India Trip

After a gap of two years, we made a three week trip to India in August-September.

Anirud's excitement and questioning began right from the moment we stepped out of home. As always, he took intrest in everything - right from the trolley to passports to the signboards to the logos of various airliners. Inside the flight, as he had an exclusive remote to fiddle with he was very happy switching channels and watching the flight path. Seems that he had attentively listened to every announcement made by the crew, as he was saying days later - 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Mumbai'.

At Mumbai, while we were travelling between the terminals, the driver of the bus we were travelling honked. This brat, who had never listened to a horn for that long expressed surprise by asking us if that was indeed the sound of a horn. We expected him to ask that question everytime he heard one, but thankfully he learnt what it is and we were spared.

As we had a wedding and an engagement in the family during this trip, for the first time Anirud met quite a few people and that too all at once. He was very much at ease with many of them although quite expectedly, all through the three week period, his two grandpas were his best mates. Both of them literally danced to his tunes. For the first time, Anirud even stayed in our absence with his maternal grandparents for a few days.

But for the fever he suffered with for couple of days, it was a good trip for everyone. Anirud enjoyed every day of his stay in India and to some extent was able to understand that UK and India are two different countries, far apart and with different ways of life.

Thousands and Thousands

Few months ago, 'two' was the default quantity for Anirud when it came to 'time'. It was always '2 minutes' for everything. He will need '2 more minutes' for getting up from bed, will get ready in 2 minutes and what not. He would even 'become hungry in 2 minutes' (innum 2 minutes-la enakku pasikkum). Not sure when, but two minutes is now gone for good. Instead, it is 'thousands and thousands' now. While 'two minutes' stood for 'few minutes' (konja neram), 'thousands and thousands' stand for 'lot of time' (romba neram). These days, he goes on like 'I want to play for 1000s and 1000s of minutes' ('Naan innum thousands and thousands of minutes velayaadanum'), 'It will take 1000s and 1000s of minutes to go to India' etc.

Richard Branson

After months of Obama-mania, Richard Branson is Anirud's hero of the moment. It all started when I was reading the said man's book with his photo on the cover. Anirud pointed to Branson's photo and queried who he is and what he does. From that point onwards, when ever he saw the Virgin logo, he recalled Richard Branson. To his joy, he could spot the logo literally at hundreds of locations. On the other day, he saw a Virgin train speeding by and Anirud got excited and said that Branson and his friends were travelling in that one. When he spotted the Virgin Atlantic lounge at the airport, he started calling Heathrow as 'Richard Branson Airport'. Best part was when he declared one day: 'When I become a big boy, I will grow beard like Richard Branson'. :)

Ice Age & 3-D Glasses

To kill time during the holidays, Anirud was taken to watch 'Ice Age -3' movie at a cinema (theatre). As it was a 3-D movie, he was given a pair of spectacles, which was much larger than his face. Funniest bit is when he brought that specs home and used that when he was watching other movies on the telly.

London Bridge is falling down

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

This popular nursery rhyme is one of Anirud's favourite since he was two. When he grew up, he started questioning us about the bridge falling down and we tried to explain him about the Tower Bridge and the way it works. However much we explain, he still had his own doubts and it was then we decided to take him along to the bridge so that he can see it for himself. The bridge opens and closes only at a certain time and we had to run from the train station to make it just on time. Now Anirud is aware of what it means by falling down and he is seen explaining that with his hands to those who care to listen.

Transport Museum

Visited the Transport Museum at London, which I would rate as a hidden gem. At ten pounds, the ticket price is quite steep but for those interested in history and transport, there are quite a lot of things to see and know. The top 2 floors were a little boring for Anirud as we spent quite a bit of time reading through the descriptions. But, when it came to trains and buses and trams, it was all his. Anirud had a field day running on all the buses, sitting on the driver's seat and what not.

Summer Holidays

Summer holidays have already begun. The school term ended with a farewell to the kids who will be moving to the primary school. Anirud has one more term at this school and so is the case with two of his closest friends. On the last day of the term, they also bid farewell to one of the teachers who is leaving the school and Anirud promptly asked me to be photographed along with her. The school is reopening after sixty days and as if that is not enough, he will be missing the first week of the next term because of our holiday plans. It is quite a challenging task to keep him occupied all through the summer, although the last few weeks of our holidays will be spent in India attendig a wedding.

Talking about wedding, it is the first wedding that Anirud will be attending. Thanks to the Tamil movies we see at home, he has got an idea that wedding involves lots of flowers and shiny new clothes. But, I am sure he has no clue about the scale of the event back home. It is going to be an exciting time for him and we are gearing ourselves for the questions he is gonna throw at us.

Safari Fancy Dress Party

As the end of term approached, Anirud's school had Safari Fancy Dress party, for which he dressed up as a camel, although he looked anything but. What counted is that he was more than happy wearing that dress that he didn't want to remove it for a very long time even after the party got over. It was funny to see the kids dressed up like various animals

Quote

St Michaels church ku ponen.
(I went to the St Michael's Church)

Anga, oru man ipdi hand-a vechindu (hands stretched) kann ellam moodindu ninnundu irundaaru.
(A man was standing there like this (hands stretched) and with his eyes closed)

Andha man-oda name daan God.
(That man's name is God)

Scooter

After his cycle, scooter is Anirud's latest toy. We bought him one last year, but that was not so kids-friendly. So, we went in for a new scooter and already Anirud has extracted every penny's worth of that. Best thing about this one is, he could use it indoors and literally everywhere. On the other day, we went shopping at IKEA and this fella was circling the aisles non-stop for several hours on his scooter. More than anything else, it allowed us to shop peacefully without him getting bored.

It is very weird that what we call scooter in UK is not the scooter that we know in India. Same goes with bike as well. When we go to India next month for holidays, we will have to do lot of explaining when Anirud is gonna trumpet his exploits with the scooter.

Legoland

Took Anirud to Legoland, a visit that was long overdue and something that kept getting pushed back due to bad weather, work load and what not.

He had fun every bit of the day and went on as many as fifteen rides. The fact that we chose to go on a week day meant that the queues were much shorter. Anirud spotted a 'Driving School' in the map and wanted to go there. His face was glowing when we approached the place and saw the 'L' sign. However, that attraction was meant to be for 6-13 year olds and Anirud was mighty pissed off - to say the least. They did have another one for 3-5 year olds, but it perhaps appeared as a very poor substitute. Walking all day long in the hot weather and hunger made him throw tantrum at that stage and he just wanted to get out of the park. He relented only when the queue for the Little Kid's Driving School shortened further. He had his fun there and with photographs taken and a 'licence' issued, the brat returned to his normal self. Check the picture for the licence he was seen sporting around.

We came back with quite a couple of souvenirs and it was indeed a great day.

Cycling

All boys love cycling. Don't they? I wonder if Anirud will still cycle away with the same enthusiasm when we remove the stabilisers. :)

Question Time

'Appa, Gordon Brown BJP-aa?'
(Does Gordon Brown belong to BJP?)

Why do we have nails? It has no use. We just cut them out anyway.

Will Manmohan 'Sing'h be singing all the time?

Birthday Present for Daddy

Sometime during last winter, Anirud realised that I haven't got a woolly hat to cover my head. Since then, he was telling that he will be getting a woolly hat for my birthday. We are not sure when he dropped that from his agenda, but very often he will claim that he will get something or other as a 'present'. Few weeks back, after returning from school one day he asked me to close my eyes saying that he will be giving a present. With all my innocence, I closed my eyes and stretched out my hand thinking that he will be handing in a drawing or artwork that he did at school. But this dirty brat, picked his nose and placed it on my palm. What a good display of picking up tricks at school.

That naughtiness apart, when he was told by his mom that my birthday is approaching, he started pestering her to get me some presents. Upon being questioned about what to buy, it was so sweet of him to have dished out various suggestions including 'how about a toy mummy?' Finally, he (well, its my other half) selected a nice looking pair of cufflinks with the letters 'Dad' embossed on it. One should see the glow on his face when I wore it on the other day. He was beaming with pride saying 'appa, naanum mummy-um idhai vaanginom pa' (Mummy and I bought it for you, Daddy). Oh, that was so sweet of you dear.

There was a bit of fun on that as well. My wife added a tie clip to the box and it seems that Anirud didn't realise that. He was like 'Mummy, why have you put a nail cutter in this box'. :)

Brand Consciousness

It is the same - A for Apple, B for Boy stuff. But this bugger has been consistently and consciously replacing the standard examples with the brands that he is aware of.

A for Asda
D for DHL
R for Royal Mail
S for Sainsbury's
T for Tesco

Periyappa

Living far away from our home country, we seldom have any visitors at home in the form of relatives. We can easily count with one hand the number of relatives who have visited us so far. When I told Anirud that his 'periappa' (paternal uncle - elder) will be visiting us and that we will be driving to a nearby town to collect him from the hotel, he didn't show any interest. However, once 'Balaji Periyappa' came in and settled down, he stuck to him like a glue never refusing to leave him even for a moment. It was periyappa all day long for few days. When periyappa bid adieu, Anirud started crying and he didn't want to leave. Weeks later, he is still under the assumption that his periyappa will be returning back after a short stint in India.

After this episode, I strongly feel that this is something that Anirud will miss very badly, as a result of growing up in a foreign land. If we were in India, however busy we were, there will be some opportunity in the form of a wedding or numerous domestic occasions to meet the near and dear. Here in UK, despite our best efforts, he may not even hear about various cousins, let alone meet, hug and play with them. Telephone calls will never quite replace the personal touch and warmth, that the extended family could bring. This, probably might lead to some soul searching.

Fourth Birthday

Anirud's fourth birthday was a semi-low key affair. :) We had two of our closest friends at our place for dinner. A week before, when 'Shanya' (Saranya) aunty offered to prepare a birthday cake for him, Anirud promptly asked for a green one as that is his favourite colour (He has been telling us that he will be changing his favourite colour soon). Apart from the football cake that every one liked, he got some enviable gifts as well. As his school reopened after Easter break, a day after Anirud's birthday - he had another round of celebrations by cutting a 'Thomas - The Tank Engine' cake and sharing it with his peers.

4 Years!

Happy Birthday sweetie pie!

Can't believe that 48 months has whizzed past since that nervous wednesday evening in April 2005. What an incredible ride it has been. May 'ummaachi' grant the best he could possibly grant.

Easter Bonnet

We were not aware of Easter Bonnet until we were asked by Anirud's school to get one ready for today. Today is the last day of the term, before the school breaks for Easter and they wanted every kid to be with a bonnet today. As it is, Easter Bonnet is nothing but a decorated hat, traditionally worn by women during Easter time.

Anirud's mom put up lot of effort in getting the hat decorated, while I contributed to the activity by supervising her. The result of 40 minute work was a nicely decorated, but girlish looking bonnet. As we were quite new to this concept and also since Google Images returned few pictures of boys wearing such bonnets, we excused ourselves for the girlishness bit. What mattered in the end is, Anirud liked it every bit and much to our relief, we saw few other boys at school having such bonnets.

Tennis

We enrolled Anirud for Tennis lessons at a local club. The lessons will be with a group of children of his age and that will be for about 30 minutes every week. It is not our intention to make him a Federer or Nadal (we certainly don't mind if he becomes one eventually ;-)), but our idea is to pull him out of the couch and make him get some exercise. One of the first lessons for this couch potato is to place the ball on the racquet and walk a certain distance balancing the racquet. He did pretty well on that, much to our surprise and that of the coach. So far, he has been there for 2 weeks and he seems to like it. If he continues to like it, we might think about increasing the frequency of lessons and see how he does.