A piece of my heart

"There is a little creature in most homes who winds herself around your heart, with a winsome smile and makes your knees go wobbly with the power of her charm. She gambols around like a puppy, eyes filled with mischief, and deep secrets yet to be explored. Her hair flies about in wild disarray, her lanky limbs move with coltish grace. She is a piece of your heart; when around, she tries your patience to the maximum, but the moment she goes out anywhere, you miss her desperately. She is as elusive as the pot at the end of the rainbow, and infinitely more precious. She is the girl child." So says Deepti Menon in today's Indian Express.

Yeah, she does try my patience but I miss her the moment she is away at school. Scold her when she is awake, but plant a kiss on her forehead the moment she drifts to sleep.

The ingenuity of her questions baffles me. Last Sunday, as we were heading to St George's Cathedral for the evening mass, she asked me: 'If Jesus spoke Aramaic, will he understand if we pray to him in Tamil?'
No, she hasnt watched Pranchiyettan, the new Mammootty hit where the hero wonders if St Francis of Assissi understood prayers in Malayalam.

Preferences

Ashwin has a new teacher called Jemima this year. Making conversation over breakfast yesterday, I asked him which teacher he liked best - this year's or last year's or his KG teachers. He smiled, and said he liked all of them. He is like that - he tells us that he likes both Appa and Amma, unlike Mira who minces no words about her likes and dislikes.
When I insisted again, Ash asked me in return: Whom do you like more (and he mentioned the names of three of my colleagues). I had no choice but to tell him that I like all of them equally.
So do I, he quipped.

Maker

Mira: Appa, where was I when Amma was holding Ashwin in her arms as a baby?

Her dad replied that she was in her mother's womb then.

Mira: Did you put me in there or Jesus??

 

Ash asked me why I didnt get him a schoolbag with a trolley. I said I didnt have the money to waste on a fancy schoolbag. He then checked with me the price of the TV, the dressing table and other stuff around the house.

"When you have money to splurge on such things, why cant you buy me a bag that is much cheaper than these?" he asked.

First day

First day of school.... Mira goes to Class 1 and Ash to Class 2.
They were both terribly excited about their new school bags, lunch bags, lunch boxes, Ben 10 erasers etc. and couldnt wait to get to school to show them off.
The traffic outside the school gates was absolutely chaotic. Parents added to the chaos by waiting to see their children troop from the assembly area to their new classes with their new class teachers, and by crowding around the office premises wanting to pay the fees or collect the notebooks that have not been issued.
The uncertainty about the syllabus means that the students will be whiling away their time for some more days or weeks.

Reopening pangs

Just back from a visit to my hometown to see the kids. They are looking good - happy and healthy. Millipedes and ants in the premises keep them occupied. But the new school bags (of which I took a photograph for them to see) make them want to return to Chennai at the earliest :) Of course they would have preferred the latest 'trolley' school bags...
And what better gift for a non-resident Keralite than the onset of the monsoon on the day I reached home? The Southwest monsoon came two days ahead of schedule on May 29.
And we seem to have found a good nanny at last. She joined us yesterday a while before I was to leave for Chennai. She along with the kids will come to Chennai on June 14, a day before school reopens for the new academic year. And I need to make another trip to escort them.