Mornings with Lakshi

Having two young children living upstairs is a pure and simple delight. Vijay and Lakshmi, Vikram's kids, are 6 and 3 and one way and another they are in our house a good part of every day. Vijay, a serious young scholar, comes for his lessons with Mummy every day without fail at precisely the appointed time.

Lakshmi comes whenever she feels like it, stays for as long as she cares to, answers if she wants to and dances if she doesn't. She is enchanting in the way only a child one has no responsibility for can be.

She is tiny, and perpetually in motion, always busy with very important projects.

Knowing she has excellent parents makes her occasionally fresh replies seem witty and funny (we know she won't be allowed to become a brat)

and her miniature size makes everything about her adorable and impossibly fetching:

Here she is reaching for the toast I made for her - cut into "lady's fingers", just like my grandmother used to make for me:

 

She watches the world of our home like a seasoned observer, alert, astute, amused. Occasionally, she leaves a little toy behind -

a tiny reminder of how lucky we are, we grownups, to still have small ones in our lives, watching, learning, existing so fully in each moment that we cannot help but remember that the true teacher is the one who is truly present.