So madam Raya is picking up words really fast these days...
She can't pronounce her L's and R's yet...
So "tree" becomes "tee"..."please" becomes "peez"...and "milk(y)" beacomes "meeky"..."marker" is "maaker"..."peekaboo" is "peeboo"..."miss you" is "mizz you"..."c you later" is "c you yaya" ...
so one and so forth...oh well...it's such a fun and interesting age...
Anyways, that's that ...coming to something else...so one of the tasks I have been assigned by Raya's grandparents is to make sure that she learns to pray (or at least appreciates the importance of prayer), after bath and before bedtime...
Yours truly, being an ardent Shridi Sai devotee, every day after Raya's bath time, one of the rituals is to make her sit on my lap in front of my teenie weenie "puja"(prayer) place, ask her to fold her hands in a namaskar (she understands that when I say, "do namoh namoh") , while I say a few mantras...to be more specific, the gayatri mantra and a chant that goes by, "Om Shri Sai Nath Namah"...
So after a couple of these prayer sessions on consecutive days, I began to notice that every day, after splishing splashing in her bath tub and getting dressed, Raya would on her own go to our small "puja ghar" and open the door of the miniature "mandir", fold her hands in a namaskar and then say, 'O Shee, O Shee, O Shee'...Of course, I lost no time in concluding that this was her version
of, "Om Shri Sai Nath Namah"...I very proudly called up my parents and told them that "teaching Raya to pray mission" was accomplished in record time :)...
But wait,as is often the case with me, I sseemed to have spoken a bit too soon...A couple of days later, Raya sprints around the home, falls down on her knees and out out comes 'O Shee' from her mouth...a day later she drops food on her dress and out comes another 'O Shee' from her mouth...the occurrences of 'O Shee' was becoming a bit too frequent and it was no longer confined to when she is in front of the "puja ghar" or sees a picture of a God /Goddess, it began to pop out of her mouth in situations when she was annoyed...now that is scary for any parent wanting to be a "good parent", if you know what I mean:)...I was definitely not a very happy momma anymore,for while I hoped that 'O Shee' stood for the mantra 'Om Shri Sai Nath ai namah', whether I liked it or not and paradoxical as it may sound, the contexts she was using the phrase in were more those where one was more likely to say "Oh Sh**"...I obviously went into a panic mode...where was she learning this, if it was what we thought it was...do D and I swear that often?! Was it day care?! etc.etc...Thank God it was nothing worse than that etc.etc....the Das household was in a state of comeplete panic...use of all forms of "swear" words were banned with immediate effect...a protocol was set to spell out any "swear" word
whenever there was an urge to use it...and that protocol has been followed to date...believe it or not,that protocol has so far worked two fold...one is of course, we are limiting Raya's exposure to these words to the best of our ability...the second is a rather unexpected and equally beneficial outcome...by the time we reach the last alpahabet while spelling out a "swear" word, our anger/annoyance, which is obviously the trigger for the urge to swear, more often than not wanes off ...now aint't that a perfect example of killing two birds with one shot !!:)...
So that's that...moving on to something else...Raya seems to have some surreal connection to her Ash mamu (my brother)...despite limited Skype/Phone time with my busy little brother, who lives in Bangalore, he was one of the first ones she recognized in photographs..."Mamu, Mamu"...she would go as soon as she saw his photograph...Soon, of course, to the grandparents relief, she began recognizing them as well, on Skype as well as in photographs...So that made "Koka" (maternal granddad), "Maaa"(maternal granmom"), "Ata"(paternal grandmom) and "Baitu (Bai Jethu)"(paternal uncle) really, really happy...
Paradoxically enough, Raya did not have a name associated with 'D' and I for the longest time ever...The fortune of being addressed by a "deterministic coloquial name" by our little miss
sunshine has finally befallen us...Raya calls/identifies yours tryly as "Mamma" and 'D' as "Baba"...Her latest antic(coming out of her tremendous love for the Baa baa black sheep(she calls it "baa baa shee") nursery rhyme, is to call me "Mamma Shee" and 'D', "Baba Shee"...and believe it or not when it comes out of my teenie weenie baby's mouth, it sounds so much like "Mamma Shri" and "Baba Shri" that it makes D and I feel quite antiquated( In India , when anyone is addressed with a "Shri" prefixed or suffixed to his/her name, it's a sign of great "voluntary/forced " respect)...
So in the age of "momsy", "popsy", "paa", "daa" and all kinds of modern lingo associated with names for one's parents, being called "Mamma Shri" and "Baba Shri" or what sounds like that, makes us
"vintage" parents for now, I guess :)
On that note, happy parenting folks!:)