Monday, January 3, 2011

There is Something About Baby

There is something about a baby, that angelic rascal whose sight can make the most staunchest of hearts melt. They eat a lot, crap a lot, leak unannounced and cannot speak their baby-dialect without forming a froth of bubble and spit all over their mouth. They cry out loud, they cry out without shedding tears, they wake up at odd hours with a shrill cry, and the most scariest of all their traits is that they know no fear. They are the most easiest to please, they have no demands except they need to be fed on time. They are easily entertained- all you have to do is take them in your arms and sway them from left to right, up and down. It is their very presence, the need to please them that makes matured and sane men and women act crazy as they contort their face in different shapes making sounds which one could never imagine be created from the voice box all with a hope of seeing the apple of their eye flash a toothless grin.

The "Awww-so-cute!" Factor

They are great chick magnets, which woman would not want a man who is good with kids? It is a tried and tested formula where once you upload a picture of any toddler on Facebook you can see a dozen women clicking on the "like" button, of which half a dozen of them would post a comment beginning with "awww.... so cute!".

There is a saying that a baby is God's incarnation, what with all the joy s/he brings in our home it seems to be true. But there is also a saying which says that:

A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase - Author Unknown

Trouble begins when the baby grows into a kid and when they grow as kids, as it goes with human evolution; they are bestowed with the power of reasoning. They begin to have an opinion on everything, and they start asking questions for which adults have no answers, they try to grow too big for their shorts. They are gifted with Man's most primitive curse of all: that of needs and wants which when unfulfilled is followed by tantrums that involves a long face, sentimental movie dialogues from Yash Chopra/Karan Johar movies (production houses that employ the same kind of kids to act in clichéd bratty roles) to make parents feel guilty and the most powerful weapon of all - a wailing that is followed by stomping the feet on the ground. There are some who bite the bullet and give in to their tantrums, there are some who try to pacify the kids by sweet talking to them of which the little twats take excessive advantage, but there are a very few of the third kind - those who give them a sound and proper hiding. A hiding every now and again will ensure that they never cross the line. The brat pack of Calvins, Bart Simpsons and Dennis all seem adorable only in comic strips or T.V shows but not in real life. The baby that seemed to be the embodiment of an angel would have shed its wings and grown onto be a tantrum throwing devil incarnate.

How we all would have wished that they never grow up and remained as babies which were a miniature version of the Michelin Man. Babies are pure, they have no malice and they don't judge. They have no needs and find joy in the smallest of things be it the sound of their rattle or a rag tag stuffed doll which is their best friend, they trust you to catch them when you throw them up in the air, they sleep with no worry in the world, they hold your fingers tight with their tiny little hands. Their laughter is the first thing you want to listen to when you return home from a tough day at work, they look at you with eyes wide open and try to converse with you in a language which you wish you spoke. They do not ask for much, all they ask for is to feel the warmth of your hand and the touch of your skin.

Kevin Pietersen the English Cricketer has a reputation of being a fierce competitor on the cricket field, he is a man with a larger than life persona. A man who is considered hard to tame and tough to reason with, an arrogant sportsman who seems infallible and invulnerable when he is on song. Yet, when he is in the presence of his infant child he is stripped of his arrogance and his superstar image. For his child he is just another caring and loving father who has big plans for his kid. He falls prey to his son's spontaneous and unselfish love which is embedded in the tiny heart of every toddler. He fondly refers to his son as "the little man" in his tweets, for it is these little people who make us feel BIG!

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