Quite a Quarter :)

Hundred being the most fascinating number when we first start to learn how to count which certainly comes with a lot of pushy nudges, dictation tests and drama or as I remember it, a number I had to count backwards from on sleepless nights – a tried and tested method of falling asleep by most fauji fathers. A lot of shabaashis’ and a lot of assertive No’s later I gathered what worked just right with both my parents together and individually, leading me to be their sole and only confidante even now. From learning how to cycle without trainers to skate around in Bata’s white tennis shoes, all my nakhras were taken care of even if those whims lasted a few months or a few days.

My parents must’ve tried a hundred different techniques to answer my questions all while I was growing up and absolutely dealing with the annoying phase of teen age when everybody is all over the place. It’s when you turn 13, you realize you can get away with saying the meanest of things to your parents and they will take it only to be met with a silent treatment for the next 4 days.
Well it’s a very common scenario in a lot of households. My mother and I argued all through my teens because she wanted me to be a strong person but of course I didn’t see it like that, I would often give her ultimatums that I will call up Papa in ‘the valley’ and ask him to scold her.
It’s funny when I think of it now, how easily she acted that it made a difference to her just so I could stop crying and have my moment of victory and also because she knew it was enough for the day. Oh! how I thank her now for being so hard on me then.

Years passed by and I got a chance to spend some good 4 years with a few and then one or two friends I have now and can’t imagine my life without. We ardently talk, gossip, fight, bitch about everything possible every single day and I have my hundreds of moments with them. It’s when you get to hear the right things from the people your age you know you’ve found your tribe and your person. Yes! It does sound clichéd but who cares it’s what makes a quarter of a hundred.

My childhood was splendid by god’s grace and I have had the privilege of spending it with the people I will always love and cherish. Yes, a lot of family members have departed now and I will forever count my time spent with them as the most valuable memories. Not only do I have a hundred different stories of experiences with them but also the fact that they relive with those stories as I now tell them to my very own little niece & nephew and believe me nothing is more satisfying than adding some masala to the heroics performed when I was 5 (their age). I wonder how much sense does walking 20 kms with bags as heavy as 10 kgs’ from village to the school makes now? since that’s what I grew up hearing all my life.

Well I can add so much more but it’s only the core that matters and this is what my quarter is made up of.

Thank you for taking out the time to read this!

Chhavi

IT’S MOTHER’S DAY. PERIOD!

Its mother’s day today, well I do stop to think every time, why assign a day for your mother?

Yes, I hear a lot of explanations and I reason with myself that maybe it’s the need of the hour, especially in the age and rage of lesser attention spans where we forget our own to do list for the day.

So yes, I thank all the mothers’ and their mothers’ in raising us in the best way possible. From keeping a check to letting us be and from being the villains in our teen age to being our best friends.

We all have spent some most precious moments and learnt some very basic yet important life skills from our mothers, for all the girls out there an important landmark must’ve been ‘The Period Talk’.

We all were introduced one fine morning during our early teens with a sanitary napkin and the instructions to put it on our underwear. The steps which we had only seen on TV with a fascinating blue liquid turning into gel and the best possible technology behind it. We were braced and prepared for the unexpected from an early age on and we embraced the ‘Flo’ with a little embarrassment, a little uneasiness but yes with every “motherly” comfort possible.

I was in fact alone at home during my first time, since mamma had gone out of station for some work and I had to break it to her on the phone. I was in utter dismay that day for it certainly was a big change of my life.

I look back at that time and I feel lucky that I come from a home where I could explain a short note on ‘menstruation cycle’ to my father without a hiccup during a preparation of one of my unit tests in school.

It’s obvious to feel uncomfortable at all the change and pain a small child of 12-13 has to go through, but what about the ones who were never educated or told about it?

Have we ever stopped to think about the small orphaned girls living on the streets or slums? Or about how must have their moment been? Some are even told that they are sick and made to leave their schools, adding to pain and horror that they are inflicted with a disease every month. Shocking, but true.

Yes, a change will take some time, and people are making this a topic of discussion through various activities where men are taking up the initiative through real/reel life difficulties. Getting rid of the taboo by talking more about it while some are also working really hard in finding an alternate to the plastic waste via biodegradable materials.

But while this goes on, I thank both my parents and their mothers to help me be the individual that I am today, still faltering, still learning and understanding all the pros and cons of daily life.

We all have a motherly instinct in ourselves whether or not we have given birth to a child. I pledge this mother’s day that I will try to help a little girl in need with sanitary napkins every month and be the guide she missed out on.

I wish you all a very Happy Mother’s day.

Thank you for taking out the time to read this.

Chhavi 🙂