ShriMaa: Just the two of US - Courtesy ‘COVID-19’

In the recent times of COVID-19 pandemic, I and my son, Shri, observed an extended lockdown for almost three months; 83 days to be precise. Yes, one fourth of the year-2020 was spent with just ‘the two of US’ with and for each other. My hubby got stuck up with his Mom at some other place approximately 800 km away. It was not the first time that I and Shri were home together, but this one was an unplanned, uncertain and the longest one in most trying times that I have witnessed. The first thing I convinced myself was that it will not be before a month or two that I would see my husband face to face (video conferencing via WhatsApp, Skype, etc. does not count). I thought the hardest part will be to convince Shri about it, but to my surprise that was a cakewalk. I had listened to a podcast about a year ago that it is always good to tell your child the truth, but in amount that he or she is able to accept and comprehend easily. Therefore, I told him that there is a virus freely roaming outside and so, Papa will not be around for some time, and which also mean that we too cannot go outside. Shri was quick to understand that Papa will be at Grandma’s place for a long time, but the part that surprised me was his conclusion about our conversation. He said firmly, since virus is all around (jo dikhte bhi nahi hai aur sunte bhi nahi hai), it means Shri does not have to go to school. I could see his eyes widening in excitement. I told to myself, he is a total replica of his father, not only in appearance but also in his thinking (my hubby always detested going to school unlike me).

Well, instead of counting days, I decided to have the best times of our lives, and slowly inculcated the same in Shri. It was challenging, but full credit goes to Shri for making it easy. Suddenly from being a mother to my son, I also became his father, teacher, friend, the maid he used to see in his house before lockdown, the driver, the mechanic who repaired his toys (even at 2 in the night), and at times his biggest enemy. I also became his punching bag as well as the mattress on which he jumped and had the maximum fun (trust me it is not easy to be a boy’s Mom; I know it is not even easy to be a MOM). I am fully aware that almost every Mom plays the aforementioned and other additional roles for her kid, but I had to fulfill all these roles in the times of pandemic (locked down in a home).

Shri is not a gadget addict yet; he is a child who loves physical activities more than watching a TV, Tablet, or a Cellphone (probably because neither my hubby nor I are one ourselves). He loves going out every day and playing. So, I thought that keeping him indoors would be a tough task, but to my surprise the day I told him that there is a virus outside (I didn’t create a panic or instilled fear), he never asked me to take him outside. Now the latter became a challenge. As I had to get the grocery once in a week and leaving him behind all alone was not a good idea. Somehow, I managed. Another daunting task was to make him sit and do his classwork (well, in today’s times, I do not see any difference between a classwork and a homework). My child has just entered his first formal class. Making him hold pencil correctly and then completing his designated work was not easy. But I guess it was equally or rather more difficult and painful for him too. If he was learning basic A, B, C…I was learning how to make that easier and more interesting for him. Trust me, we were spending hours together in this process. Slowly, we both got used to this student-teacher relationship.

Shri was just like my shadow, wherever I went, whatever I did, he was a part of it. At places where he was not allowed… Yes, you guessed that right…the washroom, we made a pact. If I was not coming out of washroom before the alarm went off (I used to set timer and hand my cell phone to him), I was supposed to narrate an extra story to him. I never broke that pact, who is going to narrate an extra story? I was already reading out 6 stories to him in a day. Shri helped me in cleaning the house, watering plants, folding clothes, preparing food (this one was his favourite and needs a special mention; if I was cooking rice, he use to place the whistle on the lid of the pressure cooker), doing dishes, etc., and trust me most of the times, these activities turned messier and prolonged. But he was learning new things (teamwork) and I was learning managing my anger and strengthening my patience. Eventually, we became a good team.

My only biggest fear during this ShriMaa- home together time was what if something happens to me behind these closed doors (especially at night), what if I do not wake up? Well, COVID-19 has given us a strong never before kind of realization about life being so unpredictable. I overcame this fear too. I had to. I firmly believed it was not going to be easy and I had no intention to teach this to Shri so early in life, but again Shri was very supportive or mature to understand. I taught him how to open the main door and seek help in case his Mom does not move and open her eyes even on being repeatedly called. I cross-checked with a mock drill (to my utter shock, he said, ‘’Mumma marr gayi, help lata hu’’). I had not used the dreaded word anywhere in my explanation, but at the same time, I also knew that I must have uttered this word somewhere for him to pick up. On pondering, I remembered once his electronic toy battery died and when he enquired why is it not moving, I did say, because its battery died. Gosh! These young innocent souls. They are amazing learners and sometimes that scares me.

I do confess, it became frustrating at times. Not because Shri became unmanageable, but because I was trying to multi-task. From past one year, I have been working as a full-time vlogger. Squeezing time to make online videos and keeping a toddler preoccupied with some activity simultaneously was tough. To keep my frustration at bay, I turned to blogging (It had been my dream to write blogs for Shri in future, I gifted that future NOW). With every post that I wrote, I somehow developed more love, warmth and understanding for my son. I wrote blog posts when Shri was around and made videos when he was asleep. I also learnt editing my own videos (my husband was doing that for me until lockdown). Although the frequency of uploading my videos reduced, but my bonding with Shri strengthened manifold. The lockdown period with Shri helped me grow both personally and professionally.

Honestly, I had lost the track of time. Life was super busy and blissful at the same time. How these 83 days passed, I just have no clue. Today, when my husband is finally home, I decided to pen down this blog post and therefore, literally counted these days on my fingers. As I witnessed my munchkin and his father unite, there were tears of joy shed from the two of US, but now those two people were Shri’s parents. Our team once again changed from the two of US to the three of US.

Together we did it, Shri!

Cheers,

Mumma

P.S. 1: I really pray, no child is ever deprived of love of both his/her parents. As a mother I can try with all my might to be my son’s father, but for discharging that role, I have to put plenty of dedicated efforts which his father can do effortlessly, and vice versa. Having said that, I do have a huge respect for women as well as men who are single parent by choice or by destiny.

P.S. 2: Hey Shri, I hope we always remain one good team with our share of agreements as well as differences and be each other’s strength. Our team has witnessed a lockdown, in future will love to spend an outing together, Just the two of US again!