It was the best of times. My apologies, Mr. Dickens, for rampantly borrowing the famous opening line from your ever-popular novel. But rest assured, the borrowing stops there, because it was certainly NOT the worst of times. It is a tale of one city and two babies --Reevu and Gogol-- a tale that is an outcome of the collaborative enthusiasm of their equally ecstatic mommies.

   My friend Angana and I, the mommies in this story, go back a long way. When we first met in 1991 in our undergraduate engineering class at Jadavpur University in Kolkata --two teenagers from suburbs-- none of us imagined that we would watch our babies having the greatest time on earth together in New York City during a late-bloomed spring weekend in 2007. It is amazing how a myriad little things converged over the years to spin out this perfect trip.

   Angana and I share more than one layer of connections. Few years back, to our surprise, we discovered that Angana’s husband Rajib happens to be my husband Bikash’s cousin sister Susmita and brother-in-law Arindam’s classmate from high school. Eventually, Arindam became a filmmaker in Bollywood. His directorial debut “Shoonya” (The Zero Zone) was going to have its North American premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York city as part of an Indian film festival. Bikash and I decided to go to New York city to catch the premiere. New York city lures us often, being less than four hours of driving distance away from our place. Both Bikash and I knew that only one of us would be able to watch the movie, while the other would be babysitting our 20-month old son Gogol. But that was OK, because we had the added incentive of having the chance to chill out at the lovely Manhattan apartment of our good friends Piu and Arnab.

   For Rajib and Angana, the trip was not trivial, because they live on the West Coast. It was a mere coincidence that Rajib was scheduled to come to New York on business trip on the same weekend that we were going. Angana quickly figured out that if she and their 18 month old son Reevu tag along with Rajib, then we would have a chance to see Gogol and Reevu together in their toddler year, which is priceless. Kudos to Angana for acting on her impulse. I firmly believe that, as life presents itself in an ‘always-running’ mode, trusting your impulsive instincts (and hoping that they are the right instincts!) often earns the most pleasant surprises for you.

   One would think that after a very active outdoor day at the zoo, marveling at the majestic tigers, summoning the reluctant ducks and egrets, and spray-painting their trousers with muddy splashes by jumping on puddles, the tiny tots would be tired and cranky by the evening. But, didn’t I mention things were really going our way in this trip? Gogol and Reevu were back in business after catching some much-needed late afternoon recharging nap. According to unanimously agreed upon plans, our husbands went for the movie premiere while Angana and I stayed in the hotel with our kids. I know it sounds anti-feministic, but, you have to remember that after all the movie was made by Bikash’s cousin’s husband, and Rajib’s school friend, legitimately making them one less degree separated from the director than Angana and me. However, the real reason for us to stay back was not to show generosity, but to take the opportunity to chill out, taking a trip down memory lane back to our college days, while watching our kids entertain each other. And boy oh boy, are we glad we made that decision! I have never seen two kids happier together, jumping on the bed and diving on the pillows, blowing bubbles, sharing stale French fries, and shredding old newspapers! They were not jealous towards each other at all. And more surprisingly, it seemed that they understood that Gogol is a bit older (by all of one and a half month) than Reevu. Gogol tried to act mature, indulging Reevu’s little fancies --the typical big brother-little brother dynamics that we didn’t quite expect from toddlers of their age. By the time we parted that night, Gogol had slumped into a satisfied sleep, but Reevu was still awake. He had cried hard that night before finally going to bed, Angana told me later.

 

P.S. the last photo is borrowed from Angana's album. Thanks Angana.