My "GRAND"son - ShreeHari & Me

ANOTHER Vishu has come and gone by. It was on a Vishu,that our daughter Vandana gave birth to a beautiful male child. He was brought out by a Caesarian,red faced and with plenty of jet black long hair.it took some time for him to open his eyes and peer at us. Some months later when his mother could hug him to her heart,he would peer at us over her shoulder,his head shaking like a Tanjore bommai !

 Unlike most male infants who would holler away every time they sensed their mom was not around,Sree Hari ,just kept quiet and comfy. Only that his stomach had to be full ! Born under the lucky zodiac sign Aries,he is a very amicable child but for his unheralded spurts of urine on us. Since his Dad was abroad,he and his mom had to stay with us for almost a year and hence we got a better time getting acquainted with him. For long periods when his mom was busy with washing his linen  that he dirtied frequently,he would just lie there ,making gurgling sounds and smiling to himself.If anyone chanced to see him thus, they would be only happy to whisk him away asking him unintelligible things,to which he’d reply coo!

When he was able to crawl, the first thing he did was to go behind our TV stand and try to pull at the wires ! All our efforts to dissuade him proved ineffective,and so we had to be very alert when he was on the ground. He was very attached to me because I would make him stand on my thighs as I sat on our sofa.And he would start his jumping exercises. I often wondered where this child got so much energy to pump up and down without being tired  at all. Then for a change,I would take him to our dog kennel where our Alsatians waited to get a sniff of their new friend. Dogs have a particular way of sensing their friends. With a sniff of our body smell,they recognize uand will never forget it. And as we stand like that near the kennel,his mother sees us and begins to shout at me in a frenzy. She’s concerned about her child’s health.The dust around the kennel or the fur of the dogs could make her precious baby ill ! What a foolish father she had ,she laments aloud to my dismay and virtually plucks away the infant from my heart ! Of course,Sree hari protests.His heart rending wails could be heard as his angry mother fled into the safety of her room.

Sree Hari was conceived when his mom was with his father in Dubai.They were so anxious to know the child’s identity that they did a scan and found it male child.His mother had to return back home giving up a teacher’s post she had just got appointment. But Sree hari was more important to them.The funny thing was that even before she was six months carrying,she had sent the world reeling searching for a beautiful name for her son. Names like krishnankutty, Narayanan,Ramakrishnan,Padmanabhan ,manukuttan and the like began pouring in from our relatives and friends. Out of this jamboree,the name Sree hari clicked,much to my delight ! I had suggested it.

Sree Hari proved to be  a quiet chap.With his large limpid eyes,he peered at anything that caught his fancy. Not at all like his uncle,my son Vinod who could cry aloud purposefully,non stop for hours especially in the wee hours of the morn while his mom my Sou,slept like a log, fully unaware that the child was calling for her attention . He could have wet his diapers or was hungry for her milk. Nothing affected my spouse’s sleep. She even snored beautifully.You can hear her at w.w.w.Sou.snores.in which of course she,d never admit. One of these days,I am going to record it and make her hear it.

In my opinion of Sree hari’s mom, she happens to be the most silliest goose  I ever saw.when she fed him his vitamin drops, it often went into his nose starting a series of sneezing and coughs.And when we intervened to help,his mom would have nothing of it !He was her treasure alone and none had the right to fuss over him or pampher him! Nowhere in this world would there be such a overconfident,foolish girl like his mom. Even his father threw up his hands and retreated to look at the moon outside, when he experienced a bout of her tantrums.

It broke our hearts when his parents took him away with tem to Dubai.Till they came on a visit after a period of two long years,we could not see him. Oh Sree Hari ! How we miss you !

Sree hari was barely a year old when his mom got a job as a teacher in a reputed school there.They really needed the job. So, the search for a suitable baby sitter began. Vandana’s teaching classes ended at noon.so,the baby sitter was required only upto then. For two days,his mom stayed with him at the baby sitter’s house. It seemed alright to leave him there.So, the next day,Vandana went to work. By noon she hurried to her son. He was there,sobbing,tears streaming down his chubby cheeks. The grief caused by the separation from his mom and the peculiar behavior of the woman who had no patience or experience in handling infants, had made the child very unhappy. Wrenching her child from the woman’s hands and weeping,his mom fled .It took her three days to console  the infant who sobbed even in his sleep and to bring him back to his cheerful state of mind.

But as I said before,Sree Hari was a very lucky child. God sent him a very kind person who took him into her natural maternal care and made him comfortable when his mom was away  at school.His fear and sorrow dispersed like mist in the Sun.he became himself again.His  Dad got a new lucrative job and bought a good car. After all the Makam ( Aries) star under which Sree Hari was born,proved to be very lucky, after all.