All those months of living with adults are beginning to take their toll on me. The normally fearless, unabashedly self-centric, smiling-at-everything guy otherwise known as me is beginning to show some of the (gasp!) more mundane emotions. Here are some of the more alarming ones -

1. Fear

I have begun to get afraid of being left alone. I've concluded that the world is a bad enough place that I need to check in with Mummy-Papa every so often. Same goes for unfamiliar faces. Of course, I make an exception for the fairer sex, who are assured a smile!

2. Pride and the hurting of it

Coupled with this, I have begun to understand that 'NO' spoken in stern words usualy portends some bad things to come. Thankfully, a burst of crying makes Papa-Mummy relent pretty quick.

3. Empathy

It's scary enough that I never see the grownups get any bottles or get picked up, hugged and coddled. Seeing them cry spills the cup over and makes me cry too. Poor un-babies!

4. Sadistic glee

Ok, this is not the most mundane of emotions, but this photo kind of gives it away, doesn't it?

Not that I'm the only culprit of this emotion. Papa-Mummy have been known to scold or scare me into crying because I "look cute when crying".

5. Revenge

Not all adult emotions are without their uses. For instance, there's the sweet joy of revenge. Especially when wreaked on Papa.

Don't mess with the little one!

Cutlery fascinates me, and since the dishwasher is the only place I can reach them, I can often be found hanging around the place. Usually the end result is a quick admonition from Papa-Mummy and being scooted away in a hurry. But today Mummy was tied up in cooking, and Papa was busy elsewhere, so when nobody seemed to care for my shouting, with a little bit of help from the frame I stood up and wrangled a spoon out. Sweeet! Not bad for standing up the first time.



It was not so sweet to realize that without Papa-Mummy to back me up, getting down from my standing position was a somewhat scary proposition. Fortunately, this time my crying dragged them away from behind the camera.

Today was my first-ever raksha-bandhan - and I had sisters around to adorn my tiny hands. Vandana and Vinita Bua and Vicky Chacha had come over today for a visit. Shefali didi and Anu didi tied rakhis on my wrist. It was all fine, except the kurta itched.

Later that evening we went to Namita Bua's place for Vartika didi's birthday. Me and Vatsal bhaiya had a good chat, while everyone else, not so well-versed in babyspeak, wondered what we were talking about.



I'm throwing in a family photo for the day.