It’s past 10 by the time we enter the house on a wretched Sunday night. The drudgery of the week is playing heavy on the minds of all three of us. We are back from a trip to Pune: one that was filled with utmost anxiety. So we are no doubt what you could safely call ‘dead beat tired’.
I am about to call it a day when I suddenly realised that D’s school was to have a Jungle Day celebration or some such the coming week. The Pune trip had been an urgent one and I hadn’t found the time to plan anything for a costume for him.
With trepidation I ventured towards his school planner and there in bold letters were words that make my heart sink.
Jungle Day: Monday, October 21. Children shall dress up as animals
There’s no escape now. The costume has to be made. I tell the boys (father and son) to pull up their socks and get ready for some handiwork.
We have to begin at the basics starting with zeroing in on an animal first. “What do you want to be?” I ask D. “Lion,”: his pique reply.
Lion it is then!
We rummage through our brains and cupboards for ideas and material respectively. We start with trying to fashion out a mane from some yellow paper. The mane should go around D’s face. Unfortunately, when it actually does it makes him look more like a sunflower than a lion. If only the theme was a little different!
Consequently, the idea of the lion is vetoed for logistical and technical reasons (read lack of time, material, patience and the will to think of ideas)
D meanwhile is busy giving me his famous rabbit –like grin. That’s when the brainwave hits me: D shall be a bunny rabbit! The idea sends us into a tizzy: D is animated; his father and I are fretful for there is a lot to be done.
Finally after much hullaballoo, we manage to fashion out a pair of ears for the rabbit.
I try to teach D some lines to go with his costume.
“Say, ‘I am a rabbit. I love carrots’.”
But the precocious child is far from happy with such vanilla stuff. He decides to add his bit. “I am Little Peter Rabbit. I love carrots!!” (The said character is sourced from one of his myriad CD collections)
Meanwhile, the father is teaching D to hop like a rabbit. The hopping action has caught D’s fancy. He has seen it somewhere before. Right, he has seen a frog do it (again in one of the CDs from his eclectic collection!) He figures out a connection.
When we urge him to say his lines once again, he rambles like a veteran. “I AM A FROG. I LOVE CARROTS!”
It takes us a while to convince him to stick to being a rabbit. Meanwhile, the father has managed to make a nose and two jutting-out teeth with some paper. We hold the shape over D’s nose, but he smugly reprimands us because we are covering his eyes and “he can’t see a thing.”
The nose and the teeth end up in the trash bin and we stick to only the ears. The rest shall simply have to be painted on!
It’s 1 am by the time we wrap up our little project. The debris of our teamwork is strewn all over the place. I look at the rubble.
The ears aren't the prettiest a little bunny rabbit could have. But it doesn’t matter. There is no soft furry costume for D to wear and he has to make do with his white kurta pyjama. That also doesn’t matter. We could have done a better job instead of settling for the solitary ears. But that doesn’t matter either.
What matters is that it was some great teamwork! What also matters is that after a really harrowing trip, we still managed to stay up for the costume -- all three of us.
That is what D does to us. He makes a team out of us. We become one and think as one when it comes to anything that involves him. He is the little skipper who leads our team and ensures that we deliver!
We clean up the room and hit the bed.
The frenzy has died down. I look at my little chief aka Peter Rabbit aka Frog sleeping peacefully.
It’s just all worth it.
An old picture of D. We could not manage to click one in his latest Lil Peter Rabbit avatar!
