Daddy, Mummy and Baby

Daddy and Mummy had planned on seeing a movie together after many months. They had however reckoned without three year old baby. Baby who normally loved to sleep with grandfather and grandmother decided inexplicably that they were not congenial company. He was immune to any blandishments offered to him in the form of his favourite sweets and biscuits.

He realized with his child’s intuition that Mummy and Daddy were going out. He wanted a slice of the action. He made his views quite clear and chose the child’s way of expressing himself- he simply hollered at the top of his voice. Daddy’s fervent pleas that he wanted to go to work and Mummy’s assurances that she would be quickly back from the market fell on deaf ears. Daddy grew increasingly angry and Mummy increasingly upset. Baby responded by raising the decibel level. Daddy was worried that the tickets that had been purchased at a popular Mulitplex for a fancy price would go waste. Mummy worried about leaving a crying child at home. Further, how would the child react even if he was taken to the theatre ? Baby eventually won the standoff and he was taken to the movie.

The humour of the situation was not lost on Mummy and Daddy. Sheer, childish stubbornness had won the day. The best laid plans of mice and men had taken a backseat. At the theatre, Daddy tried to catch up on the movie while baby busied himself with popcorn. Mummy, alternated between watching the movie and keeping an eye on the baby as he was prone to go for walks. Finally, the picture came to an end. Mummy and Daddy agreed that one had to be extraordinarily unfortunate to watch a movie like “Bad Luck Govind”. Baby had really had the best of both worlds-he had come to the movie but had not really understood whatever little he watched. Daddy and Mummy agreed from now on baby would figure in all their movie outings for however bad the movie, baby could be relied upon to provide the fun.

Friends, this is the story of myself, my wife Vidya and son Sanjiv. It happened yesterday and it could have happened in a lot of families. No doubt it has happened before and will happen again for children like history repeat themselves.