Every Toy Has A Special Place In Her Heart....

Some time back there was this toy-donation campaign in a mall in the neighbourhood. Parents of little one and grown-up children were encouraged to bring in their toys and other gaming things that would then be handed out to the many poor kids on the streets and in the slums.

It was a novel initiative and I decided I would go home and check through my daughter's old toys and see which ones I could donate. As it is she has a huge huge collection of soft toys and has recently begun to start collecting Disney fairies and Barbies. Plus the innumerable toys that have accumulated over the past couple of years. So when she went off to sleep I promptly brought out the toy bags and baskets and began to look. Next time when I went to the mall I handed them over and was pleased to think that toys my daughter had outgrown would bring so much cheer on some other not-so-fortunate kid's face.

Last week I saw another similar initiative and came home to sort out the toys once more. But this time my daughter would have none of it. Every soft toy I touched brought a fresh batch of tears, every doll every other toy brought cries and more tears. Eventually, she ended up loading ALL her soft toys on the bed and fell off to sleep hugging each one. When she woke up in the evening the firs thing she did was to look around and see if I had taken any of her toys. Especially her 'baby' and her 'bholu' and 'timmy' and 'Clubhouse Friends' and 'Barney' and 'Santa Buddy' and 'Cutie bhow-wow' and 'cutie doggy' and 'big doggy' and 'glazy' and 'ladybug' and 'hen' and sooooooooo many of them !!! That entire evening she spent surrounded with ALL her toys...And she spoke to each one of them, hugging them each in turn, kissing them, looking after them, feeding them from her plate, playing 'teacher teacher' and 'doctor' and 'office office'.....Her mamma and papa were lost to her for that entire evening, all her attention and love focussed on her toys...

As I put her to bed that night she insisted again to have ALL her toys with her. I could see she was scared I might try to take them away again. Every night she sleeps with a few favourite toys and dolls, her favourites changing often but two of her toys are always there with her, occupying the TOP slot. But that night, all her toys were in the TOP slot.

For me they were just toys, but when I saw what they meant to my little one and how she was attached to each one of them, talking to them with their names and insisting on going to sleep together, I realised I needed to leave her with her wonderful friends for now.......