Anu - a particle + Usha - the shimmering pink early morning light

The world welcomed her with a storm followed by an earthquake!!

It seems such a long time ago.

Her grandfather loved carrying her on his shoulders. When she, all of one and a half feet tall, posed dressed in a pagdi, salwar and kurti carrying a toy gun, he named her 'Sultana Daku'.

At the airport she stood docilely by her mother next to the carousel waiting for the luggage. When her mother pointed to me waiting outside the passenger area, she came running with the yellow frock flying behind her and then having over-shot, stopped suddenly, looking up at that crowd of grown-ups, trying to find me in that crowd.

Standing there looking up she looked so tiny!

She throbbed with the bubbling vitality of the experience of her journey all the way from Delhi to Lagos. Her sharing came tumbling out in a stream to stop only when we reached home.

In the words of the car driver : 'Massa's daughter talks and talks and talks.....

After the 'Three days... ' this was for her:

Nov 24th, '95

To Our Daughter

You had grown

From a crying baby to a tumbling toddler.

As you ran out of the custom's area

And gazed up trying to find your father

In the crowd.

That was the first time I picked you up.

And you started talkng

To finish only when we reached home.

Waking up to your "Good mornings!"

When you sat on my tummy jumping up and down

Shouting

"Good morning! Good morning! Good morning!"

And your delight in finding a new name

For your brother yet to be born.

We shared your agony when we saw you

Sitting on a chair holding your wrenched elbow

And crying in pain.

And we shared your joy

When you pranced around

As the 'lion king'

Singing with arms waving.

And then one day

You stood before us dressed in a sari.

Pretty, confident and bubbling;

A sense of Deja Vu

And then the memory

Of your mother dressed as you were

Before our marriage.

A deep pang of regret,

And joy too.

Of a childhood gone by,

Of a child transformed into a woman,

Of fullness and pride

For within you, with your love

We shall live on.

Take just a pinch of our love

And store it within

For then we will always be there

As your strength.

To protect, to guide and to nurture you

In moments of hurt and sadness;

And to share

Without reducing

Your moments of joy.

And when you are at a loss

And cannot find the words

Our love would flow out in a harmonious stream

Through my poems

For they and I are you.