Something more than just coincidence?

Our kitchen window sill is a must-stop-food-joint for crows, pigeons and squirrels. Somehow they know that Adhya must be leaving them plenty of ghee laden dishes to relish J And yeah, we talk to them too J The crows are the bolder ones, followed by the pigeons and the squirrels just sprint when they catch sight of us.

There used to be a crow with a small beard that made him easy to spot. He had no inhibitions and used to bravely accept food directly from our hands. He was my mother’s pet and is very choosy about food. He just loves chapathi, dosa and curd rice. But he has been an absentee for quite a few months now.

The other day when the usual ritual of feeding crows was happening I was asking(?) the other crow about the other bearded one. And there he was with his usual caw-caw within an hour! Coincidence? Silly me? Or do crows really understand what we are saying? Whatever it was it just left me too happy for words and I rushed to treat him. And yes he has been regular after that J I’m still surprised about the incident and I’ve been telling everybody about this for the past few days….. J Guess, I’ll never forget about this.

Have you personally ever felt that animals understand us?

MGM Dizzie World, Chennai

The rides looked rusty and risky but then it was complete fun in and out. MGM Dizzie World, one of Chennai's old theme park still holds its place in entertaining the people of Chennai.

Well, dedicate a day and be prepared to gulp water every few seconds to combat the heat and you will be guaranteed a wonderful experience. And what more to add to the fun than to enjoy it with kids and friends :)

The Good:

A complete day with family and friends :)

Roller Coaster - Awesome. It thrills you to bits. Its scary but close your eyes and join the screaming so you can come out and say, 'It wasn't that scary at all' :)

The mango trees - How often do you look 'down' at a bunch of mangoes!

The wave pool - That was definitely a new experience and exciting too. :)

The unpredictable kids - In those rides in which we expected them be scared they were all smiles and vice versa.... Kids are a mom's delight, always :)

The Not so good:

Food - it was ok and no one was complaining :)

Travel combined with traffic combined with humidity :(

The carnival games were very tricky (read 'we didn't win much

') :)

So yeah.... definitely visit the place with as many people you can gather but take care of your kids and your belongings(well, we lost a big Miranda bottle :( )

And don't forget to capture a lot of memories :)

Questions?????

I'm begining to understand that when a kid is born there will always be questions. Here I'm not talking about the ones that the kids pose you and you are left wondering if you really did attend school, college? My days of answering suh questions-insightful/imaginary/meaningful/profound or whatever are not very far. But let me not digress further and come to the 'actual' questions that I'm talking about - the ones that we as parents ask ourselves and most of which don't have an answer in binary. Well for example it can be simple like 'Should we choose red or blue colored socks?' to complicated, answerless questions like 'Are we bringing up our kid well in the best way possible?'.

Life is all about questions. We take decisions after running through a lot of 'what, why, if, when, but etcs. that rush through our mind. And at times we also take help from others. Some advisors have the knack of installing more questions in our system. All said, in the end we are solely responsible for the answers we give to our questions.

As parents, we cannot answer the questions that concern our kids immediately. Well whatever reason we can think of for this delicate situation, the bottomline is you don't want your son or daughter to question the decisions taht you took for them. We for example, are dreading how our daughter will react when she will be called first(or almost first) for everything in school according to alphabetical order.

What can parents do to find the best answers to the questions surrounding their kids....I'm sure everyone has a way arround..... My solution whenever i'm left in doubt is....

• keep their best interest in mind...... check options but choose the best thing possible taking your intuition also into account.
• Leave the rest to God :)

So how do you answer these questions?

Converstaions

And yes…. We are conversingJ. The language is ours to command and it involves a great deal of facial expressions and hand gestures. It has no tense, verb or adjective. Most of the times, it’s hardly a sentence. But still we have fun conversing. Don’t know when it began. Must be the first time she cried on her first day to imply that she was hungry. The loud sirens were her first words and slowly with amma, appa, thatha, tata, ball, a.c (kids these days :P), tata, bye, pali(that’s milk :P), grapes(the r and p will go missing but we can understand it is grapes J)etc there has been a steady increase in the vocabulary. I believe every kid is an artist with so many artistic approaches to make us understand what they want. And the smile she gives when she knows she has driven a point and made us understand is so satisfactory and priceless. J Its like it says, ‘Ho at last you got it…. How hard it is to be a kid’ J

I just wish these conversations never end. Wish we have many more conversations, meaningful or not as she grows and she always finds a friend in us to share her thoughts. These conversations teach me that sometimes it’s better to listen than to keep ranting continuously. We can learn more by talking less. And a great conversation needs a great deal of listening too.

Anticipation

Will she or won’t she????

2.30 PM

It was a hot Wednesday afternoon and the morning was no less tiring. After putting the little one to sleep, the process of which is becoming quite a ritual by itself I wished I could shut my eyes for sometime. But no…. there is a big task at hand and if she doesn’t turn up I am clueless as to how I will manage.

2.45 PM

I was pondering whether to call her or not even while cleaning the kitchen shafts. Maybe she is already on the way! Then I decide I will wait till 3 and try giving a call. After all there is so much to do.

3.10 PM

Her motto is ‘better never than late’. If it is after 3 she usually doesn’t turn up. Ho no…. that can’t happen today. Ok let me check with her first. The first call was missed. I brace myself and call her a second time. This time she picked but without the usual hello and who is it? She gave a short and quick announcement….’I’m in the theatre… will be there by 4’. All I could manage was an ‘OK’.

4.00 PM

Checked on the little one and she showed signs of waking up. So cleaned the living room hastily for soon she will wake up to join her toy friends lying in a box in the living room. Then went ahead washed a few utensils, boiled milk and let it to cool. And by 4.20 PM my little dynamite was wide awake and ready to take on the evening which these days extend comfortably like 12 in the night.

5.00 PM

I had given up hopes of her coming today when the bell rang. There she was with a big smile. I couldn’t but return the gesture. And then she came and sat under the fan, and began….’it so hot…. Sss…. Can I have something to drink…. Tea or milk perhaps…. Ho… and something to eat too….. Biscuits will do but if you have any sweets then that would also do…. But a glass of water first please’. And after a cup of complan and a couple of biscuits (sorry, no sweets today) she started ranting about the film, the actors, some finer points that the director should have tended to, the boring songs, the journey to the theatre and back and finished it off again with a ‘its so hot today’. Frankly, I was not concentrating much on what she was talking. All I could think was ‘There is so much to do…. How do I remind her gently about it’? And then she said those golden words that I have been eagerly waiting for….’its getting late…. I’ll get to the job’. I didn’t forget to thank my stars.

5.35 PM.

She washed the rest of the utensils that remained and swept the other rooms in a jiffy. She added….’It’s already late, I’ll wash the clothes tomorrow’. I really didn’t have a choice and reluctantly nodded my head. I was happy that the house was a little better than before and yes, the clothes can wait till tomorrow.

5.50 PM.

She was outside the door and saying, ‘Bye akka…. Will come by 2 PM tomorrow’. Well, tomorrow is another day.

So do you think I’m complaining? No…. not really…. I’m learning t to cope with this everyday routine. I know I still have a long way to go. But it is good to share and find solace.

Just for fun.....

Discovered some new modes in my camera and had a lot of fun taking these pics..... :)

i know.... still 'miles to go' but this is a start nevertheless :)

Back to college :))))

This is a delayed post..... just like all my other ones ;)

Last saturday was 'back to college' day for me :) It was fun, exciting and so good to connect with so many people. I joined many others for the 'Spread Your Wings' event by Sudha and Shobs. They made us play with colors and glue, sing (pathetic to listen but fun for the singers :)), do a funny skit(how do they do it in TV or stage performances.... we were continuously laughing... bet that is what would have made it funny :)) and also dance(no comments here.... i automatically smile when i think abt that). So in all it brought back wonderful memories of school and college. And the team works and brainstorming before each event reminded me of work too. Great job Sudha and Shobs.... all d best for all your future ventures :)

Not to mention the people i met.... everyone was lovely. I was meeting some for the first time and still it felt like i knew them for a long time.

Some of the wonderful moments of d day which i'm going to cherish..... in no particular order.

• Getting to know the kids and moms. Some were so amazing to talk too and connected so well within a short time. Preetha, Amirtha, Sowmi, Neela, Gayathri, Priya..... did i meet them all just then? Lali, Priya, Akhila, Vai, Pene, Amala.... were lovely as usual.
• Don't know how many of them laughed at our performances but the first laugh was on us. And that is what made it so beautiful. :)
• The rides, both to and fro. We talked about everything in our travel to and fro. And the return ride was just amazing.... no words to describe. Lets just say we were so happy to be back in one piece.
• The kids.. nirran, maghizh, rishi, adina, illakiyan, sree, anubhav, abhinav..... were just the few i talked to but i could see that they were also having a good time.
• Marrybrown.... the staff did a great job and they took care of everything. I especially liked how meticulous and polite the girl in formals was. Great job!
• Food.... esp. when followed by play becomes delicious :)
• Pene n Subha.... sorry for gettin u late to the event :( It was lovely to talk to u two. Hope we get to meet soon.
• Sugi.... my friend for 10 years and though we talk(that includes crib, cry, laugh, complain, sympathize etc) it is after very long that we are getting together for such an event. Hope she had a great time too :)
• Shobs n Sudha.... with the level of enthusiasm u both have, fun squared will reach heights. thank u for the event :)
• And a big sorry to rajula for not getting in touch with her before the event :(

That was a lovely day and what followed in fb is a different story :)