Grandchildren of this age and time defy every other concept of what grandchildren should be. Remove the ‘children’ in their description, they are simply ‘grand’. The elders of today, or of any day, prided themselves in the fact that they were better company and teachers to the children of their children. Not any more. I have spent many a day with Navya and Agastya and I have been the one asking the questions.

How does this work ? But if you press this button what would happen ? Can you fix this for me ? Teach me how this is done ? Just set it up for me, will you …. is the conversation that transpires with them these days.

They with their fluency on lap tops and PSP’s and what have you, are far far away from the elder in the rocking chair, progeny on lap asking for a story about little dwarfs !

Navya is a preoccupied and ‘knowitall’ lady, with an expression that exudes a ‘look at all the burden of life that I have to carry’. She speaks now with a tired drawl and expresses surprise when we are unable to counter her French, or suppress our joy in the absolute manner in which she rapidly moves her fingers on the piano. Not to mention of course the many artistic objects she constructs with her delicate hands and gifts them with casual confidence, nor the reference she often gives of the books that she has read and that I have not.

Her brother Agastya has a concentration time span of a few seconds and if you fail to move in with him at his dictated speed you can say bye bye to the new computer game, the wi sport or the other digital object in hand that requires every finger on your body to be moving at great speed in order to compete with the various ominous sounds that keep emanating from said objects in rhythmic fashion. And after much deliberation and practice when you have finally overcome the nerves to battle these little giants that keep appearing from no where on a palm sized screen, you discover junior has slipped into his team football gear and is off to play the match of the evening - soccer boots, shin pads, calf length socks and numbered tees with favorite MAN U player name..and all !!

MAN U yes ! His team ! And now gloating after the last 3-0 thrashing they gave Chelsea, the team supported by his Mamu and Nana..

She is 11. He is 8.

This is no age to be like what they are ? I mean… you know.. in our time it was, well… how do you say it.. just not there !!

So.. its no longer the cute cuddly talk.. its normal ‘yo’ conversation. And if you are groping with the speed of their mind and conversation, its a very fed up.. NAAA..NAAAAA !!!

It’s humbling to see and be with a superior being. A being that is worldly wise and mature. Head firmly on shoulder. Feet firmly on ground.

The day has been entirely spent in awe and wonderment. And Jaya and me have come away educated and learned in many of the ways, of the generation of today.

It has also been spent in the company of first generation - one that has been eluding us and is busy educating us on the geography of the country, through the locations where he is working and the other that reveals herself from the depths of Southern India, suffering though, with a bad throat and fever.

This is all in Delhi. Tomorrow they shall be in their work places spread out again all over the country and we shall be inhabiting the peaks of white glory in Helvetia !!

There is no time to stand and stare…

We come together.. briefly.. and are away again. Life has become so disjointed. I long for it to be all together..

My love for you as always.. even at 4:03 AM !!

Good night.. or whatever is left of it…

Amitabh Bachchan