34 Bubblegums and Candies--a mama moment

The last few days have been a blur. They have been fading into each other like the tracks that a DJ mixes at a dance floor. You don’t know exactly where one ends and the other begins—it is one continuous stream. Non-stop.

To say that I have been busy will not even begin to describe it. To say that there are a million things that go into making a book is one hundred and ten percent true, I am discovering at a break neck speed. It feels like a massive asteroid has dropped down into my living room, throwing everything around it into chaos—The asteroid is slowly melting, but till it does, we have to navigate our way around it, and make sense of the situation.

THE BOOK has completely taken over my life—and these days everything at our home revolves around the two book launches and coordinating so many things regarding it.

Usually if any of you have left me a comment, I visit you back. But please bear with me, I have not been able to do that. It will be this way for some more days, I guess. Many of you have given me awards and I feel honoured—Thank you. Many of you have tagged me—but I haven’t been able to do those tags as the sheer task of catching up with the mails flooding my Inbox itself is mammoth, at the moment.

My children keep me sane. If it was not for them, I don’t think I could have coped with this much pressure.

Elizabeth Stone said "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

She was right. My two hearts, aged ten and seven moved me to tears last evening.

“Mama,” said my son , "We are saving up our pocket money to buy your book."

“That won’t be needed, I will surely give you a copy of my book.” I smiled. “Or I will give you the money so you can both buy a copy each.” I added

“ No, mama” said my daughter “You don’t understand. We want to go to Crossword and buy your book with our money.”

Their pocket money is just Rs.10/- a week. My book costs Rs.100/-. They had been saving for weeks now. They had forgone their usual treat which they buy themselves (The junk food like Chips, Ice creams and Chocolates) and had decided to spend it on my book. There was a lump in my throat when I realized how much it meant to them.

They then said that they would both be doing some important work to help me with my book launch. They had decided to make book markers to give away at the launch. They asked me if the book markers they make will be good enough and whether I would really give them away at the launch.

“Will it be nice, Mama? We will colour it really well.” They said.

I hugged them tight and told them that it would be more valuable than the printed book marks that the store gives out, because so much of their effort would go into it.

They started making them, and have made about 12 so far. Each one has been painstakingly decorated and colored. They both want each single piece to be ‘just right.’

The launch is on October 4^th at Pune, and there are 16 days left now. My son calculated how many they would be able to make.

Then my son got a bit worried.

“Mama, I hope the people who come for your launch will not think that you made us do all this and that you are a cruel mother.” He said.

I was astonished at his incisive thinking.

“No, don’t worry.” I assured him “The people who know me will never think that. And we will not be giving the book markers to random strangers.”

Both then got engrossed in their new project of making book marks to give away at their mother’s book launch.

Long after I put them to bed, I went and had a look at what they had made. I could not prevent blinking away my tears when saw I them.

“Thanks for buying my Mom’s book.” It said. My son had printed out the words—cut them, pasted it, and then decorated it. My daughter had made a different design for each one.

To be honest, I treasured it so much that I felt like keeping them all—but it would be so unfair to the children, and they would probably conclude that it was not good enough to give away.

So I decided that they would be given only to those who really want them.

If you are coming for the book launch (Oct 4^th at Pune and October 10^th at Bangalore) and if you would like to have a book mark made by them, please tell me in my comment box and I’ll tell my children to personalize it with your name. (They would feel very important doing it) Also tell me in what name you want it.

The Asteroid continues to beckon and it has begun melting at a rapid pace. So I must go now, back to being tossed about.

This too shall pass and normalcy will return. See you soon!!