Spelling Bee

We are proud to learn that Anirud has come out as a topper in the Spelling Bee contest held at school. He patiently put in lot of effort in to this by practicing the words, whenever we demanded. When I met his class teacher during the Parent Teacher meet, she was all praise for him. The next round is an Inter School competition and that will happen in the first week of January 2012 at a different school. Wish him luck, people! :)

Chota Bheem

If He Man, Super Man, Spider Man etc captivated the children during our time as kids, it is the turn of Chota Bheem and his ilk now. Anirud was not an avid TV watcher in UK. He used to watch TV for a maximum of 1 hour a day and that was it. If something has changed drastically in the last 5 months after our relocation to Bangalore, it is his TV addiction and his obsession towards Chota Bheem. As most of the kid's channels have got a programme or two on one of the variants of Chota Bheem, Anirud prefers to have the TV remote in his control whenever he is at home. This is being challenged and we are putting in controls in order to arrest the addiction trend. Although those are being severely resisted, it is gradually paying results.

There is one another character that would only come a close second to Chota Bheem - it is BEN 10. As I am no where near the alien stuff, I am not sure what it is all about. All I know is Ben 10 is another one of my brat's obsessions.

Ouch!

All three of us had an awful fall on the road at White Field - Bangalore while travelling on a motorbike couple of weeks ago. Although it is a very minor accident by any standards, Anirud being the one sitting on the petrol tank of the bike fell on the road and sustained injuries on his head. Upon being taken to the hospital within minutes of the fall, Anirud had couple of sutures - one on the forehead and the other just below his eyebrow.

We both were very sorry to see him with the sutures, but as always he was amazingly cooperative with out any fuss. Six days after the accident, the sutures were removed and Anirud is doing well - but for the scars that still remain. Hopefully the scars will go away over a period of time.

Other than the inconvenience, if this incident lead to something, it is to prioritise the car buying!

Swagatham Krishnaa!

Swagatham Krishna! Saranaagatham Krishna!!



This was the song that Anirud sang at his school in the preliminary round of the Singing competition. He learnt the song by repeatedly listening to the MP3 of K.J. Yesudas and his mom fine tuned his pronounciation. Anirud seems to have sung it so well that he became eligible for the final round. It is rather unfortunate that he caught cold and had a terrible throat condition on the day of the finals. His teacher said that all the teachers at school and the Principal loved the way he sung that they made him sing at the staff room quite a few times.

Well, there is always a next time.

Tooth Fairy

It has been a while since I updated this blog, but it does not mean that there is nothing happening in Anirud's world. He has been growing up as usual, going to school, making friends, playing out, learning Hindi and he has even lost one of his tooth.

Talking about tooth, one in his lower jaw has been shaky for the last few months. Had he continued normally, it would have fallen off in few days. But this brat got so scared of the tooth and he made sure that not even a grain of rice touched that shaky baby tooth. At last, it took an inadervent knock on the jaw from his classmate that brought down that tooth and ended his misery. The myth of this age is that if one puts the broken teeth under his pillow while going to bed, the tooth fairy would take it away and leave some money behind. Anirud dutifully did his bit and guess what - the tooth fairy left him ten quid.

Schooling in India

On Anirud's first day at his new school, we were a lot nervous of so many factors. Everything was new to him. New surroundings, new teachers, new culture (in terms of school) etc. In UK, he was used to being dropped at the school gate by one of us, but here he will have to travel in a school van and we had million questions on our mind like

- Will he know which class to go to on his own?
- Would he ask around for help?
- Would people be able to understand him?
- Would he find the new environment daunting?
- Would he be frightened if he happens to see any teachers with a scale on their hand? (Few days before we departed UK he asked me if the teachers in India beat pupils with woodden scale and I assured him that he won't be touched!)

My wife and my dad took an auto and went up to the school to ensure that everything was alright and it was. We don't know what happened after he boarded the school van in the morning, but he came back home very happily.

Unlike in UK where he was not given any written home work, he was given a page to write in English and Hindi apart from few sums in Maths. The home work, as such will not take much time to do. In all, it should only take about 30~45 minutes of a child's time, but then Anirud doesn't know Hindi. Although the teaching of second language officially starts only in Class 1, in his school they have started teaching Hindi from UKG onwards. Although they haven't got very far, the other children in his class have had the advantage of learning the language for a year while he has to start afresh. While we are confident of his abilities to learn the language, we were worried that the school and importantly Anirud himself should be patient enough until he gets up to speed.

Contrary to what we thought, his class teacher and Hindi teacher have asked us not to rush him into anything. They have said that they want to give enough time for him to settle down and also that it is perfectly ok for him to take few months before he gets strengthened in the basics of the language. We are sending him for Hindi tuition as well and hopefully that should get him to the right level in few months or so.

Although we don't get to visit the school each day as we used to do in UK, communication channel between the school and the parents are really excellent. Every single day, there is a note from the teacher regarding something or the other through the school diary. Now that he has been attending this new school for more than two weeks, we are quite pleased with the level of homework that is being given, the mode of Parent-Teacher communication, the volume of books he has to carry (just about 4 notebooks) etc. I should say that the schools in India and their staff have come a long way since my days at school.

Other than Hindi and the environment itself, there hasn't been a drastic change for him w.r.t. the school. It looks like the other children in the class feel that he is talking with an 'American' accent and at times, even his teacher couldn't follow what he says. In my opinion, these are really teething issues and I am sure he will get over these very soon.

At the same time, he is also thrilled that he is being taught Yoga and Taekwondo at school. The concept of having various sections for the same class, travelling in a school bus, having interestingly named sessions like SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work), new set of friends etc are some of the things that makes school life interesting for him.

Last night I asked him as how much he likes his new school for which he said, "Infinity %". Let me say a quiet prayer that it should continue to stay that way forever.

Starting afresh @ Bangalore

We got to know our plans to leave UK exactly 40 days before we left the country. Although we had been planning to leave UK for the last few months, we were quite open about the location. So, our relocation plans depended on how, when, where I end up in terms of job.

Bangalore is new to all of us. The only thing I know about Bangalore is its infamous traffic. Thanks to the valued inputs given by our friends, we decided to find an apartment reasonably closer to my work place and find a school commutable from home - which meant that the niche schools like Padma Seshadri, Kumaran etc wouldn’t even be approached for consideration. We were meant to relocate in mid-June, which meant that Anirud would be starting school at least 2 weeks after the academic year starts, which is not bad.

Thanks to Google god, friends and the availability of forums like Parentree.in, we were able to get a list of all the schools in the area, read reviews, post questions about them in the forums and get things clarified. After shortlisting few schools in the order of priority, I started calling them one after the other. One of the things I realised during those calls is that – although the academic year in India starts in June, the admission process happens sometime in Oct/November. One seemingly well educated lady in National Public School barked at me for having the temerity to ask about school admission in May without even knowing the basic facts (that the process gets over in November). "Welcome to India", I said to myself.

For as much as we could, we tried to zero in on the schools that did not focus solely on academics. We want Anirud to have a great socio-cultural environment outside of the academical realm. We are determined not to set 'Get the First Rank in the class or 100% in a certain subject or whatever' and the likes of it as a goal in life. If he achieves that in due course, it is well and good. If not, we certainly won't have any regrets over that. All we looked for is a school where Anirud goes, feels stimulated, allowed to think, learns something new, plays well and come back home a happy child.

Our preference was to enrol him in a school that follows ICSE curriculum, as we believe that in the event of him having an opportunity to pursue his university education in UK (by virtue of being British citizens, we have the choice to visit and live in UK as we please), ICSE education will make it a lot easier.

Although the number of ICSE schools are comparitively less than the CBSE ones, there are plenty of schools that have come up to cope up with the demand. Most of them, if not all, will conduct an entrance test for the kid even if the admission is sought for Class 1. Although Anirud has nearly completed Class 1 in UK (As academic year ends in July, he was short of it by a month or so), he has to be enrolled in Class 1 again in India as the schools in Karnataka stipualate that the child should be six years of age on 1st of June of the year when admission is sought to Class 1. Anirud was a little disappointed about that but he didn't mind about it after a while. A colleague of mine who has just relocated from Australia and who has a daughter of the same age as Anirud managed to enroll her in Class 2. But we didn't prefer to do that.

The entrance test was a cakewalk for him. He was tested in English and Maths and he took about 20 minutes to answer all the questions, after which we went through the admission formalities.

While talking with the Admissions Officer of the school and later on with his Class Teacher, we highlighted few issues that we think would be concerns on a longer run.

- We have opted Hindi as the second language but Anirud doesn't know a single letter in Hindi (Kannada was the other option). He picked up French with ease in UK and we strongly believe that he will be able to do the same with Hindi given some time.

- Anirud is used to more informal / practical way of education in UK and he has been encouraged to challenge what has been said. We have requested the school to let us know if that becomes a point of concern.

- Anirud's English is good, but his accent and slang (choice of words) will be noticeably different and might be difficult to understand by others.

In short, we requested the school to give him ample time to settle down and be patient with him until then. Did the school / teachers oblige? How did Anirud find his school on Day 1? More on that in the next post.

Farewell

Anirud attended Chesham Bois CE Combined School until the day before we left for India. One day when I went to pick him up from school, quite a few little girls and boys from his class came up to me and asked if Anirud would be moving out of the school for real. It was so sweet of them to tell that he will be missed badly. His friend M with whom he would have regular spat on his way back from school daily wept inconsolably for a while and she gifted him a pair of lovely shoes. It was a real good send off from the school and the Head Teacher summed up so nicely – “Quite a character he is with thirst for information all the time. He will be definitely be missed”. His classmates made a lovely hand made card. On one of the last few days, they have had a mini party as well with Samosas and Pakodas.

All of these made us think if he had been in the school for more than 1.5 years that he had actually been. Where ever Anirud studies in future, I doubt if he will like any other place as much as Chesham Bois. I am not sure if any of the teachers @ Chesham Bois read this blog, but in case you do - once again our thanks for making the school what it is.

India Week

After a short mid-term break, the school has reopened. For Anirud's class (Class 1), this week will be 'India Week'. Every thing will be based on the theme - India.

Reason - Anirud will be attending his current school, the place he loves so much - for only two more days, after which we will be flying to India for good. How nice of the teachers and the school to dedicate a week on India to mark our ward's leaving. We will be based out of Bangalore, where Anirud will soon get to start at a new school in a week's time. In his own words, "I am going there for a better experience. I will be going to new school, learn new languages and making new friends". Every single day, he enjoyed coming to his current school and I am sure he will miss the environment, teachers, library, open fields and most importantly his friends. Thanks to him, I got to have a good run of school life from a different perspective at this age. I got actively involved in the Parent Teacher Association as well as served as a Parent Governor at the school. We only hope that he enjoys his new school as much he enjoyed here.

Before starting proper schooling here, Anirud attended a nursery called "Beehive Montessori School" in Amersham. I have no hesitation in saying that Beehive shaped Anirud's character to a great extent and it was a perfrect start that one could expect for a toddler. We will be visiting Beehive before we leave to once again thank the teachers for the great work they did.

I hope to write in detail our - rather Anirud's transition to the new environment, the challenges, inevitable comparisons, so on and so forth. Until then, good bye folks.

Letter

Sometime last month, I had to be away from home for few days on business. Quite expectedly, Anirud was not very pleased with the idea. As I had to leave on an early morning, I left him a note beside his bed. I didn't expect a reply on return, but was very pleased to find one. Nothing of literary significance out here, but a lot on emotional value.

Drama School

Anirud has been going to a Drama School (Perform) since the beginning of 2011. The idea was not to get him trained as an artiste, but to help him get over his shyness and build up the confidence. We were not sure if Anirud would really like the place and had our own concerns on how he would gel in with other children, who might be at various different stages at the drama school. Contrary to our fears and concerns, he appeared very relaxed and every week when we went to pick him up, he appeared very very happy.

Over a thirteen week period, they rehearsed songs, dance etc over a theme to enact a 45 minute play on the final day of the term. Although he used to tell us about the dance movements, songs and dialogues, we were not sure about his exact nature of the role and what he was supposed to do. On the D-day, we were pleasantly surprised to see that this brat had a lead role in the drama and he was one among the two kids to have lots of dialogues. He had a great time being in the middle and delivering the dialogues in a clear, audible way. His dancing was not that great, but he seemed to enjoy every bit of what was happening there.

It is with heavy heart that we discontinued his enrolment at Perform for the following term.

Views, Opinions etc

On the other day, we were watching the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Normally he roots for CSK but on that particular day, Anirud told me right at the beginning that he liked both the teams and he will be happy irrespective of the team that wins. Eventually, when KTK triumphed he appeared pleased. I pulled him up for supporting Kochi Tuskers while he has nothing to do with Kerala and also that he was a CSK fan until few hours back. He gave a matter of fact reply - 'Appa, this is something I like. I will like or hate something as I wish. If I behave badly, you can correct me. But you should not tell me which team to like'. Ofcourse, he said that in a very polite tone than it appears when you read this, but the statement startled me.

I was quite shocked that he knew to think and speak to this way. On one hand, I am glad that he has an opinion, understands that it is his opinion and stands by it when countered without blindly following the crowd. I was also pleased that he conveyed the above in the most politest of the tone possible that it didn't give any room for thinking that he was being arrogant. On the other hand, I was shocked - which is massive understatement by the way. A six year old demanding that his views be respected for is something that I wasn't prepared to hear.

P.S: It is a different matter that Anirud has come back to CSK fold after seeing Tuskers out of the tournament.

SIXER

If someone asks Anirud 'How old are you?', they are most likely to see him raise both his hands and say 'SIXER' in cricketing parlance. As IPL coincided with his school term holidays, Anirud doesn't miss a single over and it does show in everything he does.

Happy Birthday Mr. Sixer. Here is a wishing that God bless you with enough strength to scale more heights. Six years have rolled by fast. Needless to say, every day has been a real treasure with you. Be the sweetie pie, as you have always been.

Karate Kid

More than three months back, we watched the movie 'The Karate Kid' (Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan; 2010). Never did we think that a movie will create such an impact in Anirud. It is a no-brainer that the movie pleased him that he started mocking the karate poses and till date at every opportunity he strikes a pose with a shrill 'oooh yaaah' cry. In the movie, Jackie Chan would ask Jaden Smith to drop and pick up his jacket several hundred times. Anirud would normally throw away his jacket on the sofa whenever he comes in. Right from the day after this movie, he always looks for a hanger and gets it to its place in the wardrobe.

Few months ago, Anirud was finding it a little difficult to manage certain little things at school. While he could treat the jokes and funny banter as they are, he was clueless about what or what not to say / do when the thin lines were breached despite the fact he knew that they were being breached. Being a kid with high self-esteem, it was very easy for us to spot that he was not exactly happy about what was going on. After due consultation with the school, we took some measures and things fell back in place reasonably soon. It was at this time, we happened to see 'Karate Kid'. I was pleasantly surprised that Anirud watched the movie with keen intent and picked up the right message. By any stretch of imagination, I wouldn't want Anirud to get physical about anythng - but what I mean is, he got the confidence to handle things on his own. When things are not alright, he just knows how to convey that appropriately and come out of it.

Months later, I gently touched upon the topic and enquired if everything is fine and he replied - "Don't worry appa. Everything is fine. If not, I will handle that and sort it out. I am just telling you so that you know".

Versatile Blogger Award

Anitha @ Anisnest seems to think that this blog is worthy of Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks very much Anitha. Much appreciated.

RULES

1. Thank the person who awarded you and link back to them in your post
2. Tell 7 random facts about yourself
3. Pass the award

7 random facts about Anirud:

1. Anirud started to walk when he was 10 months old, but for him to talk we had to wait until his second birthday.

2. As of now, Anirud sleeps for not less than 11 hours a day. When he falls short of that for any reason, he will make us regret for not giving that extra time.

3. Anirud strongly believes that he is really lucky to be in the school where he is studying now.

4. Some of Anirud's strong favourites are: Books, Books, more books.

5. In the recent times, Anirud has been banned from playing games in Daddy's mobile as they have become too addictive.

6. On a casual observation, Anirud will appear to be more of a talker than a listener. Just when you think so, he will swap roles and starts to focus / listen with amazing concentration.

7. The first movie that Anirud watched at the cinema was 'Sivaji' (Tamil) and the last one as of today was 'Despicable Me'. He does enjoys going to the movie with his mom, who takes him for a kid's movie every half term. Apart from the above, he has watched 'Thillu Mullu' and 'Maya Bazaar' innumerable times.

Passing on to all those who visits this site, which will be very few if I am right.

Humongous

During a casual conversation, Anirud told me that he was not scared of ordinary dogs, but only of bulldogs. When I asked him what he means by a bulldog, he replied 'the one that is humongous'. I was a bit taken aback by that word for which he explained 'Humongous means - very huge.. something that is bigger than enormous'. Unsure of the explanation, I looked up in the dictionary and voila.. he is right. I am glad that his learning is not confined to the teachings at home and that he is picking up words like these from other kids.

That aside, it was an interesting lesson for me and he wanted this information to be recorded in HIS blog - "it is my blog appa.. you are only an author, but the blog is mine".

Lessons Learnt

Me: என்ன பிள்ளை-டா நீ?
(What kind of boy are you?)

Anirud: I am a pillai (boy) whose dad is very naughty.

Long back I read somewhere - "If you ask silly questions to the kids, expect an equally silly answer". Serves me right for forgetting this.

Bed time chat & Buddy Bench

Just before going to bed every night, Anirud and I have a chat. What we talk during that time entirely depends on his mood and how early/late he is to the bed. Sometimes, it would be as simple as telling a story followed by a Q&A session. Sometimes, it would be about a TV programme that we just saw. I know that he normally looks forward to this time - as many of the days, he would carry the encyclopedia (a book that is as heavy as him and the one that he handles with awe) to the bed room, turn to some page in random and ask me questions on what he sees in that page as if I wrote that book. Among other things, we also update each other about the happenings during the day, what each other liked / disliked, any concerns etc.

Whenever we have a chat of this nature, it would be funny to see how he perceives things and what the kids think of themselves and their surroundings. Yesterday, he told me about a 'big problem' at school. He was playing some game with his friend, at the end of which they had an argument. He became sad after the argument that he sat on what is called as 'Buddy Bench' at the play ground. If someone sits on that bench, others will know that he/she is upset about something and offer comfort. Keeping up with the above tradition, few other boys enquired with him, got to know what was going on, called the other friend with whom Anirud had an argument and 'sorted out' the issue after which they continued playing together.

Yes... 'sorted out the issue' is the word he used. Two first graders arguing about some thing silly and that is what is called a 'big problem'. Couple of fifth graders brokering peace is termed as 'sorting out the issue', as if Israel - Palestine issue was resolved. If Anirud had any idea about the Nobel Peace Prize, I am sure he would have wanted it to be awarded to the boys who sorted out the big problem.

Tanglish

Ever heard the word 'kaaram-ness' (காரம்-ness ~ spiciness)? I loved that expression despite the fact that the situation in which Anirud used that word was hardly the one to enjoy such expressions.

Despite carefully combing for the presence of chillies, one of them found its way to the brat's plate and from there to his mouth. Even after gulping down glasses of water, he was jumping up and down claiming 'the kaaram-ness is still there in the tongue'. While we laugh at the discovery of such new words, it irritates him to no end as he thinks that we are laughing at his misery. :)

Queen's Language

'Anirud, just write over the grey letters in this book. Ok?'

'Appa, if you want me to do that, tell me to "trace it". It is not writing over. Tracing is the right word to use'.