Raks was almost two years and had precisely four teeth, which she used quite prodigiously to bite the TV remote, the milk bottle and myriad other things that I forget now (good thing that I am writing the rest. I probably have early signs of alzheimers). I remember being very reluctant to breast feed her, as her teeth were sharp enough to draw blood (Twice ouch!).
And we were invited to a 'birthday party'. Raks at that age, knew that birthday parties meant bouncing castle, ice cream, blowing of candles and of course return gifts (they better be good!). I still remember the cutesy white coloured frock that she wore with small buds and florets. She looked so angelic and lovely that I got ready for the compliments that were going to come my way.
The party was for a five year old boy and there was a car shaped cake. Raks went around checking out the entertainment; bouncing castle - we had to tempt her out of it with an ice cream, after she bounced on it for half hour, missing the cake cutting ceremony (Giving gifts for others were not her finest moments even then!). She got a tele tubbies tattoo, done on both her shoulders and had four spoons of ice cream before she ran off.
Left to polish off the ice cream, I sat down watching her, as she went around with girls of her size and suddenly there was a piercing scream and I ran towards the scene. One of raks's instant friends was crying pointing fingers at my innocent daughter. With my motherly instincts up, I picked up raks and asked what the matter was?
"She bit me." said the girl
"No. Rakshah wouldn't do any such thing." I declared but the witnesses were unwavering in their statements. So I took the offender back to the seat but I have never been able to get raks to sit in one place, unless the idiot box was on. Soon she meandered off and this time with a couple a boys her size. And I followed her. She joined the boys at the bouncing castle and soon were safely bouncing with a cute chubby boy. I felt indignant at the girls, who had condemned her and my heart melted when I saw her giving the cute little boy a kiss and within a second, all the gooey feeling was replaced with horror. In the guise of a kiss, she bit him yet again.
"Bah bah bah...."
Oh God! I quickly yanked her off the bouncing castle before anybody could notice. Thankfully, my husband joined me and I berated him for leaving me alone to deal with his 'vampirish' daughter. We resolved to keep a close eye on her but even as we discussed, she had slunk off after a cute girl. With my husband on the watch force, we tracked her down fast before she could deliver the killer kiss. But by then, word had spread around and parents who had cute little boys and daughters were on their guard to pick up their kids, if raks so much as looked at them.
And to my mortification, I heard conversations where, mothers were warning their kids to stay away from raks. With this and more, I was ready to leave but my husband was half way through dinner and the hostess was insistent that I have dinner. With two ice creams and three balloons I sat down with her in a corner keeping her away from all the kids.
I was itching to get to my computer and research about why kids bite other kids, fearing what the results would throw up. What if it is a disease ending in 'iasis'? Will this require therapy, counseling? What if they throw her out of the school for biting her classmates?
The end of the day, raks was very happy. She got two goody bags of presents from the hostess, which was all very well because we didn't grace any party, birthday or otherwise for the next one year. (Thankfully she got over the habit within a year. Phew!)
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