Alex - the Special First One

Alex - the Special First One

Alex was the first child born to his parents. He was a fair and bright kid with a round and attractive face. He loved to talk and always was the centre of attraction in his home. But he rarely talked to strangers and was not comfortable in big, noisy groups.

His parents moved into a new house when he was a few months old. He became used to the neighbours who carried him around and played with him. He also had a big bunch of cousins - some older and some his age who lived at his grandma's place and would visit him often. The one person who doted him the most apart from his parents was his grandma. She would patiently put up with his tantrums, feed him and play with him.


HIS OWN LITTLE WORLD:

Even as a baby he liked to be left alone in his world. His own little world was filled with toys, colours, stories, music and cartoon characters. He also loved to watch TV. Popeye was his favourite show.

One another favourite pass-time was to create shapes and structures using lego bricks. He would spend hours playing with lego creating elaborate structures. After building these structures, he would call the neighbours whom he called Veena Akka and her elder sibling Meena Akka and show off his handiwork. Mostly they never really understood what it was supposed to be and would ask him to explain it to them. He always loved to explain his work. When he told them, surprisingly things would make sense.

First Look inside the Church

To keep him quiet at Church on Sundays, Mom would take a bag of lego with her and that would keep him occupied during the sermons. So as a baby he spent almost all his time playing crouched over lego bricks on the floor in the church. Since he was always busy playing he never really looked around much inside the church. One day, at the end of the sermon while everyone was silently praying, Daddy took him in his arms. While everyone was praying little Alex looked around and for the first time noticed the various things inside the church and finally his eyes rested on Lord Jesus on the cross. His eyes almost popped out and he cried out in his loud, clear voice "Daddy look! Jesus is Shame shame Puppy Shame".

As everyone, including the Rev. Father,looked up from their prayer, Daddy hurriedly slipped out with Alex to avoid any further embarrassment.

The Born Technician

Even as child, he was a master technician who liked to open up toys. As he grew he learned to open and assemble things - the only problem was that it wouldn't look anything like the original. But it worked all the same which made him happy.  

He loved to play with gadgets. So even as a child he became an expert in switching on the TV, browsing channels and putting on the Video Player. Overall the poor TV was at the receiving end of all his little experiments. One day, Dad was busy doing some work in his office room while Mom was cooking. Suddenly there was a loud noise in the living room. Both Mom and Dad rushed in to find Alex standing with a stunned look on his face near the TV stand and the heavy TV was face down on the ground. Mom ran and picked up Alex while Dad checked for any injury. Luckily there was no damage either to Alex or the TV. They were happy that nothing happened to the kid. Alex was slightly surprised at their reaction, as he was expecting the usual angry reactions from both Mom and Dad. Also no one actually asked him for an explanation for the mishap.


He liked the high pitched alarm clock at Veena's and Meena's house. The girls wouldn't let him anywhere near it when they were around. But he always got to play with it when they were off to college and school. He meddled with it and found out how to get the alarm to ring. He kept doing it giving Uncle and Aunty sudden shocks with the screeching alarm. They didn't bother much since he was having fun with it.

TO BE A FOODIE OR NOT TO BE:

A lot of things irritated Alex. But if there was one thing that irritated him the most, it was everyone pestering him to eat. He hated eating and he hated anyone who forced him to eat. The only way to make him eat was to make him concentrate on something else apart from food.

Grandma and the younger daughter of the neighbour Aunty, Veena were the only two people who could make him eat without making too much of a hassle. They  would come up with many stories to keep him occupied while feeding him the rice. Veena would put him in the cradle and swing it at a particular speed while telling him a story and making him eat. It was multi-tasking at its best.Since he was a Popeye fan, she would come up with Popeye stories to make him eat.

"You know Popeye eats spinach and becomes very strong immediately. If you eat spinach you will be strong like Popeye" she would say. Alex would brighten up and readily eat all the spinach.

The only food that he ate without any coaxing was cheese. As he grew older he hated food even more. He would drink lots of water and fill his stomach to avoid eating. While there would be a variety of food cooked up by his Mom - The only food that he would prefer to eat were Kanji (plain rice in warm water with salt) or curd rice with pickles. As a result he started becoming scrawny.

"Look how skinny he is" lamented Mom. "Anyone asking him what he ate would think he comes from a poor family because every time the answer is either Kanji or curd rice.”

The Hidden Foodie

But there was a little foodie hidden inside Alex – who popped out only during family functions and weddings, much to the annoyance of his Mommy.

Everyone were sitting in the church attending the marriage ceremony, when the smell of the food wafted through the hall. Alex sat patiently while the sermon went on. It seem to go on for ages much to his irritation.  Soon he was not able to resist for long as the enticing smell made his stomach to rumble.

"When will they give Biriyani?" demanded Alex with a frown, as loud as possible.

"Sushhhh" Mom gave him a stern look with a finger in her lips.

"Daddy. Can we go and have Biriyani now" he asked Daddy in a louder voice.

People around were stirring and looking for the little voice that was disturbing the wedding sermon. To escape from the searching eyes Daddy immediately lifted him up and went out. Soon the food was served and much to everyone's surprise, he had a full plate of Biriyani, all by himself, without any commotion.

The Buffet

It wedding reception of a neighbour. Alex was told that it was a buffet dinner by the bride's mother. He had no idea what a buffet was, but was super excited about it. Alex, dressed in a nice red and white sherwani sat in the hall, waiting for the buffet to come. But everyone just sat around chatting. When nothing seemed to happen, he went around looking for the bride's mother and found her chatting with some guests. He pulled her saree pallu to get her attention.

"Aunty- when will buffet come? he asked loudly, as usual . "I am hungry."

An embarrased Aunty immediately took him to the dinner hall and invited others to join them. Little Alex liked what he saw. There was loads of food in various counters. He saw people taking a plate and getting what they want. He immediately took a plate and went around piling things on his plate. By the time his parents and other neighbours came in, he was seated comfortably in a chair with his plate full of food.

"Oh my God!  Look at Alex with all that food" pointed a surprised Meena.

Seeing him already eating, Mummy went up to him. "Shall I feed you Alex?" she asked sweetly.

"No!" he replied emphatically and continued to eat, ignoring the rest.

"Look at him eating now." said Veena "And all the fuss he makes at home eating only curd rice or kanji. It’s unbelievable!"

"Yeah. My son eats good food only at functions and wedding," said a dejected Mummy much to the amusement of everyone else.

THE UNIQUE ACTS:

The Pregnant Act: 

Alex was good at imitating things which he notices on TV. One weekend at his grandma’s house,  he was watching a movie and saw a lady lying in a hospital bed, screaming, while holding on to her large stomach. A few nurses were holding down her hands and legs. Finally the lady cried out loudly and a baby's crying was heard. Later one of the nurses came out with a baby in her hands.

Alex found it very interesting and he asked his cousin Diana who was watching the movie with him. "Why is the lady screaming Akka?"

"She was giving birth to a baby." explained Diana.

"Where was the baby?" he asked.

"Did you see how big her stomach was? The baby was inside her stomach."

"So how did the baby come out" asked a perplexed Alex.

Now Diana was baffled.

"Well, finally when the lady cried aloud, the baby got the signal and jumped out of her stomach", replied Diana. She quickly left the room to avoid any further questions because Alex was quite demanding when it came to answers.

He was fascinated by the entire episode. So he made up his pregnant act. He stuffed his little pillow inside his T-Shirt so that his stomach looked like that of the lady. He then lay down on the bed and started moving his hands and legs as if in pain. Then he screamed as loudly as possible sliding up and down the bed, on his back, holding the pillow stomach with his hands. Then finally he gave one last, deafening scream and pulled out the baby (the sad and crumpled pillow ) from under his T-Shirt.

He showed off his innovative act to his parents and cousins which soon became the star attraction during weekend get togethers. Later that weekend, when he came home, he proudly showed off his new act to the neighbour Uncle and Aunty who couldn't control their laughter and surprise. That evening, his grand act was witnessed by Meena and Veena.

"Hopefully the baby is not dead", said a laughing Meena as he pulled out the pillow after a final ear piercing scream, which almost shook the room.

"How much he notices?" said a surprised Veena.

Alex was extremely proud of his act and loved all the attention it got him.

The Street Dancer

Alex loved music and dance. When his favosurite songs were played on TV or the Radio he would just dance like crazy. As a child he used to spend a lot of time at his grandma's house with his cousins.
In that locality he happened to witness the funeral procession of many on the roads and as is the custom in many parts of Chennai, people used to drink and dance in front of the procession. He used to watch this dance and imitate those funny steps and was happily joined by his bunch of cousins.

Now Alex would so the same dance in many functions, which was kind of odd and funny for the beholders. But then he never bothered and danced to his heart's content in the same style.

Hateful School:

Alex's first day in school started with lots of crying. Everyone expected the crying to stop after a few days. But it went on for months. He hated to be in school filled with strange kids and shouting teachers.

Everything about the place frightened him. He wanted to be back in his room among his story books and toys. The teachers never let him look around much and there were too many things to learn. It was stifling for the free spirited Alex.

Every weekday was a torture. He would start crying the moment he caught his mother ironing his school uniform during the weekends. Daddy would drop him off at school amidst tantrums and tears from Alex. But it was of no help.

He was getting dropped in this wretched place every day no matter how much he cried. Slowly he became calmer and accepted his fate. He understood that there was no escape from this place called School and started going without much ado.

Trying out new things:

Alex liked to do things that excited him.

Once he saw one of the older neighbor boys come down the stairs sliding down the stairway wall. He eyes brightened up as he found it very thrilling. With the help of the older boy, he climbed on the wall and went sliding down and Splat!!

He fell face first at the end of the stairway. He started yelling loudly as he felt immense pain. The older boy who helped him got scared and picked him up. There was a deep cut in his chin and he was bleeding profusely. The sight of blood on his T-Shirt made him scream louder.

Soon everyone gathered and he was taken to the clinic nearby. Later that day - when Veena and Meena came home, they found a sulking Alex sitting silently on the sofa with a big bandage on his chin. His face was all bloated and he couldn't speak. They were very alarmed.

But when Mommy told them the story behind the mishap, much to his annoyance and pain, both of them started laughing. He wrinkled his cute little nose and  turned away, disgusted - something the girls liked as he looked cuter when angry. The two girls then took him in their arms and pacified him. He felt better and smiled slightly.

One fine day, when everyone was busy, little Alex wandered out into the street. He looked around. The tree lined street had many colourful houses. Then he saw a bunch of Auto Rickshaws (Tuk Tuk) standing on the other side of the street.

He and his Mommy always took an Auto from this stand, when they went to Grandma's house. He coolly crossed the street and walked upto the Auto Rickshaws. Most of the drivers knew him and were surprised to find him all alone.

"Where are you going little one?" asked one of the drivers.

"I want to go to Grandma's house" replied Alex as a matter of fact.

"Let’s first go and get your mother. Then we can go to Grandma's house." said the driver as he took his hand.

"Okay," Alex agreed readily.

The driver led him back to his house and told Mommy what had happened. Mommy thanked the auto driver. After he left she was furious as she knew how dangerous it was for a little child to be alone on the streets.

"Don't you dare go out all alone - Alex!", scolded Mommy taking his hand and pulling him into the house.

Alex wrinkled his little nose as usual and simply never understood what all the furore was about. He took out his Lego and started playing; never really understanding that anything could have happened to him that day, in the street.

Always the Special Child

Alex was a special child who liked to be left alone in the dream world of his own where everything was exactly what he wanted it to be. He was spirited, relaxed and fun loving in his own way.

Slowly the needs and rules of the society turned him into a regular boy. One thing that changed was that he became an ardent foodie and thoroughly enjoyed good food. He grew up into a nice, gentle young man who was not so impatient with everything.He

Thankfully deep inside, Alex the free spirited, innovative kid continues to exist and continues to dream away.