new things

Hey, Christmas passed us by without Santa visiting. He broke a tradition lasting more than five years I think. Oops. Are nine years old off Santa’s visiting list? This time Jispa was spending the Christmas at her Nani’s house. Jasmine and I all forgot about it till in the evening. We then called Jispa to ask her about it. Oh its ok she said. I don’t want anything this time around.
Normally Jispa’s always a content kid. She doesn’t ask for too much. She is ok with what she has. So Christmas is no great occasion. From when I can remember, she was always happy to ask for some small gift, that too on being repeatedly asked. So I don’t really understand the stress stories about parents rushing to buy the Christmas toy. It’s so Hollywood! Possibly we still have some time before crass commercialization pervades our lives. I guess I am happy that Jispa was born at a slightly better time. I see it getting more and more commercial as the toy shops keep opening in the city. Five years back we hardly had shops dedicated to toys. I remember once going to a shop called big tom or something in Colaba. It was the only half decent Toy shop at the time along with another one called ‘souvenirs’. There is one tucked away in breach candy behind Premsons as well. But none of them were anywhere near the experience that Hamleys, which opened in Phoenix, provides.
So I asked Jispa – “do you really believe in Santa?”. “I don’t know” she replied. “serious, tell me”. “I think I believe around 70%”. What the hell. Ya sure. The kid is kidding with me. She is playing me. I am sure she knows there is no such thing and she knows that its dad and mom writing and gifting, but she seems to be enjoying the ride. I guess here I am at fault. Because I think that it was me who told her – it doesn’t matter whether you believe in it or not. You got your gift and that’s something real. Right? Hehehe. Parenting is a circle. You get back exactly what you give.
So this Year, jispa was not surprised and excited on Christmas eve. I remember her five years ago getting all excited about Christmas and super excited that Santa had come in the night while she was asleep. That video is my favorite video. You know we take a lot of photographs and videos. We see the photos immediately after the trip or occasion, but the videos are the real hero. The value of the video dramatically increases after a period of time. You want to sit and watch old videos. Somehow the photos just get lost. Possibly because there are too many of them. There are atleast two for every moment.
When we were kids dad had photography as a hobby. He bought an SLR – was it Nikon or Cannon?. He bought a set that included a camera, standard lens, a wide angle lens and a tele lens for shooting long distance. Then he went and got a slide projector. So he shot most of his photos with a slide reel which was different from the normal reel you put inside the camera. If anyone reads this post after 15 years – yes – upto ten years back we put reels in cameras. They could typically take upto 36 photos and then we would send it to the photo lab for processing and printing. So dad would have these slides that we would project on the wall using a projector. The projector was a really wild thing. No one I knew had one in India. (remember – we were a deprived country). So photo sessions were family time when the whole family huddled around the hall, pulled the curtains and watched the slides of vacations and events. It was a fun thing. We would even subject guests to this torture. We assumed they loved it. In India, I think they were just too dazed with all this technology to say anything. Set up the projector on the stool and start. The fight amongst siblings was to control the remote for the projector that sent the slides forward or backward. Just for the record the remote was not cordless. That was fun.
I enjoyed it so much that a lot of my photos till around the time Jispa was born were on slides. Our trip to Leh as well. I think I bought my first digital camera in 2004. Mom never actually let me use Dad’s camera too much. It was expensive equipment and we must use it with care. It soon rusted away with no real use. The wheel of progress is brutal. It is important to discard to get something new. Throw out the old to make space for something new.
The pace of this change seems too fast, it seems to have quickened. I think it’s just that we were not used to it. A protected environment holds on to the old. I guess it realizes that new will not come in a hurry. But if you break these shackles and constantly update yourself with something new, you will find yourself forced to throw out the old. Sure there is warm comfort in the known, but progress lies with the unknown. Not that it is good or bad. It’s not a value judgment, but merely an observation. Whne in doubt – go for the new.

i dont gamble, but i am The great gambler

Jispa is playing the fool with us. Up until last year she still wasn’t too sure whether to believe in Santa or not. This year at around eight years old, she has decided to tease us. I had told her the last time around, it doesn’t matter whether you believe in him or not. If you asked for a gift and if you got it then you really don’t care if the dam guy exists or not. Similar to the God philosophy. You decide what works for you.
This year Jasmine and I were pretty sure she has outgrown Santa. So unlike last year we did not bother to start the ‘write a letter to Santa’ charade. So we skipped the whole thing. Yesterday just on a lark I wondered what to do about the Santa thing. So we called her in and asked if she wanted anything from Santa. It seems she and Jasmine have had some conversations, though not serious on what she wanted from Santa. Pretty cool. So what were the options? The first was a bigger house to keep all her toys. Beeeeep. Thats not happening. Second, a big toy house. Beeeeep. That was not happening as well. How about a game boy/DS Nintendo. Ok.... interesting. But I told her that Santa wouldn’t be able to get the game boy in time. Ok then I want a cello tape. Hmm. Why is that? “in my box, I don’t have a cello tape and mom doesn’t let me use her scotch tape”. Before you pass judgements on poor mom. Anyone who sees her use scotch tape will stop her from using it. Ok Done. ‘Now that is something Santa can possibly in time for tomorrow evening. Surely.” “buy?” she asked. “he makes the stuff he gives”. “errr. Ya... makes... he will make it in time, I guess” I added, sheepishly.
When she left the room, Jasmine and I looked at each other. This girl is making fun of us. She is playing with us. She obviously doesn’t believe in Santa. She knows enough to know about the myth thing. She is merely having fun at our expense. If believing in a Santa will result in a free scotch tape at the least, then what’s the harm. I guess I am the architect of my own doom. Funny.
So Jasmine is going to buy scotch tape and is getting it gift wrapped. Jispa also like every time is planning to leave milk, cookies and muesli for Santa to eat. I guess she will also leave a note for him on the white board. Hmm. I am also thinking, what if Santa leaves some footprints thins time on the floor. Every time he leaves crumbs of cookies and muesli on the scene of the crime. Hmmm. Depends on how sleepy he is. But could be worth a shot.
I have always wondered when we play with our children, I don’t know who is playing with whom. Are you making your child play or is she playing with you. Who is the child in all this. So many times it is she who is leading the game and we are the object of her affection. And she grows older she is going to play on me all the tricks I manage to play on her.
Slowly as she is getting older she is getting better at the various games. I can play a decent game of Six (the one from Dr. Woood) with her. This is a simple but interesting game of strategy. She is no push over. Once I sat to lpay with her while I was all tired and sleepy she jammed my happiness, defeated me a couple of times and even held me to a draw. This after I tried concentrating. So yesterday while I was fresh I invited her to a rematch. This time I restored my pride and won a few games. I still managed to lose a couple, but those were silly mistakes.
She also already wallops me in swimming. I just can’t keep up. I thought I was very fast while using the kickboard. I go faster than most people swim. She whizzes past as if I am in kindergarten. Whew. I can also just about keep pace with her for a single round. When it comes to multiple round I am no match.
It feels funny for a competitive guy like me. I like to compete and win but in matters like these winning leaves a slightly hollow feeling and losing leaves a warm emotional feeling. Chest swells on losing. Funny thing parenting is.
Suddenly I am reminded of this dialogue from Baazigar. You will have to sit through three minutes to get to the dialogue with is at the very end. But the really corny clip will make it worth your while.

For those too bored to see the whole thing, here is a much older and shall I say better looking Shah Rukh saying his lines, slightly better.

Loosely translated into English the gist of the line is - sometimes in life, to win somthing you also need to lose something. And the one who wins by losing is called...The Gambler

santa who

I think I have spoken about this before. Jispa is at an age where she does not really know whether to believe in santa or no. As I had explained to her once. What does it matter if he is real or not. If you believe it, it’s real, if you don’t, don’t bother. While I really did not expect her to get it, she actually understood what I meant. So she is largely indifferent to a lot of this ‘is Santa for real theory’. Ditto for the tooth fairy. This year Santa did not come visiting her. Not because she was not a good girl, nor was is it that she did not believe, but for eth simple fact that she was a satisfied kid. When we asked in advance for what she wanted from Santa, ‘nothing’ came the reply. Was she sure. Yup she was. She did not want anything for Christmas. So that’s what she ended up getting from Santa.
This year we were not in town as well. Suddenly she remembered that she normally left some cookies and muesli and milk for Santa and his reindeer. So she asked me ‘we did not leave anything for him this time, but he will open the fridge and have it himself, right?’ again it is difficult to tell you if she was just playing along or she actually believed this stuff. I think it’s a case of happily ignoring possibilities and focussing on the fun. I replied saying, since you haven’t asked for anything, he isn’t coming. ‘oh ok’ and that closed the chapter on Santa I assume.
While I suspect Jispa is largely a satisfied character, not wanting too much, I nevertheless asked Jasmine ‘is she really that satisfied or we thoroughly spoilt her by giving her a lot, so that she does not want anything’. ‘she is generally the satisfied types’ replied Jasmine, reaffirming my belief in Jispa’s core trait. She s the understanding types as opposed to the ‘I want’ types.
On the subject of gifting, Jispa and I were playing the ‘I spy’ game in her new and extremely cute book ‘where’s hanuman’. Here you need to spot hanuman along with a bunch of other characters in different scenes from the Ramayana, drawn on a double page. The artists seem to be suffering from a hangover of Astrix comics going by the type of fun the characters seem to be having on the pages. So after I played a while, I was helping jasmine with some work. Jispa wanted to play on, but I told her to solve the I spy clues by herself. On a lark I promised her a gift if she did one full page. It was a lot of obscure spotting stuff: ring, discuss, man flat on ground, man in water etc etc. She completed the task, so before a movie I took her to crosswords and asked her to choose any book she could under 100 bucks. She picked on the adventures of suppandi. A comic book compilation from the tinkle comics series. 80 bucks. Suppandi is big hit with her friends as well. It seems they share Supandi jokes in the bus. As a kid, I loved him as well.
But a simple book, here again she was mighty satisfied.

Thanks Jispa for making parenting that much easier.

Two assorted santa links for further reading:-
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/parenting/archive/2009/12/14/santa-claus-myth-children-harmful.aspx
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_re_us/us_fea_lifestyles_letters_to_santa

if he is in your hearts, sure he is there

Jispa has been getting stuff from Santa for some time now. She is at an interesting age. While last year she enthusiastically believed the Santa, this year she is a bit more… uh… circumspect, I guess. I asked her if she believe in him and she said I don’t know. She thinks it’s us putting the presents, but she just doesn’t know whom to believe. I am not telling her for sure. All I told her is that, did you get your present? Yeah, then who cares whether he exits or not.
This time around we went out of station for the holidays. Santa visited her there (at girnar). She had left a note for him on her white board at home and also left milk and muesli for his reindeer (our prodding for sure). This time when she came back she quite surprised to see the Santa leave a note for her on the whiteboard, though she has a niggling doubt if I wrote it. Now why on earth would I be writing notes for her? Come on, tell me… that’s not even close to my handwriting. Well ok, it’s a little like it, but hell everone crosses the t’s and dots the i’s.