Lost in Bangkok:
I think Mindy Kaling put it best when she wrote in ” …I guess I’m just one of those weird kids who likes their parents too much.”* I feel you my favorite spirit animal.
No seriously. I love my parents. It’s not because I’m an only child- though the whole showering me with their undivided affection does give them bonus points. It’s because they are awesome people. In fact, people who have met them will definitely tell you they are way cooler than me.
Which is why it’s extremely gratifying when I get to tell stories about those “oh” moments they had while raising their only loveable daughter.
Bangkok 1990
Mom and I had just arrived in Bangkok at 3AM. Mom was exhausted after 25 hours of cross continental travel (we were going to India via the Pacific) and managing 6* suitcases and a sleep-deprived three year old, by herself.
Always one for efficiency, Mom instructed me to stay right behind her as she checked into the airport hotel, since she needed a hand free to navigate the overloaded cart. Stay behing me she said, walking to the elevator; the last frontier between us and the five hours sleep before our connecting flight to Kolkata. Breathing a sigh of relief, she waved her hand to find me.
Nothing.
Frantically she turned left and right. Nothing. She leapt out of the elevator, abandoning the luggage cart in the door, and start roaming through the empty hotel corridors.
Nothing.
Two smartly dressed business people came walking by, and my mother frantically asks: have you seen a small child? Smirking only as much as they dared in front of a panicked mother, they gestured behind her. She turned her head. And that’s when she caught a glimpse of me.
Apparently I listened really well as a three year old and stayed right behind her. When she turned I turned. When she leapt out of the elevator, I leapt out of the elevator. She roamed the corridor, I stayed right behind, the think carpets hiding any sounds of my presence.
Obedient child is a good thing, right?
Note: Unfortunately there are no photos documenting the great “lost child” incident of 1990. However, we took an awesome #selfie two months ago. So there is that.
* This was back in the olden days, pre-cell phones and tweets, she had the joy of unlimited baggage (perfect for the copious gifts for family members and extra toys for me.
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