We all have our reasons

A conversation from our recent India trip

Me to the kids : I want you guys to keep your mouth shut and come quietly till we go to Kollu paati's (great grandma's) house!

Jr. and LO : No, we won't!

My dad to me : I know the kids have been very noisy and troublesome all day but it is very difficult to keep them quiet..

Jr. and LO : You always ask only the two of us to keep quiet. You don't ask him (pointing at my nephew) to be quiet when he comes with us..

Me : That is because he does not talk with an American accent and increase my auto fare!

My dad (all pissed off) : And I thought you wanted peace and quiet. Aren't you ashamed ?

Me : No. Why should I be.. I bargain with the auto drivers like I am a local and that makes me feel at home for some strange reason, till one of them opens their mouth and start talking in an accent and there goes all my bargaining! Immediately the guy asks for another 30 rupees over 120! Spending 600-700 rupees a day on auto is not cheap even in $!

My dad must have had very conflicting emotions that day. Should he be proud for raising a son in his true Bargaining parampara, or should he be disappointed that his son is making him look like a spendthrift ?!

It was only a question of time before my nephew also started letting me down by bringing in fresh conversation in Tamil like

"Sundi periappa, Americavula Auto irukka?" (do they have autos in America?)

என்ன தான் வேஷ்டியை மடிச்சு கட்டிநாலும் ஆக்சென்ட் ஆக்செண்டே !

(Enna dhan veshtiya madichhu kattinallum accent accente!)

(Attempted translation: no matter how much you tie your dhoti like a Tamilian, the accent will give you away)

But I did good this time compared to last year in what should soon be an Olympic sport.

When an auto driver said
"Maambalam ponum na suttikinnu dhan sir poganum!" (if you want to go to Mambalam, I have to go the roundabout route) I responded with

"Chennaila engendhu engayaachum ponummna, suththaama poga mudiyaadhu saar!" (you cannot go from any place to any other place in Chennai without going the roundabout route) and he said "okay, let's go"

Another time a guy said "petrol price up saar" and I promptly quoted him yesterday's price and today's price and he was baffled.

He said

"சார், நீ கார் வைச்சிருக்கே , அப்புறம் எதுக்கு சார் ஆட்டோல வரே?"

"Saar, nee car vachchu iruke. Apparom yen saar autola vare?"
(you have a car then why are you traveling by auto with your kids?"

Told him we were from Mumbai and know the petrol prices because every day we were traveling by auto and invariably they stopped at a petrol pump while we are inside the auto and that is how we know the price. He was impressed..

These little wins in the sport of bargaining made my day. At the end of the day we would always give the driver 10 rupees more than what we agreed on as long as it was fair. This whole experience was new to Jr. who is now 8+ and is at an age where she can

1. follow the math (because she now knows how to count numbers in Tamil and english)
2. follow the conversation (she has been introduced to Auto Tamil)
3. she knows the existence and concept of "variable pricing"
4. she understands averages and LCM's

Last year, she would go to the driver and say "sixty vachchuko pa!" in her cute American accent and that would make the auto driver's day because she would quote 60 for something that would cost us only 40 and two the accent would take the auto driver into a

"saar, foreignlendhu vare.. edukku saar beram pesikkinu?!"

சார், பாரின்லேந்து வரே.. என்னத்துக்கு சார் பேரம் பேசிகின்னு ?!

(you come from abroad and why are you bargaining.. the assumption being we are well to do and therefore should not bargain)

By the end of the trip, Jr. realized that her keeping her mouth shut was an advantage for me. She co-operated very well.

Next trip we will make her bargain, in Tamil and make my daddy proud..

or at least make me proud!

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Guindy " National Park" - aka Childrens Park and Zoo

The Children Park and Zoo in Guindy is a 5 minute bus ride from my brothers place. It was a favorite hang out for us as kids and it is still a favorite for my nephew.

Have taken Jr. to this park when she was a baby but she did not remember it. This time we had an afternoon where yours truly was responsible for engaging the kids (add to that a power outage at home) and off we went to Guindy Park.

It is a neatly arranged park with a lot of animals, birds and reptiles for such a small park. The look and feel of it is very clean and the maintenance is excellent.

There is a kids play area where the kids just enjoyed the slides, swings and merry go rounds. They even have 4 folks sweeping the sands on a regular basis to clear out the leaves that fall in the sand.

It was a hot and very humid day and it was about to drizzle any minute. So the three male peacocks (two normal and one albino) all decided to dance. It was spectacular! Because of having to deal with three kids with two hands, decided to leave the camera bag at home.. Luckily had the iPhone with me to capture a few videos and pictures. Could not zoom past the wire fences, still the videos have come out nice.

Here are some pictures..

There are nice display boards for every enclosure!

There was a "roadrunner" bird. The one that comes in the Warner brothers cartoons and happens to be the mascot for our kids school! They were so thrilled to see a real roadrunner bird!

and here is the video collage of the trip..

The kids loved the 90 minutes we spent in the park. We had to rush back because of the drizzle. One can easily spend 3-4 hours in this park and have fun.

Totally recommended if you are in Chennai and want some shade on a sunny day and engage the kids..

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Beach fun...

We did go visit the beach once during this trip and managed to spend a little under two hours. The added bonus was the presence of the cousins.

Previous beach post from same beach here and another beach here..

This trip in pictures and video..

It was a good place to practice panning shots of the kids on the "raatnams"!

What is a beach post without a video?

We had good fun the first few days in Chennai and this beach trip was a big part of it. We were also strongly discouraged by family from going to the Marina beach. Apparently it is in bad shape compared to our last trip in 2008. We will check it out on our next trip..

Talking of trips, my MIL told the girls

"daddy is thinking of selling everything here and going to Chennai. I am going to go live in Seattle.. You girls can come visit me for summer vacation here"

Jr. : So where will we be when daddy goes to Chennai?

MIL : he will take you all with him. he is not planning to go alone

Jr. : No way! I am not going..

LO : Jumps up and runs to me and says "I WILL GO!".. then gives me a hug and says "I will go with you but first you should make sure you kill all the mosquitoes in Madras and then I will come!"

All of us laughed out loud. So my going and living in Chennai is in the hands of the Madras Corporation who are incharge of eradicating mosquitoes and the rest of Chennaivasis who have to get rid of stagnant water!

Who knows? Maybe someone will invent an eradicator and I get to convince the little one?

Top ten items that are needed to convince <10 year old girls to relocate :

1- dry bathroom floors
2- western toilets
3- toilet paper
4- central air conditioning
5- inverters that keep fan running during powercuts
6- AC cars
7- no insects (ants, flies, mosquitoes, roaches etc.)
8- clean public restrooms
9- no stench (from roadside dumps, garbage trucks stuck in traffic etc.)
10-no street dogs

There are more items on the list but this is their priority list..

Easy, no?

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Everything is made in...

We are now in Chennai finishing up a very short trip.

There are plenty of photos and videos to post once we get back in a few days.

Today Jr. got a gift for our "ummachchi shelf" from my aunt. The funny thing was we were talking about how all manufacturing is moved to China and yours truly still manages to have a job that is related to manufacturing and stay in the USA.

We came home, unwrapped the gift and guess what ?

If Lord Hanuman has moved over, what chance do us mere mortals have?

ps. Internet is touch and go here. Posts in a few days!
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Kaakaa Kaakaa (Crow Crow)

That was a photograph taken in Chennai two months ago!

We now have a crow in Cupertino that has a gray neck! Spotted it yesterday in our backyard. Have never seen it here. We usually get the all black "andan Kaakaa's" only. Then again this looks like a black crow that had its neck shaved off.. maybe an accident left it featherless in the neck and it appears gray?

Well a few coconut trees and we are in New Chennai!

We have a family of crows in the backyard now.. Daddy, mommy and two baby crows. They are cute but very difficult to capture on camera. They are extremely sensitive to my zoom lens.

Will try to get some shots this weekend...

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