Thoda hai, Thode ki Zaroorat hai....

"A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm"  ~ Bill Vaughan

"The weather is going to be perfect this Sunday" announced the Weatherman.

"It will be the last day of Summer for this year" said the husband, "We must plan something before the Sun vanishes altogether". Translated from husband speak, it means, "YOU must plan something before the Sun vanishes altogether".

So I get down to what I do best; identifying and planning our course of action.

Me: "What about a day at the beach?"

He: "Hmmm.... beaches HERE? In this country? Have you forgotten our beach visits in Cornwall?"

Me: Sigh. "Yes you've got a point there."What about the zoo? The boys love animals"

He: "Didn't we go to Woburn Safari just 2 weeks back? Too many animals will only make them bored"

Me: Sigh. "Yes that too! What about the Aquarium?"

He: "But that is indoors! It's going to be beautiful day. We shouldn't be spending it indoors" (Also translated as, "I do not share your very Bengali enthusiasm for fish"!)

Me: "What about a boat ride on the Thames then?"

He: "That will fun only for the first half hour. Then they won't be able to run around and will get bored"

And so it went on.... till I lost my patience. Not that I have too much of it to begin with!

Me: "If you don't like any of my plans, why don't you come up with your own great idea then?"

He: "Okay, what about we go to that little pond which has the geese and swans"

Me: "That's it? Just feed some ducks!!! That's your idea of how we spend the last perfect day of the year?"

He: "Yes, think about it. It won't take more than an hour to feed the ducks. We can play some football there and then eat ice-creams, come back home for lunch and even have time to catch a nap in the afternoon"

Me: "I knew it! I knew you didn't want to go anywhere because you wanted to sleep"!!!

Well, truth is, part of me wanted to take that afternoon nap too. So I went along with this plan; this very un-grand, un-elaborate plan without making too much of a fuss! 

Come Sunday morning, we carried some bread and fed the swans and geese in the lake. We almost got mobbed by a flock of very hungry and very bold geese and I got my finger bitten by a bird; all of which just elevated the excitement levels even further.

We went for a long walk in the little woods by the pond, pretended there were monsters hiding in the bushes and a Gruffalo waiting to pounce on us and gobble us up. We pretended the tiny little path over a dry gully was a dangerous bridge with a troll living under it. We stumbled upon a hidden little pond in the woods and threw stones into it and watched tadpoles. We ate ice-creams and lay on the grass and climbed a few trees. 

And to my surprise I discovered that while here I was, stressing endlessly about creating that perfect Sunday, my 3yr olds were as thrilled with this very simple, un-grand, un-elaborate plan, as I called it, as they would have been spending a day doing something that would have taken a few days of planning or left a hole in our pocket.

And then I realised just how true the phrase, "Thoda hai, thode ki zaroorat hai";  roughly translated, "have a little, want a little", is for a child. 

I have now learnt that a hand-me-down Spiderman costume can make one whoop as wildly and as loudly with joy as the perfect brand new costume from Amazon would! And the little paddling pool that I was worried was too small for two of them but I was forced to buy as everything bigger was sold out? Well, it's size, or lack of it, never crosses their minds even once when they jump and splash in it!

A little dinky car brings the same look of sheer ecstasy that a barn set complete with every farm animal imaginable, does! And that elaborate train set that Maasi sent all the way from across the Atlantic? Well, we found walking around with our heads inside it's now empty box, even more entertaining than the train set itself! A softie in the park can be just as exciting as a meal in a child-themed restaurant. And a day spent feeding geese and looking for trolls or splashing in muddy puddles is just as perfect as a day spent on a perfectly planned out trip! 

It is we adults who forget finding perfection in the little, the not-so-grand, the not-so-elaborate things in life. Our kids; now they understand perfectly the meaning of "Thoda hai, Thode ki zaroorat hai"