Mummy, Look! The milk is tearing apart!

It was a Sunday and late in the morning. Rini, a little girl of love her Sunday mornings, because a) on Sunday mornings she can get up late, b) after getting up she can take out her heap of storybooks and magazines, she can look at them one by one, read some of them or solve some puzzles given in them while lying on her belly on the small carpet laid in their living room. Her mummy and daddy also feel very happy on Sunday morning, no office, no school, no shopping and no hurry. They read the newspaper, Sunday editions or magazines, drink tea and eat breakfast, chat and laugh.

Along with this, Sunday morning brings another attraction for Rini. On Sundays, Rini and her parents   cook together after having a late. Rini does not remember from when, but it has almost become a ritual now, that the Sunday afternoon meals are cooked by all of them together. Rini finds it very exciting as she can see many magic happening while they cook, her mummy calls it ‘food science’. She eagerly waits for this fun time for the whole week.

A quick note

Time is flying by. 'J' is growing up, she is also saying funny things almost every day. It is not possible to pen each and every funny moment a child creates in her parents life but here is a quick note of some of her recent tid-bits.

Riddle :
'J': "Can you tell a word that starts with a T ends with a T and has T in it?"
I was taking time.
'J': "Pass mummy, pass..."
I: "Yes, pass."
'J': "Teapot!"

Bitten by a travel bug!

Travelling has been part of my life, from the time I remember myself. Mostly as getting uprooted from one place to another and then starting to live there. Along with this there has been touristic travelling, I have been part of.
I have liked most of them.

When went for touristic purposes, I always felt difficult to tear myself off and go back, where we missed visiting one or two spots due to lack or time or money or energy or all. Sometimes weather did not support us or we simply reached the place in wrong time. Museum/castle/palace/garden got closed as we reached late. Although these are minors. Just like few poppy seeds in a colourful carpeted floor.
Still I keep reminding them to myself and to the people around me and keep dreaming that one fine day I will be able to see, feel and enjoy that place.

The next time rarely comes.

Next time when we again sit to set our itinerary for a short trip or a big one. We check in internet and figure out that we don't have enough time or money and finally energy to see the whole of the place we are planning to. So we prioritise, heavily and new poppy seeds fill up my carpet .

Another part of our recent travel acts is that even in a family of three we do have different kinds of travellers.

Are cartoons the new cousins?

Cousins (first, second or n-th) I have them in plenty. In my travel laden random childhood, I did not get the luxury to grow in a large joint family or in a village where half of the people are family. But I had chances to meet them, every year, during summer vacation and some years even twice;  i.e.,  also during Durga Puja (biggest festivals of Bengali - Hindus) or during family celebrations like marriages. As a child and now too I always look forward to meet with my cousins during those  holidays.  

The time gap between two meetings never came in-between and we could always start our chattering and blabbering conversation whenever we met from the point we left last time with any of my cousins. Holidays were the time of stealing pickles from grandmas store, licking them with mouthful of water and sharing stories about schools and colleges, specially the likings, flirts and serious affairs. Before that we shared Tintin comics, lollypops, tricycles and chewing gums. Slowly in the process of growing up the elder cousins got married and then I got married and the younger ones  still there, lingering, but the whole bunch of us who used to hang around under the mango tree in a hot summer afternoon waiting for ice-cream vendor have not met for a long time.

But thanks to all these social networking sites  that we do hang around and share our lives in photos and scraps even though virtually. We haven't met with each others husbands or wives but we have included them in our friend lists too. Cousins do play a vital role in my life or in anybodies life of my generation.

Now if I fast forward a bit and look into the days of 'J', annual vacation for her means a trip to another European country. It is only in once in few years that she visits India and when her parents get time to go to India her cousin's parents might not be there. Therefore she actually doesn't know what cousins actually mean.

But if I dig little deeper, she does have some cousin like figures in her life, whom she admires, praises, follows and smiles at. She gets addicted to them one at a time and her choice changes with her growing up.

If I can remember correctly (although forgetfulness is increasing steep high with my age!) Caillou is the first cartoon character whom 'J' started to copy when she was around two and half or three. Caillou is a four year old boy who lives with his sister and parents and does all those things which will hook any body from 2-5 years of age. Along came Teletubbies, Barney, Bob the builder, Thomas the tank engine and so on.

She used to watch them, read about them, colour their printable, act like them and sing the title songs.

Then came another strong character called Pippi Longstockings and her friends like Madita and so on.

Pippi can easily match one of my those strong headed cousin sisters who were my guru and still are, whom I followed with all the sincerity and integrity from the time of me being a small girl.

Charlie and Lola, excellent creations by Lauren Child are exactly the cousin brother-sister duo I had, the ones who were always there to help each other out in the board games of a Ludo or snap! 'J' loves watching Lola throwing all the tantrums and how her elder brother Charlie wraps them up. On seeing them, 'J' always mentions it is nice to have an older brother. Also she loves watching Peppa pig, her brother George, her friends  and family. Her other favourite characters includes strawberry shortcake, spot- the spotty dog, Kipper  and the world of Peter rabbit . Each and every one of them tell a tale about worries and there solutions in the lives of young children, about friendship and about fun.

Recently I can see that she is getting inclined to the high school characters like Gabriela and Troy from High School Musicals  and the Barbie movies, her favourite story or cartoon characters are also growing in age like her. 

Cartoons may not replace the role of a cousin and I am sure 'J' will get chances to meet with her cousins and then get friends with them.

But now seeing her engrossed in these characters only thing I feel is that childhood is all about admiration, following and sharing worries weather it is with a loving cousin or a charming cartoon!

Do you think the same?

An Indian and world cup football

One more world cup football started and in Europe this is a season of festivity, the celebrations starts from daycare centers and schools. 

I remember in Germany; in 2006 football world cup; the kindergarten where 'J' was going was decorated with flags, also it was more special as Germany was the hosting the tournament. They did world cup football picnics, sports and tattoos on every kids cheek! In our office we had bets for which country will win? Also beamers which is normally used for powerpoint presentations of scientific results were used to watch football matches which were 'very' important but were held during office time.

Well, please never think that I am a die hard football fan, my knowledge about football limits to a goal and few famous players names, but that does not mean I don't have any alliance with it.

Today when 'J' while coming from school (she is now in UK and the scenario in her primary school is not much different from that of Germany) asked me "Mum why India is not in world cup? I would have loved to cheer for India." I replied "Yes, 'J' it is sad, India is not very good in football, but India is good in Cricket, Hockey and Chess, and nevertheless you can always cheer for Germany, it is your birthplace." She replied "But India is my country." I felt amazed that amidst of all the confusing relocations in different countries and her total stay in India for 6 weeks only, in her six years of lifespan, has not prevented her in developing a sense of national identity.

I wanted to tell 'J' about how enthusiastic people of India participate in their own way in the world cup without even having its own team. And on the way back walking slowly towards home I started spinning yarns of the world cup foot ball I have as an Indian. 

My earliest association with world cup dates to that year when Maradona was storming the world and also our army quarter when I woke up suddenly in the middle of the one night hearing a roaring goal sound from my father, watching T.V. all alone in the living room. I got up and slowly went to him, to see his eyes excited with childish joy and he showed me how Maradona made a goal!

Next, I remember a scene in my ancestral house in a small village in India where about 12 boys (aged 8 to 80 years) were sitting on a double bed and watching very silently a world cup semi-final in the late afternoon on a black and white portable T.V.  The T.V room was on the first floor. The  kitchen downstair was also equally populated and not at all silent, where my mother, aunties and grand mother were preparing supply of tea for adults,  sherbet  (home made lemonade) for younger ones  and hot tele bhaja (meaning deep fried snacks made up of different thin sliced veggies and chick pea flour) for all of us. After all watching a game like football also needs lot of strength.

I also remember that on the same season of football world cup, on one such summer afternoon, in the middle of a very exciting game, that double bed broke just after making a creeping sound and all the boys from 8-80 fall down on the floor, making an extraordinary noise which we from the downstairs first thought was yet another goal!

The girls hostel of my university would get divided into two camps of the world cup finalists and we were quite regular in reading sports news on the newspaper for those few days.

The scene in boys hostels were wilder of course.

After coming out of India this is my third world cup football, last two times I was in Germany and it was fun. Specially 2006 world cup showed a new Germany to us. Flags, T-Shirts, key chains were sold in large number in those days and for the first time we saw people putting flags on their balconies or windows. Unlike Denmark or Sweden, Germans don't use their flag for personal occasions (owing to their history perhaps), but hosting the world cup dissolved their inhibitions and enlightened their feelings for a proud nation. Also flags from Turkey, France, Italy were seen along with German flags in many houses telling us that those houses are from expats of these countries.

After talking a lot, I looked at 'J', she was laughing madly listening to those funny stories and as I opened the door to home I silently but convincingly told her that may be we need to wait few years and then India will manage to enter into world cup football tournament. She clapped her hands with joy, the same one as I saw in my father's eyes  many years ago.

So India cannot we try to make a child's dream come true?

Praise; a golden key

We always crave for appreciation for our deeds, as there is a hidden child inside all of us. But most of us forget in our daily juggle to stop a little, take a look at people around us and admire or thank for their support, encouragement and simply because they are walking with us, for we don't remember that they might leave us at any moment and start a new journey altogether. Praise, appreciation, encouragement and a hearty thanks never does a harm. It always opens up a new path to keep us going. You might have seen many instances in your life, here are few from mine.

'J' (age 4 and half) got a new pink cotton dress from her favourite aunt for the summer. She is very proud of her dress with bright floral prints and lots of embroidered frills. She waits eagerly for Monday to show her dress to her Kindergarten  teacher.

Monday morning:

'J' is standing very proudly in front of her teacher;

her teacher, amidst of all the Monday morning chaos and eleven kids running here and there, noticed the new dress, praised it with a broad smile and big exclamation, she also touched the frills and commented on their softness and colour.

'J' is very happy and her smile equals to that of a princess,

'J' looks at her daddy, and finds he is happy too, as he can see how a little amount of genuine praise helped his daughter to settle down in kindergarten on a Monday morning.

                                                         ******

She spends the whole day cooking several courses, as her husband told her before going to the office that he will come for lunch.

He is very late, wife is getting angry and irritated.

Finally he arrives and in a quick glance notices the straight tight lipped face of his wife.

He says, I was trying to come out from the office for a long time, but there was always some work coming up one after another.

She puts no remark and lays the table silently.

He comes to the table and speaks with a great exclamation, "Oh my god, you have cooked so many things, you must have spent the whole day sweating in the kitchen. Now I can not control my hunger anymore." And he starts eating and appreciating each and every item carefully.

A curved smile replaces the straight tight lips of his wife.

    

                                                         ******

School leaving exams are very crucial in the life of an Indian teenager, the results of these exams decide their futures.

Every mother of a Class 12 student in India therefore lives with  a year full of tension and nervousness.

For the students, they cannot foresee the impact of this exam, also in order to reduce the imposed stress and as a general nature of teenage they want to spend more and more time with their friends.

Son returns home from his friends house after spending the whole morning there.

Mother (feeling very angry and helpless on seeing her son wasting so much time before exams, but she reacts in another way): "Come on, have some thing to eat. You must be tired after whole morning of studying together".

Son was not expecting this from his mother, he feels sorry,  after finishing his lunch he goes straight to his room and studies for the whole afternoon.

                                                        ******

Her little sister will never make tea, if anyone asks her to make it.

She therefore always reminds her sister that she is actually the best tea-maker in their family, just near the tea time. This true appreciation always works and everybody in the family gets hot cup of masala chai dot at 4.30 p.m.

                                                        ******

She calls him and asks, did you read my blog?

His answers are normally a monosyllabic yes, but today he adds that he has bookmarked her blog and not only the regular posts he also reads all the comments. He appreciates her regular effort.

She feels highly inflated, she sits down and starts to write yet another blog with a  big smile on her face.

                                                       *******

After a long wait

When she was six, one day she came to know that her father has got a transfer near the border area of their country and she and her mother has to stay with her grandparents in a small village for next one year. She was little confused and asked several questions but still she did not really understand what that means. She loved to stay in the village, the paddy fields, the big pond, the fishermen coming every Sunday, the special sweets made by her grandmother, jars of raw mango pickles and the elaborate way of making them by the village women, the stories she heard from her grand father every evening after finishing her homework in front of a lantern, she learned lots of tricks and fun things from her uncle and aunts who were not much older than her. She saw her mother always busy in the kitchen and several other things which are needed to be cared in a big joint family. Her mother would only get time to sit with her in the evening to help her with her homeworks and little chit-chat about her whole day at school. This was a different life for that little girl than what she was used to of before.

She was happy with her new kind of days, but whenever she saw a butterfly fluttering around, she saw the first drops of rain falling on the pond in front of their house, she saw kites in the sky, she saw other children of the village holding their father's finger while going to buy a toffee in the village shop she used to feel the absence of her father very strongly. She used to write letters to her father or rather draw as in that age she did not know spellings of many words, so she used to draw pictures of that butterfly she saw, rain falling over the pond, the big fish that was caught by the fisherman. Her mother always made sure that all her letters were posted and reach her father. She used to get big letters form her father as well, no not with pictures but with descriptions of the place where he was living, about the clouds floating so near to him that he thought he would try to catch them in a poly packet after she join him there, about the mountain ranges he could see from his window and how they look like a giant lying on the ground. That little girl used to love those letters, she could not read them herslf as they were written in joint letters, so she used to wait patiently for her mother to finish her work and they both used to read  them lying on their beds during lazy afternoons.

After many months passed like this, one day when the little girl returned from her school, she saw her grand parents, uncle, aunts and mother all are talking very happily, and as she entered one of them said "Go upstairs there is a surprise for you". She hesitated a bit as her uncles and aunts were expert in playing tricks, so she looked at her mother's face for truth. Her mother nodded with a smile and the girl could not miss that special sparkle in her mother's eyes. She ran through the stairs and there she saw her father fresh after a bath, cuticura powder splashed on his shoulders, combing his hairs. As soon as he saw her he took her into his arms, after a tight hug he fumbled her hairs and said you have grown up into a big girl!

Many years have passed in between, that little girl is a mere spectator today. She is watching with a smile on her face, the meeting of another pair of father and his little girl, though they don't write letters but they share their days over phone calls and video chats, and when they met after a long wait, she saw that the daddy took his little girl into his arms, cuddled her tightly, fumbled her hairs and said you have grown up into a big girl!

When innocence speaks-II

You have read the first one and smiled and here the innocence continues:


Mum: 'J' why do you always mess up everything in your room? Why is it always untidy?
'J': No, mamma I don't mess up, I always try to find something like my doll's shoes and while searching for it the room gets messed up.

                                                   *****

'J': Mummy when we eat food, is there a tunnel inside our mouth to take the food to the tummy or the food just drops into the tummy like a ball?

                                                    *****

'J' : From today I need to count all the hugs and kisses I am giving you and then I will give them plus 100 when papa will be visiting us, otherwise you are getting more hugs and kisses than papa.

                                                     *****

I asked 'J' to make sentences with some words, and here are the sentences (there were many spelling mistakes of course)

Girl: You can play with another girl.
Pen: You can write with a pen.
Car: You can ride a car.
Nails: You can scratch with your nails!

A little chit-chat

It is Sunday evening, the small hand of the living room clock is about to touch 9 and the big hand is somewhere between 8 and 10, I am desperately trying to fix the after dinner kitchen scenario and also trying to plan a little for dreadful Monday morning and then came my little 'J' with a confident mood for a little chit-chat to expand (I cannot find any better word; help me if you find any!) her weekend, and here it goes:

'J':  Mummy lets solve some problems.

Me (my hands cleaning the kitchen top randomly):  Shoot;

'J':  What does shoot mean?

Me:  It is another words for ask (after thinking a while that she should not use such slangs at school), but it is used more between mum and kids.

'J':  Okay here is the problem:

Myra and Mira were twins and Myra is 7 year old. Once their mother gave them  a basket of 10 apples each. Myra bumped to you and you were very greed and took all her apples, Mira bumped on Daddy and he was little greedy and took half of Mira's apples and then she bumped on me and I took all the left overs.

Now tell me how old is Mira?

Me:  7 years (proud to be able to answer her question for a change)!

'J':  Bravo mamma! Here comes the next;

Me (stopped cleaning and sat with her on the sofa):  Okay, I am ready.

'J':  Myra's mother has 5 kids, and they are called, Mira, Ira, Lira and Strawberry, what is the name of the fifth kid?

I (smiled) and answered it right too!

Me:  Now it is my chance, Mummy has lots of work to do and it is quarter to 6 p.m in the office, she need to reach the after school club at 6 to pick up her daughter, else the club will get close, what shall she do?

'J':  Call a Taxi, it is eezy peezy lemon sqeezy!

Me:  Very good! Now next one and difficult one:

Mum will go back to her homeland and what if she doesn't get a job there, what shall she do?

'J':  What you always say to me, try again and don't give up!

Me (Hugging her tightly and forgetting that the clock struck 9):  Thank you 'J' for boosting up my energy.

'J':  What does boosting mean?

Me (taking her in arms and lifting her up in the air, and she giggling in the same way as she did when she was 6.5 months old):  Boosting means lifting high up in the air!

Finally our weekend ends.

Indian New Year

Courtsey-Google Images

It is not easy to define India, Indians, religions of India, Indian languages (yes, they are languages and not dialect, every language has different script/alphabets) and also Indian new year.

We all know and celebrate (almost all Indians of recent generations) transition into a new year on the eve of 31st December to 1st January every year.  But like China, India also have its own new year celebrations.

Government offices, Private offices, Banks, Hospitals, Schools in India are run according to English calendar, but marriages, naming ceremonies, Indian festivals and rituals are followed according to Indian calendars. 

But when it comes to a date for Indian new year, unlike Chinese new year they are at different months at different regions of India.

In general we gather up from middle of March to middle of April each year to celebrate our own regional new years.

One thing that binds all these new years is harvest season. Almost all over India month of March and April are time for harvesting crops from the fields and new year celebrations are a kind of saying thanks to the mother earth and enjoying the good harvest of that year (may be similar to the motto of Thanksgiving in Northern America).

New Year is celebrated in different states of India under various names

• Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
• Gudi Padva in Maharashtra. 
• The Sindhis celebrate it as Cheti chand. 
• Bengalis celebrate the Poila Baishakh festival
• It is called Navreh in Kashmir
• In the north the Assamese bring in the new year with the  Bihu festival
• Puthandu  in Tamil Nadu
• Vishu in Kerala
• The Punjabis get light up camp fires with Baisakhi.
• The Nepalese however bring in the new year in the third week of March
• It is called Nowruz by persians 
• People in Manipur call it, Cheiraoba.

Actually India has remained a country of immigrants and the whole country was a group of small independent kingdoms, before british came to form a colony in India.

Different kinds of calendars were followed (solar, lunisolar or  mathematical) in these different kingdoms. So although all these kingdoms united to become one independent entity against British Raj and became a country which we call India today, but some colourful diversities of those kingdoms remained as special holidays in different part of  united India, as a salute to those rich kingdoms of past and to enjoy different kinds of harvests in different parts of India at this particular time of the year.

When innocence speaks

They think a lot, observe a lot,  get confused a lot about all the notions of adulthood and then very seriously and thoughtfully they put their queries in front of us to bring genuine smiles in our long, busy and boring days.
                                         ****
"Mum you say that letters can be written as capital or small then how can we write capital and small numbers?"
                                            ****
"You are saying that bus number is ninety-nine  then why is it written nine nine (99)?  It should be 9T9."

                                             ****
'J' has started going to a new school, where everybody speaks english.
'J' does not know english as she used to live in Germany. She is trying her best by making funny faces and using signs to make friends, somedays it works some days not.
After first few days in her new school, her mum asked "With whom did you play today J?"
'J' replied "No body wanted to play with me today so I played with a wind-friend."

                                               ****
'J' was very excited, it was snowing, she took a carrot and two cherry tomatoes from the fridge and ran outside to make a snow man.  It was not thick snow. She and her dad made a small snow man with cherry tomato eyes and carrot nose. Then they came inside had lunch and a small nap.  After getting up in the afternoon 'J' went out and came back. She showed her hand and said " Snow man is not there anymore but he left his eyes and nose with us !"
                                                 ****


Mum: 10+5?
Child: 15

Mum 25 add 6?
Child : 31

Child: Now it is my turn;
           What is Mummy + Daddy
Mum: Family
Child: No
Mum: Parents
Child: No
Mum: Couple
Child: No
Mum: I give up
Child: LOVE!
                                                     ****

Sunday Afternoon- Paper Batik

Five days, of the week i.e. from Monday to Friday we live a  minimalist life, our lives circle around going to Work/School, coming home, basic cooking/homeworking, regular washing and cleaning and then a little elaborate bedtime with some storybooks and talking about the whole day. Saturday flies between swimming  lessons (for my daughter), shopping, cooking, socialising  and weakly cleaning. Finally it  is only on the Sunday afternoon when we Mother-Daughter duo get some unplanned free time.

It is like those little extra pocket money we used to get sometimes from our parents just as a surprise. In this 3-4 hours of time gap often I am tempted to have a solid after-lunch nap (Bhat ghum in Bengali) and my daughter wants to see T.V (with null interruption from her Mum).

But there are some days (trying to increase the number!) when we also try to do something different and funny together. No studies, No TV, No nap, No chores but something else.

Her best friend accompany us sometimes.

Last Sunday we tried some

No fuss paper batik

We manipulated little bit on the method according to our choices and needs but overall it worked out nicely.

Two girls and I enjoyed a lot colouring with crayon and then making a crumble of our hard work!

It was Valentines day so my daughter decided to draw a walking heart and her friend drew houses, streets, flowers etc.

I remain sticked to conventional flowers for the first one and then some geometries later on.

Finally we made cards by sticking the pictures on construction papers.

We chatted  and laughed a lot while doing our work and I was feeling happy that I need not to say for the first time in the whole week that "hurry up 'J' we are getting late"!  

Three snowmen went to school

A story told by my six year old daughter 'J' to me  during one of the bedtime story session that we have every night. I found the story to be very well crafted, thoughtful and funny.  I am sharing this story with you just the way 'J' told to me.

Once upon a time there were three snowmen who lived in Greenland. There name was Tik, Pik and Nik.

They used to play, throw snow at each other,  roll in the snow and have lots of fun.

But one day they got bored of doing all this stuff. They were sitting on the snow and were thinking what to do? Then Pik suggested we should go to school, then Nik said school is boring. Listening to this,  Pik said we should go to school because we need to learn reading and writing and lots of other things to do. All three of them agreed.

 Then they went to look for a school. They walked and walked and then they found a school.

It was called "Snowmen's Icy Cold School".

The three snowmen thought that the school will be cold and will be good for them. Then they went inside and saw lots of little snowmen and one teacher snowman. They were very happy. They went through the corridors. But then they started to melt, and within few minutes they were melted completely.

But how the other snowmen  did not melt in the school ?  Because they were children and teacher  dressed up as snowmen!