Each one of us on this earth has urges to which one is susceptible. An urge, which no matter how much we try to restrict and refrain, does manage to surface every now and then, whenever tempted. Someone has an urge to smoke, someone an urge to shop, someone might have an urge to eat chocolates and Moms in general have an urge to correct.

It is born the day you become a mother. Along with your baby this urge comes in your life to forever become a part and parcel of motherhood. It continues from the days when your child doesn’t even know who you are, to the day he fully understands who he is and beyond.

You fan your urge each passing day, hoping today to correct the squinty looking eyes of your four days old and trying to correct his stubbed little nose the other day. You want to set right each action, move, word, habit and interest of your child, which you feel needs correction, to finally mould him/ her into an individual of your choice. However, more often than not, one doesn’t even give a thought to the natural instincts of children that we curb in our efforts to be protective, cautious and perfect.

Somehow, the birth of my second child has made me less worried and more permissive than I was with my elder one. For, maybe I have understood the wisdom behind the words of a friend who once said "no child remains toothless forever!"

My nine month old has recently begun rolling his tongue around in his mouth, to form words which appear more or less as garble to me. Yet, the other day I loved each moment that I spent chatting with him in purely his style, all garble, no sense, talk. It reminded me of how eagerly I used to correct my daughter’s words to teach her something sensible to say, without really enjoying what she was saying.

As I sat there ruminating over the past, in the other room I could hear my daughter prepare her lines on the topic-‘myself’. Suddenly my Mommy antennas heard the line, “I am a girl and I am elliteng.”

“Eliteng?” I thought, “oh no!” it was supposed to be ‘intelligent’. My corrective instincts in full swing, I rushed to the other room to correct her before she mispronounced the word again. Just as I was about to do so, a thought crossed my mind.

I realized it would not be long before she’ll grow out of these mispronunciations, leaving all this garble behind in some long forgotten memory lane. Not long before the ‘sobrink’ would become ‘soft drink’ and ‘mirute’ would become ‘minute’. Not long before I’ll long for these shiny little eyes to look up into mine with expectation, that I would understand that garble and appreciate it too. It certainly won’t take long before she’ll be all grown up and perfect correcting her own little ones somewhere.

With those thoughts tugging at my heart strings, I rushed out of the room only to return with my handycam. I asked her to say the lines again, ‘elliteng’ and all, so that I could save the moment with me forever.

Maybe my urge to correct is incorrigible, but believe me when I tell you, that day I made a video just perfect for me – timeless, priceless and purely uncensored!