And yet, this one moment made me smile and wonder.
My husband asked me to do up my eyes for a photo he had in mind. I did. His first remark when he saw me after I had applied kajal, "Our older one would have done a better job of it."
I was reminded of a story by Sarojini Naidu that I read recently. A queen finds her life boring and monotonous. It lacks challenges, she complains to the king. The king brings concubines, but that does nothing to her sense of complacence. She has a daughter. Over the years, despite his best efforts to create hurdles, the king is unable to make the queen feel alive and challenged.
Then one day, the queen sees her daughter, who is now a grown up. I don't remember the details. But I am sure the daughter must have back-answered as if SHE is the mother! The queen has finally found her match.
Yes, I often feel that with my daughter.
That day, I pursed my lips at my husband's remark.
My daughter came home, took one look at my eye and told me, "The next time you want to draw your eyes, tell me. I will do it for you." And then she went on to correct my handiwork.
How times have changed! There was a time when I was drawing her eyes, inexpertly maybe, but she had to come to me for that. And now I was letting her correct mine...
I didn't get teary eyed. But... I couldn't help remembering all those days when she would sit with her eyes closed as I lined her upper eyelid.
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