பேசும் பொற்சித்திரமே !!! - 17

Vocabulary building has been in full swing for the 3rd grader this past few weeks with writer's workshop and what not. In spite of that, sometimes words stump the young mind of hers. Not one to be let down easily by words, she has, of late, gotten creative. On a particular evening, she was operating the TV remote and her mom wanted her to rewind the movie a bit and hence asked her to go back. With the remote not co-operating much, she let out a frustrated reply "I am trying to do 'back forwarding', Amma". A fews days from that, her brother came home after a long due haircut. Always the dutiful sister that she is when it comes to getting on his nerves, she let out a gleeful "Anna's height has gone down by a milli-centimeter" (apparently a fraction of length in her etymology). 

When it comes to sarcasm though, the elder one teenager, takes the cake. His 3rd grader sister was going through a phase of having bowel movement only every other day. As we were getting concerned, I used to check with her on this daily. One such day, she happily replied, "I went poopy today, yesterday and also day before that". I joined in her glee, feeling myself relived mentally. The teenager watching this wondered out loud, "I wish I had set expectations about me this low like she has done. All she does is poops three days in a row and everyone is happy".  If only he knew this when he was young...

This post's pic is a hand-made craftwork of a class room made by her during the year's navarathri celebrations at home.

பேசும் பொற்சித்திரமே !!! - 16

Cafe Mac is Apple's in-facility cafeteria. The one in our facility had a nice ice cream section. One Friday evening during their summer break, I took the kids to Apple's cafeteria for a cup of ice cream. They thoroughly enjoyed the variety of ice creams, combos, fruits, snacks etc. For the 8yr old's intellect, something doesn't seem right about the items for sale there. Later on, when we are back home, she asked, "Why were they selling oranges in Apple's cafeteria ?". Tell me about mixing Apples and Oranges !!! Her ice cream from the Cafe Mac is this blog's pic. On a related note, accompanying that is a screenshot below from her brother's iPhone screen reminding him that his mom "owes" him an ice cream !! 

On a particular day, the family's living room discussion ended up on how "twins" are born. My 8yr old daughter had a friend who has a twin brother. Her friend was born a few minutes earlier than her twin brother. The 8yr old's brain was curious why, in spite of being twins, they were not born at the same time. My wife, without going into too much details, cursorily mentioned that the doctor will take one baby from the mom's tummy and then the other one. She did not like the idea of the doctor coming in the way of how twins are born. "Why don't they have another doctor there so that they can take both babies out at the same time ?" - Sounds like the all-too-familiar IT industry technique of throwing resources at a problem to solve it/hasten it. May be our move to the Silicon Valley is finally rubbing on to her I guess. 

Whose Line Is It Anyway #28

There are moments in every parents' life that makes them suddenly aware that the kids are no longer young and innocent toddlers or elementary kids but they are growing up - pretty fast at that - with their own personalities and thought process. It kinds of hits you in an unexpected sometimes vulnerable moment. Once such moment for me arrived today.

Saturday morning breakfast, my pre-teen and his 8yr old sibling were having an argument. In my usual parental instinct I wanted to steer that argument away from being caustic, I wondered out loud - "Are any of you making anybody happy or feel valued by your arguments ?".  The first ambush for me came from unexpected quarters when the 8yr old quipped "I am making myself happy...". In an attempt to regain my composure, I managed "Doesn't that only make you selfish ?".  The 8yr old still didn't miss a beat "Well, he is also behaving the same way" a direct reference at her brother. I thought I had regained some control hence replied "Well that just makes two selfish people. How's that any better".. When I was about to breath a sigh of victory, the decisive blow to me came from my so-far-quiet but  sharp-tongued pre-teen, "Well, by both of us being selfish, we make each other feel not bad about being selfish ourselves..." I couldn't muster a comeback to be honest. I wasn't sure if I should feel good about their debating prowess or feel bad about left with no ammunition myself. Regardless, when it comes to confronting either me or their mother, these two youngsters quickly form a coalition for sure.

Time to rethink my strategy.

பேசும் பொற்சித்திரமே !!! - 15

Father's day this year meant some beautiful gifts from my daughter - a mug with graffitti, a story board for the father's day gift story etc. Then there was a maze-drawing showing my qualities - listed in each triangle maze. Among other things, one quality listed there was being "brave". My wife raised  a doubt about "bravery" being one of the qualities I possess. My little one - not one to let her father down that too on father's day - immediately came to my defense with an emphatic - "Appa kills MOSQUITOES". If only the entire life was this simpler...

Summer involves trying many things - a jump rope caught her attention. She starting trying it out. Initially it didn't go well. But after a few hours of on and off trials, she got the hang of it. Not one to give out inaccurate information, she proclaimed satisfactorily - " I can do exactly 11.5 times". None

of us wanted to ask how she got the half jump figured out.

One particular "philosophical" evening, discussion about the "chakras" in our body was happening at our place and how couple of them exist outside our physical body. My daughter was intently listening to this trying to grasp as much as she can. In the end, she raised her hand "How can I feel something outside my body?".  I tried my best at a reply - saying - one has to meditate for long like a Rishi. She knows that such meditation means sitting and focussing for long hours. She immediately bailed out - "I can't do that. I will get gas within the end of the day" - acknowledging her sensitive digestive tract that acts up when empty for long. 

This blog photo features the "Junior Ranger" exploring Silversword plant "ahinahina" at the crater summit in Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii.

பேசும் பொற்சித்திரமே !!! - 14

The disarming quality in a child is not just its innocence but also the nature to shoot straight and tell your mind out. The mind/intellect, un-touched by stereotypical "conventional" wisdom throws creative outbursts at will. My 7 yr old is in such a phase. Some samples to relish - 

• We were on our way to temple, discussing our religion, our Gods etc. Out of nowhere, she shot an arrow. "We have lot of God. But why do they build the Church so big. They have only one God anyways" :-)
• During the course of her grandparents visit, she was coming to grasp with the vagaries of life that comes with age. Her big-brother cited a mountain example - as he and his sister are in the bottom of the "life mountain" starting to climb and apparently we are at the top in our middle age and their grandparents on the other side of bottom having traversed life's length. The little one's brain immediately grasped this analogy and she also added her previous observations of how the grandparents grappled with many current technology trends. Out came the difference between the two generations in the bottom of the life mountain.  Adding to her brother's statement "But thatha and patti are clueless and we are CLUEFUL". Take that Oxford Dictionary!!
• One evening's routine school-round-up involved something they did in science class. In course of her narration she said - "... a dead rat that used to be real..".  Suppressing our laughter, we feigned innocence and asked what doest that mean. Without missing a beat, she clarified.., "... you know, it used to be alive.." How can you refute that ?
• From the unpolluted mind, sometimes deep life philosophies get sprinkled effortlessly. While feeling sorry for how her friend's vacation trip got cut short as her dad had to return to emergency at work, she wondered - "that's what I hate about work. You waste so much time in that".  TELL ME about it...
• With our elder one growing up fast, talks about college are becoming common in our house.    During one such discussion, the little one also joined the group with her own concern - "Is Bachelors' Degree only for boys ? or is it for girls too ?". Well put. A feminist in-training folks, to change, mankind - sorry womankind - whatever.

This last one is actually from our elder one. While explaining how present day parents obsess and torture kids by asking to pose umpteen times for photos, he declared - "we will anyways have five copies of every photo - first one has a bird sticking its beak, second one that bird has blinked, third one a bug in the leaf behind us has blinked, fourth one Amma thinks that she looks fat in it, fifth one is okay..." True, my generation has a real problem with cameras/photos ....

Yellow rose is from this year's spring bloom at our front yard ...

பேசும் பொற்சித்திரமே !!! - 13

Getting facts (and fractions) straight !!!

My daughter has been having a tempestuous relation with the iPad-s we buy. Our very first iPad2 got thrown off the stairs in a fit of rage. Even a screen replacement couldn't revive the 2yr-old device. The next one, iPad Air2, got caught in the middle of one of her sibling rivalry episodes and lost its screen. It gave up after 3 months. The latest one to-date, an iPad 6thGen, was the unluckiest one of all three. Barely four days in use,  it had the misfortune of being near her during one of her rage outbursts and suffered a screen crack. Her elder brother, though 5years older but still her contemporary in maturity, didn't miss a beat to point out that she has until then broken 3 iPad screens. Not one to take a blame lying down, she corrected his statement "It is not "three" iPads, it is only "2.5"...". Apparently her brother is partly to blame for the second one that got damaged in the sibling crossfire.  To her, 2.5 iPad broken screens is not as bad as 3 iPad broken screens. 

Today morning I was on one of my usual missions to get her to eat a fruit, a banana. After getting a blank refusal, I decided to sweeten the offer by saying I will take 50% and she can have 50%. The push back wasn't that fierce. So, in my desperation, I sweetened the offer further, "Okay, I will have 75%, you can have 25%".  To the second grader, 25% still seemed huge. So she decided to switch from %age to fractions and emphatically told, "No, but I can have only a quarter of it and not more".  Note to the teacher - relate fractions to %ages next class.

Pesum Porchithirame! #12

A drive via City Hall one day led to discussions about civics and civic structures, city Mayor etc. Suddenly my little girl asked who the mayor of our city was. I said I don't know. She was not amused by my reply. With a resigned look, she said - "That's odd. You know, in Ponyville, everybody knows everybody else including the Mayor". (Ponyville is a city in Equestria for those who missed out on watching "My little Pony")

We were on the road one day, driving a bit out of town, during night past dinner time. With everyone hungry, I asked my son or wife to google for "food near me" to see what comes up. With a mischievous smile, the little one commented, "It's going to point to our van" (as we were carrying some snacks with us). We finally ended up in an Indian restaurant known for non-vegetarian style of cuisine. Though we asked for veg food to go, my son, couldn't help commenting he can smell lives that are lost (alluding to the smell of non-vegetarian food inside the restaurant). When we started driving back, the little bro and sis brought this up again for discussion and this time the little one was more brutal in her assessment. "I don't know how they eat dead animals. Those animals don't smell good even when they are alive"..

Pesum Porchithirame! - #11

Discussions during day light saving time - be it start or end - are always interestingly emotional. Our  little first grade kutti started paying attention to these. Noticed everybody was talking about an hour being lost. She was frustrated why no body was addressing an important question so she decided to pitch in - "Where did that hour go if we lost it ?".

The bundle of cuteness has an interest in hands-on house work too - be it drilling a hole with a drill bit or tightening a screw - she is always in. Once she took a wound-up measuring tape which can measure 25ft. It had "25ft" marked on it. She took her hair pin, poked around with the wound-tape and after a few mins - declared her hair pin is 25ft long - as it spanned across the diameter of the "wound-up tape" which said 25ft.

Our India trip when she was turning 7yrs was particularly interesting for her - as lot of things about the plane, airports etc started attracting her attention for the first time. In a particular flight across the pacific, after finding her seat, she poked around the seat pocket in front of her. Took out the air plane security features card that illustrated the emergency exits etc. One picture got her excited as she claimed excitedly - "This airplane has a slide - Hey!!" -  it was the emergency evacuation slide !! As  if this was not enough, the curious mind also checked with his middle schooler bro next seat on what  class were they in. Economy, came the answer. Then they both went ahead to check if the life vests were actually there under the seat as mentioned in the security card. My wife's usually abnormal paranoia by now already reached its cruising altitude even before the flight's take off.

Pesum Porchithirame! - #10

This last fall season fires and some SoCal-typical Earthquakes led to some family discussion on such furies of nature. Both the kids were shell shocked and realized that the forces are nature are much more for their human strength. Moments later survival instinct kicked in and the planning and wishing started.
Younger one - she would rather be in Chennai during the Earthquake/Fire seasons. Upon asked the reason, she confidently replied - "Chennai gets only floods and I know swimming". Plausible right :-)
Older one - thought out loud about escaping the city temporarily and staying in a nearby city's hotel to wait out the disaster. But then he wasn't thrilled that earthquakes don't give much of a headroom warning. I also pointed out, even in the fire scenario, the roads are going to be clogged as the whole city tries to evacuate. The sixth grader response was to use his mountain bike to escape :-)younger one - name board - spelling - how did you know how to spell my name correctly when I born ?

The priceless moments I cherish nowadays are when our younger one's six year old brain is trying to comprehend and out run reality. She used the clock on the kitchen range sometimes. Late one evening their mom was baking something and the oven was preheated to 350F.  My wife found that the younger one was going about leisurely with her homework etc. When hastened, she took one look at the kitchen range and calmly replied - "Time is only 3:50 now".

Pesum Porchithiramae !- #9

One day my daughter was in my office room. She noticed a office calendar with some dates highlighted. The foot notes there said those dates are "pay days" - fortnightly pay days in office. She was amused by that idea and exclaimed - "You have paydays? We have paydays at school too." I didn't know the first grader had pay days in her school too. Before even I could ask her, she contined - "..We have paydays on Thursdays. We get stickers. What do you get ?". I could only envy her innocence and her joy in getting stickers. I merely said - "nothing as exciting as stickers for sure".

This year we were fortunate to visit four National parks. The last one we visited with our friends was Joshua Tree NP - known amongst others, for its clear starry night skies. Though we didn't camp out, we parked the van in a dark area and spread out in the parking lot gazing at the starry sky in awe. All of us were trying to figure out the constellations. One of the older kids said - "how come we are not able to spot the Big Dipper yet? That is one of the easiest". Before even others could comment, my little one blurted out, without even looking up - "I know where Big Dipper is." The other kids, shocked for sure, asked where. She replied in perfect calm - "Near my house".  She had remembered seeing the Big Dipper from our occasional walks near our house during clear night skies. So, in her cozy little world - sorry universe - that's where Big Dipper is - near our house and not at the National park.

This post's pic was actually taken by my son using his iPhone. A pano shot of Barker's dam at Joshua Tree NP.

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #8

The latest addition to the family is - 3 guppies - which our little one got from her class when she "graduated" from Kindergarten. For the new members with a combined net worth of 50c, we had to shell out ~25$ for tank, fish food etc etc.

One evening, our daughter was looking inside the tank "The guppies are eating". I lamented, that's all they do 24/7. Suddenly she recollected an important thing from her own swimming lessons - "But they should not eat and swim. They will throw up. That's what our teacher told". It took me while to convince her that they swim and we walk. We shouldn't eat and swim. But they can. What they shouldn't do is eat and walk like we do. Then they will throw up ! The laughter burst from her thinking about "walking fishes" was well worth the effort of the onerous weekly tank cleaning task!

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #7

With the trips to a couple of National Parks and the canyons, the "park ranger" bug caught the elder one. We got him a small ranger tool - a whistle, compass, thermometer, flash light etc etc all in one. Not one to get left out, the little one also made sure she got one for herself and started to furiously work on her compass reading skills like her brother. On our way back from the Grand Canyon trip, we stopped at Hoover Dam. In the elevator ride from the bottom of the power station, it took a while for us to reach the ground. Surrounded by people and no sense of direction inside, she decided to put her compass to use during the elevator ride up. She took one glance at it and proudly declared "We are going in the north direction!" Can anyone confirm or deny ?

This last experience involving the little one ended up being a delicate, queasy moment for the entire family. Somewhere between Las Vegas and Barstow, we stopped at a road side business strip for gas. On the way back to the highway, we were at an intersection. Some distasteful local bunch had decided to install a totally nude male statue there. My wife, in her anger, blurted out her displeasure at the scene. Only then apparently the kids noticed while I desperately tried to speed up from that place. We realized the damage was officially done when the little one commented "Oh..., that's how boys are!"  Both me and my wife pretended we didn't exist for a while. 

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #6

A summer road trip this year to Grand Canyon area led to some cute memorable comments from our little 5yr old daughter.

* On our way to Page, AZ, we stopped at the Native American thrift shops selling Indian artifacts and crafts. The "Dream Catcher" caught my eye and was inquiring about its legend. Apparently the little one had heard about it already and explained to me how it is supposed to catch bad dreams during sleep. Then all of sudden with a stern face she declared "But it doesn't work!". We didn't know how to react with the shop keeper and others watching us. Upon asking further, she clarified that she had made one such dream catcher in her Kindergarten art class and that night, she apparently still got a bad dream in her sleep and hence lost the trust that the "Dream Catchers" work ! Who can argue with that ?

* Our next stop that day happened to be the famous Horse Shoe Bend on Colorado (see picture). While breathtaking a view for sure it was, I was constantly worried about the lack of any railing protecting the overlook. I held the younger one tightly and let her peep down the few hundreds feet of abyss to see the bend. Down below, were people camped out in the floor with their tents/rafts visible from up top and we were commenting about that. Our little one couldn't fathom the idea of depth she was witnessing but made sure she joined the conversation "But why are they so small ? Are they LEGO people ?". We didn't bother to correct her and just enjoyed the stress-busting comment.

Whose Line Is It Anyway - #27

The Citizen

Last night, I was trying to engage my 10 year old son on his thoughts on some of the ballot measures for the upcoming election relating to environment, education, need for gun control etc. Then the talk turned towards Fifth amendment - right not to implicate oneself and to remain silent. The young one thought the Fifth amendment was particularly not good as it might help offenders and not help police to bring them to justice. I had to concur that time.

A while after this happened, unrelated to above, my son started pestering me to buy the latest Harry Potter book. Since I wasn't sure of the content, I tried to be evasive and gave circuitous answers. He kept on pestering. After one such evasive attempt from me, he shot back - "you haven't answered the question about the book". Trying to put a comic spin on this, I replied - "I invoke my Fifth amendment right". My son, though dismayed, couldn't suppress his smile and left. But within a moment, he came back with a composed face answered, "I am trying hard not to say I invoke my second amendment right" !!!

Now, given a smart reply like that how can I remain without ordering the books he wanted.

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #5

Maanasi is known for her improv songs and tunes. On one such occasion when the little "maestro" was on a roll, my wife wanted me to bring the cellphone to take a video but wanted to make sure the little one does not get self conscious and stops singing. So, my wife conveyed the message in Hindi and ended her message with "Q-U-I-E-T". The 5yr old's mind was sharp enough to figure out that her mom is talking about her in Hindi. She got the end part of it and questioned "did you tell appa I am "CUTE" ..but realizing that cute starts with a C and not Q, she doubted "but you started with a Q and not a C". After a moment's pause, the little genius figured it all out - with a contented smile remarked "Oh, in Hindi, CUTE starts with a Q - right ?".  For you cutie, of course it will !!

The other day when it was "bring-your-kids-to-work" at my office, we were walking along the hallways and the little one had noticed that office rooms had the names of the people near the door.  We crossed a lab facility and an employee in lab coat opened the door to enter, she noticed that and asked me "so, that person's name is "Lab"?"

In our mother tongue Tamil, typically "di" is a suffix used for feminine gender and "da" for masculine. But then there are also words ending with "di" which have no gender reference. Once such term is "milagapudi" which means chilli powder. milaga=chilli, pudi/podi=powder, our kids' favorite side dish for Dosa/idli. On one dosa dinner evening, she was musing over the term milagapudi and asked, "why is it milagapudi and not milagapuDA ? is milagapudi a girl or what ?". Even before my wife and I could start laughing, the etymologist in her 10yr old brother confirmed, "Of course, girls annoy and hurt people, so milagapudi IS a girl". Biggest grammatical mystery of our ancient language solved. By the way, she also categorized Sunflower to be of masculine gender. Her explanation is - Sunflower in Tamil is "Suriya-kanthi" and Suriya is a boy's name. So there you go. Tamil feels blessed.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #26

The red honeysuckle flowers in our backyard regularly attract hummingbirds regularly and the scene of the birds feeding on the flowers never fail to provide visual feast every time. During one such sighting, my son - 10yr old - was trying to explain to his grandma the details. He mentioned the one feeding then was a "boy" bird as they are the ones that sport a colorful plume and that "girl" humming birds are dull gray. I pitched in to explain  and then realized he is only 10yrs old and hence corrected myself saying that he is right and that I will explain him the reason for the color scheme once he is in middle school. Without missing a beat, he replied - "that is so because the male uses its color to attracts the female". While every one else couldn't stop laughing, I was speechless but at the same time, determined not to prolong the discussion on "those" lines at least for now.  

Today, it was "bring-your-kids-to-work" at my office. My employer had made good arrangements for their entertainment and learning. It started with name tag, which on their reverse, sported the name of one of the job descriptions at my workplace. It also mentioned the hourly/yearly wage and expected growth in demand etc. I noticed my son had got a card that talked about a "Financial Analyst" position. It mentioned $38/hr pay. I commented it is a good job and that his mom, who did her CPA, could be a candidate for that and that he can aspire to become one when he grows up. My son was not impressed. His reason was, it was still less pay compared what I earned and that he has to earn at least one cent an hour more than me. Never before have I felt so happy (and proud!!) upon hearing someone wanting to beat me at the race. 

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 !

Whose Line Is It Anyways ? - #24

The Hogwarts Candidate

Of late, my son is obsessed with Harry Potter phenomenon. He finished reading the first 6 books in no time - the first 3 or 4 books took only 2 days each that too non-holidays. I was so skeptic of his speed that I even quizzed him to see if he actually read it fully. Clean as a whistle ! From then, started his non-stop HP acts at home - make-do wands with straws and pencil, disarming spells and sometimes even "unforgivable" curse flying around in the living room, he even registered himself in the pottermore website, got sorted to Ravenclaw house, earned points for his house, made online friends, won duels with them, won the house cup etc etc. To cap it all, he also did a pretend-sort of his baby sister into "Slytherin" house which gave him immense satisfaction. The toddler girl though, who bothers him often, seemed to be happy with the sorting by running around the house babbling "Slytherin House".

When I thought this Potter mania was tapering off a bit, this past weekend I was down with cold and the elder one couldn't relish that. He wanted to make a "potion" to cure cold. He was asking me what all to add. I just played along to keep up his cheer - suggesting hot water, Halls, turmeric etc. He wanted to literally make it. I wasn't paying much attention to him when I suddenly found a piece of paper lying in the kitchen. It was his potion recipe. I was stunned to notice the level of thought and detail that had gone into that. See the attached pic. It even mentions what to do, when to do, how much to do etc. Dumbledore would sure be proud ! My bad, .. make that Severus Snape not Dumbledore :-) 100 points to Ravenclaw !