Rithika

I am a person who likes to talk a lot...and someone who literally treasures every memory...But when our little girl came into our life, there is now an explosion of memories....Memories which I fear I might lose in old age..For long, I have been thinking about this idea...A place where all my thoughts on my gal could be treasured...So that , some time in future, when I am not in a position to recollect all this and when I am not in a position to tell her all this, May be either she or me, will feel better , if we go through this blog. So, here it is...This blog is completely about that one person in my life, who is continuously amazing me every day, driving me nuts every day, tires me every day and still, brings out the best in me every day and on some specially helpless days, yes, the worst in me too...:). So if you are reading this blog some day, you should please forgive me for all those times I lost my temper on you. Amma is really sorry about that and every single time have felt the worst after that too.Anyway today is not the day to get into it. Let's move on.

Okay...Before you came, I thought/ wished you were a boy. No offense, dear girl..I honestly like girl children..I like the frocks they wear, the toys/ dolls they play with, the expressions they make..I actually hated boy babies , till your cousin little Adi came into our life. Then I got married to your father and over the five childless years we had together, we were each other's child. Every day, I was falling in love with him again and again despite all the fights we had ...It was not like in those college days.It was after marriage, I happened to see the real child in him. And he was PERFECT to me. So when we conceived, I had a thought that, if you were a boy child, I could actually see all those days of his life, which I missed. There was this little memory, your grand mom / father shared with me about your fathers childhood days. That he, used to dig holes of antlions-'kuzhiaana' . I used to mock him that ," kuzhich kuzhich kuzhich athin ullil veenappol amma vannu eduth tatti kudanj kond poyi". So, I had this picture in my mind, of a baby in diaper, playing on earth, digging and digging.. It was more like a cartoon video in my mind.That baby in diaper. And you in womb, my dear child, you used to be a runner inside too... always moving...Seeing all those huge movements, actually, nurses have remarked me, "Seems like a boy". ( If  I could see all those nurses now, I will laugh into their faces and tell now, "See its a girl. A girl whom even boys cant catch, when she is running).

But the other part is that, from college days, we wanted our first child to be a girl only. We had even fixed your name, back then itself," Rithu"- who will be versatile like the seasons in our life- sometimes gentle, sometimes ferocious, sometimes colourful, sometimes meloncholic. When the anesthetic told me, it's a girl, a gush of relief ran over me, since we never could finalise a boy child name. Next happy thought was that I am gonna buy all those frocks from that Max stores for my girl. We slightly modified the name to be Rithika (meaning gentle stream)so as to match it with your second name. Then you came, really into our life, on 22-02-2016. You broke all those assumptions/ prejudices of mine. First that, I thought only a boy child would end up like your father. I was wrong, you are exact replica of your father. Second and more importantly, so far you are not at all like either of us and we are super happy about that.Your father often remarks,"njan avale oru chattamby aaki aan valarthaan udheshichirikkunnat. Angine tanne aan aval valarunnatum." How foolish was I to think that you will be like me or him. Whatever , the point is, I don't assume/ expect anything about you now, because, you always prove it to be wrong. You are a unique human being with your own characteristic traits (** Special note to all expecting parents).

So here you are, the running baby in our lives. Even if to make you  wear a frock at the last minute, mom shouldn't excite you by running after or trying to catch you.Because if she does so, you will run for hours like that-round and round the dining table. So I try my maximum not to start a race with you. Every free space is a stadium for you. Running and Running. Sometimes, I remember the dialogue of movie 'Secretariate". I have never seen a girl who likes to run this much.