Vedantika and her Silly'ed Papa

Vedantika is growing fast, and seriously we cannot keep pace with her growing. Specially, a dumb like me.

That day, when I called her after reaching home – her first question was polite but firm. “Are you at home, papa? Can I video call you?”

It took some good moments to precipitate her query into my crampy brain cells. She was of three years old, and she was seeking my permission for video call. It’s so odd that it’s kind of abusive to my understanding of my society and upbringing, where nobody cares for a permission. My avoidable defensive instinct instantly turned cautious - what was happening? Is she growing into something peculiar – something different?

Other day, she told me that she missed me. She was with her favorite doll – a small stuffed animal DIY’ed by her mother from an old sock. We role-played a little through grainy video screen – I became the doctor and she was the worried caring mother for her little baby.

I retorted that I missed her so much, and that I wanted to kiss and hug her. She looked at me as if she heard and understood clearly, and told, “When you’ll come to my house papa, you can hug and kiss me. Okay?”

I was okayed. But I wanted to keep her talking – oh God! Just listening her was so very soothing. I teased. “Why not now? I want to hug you now.”

She was spontaneous and brutal. “I can’t. If I go inside and come to your house, mama’s phone will be broken! You, silly papa.”

That’s it. Officially I was stunned.

Don’t blame me. See, I live in a society or in such kind of a strata, where everything is taken for granted and irrationality is worshipped. A mere permission is considered just a waste of time, an act of weakness and logic is just a tool for stupid and ignorant.

But maybe it’s what a contemporary child does. As she sees this world, with a lens of curiosity and reasoned understanding as per known facts, Vedantika maybe is just conforming with those kids. But I, as a child didn’t do that. Never. And I can’t remember anyone in my circle of acquaintances doing that. I belonged to that childhood, which was consisted of pure instinctive acts and crazy ridiculous spur-of-the-moment games.

What’s happening? Is she maturing too fast than she’s supposed to? Is it good for her? I read that a child starts imitating adults only after two years of age, and she develops an ego which generally centers around her. Only after five, she shows appetite for learning rules, and that’s the reason why most schools set the lower age-bar for fresh students as five. Then why is she learning to scare the shit out of me?

Yes, it’s goddamn scary. And no, I am not frightened for her. I am terrified for us, specially me.

See, I have been average all the time. All through my life, I can’t even show a single achievement which showcases my brilliancy. Even my marriage happened only because Taniya pushed for it. And being an appropriate father of two contemporary children, staying always one-step ahead of them, teaching them something I never ever heard of, playing games which are tougher than those impossible math problems of eighth grade, and most of all being ‘silly-ed’ everytime, are no easy task. I know, storm is ahead, and we’re just two zombies walking right into it.

But sometimes, some golden moments appear, where she behaves just like a normal three-year-old kid, which I long to see.

On the first day of this year, as we were chatting on video, I wished her. “Happy new year Vedantika”.

She was prompt as always. “Happy birthday papa”.

And we spent next fifteen minutes intensely arguing that it’s a happy new year, not a happy birthday. She was of the view that if it’s happy, then it must be a birthday.   

Oh boy! That was fun.