Bye, Bye Magic Mirror...

Appa is Here!


The first ten days or so since our arrival in Madras, D was on webcam from Portland every day, coming up with silly things that would make Ana giggle gleefully. One such silly thing was to claim that he has a goat in his tummy. When Ana challenges this, he would come very close to the webcam with his mouth open as Ana knows that's the way to the tummy, and then, when he was close enough he would quickly thrust a picture of a goat in front of the webcam as he moved out of the way, thus convincing her that there is a goat (more precisely, a goat picture) inside his tummy. Precious!

As Ana was high on travel excitement and associated novelty she didn't really show any signs of separation anguish then.

However, as we hopped from town to town, spending days at a stretch where we couldn't do the webcam, she struggled with uprootment issues and started bawling uncontrollably (sometimes for about an hour at a stretch), repeating the same set of phrases, drawing from the stories we've been reading every night, almost as if afraid to say anything different as it would not convey her exact feelings to me.

"Amma, I am very sad because I miss my Appa"
"Amma, I want to be in Portland with Appa"
"Amma, I want a Magic Mirror like Beast gave Beauty so I could see my Appa"
"Amma, I prayed to Vishnu for one wish to see my Appa now 'coz I miss my Appa"

The heartrending cries every night for the last four of the six weeks here has somehow melted the Divine Planner's heart enough to arrange for D to be with us here!

This was such a remote possibility that I never encouraged any hope. I kept reassuring Ana that we will see Appa when we get back to Portland, and that he misses her terribly too... and I had asked him to call us on the phone as often as he can...

But, every day, I was crumbling internally, cursing myself for traumatizing her so.

I am sure Oggie missed his dad in his own way, but, he seemed to manage fine with all the attention he has been getting everywhere.

When D confirmed his arrival a couple of weeks ago, we decided to keep it a secret as we both were dying to see Ana's surprise and happiness when she came face-to-face with her Appa who is supposed to be waiting in Portland for us to come back.

Ana was speechless!

All she managed was a tremulous "Appa!" filled with disbelief.

She clung to him the whole ride home with the widest dimpled animated smile I have ever seen on her face.

Now, D's arrival has changed the dynamics of our trip a bit. He is on an official visit, so he cannot stay with us or go back with us, and has to work every day. Plus, he won't arrive until a few weeks after we reach Portland.

But, for now, Ana's rapturous elation is highly infectious and I am thanking the Gods for hearing her doleful wails and alleviating her distress.