Cricket - CSK

We are playing indoor cricket at home (of course with plastic bat and ball). The batsman and the bowler will belong to opposing teams (obviously), despite the fact that each team has only one player. No matter which team others belong, Anirud's team will always be called 'Chennai Super Kings'.

Thank You!

The fact that Anirud hasn't been attending the school for the second consecutive week seems to be bothering his class mates over there. While they made a very nice 'Get Well' card for him, a teacher from the school called us up today telling us that Anirud's friends want to know how he is doing and when he'll return. Apart from that, quite a few parents (and few other friends in the neighbourhood) have been calling / texting us enquiring about his health and offers for help. It is very nice to know that we have so many people out there who care. Not sure how many will be reading this post, but for those who do, THANK YOU so much for your concern. We are really touched.

About Anirud's health, he is doing very well right now. He hasn't had any fever for the last three days. However, he needs rest for a few more days. He is likely to get back to school later this week.

Off from the school

Anirud hasn't been to school for the last one week. He had severe cold on Monday and Tuesday. From Tuesday evening, he had high temperature as well. While we thought it might be chicken-pox, doctors ruled out that one and wanted to observe him to find the cause of fever. So, he has been admitted to the hospital. Hospital as such is very nice and warm. Though he is having fever, he is well and active - reading books, playing with toys etc. We are hoping that he will be discharged from the hospital today.

While he was at the hospital, I went to the parent's evening at his school to have a one-to-one with his teacher. She said that his classmates missed him a lot during the past week. Seems that he has settled down well at this new school and making good impressions. There were some areas where we need to work with him to tap his full potential. Overall, I was more than pleased with the feedback she gave. As Anirud is fond of books, she gave me quite a few books for him to read while he is at the hospital, which was really nice of her. It is good to know that he is loved, liked and missed by quite a few. On that count, credit goes to Anirud. Thank you, Lord.

World of Sports

Not sure if this is for real. Anirud turned down my offer of switching to his favourite CBeebies channel. Instead, he chose to watch IPL cricket match. Though he hasn't watched cricket before, he likes Dhoni - for he has seen him in few adverts in India. So, Anirud's support is for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

Oh yeah... his new ambition in life is to become a footballer. hmm.. perhaps, the effect of attending footie sessions at school.

Oh Jesus!

Anirud's school had their new building inaugrated by a Bishop last week. The students and their parents were gathered in a hall when the Bishop walked-in in his traditional purple robe with a reasonably big metal cross hanging around his neck. The crowd fell silent for a moment and also since Bishop's attire was strikingly different from others, he was clearly noticeable.

At this time, Anirud pulled me and whispered in Tamil, 'அப்பா, யாருப்பா இந்த மேன்? இவரு தான் ஜீசஸ்-ஆ? ஜீசஸ் பெத்லேஹெம்-ல தானே இருப்பாரு. எதுக்காக எங்க ஸ்கூலுக்கு வந்திருக்காரு? இது ஜீசஸ் இல்லப்பா. அவர மாதிரியே, வேற யாரோ.' (Dad, who is this man? Is he Jesus? Jesus will be in Bethlehem, right? What is he doing in our school? No, this is not Jesus. He is some body who looks like Jesus.)

Lunch Strategy

Far from being a nice little chap who always emptied his lunchbox properly, Anirud hasn't been finishing his lunch at school these days. 'If I keep eating, I don't have time to go out and play pa' is what he tells. His teacher has said that every time he finishes his lunch properly at school, his team will get a point. A trick that aims at boosting the team spirit and also achieve individual goals. Not sure if that would cut ice with these brats. Need to work out a good strategy.

hmmmmmmm

One of the easiest ways to wind-up Anirud - not that we want to - is to answer 'hmmmm' for an affirmative answer, instead of saying an emphatic 'Yes'. He'll be even willing to accept a 'No', but 'hmmm' for some reason is a strict no-no. :)

Requests and Demands

As Anirud has got a habit of reading the headlines in BBC News website and also since he is in to reading every word that comes his way, most of the happenings around the world does not escape his attention. So, it is not a matter of surprise that he has some knowledge about the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, poverty in Africa etc apart from what Barack Obama does to earn his daily bread.

As part of his morning ritual, Anirud prays to God - murmuring few slokams and later engages in a monologue placing requests and demands (more of the latter) that are typically like - he should study well, be a good boy, that he should get chocolate ice cream etc. These days, the focus of his demands are in a completely different league. It goes on like - 'all boys and girls, elders should get food in africa', 'there should not be any more earth quake in haiti and chile'. After these demands, the monologue gradually turns in to questioning and chiding. 'Thousands and thousands of homes and roads are broken in Chile. Do you know that? How will people cook food at home? Even restaurants are broken. Do you know that? Okay, no more earth quakes in Haiti and Chile, Do you understand?'.

We mind our tasks, pretending not to have heard this conversation.

Bend it like Beckham

On the first day at the football training camp that Anirud has joined recently, they played a match. In fact, they were playing two matches in the same ground. While the bigger brats knew what it is all about, the younger ones like Anirud were simply running behind the ball, irrespective of who was kicking it.

At the start of the match, Anirud was in 'Green' team playing against 'Red' team. At another corner of the same ground, there was a match between 'Blue' and 'Yellow'. Not sure when that happened, few minutes into the match, he was seen playing in the 'Yellow' vs 'Blue' match. Before the coach or anyone else in the team realised this, he suddenly came back to the original match and was playing for 'Green'. All he needed was a ball to chase and it doesn't matter where he played and for whom. Watching this for about 15 minutes, I simply lost count of the times he switched matches. Funniest thing was when his friend was insisting to his father that this was how 'foot ball' should be played. :)

Trip to India

We made one another quick trip to India in February for yet another wedding in the family. As always, Anirud thoroughly enjoyed the trip as he was given nothing short of royal treatment whilst we were there.

While we were attending the wedding, Anirud went up to the people playing 'nadhaswaram' and said 'This is a bit noisy. Will you please stop this?'. As they carried on ignoring his appeal, he went straight up to the nadhaswaram guy and tried to close the wind pipe with his hand, at which point he was driven away.

Also at the wedding, he got a chance to taste cotton candy (he was very excited at such a thing!), pop corn, jump up and down merrily at the bouncy castle and play with a bunch of newly acquired friends. His rhyming chant 'Delhi Bombay Calcutta, Un Mudiya pudichchu izhukatta' (Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta, Shall I pull your hair) became quite famous that many a number of boys and the groom himself were heard saying that often.

Though he was down with viral fever for three days, he was very active as usual and enjoyed plucking mango & almond leaves along with his grandpa. His maternal great grand father has got him truckloads of chocolates, which he declined as 'junk food'.

One thing that grabs Anirud's attention is the instructions on a package. Be it an instruction to assemble a toy or whatever, if it is in the pictorial form, he will play close attention to it and try to absorb as much as he could. Likewise, as soon as we got into the plane, the first thing Anirud looks for is the safety instruction sheet. He was seen spending lot of time going through such sheets in every plane and he was telling us the do's and don'ts.

Top Table Manners

Anirud got a little pat on the back in the form of a sticker - Top Table Manners in the Class. This is for eating healthy food (uppuma, fruits and yoghurt) without any spillage in a proper way at the school.

Needless to say, he is all smiles today. :-))

List of Items

Two pairs of gloves
One woolly hat
One spoon

These are the list of items - so far, that Anirud has manage to lose at school in the past two weeks. At this rate, we are clueless as where this would stop. The only reason he hasn't lost anything else is because he wasn't carrying anything else to school (except his lunch box, of course). Obviously, Anirud is in need of lessons on safe keeping.

We have done away with wooly hat already. Also, we have switched to £1 gloves instead of the good quality ones he was having earlier.

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.