The Firework-Maker’s Daughter is the first Pullman book we read at home. As endearing as we found this book to be, I am fully aware that Pullman’s writing can be dark. So I always check out the reviews. While doing so, I stumbled across Publisher’s Weekly’s editorial review of Pullman’s The White Mercedes at Amazon.

Cut+Paste of the review here

“The menacing darkness that lurked at the edges of Pullman’s trilogy of Victorian-era thrillers ( The Ruby in the Smoke et al.) comes to the fore in this contemporary tale of shattered innocence and betrayed love set in Oxford, England. From the first line–“Chris Marshall met the girl he was going to kill on a warm night in early June”–the sense of imminent evil and inexorable doom builds unrelentingly to the novel’s violent, gutwrenching climax. Naive and well-intentioned, 17-year-old Chris has love, not murder, on his mind when he meets and later beds Jenny (described in lyric and intimate detail), who has run away from her abusive father. Indeed, it is precisely Chris’s trusting nature and sense of justice that cause the youth to be duped by a vengeful felon into causing Jenny’s death–and only then because she is mistaken for someone else. Here is a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy, with star-crossed lovers separated by fate, a terrifyingly philosophical villain and assorted innocents, cads and buffoons. Its evocative narrative and throat-tightening suspense make this novel a compelling read; however, the graphic sex, moral ambiguity and somber ending make it most suitable for mature YA readers. Ages 12-up. ”

I was doing perfectly fine, mentally valuating the appropriateness of this book(NOT for Chula, for some other purpose). But the last two lines left me gaping. Since when does graphic sex and 12 year old go together?

Which brings me to the questions,

Do you agree or disagree with me?
Do you think I am over reacting. A 12 year old can handle this content?
What were you reading when you were 12?
Would you let your 12 year old read this?

Thanks and have a good one folks.

We are winding up CROCUS2011. Its been loads of fun with the five elements theme suggested by Praba.

I wanted to do something diverse this time. So I picked:

AN INTERVIEW WITH Mrs.NIRMALA DIAZ, FOUNDER OF SLOKA WALDORF SCHOOL – Waldorf schools place a high emphasis on nature. This is tricky considering that young children have a egocentric way of thinking and are not ready to view themselves as a small part in the bigger scheme of things. Mrs.Diaz explains beautifully how nature appreciation paves way to a balanced way to nurture and educate young children. An inspirational interview.

MA GANGA AND THE RAZAI BOX – a children’s book that touches on the topics of desertification and soil erosion through mythology. I found the story telling quite innovative.

THE LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS – If you are a teacher, you NEED to read this book. It changes the way you will plan/implement your curriculum. Do I have to tell more?

THE NATURE TEACHER – Doing lesson plans is pure joy. At SaffronTree, we were discussing that we have covered many nature themed books even before we hit upon the FIVE ELEMENTS theme for CROCUS2011 and if there was a way to incorporate all these past posts in to CROCUS2011 without overwhelming the readers it would be swell. This along with Richard Louv’s ‘nature as a teacher for young children’ made this post shape up the way it is right now. Pure joy people! In the near future, I would love to do workshops and share this joy with other people in the teaching community. Wish me the best.

Now go read all the posts @ SaffronTree if you haven’t already.

On Diwali day, I did something I thought I would NEVER do! As a result of which child1 declared before she went to sleep, ‘Amma this is truly the worst diwali ever. I hope I make enough happy memories to forget this sad, sad day. It is the saddest and baddest day in my life. What is the use of celebrating if I can’t read amma?’

Yes! I told her she cannot touch or even look at a book for one more week. She needs to show and act like a six year old otherwise she will lose her reading privileges.

The reading, as much as I am proud of it, is reaching an extreme. Three volumes of Chronicles of Narnia in one day, forgetting the time entity and then whining that I didn’t take her to the park, I am not letting her meet her friends, not showing even 10% interest in making friends, always living in a dream world….. This is not just one or two days, has been going on for three months now and I have had enough of this.

Now that she has no fall back, she is making an effort to make friends. Otherwise the first sign of something that does not go her way, she would turn and walk to her book.

As for child2 she hopes she can irritate me as much, so that her reading privileges will also be revoked!

Two very different peas in a pod!

* KOTUDHU – is a Tamil word that translates to ‘IS POURING’

Yes, a new series….

“Why did you move back to India? Because you have two girls and you want them to get the Indian culture?” is a question I get asked many times.

So here is my observation of the Indian culture that the girls are getting, from the side lines.

Scribed by child1, dictated by child2.

The older child is playing in her keyboard, a song she sings at school. As she attempts again and again to bring the song to tune, my interest is piqued as to the lyrics of the song.

I ask her about the song, she says that it is the ‘vowel’ song that they sing at school and sings it for me.

On the earth I love to stand, strength from stones I’ve taken,

Striding boldly o’er the land, fearless and unshaken. Aaaaaaaa…..

And in water’s silvery waves, gladly do I revel,

From the fishes I can learn, up and down to travel. Eeeeeeeeee……

Upward to the light I look, where the sun shines brightly,

And with rainbow colors clear, paints the flowers lightly. Iiiiiiiii…..

In the air I love to jump, Oh! that I were flying,

Like a bird with outspread wings, O’er the hilltops gliding. Uuuuuuu….

Gratefully your gifts I hold, in my heart’s deep shrine,

Earth and Water, Air and Light, brothers all of mine. Ooooooo………

What a befitting song to kick start CROCUS2011?!

Hop over to SaffronTree to enjoy the introduction post by Tharini.

Just wanted to share how my fantasy loving girls come up with logical fantasy. Every fantasy role play they come up with, has a strong rooted reality behind it. They push the limits to see how far they can take reality in to their fantasy and vice versa.

One of the stories I tell them is about the water cycle and how clouds are formed. Last Jan, during pick up time, after school, I noticed that they were narrating this story to their friends. Roughly a week later, few of Mieja’s friends, Meija and Chula were seen discussing the idea of a cloud party, partying in the clouds. It was interesting how they dissected this and came up with a solution for every road block. The whole thing evolved bit by bit over a period of few weeks.

Problem 1: “Clouds are so high. How to get to the clouds?”
Solution: “We will get on a helicopter and go land on the clouds”.

Problem 2: “But the clouds are so light. Look how fluffy they are. That is why they float right? How can the clouds hold the helicopter’s weight? What if we land on the cloud and the helicopter just falls through?”
Solution: “We have to find a small helicopter. Surely a small one will stay on the cloud”.

Problem 3: “How can we all fit in to a small helicopter?”
Solution: “Shrinking portion!! My dad will invent a shrinking portion. We will drink it, become very tiny and get in to the small helicopter and fly to the clouds”.

Having volunteered a dad for shrinking portion, one mom was to make pooris for the party, one dad was to procure a helicopter. My assignment was to pack. Last Jan/Feb, I was busy putting the house for sale, packing stuff for our relocation etc. The only thing the girls saw me do is to pack. So Mieja said, ‘My mother can pack for the party. She is very good at it. In fact she does it all the time!’

As they had hashed out all the minor details, come pick up time it was major pain for me. I was met with whines, ‘Ammmmaaa, can we have our cloud party now? Pick up my friends also. We want to go to the clouds.’ It was getting difficult for me to come up with excuses and I also felt bad for the children. So I announced that Mieja’s 5th birthday party will be a cloud party and set to work.

Small, cozy party, at home, for 5 kids – check.
Cloud theme food (white cheddar cheese mac and cheese, popcorn, rainbow fruit kebab) – check.
Entertainment (puppet show with Dottie the clown, she promised something cloud based) – check.
Cloud decoration – check.

The cake part got me worried. Some how I have never been fully happy with any of their birthday day cakes. I usually go to the bakers with multiple pictures, a photoshopped picture I put together, color samples, theme and a story. They nod and decorate as they like. The taste has been good, but appearance wise, none has blown me away. That was until I met Reva.

I told Reva about the cloud party and my requirements. This is what she came up with. See for yourself people. Isn’t she amazing?

Cloud cake

Slice in to the cloud and you will find a rainbow.

Children fly to the cloud on a pega-corn. I said winged unicorn and all the five year olds dissed me. “It is a unicorn and a pegasus. Can’t you see that it is a Pegacorn?” I tried arguing why can’t it be a Uni-sus, sadly didn’t take off.

They have their own suitcases, in which they have their party stuff.

Cloud decorations, done by the kids and moi. I tried renting a fog machine, but decide against it at the last minute and did the tissue paper clouds.

Cloud puppet show.

The take away gifts were zipper flowers. No connection what so ever with the cloud party. Just that I have been itching to do it for quite some time! Zipper flower three ways – necklace, bracelet, hairband.

So long folks.

– Met Uma and it was great. It was nice of her to stop by for a quick chat session, much to the cabbie’s dislike, on the way to the airport. She got the kids awesome scrap books made out of hand made paper. I have put it away for a rainy day craft activity. We talked like we knew each other for ages. Kids behaved. So all in all a good meet.

– Are you ready for CROCUS2011? At Saffron Tree we are busy over working our keypads and gearing up for CROCUS2011. ST is turning five and the CROCUS theme for 2011 incorporates our birthday. ST is five and the theme is ‘THE FIVE ELEMENTS – EARTH, AIR, FIRE, SPACE, WATER’. Stay tuned with us and you will not be disappointed. We are bringing our A-game, you guys prep your cozy reading chair. 7 days of back to back reviews, the famous CROCUSword, teacher resources, art, activities and much more.

– Mieja is in to making money for some reason. Of course I do tell her often that things do not grow on trees and that we have to work hard to buy things. After buying money from Target, her next idea was to grow a money tree in our back yard. The most recent in this unique line of thinking is, ‘Amma, let us sell the market. There are so many things in a market right?! If we sell the whole market, then we will get lots of money right?!’ Soon she will be selling me. The day is not too far.

– Chula….. something is going on. With every day, she is living a little bit more inside her own head. There is lots of dreaming, thinking, drawing, reading, shutting off her links to the world outside going on. Some of her pictures blew my breath away. She is drawing Little Mermaid scenes. Shading with her pastels, looking at it from right-left, top-bottom, just a shade here a shade there. Perfecting it, sometimes after spending hours on a picture deciding to throw it away and starting it from scratch. Finally when she is happy showing it off to me and asking me to frame it.

– Uma tagged me for Mommy Guilt, few months ago. When she met me, she was nice not to smack me on my head as I am still sitting on it. So here it is.

With every day, my priority in life is getting defined over and over again. Now it is clear – my personal space, kids, house keeping, thousand mundane things, at the very last bringing up the rear, cooking. The bandh and the kids lounging at home played a major role how this priority list got shaped up. The kids are no longer allowed to play inside the house. They have strict instructions to play in the corridor and to eat what is put on their plate at the time it is put on the plate or else wait till the next scheduled eating/snacking time. There have been few occasions in the past month, when they were hungry and I ruthlessly, said no to the unscheduled snack quoting that they nibbled their lunch and now have to wait for another hour for their milk/buttermilk.

If there is fresh made hot rice or idlis, I get first dibs. I have often fed the kids left over rice and kept the fresh made rice for myself.

I maintain it is for the greater good and do not feel an inkling of guilt.

– Went to Ohri’s Nautanki Gali. It gave me the impression of ‘wanna be a good restaurant’. The food was aplenty, the waiters were super nice. But felt as if something was missing. We sat in an auto and ate our dinner, definitely a high point for kids. I was not too kicked about the general garish do and loud music. Food was so-so. High point of the buffet seems to be the chocolate fountain, though the fountain looked watery.They also have Rajasthani style puppet show, but the puppets were resting when we went.

– Went to Skandagiri temple in Secunderabad. Major renovation going on. So I had to watch the kids like a hawk. Right next to the temple was a branch of Giri Trading. They have golu dolls,  marapachis, all types of pooja items, devotional CDs/DVDs/books, golu stand etc. In general gave me a Mylapore/Saidapet feel. Also next to the temple an Anjeneya temple by Kanchi mutt.

Dear Dot,

I am doing fine. I wish you were fine too. I wish ‘we’ are fine.

Let me be upfront and confess that I used to be in love with you. You were my guiding force. When I was totally lost, you always saw me through. You set me in the right direction. You gave me security and a sense of calm. I assumed that you will always be there for me. Sadly it is not to be.

Of late I am not able to trust you. I find that you are lost yourself. If so, how can you be my guide? Many a times you are not even present and no matter how many times I call you, you simply do not answer my call. It really scares me when you wander off, shut me off completely and stay cold and remote.

Consider this an an intervention. You need to take care of yourself. You used to be a petite, healthy looking, cool to the eye blue dot. Have you seen yourself when you wander? You look enormous and fill my entire field of vision. Sorry to hurt you…… but you have become a blob.

Life is full of crossroads, side lanes, short cuts, fly overs, over passes and under passes. When we are at a cross road, all we need to is to get complete information and choose a clear path. Considering that you ALWAYS see the bigger picture and get your information from a higher source, it is not that difficult. But off late I find you getting frustrated. You ask  innocent people like me who have infinite trust in your wisdom, to simply climb a bridge and jump down. Is this fair? Sigh.

Hope you improve soon. Until then I will check on you, but not trust you.
Yours truely
UTBT.

PS: So…… you people want me to tell you what this is about? Or are you guys game to make wild guesses?

EDITED TO ADD

It is the Google maps app on iPhone. The blue dot marks my position. Used to help direction challenged me. Even if I had the directions, the blue dot was my favorite because it tells me if I am staying on the right path or if I missed a turn and some place else.

Many of you guessed it right.

The blue dot is absolutely frustrating. Bloody thing does NOT understand the concept of flyover and underpasses. It asks me to climb up the flyover and jump down the other side.

Google maps gives random directions like, ‘Make left at Big Boss Cafe’. I am thinking it is a ‘super’ land mark considering Google has it in its map. Big Boss Cafe contrary to its name is nothing but a ‘potti kadai’ and I have missed it because the name board is written in Teulgu.

I look at the blue dot, it is on the purple path and I am thinking, ‘Wow, we are on track, we are yet to reach Radha Bangle shop and then we have to make the right.’ Suddenly, the blue dot jumps three girds and swells up to a blue hazy region. I have no clue where I am, because in Hyderabad they do not believe in writing address on the name boards(of course the few shops that do, have it in Telugu, Murphy’s law).

Day before yesterday, thanks to Google maps, I directed R in to a lane that was exactly 6 feet wide. 6 feet. There we are struggling to make a u-turn and get out of the lane, yes u-turn in a 6 feet lane, one corolla, one scorpio, zillion bicycles and trillion autos zoomed in from all directions and froze us. Yes scorpio in a 6 feet lane and we bleedy peeples thought we cannot drive our i10 through it!

Two days back, we were trying to get to the main road from the Secunderabad murugan temple and it took us to the cemetery. I think Google maps has given up giving us subtle messages to discourage us from using it, now it has started giving explicit threats!

Q, I, B, T, D, O, G, T, F, C, V, A, M, N done.

W, P and E … kind of working on it.

H, J, K, L, R, S, U, X, Y, Z to go.

What do I do?

Feel free to throw in ideas.

A child, Mieja’s age is at home to play.

Act I

Mieja to the child: See, see. See how beautifully my mother has arranged the house. She has the brown couch here and black bench there. There is also the daybed, so that we can sit and look at the pictures. She works hard to keep the house this way. It is sooo beautiful-na?!

Act II

The visiting child is conducting a drawing contest for which Chula and Mieja are supposed to draw two pictures each.

V.Child to Mieja: Hey, what are you drawing yaar? Your party picture does not look like party at all. Give me it, I will draw and you can color.

Mieja: No. This is my picture. This is how I want it.

V.Child: Okay then. I will not give you prize for this. I don’t like it.

Mieja: Its okay. I am drawing for myself. Not for prize. This is how I want it.

V.Child: Then your mother will be angry with you for not getting prize. She will scold you.

Mieja: Nooo. My mother will not. She says you have to do what makes you happy and do it the best. She will not scold me or do ‘katti’ with me for not getting prize. Yeah, my mother knows everything-re. She is older than you. Do you know how old she is? Vvverrry old. She is 34. See, I told you she is old and knows everything?!

Looks like I can retire. I have imparted wisdom, knowledge, values, thankfulness, appreciation and of course, I am old. The decision is further confirmed by the song the three children are singing and eating dinner.

Act III

Dum maro dummmmm

Pizza bubblegummmmm

Put it on your bummmmm

So long folks, have a good one.