A budding artist..

My lovely mom, like most moms has the habit of telling stories from my childhood to anyone who will lend her a listening ear!!

One of those stories involves me filling up a 200 page (192 to be exact!) notebook with butterfly's and only butterflys in every size and color when I was four ! I am sure that the modern day psychoanalyst will come up with a nice explanation for why a four year old's first fascination with a sketch pen starts with a butterfly and why he would be so obsessive enough to fill a notebook with a single object ? Maybe I was obsessive compulsive, maybe I was a perfectionist, or who knows what else ? Anyways, I digress so predictably! On with the current topic !

For the last few months we have been wondering why Jr. doesnt like writing as much as reading. I was worried that she probably suffered from pencilophobia or some other such thing. This inspite of assurances from her school that she writes fine !

Last week she drew a flower (after daddy taught her how to draw). The next day she got us a paper from school with at least 50 flowers ! I was reminded of my mom's story and was worried that I would be condemned to repeating the same story that my mom used to say (after doing find="butterfly", replace ="flower").

This morning, Jr. erased that nightmare scenario when she drew "me" ! I was speechless and she kept surprising me with a picture of mom and "funny grandpa" !




It took daddy a few weeks to graduate from butterfly and go on to elephant and another few weeks to capture the rest of the animal kingdom on pen and paper..

I am so relieved that Jr. is doing much better. I am saving the pictures in my little shoe box !!

Those good old days..

The last two weeks have been extremely hot in California. I have not experienced a summer like this in the last 9 years !! Jr. wanted to cool off and we took her to the Cupertino City Center. There is a beautiful water fountain outside the City library where kids are allowed to play. The entire place has a festive atmosphere with parents sitting around the fountain and kids playing in the water..We went pretty late this time (so not many kids!).




This reminded me of the good old days when I was a kid. Grandpa used to walk us (me and my brother) to Nageshwara Rao Park (in Madras) and we used to play in the swing and slide and hang on the bars like monkeys in the belief that it would make us taller !!

Grandpa would buy us roasted nuts (by default my brother would go for peanuts and I would always go for roasted peas..years later I found out that I am allergic to peanuts..somehow, I had avoided peanuts whenever my subconscious felt it was a bad idea)..On our way back, we used to stop by the Ambika Appalm Depot and get snacks to eat the rest of the way. We used to bug him so much to buy us the latest issues of Marvel comics or Champak magazines. We used to go by ourselves or with our street friends or school friends when we were older.

When I watch Jr. play in the water, I just realize that we had as much fun as Jr. if not more, when we were little, because we always had friends and we could go out with our friends and come back home and it was safe..In todays world though, we have to chaperone the kids. I sincerely hope the world becomes a safer place when my kids grow up and I can relax and send them to the park with their friends!!!

How to embarrass your parents - A lesson

I took Jr. on a list of social errands. We go to this house and this lady tells Jr.

You are a very pretty Girl !

Jr. with a shy look and turning her head from side to side

I KNOW !!

I was just shocked. "Thank you" , would have been an acceptable answer ! But, "I know" ?????

What ever happened to being modest ?

The lady gave me a look which pretty much said "So this is how you raise your daughter ? you are in big trouble mister "..

I couldnt agree more..