Every time ..

my parents leave to India, it breaks my heart. Parents left yesterday ... after the flight delay drama, they left after lunch.
Had been so used to them staying with us for the past few months ... had no worries if I got held up at work... things seem to be magically taken care at home. (be it food, kids)
Thank you Daddy and amma for everything you have been doing for us.

After 9 days break at work ..

woke up today not in the best moods ... you know monday blues....
But Cantaloupe surprised me, by learning the family poem she was supposed to recite at school. (she had been postponing to learn the said poem for the past week ... all it took her was "focussed" 10 mins and she was ready)

So proud of you my baby !! You couldn't have pulled my spirits any better !

Field trip with Cantaloupe

I had volunteered for the field trip last week. The kids were first taken a Monarch butterfly garden and then they got to enjoy in the adjacent beach.

After a guided tour of the butterfly garden for about 90 mins, the tour guide asked, "Kids, how do you feel after seeing so many butterflies?"
Kid 1: Hungry
Kid 2: Tired
Kid 3: Sleepy
Kid 4: Happy (a smile on the guide's face)
Cantaloupe : Sad

Me : Uh ???
Cantaloupe: Because I want to be a butterfly ... I can fly around

This and that ...

Ever since I have read Zen Shorts ... Cantaloupe and I, both are relating every day events to the story.
No prizes for guessing the book she picked in the school library ... Zen Ties !!!!
Stillwater, you have found two loyalists here !!

In other news, nephew turned two ! The little fellow whom I nick named for his long head at birth is already two and plays pranks on me.

Junior hums ... sings to herself these days. And the sequence is set .. Polly put the kettle, Little Jack Horner, .... and finally I love you, you love me. (she is Not a Barney fan)

Cantaloupe started badminton classes ... for now extremely pleased with the patient coach. I know my girl likes playing badminton ... but easily gives up. She wants the easy way out ... tries couple of times and thinks she will master the sport in a week. I think these classes are a good beginning for her to learn patience and perseverance.

Debating about Abacus classes .... talked to her teacher at school. The teacher thinks its a good idea to enroll ... I am hesitant, more so because it is 2 hrs class at a stretch. I do know some of my cousins who have benefitted from these classes. (in India)

Oh yes ... Junior thinks she is a Chess champion !! And what does she do with chess pawns ... identifies all the pawns correctly, places the chess board in the right direction and neatly arranges all the pawns. (I am still confused on this part ... should the black square be to my right or left .. and the Queen ... where does she sit ???) Once she has accomplished this task of arranging all 32 pawns, she promptly packs them back.

Problem solving any one??

A camel needs to travel 3000 kms and transfer 3000 bananas.
Any given time, the maximum bananas the camel can carry is 1000
The camel needs to eat 1 banana for every km that it travels

What is the max bananas that the camel can transfer?

Awww moment

I parked my car and was walking into my office this morning when I saw ...

A colleague opening the car door / office door for his pregnant wife while carrying her bag and his and holding her hand and helping her climb up the stairs.
He promptly kept her bag on her desk and offered her a cup of water.

Brought a smile on my face ... :)

Proud Mama

Last evening I read, "Papa, Please get the moon for me" to Junior. As I was about to close the book, Junior pointed to the last page of the book and said "Edu, Sloth book nalli ide" ( * This is present in Sloth book") and what was she referring to .... well to Eric Carle's signature :)

Indeed Eric is the author of Slowly Slowly Slowly said the sloth, her current favourite book.

Proud Mama can't stop grinning :)

A very close encounter with nature ... and more

Past few weekends have been packed .... what with us exploring new territories, it has been exciting and tiring at the same time.

Two weeks back, after lot of discussions, disagreements / agreements we decided to go hiking. Now, this IS a brave decision considering we have 2 toddlers in the family to be entertained and not to forget the just turned 6 year old baby. (oh .. by the way, she has given me strict orders to not address her a "baby". Baby should be replaced by "Sweetie", "Putta" whatever ... but no more baby) Anyways, the place chosen was Uvas Canyon.... about an hour's drive from our house. We decided to pack lunch and had lovely visions of eating out in the open, beside a creek, enjoying the quietness of the place and soaking the lovely views.
We decided to start early .. around 10:00am (what ??? that is not early ??? well ... summer break, saturday morning ... waking up at a decent hour after a late night movie is hard ... and not to forget the hubby's P1 bug that needs attention first thing in the morning) Surprisingly, we got ready of time and drove to the place. The roads leading to the hiking trails were narrow and we finally reached the place and collected the map ... set the toddlers on their strollers and put on sun screen lotion, hats and set out to hike as true professionals. The place was indeed beautiful and quiet .... not many cars were parked. (only 1 more apart from 2 of ours). BP and my dad pushed the strollers ... the path was steep and rough. It was indeed hard to push the strollers (which contained water bottles, food, snacks, juice, swim wear, towels and extra set of clothes) We had hiked a little when, Junior decided to try hiking instead of being tied to the stroller. So I walked along with her short distance while BP and my dad followed us closely behind. My mom and Cantaloupe were walking along with me ... while my sister and BIL were slightly behind us. All of a sudden, Junior decided enough hiking and started back towards her dad (about 20 steps behind) and stopped in between, expecting me come get her. It was indeed steep for a 2 year old to balance and I was right behind her. Just then Cantaloupe came up to me and said as a matter of fact "Amma ... Junior pakka Haavu ide" (Amma, there is a snake beside Junior. Cantaloupe continued hiking after having stated the obvious ... but hearing out those words scared the hell out of me. I looked closely and saw a snake about 2 in of distance from Junior's feet ... just one more step and she would land on the snake. I screamed "Snake" and BP who had caught up with us immediately picked Junior up in a flash second. Had I not mentioned, he might have stepped on the snake too. It was very much alive ... it had perhaps eaten few mins before and had a bulged tummy.
The hike was never the same for me.... I was imagining all sorts of reptiles and could not enjoy much of the hike. We got down in one of the water falls and the kids did have some fun ... but I couldn't think beyond the snake. We spotted the same snake on our hike back too (it had moved further away) and warned fellow hikers about it.
There were picnic tables set up and we had lunch .. hiked some more and decided to drive back. On our way back, we also visited Mount Madonna ... a quiet place with a small temple and lovely views. Got back home in the evening and awesome chai (courtesy BP) and went out for dinner. I hugged and kissed my girls for No particular reason for the next 3 days ....


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Last weekend, we went to the Circus show in town. We didn't buy the tickets online (thanks UTBT for the tip) and bought them in person. This was my first experience of a circus show ... as was it for the girls and BP. Cantaloupe enjoyed the show for the most part ... but was put off when I refused to buy her Lemonade. (that was about 15 -20 mins before the end of show). So after the show, when my dad asked if she enjoyed the show, she said "Sort of OK" ... to which my dad asked her "Why so?", who had obviously heard her claps and cheers the entire time of the show. She answered "Because mommy did not buy me Lemonade" :)
Junior and my little nephew watched the initial minutes of the show startled by the color and music ... but later, almost the entire time was spent munching on raisins, bread, pop corn, cotton candy, cookies, chips and the likes.
I wouldn't say the show is must see ... but for first timers it was certainly worth the money we spent and an enjoyable experience overall.

Current Books my 2 years old loves

Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth - By Eric Carle (Thanks UTBT !!!)
Way Up in The Arctic - By Jennifer Ward (finding the hidden numbers was instant hit with both the girls)


We read both these books atleast 3 times a day ....

Some positives:
* My baby is aware of new animals (ok ... not just my baby ... me too ... honest confession: I was not aware of Tapir, Peccary, Coati )
* She knows about animals in the Arctic (and I learnt about Lemming)

We have read other books ... but the above 2 require special mention.

Cute moments

Junior waves Hi to our neighbor's 4 years old son (who blushes) and says: Hey Camel !!
(*the little boy's name is Cayden*)

ps: Junior genuinely thought his name was Camel and NO, we have never made fun of his name in our house.

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My mom explains to Cantaloupe that "Chowla*" will be held in Dec this year. (being planned for my nephew)
Cantaloupe (*curiously*) : I do not want to attend this event
My mom(*surprised*): Why??
Cantaloupe: I don't want my hair chopped ... you said in Chowla they cut hair cut, I don't want a hair cut.
My mom: ROFL

ps: * an event where the boy's hair is cut for the first time

Kannada Songs bringing out memories...

The latest post by MM brought out memories of some awesome songs ... some Hindi .. some Kannada.

Capturing the Kannada ones here:

1. Mellusire savi gaana : Link : Here

The romantic mood of the song brings out some cheerful memories of my newly married days. BP and I were generally having fun where one would hum / whistle a certain song and the other would guess the song and sing along. Out of no where BP started singing Sa Sa sa sa sa ... sa sa sa ... and I burst of laughing. It was supposed to be the above song. (BP is not classically trained ... while I am and it was funny to hear him sing sa sa sa for the entire mukhda of the song)
Everytime I hear this song, it brings out a smile on my face.

2. DoNi saagali munde Hogali : Link : here

Its a classic song. The movie was considered bold when released .... infact I was not allowed to watch it when it was telecast on TV except for this song. This song was immortalized by my aunt and uncle. (chikkamma / chikkappa). They were newly weds. And we were visiting them during summer holidays ... and chikkappa who was and still is a ardent Vividh bharthi listener, brought out the tape recorder at 6:30am in the morning and played out a casette. It was the recorded version of the above song sung by aunt and uncle. We laughed our hearts out at the totally tuneless rendition of chikkappa and my aunt trying her best to catch the tune. Its been close to 25 years and its still the same ... we still tease them about this casette. (of course both remain the same... aunt still sings in perfect tune ... and chikkappa ... well :D)

3. EE dehadinda Doora Naade: Link : here

This is actually my dad's favourite song... technically not my favourite. Yet has so many memories attached. Daddy has this habit of singing certain songs from the Black and white era and everytime he starts to sing one of his favourite songs, he always sings the rest and in a certain pattern. So the above songs almost always is succeeded by Deena Naa bandiruve ... and then Namo Venkatesha etc. And everytime I hear any of the the songs featured in my dad's list, it brings out a tear in my eye. I am reminded of the distance separating us now .... it tears me apart. BP initially did not understand the reasons of my immediate mood shifts earlier ... now he clearly does and never fails to switch songs if any of dad's list song are being played. In that sense, he is tuned to those songs as well now.

I have also sung this song in several competition during my middle school years and won several prizes.

4. Maduve ya ee banda: Link : here

This one is one of mom's favourites ... and mine too. There has not been a single antakshari when this song has not been featured. There used to be a time when the groom side relatives assembled in the groom's house and started for the wedding together from there in a BTS bus. (specially arranged by the bride's side for the groom and his relatives). Along the drive ... we would invariably stop over, mostly by the riverside and have lunch. (puliyogare and mosaranna). Much masti was had in the bus ... and then some teasing of the groom. Antakshari was the top pick for entertainment and this song was very apt.

Certainly brings out very happy memories for me from not so distant past :)

5. Kannada NaadiNa Veera RamaNiya : Link:

WHAT a song !! Rendered supremely by P.B.Srinivas.... always ... always brings a tear when the song ends with Obavva perishing. I have sung this song in many competitions as well ... in fact one of my teachers in my high school was so fond of me singing this song that she got a personal recorded and recorded my version of it. In one of the competitions, when I sang this song, one of the judges came up to me and said she had tears in her eyes (so did I when I sang). Inspite of that compliment, I did not win a prize in that particular event and my teacher from school who had accompanied me, was shocked and irritated. She went straight upto the judges (there were 3 of them) and questioned why I was not given the prize to which they said it was a male version in the original ... so they would have preferred me picking a song by a female singer.

Only recently Cantaloupe participated in a talent show and she was dressed as "Obavva" and she made me PROUD !!! Another reason to love this song :)

I wanted to end it here .. though it has been very difficult to cut down at 5 ... but I cannot help but list another one.

Jo Jo Laali ... this song has been Junior's favourite for the past 6-7 months. She started singing this song when she was 18 months ... I am told, my parents sang this as lullaby to me when I was a baby and I loved it :)

OK ... Now I stop ... pls share your special songs ... would love hear the songs and the memories behind them

Junior is fast growing ...

Scene 1:
Place: My sister's house
We knock on the door ... My sister opens the door soon followed by my 21 month old nephew. He gets excited and starting running around the house smiling all the time.
Junior: (*Still standing ourside*): Thats funny ????

(meaning: whats so funny to run around the house ??)

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Scene 2:
Newly potty trained Junior getting ready for her sisters' birthday party. Adults whispering about the rest rooms in the party hall.
Junior: How about pull ups ???

Note: we last used pull ups some 20 days ago ...

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Scene 3:
This morning, I put on a bath robe on her ... it was atleast 2 sizes bigger... but she was too excited and I didn't want to ruin her excitement and I let it be. She goes to show off her robe, to my mom and granda can't handle her giggles and laughs at Junior's dress
Junior: (*Very Firmly*): Thats NOT funny !!!

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ps: Junior has never been trained knowingly in English ... she has picked up English from her sister and all the above lines from her were in English. We encourage Kannada (our mother tongue) in our house :)

6th year Birthday

Cantaloupe turned 6 today ... yes she is already 6 !!
The previous night BP and I blew exactly 6 princess balloons and tied them all around the house ... so she woke up to some bright colored balloons and background of her parents and grand parents singing the birthday song. She quite enjoyed the attention.

After breakfast, I gave her warm oil massage, (after a long time .... I must do this often... it hardly takes effort and yet I don't do it as much I hope to). After breakfast, I put a new pink silk Salwar my parents got stitched from India. She started complaining about the material being itchy and took it off in less than 10 mins. She was later dressed in another dress again gifted to her by my parents. She looked absolutely lovely.
Based on the suggestion I got on my previous post, I headed to the toy store in the neighborhood with both kids. The girls loved it there. We spent quite some time exploring all the different sections and finally picked a toy. We then headed to buy return gift for my nephew. It took was more than 2 hrs to be back home since our departure and I hardly realised it :) By the time we returned mom had prepared yummy Bisi Bele Bhath and Basundi (sweet) per Cantaloupe's request. All of us enjoyed our lunch ... I must add all of us ate more than our capacity :)

Then Cantaloupe wanted to play with her new Toy set and spent the next 2 hours exploring the toy with me and my dad. Later in the evening we got dressed and headed towards our Party venue. We had debated quite a bit about hosting a party this time for Cantaloupe. Finally BP decided, we should give a try to organised parties much against my policy of "DIY" parties. The chosen venue was The Jungle. The guest list was very minimal and only 4 family apart from ours was present. All the kids had so much fun jumping, sliding, turning, tossing , collecting tickets ... though the overall money charged was expensive, it felt like complete Paisa Vasool place :) The pizzas were not great ... but the kids hardly had their mind on pizzas ... they just wanted to have as much fun in the limited time. After the party Cantaloupe thanked us such a wonderful party :)

And now the gifts we bought her (some of them may not appear as gift, they were essentials required, but we convinced Cantaloupe to believe they were gifts)
1. Magnetic White board with marker pen. (gift from ajja / ajji)
2. Bath robe (she had been requesting this for almost 3 months now)
3. The building Toy set
4. New clothes
5. New swimming glasses
6. New coloring set.

6 gifts for her 6th birthday !!

Apart from these, my sister gifted her a Princess Comforter and pair of clothes. She also got a backpack, dress and Chess board as gifts from friends among other things.

Later in the night, she crawled up to on our bed and confessed she loved all her gifts and felt very very special, thanks to us organising a wonderful party.

I am so glad you had fun my child .... May God bless you.

Suggestions pls ....

Looking for some gift ideas for my to be 6 year old daughter ... suggestions pls ....

4 head is second head

Scene: G'pa asking Junior various parts of her body. Junior happily obliging.

G'pa: What is this? ( pointing at his forehead)
Junior: Hmmm ... Tale ... head (is clueless about forehead)
G'pa: This is forehead
Junior: NOOOOOO
G'pa: Chinna, idu HaNe .. forehead
Junior: NO ... this is two head... not four head. (in her mind it is G'pa's second head)
G'pa: ROFL

Work work and more work

Have been in all day meetings ... head hurts by the end of the day.
But BP has been solid support ... accommodating his work timings around my absurd working hours.

I have been trying my best to not affect my work affect the kids ...
Cantaloupe performed in her school's "International Night". She sang "Vande Maataram" much to the delight of her mother (moi)
Junior is talking a lot .. I mean a lot ... surprisingly she is talking a lot in English as well as Kannada. I was initially surprised she had picked up so much of English given she goes to a home day care where there is one another kid. The other kid speaks Kannada as well. Anyways, she speaks in short sentences... but is able to communicate what she intends to.

Her 2nd birthday is fast approaching ... only item completed from my check list is Venue (a park close to our home), date of the party and the guest list.

To do list: Birthday Cake order, Food, Games, Decos, Return Gifts, Birthday Dress for the kids ...

Also planning on inviting my parents to come and spend some time with us this summer ....

I think thats enough reasons to not being regular in the blog world :)

Fun With Colors

That was the title of the Cantaloupe's project in the Science Fair held recently in her school. What can I say ... she had so much fun ... 15 mins into the fair, she was marketing her booth and attracting visitors.
I had registered to participate alone ... but later realised it would improve her team spirit enrolled another classmate of hers in her booth.( I was just a little apprehensive on if she will be able to hold her booth alone for almost 2 hrs ) The concept was simple ... understand / explain Primary Colors and Secondary colors. But the fun part was mixing Primary color paint for every guest who stopped by their booth and show them their desired Secondary color. It was more fun than expected I tell ... nothing to beat dirtying themselves ... in this case with a purpose and parent approval :)
We had to set up the booth in the morning ... so Cantaloupe and I went in early around 8:00am and set up our booth. We felt lucky for being allocated a booth close to entrance. We set up our booth and came back home. The fair was to begin at 6:30pm ... and it began sharp on time. Our cardboard display looked so colorful .... we were extremely pleased. The girls were all excited and didn't know what to expect since it was their first year in school. In fact I was clueless on what to expect as well .... but there were almost 160 odd booths that I was more excited than the kids. I have to add here, the last time I participated in science fair was during my school days.... and this event brought back all those lovely memories.
There were mentors assigned to all booths who would evaluate the project. There were no prizes to be rewarded .... the idea behind inviting mentors was to evaluate the understanding of the projects ... age appropriateness of the chosen project and also to see if the kids were indeed having fun.
Cantaloupes' mentor was the first to arrive to their booth. The girls were giggling and having fun posing for the pictures when the mentor arrived and they were somewhat unprepared for his arrival. But they did just fine explaining the concept. I was glad the mentor realised how much fun they were having while mixing colors. ( they did not even hear his say, good job ... they were too busy mixing colors). They were given a science project idea book and a certificate. Cantaloupe's first ever certificate !!! And boy was she happy to receive one ! The evaluation went great.
Once the mentor left ... I advised the girls to just add few drops of paint and mix instead of mixing a plateful as they had just shown to the mentor. Slowly the crowd started gathering ... and people started visiting our booth. 15 mins into the fair, Cantaloupe had loosened up and started inviting random people passing by if they'd be interested in learning about colors. Most people were surprised the enthusiasm and appreciated the kids for their efforts. It was funny how Cantaloupe soon learnt tricks to attract people ... she offered a colored plate of their choice as a token :) After about an hour into the fair, Cantaloupe's partner started loosing interest ... and wanted to go to her sister's booth. (she had an elder sister from 5th grade who had a booth set up as well) Cantaloupe managed the entire show the whole time. Poor girl ... she wanted to look around the auditorium and learn about other projects ... but could never leave her booth. Later I learnt, it was ok to leave the booth to visit other booths. The outside rain did not dampen the spirits of the participants or visitors ... I think there was a turn out of over 400 people !!!
I learnt some new concepts myself at the fair .... I'd love to have visited all the booths ... but that just didn't happen.
I came home very satisfied ... Cantaloupe sure made me proud that day and I simply loved this concept of science fairs !

Avalakki Vada

My first recipe on this blog.

I plan to send this recipe for the contest held here.

We have enjoyed this snack on many cold evenings ....

Avalakki Vada

(Beaten rice / Poha Vada)

Ingredients:

Thick Poha: 2 cups
Ginger: Finely chopped
Red Onion (small): Finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 - Finely cut
Cilantro: Chopped
Curry leaves: Finely cut
Salt: To taste
Oil : For frying

Method:
Step1: Soak the poha in water so it gets soft.
Step 2: Drain the water from poha and mash it
Step 3: Add the rest ingredients
Step 4: Make small balls and flatten it
Step 5: Put oil in a Deep bottom vessel (Kadai) and heat it
Step 6: Once oil is hot, deep fry the flattened vadas on low flame.
Step 7: Remove from oil when golden brown and strain excess oil on tissue paper
Step 8: Serve hot with Ketchup

Tips:
1. Soaked poha is moist and should be easy to mash and easily mixes with other ingredients and takes any shape given. If its not taking desired shape, add a table spoon of Besan to the mixture.
2. Always fry on low flame ... if not it doesn't get cooked evenly.
3. Firmly press the vadas, if not they might split in oil.
4. If Thick poha is not available, you may use thin poha, but it gets soggy when soaked in water, so just sprinkle water on it to make it soft. You will need 3 cups though.


Enjoy !

Cantaloupes' performance and Valentine's day

We had our quarterly community meet last saturday and there was plenty of involvement from the Cantaloupe household. While BP participated in 20-questions game ... Cantaloupe danced to on stage and Junior was all over the place and hopping and jumping and dancing and generally having a blast. And moi .. well I gave my first live Keyboard rendition on stage and was part of a drama.

I had earlier written about the drama here. I tried hard to back out but BP advised me that a commitment had to be met ... if I was wise I'd have read the script before agreeing to be part of it ... now that I had agreed to be part of the drama I shouldn't back out. And so I stuck with it.

Attending the practice sessions was hard. Usually the dance practice happened on weekday around 7:30pm. BP wouldn't even be home for me to drop Junior and go for the practices .... so I had to finish dinner preps / cleaning before leaving ... take both kids along.... drive the distance ... help Cantaloupe with her steps and rush back home, feed dinner to kids and then take a bite. My drama practice sessions were over the weekends. So it was much better since BP took care of the kids.
I was watching "Everybody loves Raymond" series around the same time and our drama script turned out to be an adaption of one of the episodes .... but there was a huge difference. While the serial itself had established the characters in its previous episodes, our drama had NO characterization and hence my earlier post.

Anyways, as Aamir put it in 3 Idiots "All izzz well" ... and drama turned out quite ok I thought. But I am still not clear about what in the script was so fascinating that the audience was really in splits ... :))

The best show of the evening was definitely the kids dance show ... and Cantaloupe danced with such grace ... proud mama was glowing all evening. And oh ... Junior put up a show too ... she had mastered all the steps herself .. if only someone allowed her to perform on stage. Nonetheless that didn't deter her enthusiasm and screamed akka akka and danced herself right below the stage almost giving a mini performance.

But personally for me the satisfying moment was the keyboard rendition sis and me played.(Read here. One step closer to my wishlist bucket) It was a tribute of sorts to Dr.Vishnuvardhan (Kannada actor who recently passed away). We had picked songs from his famous movies and remixed it and played only snippets. I later learnt that the audio system was not very good ... and audience couldn't hear very clearly ... but to me it was first of sorts and I was satisfied with the way it turned out.

And oh ... the sambar I prepared for the event was a hit as well ...

Next day being Valentine's day dawned bright and early .... of course its a routine in our household ... the only day we get a chance to sleep longer is sunday and that is THE day the kids have picked to wake up earlier than usual. We all wished one another ... Cantaloupe gave her dad the card we had prepared together. BP bought them new clothes ... and went off for his weekend badminton leaving me and kids and sister. Cantaloupe and her chikki (my sister) baked awesome cup cakes to surprise the men (BP and my BIL) and they surprised us by bringing 8 varieties of sweets and samosas. We savored the sweets and played Kannada Ankatakshari of sorts (clause being songs which had words love and/or its equivalent words)

Overall an eventful weekend it was ...

Random tidbits

We were in a local grocery store ....
Cantaloupe (C) : Amma, please buy me Samosas
Me: No dear ... you have still not completely recovered from your cough
C: Amma pls ..
Me: You pick ... want a new tooth brush or this samosa ... I am not spending on both
C (happily): I want the tooth brush please ... but the Pink Princess one ..
Me: Of course honey ....

A bystander stared at this cruel mom who coaxed her daughter to pick tooth brush over samosas ...
Cantaloupe got to pick her tooth brush and cruel mom bought her tooth paste as a bonus as well !

Teacher's Appreciation week

This week is Teacher's Appreciation week in Cantaloupes' school. The theme is Winter Olympics. PTO has come up with different ideas for each day of the week appreciating the teachers. Like flowers on one day (in red, blue or white), books, thank you notes etc. I am all kicked about this but sadly Cantaloupe is not showing as much interest. She has always maintained that her teacher is good but other Kindergarten teachers are better ... one particular teacher she adores because the said teacher has lovely hair :) Go figure her reasoning ..

Anyways, Cantaloupe teacher is good ... but not great. She is good with teaching ... but I think a teacher should act like a motivator ... a supporter in needy times .. clearly this teacher isn't. There is complete professionalism in her approach.. but the personal touch is missing. And I think thats a big factor as to why Cantaloupe is not so much enthusiastic about this week. Its not like she doesn't want to write a thank you card and decorate ... but she is doing it just for the sake. I have nudged her sometimes to do it with more enthusiasm but don't see much results.
Growing up I was very popular with the teachers ... you know teacher's pet student who followed every bit of their instruction .... quietly sat in the class and never troubled them .... enthusiastically participated in all activities be it singing, dancing or art or science projects. I was am almost ideal student a teacher could ask for. And I loved ALL my teachers and respected them tremendously.

And its hard for me to not see the same enthusiasm I once had for my teachers missing in Cantaloupe.
Tell me .... did you love ALL your teachers ? Would you actively take up in their appreciation ?

It feels so good...

... when you remember complete lyrics ... background music and tune of a Bollywood number last sung almost a decade back.

ps: The song in question: Chori Chori jab nazarein mili from Kareeb

Junior Language

What do the following mean? (many in Kannada)

Kankata
ellowe
Thotha
Maniiii
boo
Aalu
Daachi
aapeepe
Dova
Kapaka

Ah well ... that Junior for you and the words called out are
Kannadaka (glasses in kannada)
Yellow
Thota (meaning water)
Mane (house in kannada)
Blue
Haalu (milk)
Drakshi (grapes in Kannada)
Office
Dora
Chikkappa (for "Chacha" in Hindi or Uncle)

Junior's speech has improved by leaps and bounds now .. she speaks in small sentences. Sentences of two - three words and manages to communicate almost everything she needs to. She even sings ... her favourite song being Jo Jo Laali Naa haduve. This was one of the songs my parents sang for me when I was a little girl and when she sings the same I can't stop myself from being flooded with memories of my childhood. She can also sing some Boney M songs ... Daddy cool being her current favourite. Of course she has her own versions of the song such as Mommy cool .... akka cool ..

Just want to put down her baby words before she outgrows them ....

Grrrrrrrrrr

You propose .... he accepts .... and then he cribs about the proposal.

I am talking about the business client ... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .... I proposed requirements on a certain project and the guy signed off on requirements and we delivered the product to him and he complains requirements were never clear and complete.

My head hurts after a grueling 3 hrs meeting....

A decade already ...

Yes ... Jan 3rd, 2000 ... the day dawned bright and sunny and early. My dad and me were in the best of spirits ... my dad's excitement multiple times more than mine. It was 7:30am and we were already in bus ... our company bus. It was my first day in my first job. Dad came to see my office and make sure his daughter was safe and was going to grow professionally in a great environment.
The induction program had dignitaries come and boost our confidence ... these were people we had seen on TV ... read about them in newspapers ... so it felt just surreal to see them in person. We were in training for the next 3.5 months. That when I met one of my bestest friend.
I still think it was destiny ... since I was a very reserved person, when was very outgoing. I sat in the last row of seats in our induction and she sat in the first row ... we passed out attendance sheet and it happened that she handed out the attendance sheet to me which led us having successive Employee numbers ... in turn leading to sharing the same cube and ending doing the same project. During the training period, we had our own gang ... 4 young women and 4 guys .... the women called themselves the GG gang. Each one of us had a carefully chosen nick name ... after training we all got assigned to various client projects. As luck would have it 3 (including me) from the gang ended in the same project. One from the gang got his Visa and flew to US. The others continued to meet ... but not so often anymore. But the GG gang stuck.
And then I got married and moved to US ... but continued to work for the same company and kept in touch for sometime. But professional assignments and personality changes led to the gang slowly disintegrating. But I continued to be in touch with my miracle friend. Now she is the only one I am in touch with ...
Its been a decade of my professional life and its also been 10 years since I have found a great friend. Here is to many more years of professional success and even more years of friendship ! Cheers !

In a dilemma ...

I had signed up to participate in a drama for a community event in december without reading the script. Big mistake ... the script is out and the drama is not remotely funny when it is supposed to be humorous.
The drama script is written by a friend's husband ... I desperately want to back out now unless the script changes. Can't make a fool of myself being part of this "Master piece" ... oh wait ... may be I won't be making myself a fool because there will be no one paying attention or even better no audience.

Do I risk offending the friend and speak the truth and back out OR should I come up with some stupid reason and back out?

2010 begins with

taste of 3 different desserts .... Pineapple pastry , Mango Moose and Plum Cake (baked by your truly)
Need I add it felt great !

There was also Dumb Charades .... lot of challenging movies were conquered ... Tuglaq, Muniyana Maadari, Olu Saar Olu, Manasaare, Ita Lakadi, Aptabaandhava were some interesting ones leading to great comic moments ;)

We welcomed the new year with much enthusiasm ... hope the year brings out some warm moments and smiles in our life.