A realist - Jay

Kanav still likes to believe that Jay is his toy and so every morning he will wake up Jay to play with him. Jay, whose personality has been molded mostly by Kanav somehow lacks the outgoing nature of Kanav. Jay is a shy boy and does not mix up easily. As a 4 year old, he is extremely energetic and tires himself off.

But unlike Kanav, he is extremely particular about when he wants to eat food, what clothes he wants to wear and when he wants to sleep.  He has an ability to sleep even when there is a lot of noise around him. Even at this age, he is able to find matching clothes and if you offer him something to wear that he finds unsuitable, he can bring the house down. And when he wants food, he is extremely particular about what he wants to eat. Most of the times it is chapattis that he wants; even if everyone else is having rice.

Jay’s ability to resist temptations is so strong that you cannot change his decisions easily, even at this age. On Kanav’s birthday, Kanav wore a party dress to the school and a pair of party shoes. Jay has a similar pair of shoes (Black). He decided that if bhaiya goes to school like this, so would he. Preeti did her best to explain it to him that its Kanav’s birthday but couldn’t. So I took over and by fluke got him convinced to wear the school uniform but could not convince him to wear his school shoes. I could see his unspoken logic that, his party shoes were also black in color like his school shoes. But I wanted to test his persistence and he did not fail. He ultimately wore those party shoes even after everyone telling him that his teacher would punish him (which of-course she didn’t).

He is so particular about what he wants that I sometimes feel that he might grow up into an extremely selfish boy (but in positive sense). I see in him as someone who can prioritize things and has a natural aesthetic sense. Both of these attributes can lead him a long way. But what I am afraid of is his introvert nature. Even though I am like him, but my fear comes from him slowly slipping into an attitude where he does not show his feelings to others.

Almost a year back, I had slapped him for some severe mischief. While crying he asked me, ”Abb paari bhi kalo”.  But now if I say something which he does not like, he would simply sit quietly. And if I fail to recognize that he is angry with me, he would slowly start hitting you with his legs or arms. If I still don’t acknowledge, his intensity of hitting me increases until I pick him up and pat him with lots of love which ultimately cools him down.

Being angry with him or hitting him back does not yield any result for he is truly looking for being patted. I am afraid, that if he goes on a path where he suppresses his feeling and stops communicating, he is going to not only give himself but lot of other people close to him a hard time in future.

Jay is not as inquisitive as Kanav but follows everything that Kanav does. I believe that if we can keep guiding Kanav correctly, Jay would automatically inculcate some of the qualities of Kanav which he is currently not able to display.

While with a lot of belief, I can say that Kanav is getting groomed to be a dreamer, I can surely point out that Jay is intrinsically a very practical boy and would grow into a realist. Personalities that are poles apart, nature has brought them together.

Both brothers have so much love in them that I cherish every moment spent with them and miss them every single minute I am away from them. 

Cracking the Da Vinci Code - Kanav

It was a Saturday evening in early 2014 when I bought Kanav the game of snakes and ladders. But tired because of a hectic day, I was able to play only one round and I told him that we would play it in the morning.

Later, on the bed, Kanav kept on talking about the game and snakes while I was asking him to go to sleep. But, I fell asleep earlier than Kanav. Twice through the night, Kanav woke me and asked if its morning now. But when at 3am I woke up to go to toilet, he followed me there thinking its morning now. Laughing, I picked him up and we went to the other room where we played snakes and ladders till almost 4:30am. Ecstatic now that his wish was fulfilled, I was able to convince him to go to sleep.

This was the first time when I seriously acknowledged of restlessness in Kanav. His urgency to do things and passion has just increased multifold since that day. Many times in the morning, he would wake up before his Grandparents rise at 4:30am. It’s normally something which has been promised to him by one of us or his friends which does not let him sleep. Even if his friends are to meet at 8am, he would hardly sleep through the night.

I and Preeti try not to promise anything to Kanav for the Mornings. For if we do, neither would he sleep nor would let anyone else sleep. But we do make sure that his passion is continuously fueled and given direction.

He was mighty impressed by a few science experiments we made at home for the kids in our after school classes. Last week he opened his science book and said, “Papa, I want to do experiments.” There were two activities in his science book which both of us and Jay did together. I did my best to help him understand the phenomenon but I am not sure if he has. But I am sure, he would again surprise me by explaining some other experiment with a similar concept someday.

Tejaaswani’s creativity has a rubbing effect on him and so does his favorite cartoon channels that run Mister Maker, MAD, Art Attack type serials. He keeps on borrowing printing papers from me and keeps creating drawings which he has to explain me later. But one day, he created a boy and marked all the body parts on it. He recently created a figure of Earth ass is visible from space in Paint Brush. And it was remarkable for me to watch him get excited when he showed me his drawing of Saturn in paint Brush.

I am not sure, what Kanav is going to do in his life but his Passion reminds me of my younger self. His dedication to the task at hand and his persistence for executing a new idea are extremely unique to his personality. I and Preeti have pledged to give him all the guidance and as much resources as we can to develop himself into an individual with a lot of passion as well as patience.

Driven by a great fire within, Kanav today wants to become an Artist, Scientist, Soldier and an Astronaut. So, one day I introduced him to Leonardo Da Vinci and told him that he has all right to dream to be all of them.