Girl with Balloons

Girl with the balloons by #Mishti :)

Fan chala do

21Aug 2020

Me - Mishti fan chalaa do

Mishti - "Fan chalo"... Mumma I told it, nahi chal raha.. hi hi hi.. bolo fan ka button on kar do..

Diwali

Covid 19 The New Normal

29 Nov 2020

Mishti's Diwali Holidays ended last week. I allowed her to go down to play with two of her friends. The girls wore masks, gloves and carried a small bottle of sanitizer with them. 

Every morning Mishti would wake up, eat her breakfast, get ready and call her friend. I loved watching them playing, running and chatting nonstop after so long.

But the cases soon rose and we had to held her back at home again.

I asked her, 'Why don't you finish your holiday homework :)'.

She took her stuff to the bedroom, but did not start with her task. I asked her if she did not want to do it now?

She was about to cry. Said, "It's the topic... I really don't like it."

The topic was 'Covid19 The New Normal'.

"It feels like ...it will never go. Is this how we will have to stay forever?"

I could feel the fear..the pain..

The next half an hour, Adi and I told her about the past pandemics. About how they were worse and still ended. About how those times were even more difficult with lesser medical facilities and amenities and yet there was a way out. We gave her hope that if the world could come out of Spanish flu, it can definitely come out of this.

At the end of the conversation she was convinced that Covid19 is never going to be the new normal and she wrote this -

Covid-19 The new normal?

No, never! Though covid-19 has been there for about a year and it might seem like this is the first pandemic, it is not. There have been longer and more dangerous pandemics before. One example is the influenza virus or Spanish flu. This pandemic started in 1918, since there weren’t many scientists or doctors that time, it was hard to develop a vaccine. Spanish flu mostly affected young people and more soldiers were dying due to Spanish flu compared to the soldiers dying at the war. This pandemic ended in 1940.

Even though this pandemic was very dangerous, it ended. And, I believe that if Spanish flu ended even though there were very few doctors and scientists, this pandemic will definitely end soon. Till then people around the world are taking precautions. Even I took precautions like

 ~ Wearing a mask 

 ~  Washing my hands from time to time

 ~ Follow social distancing

 ~ Not going out as much as possible

 ~ Celebrating festivals at home

And if the school reopens, I will take all the precautions.

I believe that Covid-19 is never going to be the new normal, because this pandemic will end like every other pandemic did.  However, this is just my way of seeing it , it’s just my perspective. So, I ask again -

“Is Covid-19 the new normal?”

 

Milk

Me - Mishti have some milk

Mishti - No..I don't like milk Mamma

Me - what happened to you? You liked milk so much when you were small

Mishti - I had milk teeth then na... Now I have permanent teeth...hi hi hi hi

Me - Kids these days....phewww

Names of Authors

Mishti looking at my new book...

Mishti - 'Prem kabootar' - 'Manav Kaul'
Who is Manav Kaul?

Me - Author of this book

Mishti - But I never heard of this author

Me - There are so many authors. How many do you know?

Mishti - Rabindranath Tagore... J.K Rowling.... Ummmm.... Sudha Murthy... and .... (With a joy in her voice) Manabi Katoch :D

A proud moment for a mother :)

एकला चोलो रे....

दुर्गा अष्टमी की संध्या थी... मेरे अंदर का बंगालीपन अचानक जाग उठा और मैं गाने लगी...

"जोदी तोर डाक शुने केयू ना आशे तोबे एकला चोलो रे...."
एक दो लाइने गाने के बाद मिष्टी भी साथ हो ली और हम दोनों संग संग गाने लगे...

" जोदी केयू कोथा ना कोये....ओरे ओरे ओ ओभागा केयू कोथा ना कोये....जोदी शोबाई थाके मूक फिराये शोबाई कोरे भोये..."

गाना खत्म होते ही मिष्टी के चेहरे पर एक हल्की सी मुस्कान थी...
मैने उसे बताया कि ये रबिन्द्रनाथ टेगोर का लिखा हुआ गाना है।

मिष्टी ने तुरंत पूछा - "क्या मतलब है इसका?"

मैंने बताया - " इसका मतलब है कि अगर तुम्हारे बुलाने पे कोई न आये तो तुम अकेले चलो।"

मिष्टी - "ऐसा क्यों कहा रबिन्द्रनाथ टेगोर ने?

मैंने थोड़ा इतिहास समझाया और कहा कि ये आज़ादी की लड़ाई के दौरान लिखा हुआ गाना है। शायद वो कहना चाहते थे कि इस लड़ाई में कोई अगर तुम्हारा साथ न भी दे तो तुम अकेले ये लड़ाई लड़ो।

मिष्टी - पर वो तो राइटर थे...लड़ाई तो नही करते थे।

मैं - हाँ पर हो सकता है, ये उन्होंने आज़ादी की लड़ाई लड़ने वालों को सोच कर लिखा हो।

मिष्टी - (बिल्कुल तपाक से) मम्मा ये भी तो हो सकता है कि वो अकेले ही लिखते थे ना...

मैं - हाँ...

मिष्टी - तो उन्होंने किसीको लिखने के लिए बुलाया हो और वो नही आये तो वो अकेले ही लिखते रहे।

मैं - हाँ बेटू..ऐसा तो हमने कभी सोचा ही नही...ऐसा हो सकता है।

मुझे अपनी बात मानते देख मिष्टी खुश हो गयी और फिर से अपने खेल में मस्त हो गयी।

सच है! शायद रबिन्द्रनाथ ने इस बात की कभी परवाह नही की, कि कोई उनकी तरह लिख रहा है या नही...उन्हें जो कहना था...जो लिखना था ...वो अकेले ही लिखते चले गए... शायद तभी वो राबिंद्रनाथ बन पाए!
लेखक या कवि यदि इस भय से लिखने लगे कि उनके साथ कोई है या नही तो शायद फिर कभी कोई भी लेखक या कवि रबिन्द्रनाथ नही बन पाएगा!