Already 2 :)

2 years have whizzed by and I'm still surprised that a little one can make you feel on top of the world, clueless, happy, worried, excited, sleepy, tired, enthusiastic, proud, loved, bossy, student and what not! It wouldn't be an exaggeration when I say that she has changed our world entirely and the transition has been just wonderful :)

I just wish I have a huge storage unit built inside me to store every passing day. Yes, technology helps but there is no way the world's best camera or the choicest words would suffice to describe the happy and proud smile she gives me with gleaming eyes when she has done or learnt something new. I guess it is deeply etched inside me like the first simbha look she gave me within minutes she was born. That was one of my most happiest, out of the world moment!

Everyday we think or talk about something or the other for and about her, and being careful at the same time to not tread into her independence or dampen her creativity. Everyday is a new chapter in parenting responsibility. So far it has been great for us and its really hard to accept that Adhya is two now. And there is so much to follow....the schools, vacations, special classes, exams, choosing dresses and accessories, maths, chemistry, annual days, fancy dress competitions, rebels, reasoning, cajoling.... :) Maybe I'm thinking way ahead but with the speed time flies by I bet nothing is too far away. 

We hope and believe we will be able to connect to our little girl and her smile anytime and anywhere :)

Love you Adhya....  Happy second birthday :)

Teachers and Lessons

Teachers: Most of them get into this job with full understanding and there are a few who do not even realize that they are teachers. I guess every one of us have been a teacher at one stage of our life or the other but we've always been and will always remain students first. There is just so much to learn and everyday, every person and every circumstance is a new lesson.

But let’s just touch upon teachers, with tomorrow being teacher’s day. I've had many amazing teachers. Maybe I've forgotten the algebra and optics lessons that they have taught but not their subconsciously imbibed principles. They have taught me to never blindly reciprocate something if I haven't understood what I am reading; copying, even assignments will never help in the long run; marks really do not matter; if you have your heart in what you do, you will definitely get it; when you help others with their studies, you will help yourselves too and so many other things.

And of course your friends teach you that group studies are helpful only when the examination is 2 to 3 hours away, check the timetable before picking the books and you can learn so much at 12 in the night through a telephone. :)

Parents are our first teachers. You never realize how much they have taught us just with their habits, actions and reactions. Its only when someone tells you, 'you are just like your mother/father' you understand how much their influence has been in your life. And then you learn/unlearn so many things from your siblings and better half. Not to forget the books you read. It is said that once you read a book, your world is never the same as before you started that book. And yes, there are many books that truly fall into that category.

And my recent teacher is my daughter and there are so many things that she has taught me already. She has made me realize that it is the tiny and minutest things that makes us happy, a smile can do wonders and has stressed again that there is something new to learn from everything!

And this post won't be complete without mentioning my latest teacher, my driving instructor. In the initial few days, I thought he was forced into teaching driving to us mere mortals against his better interest. His impatience just made me more nervous. But yes, every teaching method is different and slowly I'm beginning to understand that all his on-the-verge-almost-yelling is just to make me a better and responsible driver. After all, if I don't drive well, I'm sure I'll be getting more harsh lessons from other drivers in the roads. If you are in or have been to Chennai, you will know what I’m saying ;)

So in all, I'm happy to have had so many wonderful teachers. Hope the learning continues :)

Happy teacher’s day everyone J Happy teaching and happy learning!!

Troubled thoughts...

A visit to the pediatrician never fails to leave me nervous and the last visit was no different. Probably this was the reason for my lack of concentration and one of the reasons for my wallet being picked in an MTC bus. But you never know…

It was just a rare one-the –spot decision that made me board the bus along with my mom and daughter. After my mom and daughter sat down, I was standing beside them. The two girls behind me looked very scared. They were shabbily dressed and so was the little kid which the girl right behind me had perched so carelessly. Runny nose, sooty hair, blank eyes and a very soiled dress is how I remember the boy (somehow, I feel that the kid must be a boy) who stared at me. He must just be around a year old.

I was previously so worried about my daughter’s cold and all the medicines that she had to take. And now it somehow hurt me more to think that this kid was not even being treated. Kids should not suffer in any form.

You would have guessed by now about how I lost my wallet. They got down in two stops and when we got down I realized I had lost it. There were just a few hundreds but the girls left me with the dreadful task of calling up the bank to block my card, reapplying for the very important pan card and so. Yes, I agree I should have been more attentive, shouldn't have carried my pan card everywhere and maybe shouldn't have taken a bus at all. My glaring mistakes apart the incident has left me very troubled. I somehow am not able to forget the little boy and it has left me with so many questions:

• Whose kid is that? Is the girl his mom? If yes, how can she do this? If no, whose kid is that?
• When she had held the boy carelessly what if he had been hurt?
• Do they get him something to eat throughout the day?
• How will the kid grow up to be? Will he go to school or will he learn all the tricks in this trade before he passes his childhood?
• Isn't this worse than child labor?
• Why can’t the kid have a normal childhood? It is not by choice that he is in this trade?
• How many more kids are being tortured this way?

I know I might never find any answers to any of my questions but I couldn't stop venting about it.

Wish that certain things never happen!

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.