Swiss with a Twist! - Young M.S!

Bhavani Mohan
Jan 25, 2022
6 min read

What Twist???

Have some patience folks!

First things first, lemme introduce the main character in the Swiss journey – My Son – 7 Yr old Then, 10 Yr old Now. Gonna call him M.S (Master SpeedCuber/Math Scientist/Mini Supercoder, I leave it to HIS imagination. For me it’s in short “My Son”).

UFFFF!!!.. I can already hear the imaginary mind voice of Mr.Husband correcting it by claiming his rightful share – “It’s OUR Son”. Well… technically it’s “My” Blog, so I hope it’s okay to say “My” Son in “My” Blog 😬😬😬. But, that's not gonna convince Mr.H!

But, am hoping Mr.H will allow it to be M.S.

Why???

Because Mr.H is a huge fan of M.S.Dhoni (😁😁😁, fingers crossed🤞🤞🤞)

Man! Instead of all these confusing nicks, can’t we simply use the real names?! BUT At this point, everyone except me, are still SUPPOSEDLY in Stealth Mode to protect their privacy & identity.🙄🙄🙄 So, I NEED to abide by it.

It’s also pertinent to note that – OH MY GOD! Did I just write “pertinent to note” in my personal blog??? The contract letters that I have been writing at work is REALLY rubbing off on me. UFFFF!🤷🤷🤷

My Son had been vocally against putting personal content on the internet from day one.

So, I had to get the contents proof checked by M.S & Mr.H and publish it only after their approval.

It took a while for him to warmup and to "graciously" agree to be the "Hero". 😁😁😁

[The Story Begins]

The HERO of OUR Swiss Story is M.S, to fully comprehend what that means, one must know who M.S is, apart from the fact that he is My Son.

(“It’s Our Son” - I can so vividly hear Mr.H in my mind, guilt tripping me… Shhhhh!)

If you have seen the Young Sheldon Series, it would be easy for you to grasp what am talking about. If not, I have some handy samples to paint a dandy picture of that.

Wait a minute!

M.S could very well be My Sheldon too! Wow! That’s a nice Co-incidence!

(“It’s Our Sheldon” – Mind voice of Mr.H again…Oh Goddd!… It’s interrupting my flow of thoughts!)

Got to deal with the real Mr.H while he proof checks!

[Proof Check – Cleared – YAY!]

This is the 6th draft which finally got approved. 🙊🙊🙊

Now that everything wrt. short names and proof checking are settled,

LET’S LOOK AT OUR PROTAGONIST.

[The Story REALLY Begins]

M.S is the closest real life version of Sheldon…

Full Disclosure: Am NOT the only one to say that!

That’s what EVERYONE (who knows the Young Sheldon Series) says after listening to M.S for less than 3 minutes. Yes, less than 3 mins!

Here are some HANDY Conversations to paint a DANDY picture…

[7 YR OLD M.S]

My Son: Mommy, today's lesson is converting Dozenal to Decimal...

Me: WHAT!? What is a “Dozenal”? 😳😳😳

M.S: Dozenal is base 12 and Decimal is base 10. We are just gonna learn how to convert base 12 to base 10 💁

Me : Again… WHAT?? 😳😳😳

M.S: UFFF! Leave it Mommy!

Me: Thank God!🙏🙏🙏

[Not that I had a choice!]

[8 YR OLD M.S]

Me : M.S, you are so funny!😆

M.S : I know! 💁

Me : Huh! 🤨What makes you think you are funny ?

M.S : Because am intelligent.💁

Me : How's that related?🤔

M.S : To understand that , you need to be intelligent Mummy!😐

Me : What makes you think am not intelligent? 🤨 (Trying to outsmart him)

M.S : Well.. Then you WOULD HAVE BEEN Funny Mummy... 🤷... Get it?

Me: Total Damage!🙄🙄🙄

[I called for it! Didn’t I?]

[9 YR OLD M.S]

M.S: Mommy, can I teach you the game of "Cheft”? 🤩

Me: Huh? U mean Chess?🧐

M.S: NO!! CHEFT!!🤷

Me: What’s that?🤔

M.S: It's "Empire” Chess.😎

Me: Then, why are you calling it as "Cheft"? 🤔

M.S: Well, it's sort of complicated... But, lemme explain.

Since Chess came from the word SHAH, which is Persian for "King" , I anglicized the word SULTAN to "Chutaf" and then to "Chetf" and then to "Cheft" and then to "Sheft" and then to "Kheft" and finally decided to go back to "Cheft" cos it sounded cooler 😎😎😎

Me: 😳😳😳I am "Very Very Glad" I asked why!

M.S: Mommy! I don't like sarcasm! 🙄🙄🙄Anyway, did you understand anything?

Me: Not a word.🙊🙊🙊

M.S: Ah! I thought so too!😎😎😎

[Never ask “Why” to THAT Child!]

👆Empire Chess Army Formation aka INFINITY WAR!

[10 YR OLD M.S]

Me: I think we can make “Young M.S” like “Young Sheldon”... I feel we have enough content to run a complete season! 😎😎😎

M.S: Well, there is a problem...🧐🧐🧐

Me: What problem? We all can star in it... We have seen so much… might as well make some money out of all this absurrrrr… Ahem! Ahem! (Coughed and Stopped Mid Word)

M.S: Did you just say Absur-D??!!…😳😳😳

Me: Errrr… No! No! Not Absurd!… It’s… "Make some money out of all this Abso-luuu-tely Brilliant Stuff that we talk!" Ahem! 😬😬😬

M.S: Well...That’s pronounced ab·suh·loot·lee and you said ab-surrrr- and stopped!

Me: It’s the cough! Definitely the cough! .. Wait a minute… Really? Its not abso-LUTE-ly?

M.S: NO Mommy! Its ab·suh·loot·lee . It’s not LUTE as in “LEW” , Its LOOT as in “LOO”. Get it?

Me: LOO??! Really?? 🤔🤔🤔

(I googled. He was right!)🤷🤷🤷

M.S: Yes! Anyway… That’s not the problem Mommy... The problem is, we don't have OLDER ME to do the Narration. AND… I really cannot imagine what 30 year old me would say to create the script now. So, there you go! That’s the problem!

Me: Oh Yeah!... Point!! THAT IS INDEED A BIG PROBLEM! Why didn't I think of it!? 🤔🤔🤔

M.S: Well, because, you are not a genius like me? 😎😎😎

Me: Hmmm… Ab-So-LOOT-Ly!🙊🙊🙊 Thanks for the… for the "LOO" reference… that made it very hard to forget… I really need to go to the LOO now…

M.S: You’re Welcome Mommy! When you are back , I’ll teach you all about Diphthongs and Trigraphs. Okay?

Me: DIP-THONG What?? 😳😳😳 NO!!.. Never mind! DON’T ANSWER THAT.

M.S: FYI - Diphthongs are 2 Vowel Blends and Trigraphs are 3 Consonant Blends

Me: AM NOT LISTENING 🙉🙉🙉

[I FLED FROM THERE, supposedly to the LOO]

That’s when The REAL Problem hit me! – It is NOT the narration to the imaginary series!

The REAL Problem is -

What 30 Year old M.S would be saying in future!? -

It was overwhelming!

How am I gonna manage all this? That hit me like a bolt!

Obviously, I didn’t go to the LOO. I went STRAIGHT to Mr.Husband. My very own sanity barometer. The one who is always calm, even in a storm!

Hyper-Ventilated-Me: How are we gonna manage?? I feel completely overwhelmed!!!… We are struggling to manage when he is 10!… What are we gonna do when he is 30???😳😳😳

(I was going on and on… NON-STOP)

Mr.H: Ooooo…. Cool down… take a deep breath… We have done a decent job so far, we will in the future too…👍

Me: How can you be so sure??? I don’t understand half the things he talks! 🤷🤷🤷NO! That’s NOT true! I don’t understand 99% of the things he talks! 🤦🤦🤦How will I keep pace???

Mr.H: Remember? We had him even before we turned 30! …😃😃😃

Me: So??? I don’t understand!!! How is that even related??!!… 🤷🤷🤷

Mr.H: Well... you are missing something obvious here!... When he is 30, he ll be a big guy… He won't be needing us to manage him ... 😎😎😎

Me: OHH YEAH!!! You're Soo Right! I completely missed it... guess I was blinded by the "MOM" mindset.. 😬😬😬 But, how do we nurture him until then ?

Mr.H: Just the way we have been doing all along - By letting him BE - And we will manage as a Team... Okay? 🙂🙂🙂

Me: 🙌🤝 YUP!! We are the A-Team! 👍👍👍

[Man of few words.

But he sure does know exactly what to say to calm the Hyper-Ventilating Me!

I felt instantly re-assured]

👆Top Down Tower : Pyraminx, Megaminx, 2x2, Squan, 3x3, Skewb, 4x4, 5x5

M.S loves to "Twist" all these cubes - constantly nudging me to LEARN, UNLEARN AND RELEARN! Pretty much Parenting in Reverse! - Drives me insane! 🤷🤷🤷

That’s the "TWIST-ER" we were bravely travelling with, 3 years ago to Europe! Pun Intended.

If that doesn’t paint a picture of what we signed up for, nothing would!

With years of parenting as the "A-Team”, we were well prepared to deal with M.S in Europe. Well... That’s what we THOUGHT! We were SOOOO WRONG! What we dealt in Swiss was unprecedented.