Around the world in eighty clicks

Parul and chox, thanks for the tag. Here goes. (I am nothing if not verbose).

Rules:
Guys, you need to post 5 things that you love about being a mom/dad) and find someone to link to and tag - someone from your own country, if you like, but definitely someone from another country ..and to leave a link to the post at HBM, who started this tag.

What do I like about motherhood? Five things I like? FIVE things? You have GOT to be kidding me. You mean FIVE as in one less than the number of fingers on Hrithik Roshan’s hands? FIVE as in the number of years old the monster of a child of mine is? Is it not too big a number? Oh well, if you insist on it. Though to balance things out I do think that one should also be asked for at least five things that one hates about it. Or at least dislikes. You know, to be absolutely fair and all.

* I do enjoy the absolute sense of purpose it gives to your life. I mean I do have my job and I am a hundred other things such as a daughter a wife a daughter-in-law and all that jazz. But none of them have given me that sense of fullness, that feeling that ‘Ah ha! I am a somewhat important bit of flesh on this earth’ as the fact of being a mother. As always, what I like are the details. The innumerable little things to put on the list of things to do and pack (and not forget), such as extra crayons, and clips, and juice.

* Bibliophilia, I mean bibliomania. It is in the eyes. We walked into Landmark yesterday and two pairs of eyes were searching furiously. Found the corners and then that was it. No one could talk to either of us, we were like possessed creatures. Thankfully, being thirty years older, I came back to earth with a thud, quickly grabbed the Aseem Kaul, and dragged a reluctant monster out (clutching some book, of course). But those are times when I KNOW that this child is mine, that it has some of my genes. Otherwise it is hard to tell since she looks so much like her father and as far as I can see is so different in nature than me in other matters.

* The father. Other, wiser, better, saner moms than I have said this. But it is true for me as well. I love the man who is the father of my child a lot more now. And though he would never admit it, and cribs incessantly that this obsessive mommy-kenny is a poor shadow of the former Kenny, I am super sure that he is lying. He has been trying to convince the monster about my powers (whatever they might be). She has resisted believing him, probably recognizing it for what it is, blind love.

* I am a teacher, I suppose I cannot help it. It is quite in the blood with the weight of whole generations of the BunkPort family. And one of the good things about being a mother is that I can pretend to teach all nature of things to the hapless soul that has to spend so much time with me. Needless to say I learn a lot more than I manage to teach, which is in any case my aim in life, to masquerade as a teacher so no one thinks you are mad for going on reading and solving problems simply because you like it. And being a mother gives me unimagined opportunities for indulging in this pastime.

* The monster is a monster, despite the denials of some of my well-wishers and friends. They say be careful what you name the child, it will weigh upon her, and make her that. Well, that is clearly the case here. She periodically exhibits absolutely monstrous behavior, as befits her e-name. But her other name, the one we have picked out of love, she lives up to that one too (albeit occasionally). And those are times I cannot help feel that heart-wrenching love for her. And please I will stop now because I do think that it is as important for a mother to love as to let go and not impose too many expectations on her child.

I am really supposed to tag someone. But all (most of?) the mommies I know are tagged. So that leaves me the lounger, who is, of course, daddy^2 from Bengaluru, for perspective.