Mother Earth

It's exam time and we are wracking our heads over motions of the earth in the social studies paper. Often we waver from the subject in hand and venture into space and God's place in the scheme of things.
Is god sitting in space? Can we see him if we go to space in a rocket?  What does he eat? Mira hurls a volley of questions at me.
I haven't given much thought about our God's abode. Unlike the Greek and Hindu gods, Jehovah is just somewhere out there.
Often, if I'm in a good mood, I cook up an answer on the spur and marvel at my ingenuity. (In a bad/preoccupied mood the answer is an aah which means I don't know.) A volcano, I tell her, is a pimple on the earth's face and if it bursts then we have the lava.
Explaining the earthquakes I tell her about the plates that join the earth's surface like the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. 'Plate movement causes an earthquake. It's like you adjusting your skirt if it's a little loose. The earth is adjusting her skirt.'
"Amma, you are very funny," smiles Ash.

The human touch

Allow me the bragging rights to say that the kids are warm-hearted, people-friendly and truthful. I say people-friendly just as you would rate a device user-friendly. They enjoy welcoming people home, interacting with them and sharing their stuff - though sometimes they go overboard with their attention depending on how comfortable they are with the person. Living in times when kids are more and more withdrawn into themselves owing to an active virtual life on smartphones and laptops or are too preoccupied with academic pursuits, this is quite refreshing. (Here toddlers in prams are seen playing on ipads  while their moms stroll past shops in the malls - it keeps them quiet but what about their life beyond it and their need to observe and grasp from the world around?)
The warmth and friendliness the kids have inherited from V and the truth serum from me. I dont mean to say that I dont lie at all. I do lie to save my skin or face. But lying for the sake of lying is a strict no no. The kids in all their childhood innocence prefer to speak the truth especially as we dont whack them for telling an unsavory truth. Even in circumstance when we tell them to avoid speaking unpleasant truths, they argue: Isnt it wrong to tell lies? Of course, falsehood is gently imparted by us adults. For a while, on train journeys in India we used to profess that the children were still under 5 to avoid paying the half ticket -  of course it was a task keeping them quiet on that. Until I read a thought for the day on a parent doing that at a cinema ticket counter and also until I could no longer pretend that they were 5- year olds. That's lying for a cause - of saving a few pennies.
One lesson from my primary school English textbook I still remember is that of George Washington with an axe - and how he cut an apple tree to test its sharpness and admitting to his father his crime. And how he went on to become the first President of the United States. That his honesty and integrity stood him in good stead.
Will my children benefit from these tales?

Vignettes

As I buy kingfish at the fish stall in Al Jubail Fish Souq, a voice to my right enquire of me: "What fish is that? How is it cooked?" I see a lady in a black frock, with a broad face, broad lips and nose. To my untrained eye, she is another Chinese or Japanese wanting to buy salmon for sushi. I explain that it is premium fish in India and how we cook it with spices. She looked interested but not impressed, especially by the price. Too expensive, she says, and asks the seller the price of salmon. The price once again daunts her. I ask her where she is from and what fish they eat.  She tells me that they eat only small fish in Mongolia.
Mongolia of all places! Who would have thought I'd have the privilege of meeting a Mongol?
Last seen, she was at a counter selling big fish heads.

***

I have an hour to kill at the driving institute before the next bus to Sharjah departs. Most women at the ladies waiting area have their heads buried in the phones and I chat with a friend on whatsapp. She asks if I have anyone to talk to. I tell her that sometimes I strike up conversation with the person on the next chair. Most of my new friendships have been made at the institute - sharing the agony of a failed parking test, easing the nervousness before a road test or cribbing about the tutors and the money going down the drain (often enough to buy a second hand car).
I decide to talk with a real person instead of a virtual one and turn to the young woman in a colorful headscarf seated behind. She has just cleared her road assessment in the first attempt and is planning to appear for the road test in the coming week. She is an architecture graduate from Jordan but is yet to find a job. We share our experiences in job hunting and the low salaries offered. She lives with her parents in another emirate. She has a licence from her home country but Jordan is not among the list of countries whose licence is accepted here and so she has to take a fresh one. She looks fresh and confident, and I am sure she will clear the road test in the first attempt. I wish her all the best, and return to my phone just as I get a crick in my neck.

Daily offering

I like the Khaleej Times. After coming here, the impression gathered was that the Gulf News was THE paper to read just as people would rate the Times of India over The Hindu in India. The TOI of course presents news in a way that would interest the layperson unlike TH. But GN was the dense one here delivering news analysis in a bulky supplement section while leaving the main paper bare save for the ads.
Not so KT. It is orderly and keeps the news eye-catching at the first glance itself. There's a section for everyone - the first half is of course dedicated to national news and how the country is progressing especially the emirate of Dubai. There's cause for celebration every day -- Dubai gets its first robot lifeguard, indoor tropical rainforest, opera house apart from the world's largest indoor ski, tallest tower and man-made island in the shape of a palm tree. A dynamic leadership that aims to keep the desert in bloom and pursue the happiness quotient. The bad 'uns are caught and punished - the crimes, mainly by Asian expatriates, relate to extortion, rape, prostitution, fatal atrocities on kids by their nannies etc.
The paper lends emotional support  - for instance, for parents and their wards as when schools reopened after summer vacation, on how to cope with academic stress and peer pressure. A reflection of the state concern for public well-being.
The Edit/ Opinion page has analyses of issues across the world, from writers across the spectrum. My personal favorite is CP Surendran's India Mail.
Then comes the expatriates' section - two pages devoted to India, followed or preceded by a page for Pakistan, one for Asia/ Philippines, and then the International page. The pages dedicated give out the percentage of expatriate population here. Mother Teresa's canonisation is celebrated as fervently by KT as would any newspaper in India; the blast in 'Duterte city' is front page news; while Brexit and the Democratic Convention received special focus with views from British and American expats here to boot.
The Business and Sports supplements are daily fare while wknd magazine on Friday tells one what to do with the Friday-Saturday weekend. Fashion and beauty accessories, travel & dining options, recipes and interviews with the glitterati. Bollywood and Hollywood command equal attention, and their trivia gets special coverage in the City Times.