Spelling Bee: On to the Nationals now...

We are absolutely thrilled and proud!

Why shouldn't we be? Just got the news that Anirud has made it to the Nationals of 'Spelling Bee' contest, which means he is one among the 600 left in the fray nationally. To think that we didn't pay much attention to this competition due to summer holidays and other factors, the entire credit for this goes to the brat. 

National Level Championship will happen around mid-September and we are so pleased for him. Wish him luck for the next round folks.

Wednesday Baby

Allow me the pleasure of inviting you to visit the new blog of our little one - Wednesday Baby. Much like Anirud's blog, this new blog is an attempt to capture the younger one's progress. Some day, when the Daddy finds time, he will integrate both the blog at some common location and try to look cool!

Spelling Bee - State Level Championship

Apart from getting excited about his bro, Anirud was also taking part in the Spelling Bee - State Level Championship at Bangalore, as he got through the Inter School rounds. He worked really hard, especially on the pronunciation keys that were hard for us to master. The fact that around he was one among the 1900 chaps that got qualified from the initial 23000+ was enough to prove how hard he worked.

When he got out of the competition, I asked him how it went. They had asked him to spell the word 'mucus' - which he had not heard before. He has asked for the meaning of the word, which was 'the liquid that comes out of your nose'. He still wasn't sure about the spelling and replied 'mucos'. He was a bit irritated and said, 'Sali pa... that sali. I didn't know what it is'.

The results will be out in the last week of July and let us see if he gets to the National round.

The Big Brother

Ever since Anirud learnt that there is going to be another baby at home, he was super excited. Since that day, he wished / assumed that the baby is going to be a girl, as he wanted a "baby sister". He accompanied his mom to every scan and observed every tiny detail with intent. During the second trimester, they did a 4-dimensional scan which was as good as a video clearly showing the baby's face - Anirud's excitement levels shot up to the sky and beyond. He was pestering us to get gifts, toys and what not for the baby even when the D-day was a good few months away. Whenever he saw any other baby anywhere, he smiled and sometimes he said to us "Our baby will be tiny like this, but will be very pretty as well amma". He felt sorry for the baby that it hasn't seen United Kingdom, Switzerland or Holland as he has seen. He was even saying that there are good nurseries nearby where the baby could be admitted and the list went on. Simply put, for the last few months Anirud put the baby in every thought that crossed his mind. He left us with no doubt that he would make the best elder brother in the world.

At a point in time, we told him that it might be a brother (may not be a sister), so that he is mentally prepared. "I would like it to be a sister. If it is a brother, it is okay. I will get to play with him a lot" was his answer.

On the day of the delivery, while the baby and the mom was wheeled back to the hospital room, the nurse asked Anirud to stretch his hands and placed the baby on his hand. One saw a 1000 watt glow on his face. Spontaneously he said, "Welcome baby brother! Welcome to your new world". A little over two days later, he still counts himself as the luckiest as he is the first in the family to hold the little one. Praying the almighty for this love to be reciprocated. Praying Him for the bonding to grow stronger in the years to come. Praying for a fulfilled life for both the brothers.

Class II

As Anirud resumed schooling at Class II with crisp uniforms, notebooks neatly wrapped up and with all sorts of freshness associated with a new year, He was moved to section D in Class 2 with all the students jumbled up and spread across various sections. His closest buddy Abhinav had moved to a different school. In any case, Class II started off on a good note with the brat enjoying the new environment at the same school. The quantum of workload in terms of homework and other activities have also increased a little bit.

At home front, his TT classes had to be discontinued because the coach didn't turn up one fine day. But, Anirud was more than happy to enrol for Basket Ball coaching at our apartment premises.

So, another year rolls by and our little boy is slowly turning into a young man.

Annual Holidays

It was the first annual vacation in India for Anirud and he spent couple of weeks each at Trichy and Chennai. At Chennai, where he stayed at his paternal grandparent's place, he stayed without us. We were quite anxious that he might get bored at some point and expected my parents to bring him to Bangalore in a matter of few days. But, that didn't happen and he had a jolly, good time with lots of books, TV and a visit to Birla Planetarium.

There are lot of summer camps on everything under the sun happening in our area, but we enrolled him only in Table Tennis - as we had planned this trip to Trichy and Chennai a while ago. It so happened that he had 4 lessons of TT before breaking for vaction only to learn upon returning that the TT coach has been terminated by our apartment association.

With many children in is age group out on vacation, the community is really very quiet. Anirud literaly kills his time with books, IPL, Wii games and occasional cycling. Two more weeks to go before the school reopens and this brat will go to Class II.

Spell Bee

Proud and pleased that Anirud has qualified to the State Level of the Spell Bee competition. From this stage, the task becomes a little more complicated as he will have to decipher the pronunciation key and identify the right words. We are not force feeding anything now, as we don't want him to take the pressure. The State level competition will happen sometime in June / July time frame. Will keep this space updated!

Happy Birthday, 7-year old

Happy Birthday, my dear boy!

You are a 7-year old now. Apart from the year when you were born, I have always been with you on your birthday. But this year, you are with your grand parents enjoying the summer vacation. Life is all about enjoying every moment and I am glad that you are doing that right now.

Over the last few years, I have learnt that it is easy to communicate to you by writing to you than by talking to you. By the time you are back to Bangalore from your vacation, you will find a letter waiting for you that may eventually end up in this blog one day. For now, have a great time!

Being God

On the other day, I was on a mood to pull Anirud's leg and I was telling him that I know the answers to any question that he may have.

"How do you know everything? Are you God?"

"Yes, I am", I replied and he got more excited.

"If you are God, tell me what exactly is thaathaa (grandpa) in Chennai is doing now?" and there were few more questions of this nature that I managed to fend off.

At this point, he realised that he has been asking questions whose answers that he could not verify. So, he took out the Encyclopedia and was like - "Now tell me - what is printed in page 125. Tell me all that has been printed so that I can verify".

I knew that I got cornered, so I told him that I know the answer but I don't want to tell him.

Pat came the reply, "You are not God. You are lying".

"Why?"

"Because, God won't be silly like this".

Promoted!

Promoted to Class II. Seems like yesterday that this little fella took his first steps to the school and he is class 2 already. 'Promoted' is a little too much of a word here, considering that he is moving only to Class 2, but that is the word in the official communication sent by the school.

Well, Congratulations Anirud. You are a Class II student now. :)

Spelling Bee: Inter School Round

The Inter-School round of International Spelling Bee competition at last happened today. We wouldn't get to know the results for the next 2 months, but we are mighty pleased with the work that Anirud put in for the competition. The number of new words that he has learnt in the process is phenomenal.

Strangely, the words that are lengthier and seemingly harder sounds easy to our brat. His nemesis are the words that has got double consonants (Ex: Pretty). Keeping our fingers crossed for the results, although we will still be happy and proud even if Anirud moves out of this round.

Lucky One

Anirud considers himself as the luckiest person on the planet. Guess what the reason could be? He gets to have the tender coconut directly using a straw and also that he tasted sugarcane which was 'yummy and awesome'. Could one get any luckier than this?

Didn't someone say - Ignorance is bliss?

Breaking Point

By nature, Anirud loves fruits and veggies. Whenever we need a quick supply of vegetables for his lunch box, we don't need to think beyond carrot and cucumber. Irrespective of what the main food is, if we toss along few pieces of carrots and cucumber, Anirud will be more than happy. And that we took him for granted on this aspect was evident when he reached the breaking point this morning.

In a very sarcastic tone, which is literally impossible to bring it in words he went on like - "Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Cucumber! Can't you think of anything else for my lunch box?"

hmm... this boy is growing up. Isn't he?

Friends

In the whole relocation and its subsequent settling-in process, one thing that we had imagined to be a cakewalk is what is proved to be a challenging one.

In UK, the apartment block we lived in had 18 flats and there were 4 or 5 children to play around. Despite the fact that there was not any opportunity / knowledge to play any team games (coz of the age of the kids), all the kids used to play together at the same time and will be visibly happy. However, most of the time weather will play spoilsport. Before moving to Bangalore, I thought this element will be addressed and expected Anirud to be outdoors most of the time.

At Bangalore, we have moved into a huge gated community that comprises of more than 1200 apartments and has all the amenities one could ask for including a huge park, two swimming pools, play area for the kids etc. Given the fact that there are so many families, in any age group there are atleast 60-100 children. Thanks to the absence of extreme weather like in UK, we could see children playing in groups all through the place.

By nature, Anirud is not an extrovert. Whether it is with adults or kids, he will take his own time (matter of hours, not days or weeks) to gel with new people. Once he is comfortable with the person, he will talk chatting / playing with them incessantly. When we moved into Bangalore about six months back, quite surprisingly (for us!), Anirud found the whole place boring because of two main reasons.

1. Other children found it difficult to communicate with him due to his heavy British accent.
2. Some of the children were really, really rude and Anirud was visibly hurt when they snubbed him whenever he approached those kids.

In order to pep up his morale, one of us made ourselves available with him after school and went to the park to play along with him. That was by no means, a permament solution to the issue and it complicated the issue even further when he got so comfortable with this arrangement that he started demanding more of our time whenever he felt like playing.

In the meanwhile, on his own he managed to get one friend (RG) whose parents also had moved back from abroad (US). RG had the same issue as Anirud and his parents were also saying that their son also had difficulty in making friends with other children. For at least couple of months, Anirud and RG were playing with one another and if RG is not around for some reason, Anirud preferred to be indoors and watch TV.

Although the issue didn't give us nightmares, it was always at the back of our mind and we felt uneasy whenever anyone (ofcourse, with all good intentions) asked if we had settled in well. Over a period of time, while his accent changed a lot, we decided to take the other issue head-on. He was clearly not comfortable with certain kids, as they have snubbed him quite a few times. While we edcuated him patiently numerous times about people getting upset with something and come across as rude characters, we did respect his preference and did not push for him to strike friendship with anyone.

We encouraged him to go out to the common areas, hang around and see if he can play with anyone. Most of the days, he came back home saying that there isn't a single character to play with. One fine evening when Anirud was wandering in the garden with his cricket bat, he was approached by three boys of his age if he cared to join them. He immediately said 'yes' and joined them and played for an hour or so. He not only had a good time with the boys, he seemed to feel very comfortable with them.

This is a small incident, but we never expected this to be a turning point. Being invited to join them is something that might have given our boy some confidence. For the last 2 months or so, Anirud simply runs out of home around 5 pm, walks straight into a group who are playing already and joins the gang. When he returns back home, buckets of sweat tells us what he has been up to. In the process, he has made some friends as well. It took a while for him to find friends here, but we are pleased that he adapted to the locale eventually on his own.

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.