One year down the line…

Today is Rohāmrta’s first English birthday.

One year back – he arrived in this world, a bit earlier than anticipated. Was scheduled to come on Tuesday, the 2nd of February, but he decided that he couldn’t wait anymore, and besides, his father’s nakshatra was on 1st, not 2nd.

And his father is known to be very punctual, and mostly early everywhere. Like father, like son I guess.

Two days later, he came home. With two confused parents, who had no clue what to do with him. What do we feed him, how do we make him sleep? We had learnt to change diapers, and contrary to public opinion, that seemed to be the easier than the rest.

But the rest was a mystery. What if we went wrong somewhere? What if he ate the wrong thing, or slept the wrong way, or…a lot of apprehensions, a lot of nervousness.

In the minds of us parents that is. Rohāmrta, on the other hand, was less perturbed. His expressions seem to say – it’s ok papa and mama, I don’t think I will be too much effort. Just give me my milk and rock me a bit (a loongggg bit) and I will sleep. We will learn the rest together.

One year down the line, there are still many unsolved mysteries. Why does he cry all of a sudden, what makes him eat well, what does he want to eat in the first place…And a lot more. But somewhere in this journey, we both grew together. He grew in size, learnt to crawl, and walk, and talk ( I mean say tete and gauguu and stuff) and we grew to learn that one does not need to know everything about bringing up a baby – all we need is to surrender to the feeling, and nature does the rest.

A baby changes everything. Life changes, priorities change. It does get frustrating at times, when he doesn’t eat well, or doesn’t sleep in time, but these are minor things. That we together bring up a living being is something that can only be felt and experienced, not described.

It is time. An exact year since I heard his first cries. And then saw him…in an instant, I became a father. One year down the line, I am learning how to become a parent.

I love you Rohāmrta. Thank you for changing my life. I love you.