Sibi - Update

One of the things that I am constantly fascinated by is the way Sibi learns things. He has started reading and is showing signs of becoming a voracious reader. But what interests me more the way he is reading. It all started with the teaching of words in his school and he was looking for 2-letter and 3-letter words everywhere. Then he gradually changed this and started reading and asking about things he know. Like, phone or toys of truck etc. Then he moved on to construct words with words he knows. Like, he knows the words 'car' & 'pen' and he reads a bigger word like 'Carpenter' using these words. Now, I suspect he understand the phonics of the letters and is reading them with the sound. Like, he read 'Hamam' a couple of days back although there are no known words built in it. I think once he understands the phonics of the letters there is nothing that stops him from reading anything. Knowing the meaning and understanding the context are going to be the next big thing. But then, he just started learning.

Anyway, planning to go to the big and better Chennai book fair this weekend and grab a few books. Let me see.

Its been a mixed bag of year for me. We had a new baby in the family and moved into our own house. Itwas a tough year professionally but somehow I am able to tide overthings and move forward. Biggest joy of the year was Vanathy. She hasbeen too goood and Sibi has taken a very strong liking to her. Sibi hasgot a few prizes this year in fancy dresses and treasure hunts. That wasfun as well as something to be happy about. Hope he continues to do thatin his studies as well. All in all, a good year.
And hoping everyone has a very Happy new yearahead!!

Sibi, trains and stories

One of the things I do on a regular basis is to narrate a story to Sibi before going to sleep. The stories are normally about 4-5 minutes of narration and usually I make up stories as I go about saying it. There are only two types of stories he is interested in. One is any story of Krishna and the other is a story involving one of 'Thomas and friends' characters. Krishna's stories are the easier ones as I know them already. For Thomas stories, I usually make it up with some situations which Sibi faces in school or at home. Like his fights with his friends. Sibi usually sleeps once the story is over. Its kind of a cue to him that its time to sleep. And of course, I let him guess what happens next and some times you get some amazing things from him. Like this one time, when I was narrating a story about Krishna taking butter from a pot with great difficulty and eating it, Sibi asked 'did he eat with the paper?'. All Sibi knows about butter is the Aavin pack of butter sticks (which he usually takes it from the refrigerator and eats) and the sticks are wrapped in a thin sheet of paper. It was kind of sad that he probably may not even know that the real butter (churned from buttermilk) but think it’s the price for living in a jungle like Chennai.

Another regular father-son thing that we do is to go to the Guindy railway station (or sometimes the Alandur railway gate) to watch the trains. Sibi gets excited so much about trains and in fact, has drawn hundreds of pictures of trains in the notebooks, terrace and wherever he can. It is a great experience to let him watch the trains. He knows the electric trains, the 'blue' trains (passengers, super-fast trains etc). I usually end up talking to the others who are there a catch a train and look at me like a moron for wasting time at a station at the whims of the kid. But then what do they know, anyway? I even had a guy telling me the ways of bringing up children and he was drunk up to his brain. So its a mixed experience for me and a great feeling for my son anyway.

There are other things that we do together regularly (like going to the Fish market at Saidapet or to Food world for some vegetable shopping etc) and am waiting for the time when Vanathy will be able to join the fun...

Children's day and updates

It was Children’s day last week. And celebrations were on in Sibi’s school. There was a fancy dress competition and Jeysri took the easy route of dressing Sibi as a farmer and teaching him a few lines. Being the smarty he is, Sibi caught it easily and we were there in Mylapore to see my son don his new avatar and getting on stage. It was fun to see so many people sweating it out with their kids, dressing them as Muruga, Amman, Shiva, Krishna etc. It was tough for the kids with all the make-up and wigs etc. Sibi was dressed in a simple dhoti/banian with a Kutralam towel around the neck. A cardboard axe (made by Jeysri) completes the attire. No make-ups etc. So we waited and waited and the memorable time came around 6.30PM. Sibi came to the microphone and uttered “I am a farmer. Plant more trees and help us get more rainfall. Thank you”. Actually he forgot a line in between but the fact that he was able to speak up itself is a great moment for me. We came home after that as it was cloudy and Vanathy was restless. When Sibi brought the third prize he got, the next day from school, Jeysri was in tears and I felt like an idiot for leaving so soon. But anyway, there it is the first prize Sibi got in a competition. It was a small toy, but who cares?

 

Vanathy is doing well and is growing fast. She is able to identify Jeysri, me and Sibi. Sibi is head over tails about her and I was wondering what is this ‘Sibling rivalry’ people are talking about. I hope they continue like this even after they grow up.

 

Then has been reading a lot of stuff but am not finding time to write about them. “18vathu Atchakodu”(Asoka Mitran), “Pulinagakkondrai” (P.A.Krishnan), ‘Vasanthamallika” (Vaduvur Duraisamy Iyengar, “Subramaniya Rajuvin Kathaigal”  are some of them. All are good in their own way and will deserve an entry each.

Forum and thoughts..

Was in Bangalore last week for a business trip. Went to Bangalore Central and the Forum. The amazing thing about both the places is that how well the reality outside has been dissolved in the candy floss colors and the obscenely priced products. I came out of forum and walked a 50 meters and found a small shop where people were drinking coffees without even realizing the absurdity of all. If Kafka were alive today, he will have a field day in today's India. This is nothing to do with Bangalore (or is it Bengaluru, just to be politically correct?) but is a phenomenon across India. It may be because we are looking at a transition from being a poor country to a rich one. But while inside Forum, couldn't think of anything other than the abject poverty outside. It is a shame!

Finished reading '18vathu Atchakkodu' by Asokamitran yesterday in one sitting. Amazing novel. Set in the background of the police action in Hyderabad, it records an event you dont get to read in your history books. The climax places it probably among the greatest tamil novels written. Why cant we keep novels such as these as supplements in schools to make our kids understand that there is no one version of history?

Vanathy!

It’s been two weeks since I've updated this. Anyway, the happy news is that we are proud parents of our second baby, Vanathy on 8/25/06. One thing that makes this different from Sibi's birth is that we knew this time to be a c-section and thus avoided lot of the emotional roller-coaster that happened when Sibi was born. Thus it was a much easier affair this time around (although Jeysri went through a lot of pain in the post-partum period). Only difference was the presence of mosquitoes the night before and the fact that the doctors in India do not allow the husband (or for that matter, anyone) into the operating room. So, it was like a cinematic climax when our doctor, arrived around 5AM on that Friday and announced that 'It’s a girl child!' (She was born at 4.42AM). Dramatic is too small a word!

More than that Sibi's reaction was more fantastic. He was sleeping in the room and somehow got up around 5AM and pulled my father to bring him to the outside of the operation theater. He was literally stunned by the baby and wanted to hold her immediately. That day onwards, he has become very protective of her and always hang around her, even when she is sleeping and goes into ecstasy telling us how she always looks at him and how she likes him more than any other person, including me and Jeysri. Just amazing!. In the past 2 weeks, he has grown much attached to her and it’s difficult to even sense a little amount of jealousy or anything in what he does. All of us are actually very happy to see him getting attached to her so much and I think he will be a doting brother when she grows up.

Updates

Its been a long time since I updated. Nothing other than laziness and there is not really much happening. Completed 'Ishmael' by Daniel Quinn. And in the process of reading 'The book of Navajo' by Raymond Locke. Its just a coincidence that I should be reading these books together. 'Ishmael' primarily talks about what we should be doing with the nature to 'save the world' and Navajo talks of a life style not very much known inside the 'civilized' world. Quinn postulates that unless we change our ways to live within the community of life, we may very well end our run on this planet and he does it through just 2 characters and by way of explaining 'how things came to be this way'. Amazing book.

What I am doing is to go through the books I have bought so far and identify books that I haven't read for some reason. Although I bought 'Ishmael' sometime in 1998, I have no idea why I never read it. 'Book of Navajo' was bought in a roadside gift shop somewhere in the deserts of Nevada/Arizona (probably 1999/2000) and not sure why I never read it. I still have books which I have bought but never read and am planning to at least bring down the count before buying more.

Anyways, Sibi's school life is full of excitement and daily incidents and it is fantastic to hear him narrate the stories every night before getting into sleep. Of course, at times, J is annoyed but a typical conversation goes like this.

 

J  - Sibi thoongitana?

me - Sibi, thoongitiya?

Sibi - Naan thoongiteanpa..

 

Usually, J gives up at this point and goes to sleep. The rest of my world is doing well and being happy.

 

Point to ponder, as a nation, why are we so filthy about our environment when we care to keep it clean inside our houses?