A journal entry from the diary of a toddler #1

Epilogue Today I am trying to attempt something different from my usual fare. I am trying to write a journal entry from the viewpoint of my son Ethan.There are three parts to the piece today: Epilogue, Main topic and Prologue. Like the title suggests the main topic of this post is the recollection of a day by a 2 year old toddler. The other 2 parts are intended for the reader to understand the context of the piece in its entirety.It has to be noted that kids this age will try to apply linear logic to everything they come across. There are instances in the story where we can see that they tend to quickly jump to conclusions based on whatever they are observing. At that age causation is a correlation for anything and everything

A play day with Elsa My name is Ethan and I am two years old. Today I am going to tell you about a day I spent with my cousin sister Elsa who is older than me. Being a saturday my dadda has a holiday, I always look forward to this day because he does not have to work today and I get to see him more. Last week he had promised me to take Elsa's house so that I can play with her. The first thing we did today was set up a toy house for Elsa. This was gifted by her Godmother in Bombay for her birthday. I was the only one from outside with my parents present for her birthday about 2 weeks back .I have also lived in Bombay for a year when my parents were working there. Now we have come back to Kerala where both my parents grew up.

I helped dadda in unpacking the tent which was in a box. There were a good number of plastic sticks in the box. These sticks are white in colour .This is going to be the basic frame of the toy house then there are also some joints to hold this house together. Dadda starts to build the house I and Elsa are helping him out . Dadda is building the house looking at the paper that was inside the box with the sticks. He first asks Elsa to write ‘A’, ‘B’,’C’,’D’,’E’,’F’ in different sheets of paper the alphabets are very big. My mamma has taught me ‘A’ is for apple ‘B’ is for ball. ‘C’ is for my favourite cat,’D’ is for dog I am scared for dogs,’E’ is for elephant which is very big and ‘F’ is for fan.

Dadda asks me to keep these papers in different chairs. Elsa has written these letters very big. After I keep the letters on the chair dadda places the white sticks on different chairs. Some sticks are big while some sticks are small. The joints are also different 1 is red and the other is blue. Looking at the paper dadda builds the house. I get bored and go play with building blocks. We were given grapes and lime juice to drink. I like eating grapes.

Sometime later I come back and I see that only the walls of the house are built dadda is trying hard to build the roof. Dadda does not know how to build houses. He is good at computers; he spends the entire day in front of the computer when he is working. At times he is talking to someone in the computer .Dadda had been helping Elsa set up her classroom with a computer at home, she has just joined her first standard. I am also looking forward to join School. 

Dadda calls up Elsa’s dadda for help in building the roof. Renju uncle is dadda’s best friend and is very good at building houses. After talking to Renju uncle in video dadda finishes the roof. We were all very happy once the house was completed. Elsa has kept a fridge and also many other things inside her house. I don’t like going inside the tent because it is very dark. I like to sit at the door and play.

Now it is time for lunch. Usually someone helps me while I am eating. But today after seeing Elsa eat on her own I also want to eat on my own. I don’t allow Dadda to feed me but he puts some fish in my plate. I like eating fish very much. After eating rice Elsa’s grandmother gives us all ‘Payasam’. I like payasam because it is very sweet. She says she has made payasam because today is the feast of St Anthony.  

Dadda is very tired now he reads to us a story from the book we gifted Elsa for her birthday “The little mermaid”. Elsa and Dadda are asleep but I cannot sleep I miss mamma. I want to see her. I wake up dadda and we talk to mamma in video. Mamma asks me to go and sleep for sometime. We come back to sleep again. Dadda is already snoring, today he called me by the name ‘Ambrose’ who is my Godfather. The same happened with Elsa, her grandfather called her ‘Pinchu’ which is the name of her godmother. I think it is normal to call us by the name of our Godparents.

In the evening we talked to Elsa’s parents on video .After that we played ball and were very tired. As we were resting at the balcony, Elsa’s grandmother gave us milk and biscuits. I see that Elsa is dipping the biscuits in the milk and eating. I have never seen anyone doing it but seeing her I also do it. It feels really good I will do it again.

After that Elsa puts a song in dadda’s mobile and starts dancing. I also join her but I don’t know how to dance. I should tell dadda to teach me to dance. Mamma always says dadda dances well. Dadda shows me a big mango tree but there are no mangoes in it, mango is my favourite fruit.It was now time to go home. I say bye to Elsa. I am very happy today. I should tell dadda to bring me here again.

Prologue

Close to three decades back a few days after my father’s death I was slouching in the corner of a staircase. This was in a huge residence in Trivandrum,Kerala reigned over by the matriarch from my maternal side . This environment was totally new to me due to the fact that until then I had spent almost my entire life in Madhya Pradesh. Seeing my predicament my grandmother on whose name the palatial house was built sent Renju and Johnny with a glass of lime juice to me. They patted me on my shoulder and led me out of the house in midst of a lot of greenery. I can recollect this scene with great detail since it has imprinted itself strongly in my mind.The seeds to our life long friendship were sowed at that very moment. Cousins are our first best friends in our lives; it was no different for me. All 3 of us playing cricket at our grandmother’s place all day long during the summer holidays is something that all of us would cherish for the rest of our lives. Our friendship grew by leaps and bounds which ultimately blossomed during our college days. We were partners in crime for a lot of things during one of the most beautiful epochs in our lives.

Adulthood took us into varied professions and we all ended up in different countries across the world. Being based out of Bombay for quite a long time ensured that I met these folks only sparingly in our later years. Our kids have hardly met or spent time with each other all this while.Today as I was building a toy house for Elsa, I was struggling a bit. Reminiscent of our growing up years I picked up the phone and called Renju to bail me out of the situation.For the record Renju is a Mechanical engineer by profession while I work as an IT Manager. For me it was quite natural in this context to cry out for help to him when I was stuck.It is a dejavu moment for me when I see my toddler bonding with his cousin sister,without any iota of doubt I can say that the warmth and bonhomie on display is testimony to the fact that the friendship has indeed transcended generations.