SAHASRA

How time flies!!! It seems like you were born just the other day. I remember holding you in my arms and thinking you were the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. You took to me immediately, and the bond that was forged that day has only grown stronger through the years. Today, you’re a teenager, you’re on the verge of blossoming into a beautiful woman, and I can’t believe that it’s been 13 years since the day you were born.

I look back at the days you spent with me as a four and five-year old – you would miss your mum at nights, but you wouldn’t shed a single tear because you had promised not to, when you cried and pleaded to come stay with me; you would beg me to carry you around the whole day, I would tell you that only little girls who were shorter than the dining table could be carried, and you would give me that sad look which made me lift you up and hold you close; you would line up the chairs on my verandah and pretend you were their teacher, and they would get a dose of your strict classroom discipline as I watched indulgently from the sidelines; you would take your plate to a corner of the room and pretend to eat with your imaginary friend Karthika, carrying on a pretend conversation with her; you would watch your Barbie Princess movie over and over again, and drive me nuts in the process; and most important of all, you would always be able to make me smile and laugh even on the darkest days.  

As the years went by, I got to do many crazy, yet fun things with you – like the time I decided to take you on an impromptu 4-day trip to Hong Kong, depending only on an on-arrival visa that we got after 4 hours in immigration, even as all around us wondered what was wrong with me to even think of such a thing. Or like the time I decided to gift you the entire set of Famous Five books for your 10th birthday, even though your mum thought I was mad to do so. Or like the many times we both have stayed up well past midnight, reading under the covers, knowing fully well your mum would yell at both of us the next day, and yet laughing about our cheekiness together. And perhaps best of all, like the times we get to discuss Harry Potter and Percy Jackson (which you made me read), since you’ve grown up to share my intense love of reading and books. Truth be told, the more time I spend with you, the more I seem to become your age, and love to do all the things I was told I couldn’t do, yet longed to do as a child, simply because I see that you enjoy doing those things as well.   

The other day, you were lying next to me in bed and mentioned casually – You’re just like me, Perima. I ruffled your hair and replied – No baby, YOU’RE just like me. And you rolled your eyes and gave me that look that all kids give adults who they think are trying to act too smart, and began to complain to your mum about how I was allowed to carry my book and read during a family function, while you were not.

It’s uncanny, but so true – you’re a mini me in most ways; you carry around a book to read all the time, just as books were my constant companions when I was younger; you finish books at the speed of light, taking me back to the days when I used to get through three books a day and still long for more; you stay up late and use a torch under the covers just to finish the last pages of an absorbing book, just as I used to lose sleep over many a thriller in my day; you write excellent essays and have begun to experiment with plays and dramas, reminding me of my days at school when my classmates used to envy my good grades in English and wait to read my essays; and weirdest of all, you too daydream of being surrounded by books of all kinds, just as that was my foremost fantasy when I was a kid – the only difference is that I used to dream of being in a room filled with books, from floor to ceiling, and being allowed to read to my heart’s content, while you fantasize about lying on a beach with all the books you want, and your iPod to keep you company as well!!

Thank you for making me the luckiest woman in the world - who else gets to take such immense pride in a daughter who’s just like her, without giving birth to her? Happy thirteenth year sweetie, here’s wishing you all the best that life has to offer, today and always!!!