For a long time now I have been thinking of writing a post on our erstwhile child caretaker, T Mathews. She looked after our daughter for the first five years of her life while I went to work.
We shared a complex relationship. At one end I was extremely pleased that we were able to recruit a well trained child caretaker for our daughter. While I used to struggle with how to look after a small baby (and often used to take help of parents, in-laws, books, websites etc.), Ms T had no such issue since she had spent a better half of her life looking after innumerable babies. We couldn't believe our luck when she agreed to shift base with us from one city to another when my husband got transferred. It gave me a priceless opportunity to continue with my career. Most of the time we immensely liked each other but we were both very strong individuals.
And honestly, after a while I started detesting somebody telling me what to do and what not to do with my child. I wanted to do things my way. A classic case was whether or not to give sugar to a baby. I had read somewhere that sugar should be avoided for few months and wanted to implement that. Ms T complied for some time, or rather at least I thought so till I discovered that Khushi's milk did in fact include sugar. Ms T refused to budge and stated that she will do whatever she felt was best for baby Khushi (used to call her `kurkee', which I was told means a girl in mallu). I was obviously furious and sulked for some time. There were numerous such instances, which don't seem significant now but I felt strongly about them at the time. I was also very naive and sometimes made an issue out of a non-issue. And Ms T being an old woman of around 55-56 years at the time was set in her ways. Today, I feel that barring some things most of the times what she did was right for `kurkee'.
There were a number of things which she did which were extremely beneficial for Khushi. She gave Ragi porridge to khushi everyday and I feel this is the key reason khushi has strong immunity (touchwood and all that) is this. She was extremely particular about Khushi's diet. A case in point was making Maggi in vegetable stock...yeah, don't laugh please. Ms T didn't know any Hindi so Khushi started talking in English before she picked up Hinglish. Family members used to laugh but frankly I didn't see anything wrong about it. Obviously "kurkee" was very attached to Ms T much to my distress.
However, as I said earlier it was a complex relationship. Ms T loved her vernacular television programs which I, of course, detested. There were other areas of conflict and we parted on a slightly acrimonious terms when I decided to take a break. Nevertheless, the bygones are bygones and even after six years, we are in touch. And believe it or not she calls up every year on our daughter's birthday without fail. And Kurkee continues to have fond memories of Ms T...
We shared a complex relationship. At one end I was extremely pleased that we were able to recruit a well trained child caretaker for our daughter. While I used to struggle with how to look after a small baby (and often used to take help of parents, in-laws, books, websites etc.), Ms T had no such issue since she had spent a better half of her life looking after innumerable babies. We couldn't believe our luck when she agreed to shift base with us from one city to another when my husband got transferred. It gave me a priceless opportunity to continue with my career. Most of the time we immensely liked each other but we were both very strong individuals.
And honestly, after a while I started detesting somebody telling me what to do and what not to do with my child. I wanted to do things my way. A classic case was whether or not to give sugar to a baby. I had read somewhere that sugar should be avoided for few months and wanted to implement that. Ms T complied for some time, or rather at least I thought so till I discovered that Khushi's milk did in fact include sugar. Ms T refused to budge and stated that she will do whatever she felt was best for baby Khushi (used to call her `kurkee', which I was told means a girl in mallu). I was obviously furious and sulked for some time. There were numerous such instances, which don't seem significant now but I felt strongly about them at the time. I was also very naive and sometimes made an issue out of a non-issue. And Ms T being an old woman of around 55-56 years at the time was set in her ways. Today, I feel that barring some things most of the times what she did was right for `kurkee'.
There were a number of things which she did which were extremely beneficial for Khushi. She gave Ragi porridge to khushi everyday and I feel this is the key reason khushi has strong immunity (touchwood and all that) is this. She was extremely particular about Khushi's diet. A case in point was making Maggi in vegetable stock...yeah, don't laugh please. Ms T didn't know any Hindi so Khushi started talking in English before she picked up Hinglish. Family members used to laugh but frankly I didn't see anything wrong about it. Obviously "kurkee" was very attached to Ms T much to my distress.
However, as I said earlier it was a complex relationship. Ms T loved her vernacular television programs which I, of course, detested. There were other areas of conflict and we parted on a slightly acrimonious terms when I decided to take a break. Nevertheless, the bygones are bygones and even after six years, we are in touch. And believe it or not she calls up every year on our daughter's birthday without fail. And Kurkee continues to have fond memories of Ms T...
No comments:
Post a Comment