It was a few years ago, when Disha was in her testing three or fighting four (years of age). Since she was going to day care, and also as there was no escape from getting sucked into the commercial aspects of the Holiday Season, we had decided to follow the gift giving tradition. We had kept a small, artificial tree, and a lot of neatly wrapped gifts, just like in one of those Home Alone movies but on a much, much smaller scale. Growing up in a small town in India, my memories of this season have been quite different: Group of people marching on the streets very early in the morning, chanting prayers or songs, carrying small stars made with sticks and color paper, carrying candles to churches, people hanging stars in front of their houses, etc. These celebrations looked and felt peaceful all the time, without a hint of any kind of stress. So, it was Christmas Eve, we were arranging a table in front of the fireplace for Santa. Disha wanted to keep cookies and milk so that Santa could recharge himself after leaving the gifts for her and moving on to the next house. After all, he has to climb up and down the chimneys of a billion+ houses, around the globe. It is not a small task for the big man, right? You and I pretty much know who the Santa is in every house. Right after Disha fell asleep I would sneak into the living room, drink some milk from Santas cup, eat half a cookie, move the table a little, leave foot print, etc. Anyway, when we were arranging the able, all of a sudden Disha got this doubt: Dad, who is Santas wife? It was probably because of the influence of her favorite bed time story – Ramayana. I got to pat myself on the back. It is Ramayana, of course, never ends, but I also deliberately kept it longer so that she would ask me to tell her again the next night. Either I would fall asleep, as it happened on many nights or, if I were lucky, she would fall asleep listening to the story. My version of Ramayana always began something on the lines there was a king named Dasharatha, he had 3 wives and 4 boys… Not only this, any other Amarchitra Katha I read to her always had a wife character in it. So, it was quite natural for her to ask this question. The only problem was, and still is, I do not know the answer. However, I had read enough Parenting magazines by then and had learnt a trick or two; threw the question right back at her – Well, sweetheart, who do YOU think is his wife? Without blinking her eyes, with the innocent smile that you can see only in that age, she said Shanti Clause. Have a Happy Christmas & Wonderful Holidays.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 18:14:24 +0000
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