Then and Now

Early 1980’s.

I was in class 7. One day, one of my classmate and friend called the rest of us to a corner to share a secret. And…..she told us how babies were made!

When our friend explained to us about the birds and bees ( it was not as romantic as it sounds); we did not even know what to call the ‘thing’ between a boy’s leg, except in our vernacular language.

She said – ” when a man puts his willy into our hole….babies happen.

I went home and locked myself in the bathroom. I searched and searched for the “hole” and could not find it. I was not shocked but, perplexed. I concluded that both my friend and her brother were just trying to prove they were smart than others and nothing more.

Last year.

I had taken my kids to a movie. We had some time to kill before the movie started and we got chatty. My son, age 12 and then in class 7 said – “ Mom, give me 1000 bucks tomorrow.”

Me – “Why?”

He – “We want to book a hotel room.” Matter of factly.

Me- “For whom and why? Is it someone’s birthday? A surprise party or something?”

He – “Dev and Anushka are now boyfriend-girlfriend.”

Me – “So?” ( I was a bit surprised and shocked that he knew this.)

He – “So? Don’t act as if you don’t know. Why do lovers go to a hotel room Mom? For their honey moon!!”

The look on my face – Incredulous!

Parentous: Have any of you faced such a situation? What did you do then?

Janaki Nagraj is a homemaker and a mother of two teen aged kids. She discovered writing almost two years back and have been blogging since. She also writes poetry. She thinks that blogging has opened up a whole new world for her and with writing she discovered herself.