Its been a long time since I blogged anything about the children. This post is made possible by the baby turning my husband in to an old man by entering her double digits! May the child make him older and us happier every year!

She chose a monster theme birthday party because, ‘Amma, I am not a child anymore. I am grown up and ready for more scary things now.’ (Gulp!) May she not encounter anything like that. EVER.

She chose Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, a volley ball and two bottles of nail polish as her birthday gifts. May she be a reader for life and find happiness in simple things.

She asked for green slime drink, monster sandwiches, scary apple mouths, monstrous baked spaghetti and cheese. I could make only two the way she wanted. I made regular spaghetti with cheese sauce. I skipped the slime drink. She said, ‘Its okay Amma. Lets buy a mixed berry juice. It will look like blood. And the pasta is spot-on in taste. So thanks.’ May you always be blessed with the ability to let go of small disappointments and look at the bigger picture.

May the universe make all your positive thoughts come true and give you the wisdom to recognize this blessing, dear child.

Sighted @ Walden/M.R.

Grant Morrison’s 18 days intrigued me. It was priced at few thousands, so just browsed it and left. The images had a whole Star Trek, Klingon feel to it. But it looked like a behind the scenes collection of an attempt to animate the Kuru war, not a story. So probably a coffee table book for an animation enthusiast.

Any guess on what was bought and what wasn’t?

A wise friend posted this elsewhere. I would like to post it in this space so it is easy to pull up when I need it. (I have highlighted what I like to keep reminding myself about.)

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Found the paper below when I was cleaning up after a play date.

The children had been playing doctor-doctor and the my first born had written this ‘detailed’ prescription.

Yes. This has been our life since Oct. First born sick – younger one sick – husband sick – younger one sick – younger one sick – younger one sick again – I am sick – younger one sick – younger one still sick – younger one hospitalized – younger one on antibiotics but out of the hospital and is still sick – first born sick – I am sick – first born falls and tears a ligament and leg in cast – younger one sick – I am sick…..I swear none of this is exaggeration! This truly is the number of times we fell sick between Oct – Dec last year. Hopefully the new year is good.

So the children get invited to a child’s 7th birthday party. It is Barbie themed.

Let us just say that the Barbie theme party is a first experience for them. And let us leave it at I am HUGELY responsible for this state of their existence. Anyways, at some point main streaming has to happen and I decided to test the waters.

They went, they danced, they ate junk food, they came back with ‘interesting’ return gifts.

Make up set. Fake nails. Nail decor.

Naturally they were very excited and there were 1001 questions.

Can they start using the make up?

Since it is a gift to a child, it must be appropriate for children?(I am not sure if this was a question or they were thinking loud .

How frequently they can wear make up?

Chula’s birthday is coming, so can she launch in to the world of make up starting that day?

Etc.

I braced myself and started with the fact that they have their whole lives ahead of them to grow up. Please don’t rush it girls I told them. And I finished with a strong, ‘The minute you start putting make on your skin, your skin thinks that it can grow and get old. Its starts getting much much much older than you actually are.’

Chula recoils, looks at me horrified and asks me, ‘Amma…. is that what happened to you?’

Kind readers point me to a hole. I want to crawl in and die.

What is the deal with these non-holidays now a days?! Since when is children’s day such a big deal? When I grew up it was just another day, some some mention about chacha Nehru, the man’s favorite flower, love for children(which honestly I find quite creepy – Uncle who LOOOVES children??? ) and we carried on with the regular time table for the day. Or is it the traditional Chennai schooling that down plays anything non-academic?!

20 years later there is so much pressure on children to grow up and be mini adults as soon as they hit age three, do everything sooner, faster, quicker, better than every one AND have an unique talent. Then there is this jarring superficial celebration of ‘children’….well the concept of childhood and all that children stand for.

Well on relative grading, at least this is better than grandfather’s day, aunties day(not there yet, but I foresee this coming soon) and the biggest contradiction of all…women’s day.

Or may be the over all message is that you get ONE day every year to be what you are and to be celebrated.

This philosophy is made possible by the children’s day celebration next door. Some one is singing in loud tuneless voice some rhyming Hindi poem about BACCHA-SAACHA. When she said SUNDAR, I swear I thought she was going to follow it up with BANDHAR, considering how these children are treated. But no! Then there was singing mother goose rhyme in multiple tunes, followed by dancing and fashion show.  All in all wrong day to show up early for work.

PS: Only J K P W X Y left 😉

Well, excuse on multiple counts.

First I have been MIA, which is a trend for all bloggers. Because you suddenly realize that you are too tired to blog AND every one is too tired to read your posts! But I have to resurface at some point, just to let the world know I am alive. So here I am.

Secondly, to shoo spammers. Any blog gathering dust attracts spam, I know. But the 100th comment from delicious gurl with live webcam asking to be my gurlfrnd because she/he/it has reddit my post I Is Not For iPad and is “excited” is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

This ABC series still short of 8 alphabets, which is bothering me.

And I have read some R.E.A.L.L.Y bad writing recently and think I can do a decent job.

So….. many mangoes, one stone and random is this post, be warned!

-When there is an extremely crowded road and an absolutely empty elevated expressway, there is a reason that the expressway is less travelled. DO NOT take it unless you want to make an impromptu trip from Medipatnam to Bangalore on a weekday evening, while your children are waiting to be picked up from the bus stop and your fuel tank is almost empty. But the new thing I learnt is, that the damn PVN expressway is non stop, no entry, no exit, 21Km expressway that is at a three storey elevation. And you can’t fly off the expressway and land on the road you MUST have taken and you didn’t.

-And on a side note, I love driving on ORR. Fantastic 5 lane highway! On Sat mornings the Jags and Porsches and Bentelys and Rolls and Audis vroom and zoom for the kick of it. Well, many people die on the ORR too. So, one day, I am on ORR driving back home. I see 120 and I am like, “Wow! 120? That is the speed limit? How many people can do 120?” Still….. I step on it, the i10 is shuddering, but I get it up to 120 and seriously thinking how the hell the taxis and lorries do 1-bloody-20? Then I see 121! If you are the Manirathnam types, you would have understood. If you are the ‘The moral of the story is…..’ kind, the numbers on the side of the expressway can denote either speed or distance.

-I am on the look out for space filler popular kid-lit. These are the kind of books that children are currently crazy about, but I don’t see the point in buying 10 copies at full price, because they are not worth it. So I was looking for second hand book stores in Hyderabad in Justdial. Found (XYZ)Books and called up to enquire. It so turns out that XYZ Books is an escort service and XYZ is actually doing a different kind of booking. See, you just learn a new thing every day! And if you are looking for second hand books, spell it out, for you might find yourself booked up and in soup.

-I need to understand the people who honk non-stop to cut through bumper to bumper, very slow moving traffic. So help me. Do they have some superior intelligence that I don’t possess? Often I have to curb the impulse to run to that honking driver and ask him what he had for breakfast and eat the same thing, three times a day, for the rest of my life, in vain hope that I will be as intelligent. The fact that these are usually scary looking people in huge SUVs play a vital part in the impulse curbing process.

-Upon careful observation, I have to concluded that many people hate their job. I mean absolutely hate it. They put NO thought in to what they are doing. Otherwise how can a receptionist put me through to Mr.X, approximately five times in 30 min and the sixth time when I ask him, “Why is Mr.X not picking up the phone? I can’t leave a voice message either?”, reply, “Because Mr.X is on vacation”. Seriously dude?!

So in your face delicious gurl. Don’t bother me for another six months.

Goonj is still accepting donations for Uttarakhand.

We came back from the park yesterday evening and the girls decided that they will make dinner for the family. I was asked to get bread, cream cheese and green capsicum, which I did. There was a melt down on the way home and I was wondering how the rest of the evening is going to go.

But they shut me out of the kitchen, yes, I was sent out and the door was promptly locked behind me. I lounged with a book in hand. 30 min later we were treated to cream cheese and shredded carrot sandwiches, lemonade and mushroom sandwich for R.

A very proud moment for all of us. I promptly clicked very many pictures. At the end of the meal, me being, will, me, I tired sneaking in a life lesson and I started, ‘See how hard you worked and I ate it with a smile on my face. Not just because it was tasty, but because I respect the food and your time. How would you feel if I had complained about the food and if I threw a tantrum?’ *Me looking all smug* Pat came the reply, ‘Actually the cooking did not take much time amma. It took us some time to put all our love in to it though!’

Fine… my nose went missing, but still a proud and retired mom!!!

“Children live through their senses. Sensory experiences link the child’s exterior world with their interior, hidden, affective world. Since the natural environment is the principal source of sensory stimulation, freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment through the senses in their own space and time is essential for healthy development of an interior life…. This type of self-activated, autonomous interaction is what we call free play. Individual children test themselves by interacting with their environment, activating their potential and reconstructing human culture. The content of the environment is a critical factor in this process. A rich, open environment will continuously present alternative choices for creative engagement. A rigid, bland environment will limit healthy growth and development of the individual or the group.”

— Richard Louv in THE LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS

Rich natural environment = sand pit or water table.
Rigid bland environment = ipad, TV.

Sheela-ki-javaani is out and over.

Chamak Challo is taking our house by storm. Yes, we are late and we are like that only. No TV and no computer, we are usually stuck in a different time warp. The children hear about songs from their friends. By the time they register a song, memorize it and start asking for it, the rest of the world would have ridden that wave and would have moved on. But we peak!

Now I can measure every place I drive them to, by Chamak Challo scale. Airport, one way, almost 6 Chamak Challo’s. Grocery store – 3. The auditorium where the children had their annual day function – 3. Copying place close by – 1 etc.

Enthused(and irritated) by the number of times the husband heard the song, the eager beaver he is and with his ever wanting need to get to the bottom of things and understand the meaning, he, of all people, asked the maid the meaning of Chamak Challo. The maid started blushing. I, who was dusting close by, froze. And gave him the look that means, ‘this maid is a keeper, don’t ask her meaning to Hindi movie songs, which usually contains lots of read between the lines material and make her stop coming to work’. The husband, as usual, blissfully unaware of all looks and meanings and implications, moved on with his simple existence.

Another song that the children are singing non-stop is Kolaveri and holds the record for entering the house while it is still in vogue. They dance for Chamak Challo, Mieja has two moves – a standard march past kind of move for male voice and a hip shake with hands crossing for the female voice. But their response to Kolaveri gives me the creeps. They lounge, please note, not sitting but lounging, on the couch and sing dreamily, ‘Hand-le glass-u, glass-le sctotch-u’. Suddenly they tell me ominously, ‘Amma your future is dark-u dark-u’. For which I reply is full childish demeanor, ‘Noooo, my future is not dark. It is bright. I am going places!’

Last but not the least ‘Dhinka Chika’. I don’t even know when it came, so can;t say if we entered this wave soon/late/at peak. But I can tell you that I have heard it so many times that it has filled my head, over flowing from my brain and finding its way out through my vocabulary. Yesterday I told the younger child, ‘Yes, I will tell no if it is not appropriate. Don’t expect me to do Dinhka Chika to all your whims and fancies.’ She missed the point and wanted me to play Dhinka Chika.

Ta folks, have a good weekend!

UPDATED TO ADD

Hilarious!!!

and