could give it to her? At what stage are they meant to learn the concrete as well as abstract concepts? Interesting..anyone who has info please pass it on.

 

Change – now that’s a constant

I read in an article a while ago “The only thing constant about life is change. You either embrace it or hide from it”. Interesting right? 

My constant grouse when I was in my late teens was  – there is constant change with everything in life. From when we are born we embrace change as a constant entity and live the forever evolving life; we go through different phases, developmental changes, friendships, events, schools, and colleges, basically everything. So, I asked myself how can one live with one person all his life…won’t we get bored of that person? Why can’t there be a marriage contract for 5 years;  stay on if you are happy, else move on with life without the commitment and responsibility, without feeling let-down and depressed? I reasoned with others – that’s probably why a lot of marriages result in not so happy endings because the person is a constant, change that and it’ll work I said. There needs to be variety in life…variety is the spice of life right…right ? Why should we be pinned down to one person? This was when my wisdom was going wild and then reality dawned and the like everyone else I got married and it is 7 years since !  

But my life has been good with change in general. Change has been the way of life for me as much as I have a love hate relationship with change. Some of my quirks with change – I always go to the same toilet cubicle at work, won’t change it even if it is occupied and this is something I’ve heard form many women, it’s like I own that particular one, I sit on the same row and seat in the bus every single day (if available) and am not happy if it isn’t, you get the idea. But, life has never been monotonous or boring for me. Have always had something interesting happening at every stage. Well until I was single it was exciting enough and sort of continued the trend after marriage too. Moved to the US and lived there for 2 years. Started our life with 4 boxes. New marriage, setting up our new home, new to cooking, new place so it was all exciting, though I wasn’t working life was peaceful. But couldn’t stay that way forever. So with visa constraints in the US we decided to move to OZ land. That was again new and thrilling, packed up all we had in 8 boxes and left. New experience again, came here and looked for jobs. Both of us heading to work was a change we needed to get used to as opposed to hot new menu cooked every single day and placed on the table before OK arrived from work. 

Decided to build our home, so that was another novel experience. So a year after we started working here bought a land and put deposit towards the house. The construction process itself was very time consuming. The following year we moved into our new home. Then cheeky followed ! 

Once kids arrive life is a new beginning everyday. Each day is a new experience and life changes like one can’t imagine. By the time we were getting used to cheeky and the changes life was throwing at us smiley’s arrival was around the corner. 

So, in the last 3 years work has taken the back seat. I’ve stayed in this current job for 4 years and haven’t looked for any change.  Why – It is completely stress free, strict work hours, lovely fun loving team, no micro managing, they know my work ethics, they pay me decent amount for the work I do, I enjoy my work, plus I get a lot of free time to do things that I want to do during work hours (very important) since time at home for such stuff is zero. And when life was already throwing so much change my way, I was happy to have at least this one thing constant. So every time people asked me if I was looking for a move I didn’t say no but was happy to stay on. There was one thing that was worrying me though – I didn’t want to end up like my manager who’s done this same role for nearly 10 years now. With me there was no scope to move unless she moved, a really small team and career progression absolutely nil unless I looked elsewhere. I wrote this about 7 months ago just when I was new to blogging and was starting to feel the need for change. When you are in the comfy seat you really don’t want to move. You start getting used to the easy way of life and the fact that it is a tough survival game outside of my world was a hard fact to deal with. I constantly feared being stagnant, but was reluctant to get out of my comfort zone to look for opportunities. Within, I knew I wanted to change and was ready too but the inertia was too strong to break free from. 

An opportunity came up, great move up, higher pay, higher position and perfect progression for me and I was keen but the work hours deterred me from applying. I spoke to the person performing the role, got some feedback and left it at that coz it was a demanding job. Nothing can really steer me from leaving work at 4.30 to be with my kids. But life is funny that way, despite me not taking the next step, the position kept coming back to me rather people kept pushing me towards it. My mil at home said I should may be look at a change and look for a higher position with a larger organization than the current one. This was without me mentioning anything about the job or my inclination for change. I thought it was a sign to apply for that position. The following day I was again steered towards the same role by my very own personal guide and well-wisher at work. It was too much of a coincidence. I applied. Is change coming my way? Only time will tell. Is this change a good thing if it happens and should I take it ? You tell me.

But life’s good right now. Being appreciated at work is always a good thing. When things are looking down one way, it gives the much needed boost and balances it out another way. My heart felt thanks to the almighty for taking care of me!

 

Mission Accomplished

and this is what worked for me.

The day I put up the last post on help needed I started working on him. I told him once the set of diapers finished, we didn’t have any more and they stopped selling it in the shops too coz he is a big boy now and they didn’t make it anymore.  I have done this before, but hasn’t worked. Somehow this time around he was sort of buying that and I kept at it. So each day he would ask me – ‘Amma how many are left’ and the countdown began. There were about 15 left and I gave myself 10 days. So, each day he’d tell himself – only x left and he’d repeat my dialogue – no more diaper for cheeky coz he is a big boy!

I had mentally prepared myself for the past weekend as the ultimate deadline.  Last Friday while cheeky was home patti convinced him that the diapers were over and he had to do the big job in the potty. She said he literally brought the roof down with his crying, but gave in finally.  I got home in the evening and heard the news.  Was elated. I quickly hid the 6 plus diapers so he didn’t find them and ask for them again. My idea did work and slowly preparing his little mind towards the set goal helped. Patti saved me by not letting me hear that cry. Would have totally broken my heart! Didn’t want to continue for the night alone either so the last 3 nights I have been sleeping with him and take him to pee if needed. The last 3 nights we’ve had no accidents (anti-jinx).

So, hurray and completely out of diaper’s. Out of day time diapers and learnt to pee inside the pot @ 22 months and out of night time diapers and learnt to sit on the pot for ‘tutu’ @ 34 months . Fully PT’d and mission accomplished. He is happy and so are we ! Thanks guys for all the ideas.

 

Fascinator that won $50

 Event: Melbourne Cup

Purpose: Hat Competition

Creative head: Sole’s manager

Materials used: Fruit basket net, some old red feathers, a red bow, some white flowers made with tissue paper, couple of white plastic flowers, staples, sticky tape

Time taken: 15 min

My job: Was to put it together, wear it, sit pretty and take photos all day until we were judged.

 Although I didn’t win any of the sweeps and had no luck with the horses it was a great day filled with cheer and anticipation. Was only fair that we split the prize since she was the creative head and I was just the able assistant! All in all a fun day!

 

A simple connection

As any parent would – I have been working towards inculcating the importance of reading to my kids. I haven’t been a voracious reader myself, so there is an added urge in me to make my kids read a fair bit. With parenting there is this vision to always try and overcome your shortcomings through your children. Not sure if it is a good thing, but it is fairly common I think. As early as 6-7 months I introduced Cheeky to books, for whatever it might have been worth that early. When he was as little as 8 months I started reading the ABC books with words and other little picture books. Kids as we all know are fairly good at absorbing everything. Every time I pointed to a new image and said the word, he’d pick it up! By the time he was between 12-16 months he had picked up almost all the words in the books, which was a fair bit and also fairly complicated ones. He could either say the words if I prompted A for .., point to them when asked for or show the associated actions for all of the words in the book. By the time he was 18 months he was talking fairly well and could communicate most of what he wanted to convey. His vocabulary as an 18 month old was fairly high. When he was about 22 months we went to India and that helped him heaps in terms of language and social skills. We were only speaking tamil to him and his vocabulary in tamil multiplied ten folds.

By the time we came back he was 2 and was ready to start childcare. I made a list of words he’d say for the essentials in tamil and wrote the English equivalent so the carers would understand him. He took a month to adjust to the childcare, the new routine, the new people, the new discipline he wasn’t used to and of course the new food he was being introduced to. He was used to the basic parupu satham/ rasam satham, kootu curry routine at home for lunch. He did pretty well. 2 months after he started probably around March/April he understood most things his carers said in English and he figured we spoke different languages. So, he started communicating to them in English. His vocabulary in English also increased. He was starting to communicate almost 4-5 word sentences in English by April. In June they had a half yearly assessment at his centre and he was graded high in all areas including completely understanding and communicating in English. The carers said he only spoke English and they had absolutely no trouble in understanding him and vice versa. They said he clearly knows when to ask for help. Have totally digressed, anyway, where was I?

Yes, importance of reading – as the little one started demanding some attention my ‘reading time’ with cheeky started decreasing. The little one was too distracted to sit in one place; a live wire that she is can’t sit still for even a minute. That wasn’t helping me coz cheeky gets distracted by the blink of an eye and having the little one around us did no good. I was running out of good books at home and the closest library wasn’t close to home, at least a 15 min drive, so hardly managed time to head there to bring books. I wasn’t happy about the situation, but wasn’t doing anything about it either. Thankfully a new library opened within a 2 min drive from our place a couple of months ago. Right from the day it opened I have been making regular trips and stocking different books. I’ll pick up board books, touch and feel ones for smiley and regular picture books for cheeky.

While on the topic of books and kids, please check out Saffron Tree, the pioneers there are celebrating CROCUS 2009 Celebration of Reading Other Culturally Unique Stories. They’ve done a brilliant job of  reviewing some amazing books from all the continents and I’ve already bookmarked some for the future. I am sure most of you would have already checked it out, but for the few who might not have, I’ve done my bit by letting you know !

Now what brought about this post – a couple of weeks ago I brought ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. Absolutely lovely book, colourful, vibrant, shows kids little concepts they can grasp easily – days of the weeks, numbers 1-5, fruits, introduction to various kinds of food, concept of opposites big/small etc, colours and also concept of growth an egg becomes a caterpillar and then a butterfly. We have been reading it every day for the last 2 weeks. Couple of days ago we sat to read the book as always and cheeky was beaming. He was visibly excited, a different behaviour than what we’ve seen in the past during our reading sessions.

 Cheeky : Amma they showed the caterpillar story in school.

Amma: Really? (I wasn’t too sure if he was saying the right thing, did they read it, enact it, was it part of an ABC program that they let the kids watch for few minutes every day.) What did you see cheeky?

Cheeky: Amma they put it on the TV from a CD and the caterpillar became a big fat caterpillar and then a beautiful butterfly.

Amma: Wow, that’s really nice cheeky. Was it good? Did you enjoy it?

Cheeky: Yes amma, it was nice! 

I was still not convinced or should probably say in the  ‘too good to believe’ state. I rang the school the following day and asked them if they really did play it and if they did what did they play. I learnt that they had a series of Eric Carle’s story collection in a DVD. I was pretty impressed. I asked the carer, did cheeky react at all when he saw it, she said he was pretty excited…he jumped saying caterpillar, hungry caterpillar and she said he was saying what he ate each day etc.

There is a sense of satisfaction when you feel rewarded for what you’ve done. This was a sure example and a simple reward for me. We learn something at home and the sense of happiness that is accompanied when you recognize the same stuff elsewhere, I could envision cheeky’s excitement. Simple pleasures our kids’ give us, makes it all so worth it, doesn’t it?

 

Help needed

Cheeky is 34 months now. He is partly potty trained and has been for a year now. We stopped using diapers through the day when he was between 21-22 months and he has been doing perfectly fine. Hardly any accidents in the last one year. Now, when I say partly I mean he knows when he wants to pee, he either lets us know or runs to the toilet himself these days and does his own thing. Tears exactly 1 sheet of toilet paper at the perforation, uses it and flushes. Absolutely perfect! That part wasn’t hard. I started when I took him to India last year and it was simple and straight forward!

Now with tutu (yes, that’s the name coined by the 1st grandchild in the family, so it has been around for 19 years now) this is what he does – says he wants to go tutu, runs to the bathroom or his room, gets a diaper and says diaper podu tutu varathu (put on my diaper I need to go tutu). We have been trying to get him out of it the last 10 months, I did have some luck while in India, but completely lost it after we returned from our holiday! There is no way we can get him to sit in the potty to do the big job. Nothing works, comparing other older kids, adults, saying there are no more diapers (he brings his little sisters and says put that on), forcibly putting him on the pot, incentives, stickers, treats – nada, absolutely nothing!

Any tips, suggestions, ideas that could help me in our mission to get him completely trained would be welcomed! I’d like him completely trained before he turns 3 at least. Will also help me with my little girl of 15 months when I start training her! Also how different is it for a boy vs a girl? A bit of a strange request I know, but I know I might get some guidance for sure from you guys who’ve been there already!

 

Guiding Angels

We are 3 girls in our family and as per norm with most Indian girls, our parents got us married and they are now left alone back home. 3 girls live in 2 different continents miles and miles away from home. Our parents try and spend some time with us on and off, mostly to help us when in need. Mum does not feel comfortable living with us unless she can convince herself that she is being useful to us. No amount of persuasion will make her change her idea. Considering that the last 15 years they’ve spent more time at our homes than their own home shows how much they’ve sacrificed and supported us with our kids and family. Brimming with guilt that we’ve left our parents alone at this stage in life, we girls constantly try and convince them that they should be with us and they should migrate to our part of the world rather than stay alone there. We’ve never managed to sell the idea though. Deep within we know very well that their heart is there and they are the most comfortable in their den. Amma being a social butterfly that she is, thrives the best in her home and dad has his spark back the minute he lands in his country. He cherishes his daily cuppa – steaming filter coffee prepared by amma and his daily dose of morning “The Hindu”.  He loves visiting his friends and sharing nostalgic moments with them every week from his school and college days. There truly is something about the motherland which makes it special and gives the warm fuzzy feeling deep within. As much as they love spending time with their girls and grandkids when they are away, their heart for sure yearns for their country while here.

A couple of months back my parents left our home. As always they went for their routine health check after they returned. My mum visited an eye surgeon as well in addition because her eye was giving her lot of trouble lately. She got her eyes checked out and found out that she had severe cataract in both eyes and the doctor wanted her to get them operated as soon as possible. The lady that she has always been, forever puts other people’s need in front of her own and hence got her surgery delayed by over 2 weeks.

The one thing that we’ve always tried to pitch in front of them while trying to encourage them to move base is – “ you are getting old, what if something happens to your health, if you are with us, we’ll be here to take care of you, but in India you’d be left alone.” That point was never an issue for them though. They always took pride in their support system – their siblings and friends. They always maintained that they will have full support from their family and friends there and will never be left alone. So, we’d never have to worry about that. Not even our biggest selling point was a winner to convince them.

 The surgery was scheduled for today and I have been constantly thinking about them since morning. In anxiety I miscalculated the time and rang her at 3.30 am thinking it was 5.30am the time she was scheduled to leave home. I spoke to her briefly and hung up saying I’ll call back. I rang home and her cell about 5 times later but no answer and I panicked. I finally got through to my dad and he said she was getting operated that very instant. I wondered how my dad would be coping alone and much to my solace he told me – “I have your two mama’s (mum’s brother’s), k. anna and b. acca (mum’s sister’s kid’s) with me at this very moment and amma is inside getting operated.” That was enough to warm my heart up and bring tears to my eyes. What they have maintained and said all along is indeed very true and this is just a true testimony of their belief. God bless those souls and hope every one of us is blessed with such guiding angels when needed.