Travelling with a celebrity..

During our previous return journey, my baby mused, “Kal mere saare friends mujhe dekhte hee daur kar aayenge, autograph lene ke liye.  Appa bhi aayega.” She also said that they would pull her cheeks to check if it was really Pakhi they were seeing or they were just imagining! They would have missed her so much!

It actually turned out that the friends really missed her.  With Pakhi not around, the other kids never actually play with each other, she acts as a binding agent in her group.

So I called my hubby tell him how I felt, travelling with a celebrity, which my baby thinks, she is!

These days most of my travels (even official) are with this little celebrity and she has witnessed a lot of dairy sector at near and far-fetched rural India.

Our first journey with this little monkey was the Homecoming itself.  We hired a car from Bhopal to Ujjain after a very affectionate Godd-Bharai ceremony at Matri Chhaya, where she spent the first few months of her life.   I had all my doubts that she would howl, cry and protest while moving out with two strangers but then baby enjoyed scanning through the Bhopal city roads for a while after settling down into a blissful nap on her father’s chest.  That journey was special beyond words.  We suddenly were parents and wherever we stopped for meals or water, including a aloof, roadside Dhaba, I found people making places for us. I was suddenly a mother and no more a young girl and that happened in one day!

We traveled to Ranchi within two weeks of her homecoming.  We were still learning and she showed all her patience in coping with her parents! But her patience broke within an hour of boarding the train from Ujjain to Delhi.  We had not even crossed the next station that we felt it would be impossible to continue ravelling.  She kept her father standing near the door.  Her father once showed her the red and green lights near the electrical panel and baby was interested.  Her father pointed and said, AC and then DC. And Baby kept on insisting on repeating it, for about half an hour. 

Baby, pointing at the panel ,“Huh..?”

Father, “AC”

Baby, again pointing at the panel ,“Huh..?”

Father, “DC”

And this continued and continued..huh? AC. Huh? DC…Huh? Ac….I find it hilarious today but that day I felt pity for my husband whose back was almost giving in.

During our half a day halt at Delhi, we experienced the earthquake there.  Though baby did not realize anything, we were scared.

She was almost teething during this journey.  So the new parents carried nice teether, an apple shaped one. Baby kept dropping it again and again and parents kept washing it and handing it to her again.  She found the game pretty interesting and kept dropping the teether on the train floor and sending us to the wash basin.

It was during another journey to the Southern India in the middle of heavy retreating monsoons that Phenargen and Normet entered our life.  It was our celebrity’s teething time and was a painful phase. She also had continuous high fever, dysentery and cold.  That was also the time where my constant guide was the personally autographed book by David Werner, ‘Where there is no doctor’.  During this journey, Dr Werner’s book mentored us and erased many myths regarding child care.

During most of the time we felt our child enjoyed the non AC compartments since apparently she could ‘hear’ the rhythm and would be really merry.  So many a times we did leave our AC berth to accommodate ourselves in Non AC compartment, atleast till the time she rocked herself to sleep.

Air travels were much more challenging as she had no place to move around.  So we would keep her busy with all the tickets, boarding passes and pieces of papers which she kept fiddling with.

Most of the early important milestones were achieved during travels. Teething, standing up independently, winning over the fear of the moving train toilet.

I often take her along during my official trips too these days and her father is of the opinion that she has had more than enough exposure of the dairy sector.  Once during a dairy plant visit, I showed her the giant Ghee Making machine.  She asked me, “Ghee toh yaha bann raha hai….chawal kaha ban raha hai?”

Now my baby can explain the process of milk cooling in villages.  She knows how a cow has babies and how an animal is treated.  She has witnessed trainings on Artificial Insemination and once while I was in a discussion with a veterinary doctor at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district, baby also witnessed castration of a goat, although she had no idea of what is happening.   No wonder, her father feels that’s quite an exposure to the sector. 

But she has learnt to entertain and keep herself busy even during my long discussions and I am happy that she knows our work. 

I hope she develops a passion for travel and seeing the world and gets over her nausea during road travels.  There is much to explore and see in the world.

So, during the previous journey, when my celebrity almost hoped for a reception at the station with flowers and garlands (that is my exaggeration, I admit), I happily sat by the window remembering the many small lanes and long roads we have crossed and hoped for more and more…..this is, after all just the beginning…..