Letter to Aindri on her 4th birthday

Darling Chimpu,

First things first, I love you the most!

Am happy that you too have been saying 'i love you' a lot of late.

The year 2018 in which you transitioned from your 3rd to 4th year was a very tough one. Very could as well be an understatement.

Early in the year your maternal grandfather, Nanu, fell ill and then very ill with an excruciating treatment regime. When you grow up you will understand what this thing called cancer is. Your mother was down with back pain in the first half of the year. You will learn later what slip disc is. And then, you my child, were also not well on two occasions this last year. Very soon, we will explain you about this thing called epilepsy.

While these things preoccupied all of us for the greater part of the year, it is not these matters of ill health that remain as highlights in our life. It is rather the grit shown at the face of these eventualities that mark the character of human beings. And grit shown was aplenty.

Nanu fought well and fought brave and has been winning battles.You have seen and are seeing how near normal he is with you. Decades of discipline has helped him in this course. I hope you imbibe that quality of his, a hallmark of great individuals. Your mother started exercising, all by herself and at home and which has helped her fix this back issue to a very large extent. Steadfastness and the headstrong attitude if you can learn from her will help you go a long way. And you, in your capacity, have been so cooperative amidst all these hardships that we could not have asked for more.

We did manage to sneak a Goa trip, two trips to Odisha and a few trips to Bangalore this year. Though we would have wanted to take you to more places, but the year was not particularly helpful. The way you enjoy Goa, possibly because that is one place you have already been thrice in 4 years of your life, makes me wonder if a long term goal in life should be to buy a property there.

A lot is happening in the world to which you are oblivious at this age, but when you grow up and are ever interested in history and/or politics, which i secretly hope you do, you will see back in time that the world was getting embroiled in narrow nationalism, climate change becoming more visible and threatening, rise in protectionism, changing global order, etc. At the same time the advancement of humankind in terms of science and technology is set at a fast pace with machine learning, artificial intelligence being set to transform the way things have been done until now. Forget the world, as of now, more about you..

Remarkably, you went to school in 2018. Nursery in Madhav Kripa School, Manipal, has been an important landmark. When you won 1st prize in singing, which you really do have a penchant for, and 2nd prize in dancing, you made us very happy. Please remember, we would be equally happy had you not won anything. When we watched you dance in your annual day we teared up. Surprisingly and very impressively you have taken to identifying cars as they move on road very well. You identify models and makes with ease and this has surprised people to no end.

So, we celebrated your birthday with our 'regular' fried circle of nearly 40 people coming home, your mother baking a Spongebob cake, which you demanded and you getting loads of gift which worryingly includes 8 new clothes (how many can you have!?). Hope you enjoyed it and will remember it for some time to come.

Wish you a great year ahead, filled importantly with good health and peace.

Love

Papa

PS: IF you notice in the last year I have written only 2 posts in my blog, (i have been writing more for popular press) one being a letter on your 3rd birthday. This year i plan to write more here including things that you might like reading later.