A daddy's court-martial

Ishi’s daddy is an army man. When little Mr Ishi was all of two, his daddy was sent on a UN mission to The States for a year. The family didn’t see him through all that time. At the end of his work trip, Ishi’s parents planned to meet up in New York, holiday there for a while, and come back home.

Obviously, Ishi could not have been told his grandparents were going to take over because his parents wanted some alone time for three whole weeks. So to keep everyone happy, the story that was told to the little one was this: Mommy is going to get daddy back.

The year that his daddy was away, little Ishi had been spoiled rotten. His granny shielded his bratty behavior with the excuse that it was his way of coping. He just missed his daddy. So he went from one tender year to the other without really being checked for anything—a little strange since the parents, for obvious reasons, were otherwise strict disciplinarians.

His daddy, when he got back, was actually quite shocked to see what a little brat Ishi had become. So the first two times Ishi misbehaved, daddy let pass thinking his son was just acting out. And besides, he did feel guilty about missing important events in Ishi's life, like him starting pre-school and learning how to string complete sentences.  

But at the third, he decided it was time to take charge of the situation and reprimand his misbehaving beta. So down came the chides on little Ishi, to which the boy swiftly turned to his dad and said, “Mujhe kuch mat bolo, nahin toh Mummy ko boloonga…jahan se lekar aayi hai, wahin waapas chhod aayegi. Aur fir se lene bhi nahin aayegi!” 

(Don't say anything to me, or I'll tell Mummy...she'll leave you back to where she got you from. And she won't even come fetch you this time!")

Baby Ishi on the run