My Little StepsThe bold little steps I take while I am a kid (by Omkar)

Once I got past all the rattles, teethers, and acquarium kind of toys, and subsequently moved on to different sized cups, walkers, discover this and that toys, blocks, toy phones and such, I realized it was time for some real deal. That’s where I took fancy in Thomas the Train Engine. I can say that this was my first passion in life.

I did have a Thomas cake on my first birthday, but don’t go congratulating my dad and mom for that (!), they didn’t know what they were doing.. they didn’t even know Thomas then. They just picked up whatever looked good to them!

So it was upto me to educate them about Thomas and his celebrity status. I started small.. got a small track and a Thomas Engine and got one DVD too. Things just started rolling from there, my parents saw it coming too. I spent more time on the “Island of Sodor” than in my home – at least mentally! I studied the Engines, listened to their toot-toots and could mimic their voices and make their faces. Oh yeah, I was a walking and talking Thomas DVD alright!

In the toy store, like a loyal fan, I always chose Thomas & Friends over anything and everything. And so my collection grew, going from one engine to another.. Thomas, Gordon, James, Emily, Percy, Rusty, Salty, Cranky, Molly, Edward, Toby, Troublesome Trucks, Skarloey, Sir Handel, Mavis, Harold the Helicopter, Harvey, Diesel 10, and Bertie the bus. I created my own railway and I became “Sir Topham Hatt”!

Occasionally, I created the storms on this “Island of Sodor”! Destroyed everything, the tracks, the sheds.. it wasn’t hard, this came very naturally to me! I always saw order, in the disorder. I believe when things are scattered, they are more evenly distributed! Then my dad used to come and “fix” everything for me again.. sad he didn’t see the world the way I did. You know, there is always a disconnect.. whatever you do, your parents are never going to see your point of view!

Every time I saw someone wearing Blue, I called him Thomas / Edward / Gordon, someone wearing Yellow was Molly, Red was James, Black was Rusty, and so on.. The world was the island of Sodor to me. I got a bunch of DVDs in the process.. Daddy bought me some, rented some from Blockbuster, watched some on FiOS VOD.. I watched them over and over again. I even took the engines to my bed with me.. as many as I could every night.. I know Mommy and Daddy never liked my engines in the bed but hey, they were my friends!

Thomas played a big part in my getting potty trained. The “training” was mostly a “blackmail”! When I refused to give up my diaper, dad took all my Engines.. it was the most heartbreaking moment of my life. It put things in perspective for me going forward.. and it wasn’t too hard to give up my diaper after that! I must say, Thomas was the first tool of blackmail my parents used against me! It was used yet again to make sure that I behaved properly in school and as I improved my behavior, I got the engines back one by one!!

Somewhere between the age of 3.5 to 4, my daddy and mommy played a trick on me, they moved my Train Track up in my room instead of down in the living room. They got me into watching other things – Nick Junior, Noggin, Cars the movie.. Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, Max & Ruby, Pooh, Spongbob, Mickey.. They purposely avoided Thomas in the toy stores, got me cars, race tracks, puzzles, books.. distracted me in every possible way.. If I wanted a toy, they would put a condition that it better not be Thomas or else I was not going to get anything!

It was mean.. they had it all figured out, they were all set to dethrone Thomas from my mind! Before  my 4th Birthday, I was getting fascinated by Dinosaurs, to the point that to me, my Dad was a T-Rex! Mommy still wanted me to have a Thomas Birthday because that sorta symbolized my pre-toddler years to her. But finally, smitten by the mightly T-Rex, I did roar into my 5th year with a Dinosaur Birthday!

Thomas and Friends stayed on.. up in my room. I bring them down from time to time.. just to rekindle old memories maybe! I still watch Thomas sometimes, although I have a lot of other things to play with. When we go to the toy store, I do sometimes pick up Thomas, but then I get easily talked out of it by some other cool toy on the shelf.. I know unknowingly, I am leaving behind a good friend, and “a really useful engine”…!

Yeah, I said that and meant it, 4 years ago.. although it almost feels like yesterday!

Just to let you know, I am not a wonder kid, so all this is not me, I am just letting my dad have at it. If I type something now, the best I can do is to type “Cat” or “Rat” or “Mat” or “Car” or just “ddddddddzzzzzz” !!.. I think you get the picture now.

So this is my life, from my dad’s vantage point, who thinks as if he knows what I am thinking If he thinks that I will like what he did here posing as me, then he is just fooling himself But I guess I will accommodate him for now, especially since I depend on him heavily for my toys, the Wii, the TV and my DVDs! I don’t consciously know what else I need him for, maybe for playing with me or telling me scary stories. Mommie gives me food and she seems to get me clothes too, although who really needs them?! It’s just because she insists, that I wear them. My needs are not many, come to think of it you know..

So anyway, I will let them have it their way for a while and maybe later, remove this digital footprint of my current life when I get older – c’mon I don’t want to get embarrassed in front of my girlfriends then, do I?

Now what is my dad, posing as me, going to do here? My dad is techno-crazy and he wants to record this time for me to remember later in my life, put pictures and videos of my favorite toys, say what I have been doing at home, at school and such, record some milestones…

.. who knows, I might even kinda’ like it when I grow up!