Saturday, October 24, 2009

Lunches and bananas

At work I start fidgeting around 12:00 noon. "Oh dear its about time." In another 15-30 minutes or so depending on if I am in a conversation with a colleague or student and my ability or the lack of it to make an abrupt exit, I rush back home. On the way I press my Mom10 watch and switch from office mode to mother mode. Our friends drop RRJ home from school at 12:45.

As we walk up the stairs, I get to know who gave him trouble and who was nice to him. They get some imaginary blows and pats as per their karma. On entering home RRJ spots the basketball lying around in the balcony and starts dribbling for a while, then he straight heads for his computer, switches on the speakers and puts 'guzarish' of ghajini and makes me laugh with his Aamir Khan swagger in slow motion. The other songs that we listen to during lunch time are jai ho, piu bole, panchee nadiya and Roberta Flack's really old song "killing me softly". In between I eat lunch, RRJ wrestles with the lunch and then I give him the remaining food on his plate. The wrestling time is usually controlled as per my time commitments at 2:00 pm. Then he becomes 'dadu' for a while by removing the shirt and being in the vest and school shorts. Then I nag while I pack his daycare bag and slowly he changes in to a fresh set of clothes.

Then we make our way to day care singing louder than the racket my scooter makes at my super speed of 20 kmph. If we have time my scooter goes bananas and goes in to roads which are not on our way and then comes back the right way and then over shoots the destination and turns around and overshoots again and so on. While our carbon footprints get oversize we giggle and laugh and happily head for daycare and office respectively. Those are the good days. But life is not haha heehee, one of the many days when we get late, I had a series of meetings lined up for which I was in no mood to reach late for. I fed him, so lunch was fast, saved time on cleaning as well. RRJ obliged by changing his dress on his own while I got the day care bag ready. I come out of kitchen and he was already in the balcony. Good, superboy. I reach balcony. Not so good, sandals are yet to be worn, and superboy hanging on the rope meant for spiderman. A yell later we find the sandals. He slips his feet in but velcro had to be done by amma. Amma dutifully bends and both her purse and day care bag come off shoulder. Velcro secured, the bags back on shoulder, time to spare 15 minutes. Amma is the calmest ever, thinking, "I can even park the scooter near my office building and walk down to the other buidling for the meeting". Sweat trickles down her back. Amma kick starts the scooter which needs battery replacement for maybe a year now. Scooter starts in one try. RRJ in the meantime does his usual walking ahead and waiting like in a bus stop, shows his hand, I stop and he gets on and we reach the first left turn and then lightening strikes "Ammaaaaa... scooter said he will go bananas in the lunch time". No-no-nonono not today pleeease no time for bananas or bahamas.

"But the scooter told me. Amma..... please amma." Amma is caught off guard and responds by turning the accelerator, she is bad at handling "please amma" under pressure. Amma crosses her highest speed ever at 40 kmph. She looks as stern as possible, under the circumstances it wasn't difficult at all. We stop at the day care. RRJ seeing amma's determined look makes a peace offer " okay, I will go only if scooter goes bananas in the evening." Amma loses it now, forgets she is the adult here. "Scooter will not go bananas for many days". We make our way to the door, amma stomping ahead and RRJ dragging his feet behind. Pops out the maam. "What happened, RRJ is not looking happy?" RRJ looks sideway generally at nothing, very devdas like stance. " He wants a scooter ride" amma tries to make it clear it is not her fault after all.
"No. Not just ride, I want bananas."
"Whats wrong with bananas, you can surely give him bananas. They are good for health. And specially for him being so skinny."
"We would love if he had bananas, but he doesn't."
"But why don't you give him bananas, does he wheeze?"
"He wheezes but I don't think it is because of bananas, we want him to have bananas. As for now, he is asking for a scooter ride."
Eyes roll, RRJ continues his stare in to nothing and its not clear why amma bothers to justify herself. More sweat trickles down her back. A look at the watch and she knows she will get that oh-she-has-a-small-child look as and when she makes it for the meeting. On her way back, she presses her mom10 watch and her skin thickens by an order of magnitude as she switches back to her kick-ass office mode, comes in handy on such occasions.

2 comments:

kbpm said...

At least he goes to the day care, I am having a SITUATION with that, still. :-( And whatever I try, the meetings get scheduled at the exact wrong time. Her school timings change, and the meeting times change immediately as well. I need that watch of yours, are you selling?

Bannu said...

kbpm, no day-care is a bit difficult. You might have already tried but have a chat with the lady-in-charge. You need my watch, my precious watch? Take it, works wonderfully, only when it works!