skype tutorials and questions

Dear Darsh

When you were younger you used to ask me questions about the planets and the solar system. So I got us a book and we spend many a pleasant afternoons poring over the pages.

Then you got obsessed with flags and maps and an atlas it was for us. And so on… until yesterday. Now I don’t know what books to buy for us. You are 3 months shy of your 6th bday but your questions have become slightly difficult for me to answer. 

After a very long time we had read a Krishna book cover to cover last evening so I was waiting for the questions about people in Vrindavan  but I wasn’t prepared for what was to follow… You asked me some peculiar questions regarding the digestive system. I will be honest. I never thought about such things. Some of your questions: if the water we drink gets converted to pee, then who colors it yellow? If the food that we consume make our poo then who shapes them? And why do they float? Also what makes us fart and burp…

And it didn’t end there. You wanted to know what makes up a storm and what is the difference between a hurricane and a tornado? I am still looking for books which will give me these answers. We did try to tell you that god makes the wind blow in different directions thus making hurricane and tornado but you just stared at us in a very strange manner. Like you knew we didn’t know the answers.

So I reached out to people at higher levels today and tonight you will skype with your elder brother who will try to unravel all these mysteries for you. His mom assures me that he knows all the answers and then some... Let’s see how that goes. In the meantime I am looking up the books online again. 

Did i tell i i love you? I do :*

20th Nov - The Sunday we went to India Gate

Dear D

After much planning and postponing and cancelling, we finally decided to go to India Gate last Sunday. Your parents were too pleased to have one Sunday free finally after so many weeks. So we didn’t do any research. Had we done any research, we would have found out that India Gate was already a booked venue that day by the Half Delhi Airtel marathon. The website had claimed 34,000 participants.

                                      

We actually found about it half-way on our route when we opened the trusty old Google Maps and it popped up the marathon details. We still went ahead because you were beginning to pout. But we found to our dismay (mostly your dismay and shock and horror...) that the entry roads to India Gate were blocked. To kill time and also because we were hungry we went and had a lavish brunch buffet at Haldiram's and also for some sought after imarti. After which we bullied and cajoled your father to venture again to visit your favorite monument.

This time, we got through. just took us 3 hours to reach it instead of the usual 50 minutes but never mind that. your expression was priceless. it was like watching a spaceship movie. You kept staring with open mouth and kept mumbling wow after few seconds. yes i am talking about india gate not taj mahal. You then proceeded to check it out from all the angles and even gazed into its eyes for quite a bit. you even insisted on touching it but thankfully there were too many jawans around for you to be too daring. You then insisted on staying back for the laser show in the night but we clarified with a Jawan on duty that it wasn’t to happen that Sunday.... After saluting an NCC Cadet from a distance you then went to catch a few soapy bubbles and you kept at it for quite some time because the vendor, enthused by your bubble catching talent, kept blowing bubbles at your way and for a minute i thought there was a competition going on. We finally bought one bubble blow set from him and after that you both relaxed.

The next destination was the children’s park. obviously. Here too, you went slightly crazy with the holed-out slides and tunnels. All in all you had a fun day. We came back home exhausted. err not you. You wanted a strawberry cake. Let me backtrack a little. you have been asking for a strawberry cake for so long but i have the lazy-mom syndrome going on these days. but you know the way around it so well. so instead of asking me to bake a strawberry cake you asked me to teach you how to bake one. i don't how you know that teaching baking to little kids has become one of my favorite things to do these days. So you baked it and I helped. And after you ate it we decided to invite your friends for a baking class where you can teach them the baking moves. Andon that note i'll say our day ended. 

Btw You sang Sia’s Cheap Thrills all the way to the monument and when we requested you for a change in song you sang kanha makhan chor. you have been trying to teach me the kanha song so that i may successfully sing it during bed time, lulling you to sleep. sadly i am not even half-way there. you know it by heart already. you also know 3 slokas. that is 2 more than i know ;) Your choice of songs and singers is pretty eccentric as of now – Boyzone – words, Christina Ricci – 1000 years, Jungle book theme song, Shankhar ji ka damru baje, Lego movie song etc. I think as long as you don’t sing hips don’t lie I will be okay.

You ae pretty helpful around home and kind to the less learned. you have started translating for family and friends even when we have told you that everyone knows passable English. So one of your grandmothers had to hear gussa chiriya – angry birds and the other one had to hear makri man. your twitter-star mosi whose poetry is followed by close to 5000 people daily had to hear kitaab chor – the book thief  recently.

Your dance moves are also quite funky and your bari mosi feels you can have a successful career in bollywood. I am not so sure. I think you can be a baker / a robotic engineer / scientist or a maths champ. Or you can be a lawyer. i think.... 

You – I want to be a scientist

Me – so please study. All scientists have to study a lot

You – can you show me the image of a scientist doing homework

Me – yes of course I will do that!

Me – Okay Google…look for little einstein doing home work 

Autumn fun - Nov 8

it was the autumn of 2016

the famous delhi chill was yet to come

girls were still roaming in tank tops and little pants

and babies were out without their caps

but one day after diwali people woke up to severe smog

they were mystified because it didn’t feel cold at all

they first blamed the Chinese firecrackers

and then they blamed Hindus for lighting those

and then they come to know that the real culprits 

were the fire-happy farmers and no one can really blame them now

so schools were closed after much deliberation

And a few people were encouraged to work from home

But the great pollution lasted for more than a week

and while the government decided on shields & sprays

one little boy had a brainwave

he asked his mom to make him a tent

She first looked at him a bit strangely 

but then saw the mischief in his eyes and said okay

So she got those old crutches saved for an emergency and tied them to the big round chair

And she draped it with a flowery bed sheet and they pretended it was in the jungle

And the little boy went inside the tent

with captain America & the new pillow & scratchy the blanket and a little USB lamp

But he still created some space for his grandmother and for a new fairy tale

And at bedtime he was still in the tent, tossing & heaving and pretended to snore

but after a while he climbed on the bed & slept peacefully then

In the morning he went back to his tent and picnic-ed with popcorns & books & his toys and remianed there until his next break

So next time when you think of the summers & winters 

think of the boy in the tent having fun in the autumn of 2016