Parenting Woes

They say that becoming a mother is one of the most blissful event in a woman's life. From my personal experience, I would surely agree to it. It was one of the most joyous and beautiful experience when I held my son, Aditya, in my arms for the first time. That day, I made a secret promise to myself that come what may, I'll strive hard to ensure that Adi enjoys all that life has in store for him. However, it never ever crossed my mind that parenting can be very challenging. So far, I've managed to stick to my promise; however it has not been a cakewalk either.

To cite a recent example, Adi's school announced a fancy dress competition. The school decided to have no mercy on parents and hence made the competition compulsory. When I read the competition notification that the school had circulated, I was shocked. The circular clearly stated that the theme of the competition is "Vegetables". Reading that line gave me a feeling that my life is jinxed. Everything in my life seemed to revolve around vegetables. For example, an earnest non-vegetarian like me happened to fall in love with a hard-core vegetarian. And now this competition was all set to add to my miseries. Anyways, it was Adi's suggestion only that he would like to become a Brinjal. I was impressed with the three-year old's enthusiasm and thinking ability. But the actual challenge for me was to design a costume. After a day's long consultation with my family members and research on the internet during office hours, I managed to find a very beautiful costume design.

That evening after office, I shopped for all the required materials. However, after an exhausting day at work, I decided to make the costume the next day. But my three year old brat had no patience and insisted that I make the costume immediately. Seeing the excitement in his eyes, I had no courage to disappoint him. Finally, after three hours of toiling and sacrificing my dinner, I managed to make a costume which was truly a masterpiece. It took me a while to believe that I had actually made it.

However, the challenge was not over yet. I had to write a limerick on brinjal. For this task, I wanted to have an easy way out. Also, I didn't want the technical writer within me to rack her brains on writing something from scratch. So, I decided to plagiarize a limerick on brinjal from the internet. I tried to be creative though and deleted a few lines from the original limerick.

Here's the edited version:

"I am a brinjal,
Green and purle,
I am very tasty
Healthy and strong,
If you'll eat me
You will live long"

Although not very impressive, I am happy because my little one is happy. Hoping that the competition goes well on Friday, I am all excited and looking forward to it.

Note: This article was written on 12th March, 2010.