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.