Some Sunday mornings have a funny start to them. As the 8-year-old cuddled along, she made a surprising discovery.
“Mom, what is this hard thing?”, she exclaimed touching my ribs.
All her life, she has described me as ‘nice and squishy’. Little wonder then, this hard thing got her all confused. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, to take it as a compliment or get into my sneakers and go for a run till the end of the world, I decided I belong to the ‘Look at the brighter side’ clan. And so, trampling all over my ego, which by the way is as inflated as my body, I decided to take is a compliment.
That’s when she felt my tummy and opened her big mouth once again, “I think you have grown thinner. Your tummy is way below its normal level.”
Despite my eyeballs rolling involuntarily, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I told her it was just the lack of breakfast that was responsible for that lowered tummy which would reach great heights in exactly an hour.
As a kid, I reckoned only two celebrities who were born with bodies minus bones – Prabhu Deva and Michael Jackson. They were unrealistically flexible as they danced, rather glided to music. Now my daughter reckons one in-house celebrity that seems to be existing without any bones either. The tiny difference, my body is as flexible as the clay Ganpati idol that doesn’t move. But my mind is flexible enough to take her innocent insights with a pinch of salt, as compliments!
P.S. Fitness needs to be addressed asap. It would be great for my daughter realize I am like other mortal beings that come designed with a regular rib cage, bones and all, not just squishy bits.
Parent By Chance 