Vihaan—The Dawn of My Life!

...

...or wait, should it read as The ‘Don’ of My Life? On second thoughts (actually third thoughts, since I just had a second thought a millisecond before) it doesn’t quite make a difference. You see, he is the ‘dawn’ and the ‘don’ both rolled it one.

Wondering who exactly I am talking about?

(Drums rolling, curtains lifting, the bugle hooting aloud)

For those of you who don’t know, may I have the honor of presenting my little nephew Vihaan who is the only child of my brother Vivek and bhabhi Laxmi, and the quintessential ‘chiraag’ of our family! (Literally translated, in Hindi ‘chiraag’ means a ‘lamp’ and ‘Vihaan’ means ‘dawn’ so my analogy isn’t too bad considering we are mainly talking about some form of light here :P)

Adorable isn't he??? Oh yes, when he was a baby he had that much hair!!??!! Unfortunately, he doesn't look as cute as that now with all those lovely curly locks of hair gone; this one's an old picture but one of my favorites. These days he likes to be called a "biggg boy"—tell him "Vihaan is a baby" and he'll go "No, Vihaan is a biggg boy." And rightly so, for he's nearly two years old—oh yes, his second birthday is coming up in exactly a month’s time now (18th March). And true to the meaning of his name Vihaan he has heralded a new dawn, a new beginning in all our lives; of course I am speaking for his parents but in no lesser way also for my parents and me. He is my grandfather’s first great-grandson and my father’s only grandson! Obviously my mother’s too...hee haw...

At present, my immediate family is all together here at Austin, TX (gosh, how time flies..cannot believe it is almost time to pack my bags for India) and having a wholesome ‘family time.’ It is another story that all our ‘time’ revolves around this piece of live wire called Vihaan. Yes, I called him just that—live wire. If you didn’t know any better, he is akin to a 440 volt electric wire, so when you are around him you had better “Mind it” as our Mr. Quickgun Murugan famously says. And I am warning you enough, yeh jhatka zor se hi lagta hai (ha ha, not like the Mirinda “zor ka jhatka dheere se lagey”). Spend an hour with my innocent-faced boy here and you will not know what in this world hit you!!

Chomping on a mango! See those innocent eyes?

He is a spirited little toddler (that is, putting it very mildly) 3 feet tall, with his little head barely reaching my waistline. But trust me, sometimes he gives me the feeling that one of these days he will reach up to my shoulder. That’s because he is bouncing up high ALL the time and his springiness makes my head go in a spin. Now, please do NOT undermine that capitalized word ALL—I mean ALL the time and hence the emphasis. And if his jumping wasn’t already enough, his daddy dearest got him a little trampoline so that he can jump as much as he wants. The end result—nowadays you will never find him walking on his two little feet; in all this while I have been here I am yet to see the miracle of him ‘walking’ around the house. I hope you can visualize the picture that I am trying to paint, one of him jumping, prancing, hopping, running or skipping around us in joy and gaiety, typical of his childhood innocence. Watching him thus frolicking around reminds me of what my tauji (‘uncle’ in Hindi) used to say about me as a child—he would go “This girl can never walk demurely because it takes an effort for her to walk without dancing or hopping.” My heart swells with pride at every comparison that others draw between him and me and I cannot help feeling smug—out of nowhere I suddenly find myself sitting with a silly look on my face, smiling softly when I recollect tit-bits from my childhood and see Vihaan enacting my kiddies days to the T, complete with my eccentric childhood behaviors if I may admit so. But let’s not get into the details of these oddities that he and I share because if I begin to enlist our commonalities here, it will eat up this entire post (yes, you read me right—I do not want to talk of my eccentricities so much as I want to bring Vihaan to you). So let’s keep it to that—that Vihaan and I share a lot in common. Wait, let me correct that—that Vihaan and me as a child share a lot in common (I no longer behave as a 2-year-old!). You bet it tickles me pink to see him grow up into a fine little kiddo, just like his bua (that’s me alright, ‘aunt’ in Hindi)! Pompous and vain, ain’t I? But then wasn’t it R. L. Stevenson who said “Vanity dies hard; in some obstinate cases it outlives the man.” So I am vain and so be it.

(Jeez, was I just talking about myself againnn? Really, I don’t know how I land up talking of myself) Nonetheless coming back to Vihaan, my parents and I are often amused to see how his ‘battery’ never dies out because although he looks like a lanky little fellow, my bubbly baby boy has so much energy packed in him that we are zimbly exhausted by watching him! He is forever in the “action mode” and always so merrily hopping around, doing something or the other, singing some poem or the other, that it is pure joy to watch him (well, ‘joy’ only if you do not have to make him Eat, Sleep or Drink. If you are responsible for his meals and naps, believe me ‘joy’ easily turns into ‘terror’! If it is your job to make him do ANY such activity that requires him to Sit, Slow down and Cool off, trust me you have had it! That's where the 'Don' part of my introduction fits in—he is a pure-blood firebrand with a mind of his own and a tough cookie to crack). So whenever someone says “Oh, he is only a hyper-active kid,” I say “You are kidding me! That has got to be the understatement of this century!” If any of you reading this are also getting the impression that he is only a hyper-active kid let’s see if I can describe him any better for your benefit. Hmmm...I’d say he is animated, bouncy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (O.K. the tail part is not to be taken literally) cheery, chirpy, gay (no no, not the ‘gay’ you are thinking) gleeful, peppy, poppy, perky, springy (yep, I checked his feet: he’s got spring under his soles), sprightly, sunny (his name has something to do with ‘sun rays’ remember?), zappy, zingy, zippy, winged (I believe he could almost fly if he tried enough) and whew!—all of this and MORE! I am out of breath already, only writing about him! Imagine what it must take of me to play (read: run) with him for 30 minutes! Old age, old age (grumble, grumble)

So I’ll stop here to catch my breath and be back with more of Vihaan in my upcoming posts. So long then, you can see some of his pictures and savor your first meeting with this zesty little nephew of mine!

Little champ goes swimming!

He's wearing all those rakhis that his doting buas sent for him..I sent him that outfit too! Doesn't he look like a smartie?

Marwari seth is on a roll-literally! Donning a Rajasthani attire and scooting off on his little scooter... :)

No no, that isn't a sweet little girl..It's a sweet little boy!

I told you he could almost fly if he tried..Winged on an aeroplane :)

As a Sleeping Beauty, a rarity that he is!

With Daddy...:)

Mini-Santa spreading the joy of the season with Mummy!

Doodh doodh doodh doodh doodh, piyo jar full!

My favorite fun times with Vihaan are when we sing nursery rhymes together (yep, that’s what I Google these days, nursery rhymes and songs for kids. Lately I have learned so many of them that if any of you need help with those, you know who to ask now!)

Fittingly I end this post with one of our sing-a-longs which ‘fits’ Vihaan well...

For he's a jolly good fellow,

For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow,

Which nobody can deny.

For he's a jolly good fellow,

For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow,

And so say all of us.

(After reading about him, don’t you say so too?)

:D