Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #4

Maanasi is attending Tamil classes and the effect of tamil alphabets are catching up to her fast. Recently a fly got into our house. She was so excited and ran up to her mom, yelling - "Amma, ee vandathu - NEDIL -ee vandathu".  Now, that is what is called "dotting-the-i's-and-crossing-the-T's" - just to be sure !

Like in most preschoolers life, once we were talking about the day she was born etc. She found it amusing up until the point where her mom mentioned how she looked when she was born. An ever aware fashionista that she is turning out to be, she interrupted, "was I wearing diapers when I was born". The "cold truth" did not sit well with her. She got upset. After lot of talking, she got convinced only after learning her older brother was born the same way too - not wearing anything. As long as they both are even, she is fine.

A bunch of neighborhood boys who are friends of her brother were at our place for playtime. Her friends haven't showed up for the day. The little one's face was forlorn - priceless expression. My wife told me in Hindi, a language the little one doesn't know yet, to observe her expression. Though she didn't understand a word, the curious mind figured out my wife was talking about her. Scanning the words for any similarity with her vocabulary, she retorted, "what you said sounded like Kashta Kachori" - one of the few Hindi words she knew from restaurant visits. Sweet and not spicy !

Another day was Ramayana story discussion. My wife was quizzing her after that just to make sure she listened. When time care for the question on which animal did Rama encounter in the forest, without hesitation came the reply - "a golden REINDEER".  Not sure what would follow next in her version of Ramayana - a meeting between Santa Claus and Rama, perhaps. 

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #3

When my "azhagi" was ~3yrs old, she was on her quest to learn letters. In their room, there is a name board with their names on it - ones that my wife and I painted from scratch. It read - Sanjay - in one, Maanasi in other. When she was 3yrs old, we called her "baby" and she liked being the baby of the house. So one day, she asked what was written there. I pointed to her brother's name plate, spelled it and said "Sanjay". She realized that her name is on the next one. So, immediately spelled out "m-a-a-n-a-s-i." and exclaimed "baby" !!!

Up until she was 3yrs old, our "kutti mooki's" animal world was as simplistic as it can be and everyone was happy - all birds that fly in the sky are "crows", all birds that walk are "ducks" and all insects are "bees". Right there, Carl Linnaeus would have taken her under his tutelage without hesitation.

One day Maanasi came back complaining about something that she didn't like in school . The school site had some construction work going on and there was a lot of echo in her classroom. The main complaint she had was the echo was copying her,  she did not have a good feeling of the echo copying whatever she saying. We didn't bother to explain her and ruin the cute disappointed expression she was sporting.

Maanasi's preschool recently got a new director for the school we were discussing about the director at home at that time she asked what the director does at school. We explained that she's the one who is taking care of all the schools activities and its working. She had a quizzical look on her face and with the extreme cuteness she replied, "I have never seen her doing anything. All she does is sit in a corner and watch". Sometimes you got  to leave it to a kid to call things as they are - things that we adults are socially constrained to speak out loud. Bliss of childhood !!

During her early preschool days, she was going through a phase that her brother went through as well - and that is - all things have a name and sometimes the name is written on it.  We drove past our grocery store complex and she knew the name of the store. Hence, equipped with her newly acquired wisdom and alphanumeric skills, from the distance she read out loud -  "V - ZERO - N - S.... Vons". Okay, the store people need to make some font distinction to help out a young learner here. Zero and O do look awfully similar.You can't blame Her Cuteness for this mistake.

Whose Line Is It Anyway -- #25

Recently, I was driving the 10 year old boy, who was sitting next to the driver's seat - never misses any chance to claim his privileges. We passed a gas trailer carrying petrol. He noticed the caution "No smoking nearby" written on it, he read it out loud then turned quizzical and commented "How Ironic they have the message there..". My simple brain couldn't immediately spot the irony. I replied that it's a fact that smoke will make the petrol explode etc etc. He corrected me, "that's not it. Petrol when burnt causes all the smoke. But they don't want smoke near by petrol itself". I was dumbstruck and proud at the same time enjoying his play on the word "smoke" and also his pro-nature outlook. 

Some more lines from an even younger Sanjay -

When Sanjay was 6yrs old, we did an allergy test on him as recommended by a dermatologist for a skin rash. The allergy result came back and everything was fine except that he is allergic to dogs. Suddenly his face brightened up, having got the answer to the one question that was troubling him so far. With a sigh of relief, he concluded - "So that's why I am afraid of dogs".

During our visit to the crocodile farm near Mahabalipuram, we were strolling along the exhibits. Sanjay, 6yrs old then, was studiously and cautiously looking at them. When we neared one exhibit, he pointed to the circular pond in the center of that and exclaimed - "there's an iPond there". We were puzzled and wondered if he is mixing it up with ipad/iphone related things. He clarified himself. The earlier exhibits had a mound of land in them middle surrounded by water and the beasts rested there for sun. His mom was explaining it as an "island" - land surrounded by water.  Now he say a circular body of water surrounded by land - so it became a ispond". How can you question that - after all English is a funny language !