“I love you all the way to that tree,” my imaginative not-yet-4-year-old told me.
This was our game. We measured love.
“I love you all the way to the topmost branch of that tree,” I retorted.
“I love you all the way to topmost leaf,” she echoed me, with an impish smile.
“I love you all the way to the fluffy white cloud that you see much above the tree,” I wouldn’t give up.
“I love you all the way to that cloud,” she pointed to the red horizon. She has learned this game well.
“I love you all the way to the moon,” I made a mock face at her.
“I love you all the way to the sun,” she made one back.
“I love you all the way to Saturn,” I wouldn’t leave the planets alone.
“I love you all the way to Pluto,” Pluto is her favorite planet. I haven’t had the heart to tell her or myself that Pluto is not a planet after all in the more organized scheme of things. Obscurity is a scary thing.
“I love you all the way to Sirius,” I made a mental note to hone my astronomy knowledge before I play this game again.
“What is Sirius, amma?”
“It is the brightest star in the night sky,” was I becoming pedantic?
“I love you all the way to the shooting star,” she jumped up and down. This was her find.
“Shooting star is nearer to us than Sirius, darling,” I tried explaining.
“What?” She frowned, she didn’t understand.
“Just a bothersome little fact. That is okay.” I consoled her.
“You tell,” she coaxed.
“I love you all the way to – to the end of the Milky Way.” I didn’t think I could keep it up much longer.
She didn’t listen anyway. Perhaps because her little brain could comprehend only so much.
“I love you all the way to the end of the world,” she stated in a well-rehearsed manner. She was ending our little game.
“I love you to eternity,” I concluded with a smile.
“How much is that?” she questioned. She almost started giggling. She knew what was coming.
“This much,” I said as I opened my arms wide, and she rushed in to give me her tightest hug. I tickled her neck with my nose and she chortled and commented on her goose bumps. Amid her kisses, her curls, and her milky breath, funnily enough, I did get a glimpse of eternity.
Posts
2 days ago
11 comments:
this was the most touching one yet. brought tears to my eyes. i read it out to pramod and planning to read it out to achan and amma too. i love you and kunjimol da, better not to start measuring that.
beautiful, as usual! i simply love the language and the gems of wisdom woven casually into it
that was like reading one of those nice heartwarming stories from the older readers digests....:) am still trying to get the concept of 'earth' thru to my li'l one though!!
Cute, Roops. Keep these ones coming. Maybe less of the sad stories.
Saanya seems to be quite the inquisitive little girl. My little guy has been studying cars/trucks/anything with wheels pretty much exclusively for the last 2 years or so!:)
brilliantly written...take my advice start doing rounds of the publication house :-)
Ganga: Thank you. A little wisdom amidst a whole lot of nonsense.
Arch: The concept of planets is still pretty shaky. she thinks they are all balls. but she know their names though :).
Raakhee: Achu will measure love in light years :).
Saps: thanks a ton for the over-faith you have in me.
read that as knows* arch. should i blame my typing skills or my grammar??
The best sofar. Dee is right. Brought tears to my eyes too. ur writing well. Keep on writing. Good luck.
achu
acha, dee: the tears are because the protagonists are close to your hearts :), not because of any literary merit...
truly touching...
I think all of us have played this game at one point, in different versions. Although it seems the universe is your theme, ours was math. We would count to how many ever numbers we could (I love you 2,3,4...)
Struck a chord.
Happened to come across this post just now - wonder how and why I missed this earlier.
Yaawn.
your posts are boringly predictable. they are all incredible. This one is incredible too. But predictably again, a little more incredible than the last one I read...so let me be boring too and say, this one is incredible!
By the way, @you and @arch: talking about concept of life and universe, here is something you might have missed too palli kanden palli kanden(to the tune of kandukonden kandukonden!:P
Post a Comment