Monster trucks

Last Friday, after a hard day's work, I dropped in at my neighbour's for the very first time. Monica visits 'Ritu' almost on a daily basis but I never even had a chance to quickly say 'hello' to either Ritu or Manish, her husband. I had the opportunity to see Agastya right next to Risa, Ritu's daughter.

My son was tall, powerfully built and looked like [Bhima] in front of that little girl. He is mighty jealous, every time I even thought of picking up Risa, he would run from where ever he was and annoy me to pick him up. Even if by some chance Risa comes walking toward me, Aga would run toward me not caring much for anything or anyone in his way. He was just awesome.

The next day, Saturday, we decided to take the little monster to the beech. It was shortly after lunch, a balmy 30 degrees; not too hot but not mild in anyway. I drove to [Portsea] in a leisurely pace and it was an hour and a half before we reached our destination. Aga had been sleeping all along in his car seat and Monica was dozing off nicely once in a while. After briefly struggling to find a parking space, we slapped some sun screen on Aga and took him to the water front.

Me: Monica, do you want the stroller?
Monica: Yes man! We need it, we have everything in there.
Me: Hmm, ok.

I take one look at the soft white sand ….

Me: Monica, I think it is a bad idea, too much soft sand.
Monica: It is only sand Nuggie, it will be very light without Aga in it.
Me: Oh.. Ok, doesn’t seem right.
Monica: Look at the other strollers in the sand, many kids there!!
Me: Oh yes, but they are tiny compared to the bullock cart we have over here.
Monica: Just bring it Nuggiiee, I will push it.

It took Monica a full 5 seconds to realise the idea was bad. As usual, the donkey does the hard work and without much ado, the stroller pushing job landed on me without a word passing between the two of us.

Monica: Heh heh heh heh ..
Me: Shut up!!
Monica: It is difficult Nuggie.
Me: Hello!! What did I say in the first place? Stoopid Indonesian.
Monica: Kek kek kek kek. Bloody Indian.

I removed Aga's clothes and put on his blue swimming trunks. He looked awesome. The water did not look inviting, at least from his view point. I knew it would be a problem. I took him into the water and with his back facing the waves, made him stand on the shallow end. He felt uncomfortable but he always knows where his help is located. As long as I hold him, he never looks or worries about anything. He, perhaps, instinctively feels that if I had just one finger on him, he will always be in safe territory. I started splashing the water all about. He joined in quickly. He suddenly turned into a maniac, dragged me in to even deeper water without me having to prod him. He enjoyed the waves knocking him off into the water. He liked the salty water; he downright enjoyed making himself dirty by rubbing sea weed or sand on his body. He would suddenly stand up and shout magical words and run away from the water towards those sand castles other kids were building.

As if he is a Hindu priest, he would splash water on his head and mumble. He would grab sand and rub on his tummy and sprinkle on his head. He would eat sand and he was totally happy that neither I nor Monica conditioned him much. For us it was a monotonous hour and a half, for him it was heaven. We decided an hour and a half was good enough. We washed him up and decided to head back home. Even on the way back he was yapping about probably describing to us what all he did and complaining how big fools his parents were not to join him in the fun. For close to an hour he would not stop. He was just happy.

We were about 10 mins away from our Wheelers Hill home and Aga made unhappy noises. We didn't know why and so long as he doesn’t say explicitly we would never know for certain. Although he does not yet speak words as we adults do, he is very much vocal about everything around him. He can have a great conversation with anyone; he doesn't care that we don't understand what the heck he is yapping about. He speaks. He can express happiness, sadness, surprise, anger etc. very effectively. All kids do, I am sure.

Anyway, Aga continued to make those unhappy sounds and slowly and steadily he kept leaning towards Monica. He is in his car seat and can't leave! I could feel him wanting to run away from his seat. He was frantically locating Monica's hands. He kept looking on the window to his left and searching for Monica on his right with his hand movements. Then we realised what it was. HE IS AFRAID OF TRUCKS!! Monster trucks with huge, loud engines scare him. He is afraid of vacuum cleaners and blenders. Anything that makes those monotonous noises for seemingly no reason scares him. I quickly moved away from the truck and he was once again happy and doing his Balle Balle.

We have a mouse in our house; a very clever mouse I should say. He is there everywhere we set our eyes – except in the place where we have a mouse trap waiting for him. Bastard!!