Being a father for 1 year - it’s simply great. My journey from the biological father to a wholetime father has been worth pondering when I age out. Initially it was superficial but now it’s deep seated in the deepest depth of my heart. The softness of every touch heals the scratchy midnight sleeps, the lightness when I hold him soothes the heaviness of responsibilities, the worries of future are overshadowed by the everyday moments; but nothing beats the “baah baah” sound that goes around Sterling Brookside C 511 these days. Who cares if he realizes this or not, but as time is moving faster than days, it’s not long though. For long I have though my childhood days were the best days of my life, now here comes Reimaan’s childhood and it has all the ingredients to make my next life better and my most cherished and memorable one. Photos and videos can’t capture all the father-son or mother-son moments and even if we were more diligent, how could we have captured the feel.
Also worth noticing is how Taan have grown as the big brother. Ghonto and Ghoncha will miss each other’s company as Ghonto learns to walk as Ghoncha is moving to US. The little Taan who says he wants to eat “car”, “bus”, “parking lot”, “sofa” wants Reimaan to eat “milk”, “cerelac” and “chips” only. He notices and wipes Reimaan mouth during feeds. He gets down from the slides or the swing to have a walk with Reimaan and Biku. Let’s see how much technology will help them in bridging the distance.
As parents our only worry is how Reimaan is shaping up literally. His lack of weight is a big concern for Tumpi, so much so that I am also worried a bit now. It worries me more as I am putting on when my son should have. This is going to lead to a scenario of Sunday evening in 2030 where Reimaan has stepped out of home and I am watching TV and Tumpi is very tense. Tense why? Fathers can’t probably understand how Mothers feel.
Life in and around Reimaan is fun for me as he is a stress-buster and pretty much same for Tumpi. However, for Reimaan, a sight of “baah baah” means playtime and “maam maah” could be anything from playing, biting, climbing, listening to rhymes to battling for the last spoon of rice. He doesn’t like to eat or sleep and wants to play 24x7. Even at 2am in the night, I am scared that if he sees me, he would give me a smile and sit-up.
Now as Reimaan completes a Year, I find myself being very lucky to have a wife like Tumpi. She is wholly and fully dedicated to Reimaan (like any mother, true, but) so much so that she doesn’t mind putting her Oracle work at stake. Never have I been asked to wake up in the night and never has a meeting interfared with Reimaan’s needs. It amazed Maa also the amount of chirping she does with Reimaan, the whole day. My silent wife has become a very talkative Mom. And there lies the trick as to how Reimaan’s vocabulary is increased and memory hardened.
Along the 12 months, we have been blessed with a great family as someone or the other either from my side or Tumpi’s have been part of this journey. Pushpadi taught him spot birds or “paakhi”; I will carry this forward when he grows up. Thaai and Dadus have looked after him when we were not around and were more concerned than us for most times.
More fabulous times lies ahead as he steps into new times. He is now able to stand for some seconds without supports, walks with support; crawls; sits unmoved while being pushed in his cycle and makes many sounds. The coming months and years will see the directionless crawling change to walking, to running to we running after him; the sounds change to the shape of words, to meaningful words, to sentences and finally we answering all WH questions; and lastly the tri-cycle being pushed to we running after his cycle.
