Kabaddi nights with Beckett

Beckett is now a little over 9 months. This when my FOMO is at its peak and when I desperately flounder to capture time in a bottle. Everyday she learns or does something new that evokes a potent and poignant concoction of joy, awe, wonder and simultaneous dread and wistfulness in me. This week she's learnt identifing a whole new bunch of things, ball throwing (she seems to be right handed much to my dismay), and answering questions like Aarvi Tu Kya Che? (Aarvi, where are you) with her trademark babbles (in this case, Aaaa aaiiii is the response and the grown up would be Aa Rhai! (Here I am)).

Thanks to Foi (Dad's sister), we are fortunate to stay really close to a public playground. Almost once a month, the playground plays host to either a cultural or a sporting event. This week it was the State Level Kabaddi tournament being hosted here. My fondness for Kabaddi goes way back to the year 2000. Fua (Foi's Husband) was visiting and took me to the ground for a walk. A Kabaddi tournament was on even then. Over a game of Kabaddi, he listened about a lot of things from me and he spoke of a few things. I don't remember all the details and I'm not sure if he remembers any of it, but it was a seminal, life changing conversation for me. That's from where life slowly started turning around for me.

So both Missus (she being an erstwhile national level athlete) and I took Beckett to watch the Kabaddi games in the evening this entire week. I don't think Beckett paid much attention to the game but she thoroughly enjoyed her walks and outings with Missus and Me. We did all sorts of things, right from shamelessly staring at Salman Khan's poster in front of the jewelry shop facade to mewing at cats to talking to each other in 3 different languages (I switch between Gujarati and English, and Beckett never shies from displaying her effortless mastery over Gibberish).

She's growing up fast; too fast for my liking. And I must find a way to slow down time so that I can savour these sumptuous moments, one at a time.