The Best Promise
Dhaval Thakkar
We had three big cups in our house – Two china clay cups (for me and my wife) and one melamine cup (for our two years old kid - Advit). As decided by Advit, I always had my tea in light blue cup and my wife had it in a dark blue one. He had for himself the melamine cup with a picture of cow on it. As Advit had a habit of waking up early in the morning, we had our routine fixed for the morning tea. While I and my wife had tea, Advit had milk.
Advit always insisted us on having tea in our own cups allocated by him. If by mistake I took my wife’s cup, he would shout and say, “This is Mumma cup… Take Pappa cup”. We did not keep any extra cups at home because we hardly had any guests. But after couple of crazy experiences of serving tea to guests in our cups, we bought some extra cups for guests.
Advit did his own work. After finishing his milk, he’d go and keep his cup in wash basin himself. Not only his, but he’d sometimes take our cup and keep it in the basin. There was a risk of him breaking one of our cups but we had to take those chances to keep him from shouting and crying. Sometimes results of teaching good habits to kids can be dangerous.
One day, the thing which we feared happened. Advit decided to carry all the three cups together to the basin. I tried to stop him. But he is too stubborn to listen. So after few minutes of me shouting at him and him crying, I allowed to do him what he wanted. He carried all the three cups to the basing properly but the ‘Pappa cup’ broke while he tried to put it in the basin – it was just the bad luck. From next day I had tea in one of the cups we used for guests because I was still not allowed to use my wife’s cup even if she wasn’t around.
More than a month had passed. One day my wife had gone out for some work. So I and Advit were alone at home. Suddenly Advit asked for milk! It wouldn’t have been strange but this was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He generally have it in the evening. So I made him some warm milk and gave it in his ‘Cow Cup’ (that’s what he called his cup). He then said, “Pappa, Tea”. I thought he was asking for tea so I made his understand that only Pappa and Mumma have tea and Advit should have milk. But he again said, “Papppaaaa Tea” – this time without a pause between the two words. So I guessed he was asking me to have tea. I confirmed with him and he nodded. Now, I can have tea at any time of day or even night. But to make it at this time felt boring. I tried to make him understand but he left his milk and went and sat in a corner. That was an indication that I had no other choice. Either I have tea with him or he won’t have his milk. So I made some tea for myself and called him.
Advit finished his milk in few seconds. I was just about to take first sip when he said, “Pappa, this is Mumma cup”. I had assumed that he might have forgotten as I never tried to take that cup since a long time. But surprise was that he didn’t even cry or shout. He just said it calmly. So I said, “Yes, son. This is Mumma cup. Can I use it today as Mumma is not here?” He just nodded and after thinking for few seconds he said, “Pappa, where is Pappa cup?” I replied back with a question, “You tell me where is Pappa cup?” He said, “Advit broke it”. I just touched his head and told him that’s okay. After a brief silence, I heard a sentence which almost made me cry. He said, “Pappa, Advit broke ‘Pappa cup’. Advit will bring a new ‘Pappa cup’ for Pappa”. I asked him, “Promise”? He again nodded. He nods whenever he hears a new word that’s difficult for him to repeat. But I took it as his agreement.
I could not hold myself back. So I pulled him, hugged him tightly, kissed him about twenty times and said “Thank you”. And as if he understood my feeling and not knowing what to say in reply of ‘Thank you’, he just gave me a big kiss. What more should I ask for? I got a promise from my two years old kid – The Best Promise I ever got.
