A daughter’s concern for her father !

This happened yesterday when I was reading out to A, Ruskin Bond’s Crazy times with Uncle Ken. So , in this book, Uncle Ken is described as one who went through life without having to do much, and has got lots of misadventures. And then at one point in one of the stories, Uncle Ken asks his nephew if he has got some money so that they could have some rasgullas. It’s also described that Uncle Ken is usually broke, as the little allowance granted to him by his mother is always finished by him on his clothes.

Surprised A asks me, why should  money be a matter when uncle Ken has got a family, mom, four sisters, and all ?

I told her that parents would take care of the children’s needs when they were small, and they will have to earn for themselves on growing big, and so is expected of Uncle Ken too.

More surprised A asks how her grandmother then gets the money needed.

I answered her that her grandfather takes care of that.

And a little nervous A asks me, Suppose, if suppose , her father, V stopped working and did not go to office,  will I , the mother, share my money with him ?

Only after I nodded in agreement, with a suppressed smile, did she seem to feel relaxed  😊

So Mr.Father out there, your little one has become big enough to be concerned about you, topping the list of your “we-are-there-for-you” ones.

Happy Fathers Day !!

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From a small hut to a must-see wonder

Is the creation of Nek Chand in the city of Chandigarh. This place , Rock Garden, which started as a small  hut, has over time become a must-see wonder, which apparently has got about 5000 visitors every day and is the second most popular location in India next to Taj Mahal.

I had the opportunity to visit this wonder, once as a child with parents and brother, and recently once again with V and A, on our trip to Shimla and Manali. The place is huge, which can take about half a day , if you take a leisure walk and take in all the creativity, innovation and handi-work.

The place where it all started !!

Broken cups and saucers turning into people and animals, broken bangles becoming beautiful peacocks and gunny bags transforming into huge walls !

Look here and there, you sure are going to do something every where  !

There’s nothing that’s waste, every thing has got a purpose, you just have to look through !

I could capture only a portion of the entire wonder and any amount of description is less compared to the actual beauty. 

Go, visit and marvel at the place at your next chance !

What do I name ?

History is going to take a start at school tomorrow  for the first time for A and so her teacher wanted the students to have a look at various coins and see what information could be gathered from them.

When A asked me to show all the different coins I could, of various countries and denominations, I brought out my treasure, which I had started collecting many years ago, and to which sadly nothing has been added in the recent past.

This is the one, which stored all my collection. When A asked me why I was storing in this which was in such a bad state, I said I was planning to transfer the contents when I found something better and so I had left it that way. She disappeared immediately saying she would be back in a minute. My instincts told me the reason for her disappearance and I smiled to myself before she reappeared with this :

She asked me to use this, saying I shouldn’t use anything that wasn’t nice and should always be using cute ones !

You just make my day, little A, and yes, I have transferred all the contents and discarded the old one  !

And what do I name this little act of yours 😊

Banging and banging

Is all that has been happening since this morning !

This Sunday’s Telugu magazine that comes along with the newspaper, had an article picturing colourful snacks and A’s heart went out for ice gola looking at them. She wanted to have ice gola at that point of the day, 8:30 in the morning, too early for a stall to get opened. While I was trying to explain that that wouldn’t be possible until sometime at 11, my MIL offered to make some at home itself. A jumped at the prospect of it and joined her grandmother in the process. The process of gathering ice cubes, wrapping in a thick plastic cover, beating them with a chapati roller pin, transferring the contents into a glass, adding the concentrate of your choice, and then splurging with a spoon !

She was so hooked to this that she made, offered  and had as many times as possible in a day. The whole of the day has seen her running into the kitchen, changing different plastic covers, beating hard, making ice cubes, and opening and closing all the bottles at home.

  
She tried almost all the flavours possible at home, Roofafzha, strawberry, cola and a mix of them too !

Isn’t ice gola at home lot more fun than outside 😊

When V comes home early

Every thing goes topsy turvy !

Yes, am not kidding, this is what has happened today.

Our dinner on a regular day comprises of rotis with a curry.

Now V has come home early today, and had asked his dear father to get some mirchi bajji. He didn’t stop there and asked to get some jilebi too. If put in front, who on earth can resist them at the evening time of around 6:30 ?  So, all of us gorged upon them , forgetting about the dinner that was being prepared by the cook.

The end result was that we had leftover snacks as dinner 

  
And the supposed dinner is going to be tomorrow’s breakfast   😯 

Much against the consent of A

I do certain things, like dragging her to places, by dragging I mean literally dragging and by places I mean, such places that the mere mention of them should make the kids jump in excitement . But for some strange reason that I fail to comprehend inspite of racking my brains to the maximum, A prefers staying at the cozy home to anything else. But once she enters those places that am talking of, she really enjoys being there and wants to stay there for some more time and doesn’t want to come back home. So if you understand, there’s this inertia, which just is in huge quantities and for everything. So over the past years, my experience has taught me to take her to places although she doesn’t approve initially, with the hope that she might enjoy at the end of it.

So last week, when I came across ‘Dirty Feet‘ taking part in Kids Carnival at Hyderabad, I thought A mighty have some fun there. As I should have expected upfront, A showed a lot of reluctance in going there. But I dragged her and to my satisfaction, she enjoyed and admitted that it was fun at the end of the day  😊

I had a little chat with Archana of Dirty Feet and she was so warm in receiving every one, showing around their stuff, explaining their regular activities. This is one group I had been following from quite some time and I feel really impressed at the stuff they do. Making kids be a part of all those stuff , which kids of the current age are mostly unaware of, explaining them the process behind everything, the entire idea and concept is amazing. A peek into their stalls :

 Bowling with palm fruit, smile with seeds, basket weaving, block printing and more ! 
Making Clay pots…

  

There are lots of other stores too apart from Dirty Feet. Some others are below:

Making finger puppets at another store !

  
And some fun at painting competition!

  
If you are in Hyderabad, and with a kid, you can try making a visit tomorrow, the last day of the carnival, and am sure you will not be disappointed !