Keep OuT!!

A very productive senior at work!!!



Enter at your own risk!!!








Entry to authorized personnel only...and my authorization depends on his mood


This one says...
Trespassers will be shot!!!
Just in case you got that message wrong, it reiterates...
Survivors will be shot again!!!







That's my space!!!



with big bro cordoning off his space, this is the safest place lil junior could find

My troubled mind!!!

an update on the last post
Yes, i did have a chat with the teacher. She seemed taken aback that he had zeroed onto the cross and the nailing part...becase it was not pointed out to them. It was stressed to me that the whole thing was more an exercise to tell them about values, morals?!!!! I'm sure they could have learnt about values from another source?

I've told her a few things myself but i think its my fault for letting him go on this trip...i should have foreseen this...but he would have been at a loss if he had been the only one not to go...:(

i still think 5 years is too early to talk to children about diffent faiths, gods etc..each child must be coming from a particular background and is slowly being exposed to different friends, different faiths...every child reacts differently...and yes, maybe mine is too sensitive

In this particular case, junior felt bad that even some one who did good, got a raw deal out of it all...so it was a lesson badly learnt.

and i've learnt mine...

A troubled mind...

So the kids were asked to come in sandals since they would be visiting places of worship.

So the boy was sure he wanted to go, and he went, happy that it was going to be a kind of a picnic...The earlier time they had been to pizza hut where they saw the pizzas being made, and before that they had gone to a theatre to see a play...

It so turns out they visited a church, a buddhist temple, a hindu temple and a mosque. It was an out of school routine and that accounted for most of the excitement...

The evening and many evenings later, we all heard a few observations...

Amma do you know that the holy book of india is called the quran!!!!

Amma, you know the lady in the church told us that jesus, they pinned him on a cross with nails...he died and two days later he became a god?!!!

Amma, the holy book of the church is Buddha...

Amma, why do we pray to so many gods..?

undoubtedly a young mind not very prepared ...it has been gnawing in his mind especially the church and what they said. I've not really enlightened him about various religions. I've tried more to lay emphasis on morals, values and good simple sharing...perhaps some children are ready for this..perhaps junior is a lone case, perhaps...


The final statement, a whole week later...

You know, they said Jesus loved everybody.......and yet he died...

A sad statement...

No, I've not heard the end of this...


And I think the school is going to hear from me on this one...

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Update: this post has nothing to do with any religion. I just wonder when is the right age for something. The elder boy did not react this way, perhaps because he was exposed to it much later. I studied in a convent school and i loved the chapel for its peace and serenity. Even temples have disturbing displays, (narasimha tearing the asura's stomach, goddesses holding a cut off head). Now my mind is troubled more...

In and out!!

It been two weeks now since the cub junior's been learning about the human body. It's fun to see how much the little ones enjoy learning new things. They had a doctor come to school to show them the different intsruments used and the kids were taken to the lab to see the skeleton. And now he knows why his heart goes thump, thump...and what his lungs do.

Two days back, after gorging on a treat of homemade pizza for dinner, the boys were in their room doing their routine of driving the neighbors crazy, while i cleaned up.

Soon, junior dances into the kitchen.

"You know, Amma, the pizza has entered my food pipe".

"That's nice, now where does it go" I had to ask

"now it's gone into my intestine, the good food stays there, the bad food goes into my biiig intestine' (that was probably to emphasize how big it is)

"okay.." now i'm understandably piqued ...

"and" he continues, "i think pizza is bad food 'cos its gone into my big intestine and it now wants to come out ...(he's literally dancing now)

"eeks!!! into the bath room right now!!!' I scream, my momma alerts ringing loud and clear

and that's how we averted a smelly accident that day.

sigh, pizza is bad food?

a 'mushy' tale

I have to record this just for its "laugh" factor.

The kids are excited about the upcoming trip to India. They have cousins in Bangalore (my sis' kids) who are 15 and 11). My nephews in a way, are curtain raisers for whatever would happen to my kids. The last time we saw the 15 yr-old, he had started shaving, too.

My cub junior absolutely hero-worships the 15 yr-old.

Yesterday while we were waiting at the gate for the school bus, (a group of 8 brighteyed children chattering away while this bleary-eyed mom looked on) discussion veered to moustaches. Cub senior, (the self appointed mr.know-it-all courtesy his cousins) declared that when you reach class 8/9, u get a moustache...

of couse junior's ears perked up. He runs to me, thrilled with this nugget of information and asks, "is it true, i too will get a moustache when i reach class 9?" (his questions are still framed as sentences asked in a questioning tone)

i nodded,and couldn't resist adding "maybe earlier.. "

he looked excited...

next he peers closely at me and asks..."u don't have one?"

"urrmmm......no"

Now comes the howler...

"why? u didn't go to school, u never reached class 9?"

i really have to work on my image , don't i?

i've learnt a new poem...

cub junior came home yesterday, all bubbling with news...he loves talking about his day... every single thing is important, be it the taekwondo step he learnt or the chocolate he got...

"Amma, my hindi teacher taught us a new poem. You want to hear it?"

"Sure", i said

"Aaya, aaya , paagal aaya"

"huh, paagal?..you sure she said paagal? ' i question

"she said paagal' he insisted...

so i opened his hindi book and sure enough, the poem was printed there...

and it read

"aaya, aaya, baadal aaya"

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obviously, he had heard it as paagal...and paagal it will remain... till hopefully the teacher notices and corrects him...(crossing ,my fingers here)...because a teacher is always right...!!!

He used to speak Hindi so well, he dreamt in it...i used to despair about him learning to communicate in English. Now 8 mths in Singapore, english has become his chosen language...and he's learnt it too well...more than he's supposed to know... :)

Oops! Junior's done it again!

Its been some time since I've written anything here, which does not mean nothing interesting has happened. It just means I'm taking my time assimilating everything and wondering what is going on!

Recent weeks have seen complaints by senior about swear words and abusive language being used against him. The final straw came when the boy in question started putting things in cub senior's bag and accusing him of stealing it. It turned out that the behavior stemmed from resentment and jealousy. An email to the right people hopefully has calmed things down. Aside from the fact that the cub senior's vocabulary is now enriched by more swear words, I'm stunned by the nonchalant usage of the words here. ...I've managed to ensure that cub senior minds his language,but for how long? I wonder...

As for cub junior, what can I say...A cosy evening found him playing with a new aiplane. His brother had been to the airshow and brought back a souvenir for the lil one. So while i caught up on some reading, junior was busy shooting bombs from the cockpit. Or so i thought. Till hubby pointed out, that what i mistook as cockpit was actually a reference to his err...vital part of his anatomy.

Further subtle probing revealed that he picked it up from the bus.(i use subtle, because to give the word undue importance only serves to etch it further in his mind and i don't want that, do i?) And he was thrilled with the new word he learnt(what he has to learn, he will never get it, but this...no probs mamma, !!!). Leave alone the fact that at his age, in my time, the cock used to be the better half of the hen... :(

a mom on the warpath....a 5 yr-old who is the most willing sponge, for all things undesirable...fireworks unlimited!!!

And the tension of various situations he may use it in!!! Ahh well!!
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