Hiking with my son…
On last weekend, I went on hiking with my 2.5 year old son… well, not exactly hiking but a casual walk in the woods…
Just across the road where my residence is located… lies a city forest… stretching may be, in an area of 2 square kilometers. Not very big… but indeed, it is a far cry from the usual concrete jungles, we tend to see all around…
For last few months, I had been seeing them while commuting to and from the office… and always promised that I will take my son Vidhu… there. And then finally I was able to keep the promise… and what a day it was… when I first did it.
Some words about Vidhu… he is an average two year old kid… who loves to run around, do mischief, to see cartoon (his favourite these days is Popeye the Sailorman and Ben 10)… what makes him special… is the way he treats his younger brother, Kinshu… with so much of care and affection… that we almost feel as if he was an elderly person… He often supervises Kinshu… checks what he is picking up from the floor and eating… he beckons us from other rooms when Kinshu reaches the edge of bed and is about to fall… and holds his baby carriage when we go for a walk. We surely are blessed.
Sadly… he is having speech delay… he is not able to speak, as fluently, as any other kid of his age would do… he can say Mama, Baba, What Happened, Yes and No… but not much beyond that… we took him to few doctors… one said that he needs speech therapy… other said he needs psychological tests… till one day, a senior doctor, whom I know… reprimanded me for treating the kid as a guinea pig and said that every kid has his way of growing… and so has Vidhu… and that day we decided to just leave him alone for a while.
Coming to the hike… well it was raining heavily when I decided to take him for a hike… my wife found it to be a preposterous idea… why on earth do I want to hike when it's raining cats and dogs… I told her just because it’s the best time to hike and see Mother Nature in its most bountiful moods. She gave in to my logic…. For whatever it meant.
I packed Vidhu's bag with Potato Chips, Umbrella, bananas, Water bottle, Camera and a spare pairs of clothes…. He was so excited to see his being packed… it meant that he was out for something big…
When we entered the woods… we were overwhelmed with the greenery all around… for the first time… or may be after a long long time (when I took him to a botanical garden in Allahabad)… he was seeing so much of greenery… I gave him a stick, and showed him how to use a stick while hiking… of first checking the grass… and plant outgrowths before treading over them…. He found everything so amusing… he smiled and came close to me and kissed me on cheeks. It was a lovely feeling…
We saw many large trees… I helped him to climb one of them… initially he was bit scared… but then after checking the fun of it all… he volunteered to climb higher and higher… till the reach of my hands just gave in….
A couple of steps ahead we found a stream of water… and some frogs… and earthworms and leeches… he was particularly amused to see a frog jump after being bothered by the stick… however, he found earthworms and leeches a bit detestable and yucky. And another couple of steps later, we found some village boys plucking Jamuns (a tropical fruit found in India and Pakistan… is considered very good for Diabetes and other medicinal purposes)… we joined them… it was fun to see Vidhu trying to throw pebbles high in the air to get some jamuns… then we struck a new idea… I started shaking the tree so that some ripe jamun would fall… he followed me and started shaking the tree…. The village boys laughed at his antics. But when I gathered the jamuns… he plainly refused to eat them…after all weren’t they littered on earth… and how his mother had told him not to eat anything fallen on earth… or not to let Kinshu eat anything fallen on earth…
We then just sat on a bench and picnicked, he ate some chips and drank some juice… then I told a nearby Churmura (a north Indian snack made up of puffed rice, herbs and spices) vendor to give me a pack of churmura… we enjoyed that, too.
We saw some animals too… a crow, a buffalo, a hare (just a glimpse), a crane… every animal was a new discovery for Vidhu.
There after, we left the place… came out of the woods… to the streets… in a near by place… a person was selling Chokha Bati (a East Indian snack), we enjoyed that together… we went to a park and played there for a while… with few other village kids… and then it was time to go….
While coming home… we encountered a commonly found grass… whose flowers stick to your clothes… I tried to show him that grass… he wasn’t amused… and threw that flower away… and started laughing…
Everything was a new discovery for him… he reminded me of times when I used to react to new things in the same fashion… when we reached home… we were drenched… just before we entered the colony gate… I saw rainbow… and tried to show that to Vidhu… I don’t know whether he realized it or not… but he kept staring at the sky for a while…
What a great day it was….
Just across the road where my residence is located… lies a city forest… stretching may be, in an area of 2 square kilometers. Not very big… but indeed, it is a far cry from the usual concrete jungles, we tend to see all around…
For last few months, I had been seeing them while commuting to and from the office… and always promised that I will take my son Vidhu… there. And then finally I was able to keep the promise… and what a day it was… when I first did it.
Some words about Vidhu… he is an average two year old kid… who loves to run around, do mischief, to see cartoon (his favourite these days is Popeye the Sailorman and Ben 10)… what makes him special… is the way he treats his younger brother, Kinshu… with so much of care and affection… that we almost feel as if he was an elderly person… He often supervises Kinshu… checks what he is picking up from the floor and eating… he beckons us from other rooms when Kinshu reaches the edge of bed and is about to fall… and holds his baby carriage when we go for a walk. We surely are blessed.
Sadly… he is having speech delay… he is not able to speak, as fluently, as any other kid of his age would do… he can say Mama, Baba, What Happened, Yes and No… but not much beyond that… we took him to few doctors… one said that he needs speech therapy… other said he needs psychological tests… till one day, a senior doctor, whom I know… reprimanded me for treating the kid as a guinea pig and said that every kid has his way of growing… and so has Vidhu… and that day we decided to just leave him alone for a while.
Coming to the hike… well it was raining heavily when I decided to take him for a hike… my wife found it to be a preposterous idea… why on earth do I want to hike when it's raining cats and dogs… I told her just because it’s the best time to hike and see Mother Nature in its most bountiful moods. She gave in to my logic…. For whatever it meant.
I packed Vidhu's bag with Potato Chips, Umbrella, bananas, Water bottle, Camera and a spare pairs of clothes…. He was so excited to see his being packed… it meant that he was out for something big…
When we entered the woods… we were overwhelmed with the greenery all around… for the first time… or may be after a long long time (when I took him to a botanical garden in Allahabad)… he was seeing so much of greenery… I gave him a stick, and showed him how to use a stick while hiking… of first checking the grass… and plant outgrowths before treading over them…. He found everything so amusing… he smiled and came close to me and kissed me on cheeks. It was a lovely feeling…
We saw many large trees… I helped him to climb one of them… initially he was bit scared… but then after checking the fun of it all… he volunteered to climb higher and higher… till the reach of my hands just gave in….
A couple of steps ahead we found a stream of water… and some frogs… and earthworms and leeches… he was particularly amused to see a frog jump after being bothered by the stick… however, he found earthworms and leeches a bit detestable and yucky. And another couple of steps later, we found some village boys plucking Jamuns (a tropical fruit found in India and Pakistan… is considered very good for Diabetes and other medicinal purposes)… we joined them… it was fun to see Vidhu trying to throw pebbles high in the air to get some jamuns… then we struck a new idea… I started shaking the tree so that some ripe jamun would fall… he followed me and started shaking the tree…. The village boys laughed at his antics. But when I gathered the jamuns… he plainly refused to eat them…after all weren’t they littered on earth… and how his mother had told him not to eat anything fallen on earth… or not to let Kinshu eat anything fallen on earth…
We then just sat on a bench and picnicked, he ate some chips and drank some juice… then I told a nearby Churmura (a north Indian snack made up of puffed rice, herbs and spices) vendor to give me a pack of churmura… we enjoyed that, too.
We saw some animals too… a crow, a buffalo, a hare (just a glimpse), a crane… every animal was a new discovery for Vidhu.
There after, we left the place… came out of the woods… to the streets… in a near by place… a person was selling Chokha Bati (a East Indian snack), we enjoyed that together… we went to a park and played there for a while… with few other village kids… and then it was time to go….
While coming home… we encountered a commonly found grass… whose flowers stick to your clothes… I tried to show him that grass… he wasn’t amused… and threw that flower away… and started laughing…
Everything was a new discovery for him… he reminded me of times when I used to react to new things in the same fashion… when we reached home… we were drenched… just before we entered the colony gate… I saw rainbow… and tried to show that to Vidhu… I don’t know whether he realized it or not… but he kept staring at the sky for a while…
What a great day it was….
2 comments:
This reminds me of my walks with my little daughter onto a small hillock near Raja's seat at Coorg,Madikeri.Climbing the steps all by herself along with us upto the top of Shravanabelagola (Statue of Gomateshwar)..Bath in river Cauvery while holding her at Srirangapatinam and another river at Kuke Subramaniam...These will remain lifetime experiences
Great... why dont you start writing blog about these anecdotes
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