Tittle-Tattle

We recently underwent the domestic change management exercise of sending our young daughter to a play school. Although we have been thru this once (our son), but still the anxiety was no less. It is very difficult to break a young kid's heart. Hand her over to a teacher unknown to her while she is still crying... And this actually happened when she exchanged laps between me and her teacher although against her will. In the first two weeks, it was all cries, sobs and such for - स्कूल नहीं जाना! ( I don't want to go to school)...  Two weeks later, again cries, sobs and such for -  स्कूल जाना है! (I want to go to school!) That was a quick transition, we thought. It was heartening to see her performing in the school annual day function as well, doing a butterfly dance -  When I left my home for the first time to join my job, I wrote a letter to my parents. The content more or less said that I am that kid-bird which has grown up and has left its nest. It was written in a...

Young kids always come with some interesting observations from the way they understand the world. In their playfulness they bring out their interesting interpretation of things. My kids are no different and I used to quote my son a lot when I was regular in this blog earlier. Now my daughter does that quite often. Like she gets really excited when our car undergoes some underpass. She starts shouting with joy the moment she realizes we are going to go thru a tunnel like underpass. My son always wants us to go atop a flyover. I try to avoid them as it could be a detour, as well as many of the Bangalore flyover land you right into a Jam point! Anyways... Recently, when we were standing on a red signal, my daughter started singing the rhyme "London bridge is falling down", all of a sudden and with great enthu and all. And when we paid attention we noticed that she was also trying to point to something. It was this site - Needless to say, we couldn't st...

How would you handle this? So far my 6 year old used to say I will become this, I will become that when I grow up. Today he said - "मैं बड़ा होके smoking करूँगा!" (Means: I will do smoking when I grow up!!!!) Out goes our reply with a long listing of our entire family tree trying to make a point that no one smokes because its not good (for health)... Added with some lecture on smoking hazards... Comes another statement - "But friend's grandpa smokes..." Discussion closed - No, its not a good thing to do... Think about doing something else... so many better (cooler) things to do... I am sure so many people would have thought about this for themselves when they were kids, but its always like "reinventing the wheel" when you become a parent and see your own kid going thru the same cycle; and trying to save them from what's not good and encourage them to take up what's good... PS: Cigarette smoking is injurious for one's health... ...

Last Saturday, we went to the Bangalore International Airport. I have uploaded some of the photographs from that visit at my flickr site . While we were there waiting for our guest to come, we noticed a huge group of school kids visiting the airport that day. All their teachers did is to divide them in two different groups. One group stood near the departure terminal and the second group near the arrival terminal. We were sitting close to the arrival terminal.  These kids were having fun. And they have their unique ways of having fun. Whenever some foreigner (especially white skin) was coming out of the Arrival terminal, all the kids would in chorus say a Big "Hi" to them. I am sure those guests would not have expected such huge welcome when they land India. Not sure what all their teachers showed to them that day, soon our guest arrived and we left the airport. There is one good area though to watch the happenings on the runway etc next to the departure terminal.  One can cl...

My son has this peculiar inclination towards reading text from right to left like we do in Arabic/Farsi/Urdu. Yesterday, when his Mom asked him to spell Apple, he said "E L P P A"! If I try to read newspaper to him and start reading "The Hindu" like "T H E H I N D U", he will say "no read it like 'U D N ...'". My grandfather was a teacher of Farsi so that could possibly be one reason. But its interesting, like they force kids to use their right hand we will make him read from left to right. ~mks

After buying the car , I gave my bike to my cousin. He visits me often, and today was one such day. When he left, my son got curious and this happened - Son - Papa tum car kisko doge? (Whom will you give the car to?) Me - Nahi beta, car hamaare paas rahegi. (No dear, car will be with us) Son - Main chalaunga. (I will drive) Me - Haan, jab tum bade ho jaoge to car chalaoge. (Yes, when you grow up, you will drive the car). Son - Tum peeche baithoge? (You will sit on the backseat?) :-) ~mks

This one is one of my favorite video off late on youtube. Very nicely done and can work as a very good promotion for the Happy Feet - Hindi version. ~mks

Last night it was raining in Bangalore, a little bit of thunder and lightening as well. And while this was on, me and my son were having a chat - Son: Ye kya bol raha hai? (What is this noise?) Me: Badal bol raha hai. (Its the clouds) Son: Chal hum log chapat laga ke aate hain badal ko. (Lets go and slap the clouds) Me: Vaha sky mein kaise jaoge? (How will you go up in the sky?) Son: Superman ka towel pahan ke jayenge. (We will wear Superman's "towel"!) :-D ~mks

Yesterday Star Plus was showing Richard Attenborough's Gandhi . My son walked by, paused/watched for a while, and asked "bole to uncle kaha hain? (Where is "bole to Uncle" ( Munna Bhai )?). ~Mks

Excerpts from today morning post-waking up discussion with my 3 years old son - Son - Ye apka mooch hai? (This is your moustache?) Father - Haan (Yes) Son - Mera mooch to nahi hai! (I don't have moustache!) Father - Haan, main bada hoon, meri mooch hai, tum chote ho tumhari mooch nahi hai (I am old so I have moustache, you are young so you don't have moustache) Son - Dadu chote hain? (Grandpa is young?) Father - (Speechless!!) :-) ~mks PS - Need I say my dad doesn't have mooch!!

My son (2 months to 3 years now) is growing up - Last night he said "Mummy, dimag ki batti jalaani hai kya?" (Do you want to light up your "head" light?). It took her some time to understand that he picked it up from the Mentos ad. ~Mks