As you turn 13 today...
My
dear Nithila,
Wish
you a happy first ‘teen’ birthday… your 13th… just a couple of days
back, someone exclaimed to me “oh you are a mother of a teenager? Wow!”… I wasn’t
sure how to react then, because when with you, I don’t feel ‘that old’, rather I
feel like a teenager myself, all over again…. Your youthful charm and energy
brushes onto me all the time… anything you do, infact everything you do, has me
intrigued… I get this ‘fangirling’ feeling about you many a times… today I want
to let you know that I am your biggest and brightest fan and will always be… it is a
promise of a lifetime 😊
In
these annual letters, I do make it a point to write about the new places we would
have visited through the year… so when you read them later, you can reminisce about
the routes you have travelled and the footprints you left behind… From being
travel friendly, to my utmost pleasure, you have grown to be travel hungry… on completing
one travel, I start planning for the next one, and I see the same streak in you… but this year 2020 has been a washout as far as travel is concerned… well, its been
so bad, that we have been trapped at home almost all of the year due to covid-travel-restrictions..
the last one – a 1200 km road trip - Delhi - Mcleodganj - Dharamshala - Pathankot
– Amritsar – Delhi - was in the last week of 2019… we had quite a few travel
plans through the year, but none materialized… we cancelled our much awaited holiday
to the US, something we have been planning for more than a year now, and you were extremely disappointed… I tried consoling you saying “so
what we couldn’t go now, we will go next year, US is not going anywhere isn’t it?”…
and came your reply “next year we could have gone to some other place, there
are so many places to see Mumma, this one life is not enough isn’t it?”… I completely,
strongly, gladly agree with you… and there began our discussion on our ‘bucket
list’ of travel destinations… our combined list is outrageously long, a mix of adventure,
history, culture, nature and everything above and beyond… while I will try and
see as many places alongside you, I do hope that you get to see all the diversity
that exists in this very world, both pleasant and the unpleasant…Through
this came up the discussion on travel itineraries, research on the destinations,
distances, and how to pack more in less… thanks to your friend google, you didn’t
need much help on these… rather, in a couple of days, you were ready with an
itinerary of a road trip to the desert cities of Rajasthan… its on my bucket list
too and we will definitely hit that road as soon as we can…
Another
space where you have shown extreme interest and expertise is “baking”… while we
had seen some flashes of this skill earlier, the lockdown period this year gave
you time and opportunity to indulge in it more and more…. Exchanging recipes
and ideas with friends, online baking classes, following baking hashtags and
making baker friends on Insta have all been part of this journey… while much of
this is beyond my comprehension (or even interest!), I thoroughly savor the
sweet aroma of bakes in our kitchen, and relish the delicious cakes, pastries,
crumbles, pies and all textures that come out of it… through this, you have
found a medium to express your creativity and you doing great job of it… improving
your patience, appreciating parts of a whole and enhancing the knowledge of
food science are just some added side-effects 😁
The cover you designed for Niky's book Creativity in action One of the creations
Someone asked “you want to be a baker when you grow up?” and you said “all people who make good food don’t go open restaurants.. this is just my hobby”.. a slayer you can be sometimes, but next question was “what do you want to do when you grow up?”… you tactfully dodge this question too, but I know this has been on your mind for some time now.. you have been reading about various career options (started with downloading a list of 1000+ professions !), discussing with friends and some conversations with me too… there is whole lot of confusion around you I know… you have been told that these 4-5 years will be the defining years for your career, yet some say that, whatever you do today, there is no guarantee of the future… the tricky part is the choice here will have to be completely yours, and you will be absolutely overwhelmed with the options out there…
Like you ask us if we had planned to do what we are doing today… no dear… none of us had planned so much in future (we practically cannot), we have landed up here through our multiple expeditions and that’s exactly how it will happen to you… but yes, there were formative years for us too, those which shaped our value system and set us up in a certain direction… all I can say is, for now, go by your instinct, choose a direction and work hard as you travel in that direction… don’t focus on any goal… just enjoy your journey, with its highs and lows, and the destination will happen to you… to make this journey interesting all you need to do is choose implausible routes, remain deeply passionate, keep a sophisticated sense of humour, and dance all the way… with a twinkle in your eyes and a tinkle in your voice… I am a big fan of them, and will always be..
Yours
Mumma
1 comments
Very well depicted Gauri! Happy bday to your princess!
ReplyDelete