The past and the present

Just after picking up Jr. from school:

Jr. : There is a book fair in my school.

Me : When?

Jr. : You won't give me money anyways right!?

Me : Okay. This time, WILL give you some money.

Jr. : My teacher says I need some bills. like phone bills or something to buy the books.

Me : ????? I think she meant dollar bills.

Jr. : yes, right.. she said we can only bring dollar bills. no Indian bills, no Canadian bills either!

Me : (thinking...at least I tell Jr. no money to her face. disappointing the kid by giving foreign exchange is not right) She is right! You need dollar bills.

LO : (chips in from behind) how about Seattle bills?

Jr. : No silly. Only California bills!

Me : (laughing) Same bills in Seattle and California kids. It is the US Dollar!

Jr. thinks that people give us dollar bills when we finish shopping at the local grocery store! We use cards whenever we go buy gas, groceries, costco shop, etc.

The only time Jr. sees money change hands is when we ask for cash back after buying groceries, which usually is to buy tickets at the desi movie theater and Jr. never witenesses that transaction where we hand over the money! Took me a few days to understand why she thought that and explain the concept of money vs. cards.

We came home to another conversation

Jr. : Daddy is going to give me some money to buy books amma!

San : why? you have all the books you want from the library

Jr. : No. I want to buy some books to keep forever.

San : how much is he giving you?

Jr. : Ten dollars

San : You get four. Which book are you going to buy.

Jr. : this one (pulls a catalog and shows some spongebob squarepants book). I have already read it!

San : What ?! You should buy a book you have not read yet.

Jr. : I like that book. So I want to have it in our house.

(by now I am wondering where this is going to go, as we listen to the same CD over and over again.. maybe Jr. likes to read the same book over and over again?)

San : Why do you want to buy a book that you have already finished reading? Why don't you buy a new book?

Jr. : (realizing that she cannot argue her way out with mom, changes the tone)Actually I have only read the cover of that book and the first few pages. Haven't read it fully!

San : (now laughing) I didnt just become "____" (Voldemortage) without crossing six. I was six years old once too you know. You cannot fool me!

Jr. : (giggles and finally decides on a new book that was four bucks!)

Sometimes I am glad that my wife was six years old at one point and remembers everything. She seems to be more ready for a growing Jr. than I am!

We do buy them books, every now and then. They got books for Christmas presents, birthday presents, when they really pestered us to buy something at the Mall recently, etc.

Believe it or not, we are allowed to check out, upto 21 books at a time in the Library and they have a reallllllly nice collection of young reader books and you can keep them for upto 3 weeks. Also, Jr. has been going through 3-4 books a day in the last three weeks as part of a reading program and is really hooked.

My best memories of college or school are at the Library!

When we were in middle school every wednesday we would get to check out one book and return it the following wednesday. Couldn't wait for that day and we would stand in line after school, to get the next 3 investigators, hardy boys etc.. and before you know it, it was Jules Verne, Conan Doyle and Earl Stanley Gardner and we exited high school!

The BHU library was just plain amazing. You could just drown youself in an ocean of books in that place and be happy and contented browsing, reading.. what memories!

The libraries in the US were better, what with computerized VAX search tools of the entire catalog! Took a part time job shelving books on saturday and sunday for minimum wage when I was in grad school. It was great because I would get to reshelve the books, remember which ones to check out later and read them during the week and also get paid for it.

Wish Jr. takes to the library like her dad. She is guaranteed to have fun!

ps. Voldermort-age = the age that cannot be spoken
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Love is in the air

It has been a month since the MIL fractured her leg, by simply stepping on a stone while walking Jr. back home from school. Don't be fooled by all that hoopla about the "stepping stones for success". All it takes is one small stone at the wrong place and success will be a distant dream. This post is not about the stone, or the leg for that matter. It is about Romance...

How does one get from a Mother in law's fractured leg to Romance? This sounds more complicated than the Kevin Bacon game, right?

Actually it is very simple. The MIL is a regular reader of novels in the Romance section of the library and on every visit, she grabs, nay, gently picks a dozen of these tender books. The titles range from extremely sappy to heavily scientific and sometimes even bordering on the forensic, but the covers are almost always a dead giveaway.

The covers feature a topless dude with a woman showing ample cleavage(Did NOT get that reversed on accident!), usually wrapped around him with a rose that varies in position, sometimes in his hand, her hand, his mouth, etc. etc. Sometimes the woman is in full bridal dress and the guy is still a topless hunk and the background seems to be some tropical island! The covers and the descriptions of the story line on the back, do not have much logic and for some reason remind you of T. Rajendar movies!

One gets to learn that men on these covers had to have been airbrushed before the books went into print. Seriously, if you do not believe me, please check out the romance novel section in your local public library!

It so happened that the MIL was done with her last dozen and wanted me to return her books. Having done many things as a dutiful son in law, when your MIL is not able to move, questions like "Can you get some things from the garage? Can you get me some medicine? Can you get me my crutches?" were a piece of cake! "Can you return my books in the library?" came the question and the obvious answer was "No problem. Give me that."

That is when she dropped the bombshell. With pleading eyes she asked, "While you are there, can you get me some more of these books? I can tell you exactly where they are in the library!"

On first thought did not understand why she had to be so apologetic in tone when asking me that question. The little one and me were going to visit the library to get our dose of kids videos and DVD's anyway. What was the big deal? "Sure, no problem!" came the answer.

Only when I walked into the Romance section (2nd floor, make a right, then a left and walk all the way to the corner.. as per MIL's precise directions) did I realize what Bhasmasura must have felt, after he let Mohini lure him into certain death!

There were no men in the Romance section! The MIL might have as well given me directions to go into the ladies restroom in the library. Old chinese grandmas were giving me the look! My only defense was the little one, who kept talking and attracted more attention to her daddy trying to decide the best method to pick romance novels for his mother in law to read.

Two things need to be clarified here.

1. Even if one is a self proclaimed very liberal democrat, one feels a certain awkwardness when in new territory like this.

2. If I had to go the science and technology section and pick the best books on certain subjects, the process would have been fast and had reasonable success. Even if one has a romantic streak in him and has successfully "romanced"?! his wife for almost a decade, these novel covers and the titles do not tell you much about the quality of what is inside. They all look the same! "Death by moonlight" , "Emma's Secret" and "Spymaster" all have similar guys and babes on the cover!

There was only one thing left to do! Ask the little one to do "eenie meenie mynie mo. catch the lover by the toe!". Just when we were about to apply that algorithm on the top shelf of books, a sudden brainwave struck daddy! The Dewey catalog stickers had nice little red hearts on them and they were worn out to varying degrees!

All we had to do was pick the books with many hearts and pick books with really worn out stickers (more people must have read them or possibly judging by the crowd there, re-read them or re-re-read them!).

Within the next 30 seconds, a half dozen books were picked, tucked under one arm while the little one was bundled under the other arm and we walked out to the self checkout counter.

A few more folks had amused looks on their faces with my selection of books as I checked them out with a sheepish grin. The MIL of course oblivious of our little adventures, thanked me and the little one for getting her a fresh supply!

The best part of the whole deal was that the MIL has now declared "All the books you picked were excellent! How did you manage to pick consistantly good books? Almost all the time 30% of the books I get are only so...so!"

Now she knows my secret!

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