A lot has happened over the past 3 months and I am NOT going to blog about all that today!! Akashara is 2 yrs and 8 months now, talks incessantly and has become very, very independent. How she got her “independence” is the story line for today’s blog.

 In June, I took a week off from work and planned a trip to Hyderabad. I was all excited about it as I was going there after a long time. Axe was looking forward to the journey, did not really matter where we were going!!

 We reached Hyderabad on a Saturday, chilled out the whole day. We chose Sunday to go visit a few people. After logging attendance at some 5 houses we reached the appointed place, a cousin’s house, for dinner. It was well after Axe’s dinner time, so I decided to feed her. I went to the bathroom to freshen up, slipped, fell and broke my right arm. It happened in a flash. It just snapped into two, period.

 By the time we were done with getting me admitted to Emergency, got the first aid, x-rays, checked into a room for the long stay, it was well beyond 11 pm. Akshara was such a darling…for three hours, she stayed with a total stranger, no dinner, (I heard later that she attempted drinking Frooti, but did not like it) and no Amma! When they got her into the room to say Bye to me, she did not like what she saw. I was lying down; hand is a cast, tied to the IV stand to restrict movement. She refused to come close to me…..my heart broke!

 I suffered from separation anxiety, more so when my cousin would call and say, “You don’t worry about her, she is fine. She is NOT asking for you!” I went back home after the surgery to find a changed Akshara. The first thing she asked me was “Amma , this hand broke? You slipped in the bathroom? I will “pitti” (beat) the bathroom amma.” She had missed me, thankfully, because every now and then she would ask, “Carry me amma” pause “not with the broke hand, with this hand” (pointing to my left hand).

 I am recovering, undergoing physiotherapy, which I think is the most painful part of the whole recovery process. Axe gives me a KISS on the arm every time I complain of pain and says this each time “If I give you a kissi (no spelling mistake here), your pain will go no amma?”

 Very true Akshara……….