Category: Happy Birthday
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Finally, A Gift He Likes!
“This is the best birthday gift you have given me!” Saathi beams as he chops vegetables and lifts his eyes to mine. I search for snark and find none. He truly is enjoying the breeze the portable fan in front of him is generating. For years he would sit at the island, sweat beading above…
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Four Years Old: This Little Baby Of Mine
“Amma, they don’t know sowkyama, nanna irruken…” “What is the word for kaaram?” Laddu is in the backseat trying to convince me that her friends at school do not know Tamil. We have a conversation each morning on the way to her school. Some days she muses on the speed of my driving. Other days…
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The Morning After – Birthday Edition
I lift the blinds on the side door. The room feels suddenly chill and I shiver. I continue to sort clothes into piles. When I am done, there are three. I start the washer and the sound of the walkie-talkie startles me. The twins are sitting next to each other on the sofa and talking…
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Wishes
The cold is uncomfortable. The kids shuffle along looking for their cozy slippers long buried under a mountain of fleece and wool. I long for a sweater but hold out hope for a return to warmth. The rain does not help. Incessant, drab, the drip, drip of the water is grating on my nerves. I…
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Serenading My Darlings
I watch from the front door, the stoop damp from all the snow melt as my children trudge through slushy piles of melting snow and ice. Their backpack hangs heavy from their shoulders. They carry a huge unwieldy trifold board in their hands struggling to keep it off the ground. “I love you.” My voice…
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Birthday Musings
Ammu nuzzles my cheek with her nose, throws her arms around my neck, kisses me and flits off to do whatever it is she is occupied with at the moment. Today she is working on a school project. There are sticky notes all over the place. She painstakingly colors the first American flag and sketches…