Bedtime Stories

Every day during bedtime, I have to come up with some story for the kids. But there are days when Vanathy gets into the story telling mode (and you know that, its gonna be a long night) and comes up with a gem. There is a previous post where she tells me a story of Dora, a big fish and how the fish ended up eating Dora. That was one of her stories.
Vanathy's stories usually revolve around one of her fav cartoon characters, Dora and Mickey then followed sometimes by Tom, Jerry and sometimes Timmy the sheep joins the melee. What she really likes, of course, is stories of little Krishna.
I have told her multiple stories of Krishna stealing butter from house and getting punished by his mom for that. So last week, when she offered to tell me a story of Little Krishna, I wasn't expecting a lot. But here is the story she came up with:
Little Krishna gets into the house and sees that the Butter is stored up there in the pots. So he calls out to his friends and with their help is able to bring it down and starts eating the stuff. Krishna's mother enters the house at that time.
Seeing Krishna has stolen the butter, his mother gets angry. (this where the story deviates from what I use to tell her). She comes near and advises him on why he cannot eat butter like everyone. That is, on top of a nice toasted bread(!). She goes ahead and makes one for him. Krishna puts the butter on the toast and eats it. End of story.
I let her repeat the story and sound recorded it in my mobile. Unfortunately, the memory card went crazy and I had to format the entire contents of the same.

Two actresses

Just finished watching 'How to steal a million'. Interesting movie with a simple premise and a cast of about 4 actors but still with a good screenplay to make you sit right through. Of course, the reason I watched is for Audrey Hepburn.
I became a fan of Audrey Hepburn when I watched 'Breakfast at Tiffanys' about 10-11 years back. I have not seen an actress with such screen presence and of course, the fantastic grace she brings to acting itself.
I still remember the nights in Kansas City when myself and Hari used to fight it out about the movie to watch. He is a geeky fellow and had nothing but contempt for the 'doe-eyed' acts of Audrey. Being a romantic sucker, I used to make him watch the movies (although he did grumble till the end).
What makes Audrey unique is not just the facial beauty with her large eyes and the hair-dos but the poise with which she walks, talks with that slight French accent, the sadness she brings when strumming the guitar with Mancini's 'Moon River' and all that and more. Be it the 'Roman Holiday' or 'My fair lady' or 'Charade' or with that rugged Bogart in 'Sabrina', I cannot imagine another actress who could've done justice to the roles.
The only other actress I do like, but on the other end of the spectrum, is the other Hepburn of the time, Katherine Hepburn. If Audrey is all poise and grace, Katherine is full of blast and energy. "Bringing up Baby!' is a favorite and ofcourse, the list is not complete without 'The Philadelphia story' or 'Adam's Rib' or again with Bogart in 'The African queen'. It is very difficult to watch the movie without appreciating the effort Cary Grant or Spencer Tracy is putting on to appear in some ways equal to the spirit of K.Hepburn.
Julia Roberts has some of the qualities of these two great actresses but she is nowhere near. It is difficult to compare but then my humble opinion is that Audrey is incomparable.

Mughals and the art of learning

One of the things that surprises me is the interest Sibi builds up when he is into something he likes. The latest is the 'Mughal emperors'.
I am not sure how or when it started but I can guess it might be sometime after our April 2008 vacation to Delhi and thereabouts. I did remember telling him the story behind Taj and the imprisonment of Shah Jahan in it. But I don't remember him showing a lot of interest anyway.
But it all started may be 3-4 months back when he got his GK book for his III standard. That had the photos of Humayun's tomb and Taj. When trying him to identify the correct pictures, Jeysri told him a few details on Humayun and rehashed the Shah Jahan story.
Sibi built up an enthusiasm for the stories and he started asking who is Humayun's father, wife and when they were around and what they did etc. We tried to answer as much of his questions and finally I taught him how to search for 'Babur' and read the articles in Wikipedia.
He did that and started reading on Akbar, Humayun etc till Aurangazeb and tried to make sense of the timeline. He couldn't really place the 17th century in context as he kept asking questions on when the British came and when his grand father was born, who was ruling etc.
I got him to the list of Mughal emperors page and showed him the table with the timeline and showed him that along with the story on the last emperor of Mughals. He got that and started reading through the information.
Yesterday, Jeysri showed her MA-History book on the Mughals and Sibi interestingly wanted to read through the book than asking his mother to tell him the story. I asked a few questions (on when Babur reigned, when Akbar was born etc) and pat came the answers. He also let me know that he knows the 6 emperors and 4 of their successors and he is going to figure the entire line till Bahadur Shah II. He is able to identify the emperors by their portraits as well.
It never stops fascinating me to see Sibi learning things. I know how he 'studies' but when he learns it is very difficult to dislodge information from him. He is a studious learner. It takes time and his interest, but like I told Jeysri yesterday, he is like me in terms of learning all the 'irrelevant' things and keeping it handy for a day that may never come. That aside, what I am seeing is that once he sets his mind to something, he has that tendency to get to the bottom of it.
That said, we went to Bangalore last week for 3 days. The original plan was to go to Wonderla but the monsoon came early and it was raining 2 out of the 3 days and so we went to the HAL heritage museum (which was good) and the Baneerghatta National park (which is overrated).
Also watched the complete 'John Adams' last week and must watch for all the American revolutionary history students. In a way, I am like Sibi in my interest in the American revolution and the Civil war related history (watched 'Gettysburg' as well, one word, fantastic) but that's for another day.