On the field and then onstage

It was Sports Day...
.. and Naisha woke up bright and early all on her own at about 5.30. "I woke up because I have to get a medal today," she announced. That scared me a bit but The Husband cheered her along. Sports is not really her thing. I remembered last year when she'd cried and cried because she couldn't win a medal. We'd come home and made medals for the entire bunch of kids in the society. This time round I had prepared her a bit. "Run as fast as you can" I told her "and that will be good enough".

She did run fast.. she reached the half way mark first where they had to wear caps. And there lay her undoing for she took ages trying to put it on perfectly and missed the medal by a whisker. To her credit she gave me the sweetest, bravest, fakest smile ever as she was being led away by her teacher but dissolved into tears when we went to pick her up.

The son is another story.. he strolled in among the last few stragglers, picking up a 'turnip' along the way, then walked away pretty nonchalantly least bothered about the outcome. That's the twins for you.. never the same.


There's Hrit walking away hands behind his back
I just wish the sports day were more interesting... I mean how many similar races can one sit through considering most parents would be waiting for just one? A drill or a march past would be a good break or maybe the races could be spiced up a bit.

In school we had real fun ones like the kids walking in their father's shoes, or dressing themselves up for school or planting a tree.. there's surely more to racing than running, picking up stuff and running again. Of course that's just a thought .. the kids are small and it's tough to to get them to do anything, I know that only too well. Maybe my memories are of later years. Must ask papa and ma what it was like.

The kids had fun for sure. The parents, however, seemed to need a lesson or two in good behaviour. It was crazy how they crowded the tracks, waved and distracted the kids, tried to talk to them and take them away early.. this despite desperate pleas by the authorities to leave the kids alone. It was most embarrassing. Talk about role models!

Then along came Annual Day
I loved the concept of the concert. A little boy roams the world in search of a hidden treasure. He meets people from various countries, learning about their cultures, dances and songs, but finds no treasure only to realise that the people of the world are the real treasure. Nice, isn't it?

Hrit was a in a Russian dance while Naisha was in a full-on Punjabi Daler Mehendi number. Hrit is a reluctant dancer and being paired off with a girl only made it harder in his current I-hate-girls phase.

He refused to wear makeup covering his mouth and running around the house shouting 'No No No". Then he insisted if he wore makeup, Naisha would have to wear a moustache. So much for equality.

For Naisha of course it was a dream come true. She was getting to dance, on a stage, wear an armful of bangles, huge earrings, a long parandi and makeup too.. what more could a girl want? The makeup was fun, the only catch being she wanted to run to the dressing table after each dab..... lipstick.. run to the mirror, blusher run to the mirror, eye makeup run to the mirror,... tiring I tell you. The parandi gave me plenty of grief as I tried to fix it onto Naisha's tiny ponytail. Finally it was all done and I left them to play while I went to dress up.

I'd barely turned my back when I heard a yell from Naisha.. I should have guessed it.. the parandi was too much of a bait for Hrit and obviously he'd pulled it off! With an eye on the clock I rushed to fix it again. Hrit was so miffed at the dressing down he just refused to go. Calling upon the gods to grant me patience I sat down to reason with him pretending I had all the time in the world. Finally I convinced him to come along with us to drop Naisha giving him the option of making up his mind along the way. Thank the Good Lord he agreed.
ALL DRESSED UP: A still grumpy Hrit and a cheery Naisha in our lobby

I rushed to make myself decent.. which essentially meant wiping off sweat and throwing on a pair of jeans and a shirt (Really, what would I do without those) and we were off.

Then the autowallah decided he needed petrol and the petrol pump happened to be in a diametrically opposite direction (thereby strengthening my resolve --- must must learn to drive). Just as I giving the driver some solid khari khoti "I think I will go for the annual day," announced Hrit. To the autowallah's total surprise I miraculously transformed into the nice lady that I'd originally seemed to be. Kids, I tell you, can twist your moods around like nobody can. So it was that we reached school in pretty good humour.

Hrit danced well enough but with his head bent down. I love it when my naughty restless son goes all shy. I gave him a tight mental hug. Naisha was in her element. She danced like a dream - she was the best in the group - of course from a totally biased mum's point of view. I found myself on my feet blowing kisses.

They came away completely thrilled and excited.. even Hrit who went so reluctantly. FIL, MIL, The Husband, kids and I ... dinner at Kareem's followed by ice cream... can a day be more perfect?

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