“Hey marumagan porandirukan di unakku” announced my mother who picked up the call before I could get to it. After almost 14 hours of wait, these were the sweetest words I could hear. “A healthy baby boy, looks like his aunt” was what my brother - the proud daddy, told us. At this point it made me really angry that the time machine is yet to be invented. Even the “choomandrakali” would have helped. One mantram and “whoosh……” I’d be there in CMC Vellore right near my nephew. Well, had to wait till next day in spite of all this wishful thinking.
The next afternoon saw all three of us near my brother, sis-in-law and my nephew. “My” nephew, mine – feels nice, very nice. He was sleeping like a doll. Fully covered up except his face, we had to wait and wait to see him wake up. It was evening and it was time to leave but we were still waiting. And then as if he felt sorry for us he opened his eyes and saw us all for the first time in his life. “Child is the father of the man” so we all turned into kids –cooing and making faces just as he did. It was very late when we left, as nobody wanted to place him back in his crib.
After returning, we got an update every hour on what the mother and child were doing. “Ma he is crying now and we don’t know why”, “Yeah she is sleeping”, “Ma he didn’t sleep a wink at all last night and neither did we!”, “Ma, did I also bother u like this?” these were some of the questions my brother asked my mother. The latest news from him was, “Ma he was given an injection, he cried a little but my eyes welled up with tears”, and so were my mother’s as she put the phone down and said, “Now he knows”. All this talk made me realize a few things.
As a child is born he/she brings happiness to the family. It is a rebirth for the mother, they say but I see a new awakening of love and respect in the eyes of both the new mother and father for their own parents. From the teen age words like “it’s your duty to raise us”, “you didn’t sleep to take care of us, so? Every one does that. What’s new?” to the understanding that yes, it must have been difficult to raise me well and make my life worthy- indeed a great journey of thoughts. So "this" is what we call the cycle of life!!! Interesting!!! The joy of becoming grandparents is not only that there is an addition to the family tree, but also that the things that they could never make their children understand as they were growing up–the love, affection, feelings, fear for their safety, etc… now their kids would understand on their own. And that makes life worth the while. Isn’t it?
I remember reading about a grandma who bought water guns for her grandchildren. Her son asked her, “Why ma, why did u buy them these guns? Don’t you remember how we drove you crazy with these?” for which she just grinned and said,”Yes I remember”.
