Heeya’s New Glasses

Once you love something, you become responsible for it. Forever.

Responsible for managing every little fear, every drop of tear and the mildest pain.

Signs at the airport and blackboard from last benches were blurry and 2 numbers were copied wrong. A paediatric optometrist, some eye drops and eye tests. Then came an alien object on the nose that was to become a part of rest of life, with 19 half known and unknown tiny worries. “I dont want those drops Maa, ple...ease! Wont I be able to see without these ‘things’ anymore? Will friends make fun of me? Ma! Someone pulled my specs off today in school!!! Will my nose hurt? Will it sweat too? Were you also scared to wear your first glasses when you were small, Ma? Do I have to put these on for bedtime stories? But this keeps slipping down…” - Tiny anxieties, tiny problems – very big anxieties and big problems for my 6 year old.

It is easy answering childhood apprehensions with grown up wisdom. The tough part is when you are not practical enough to handle it passively, when you are not adequately disconnected. Then you get all noodled and mixed up in your head … all the tiny anxieties suddenly mingle with your own worry threads … bits of your own 6 year-old-first-glasses-deja-vu-from-years-back add to it … and you are just about a little helpless in the head. :)

At that point, you are no longer a mother sharing wisdom. You are the little daughter as well. Questioning and worrying and at times, unreasonably crying together.

Because you see, once you love something, you do become responsible for it in a very strange and mixed-up way.