Friday, September 25, 2009

Progress reports

Today was Open Day for LKG and UKG at the kids' school. I went alone without my wards since I had to head for work after that.
Mira's teacher just handed me her file with all the worksheets and exercise books. She had nothing much to say except that Mira was becoming more open and talkative. I guess she is one of those average, no-problem kids.
Ash's absenteeism seem to be affecting his performance more than anything else. She wondered how long it will take for him to get better since the syllabus gets heavy from Class I onwards. They do not want a scenario in which Ash has to repeat a year and brother-sister pair end up in the same class. I need to prevent V from making Ash skip school for the lamest reason - part out of parental concern for his health and part out of laziness to drop him in school in the mornings on time.
Anyway, I got some of his class exercise books from her so that he can do the portions he missed during his one-week holiday.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Siamese twins

Of late, people ask us if Ash and Mira are twins since both of them are now almost the same height. Mira is slightly shorter but chubbier. We nod yes since it puts an end to more embarassing queries. Of course, Ashwin's skin continue to evince interest.

The duo at play after returning from the doctor's on Monday. Ash's flu hasnt got much better and he had to be taken to the ENT doctor regarding his ear pain. If the pain is recurrent, we might have to go in for the adenoid gland operation. Today is their last day of school for this term. School reopens on October 5.

Ash in a sleeping pose, which precedes the actual waking up, one morning this week. He gets his best sleep in the morning, so we often let him skip school. Anyway, he has more attendance this term than we had expected. The winter months ahead doesnt augur well for his eczema. Last year, he had missed most of the second term.

V left with his father yesterday for Kerala - to meet the physician in Palghat, and then to spend the weekend at his parents' home.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Mira turns 4

Yesterday, as we celebrated Mira's 4th birthday in the presence of her paternal granpa and little Jason and his parents, she wore her first salwar-kurta set complete with a kalamkari chunni that I had got her. There were an array of birthday frocks to choose from - from us, from the grandparents, and from the tenants at my inlaws' place who share a special bond with my kids. In fact, I wavered between the kurti set and a canary yellow gown (or maybe it is a frock that is a lil too long for her) from Beena aunty that looked quite classy.

The celebrations were minimal. We went for an eggless chocolate truffle cake that didnt taste as good as it looked. Still, the kids loved the sauce and cream over it. Ash, for whose sake we had chosen an eggless cake, was more interested in the chocolate cream than anything else. We cut the cake on the teapoy, with its new glass top fortified by bamboo strips under, as the singing candle lit up in a fury and shone on the bewildered faces of the little ones.

Since yesterday was a public holiday for Ramzan, we escorted her to school today - while a feverish Ash slept peacefully - with a box of Kitkat to distribute in class. I hope she has had a memorable day, like Ash did last year.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sweet temptations

When V came home the other day for lunch, he found the nanny and Mira asleep and Ash watching TV.
"Will you carry me just once, Appa?" Ash asked.
So V lifted him up in his arms.
"Will you lift me up a lil more, higher?" he asked again.
The father did that.
"Will you just walk up to the fridge?"
He did that too.
"What is that box there?"
It happened to be a box of mysore pa sweets, made in ghee and which we had hidden away from his watchful eyes. From the lot we had distributed to friends, neighbours, colleagues to celebrate the new car.
"Can I have a little?" Ash is one person who has been forced to skip most celebrations owing to his diet, and allergies to dairy products, cocoa, wheat etc.
So V broke a little from a piece and gave him. Ash wasnt satisfied until a second helping.
A child who never cared for Indian sweets, cakes, biscuits or non-veg fare now craves even for the bland arrowroot biscuits.

p.s. Gearing up for my one-day weekend which is likely to be filled with the church harvest festival. The kids will have the paternal granpa for company until Wednesday next. The maternal granpa left day before, happy to find them doing well under the loving care of the present nanny.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Our Hearts' Desire

The car, a gleaming silver Honda City, came home on Monday afternoon after the raahu kaalam, and after making its first trip to the church for a tryst (a blessing, I mean) with our parish priest. We Malayalis, whatever our religion or sect, generally (in case some of you object) like to abide by a few rituals and superstitions.

A threesome - V, myself and my dad - being an inauspicious number to make the trip to Sundaram Honda, we took Ash (who has missed school this week owing to an increasingly itchy skin after breaking diet rules) to reach the magic number of 4 or at least 3 1/2. Which turned out to be a not very wise decision for the first thing we got was a gift pack of Cadburys Celebrations. All through the delivery process - signing papers, providing feedback to the PR manager, recorded chanting of mantras (with Chennai and TVS being religiously Hindu) as V got into the car and until we left - Ash clutched it dearly. I tried to make him believe it was a box of necklaces since there was a picture of the rakhi thread with a chocolate pendant on the cover. He went home, had a packet of Gems and later Crackles and has been miserably itchy every since. It might take a week now for his system to clear all the cocoa residues.

Ash had been asking us to get a car with a kombu/horn (as in a cow's) ever since he travelled in a Ford Fiesta with an aerial for the radio reception. He went for black cars while Mira preferred the red ones. Predictable.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Winners & losers

The Kiddies Sports Meet at my children's school held no surprises. My kids won no prizes. In fact, Mira came in last in the "Mary had a little lamb" event (no, I didnt ask the teacher to put her in that, just a coincidence!) she participated. She was supposed to walk to school with a lamb made out of thermocol in a cute-looking outfit (hats off to the teachers and their assistants who painstakingly created all the necessary costumes and paper spiders and lambs and so on). If it were a prize for the best catwalk (annanada, as we would say in Malayalam), Mira might have won a prize.
From sports 09

Ash was in a group event, "Passing the hat", and got out midway through the game because he didnt lift his hand after dropping the hat on the head next to his when the music stopped. Some kids were smarter and would drop the hat on the next head even after the music stopped.
From sports 09

Many kids had no idea what competition meant and looked confused as they took part in a race or decided to stop on their tracks half way. Some kids - the brighter, smarter, more mature ones - had their parents goading them to perform well.
I wish I had managed a picture of Mira walking in last at her event!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Studytime

Getting Ash to do his homework is a major feat. Generally homework is given only on Fridays, but sometimes they come during the weekdays too. If I bring up the topic on Saturday morning, he promises he will do it in the afternoon since he has to watch MAD on Pogo and Art Attack on Disney channel. Afternoon his dad intevenes and says that the kid needs his sleep and evening there is an outing or some other programme, and by the time we feel the heat it is Sunday afternoon or night. Sometimes I request the services of V, who inspires more fear and loyalty in Ash.

He takes his own sweet time to do it, looking this way or that or talking in between. Sometimes he gives me the slip.

There he is, doing his Math homework one night. He even describes some of the numbers. If one is bigger than the other he says it is a father-son pair. 44 above, he says, are two friends who have had a fight and the first 4 is asking the other to come play. And there is V's calculator for the occasional distraction.

Of late, he is specialising on the 'teeth' portraits.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Key person

For someone who still doesnt drive on the city roads, I am in luck. Today, Sheila Rani Chungath IAS, the chief guest at the SBM's housing and car loan mela, presented to me the SBM's first car loan cheque at a competitive interest rate of 8% (of course with the Conditions Apply asterisk) and the key to our new Honda City at a small function in the city today morning. She said she was happy to give it to a lady (a good thing she doesnt know I wont be the one driving the car) and asked what car I was buying. When I replied, she said she had a Honda City too. We prolonged the cheque-key-handing-over gesture and the smiles for the photographers' benefit and then I departed with V. My feet which felt heavy when I walked up to her (my only stage experience being those from my college days when I had to walk up the stage to collect a few certificates/prizes) gained in speed as I retreated.
The car, which will be registered today, arrives home on Monday. My father is arriving tomorrow to spend a week with us, while my father-in-law arrives end of next week to attend Mira's birthday. She will be turning four soon!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Being a sport in the time of swine flu

The kids were supposed to have their Sports Day on Saturday, but today we were told that it has been postponed owing to a couple of swine flu cases in the senior classes. Mira apparently was in some game with Little Miss Muffet as the theme. Since I cant get any info from her, I assume some of the lil girls were to sit and eat their curds while some of the lil boys came and chased the curd-eaters to the finish line.
I have no idea what Ash was supposed to do - though I had told his teacher that he was fit enough to participate, Ash told me that the teacher had told him that he could participate the next year. Sometimes I feel it is a communication gap between him and us adults.
Two days back he told me that the other boys in his class wouldnt sit next to him, and that he sat alone. It made me lil sad but I didnt show it. I asked him who he would like to sit next to him, and he said: "Tarun." I told him I will see about it. But I wasnt sure if the teacher would have the time/inclination to a seating request like that in the morning. I always find her rushing to the teachers' room, and to classroom, which is adjacent to it, just 2-5 minutes before the bell. In fact, Ash who had begun to take the van in the mornings too this month reported that he was the first to arrive in his class before the teacher, before the other kids and before the lights were switched on and windows were opened.
I didnt make any request since the teacher looked busy. Anyway, he had Deepak as his benchmate yesterday and he was happy.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Weekend

Hi, welcome back everybody. Trust you all had an enjoyable weekend.
Ours went in getting the loan paperwork for the new car ready (at the musty-smelling State Bank of Mysore), taking Ash to the ophthalmologist (since his eyes itch too owing to the eczema) and to the Crossword bookstore to redeem a couple of coupons I won as part of the credit card rewards program, taking Mira to Marrybrown and myself to Green Trends for a haircut and some self-pampering.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Holy-holidays

The kids get another holiday today - an unexpected one at that - and Ashwin has attended just a day's class this week! Thanks to Chief Minister Karunanidhi's nice gesture of granting a holiday to all educational institutions and state government offices on account of the tragic death of Andhra Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy day before yesterday in a chopper crash. The death was confirmed only yesterday, and his friends and foes alike in the political spectrum are mourning the loss. A couple of other States have declared a holiday today.
I am mourning his death too as he was one Indian/Congress leader I admired, though he was reportedly quite a goonda until he became the Chief Minister. That is nothing surprising in Indian politics where goonda connections or a goonda history are more the norm than the exception.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Superwoman

Our Onam dinner... there's the kids serving the nanny, who single-handedly managed the two brats during the day while churning out a decent feast of rice with parippu curry and papad, avial, pachadi, ginger curry, yummy parippu payasam (last picture) and so on.

The kids had a one-day holiday for Onam but the parents didnt.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Park time

A couple of Saturday mornings, we took Mira along (since she wakes up earlier than Ash) for our morning walk at the park. Of late, morning jogs have been scheduled for Saturdays alone, since by the time the kids are sent to school on weekdays the sun is up and burning bright and mercilessly. Sundays, of course, are generally reserved for the early morning mass at church.

We made her do one round, which is about 800 m, of the park until one of us could chaperone her to the kids' play area. Since big boys from the neighbourhood slums use the kids' swings and seesaws and stuff, half of them are broken. Mira enjoys the slide the most. But for two days, she grumbled that her legs were aching because we had made her walk. V calls her our little pomeranian!

The pic on the top has Ash walking up the slide - is that a camel or a dinosaur? - at one of the oldest parks in the city.

On the penultimate day of reporting duty at the photography festival, the boss of the English writing dept, came and told me: When we both a...