When Mama Needs That Hug

Pic Credit: Pixabay

She may be 16, but this morning, all I wanted to do was make her sit on my lap and hug her.

She made a face that said, ‘What now?’, but she obliged.

It was me – I was the one who needed that hug & cuddle…. so I gave her one instead.

One of those days….

It was the most comfortable position I had sat in all week! With an almost 5’8 athletic teenage girl wrapped in my arms.

I needed it…

By evening, the littlest one was surprised to see me at home when he got back from school.

He tossed his school bag aside and covered my face with 12yo baby child kisses and said, ‘Mama, Can I give you a hug?’

I pushed back the laptop and gathered his soft cuddly body into my arms.

Then the 20yo called out for me…

To show me something on his laptop,

but I had to ‘wait for the right time’, he said, ‘Don’t look now!!’

For the video to start… and he wanted me to look at just the right start of the clip…

‘Mama, do you remember this??’

I peered into his laptop screen at some robot-like being sitting…

I couldn’t remember…so he reminded me with a sheepish / shy smile that reminded me of when he was 9 or 10…

‘It was that game you preordered for me in Dubai’, he said, ‘from Virgin Megastore… the other one you got from the US…’ he went on…

I couldn’t remember… but I smiled..

Edit: I later called him & asked him to give me a hug…

He smiled and said, ‘What’s wrong with you??!’

And enveloped me in his arms..

Not a small boy anymore…

A tall, muscular, broad-backed handsome child of mine…

Felt good…

The memories of their childhood… that I was a part of…

The memories of my motherhood…. that they are all a part of.

My heart is melting …

One of those days…

No, I am not PMS-ing (in the real sense) hahah… must be an anti-climax hormone flush…

First published on my Facebook on 10th February 2023

A Love Affair with Coffee

Coffee makes all things well… right from the gorgeous aroma the filtered decoction to the warmth seeping through the glass into your fingertips and finally that sweet warm liquid going down your throat, spreading its heat towards your back before it disappears into the depths of your stomach…

The journey of that sip being one pure South Indian talisman of Belonging…

And then that special sense of community that gets tickled when that elderly couple asks if they could sit at my table, on the chairs opposite me, after noticing Rhea leave to college (for her final exam) and I stayed back to enjoy my filter kaapi #1. (But of course, they could!!)

‘Sense of Community’ because of that quick flick of eyes that spotted the ash smeared of our foreheads – a recognition of where we all had been before arriving for our coffee and brekkie.

That same recognition resurfaced as many of us spotted each other in the melee of patrons at that little idli-dosa-pongal-kaapi place, including many of the little ones who sported their foreheads with their innocent heads held high! Their childish pride at being able to receive the ash after standing in line, once a year, until they were old enough to receive their Eucharist. A sense of grown-up-ness that they could do what they saw other adults doing!

All these observations…

All these notes to myself…

All this, while I had a second cup of coffee before heading home to a busy workday.