What if....!!!!

What if , my maid has not noticed Mishti dangling her legs out of staircase railings on time? My heart just shudders with the mere thought of what had happened next. I am still feeling that numbness in my thought-process.

I am feeling so guilty. I admit the responsibility of today's could-have-happened mishap lies completely on me. So, learnt the lesson by heart and would never-ever repeat my actions.

Today I had to visit my orthopaedic for regular check-up & a blood test at around 6PM. SG was supposed to come back late from work. My sis has left early for her office. In evening I got Mishti ready and send her my neighbour's place (their apartment is just opposite to ours, same lobby). Mishti likes to play with their pet dog and even the lady is quite affectionate towards her. She is a mid-aged lady with two grown-up kids. I have taken her advice in lot many matters related to parenting and found her tips always useful. Let me call her V.

As my hospital is nearby, so I thought that I should let Mishti play there, in the meantime I can come back from there and also taking her to hospital without any reason meant inviting fresh rounds of infection (last time she rolled on the floor there & licked the chairs in the waiting area!!!). I asked my neighbour and she heartily agreed. 

When I came back, I met another next-door neighbour(P) of mine in the housing complex lawn. ( We have three apartments in every lobby). She informed me hesitatingly about the incident. My maid who also works at P's house came out after finishing her work and found Mishti has climbed almost 7 stairs in the lobby and is dangerously dangling her leg outside the iron railing which is between second & third floor. Those grills have enough gap which could have caused something fatal. I can thank my stars that in few of those grills P's FIL has tied some nylon ropes as their kid is just an year older than Mishti...and those gaps are really dangerous for small kids.

My maid rushed back to P's house and called her who came out and thought Mishti sneaked out of our house. She started calling me. V suddenly came out after hearing this commotion and took Mishti back to her house apologetically. She admitted her carelessness and accepted that her attention got diverted as an important person ( some priest!!)*** came to her house and that is why even her iron grill door was half-open through which Mishti managed to sneak out!!

P repeatedly asked me not to lose my temper or react adversely while narrating the incident. Surprisingly, I did not felt any anger or grudge for my neighbour V at all. It seemed to me that my mind did not allowed me to think about what could have happened. Strange numbness engulfed my thoughts. I went to V's place and did not mentioned anything that I know about that happening. She herself told me and I did not gave any heed to the matter further. I somehow held myself responsible for all this...I should not have left my kid like that. 

And also if you are not a parent of a toddler ( or have forgotten the feeling), you cannot relate to the amount of vigilance we keep on these kids....whatever we do our one eye is fixed on them. So I am not able to blame that lady V....her attention span just shifted for hardly five minutes and Mishti managed to set out on her exploration trip!!

Anyway, lesson of the day, I am not going to leave Mishti with anybody other than few of my close people till the time she is not able to take care of herself.

Thank You GOD for being there.

*** Why the priest visited her place is an interesting story which is matter for another post...that might explain why she got distracted with his visit.