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 !