jispa jispa jispa

Here is wishing a very happy birthday to Reshma. She reads regularly and prods me when I go lazy. It is only fitting that I not miss to write my blog today. Happy birthday Reshma.

I was brushing away the little dirt that was near Jispa’s eyes. “You don’t let me wash your face, see, its dirty”. I was explaining to her that now she is grown up, she must let me wash her face while giving her a bath. She is not small. She used to cry when I washed a face a few year ago. She asked me “why was I not allowing you to face my face?”. “I don’t know” I replied, “you were too small to tell me what you were thinking”. She wondered and asked “I also did not know the meaning of my own thoughts?” oops. I don’t know if you knew the meaning or not.

Since I keep harassing her on what she ate at school, I have told her to call me as soon as she gets down from the bus. She used to call and then rattle off. Sometimes I could be in a meeting so I asked her to first ask me if I was free. Today she called me and first asked me if I was free. Then she rattled off what she ate and what she made in school. Some jam tart and some cake. She then asked me if I was in my company restaurant (she means cafeteria) because of the noise in the background. Smart girl. She was right.

She is learning the letter B. So generally while dropping her to the bus stop we start of saying a lot of things that start with B. ba ba ba…bucket. Ba ba ba….book. and so on. I said ba ba ba … broom. She replied ba ba ba…. Supaddi (scoop in gujarati, as in opposite of broom) she found it extremely funny. She kept repeating it and laughing. Hahahahahah sure...

shopping withJispa

Walking into malls is injurious to your wallet, especially when you are feeling rich. Jasmine and I are felling a little rich these days I guess, guessing from the battered state of my wallet! Yesterday we were at Centre one mall attending a birthday party of one of Jispa’s frinds. We decided to stay on post the party. There goes the budget… right into the well or should I say right into the deep well like atrium that most malls have. We bought an arrow shirt for me. The cheapskate that I am, I only buy if the dam thing is on discount or in seconds. The piece I bought is an atypical printed shirt. I have been trying to ruffle a few feathers in office and prove that marketing is different and has a whack on the right side of the head. This is in continuance to the printed gujju type shirt I wore the last Friday. Karo… lets see where the twig breaks. We then went to do some more shopping. While Jasmine was browsing through her stuff in the sale, Jispa and me were at the toy section. I too have not gotten over my boy toy fixation. I can spend hours in a toy store. Jispa is normally never hyper ina toy store. No faltu zid that I want to buy this or that toy. She is a balanced kid in a toy shop. Also she like the baby toys that do something on pressing some buttons. Then at the Barbie section, she sat down and was intently staring at the Barbie house sets. I let her be and was looking at the other sections. I came back to see her still there, just sitting and dreaming looking at the set. She must have been in that place for atleast 10-15 minutes. Till of course she wanted to do potty urgently. MOMMY – come fast. Post her detour, she comes back to stare at the set. Finally she tells me that she wants to buy the set. I look at the back. 699 bucks huh? Not so bad, I can definitely afford it, but should I buy it for her. I show her the other sets, but she is intent on buying that one set. I look at Jasmine, Jasmine looks at me. It’s definitely not the question of cost. We were both wondering on the same thing. What to do when she asks to buy a particular thing. Saying yes would mean saying that we will buy what you want and that could snowball into some hugely bad stubborn habit. Giving due credit to her, she has so far not been that kind of a kid. She normally understands when we don’t buy what she suggests. But this time she really liked what she saw and she wanted it bad. Well what the hell, go buy it, but we will not buy what you want every time. Yes, yes, mummy, it ok… thank you…hmmmm. So much thought into parenting. I have no clue how much is really important of not. But we can only do the best from what we understand at that given point of time.

oye cudly

These days Jispa has acquired a funny habit. In the middle of the night she gets up and gets onto our bed. Just like that. I turn and I suddenly find her sleeping next to me. Kya hai yeh? Jispa singles me out as normally I am the one to allow her to sleep. I don’t ask her go back. Jasmine normally gets her to go back on her bed. I kinda like sleeping with the cuddly. But only thing is that this cuddly is growing bigger everyday and requires more place to sleep.

Well, I did finish reading the Harry Potter in two days and I found it interesting. But I am not going to comment on my earlier blog that was predicting Harry to be a horcrux. I may be right or I may be wrong. But if someone is reading the books I would not want to spoil it for them. Confirming either way would be being a spoiler. So that’s that.

harry

the latest and last harry potter book is releasing tomorrow. For all those who care, here's my prediction - Harry is a horcrux. Hopefully we will know by my Monday's blog how wrong I could be :)

aao bachon

I was getting off the VT railway station with my big yellow umbrella today morning. It was a nice rainy day. As I getting out opening my umbrella, a very young boy in a school uniform came upto me, “uncle, mujhe andar aane do na”
“aaja hero, kidhar jar aha hai?”… We start walking. I try to crouch to ensure he’s covered under the umbrella better. Finally I figure that the only way is to put my arm around him and his bag to get the coordinates better and match foot speed.
“mera school handloom house ke wahan hai. Aaj idhar bus ka pass banana aaya tha”
“lekin main toh idhar bus stop tak hi jaa raha hun” “ok”. I think a while and then figure that what the hell. A small detour will get the kid to school without wet socks. Oh yes… one of the big memories of school during rains is dirty wet socks hung at various angles to dry on the benches. Yup, lots of them were stinking. Boys are ungly
“Chal main aaj tereko school chod ta hun”
Hmmmmmmm………..
………………………..
…………………………
……………………..
“pass acha hai kya?” I asked.
“haan. Pachaas rupiya mein full month unlimited jaa sakta hai. Smart card hai. Waise roj ka che rupiyah hota hai. Dus din mein hi sixty ho jata hai. Pass se JJ se handloom house kitna bhi chaho ghum sakte ho”
We had further conversation on school times, the fact that he is 5 minutes late, his mom is going to be called, that he is going to be marched out to school office etc etc. we reached his school and he thanked me and apologized for me being late thanks to him. Oh chill, I tell him, I am an hour early for office. Bye kid nice knowing you. Bye uncle. The uncle tag on me wears very well.... very well indeed.

5 minutes with an absolute stranger kid left me with such delight

the journey of a thousand steps begins with a ......

Yesterday Jispa saved me from falling down the steps. I always hold her hand while climbing up and down the stairs. Almost always. This is an old habit mainly due to the fact that I am normally overtly cautious and believe that what can be avoided must be. I was getting off the foot over bridge when due to the light rain the steps were slippery and I slipped. Luckily I was holding her and she held on to her balance well and truly firm and bore my weight. I was thus saved by my little one. Am I a proud father or am I a proud father.

This Saturday we went to Aamby valley. I had to go on an official visit and decided to take my family along. The road up from Lonavala was thru the clouds. Jispa got a chance to see the clouds and while we were massing thru it I rolled down the windows. She stuck her hand out and felt the clouds / mist in her hand. She felt it to be ‘gluey’.

Jispa taking off.....

cukoo talk

Guess what a lovely little cuckoo told me today morning – the plane flies over the clouds so that when it has to apply the brakes the plane does not fall down. Apparently the clouds support it.

God and Jispa

When we went to Singapore, it was about a year since Jispa went in a flight. When we took off and were flying high, Jispa was enjoying it. She said ‘wow – we are going up high?”. Jasmine replied in the affirmative and said “we will be as high as the clouds”. Jispa then said “NO… we will not go as high as the clouds, we cannot go”. “ofcourse we can” said jasmine. Jispa looked at me. I too confirmed “yup, see… we will be as high and higher than the clouds”. Jispa half confused, half happy asked “then we will get to see God?”. Whoops. What to answer now. I half tempted to say – sure, look hard, unless he is taking a vacation himself, you might just spot him. I don’t remember what I said. I think I said that you cant see God or something to that effect. These days, we have been having these conversations on God and his presence. Once while sleeping, she refused to sleep alone, saying that she was scared. I had to explain that there are so many Gods to protect her all around her. We have also locked the doors and the windows, so that no one will come to harm her. And from somewhere the conversation went to a point where I was explaining to her that God is inside her, inside everything and every place. Today morning while having a bath, there was another conversation on God. I was saying God is in everything. God is inside her. It is inside everything that is nice and good. So she went one “god is inside everything. It is inside a banister because it helps us and stops us from falling. It is inside the walls.” “walls?” “yes, the walls protect us and don’t fall”… “hmm… yup, God is inside everything nice and good. Now go on you have finished your bath. Tell this to mummy.”
Her brains are amazing developed for some logical thinking. When you talk to her you can make out that she is thinking, registering and then only accepting. Her mind is working. It’s not blank acceptance. Then comes, the confirmation in the form of examples of proving what she just understood. Very very cool. I am impressed.

dont just accept it

For some reason from some where hidden in my memory a story line from something I had seen popped up. someone (I would imagine the devil) comes to a person and offers him money. In return all he has to do is press a button. One pressing this button someone somewhere around the world, someone you did not know will die. That’s it. For the hell of me I could not figure out which movie or serial it was. What would you do? Would you just do it? Interesting question… and after you do it.. the devil takes away the button… where to?... well to someone else you don’t know… hehehehehhe.
Kya pakau idea hai. Disturbing hai.

I never did realize that by watching Khini kum, I would get depressed today!. Let me explain. Before the movie I walked into Crosswords at the multiplex. I picked up an interesting book – confessions of an economic hit man by John Perkins. An outstanding must read about the global level of corruption, power and immorality. Post that the same guys came out with another book that I saw before watching the Fantastic Four. A Game as old as empire. Oh man… this is another depressing book. “here other economic hit men, journalists, and investigators join Perkins to reveal many more disturbing stories of greed and international corruption.” This book is an amazing brain fuck. To continue “in gripping detail, they describe the schemes and subterfuges that multinational corporations, governments, powerful individuals, financial institutions, and quasi-governmental agencies enrich themselves behind the façade of ‘foreign aid’ and ‘ international development’.

If Jispa comes across these books early enough in her life she is going to be a radical.

I reminded of a poem I had heard years ago. It was in television series about the Vietnam War and some soldiers’ fire at a woman who opened fire at them. From her diary the soldiers read out a poem. It goes something like this…
If you want to be a flower, be the prettiest
If you want to be (something I don’t remember) be the (some superlative)
Etc etc etc…. (I don’t remember)
(It ends this way though)
But if you want to be a human being be a revolutionary….

Of course I am not expecting her to be a naxal. That’s definitely not the way. There are also books about Gandhiji that if she reads will tell her a lot. Those are outstanding insights into his mind and his fight for the truth.

This tank man at the Tiananman Square China who with his presence and a bunch of groceries, stopped a battalion of tanks by just standing there is an inspiration.




Video of the same.

weekend musings

What an action packed weekend. It started with an action packed movie Die Hard 4.0 on Friday evening. Mad movie. Bruce Willis does all the unbelievable moves with the same dead pan expression that made him, well, Bruce Willis. Your average city cop who can jump on F16’s, shoot helicopters with cars, fly helicopters, jam cars down lift chutes and the rest. Wowie. Complete humbug stuff…. Did I like the movie you ask? I absolutely loved it. I am going to see it again. Complete action movie. Can’t believe a second of it.
Next day was tons of rain day. Did not step outside the house – the movie rubbed off on me the wrong way I guess. But I did something that I found absolutely fun. I took a lot of Jispa’s toys and dumped them on her writing board. I then took top views of them and voila – I spy with my eye. We printed and stuck it on her scrap book for the school. Here is the one. See if you can spy –

I spy with my eye

1. a blue bird
2. a kiwi
3. the missing shoe
4. a fairy (from peter pan)
5. a blue crayon
6. a trophy
7. a hair dryer
8. a flagpole
9. ganesh
10. a book
11. a hat
12. bob the builder
13. steering wheel(s)
14. a mobile phone
15. a pair of red sandals – ok they look a little pink
16. a candle
17. a tap - not fair actually
18. Exxon
19. the magic lamp
20. pedal
21. a bow
22. chopsticks
23. a lego seat - again not fair if you have not played with Jispa
24. two running men - very very unfair.

Vinu’s reaction -

Can we play the Beginners version of the game. I'm not a grand master yet.
So how about spying
Princess Jasmine
Ambulance
Green balloon
Purple/Violet balloon
Mickey Mouse

Damn it. For a start with a bang, I can't spot the blue bird. Its easier for me to list what I can spot.

Heheheh – he was always the blind one. How many can you spot?

Then on Sunday we saw ‘khain kulli ki main kulli’. Cute kiddie movie about a magic bat helping India win. FTR – Jispa cried in this one as well. This is when the bat broke. I console her ‘ don’t worry, all is not lost. Keep seeing’. She asks “will they still win”.”I don’t know – keep watching. Its ok to lose as well you know”. She sobs a little and says,”in school when I run, it is not like ‘sometimes you win, sometimes you lose’. In school in running I always win”. She is quite proud about her running skills in school. She manages to win all the time. Very cool. I love it. I wish for her to take up any sport. Any one sport and play well and under professional coaching. Always good to understand one sport to the best that you can. Post which we went for a kiddie birthday party. Jispa does not like to miss any parties. She loves the games, the cake and everything in middle.