SPIRIT OF MUMBAI

' Sujata Tawde, khaate batate vade ' (meaning: Sujata Tawde, eats batate vade) Aamen , my nephew riles me when I try to wake him up early in the morning around 12 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. I flare up all right with "How could any boy be so disrespecting to his Mawshi ?". Aamen's blunt straight forward is 'What has it got to do with disrespect?, you can retaliate me with - ' Aamen kumar, Takle pe bhar '. We the family members have always been so buddy buddy with Aamen that sometimes, well almost all the times, he stretches that buddy-bond beyond boundary. I can imagine you chuckling under the breath 'As you sow, so shall you reap'. Okay fine, we don't mind! He loves us so much that everything is fair and lovely in our relationship.  Aamen is a happy, loving, caring child who loves to play, play and play still more with his friends.  His daily diet is fortified with lots of fruits, Dal -Rice, Kellogg's Chocos and fre...

Yes,  Mouse Little  , that's what my nephew   Aamen   calls me, his   Mawshi   ( mother's sister in Marathi ).  Do I scold him.? Never. I am actually proud of that nick-name as ' Mouse Little ' is Geronimo Stilton. My nephew's favorite author and the hero of a best selling children's book series is Geronimo Stilton.  ' Buddy Parenting ' is not just a term for me, I am living it Extra Large size, since Aamen 's birth. The memory of that first time, I took Aamen in my arms is still fresh in my mind as if it happened just yesterday. He was all pink and pretty like a delicate Japanese doll with tiny-winy nose, chink eyes, chubby cheeks and ruby lips.  Aamen  could not even utter an A, but I was already reading out my page two stories to him. No wonder then, he started reading the newspaper at the ripe? age of two. So what, if he held the newspaper upside down, he could recite both career and personality ...