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Lohri: Fire, popcorn and plenty of dancing
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| Fireworks during Diwali |
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| … and some more |
A very happy Ganesh Chaturthi to everyone.
A celebration
A bunch of books
A bad book is best left alone. However, once I start a book I find it very tough to leave it midway and move on. It feels like desertion. And so I soldier on.. sometimes losing the thread out of disinterest, sometimes letting it lie for days before taking it up yet again and sometimes reading it without making much sense.
It’s worse if the book is ‘famous’ and I feel I ‘should’ like it. Okay I guess I should rephrase what I said earlier… ‘a book you don’t like should be left alone’… it eats into your reading time and keeps you away from other books you might enjoy.
These past few days I’ve been stuck with a bad read and finally today I decided to give it up. What made it worse was that over the last two months I’ve been treated to some half a dozen wonderful books in a row. .. I didn’t just get lucky, they were handpicked by my SIL from her massive collection.
The settings have been as diverse as they possibly could be.. from Nigeria to China to 1962s Mississippi, Germany during the World War and India during the Independence struggle. Take a look…
First for some was uncharted territory — the Nigerian Revolution.. I’d never read anything about it before. In fact I’ve read very little of any African literature. It was completely fascinating. Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus by the same author — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.. great reads. The first one is more about the revolution and the second is the personal story of a young girl set during the same time. I liked Purple Hibiscus better simply because personal stories appeal to me.
Then there was World War Germany. I’ve read plenty of that yet these were wonderful, specially The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, which I’ve already written about. The other one, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, is also a great read.Then I moved on to China. The only Chinese author I’ve read is Pearl S Buck and she is ancient. In the Pond by Ha Jin was more recent. I loved his style… funny and satirical.
If I had to settle for a favourite I’d probably go for this one — The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The book is about black maids raising white children. I found plenty of parallels between the book and how we treat our maids in India. It’s fast paced and gripping. A must must read. The other book about another black woman I got to read is the Pulitzer prize winning The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Wonderful.
Finally there was Homespun by Nilita Vachani. The book spans three generations, goes slow in bits but tells an interesting tale.
And then I went and picked a bad one from the library. Am at bit of a loss now. What are you guys reading? Any suggestions?
Man in blue
This week’s Thursday Challenge : “BLUE” (Water, Sky, Vehicles, Houses, Flowers,…)
If it’s blue it has to be Hrit.. he’s a boy you see. This colour distinction got so bad at one point that he would refuse to eat Strawberry Icecream because.. yes you’ve guessed it… because it’s pink. What’s worse I got so caught up in the whole pink-blue thing that once The Husband used my towel inadvertantly. And my annoyed rejoinder was “How could you think it was yours? It’s pink.”
This picture was taken before a pre-wedding dandiya dance night. He’d bought the hat and glares just that day and wouldn’t part with them. And so we ended up with this traditional-modern Raju-ban-gaya-gentleman look.
Happy Birthday Krishna
Krishna happens to be Naisha’s ‘favourite God’ and so his birthday had to be celebrated. She went on a drawing spree. Here are some of her works.. ‘some’ being the key word. The house is littered with her drawings. I really need to find her an art class.
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| Krishna Radha
Points of Note (PoN): Radha’s hand increases in length to hold her pot.
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| More Krishna Radha
PoN: The pink thing on Radha’s head is not a pot but a flower she’s wearing in her hair and that’s a mango tree by the side.
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| Krishna holding up the Govardhan Parvat |
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| Krishna Radha in a temple |
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Krishna with his friends in the Yamuna
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| Kalia the snake comes on |
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| Krishna getting at the pot of butter |
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| Krishna and Radha on a pink Dolphin.. don’t ask me where she got that idea from |
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| Finally.. the two under a rainbow |
Open House at school
Open House Day.. their first in this class and I was curious and a little anxious.. not about their academic performance, that doesn’t worry me yet, but I like to see that they’re bonding with their teacher. I’d hate it if they are lost in the crowd of students, if they have no connection with their teacher, if they get comments like “She/He is quiet, conscientious, hardworking.” Please… it’s just such a dull, average kind of feedback, the kind of thing a teacher says when she doesn’t really notice/know the child.
I don’t know if I’m making any sense but I hope the kids are a visible presence in their class. Of course I’m here to encourage each ability they have but school brings out different sides of children’s personalities. I need the teacher, to do her bit too.. to notice something I might have missed… to encourage them at something they’re good at. I’d hate it if their pluses are hidden behind that ‘quiet, shy child thing’.. gosh I hope they’re never quiet… even if their teacher and I nurse permanent headaches.
Thankfully the school has a policy of 25 – 30 children in each class with two teachers… so the child is not ignored. They got fairly good feedback.
Hrit first…
While I was worried about Hrit’s ‘mirror image’ reading and writing,… he often reads and writes English like Urdu, the teacher said it was a common problem.. so one sigh of relief. Then his speech is not very clear and I’ve been toying with the idea of going to a speech therapist for the past one year.. the teacher said vis a vis the class she hadn’t noticed anything significant.. so second sigh of relief. She had issues with his eyesight.. he reads with his nose in his book and can’t see the blackboard and looks with one eye sometimes. I had already taken him for an eyetest a few days back so I hope that would be taken care of too.
Academically he’s doing wonderfully, is genuinely interested in everything academic, loves to study.. yes study.. where did he come from, I wonder sometimes.
.. then Naisha
And then there’s Naisha. She’s really not into studies but she does enough to get by. She makes an effort to do well not out of a love for learning like Hrit but because she hates to leave a bad impression and loves to be the teacher’s pet. She got a decent review thanks to her ability to talk… now that’s my daughter… well spoken, articulate, she knows what she wants.. those are the things the teacher said. In fact Naisha has always spoken well and clearly. Perhaps that is why Hrit seems like he needs help. Anyway, I’ve decided to give him some more time before I go to a specialist.
On the whole not bad at all.
The Husband at Open House
The Husband had come along… in fact he has been coming along for the past few times. I like the way we have two completely different takes on issues. Each time we sit with their teachers my question is ‘What are their weak areas? Where can they improve?” While his question is, “What are their strong points that we can encourage further.” He does surprise me still, sometimes. I have to admit I liked the positivity of his perspective.
Finally some shopping
At each Open House Scholastic puts up a book exhibition and the kids get to shop. The Husband and Hrit have been bonding over the Solar System these days so Hrit picked a book on planets. After Sharks and Bugs this is his new passion. He knows all of them.. the smallest, the largest, the shiniest.
Naisha is always lost when it comes to choosing something for herself. She takes ages.. yes ages to pick a simple toy. She just cannot make up her mind. She looked at scores of books and in true womanly fashion, was completely blissfully oblivious to the two men getting restless by the minute. Finally she settled on a ‘Princess – Things to Make and Do’ kind of a book and we all sighed with relief.
Right brain left brain
Come evening and I sat Naisha down with her homework.. which Hrit had already completed. The Husband disappeared in the study with Hrit to read his newest buy with him. Anxious that Naisha would lose out on her share of gyan I told The Husband to read the book to her too after she’d finished with her homework. However, “No more planets, mama’, she declared with finality, “I’m going to do some drawing.” And that was that. I’m reconciling myself to a scientific, academic son and an artistic daughter.
Really, God believes in variety.. not just did he give me a boy and girl he made them as different as he possibly could.
A good day.. Saturday.