My son Mir

Mir turned 6 on July 29th 2009. This awareness transports me six years back in time when he was born. I am once again caught between time's perfidious ways on the one hand, and its great boon - the allowance to us sentient beings to live together and laugh and cry and share over a period of years... In order for it to be that kind, time has to be that much severe, uncompromising; in its treacherousness unreliable perhaps. Or perhaps?

And thank god we have memory. Thank Him for we can recall moments lived long ago!

We, Paula and I, were aware of Mir's presence in our midst even before he actually came. Paula would 'talk' to him, read to him...we would feel him moving in her belly; he was strong in his foetus stage. He was a strong baby, and now a boy. So soon!

He was a beautiful baby. At 3 months and a little more, he laughed hilariously at Gino's tambourine. I thought that was early for a distinct response from a baby. And then, at 4 months he laughed and laughed at Christina's puppetry show. So much did Mir laugh that all the children in the audience were amused more by him than the puppet show. Then Paula and Mir went to Canada for three months. They returned when Mir was 8 moths old. And soon he started walking, then talking, then running and before long he started school! Now he asks difficult questions. Difficult because they are direct, simple questions. There is no fear in them. They are Nachiketas-like candid and sun-kissed questions. He asks me questions which put me in my place. It is difficult to admit your human-ness before your child, I suppose, but I have realized that its admission puts you at par with another human being and you are equals. It is not father and son anymore but two human beings face to face with each other in a beautifully enriching relationship.

And I realise that as a part of his growth, Mir may fall. My duty is not to prevent him from falling, but to encourage him to rise up and try again.

Oh! life is so much more beautiful with Mir in it. Perhaps it is because he is a point in my life where I can love unconditionally.