You are a father when...


Those sleepless nights all your friends 
had foretold, had warned - have arrived
so soon, so suddenly.

You post a status photo saying 
my cute angel or lion prince 
my bundle of joy.

Lots of lost well wishers call
bevy of friends line-up with gifts
including baby-oil and cash.

You tactfully find reasons to escape 
the trauma  the mom-baby combo undergo 
during the initial weeks.

Sanitisers, cough syrup bottles, vitamin drops,
indigenous magic potions and lots of 
free advice embrace you.

You can stop feeling bad when
kid cricketers down the lane shout - 
uncle, go that way.

Near and dear ones keep asking 
whens the party? and you confidently
keep saying - very soon.

Among many other things you took
for granted, you truly realise what
it means by - privacy.

Travel, cinemas, CCD, dinners, friends' place, 
shopping, gym, farewells, in general outing,  
all get messy over-night.

You acknowledge the fleeting lives of
toys, baby clothing, glassware, and surely
the recently bought iphone.

Vaccination, immunisation, constipation, consultation, injection, indigestion,
and of course frustration, become additions
to your stagnant vocabulary.

You frequently encounter and you start
mechanically answering curious, innocuous items like - 
whats the birth weight?

Diapers, medicines, toys, specialist doctor fees,
school donation and summer camps make
your nights more sleepless.

Plenty of thumb-rules eagerly greet you
morning-born babies won't sleep at nights
dad-like girls bring luck.

Quickly you realise sleep deprivation was
not as bad as you thought 
but yes, you hallucinate.

You start justifying lethargy, missed calls,
laziness, indulgence, splurging and party proxies
quickly with baby blues.

Distantly-related, long forgotten, single, old ladies 
grab your attention, you tell them - 
please join our home.

You try solving the numerology jig-saw
with permutations starting with Shui, Khru
and ending with .aijh

Sleep, food, water, leisure and time 
you presumed to be your birthright
start laughing at you.

Your Indian family tight-rope walk show
gets tighter, one more entry to 
the fragile, active ecosystem.

People congratulate you on becoming a
proud dad, down under you wonder
what's going to happen.

But after a hard day's labour
you sit back, feel plain happy 
- my baby, my love.

The Queen’s Gambit (Review)

(Glad that my review got published in Readers Write  - Thank you so much Baradwaj Rangan! ) Streaming on Netflix and consisting of seven epi...