New Days of the Week

Me: Do you know what day is today? It is Pongal day.
(I stressed on the word 'day' to mean the festival and not the food item)

Anirud: How about yesterday?

Me: Yesterday was Bhogi

Anirud: Tomorrow?

Me: Tomorrow is Maatu Pongal.

He quickly ran to his mom and said, 'Amma, some body has changed the names of the days. There is no more Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. We should only use the new names - Bhogi, Pongal...'

Books

Ever since Anirud visited his school before we applied for a place there, he had his eyes set on the enviable collection of books the school library has. When I went to pick him up from school on only his second day there, he asked me when he will be allowed to borrow a book, for which his teacher said that they will be given a book from the next week onwards. Hearing this Anirud's eyes welled up and he protested in no uncertain terms that he was not ready to wait till next week. Had I done something of that sort when I was five, I would have been reprimanded with a slap or even something worse. But then, this is not India and the year is not 1981. Seeing his love for books, his teacher asked him to select one himself, which he did with all smiles.

Talking about books, we bought few books from the Oxford Reading Tree series, which are very good. They start with a series of story books with pictures and gradually extend it to the next series where each page of the book will have a word or two and so on. We have also ordered some from Prodigy imprint of New Horizon Media in Chennai, India. Hopefully those will keep him happy for a while.

God Theory

'Appa, I want to discuss something with you', began Anirud very formally when he was being put to bed. I thought that it must be something to do with one of the airline destinations, the latest area of his focus. But it was something totally different.

'உம்மாச்சி எல்லாம் ரியலா இருக்காரா?' ('Are Gods real?').
I normally hate when Anirud answers a question with another question and try to set an example. But this time I had to ask him why.

When he was in India few months back, my dad had taken him to the nearby temple.
There were so many gods, but all of them were only made of stone.
Contrary to what he has heard about Lord Rama and Lord Anjaneya in stories, they were standing still. Even at our home, God is there only in pictures and that seemed to have been bothering him.

Probably he has been churning it in his mind all along, it came out today as he narrated the above. Sounding very disappointed, he was like 'அப்போ உம்மாச்சி எல்லாம் ரியல் இல்லையா? வெறும் ஸ்டோன் தானா? I am very confused.' (So, Gods are just stones. They aren't real. Are they?)

Anirud had in his mind that God is a powerful guy sitting somewhere, capable of doing some big and mighty stuff. But the main issue is that he couldn't be spotted walking or talking or being one with life. Even a powerful guy had to have some sort of life, right? That bothers him. It was tempting to say that he will get the answers when he grows up. But I thought I would confront it now, rather than pushing it back to a later date. In fact, he has made it slightly easier by accepting about God's power etc.

I explained him as simply as possible that God is present everywhere ('That was very funny' is all he said). The main thing about God is that he is invisible (that made him sit up and listen). While God can see and hear what we are doing, we can't see or hear God. Then, how do we speak to God? That is the reason why we have pictures of god at home and statues of god in temples.

Either Anirud bought this theory or he was bored, he was like 'Now, it is very clear pa'. Well, that was a relief. Does anyone publish answers for these kind of questions?

Snow Bird... err... Snow Man

Is it a Snow Man or a Snow Bird?

Whatever it is, this is what Anirud did for his Snow Day project.

Snow Fall & Assignment

A day after he started formal schooling, Anirud is getting a day off due to heavy snow fall in the area.

Guess what? His school has given them an assignment for the day. It reads, 'Build a Snowman and prepare a step by step guide for doing so with pictures'.

First Day @ Primary School

Today is Anirud's first day at his new school. Although he has attended two intro sessions at this school, this is his first official day. In order to make to the school on time, we need him off the bed by 6:30 am, which is a tall order. So, we made sure that he went to bed last night at 7:30 pm and that worked well. More than him, as parents we were excited about the new routine and were anxious that he should have a cool and stress-free start.

Wearing a full sleeved shirt, tie etc our little brat looked very different and made us realise that he will be five in a few month's time. As it is the first day, the only thing he carried was the lunch bag. I left him at his warm, new class room which smelled of fresh paint. Although he was very silent when we entered the school premises, he appeared at ease when he got into the class room.

While walking away from his class room, I had questions running in my mind - 'will he be fine at the new place?', 'Does he know how to open the lunch box and eat without any assistance', 'Will he be able to loosen / tighten his belt and trousers when required'.. the list is simply endless. The truth is he has been good and he has been very adaptive. He never hesitates to ask for assistance and at the same time he doesn't give up something very easily. He hasn't been that very fussy with food - especially, when we are away from home. As for the other things, one day he has to learn and perhaps that day is today.

Going past the door, I turned around to see what he was up to. He was scanning the book pile and busy searching for something. By instinct, he turned around in the direction where I was standing. He smiled and gave a thumbs up before waving me bye.

Geography

Washing his hands in cold water, the brat showed off his knowledge in Geography. He said, 'I feel like I am in Antartica with out my gloves. It is very very cold here'.

Performance

'Appa, how was my performance?' asked my boy beaming with pride. He was all smiles when he came down from the stage, after the nativity play was over. It was nice to see him on stage. As soon as he entered the stage, he scanned the audience looking for us. However, after spotting us recording the event, he went about his job and remained cool. In short, to answer his question - it was GREAT. :)

Anirud played the role of an 'inn keeper', wearing the Arabian costume. Being a play enacted by 3 to 5 year olds, it was nice, funny and enjoyable. No one had any dialogues to speak and the kids did exceedingly well. Can't imagine the hard work put in by the school staff in getting the brats do what they were supposed to do. Being seated at the end, flash lights of our camera were not good enough to picture him properly resulting in the horrible picture as above. But I have a feeling that the video has come out well.

After the play, Anirud did talk to all the teachers individually presenting a small gift and biding them good bye.

Tesco Loyalist

New toys of a Tesco loyalist. :)

Conversation

Anirud: Where does Srilankan airlines fly to?

Me: To Srilanka from many places

A: Has Srilanka got an airport?

Me: Yes, they have one at Colombo.

A: Did they built it only now? Or is it there for a long time?

Me: It is very much around for a long time.

A: Then why did Anjaneyar fly to Srilanka. He could have gone by flight, no?

Getting to know about his day

There was a time when it was very difficult to get any information from Anirud about what happened at school or if he had any fruit or whatever. It is not that we want to probe every minute of what he does, but were generally curious to know what he has been up to. Also, if ever he is upset over something, it will be easy to deal with if we get to have the background story.

Takin
g cue from a TV programme, every day when we sat down for lunch we used to say what we have been doing since morning. That seemed to work like a charm as he started showing interest in bragging what he did, by including every bit of detail he could remember.

Quotes

இந்த ஊர் சர்ச்-ல பிரிட்டிஷ் உம்மாச்சி தான் இருப்பாரு. ஆனா, நம்ம வீட்லயும், கோவில்-லயும் இந்தியன் உம்மாச்சி எல்லாம் இருப்பாரு.

(Only British God live in the churches of this country (UK). But you can find Indian gods in our home and temples).

Never knew that Gods have nationality. ;-)

Nativity Play

Anirud's school is planning for a nativity play on the last day of the term (11th December) and this brat is playing the role of an 'inn keeper'. For the last few days, he has been narrating us about bits of the play and the roles played by his peers. I am looking forward to next Friday as I missed the one last year. 11th December will be Anirud's last day at this wonderful school, as he will be moving to a primary school from the next term onwards.

Riddle Time

These days, Anirud is in a the mood to set riddles.

"Can you guess who it is appa? His name starts with A and ends with 'rrrrrrrr'. He will have a gadhai (mace) in his hand and he is a ummaachi (God). Who is that?".

When we say a wrong answer, his joy doubles and he screams out 'No pa.. that is Anjaneyaaar'. There are more such stuff in his kitty and it is real fun indeed.

Anirud on stage

Every year, we used to celebrate Diwali with a group of 100 other people in the form of a day long event. There will be opportunities to exhibit one's talent and this year, Anirud for the first time got up on stage and 'performed' in front of a sizeable crowd. His performance was nothing but telling couple of Tamil rhymes. The best part of that is his voice was clear, crisp and at the right volume. He had no hesitation while saying those rhymes and for the first performance, we think it came out really well.

These are the two rhymes he said on stage starting with a 'Vanakkam'. :)


சின்ன சின்ன மோட்டார்
சிங்கார மோட்டார்
நாலு சக்கர மோட்டார்
நான் ஏறும் மோட்டார்
'பாம் பாம்' மோட்டார்
பாய்ந்து செல்லும் மோட்டார்

--

ஆனை ஆனை அழகர் ஆனை
அழகரும் சொக்கரும் ஏறும் ஆனை
கட்டுக் கரும்பை முறிக்கும் ஆனை
காவேரி நீரை கலக்கும் ஆனை
எட்டித் தேங்காய் பறிக்கும் ஆனை
குட்டி யானைக்கு கொம்பு முளைச்சுதாம்
பட்டணமெல்லாம் பறந்தோடி போச்சாம்.

Speaking in Tamil

Considering the fact that Anirud has been living in UK since he was 5 month old, his conversations in Tamil are reasonably fine - until now. We are not sure how his language will shape up when he goes full time schooling. However, the way he pronounces some of the words are real funny.

Naana (நானா?) - Naava (நாவா?)

Ammavoda (அம்மாவோட) - Ammanoda (அம்மானோட)

This basically comes up from 'unnoda', 'ennoda' (உன்னோட, என்னோட) kind of words. He simply started applying the last bit to 'appa', 'amma' etc. ;-))

Point and Shoot :)

Perhaps, Anirud will not like to view this as a key milestone in his life. But, in my opinion it is. The biggest development of our recent Indian trip is that he learnt to pee from standing position. ;-))

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'. :)