Blog it!!

The little boy has been calling me "Amma/mumie", his sister "akka", aunt - "atta", uncle - "mama" and the regular "Thatha, ammamma, anna, aunty", everything almost perfect expect for Daddy. Right from the start he used to refer to his father as "Dada" and he refused to even try "Daddy". Then suddenly two days back he told "Daddy" without anyone prompting him. The elated father immediately turned to me and told "Make a note on your blog!" and there, as a dutiful wife I've penned it down.

A good movie is...

one where even a five year old who doesn't understand the language and has no idea about the main concept is able to recommend the movie to you.

The little girl watched Chak De yesterday with her aunt and asked me to watch it. These were her words, "Amma, I saw a hindi film with Athai. It's very nice. You should also see it. It is about some girls playing Hockey. (Note: She had never heard about hockey before). It is very nice Amma. They will try so hard. In the first game against Australia, they will lose. And in one game against another team, they will get beaten up. But they will try hard and finally win. I think we should get a CD for ourselves. The one Athai got is a borrowed one. "

I was pretty impressed with her understanding of the film and the way she felt that she should recommend it to me. Something like "Yam petra inbam peruga ivaiyagam".

Anyone can be a music director...

if it's remix songs they want.

Here is my simple recipe for remix songs
1. Get a popular old song.
2. Get a singer who can't speak proper Tamil or who can 'Englipees' the Tamil. (gees, give me a break)
3. Bring out your kid's keyboard.
4. Switch on the rock and roll or some such music with the drums turned on. It should be on high volume.
5. Now get the singer to sing the song...no need to change the basic music and can be the same tune as well.
6. Now to differentiate the song from the old
a. Repeat the first line or first two words a few times.
b. Sing the song really fast
c. Add a few English words in between
d. Add a few lines of rap which no one should be able to identify.
e. Finish with a 'one liner/one word' like 'Ethu yeppadi' drawled out.
7. Your song is ready!

Bah, I just hate it when they dole out such remixes. The beauty of the original song is lost and they don't even take the pains to do something different.

There was this song I heard the other day. It had the same tune, but at a faster phase, as if the singer had to catch a train and then in between had the music from other top hits of yesteryear. God, are we so in dearth of music?

To all ye music directors who want to do a remix, please listen to "Thotal poo malarum" by ARR. A beauty. I love the old and the new version.

Moving...

We move houses.

The whole house is littered with boxes and total chaos prevails. The little one is playing in the master bedroom and a sudden gust of wind closes the door. It gets locked. One adult is immediately sent to soothe the child and keep him engaged, while the others run around the house like headless chicken looking for the blessed key. A nice distraction to the otherwise mundane task of unpacking.

The little Girl's

art work has been displayed in her school's notice board...one proud momma smiling to glory!!!

Zao an

The other day my daughter asked me the meaning of a long sentence. The only catch was that the sentence was in Chinese (at least it sounded like Chinese). Thinking she was up to some make believe games, I just gave her a reply. But she repeated the sentence and asked me to listen carefully before answering. After she had repeated (with no changes) a couple of times, I told her that I didn't know the meaning. Then she told that it was 'dear children, sit down, sit down'. I'm still not sure whether it is the correct sentence, but I have to give her the benefit of doubt. She repeated the sentence with the same words and sounds each time I asked her and she didn't waver a bit. She attended the Chinese class for a year when she was in nursery and her teacher was all praise about her grasping power. But being her mother, I know that she loves to speak gibberish. There have been instances when she has replied in 'Chinese', but in all the cases it has been to non-Chinese speakers. So I take her Chinese speaking ability with a pinch of salt.

Incidently, the title means "Good Morning" in Chinese and that is all that I know in Chinese!!!

No smoke, no fire

It was a colleague's birthday yesterday. Some of his teammates got together and decided to throw a surprise party for him. A cake was bought and mail sent out to all his friends in office. So around 3pm all of us gathered at the pantry. There were around 15 of us. The cake was placed on the table, candles fixed, plates and knife kept ready and someone went to call the birthday boy. It was then that we realised that we didn't have a match box or lighter to light the candle. There was not a single soul in the 15 people gathered there who smoked. Then began the hunt for a lighter. It took us nearly 10 mins to find a lighter. It was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Painting

The little girl loves to draw and paint. She prepares birthday cards for all her cousins and takes great pride in it. She is now attending an arts class in her school and has started to appreciate the great painters. Last month, they were introduced to Van Goh's paintings. I needed Google-Baba's help to have a decent talk with her about the paintings. I was pretty surprised that they had not only taught her about the paintings but also about the painter and his life. It's good that she is getting a wholesome picture. Last week she came home with a copy of a Van Goh's painting that she had done. It was really cool and she has managed to almost reproduce a recognisable painting ;).

We put up her painting in a prominent place in the living room and as we were admiring it, she spouted these words of wisdom..."Mummy, do you know that Van Goh was not rich and not well too? Sometimes he didnt even have enough money to eat. He spent most of his final years in the hospital and died pretty young. But his paintings are very very costly now...Millions and millions of dollars. Poor guy, he should have sold his pictures when he was alive. Then he would have earned millions and millions..." a BIG pause and... "Mummy, will you sell my painting?"

kutti kutti vishayam

From a five year old

Amma, I know you love me and I love you too. But please don't hug me when I'm sleeping. (thoongum bothu katipidicathinga) I'm uncomfortable!
Ouch...

After a very hectic day at office:
Amma, good that you are back. How was your day? Did you enjoy it?

During an evening walk:
Amma, when you grow old, I'll give you pink cerelac. (Brown rice, one she likes a lot and wouldn't hesitate to take a mouthful when her brother is being fed)
Why?
Because all your teeth would have fallen and you would be just like Thambi, not able to eat anything else!!!


My days are never boring :)

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy New Year! I'm not late, I'm wishing you for the Chinese New Year (well, at least I managed to update my blog now). Have been wanting to blog about a lot of this, but as usual got side-tracked. So here's a short update on all that's been going on at my end.

The little boy makes one wonder where he gets the energy from. He is always running about, pulling this or that, climbing chairs, tables and any place where he can get a foothold! He is able to climb on to the bedside shelf. And, is he ever so careful! Makes sure his first foothold is secure before he keeps the next or lets go his hold. No drawers or cupboards are off limit for him. Even the ones that he can't reach, he has found ways of opening.

Ask the imp ways to get your mom into trouble - He would be blissfully playing and just then notice that you are getting his milk/food ready. Immediately he would start howling for the food as if he was without food for the past one week. Imagine my plight when the grandparents are around. The 2 minutes it takes to prepare is enough to start a ruckus.

We had been to India during the last week of December. So got to celebrate my daughter's birthday there (All her birthdays have been in India!!!) It was fun as usual, a smaller crowd and a home decorated cake. She wore a peacock blue frock and had her hair done by her aunt. Then, my mom exclaimed that she looked like a princess (She is averse to any party wear frocks and such a frock is worn only when it has been praised by all and sundry!). She then went down with her cousins. It was only later we knew about her grand entry - with her cousins shouting "Give way to the princess...Cinderella is coming, parak parak" the troupe had marched into the living room and then taken a tour around the house. This had the whole household in splits. A pity it was not caught on tape.

The week during Pongal was very busy with this being the "Thalai Pongal" (first pongal after marriage) for my brother and hubby's cousin. We were shuttling between places. Then we went to Pazhani for the little boy's "mottai". The following sunday we were on our way back to Singapore and we are back to our routine.

Happy Republic Day to all!!

Varanam Aayiram

Saw it, liked it. Surya has done a good job. Songs are good. Good job GVM.

Post Mumbai attacks

Like every other Indian, I have been doing nothing else other than switching channels and browsing thro the net for news on the Mumbai attacks. Have read so many news items, listened to all the discussions on TV and the read thro quite a few prominent blogs.

A few points that I felt after reading the News and blogs is

1. People claiming that the hue and cry now is because of the elite places being hit and also because of Foreign causalities. Although this might be true to a certain extent, I don't think the general population are impacted by this alone. I felt anger and depression when I saw the footage. This is not becos the Taj hotel or the Oberoi was hit. The alarm I felt was due to the footage of the gunman. Did you see the smile on his face? Did you see the gleam in his eyes? This is what alarmed me. This was not an incident where someone throws a bomb. It was cold blooded murder with not an ounce of remorse. Did you read about the carnage in CST? Shooting people around you...Were these men humans or beasts?

2. The articles / blog comments suggesting the death of ATS chief as a revenge for the action against the Sadhvi..how cheap can you people get?

3. What happened to those gundas who chased away North Indians from Mumbai, when the commandos and NSG came to the rescue? Didn't they feel the need to ban them? Where will they keep their face now? It's Indianness that binds us. It's the Indianness that we should be proud of and leave all these petty politics.

I hope the candle vigilance and huge turnout at various locations in India shows our solidarity to the World. I hope something good comes out of this and we have better security.

Away from home

The daughter set off to her grandma's house two weeks back. The day before leaving, there was a lot of drama at home. She wanted to see her favourite "Snow White" CD so that she remembers it during her holidays. There was a big hue and cry when we asked her to take a nap in the afternoon as she had not completed playing with all her toys before leaving for India (as if she even looks at them when at home). Then, there was the packing of her bag. She wanted to take a lot of books to read when bored, she wanted her workbook, so she could work in the flight (that she slept thro the journey is another story), she wanted all her party dresses and if allowed, she would have taken all her things with her!! At night she wanted to sleep between us as she would miss us. This had her daddy dear almost crying. He didn't want his little daughter going anywhere.

The next day, she was up bright and early and ready within minutes. At the airport she cheerfully waved bye and was off with her aunt even before we could give a proper kiss.

So the little girl is in India now and has been in four different houses within the span of two weeks. And ma, has she made us proud? Not a complaint from any of the aunts or grandparents. The moment we speak, its only praise for her. From their talk you would think that she is the epitome of a well behaved kid. The highlight was when my mom told that she begins and ends everything with a "My mom told". So it's mom told me to wear this or wear that, mom told me to brush, mom told me to do this, the list goes on. I don't remember telling her all these, maybe a few...

The other day, while playing she had given a piece of paper to my mom telling her it was money. After a while my mom threw the paper into the bin on her way to cook. The little one goes to her grandmom and asks for the "money" after an hour. And when she came to know the fate of the "money" she reprimands my mom with these words: "Ammamma, don't you know the value of money? Without money you can't do anything. Money is next only to God!!!" My gawd, where did she get this? None of us at home had even uttered anything remotely close that would get such words from her. Now, my mom has serious doubt about my parenting skills :(

hair cut

She: I'm going to have a hair cut
He: Oh dear!!!

---That my friends, summarizes the disasters I've had with hair cuts in the recent past :(

Nothing is right

Beginning of the year, Citigroup and UBS were wrong because of the intergrated - BIG Bank model.
Mid year, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sach and ML are wrong because they are mere Investment Banks and should merge/provide other services too...
End of the year, what?

Video and the party

We were watching my son's first birthday party video. All was fine until we came to the part where the decorations were shown. The video had a long shot of the decorations and then zoomed in to the "Happy Birthday" wordings. After zooming in and out on those wordings and doing a slow motion run on each letter, it went down to show the birthday boy's name. This was a letter by letter zoom from the last letter of my son's name and it stopped mid way. The last part of my son's name is the name of my hubby's cousin who was handling the video. So he had stopped to highlight it and unfortunately forgot to continue. :(

So now, we have a video which shows "Happy Birthday Cousin".

Then the video moved on to show the guests and the next highlight was when the cake was displayed. Again, we have a slow motion run on the "Happy 1st Birthday" on the cake and a quick display of the full name followed by a slow motion, zoom in and zoom out of the "cousin's name".

What do I do now? Name the video as "Cousin's birthday party?"

Made in China

This is the scene I was greeted with when I returned home yesterday.

"Mummy, I will not eat mentos or chocolates here after. Please collect all the sweets and chocolates and biscuts and throw them into the dustbin. Don't buy any more milk from the shop. They are coming from China and there is a powder in it. If we eat it, we will die. So throw away everything. See, I have already put all the sweets and biscuts into this bag. Can I throw it away? They told us to do it in our school!!"

These were more or less the exact words from my daughter. She was waiting to throw everything out and with my son's birthday last week, we had quite a few chocolates and sweets at home. She had a big bundle. I sat her down and explained which had to be thrown and which was ok. She kept asking me even after going to bed.

I've always been surprised with the way kids seem to absorb whats told in the school. My daughter's school takes pains in explaining things to the children. When there was the HFMD scare in schools, the children were given a briefing on what it was and how it spread, the precausions and actions to be taken if one caught it. Nothing is sugar coated. Everything explained as is, such that it has a greater impact on the children.

Thundu podarathu

What is the equivalent of "Thundu Podurathu"* in Singapore?

It's "Tissue podurathu". Tissue's are extensively used in Food courts to reserve a table.

So the next time you are in Singapore, be sure to keep a tissue packet handy when you go to the food courts.

* Thundu Podurathu - a hand towel used to reserve a seat in the public bus/train in India.

Tring Tring

The term holidays started for my daughter from yesterday. I had got her a few activity books and the way she completes the activities nowadays, I thought that this would keep her occupied most of the time. So, on the first day of her term holidays, I call her to check whether she had completed any activity. She answers the phone with a

"Oh mummy, I've been very busy this morning."
"That's nice. What have you been doing?"
"I was busy calling and speaking with my friends."
"What? Who is the friend you were speaking to?"
She gives the name of two of her friends.
"Where did you get the number from?"
"I asked and wrote down all their numbers in the little telephone book on the last day to school"

So, the little miss has arrived!!! How am I going to cope with her in a decades time?

PS: She is 4 years and 8 months now.

What do we teach our children

We had been to a park near our house. The sun had gone down and there were just a few kids still playing on the tarzan type swing. There are four such swings and the one next to the one where my daughter was playing was used by a group of children. A few guys came into the area and stood next to that swing. Immediately a small girl (hardly 7) looked at one guy and shouted 'Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi, go away!!' and started throwing sand at them. The other kids cheered on. I was shocked beyond speech. The Bangladeshi guys just smiled and stood there. I thought of going over and giving the kids a piece of my mind, when I noted that their parents were also standing near by and smiling. What has happened to us? Is this what we want our children to learn? Not even a single reprimand from the parents and no apology to the guys.

This reminded me of something that happened in my daughter's school. She was in her nursery and learning her ABCs. They were associating the letters to words and had been taught about B as in Brown Bear. My daughter doesn't normally tell us about her daily activities in school. We just gather stuff as she speaks. So, once when I was feeding her, she suddenly asked me, "Mummy, am I brown?". She is fair (in the Indian sense) and I thought she was asking based on the snow white story. So I told her that she was fair. Immediately she tells me, "Mummy, fair means white. Only foreigners and Chinese can be white. All Indians are brown." I was pretty shocked. Didn't expect this from a 3 year old. I asked her where she had got this info and she just told that it was from school. On checking with her teacher later, I came to know that it was the from the other children in her class. Who would teach such things to small children? Are we introducing racial discrimination at such tender ages?