My dear children Shiv and Aditi,
Finally, I am sitting down and starting to write to you a series of letters that I’ve been wanting to complete.
Right now we are in the month of May, in the year 2020. Shiv you are five years old, Aditi three years old.
The year 2020 started off tough, from the beginning of the year, we have been battling a global pandemic called COVID-19. As a result, bay area citizens are currently under a “shelter to place” order. We quarantine ourselves at home, no outdoor activities and playgrounds, no social interactions and playdates.
For Shiv, the public primary school you attended for Transitional Kindergarten has been shut down from March 16th. Hopefully, it will be open in August for your kindergarten year.
For Aditi, I took you out of preschool from March 16th till the end of April, for the fear of coronavirus spread. Your preschool as a Child-Care Facility is exempted from the “shelter to place” order, as long as it follows health guidelines properly. Therefore we resumed your study from the beginning of May, for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings only.
Luckily both of you are at the transitional age from parallel play to cooperative play, sometimes parallel play is still dominant. Also because you have each other to play with, this quarantine so far has not been showing a negative impact on your social development.
The reality is, you two have been acting so energetic and mischievous, in your uninterrupted plays throughout the day. You can play together for hours, needing no assistance or supervision from the adults. Sometimes you make lego structures, sometimes you play make-believe. From sweeping the floor in the front yard to feeding fishes and birds in the backyard, there is always something to do.
You initiate ideas and communicate with each other. Therefore nowadays, very often I leave you two to play alone, trying not to disturb you. In this way, I am encouraging the development of your autonomy.
However, when hearing my steps approaching, both of you would start to giggle, whispering with an exclaiming voice: “Hide! Hide!”. When I walk close enough, I can never see you. Like a dash, you disappear in front of my eyes, each and every time.
The hiding spot you crawl into has stayed unchanged for the past two months, ten times a day.
Most of the time I play along, pretending that I lost you again. First I go to all the random places to look for you, behind the bathtub curtain, in the closet, underneath the bed, inside the toy boxes. I talk to myself while flipping over each one of the rocks. You couldn’t stop giggling.
If it took me too long to locate you, you would start to give me hints by throwing out a toy bear or a stuffed rabbit. In the end, I act extremely surprised that I spot you at that narrow corner in between two bookshelves. You also laugh so hard and feel thrilled that you are exposed.
At the same spot, ten times a day.
But Aditi has gotten more sneaky recently. There was one time she hid from me by herself when Shiv was downstairs building blocks. I looked everywhere for her, but couldn’t find her. There was no giggling, no noise, no movement.
I grew anxious after five minutes of searching. Strange thoughts such as “abducted by forces from the parallel universe”, “snatched away via a black hole opened in the closet”, started racing in my mind.
Finally, your papa came to the rescue, he was able to sniff Aditi out from a corner in my dressing room. We all burst out laughing on the floor.
For the past few months, fua and fufa have been coming to visit us all the weekends. Fua’s work has changed to 100% work-from-home, like most of the Silicon Valley employees. Fufa’s university also doesn’t require him to be on the campus in Baltimore.
They stay at home in the south bay, work from Monday to Friday, drive here on Friday evening, stay over for one night, then drive back on Saturday evening. Thus Friday and Saturday are surely the happiest two days of the whole week.
On Friday morning around 9am, after getting permission from me, both of you would climb onto the dining table, sit in front of the device, commanding “Ok Google, call Leena Shekhar”. The commands usually are successful.
When the video call is picked up, displayed on the screen of the receiving end, first a smiling face of fua fixed on a photo, then a young Paul McCartney sitting with other Beatles members. Fufa’s voice with a British accent in the background: “Hello, do you want to talk to Leena? Or you want to chat with Paul? What’s the matter, young man and young lady?”
After the laugh, you urgently ask:”Fua fufa, are you coming now? When will you be here?”
Then 11am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, four more times, you climb on the table, without permission from mommy, commanding “Ok Google” to make video calls. With only one question to be answered: "When will you be here?”
Finally at 5:30pm, after the last video call, you are confirmed that fua fufa are on the way. With the help from mommy to do some calculation, the time of arrival is set to be 6:15pm. So at around 6pm, you open the front door, pop your heads out to see if the car is here yet.
When fua fufa are here, you never stop playing: crafting, robot dance, lightsaber fight, hide and seek, gymnastics, dancing to rock and roll.
Because of the influence from your papa, fua and fufa, your current favorite songs are “American pie”, “Blowing in the wind” and all the Beatles songs, actually, all the 60s’ classic rock.
Shiv you can recite 95% of the lyrics in “American pie”. You simply love rhyming and poetry with great rhythms. Aditi you are also getting there, faster than I can imagine.
I have no objection to letting you fully enjoy the pops and rocks, as long as the lyrics are healthy and positive. The truth is, the majority of classic rocks are each a piece of art. A lot of them are born in a glorious time when the Civil Rights Movement had been deeply rooted in society and the Freedom of Speech Movement was taking place.
Every time we play them, we are moved by the strong sense of social commitment, moved by the passion and determination, moved by the way it is upholding integrity and humanity.
Growing up under such influence, not only you will learn to love music and life, but also should be taking up social responsibility without hesitation when it is needed.
At least this is what mommy expects from you.
Will write you soon.
Love mama
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