Anitha Devi Pillai
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an excerpt from “Lessons I Learned from my Son”
SELECTED PROSE
an excerpt from “Lessons I Learned from my Son”
The years get jumbled up as I try to recollect our adventures together. You were little – perhaps, two or five years old – when I realised that having a son meant trying out a whole lot of things that I never thought I would ever do.
I always knew that you loved playing outdoors. I had a hard time keeping you still whenever you spotted a bird and chased after it. You picked up cycling and skating in a matter of hours. You kept yourself entertained and that meant I could sit in the comfort of the shade and work on my doctoral thesis while keeping half an eye on you.
But you grew stronger and were soon outrunning the neighbourhood boys. Rather cautiously, I signed us up for our first family-friendly running event at the Singapore Zoological Gardens. How does one explain to a five-year old that one has an aversion to being outdoors in humid Singapore and what that would do to one’s complexion? Not surprisingly, as we ran the parent-child race together, I was out of breath and could barely keep up with you.
You could not have been more than five years old and yet, you instinctively slowed down and held my hand encouragingly for a while. But I soon stopped and walked at a snail’s space. That was when you went behind me and placed your hands on my back and gently pushed me forward.
“Come on Amma, you can do it. It’s just a little bit more. We can jog slowly. Hey, you can look at the butterflies LATER! Focus on the run! Now one step more… one step more…”
It would have been a poignant moment, except that we were flanked by parents who were trying to coax their children to run.
I ran for my life after that, just to get away from the other parents who were laughing at the sight of a skinny little boy pushing his mother and chanting “one step more… one step more…”
When we were done, I had mascara and foundation running down my face which ruined my T-shirt, but you did not notice any of that as we posed for our parent-child photo together. You clutched our first pair of Finisher Medals in one hand and my hand in the other.
You also accomplished what no other man was able to do in my life. You got me to play football and badminton. You made jogging a part of our lives. I learned the rules of soccer, badminton and fencing, just so that we could talk. I guess sports was not so bad after all.
