Skip to main content

Growing up

A few days back I was going through old photos of my daughter. How cute and chubby she looked when she was a toddler! And how sweet with two front teeth missing, as a six year old. And look how tall she had grown when she was nine!

Old photographs give us a glimpse into the moments lost to us in time. They make us relive those times by transporting us to that period. We can almost feel what we felt at that time.

Coming back to the passage of time, and how my child has grown up, there have been some noticeable changes over the years, though they happened slowly.

For eg.,in the things that are now passe, like:


  • A switch from Disney and Cartoon Network channel shows to Colors and Sony Pal channels
  • Graduating from reading fairy tales to Famous Five and Sherlock Homes 
  • Tape frocks - out, pyjamas, t-shirt - in
  • Frilly party frocks - out, jeans/palazzos, top - in
  • Playing with dolls has been replaced with gossiping with the girl gang on phone
  • Flipping through fashion, movies and lifestyle sections of dailies has now replaced browsing through cartoon sections

Yes, my little girl has grown up and is a young lady now. The only thing that has not changed, and hopefully never will, is the light that shines in her eyes - the light of innocent hope and love. The pure love she has for all creatures, the genuine concern for all, the delight in things, I hope that will not change or fade as she grows older.

   

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Enough! No more rape!

The recent horrifying, stomach-churning incident in Kolkata is not a one-time aberration. It keeps occuring in our country. And we women are also responsible for this stinking rot in society. Ask yourself these uncomfortable questions. How many of you protest when a girl wearing "revealing clothes" is cat-called?  Did you show your support for our wrestlers protesting against a habitual offender? Did your blood boil when you saw pictures of our sisters in Manipur paraded naked?  When rapists are released from prison or routinely escape punishment, do you raise your voice? How many of you have tolerated violence or even casual sexism in your own home? Do you turn the other way when transgenders are leered at? Do you grin and bear it when the men in your family crack obscene jokes? Do Kathua and Hathras ring a bell? And lastly, how many of you thronged cinema halls to make misogynistic horrors like Animal and Kabir Singh blockbusters? I have asked myself and am distinctly feeli...

All We Imagine as Light- Lyricism on Celluloid

When an Indian film makes it the prestigious Cannes film festival, the world sits up and takes notice! And the lovely ladies swinging on the stage is a recent memory that brings a sense of pride. I had the good fortune to catch this film on screen recently. A review of such work is unnecessary, but still am bursting to say a few words. Right from the scintillating background score, to the events that unfold like pages fluttering in an open book, to the effortless performances, it's a masterpiece all right! The first half romances Mumbai- in the rains, at night, in the bazaars, in dingy rooms, in the local trains. Image source: Wikipedia  The second half shows what light truly is, brilliant sunshine, crashing waves and salty air in a small coastal village in Maharashtra. You can feel the taste of salt, the breeze in your hair and the touch of sand under your feet, the cinematography is so real. Payal Kapadia masters the art of holding back, of showing beauty in the mundane. The hosp...

All Work and No Life - Off Runs the Wife!

The recent ramblings of some elderly gentlemen (one a company founder, another a CEO) on how much we many hours we should be working, are symptomatic of all that is kaput with corporate India. The reason we have so few cases of innovators and path-breakers. The reason why Nadella and Pichai shine overseas. The reason start-ups and entrepreneurial attempts fail faster than you can say 1,2,3. These guys have got all the mathematics wrong!  Machismo and Hot Air I find these announcements to be glaring examples of the inherent tendencies of machismo, bullying, slavery, high-handedness privileged males in our country are used to.  At home, when raja beta works, rest of the family keeps quiet. When he needs food, wifey supplies it. Shhh, raja beta is sleeping, don't make noise. Don't irritate him, get him a cup of hot tea/coffee, quick, he's tired from working all day. You get the drift? The whole ecosystem in the workplace is designed to reward the raja beta slaving away rather ...