Gerald D'Cunha

  “You spend the first 2 years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then, you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut up.” Anonymous   D oesn’t it sound familiar? Well, it does. And, it also makes us smile, behind which, we can hear our quiet justification: “Hey, is it not parenting?” Yesterday was my mom’s b’day. She entered her 87 th . My wife and I had made a video call to wish her yesterday. Mom sounded cheerful, a lot content. One of the things, that was going through my mind was, how, with age, parents become more and more dependent on their children. Honestly, my mind went back to those initial 2 years when I was a baby… I didn’t remember much about it… But, most certainly, she must’ve taught me, like all other mothers did, to walk and talk! How important it must’ve been for her! How satisfying! What I clearly remember were the next 16 years, when I was getting into my little boyhood and slowly turning into an adolescent… Oh, t...

“Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.” Alex Haley S ome five years ago, our 27-year-old son – our only offspring - decided to chuck his job and start his creative venture on his own. Along with that, he made one more decision: to live with his maternal grandparents, who lived on their own, minutes away from where we lived. I was a bit apprehensive and expressed my feelings before my son in private. “Dad, just chill,” was how he calmed me down, “I will come back, if I face any problem.” Forget ‘problem’, the grandson and his grandparents have been getting along like a house on fire! When I see this, awestruck and confused, I think of what Claudette Colbert once said, her tongue tucked firmly in cheeks: “Why do grandparents and their grandchildren get along so well? They have the same enemy – the mother!” Well, my wife hasn’t read this Post, yet! A bout...