Pixel Poems #12

Finally got the chance to visit Sri Swaminarayan Temple in Chino Hills. Beautiful creation. The inside of the temple was just fine craftsmanship on marble but no photography allowed. Also met some old college days  friends there by chance which made the occasion even better. The picture with the California palms in front of ancient Indian style wood work carvings on the front wall of the visitor center  provided an interesting juxtaposition of the cultures.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #22

Innocence is a precious thing. From the time we are born, there is only one thing we can afford to do with innocence - Loose It. But the days of childhood innocence is very precious and memorable - particularly when the child is your kid. My elder one is a believer ! Though 7 years old, he still hampers hope for Santa. Even though his mystic tooth fairy turned out to be his dad, and even though, most of his friends have told him no uncertain terms that Santa is nothing but your parents, he is still not fully buying it. While this belief borne out of innocence is adorable, his reasoning for believing is personally troublesome to me. Last year, he asked for a "Ladder" from Santa. So the Santa in me got one from HD and placed near the fire place. He was so moved by this gesture and to this day firmly believes, it has to be SANTA as he does not think his DAD can afford a $40 ladder from HomeDepot !! So this year's letter to Santa is here. Well written. This year Santa has options to choose from. My son also claims he will be contend if he gets just one of them. 

Anecdotes!

Some times, little converstations with our kids can change the entire mood setting of a family. I am sure every parent has this experience.  I am trying to recollect such instances:

• This happened one busy morning. Maanasi loves to sit on the counter top and watch me cooking and I like to talk to her when I cook.  So I had something to do in the kitchen and I helped her sit on the counter top. Meanwhile I felt like cuddling her and I said "nee thaan yenoda kozhakataiya?" She gave a very adorable smile and immediately said" illa, vadaa". All of us broke into laughter immediately.

Keep trying, Keep on trying!

The latest in my husbands never ending list of interests is learning to play a musical instrument. So couple of days back, he got himself a guitar.  Both my kids look at it as if its a new toy.

Maanasi gets really excited when her dad tries to practice on it.  So dad taught her to fold three fingers and to hold the pick with the thumb and the pointer. From then on whenever she sees the guitar she starts working with her fingers.  

Today something really funny happened. Maanasi saw the guitar lying on the couch and immediately with utmost sincerity started positioning her fingers.  Then she tried tuo use the pick as directed by dad. But the pick unexpectedly fell into the string hole.  Now all her attention went in getting the pick out,that she lost control of the carefully positioned fingers.  She was not able to get the pick, so she started playing with some toys. A minute after, her attention went back to the guitar . She now looked at her hand and to her dismay realized that her fingers were all out of position! She gave a look of shock,said 'uh oh' and vehemently started working on her hands all over again:-)

 

So, like the title says," Keep trying, keep on trying" is the lesson I learnt from her!

The Food Industry

The very mention of this blog post's title makes me cringe but couldn't find a better one for this post.

Today I contributed to the campaign fund for ballot measure I-522 in Washington state - a measure to make labeling of genetically engineered food and produce mandatory. I missed following such a ballot measure taken up and defeated in California last fall. This time, though I could not vote, I contributed to the fund fighting for the measure.

The NO campaign is backed by the usual suspects lead by - drums roll - Monsanto. These are the people "running" the food "industry". I feel the very sanctity of the word 'food' is lost by adding the term "industry" to it.

I do not buy any of the arguments from the industry against labeling GMOs. One particular thing caught my attention.  Quoting here verbatim from the No-on-I522 site - "For decades, agricultural biotechnology has helped improve food crops so they resist disease, require fewer pesticides or are more nutritious. Today, 70-80% of grocery products include genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, and they’re deemed safe by the USDA, the FDA and major scientific and medical organizations."

I have to hand it to them for using the euphemistic term "agricultural biotech" in place of  its more honest but gross equivalent "genertically engineered". The "70-80%" fact literally makes me puke my dinner out. But  wait, their best shot is yet to come. Here they are -
"deemed safe by the USDA, FDA blah blah" - the very same toothless powerless regulatory body where the people running the show are "ex-industry insiders" and fueled by the lobbying power of the very same industry that it is trying to regulate. The sad state of affairs is that the cream of the technologists who can potentially expose the ill-effects of such reckless "biotech" sadly end up working for the same industry.
- "requires fewer pesticides" - after a generation of singing the praise of pesticides we have realized their long term effects and we are deliberately trying to pedal back. The very same USDA, FDA etc that are now backing GE/GMO foods as "safe", were the ones advocating pesticides usage a few decades ago. How on earth can we be sure that a generation from today this sad bunch wont come back and say "Oh Sorry ! we just found out GMO/GE can screw us up too"

Want to add some "goodness" to this post. Hence adding a picture of the carrot cake - home made from scratch - by my wife for my birthday. Given the "food industry's" might, I would never know for certain if the carrot or the flour is "artificial" or "genetically engineered" or has GMO, but I know for sure that in the affection of my wife who made that cake, there is not an iota of anything that is artificial or engineered. Thats enough to make the cake tastier, in spite of GMO/GE contents it might have.

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #2

This happened today morning when we were all getting ready to an Indian restaurant.   I had dressed up Maanasi in a pretty frock and she was about to get into the car.  She suddenly stopped and went to her dad to say something.  She pointed to herself and said "Maani dess, coodude".  My husband had no idea what she was saying.  She kept repeating it .  That is what she does when she feels we don't get it.  So my husband said " oh, okay baby, okay".  And that is what he does when he doesn't get it:-)
I usually try to interpret what she is saying because most often it turns out to be something very funny and interesting. 
So I intervened and asked her what she was saying.  She repeated the same to me as well.  But now she said it a little slowly and then it suddenly dawned on us.  She was saying " Maanasi dress, cool dude".  She had picked this from her brother, when he was complementing her after she put on her sunglasses. After we had a good laugh, I explained to her that she is a baby girl and that only boys are referred to as cool dudes, baby girls may be called cutie babies. She listened to me very carefully and then said " O, Maani baby big, coodude?" meaning, will she be a cool dude once she becomes big!
Maanasi always looks up to her big brother as a hero figure.  She wants to do everything that he does.  She is forever trying to catch up with her brother.  I didn't want to disappoint her and so I didn't  correct her.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? - #21

Very first voice mail left by my son in my cellphone. The conversation is in Tamil. His initial inhibitions in talking to a machine pretending as if talking to me is priceless. His mom bolsters his confidence in the background to continue talking. 

The pictures are mine though.  (butterfly show at wild animal park)