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)

Pesum Porchithiramae ! - #1

This is my first blog post. Before even I start, I should thank my husband for coming up with this whole idea of blogging precious moments and conversations with our little ones.  This will help us keep these moments ever green in our hearts..My husband has been asking me to do this for long, but I never found the bandwidth for blogging.  But now our second 'bundle of joy' is also growing up fast and I felt I should start contributing my two cents!

My husband and me have a special liking to Bharathiyar songs.  Now that our little one has started exploring her new world of vocabulary , we thought this would be an apt title for her share of this blog.
Maanasi is now a little over 2 years.  Just like her brother she loves talking and provides endless amusement to her listeners.  When she can't communicate in words, she does so with her very cute expressions.

The Besan flour scare!

So, this happened in one of our routine grocery trip to the Indian store.  Our little one was in very good mood that evening, as we had just got back from a fun filled day at Legoland.  Maanasi was all smiling and singing until she saw me place a packet of Besan flour into the cart. Suddenly the smile faded away and she started saying in a terrified tone ' no maa, no, no maa,no'
We had no clue as to what might have caused her the sudden distress.  I started asking some usual questions and then finally she pointed out to the Besan flour packet saying 'amma, no champoo', meaning she doesn't want a shampoo bath.  So now everything fell in place.  I occasionally give my kids oil bath with payatham maavu followed by shampoo. My little one dreads it. She thinks that is the worst thing that can happen to a baby or any person for that matter! Because both Besan flour and moong dal flour look similar to her, She had gotten mixed up and hence the panic!

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #20

Right on the Penny -

• Coming from India, when it comes to money, I have this habit of using the term Rupees in place of Dollar - particularly at home or with family members. Recently I had to borrow a few dollars from my son's collection (oh yes, he has some dollars and rupees) as I was short on cash to pay the plumber. Next day I wanted to return what I borrowed. Hence I put $20 in his collection myself while he was watching TV. On my way out, I asked him, "How much do I owe you ?". "Fourteen" came the answer, without taking his eyes off the screen. In my usual way of using Rupees to mean dollars, I said, "Ok. I have put back Twenty Rupees in your wallet". Without missing a beat, he swerved around and with utmost seriousness asked "You mean  Twenty dollars right ?".  In God he trusts, everybody else pay cash in the same units - even if its Dad.
• The families in my son's music class pitched in to present a gift card and a weddings greetings card to their music teacher. All the kids signed it duly and presented the envelope (with the gift card and greeting card inside) to the teacher during the class. The teacher felt happy and said thank you. My son suddenly felt the need to make sure the teacher knew that all they have given her is not just the greeting card. In his matter-of-fact tone, he said - "We also gave Money". Everyone blurted out laughing. For a while, I had to hide my face.