Ploughing Through Rich Fields

A journey through Marathalli at 10 a.m. is the closest you can get to hell. If you can pass the 100-m stretch within an hour, you can consider yourself to be lucky. Today, I and Ranji decided to try our luck and found it to be not too bad.

My cousin resides in the Vanshee Rich Fields at Marathalli, and it had been ages since we had visited her. In fact, both the families tend to visit each other when either of our parents are in town (my father happens to be the younger brother of hers). Blame it on the present-day lifestyle with more stress on work and career than on anything. It is funny how we tend to have friends mostly from our offices and that we tend to spend time with the same set of people both at and outside work.

As mentioned, her parents were in town visiting, and we went there. Their daughter, who is 2 years old now, has this usual routine whenever she sees us. It starts off with hiding behind her mother, my cousin, and then she starts crying. At this point, we have to dish out our mobile phones and keep it at a safe distance from us. Then, she would slowly peep out between her crying and then slowly take a few tentative steps towards the mobile. If we attempt to grab her, she would rush back and continue with the same routine, but if we allow her to take it, we are friends from the next moment on. I don't know whether she follows this routine to get hold of our mobiles or not, but it is rather amazing that we go through these same motions each time we meet.

Once a friend, there is no stopping the little one. Today, she had spread out a few toys and a couple of her books. She was quick to climb all over me in the eagerness to show her new kitchen set. I was made to drink liters and liters of soups and forced to eat loads of toasted bread. The plastic bread was near its breaking point after repeatedly popping out of the toaster. The bottomline was that she was just enjoying herself.

My cousin then treated us to what she called as snack and what was equivalent to a meal for me and Ranji. We aren't good eaters at best of times, and after being force-fed for a month thanks to Ranji's mom's presence, we are trying hard to get back in shape. So, on top of the breakfast that we had, we were given a whole lot of things ranging from jellies to cakes to potato chips to rosogollas, paayasam, and juice. As we were eating this, the little one forced me to take her into my lap. She then proceeded to taste every item in my plate before returning the saliva-filled variant back. I just loved it. She knew she couldn't have her way with her mother, so she kept staying close to me and ask me for the various food items. It is amazing how kids catch on to these things. They seem to know how to get things done so very quickly.

I don't know whether it is stemming from the fact that we still don't have a child of our own or from an inherent love towards children, but both I and Ranji just love spending time with kids. It is so thrilling to see the various stages of their growth, how they pick up things, how they utter their first words, how they form thoughts and sentences, etc. Also, after watching Look Who's Talking, we really wonder what the kids must be feeling seeing us making faces at them, at our various attempts to keep them engaged.

An hour passed by so very quickly that we didn't realize it. Since we also had to go to offices, we reluctantly wound up our visit. After the harvest at Rich Fields, it was time for us to head back home and from there office. We had to compensate precious hours from our sleep for the visit, but I have to say the child more than compensated for them.