Category Archives: Children

Weekends

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I try very hard every weekend to post, but it’s usually an exercise in futility!

I am so looking forward to the school holidays when I will have some sort of breathing space and then there is my super short holiday at the end of the year to look forward to – 12 days of eating, sleeping, lazing around, shopping, playing with the kids – bring it on…

A typical weekend for us during school time goes like this:

Saturdays:
Wake up at 6 am and quickly start on cooking breakfast. Wake up GG, BB & S around 6:30, hustle them to get ready and they leave the house around 7:45 for their Hindi lessons. I then finish cooking and my helper takes over with the cleaning. Then I relax a bit till it’s time to bring them back home. We leave around 12ish as the class ends at 12:30. Then come home, give them lunch and let them relax a bit. Then the next part of rushing starts. Leave around 5:15 pm for music classes followed by GG’s ballet class at 6:45. Back home tired and exhausted by 8ish, then just time enough for dinner, some TV and bed.

Sundays:
Sundays are relatively easier, with just GG’s ballet class in the morning. Most days it is S’s job and once GG is at her class, BB and S will go and do some boy thing, usually involving the car! Once they are back, it’s time for lunch and then a nap! Evenings will mean finishing up homeowork, school work and studying if there are exams in the horizon, otherwise, we may go out.

So, what’s your weekend usually like? I’d love to hear….

Quarrelling, Fighting, Loving….You know, the usual…

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BB & GG fight. A. Lot. I don’t know if this is because they both are the same age and hence don’t like to give in to the other, or if it is because they are of different genders or some other reason. But some days, I am so close to snapping that I have to keep warning them that I will withdraw privileges if they continue to fight. Having said that, they also can’t live without each other. If one does not see the other for more than 30 minutes, they will consciously make an effort to go and find where the other is and what is it that they are doing. I remember saying this to people who used to ask me how they lived with each other – “They can’t live or live without with each other”. This line sums up GG and BB perfectly.

Most days when they fight, I try to keep out of it and intervene only when it gets physical. I usually tell them, “This is your problem/issue, sort it out between yourselves”, but lately they’re beginning to get physical with each other also, which is slightly disturbing to me.

When they were younger, GG was the aggressive one – she has always been the leader between the two and she used to lead in fighting also! If she wanted something, BB better give it to her, or God help him. I used to wonder what would happen to BB once he started school and if he faced any bullying, but these days, he gives as well as he gets. In fact, because he is heavier than GG, she is at the receiving end these days.

Today’s post is short because I don’t feel like writing anything. Feeling sleepy, so will catch up over the weekend. I am glad this stint of blogging is working out for me, I’ve blogged almost everyday in September, hope this continues. I’ll also post some more Chiki and Chica stories. Ever since I’ve started this, GG & BB ask me for a new story every night and also want to check if I have written it up here. So now I am about 2 stories behind and tonight will be number 3.

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap – A Chiki and Chica Story

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One day when Chika and Chica reached school, they found the whole school abuzz with some exciting news. The king of Rhysunds, the forest where they lived was going to come to their school’s annual prize distribution and was going to give a special prize for a very special competition. This competition was a story-writing competition to commemorate the golden jubilee year of their school as the school was now 50 years old! There were very cool prizes to be won and the best one was a special plane ride with the King himself in his Majesty’s airplane. Now, his Majesty King Rivas had a very special airplane which Chiki had only seen from a distance and a chance of actully going inside the plane for a ride was too much of a temptation for him. “I’m going to write the best story that anyone can write and i will win this competition, you just wait and watch” Chiki told Chica, his friends, his teachers and anyone who spoke to him that day.

Later in the day when the teacher spoke about the competition, she told them the deadline which was a week from that day. The stories had to be written neatly on a paper and handed over along with the submission form. Saying this she passed along the submission forms to all the students asking them all to take part and even if they didn’t win, the experience would stand then in good stead.

Chiki took the form and went home, not before telling the bus Aunty and the canteen uncle his plans. Once home, he told his mother, “Mama, tonight after dinner, I will go to my room and start working on my story, so don’t disturb me. I am going to write such a wonderful story that his Majesty will have to give me the first prize”

After dinner, Chiki did go his room to think about his story. “My story has to be different and wonderful, so that I win the competition” “i wonder how the plane will look when I enter it?” “I hope I don’t become sick in the plane when I enter it” thoughts like this kept coming to his mind and all thoughts of the competition flew out as he fantasised on what he would do with the king once he won the competition and got to ride the plane. He soon fell asleep and when he woke up the next day he consoled himself that he still had six days in which to write out the story.

“Chiki, have you completed your story?” mama asked him once he was back from school the next day. “No mama, I will think out my story today and write it up later” Chiki replied and as soon as he finished his homework and dinner, he went to his room to work on his story. He did think of a wonderful story, one that involved airplanes, dinosaurs, race cars and everything that a boy could dream about. The next day, he excitedly went to his sister ad asked her if she had finished her story. “No Chiki, I am still working on it”, Chica replied, but I just can’t seem to get story to have a good ending”. “Show it to me Chica, maybe I can help” offered Chiki and he gave his sister the perfect ending to her story.

The next few days flew by with homework, swimming and the myriad other classes that Chica and Chiki went to and every day Chica and his mother would ask him about the story and Chiki would reply “I will write it down tomorrow, I promise”. The day before the children had to submit the story, their teacher reminded them about the deadline the next day and asked them all the make sure they had neatly written their story and filled up the submission form that went with it. The forms needed to have their parent’s signature in it too.

Chica and Chiki went home and made sure their mama signed the forms for both of them. Chica then asked Chiki if he had finished writing his story. Chiki had loads of homework that day, so he said he will do it once the homework is done. Later that night, once the homework was complete, Chiki started to write his story. But he was very tired and it was late and soon he was asleep with the story half done. The next morning he woke up and frantically started writing the story, but because he was in a hurry, his handwriting was extremely bad and he missed writing out many points in his story.

All the children submitted their stories to the teachers, but Chiki knew that he had not done justice to his story. He also had doubts if he will eventually win the competition. The next few days till the results were in were nailbiting for the whole school. During recess, this was the only topic of discussion between the children. Everywhere they went, it was the competition – at school, in the bus, at the supermarket, at the gym – everywhere! Soon this also percolated down to the parents and they too got sucked into ‘The Discussion’.

At last the day of the results arrived. The King arrived at the school for the annual prize distribution and Head of the school went up to the stage. “We have had a lot of very interesting stories for our competition. In fact, there was one story which started out very well, but around the halfway point, we could not make out what the author wanted to say. Anyway, in a competition, there will be just winner, so the winner is….Chica!” Chiki was very happy for his sister, but also very, very sad that he did not win the competition. Of course, he knew the head of the school was refering to him, but there was nothing he could do at this point.


Chica went up to the stage to receive the award from His Majesty. Once there, she whispered something into his ears and His Majesty smiled and nodded. Then he took the microphone and made an announcement “I just heard that there is a little boy who so desperately wanted to have a ride in my new plane, that he made up a fantastic story, but unfortunately, he did not finish his work on time, so could not win. Chica would like her brother Chiki to have the ride in the plane instead of her as he helped her with the ending of her story and also because although he did think of a wonderful story, he could not finish writing it. Can Chiki come up on the stage now?” Chiki very self consciously went up to the stage and the king continued speaking, “Because Chica so generously decided to give up her prize for Chiki, I will take both the children with me on the plane”.

Chica, Chiki and their parents were thrilled to hear about the King’s offer. A week weeks later, a big car came to take the chilren to the airport where the King was waiting to take them on a spin in his new airplane. Chiki and chica enjoyed the trip. At the end they were showered with gifts by the King and went home happy.

Chiki vowed that in the future, he will never do things at the last minute and will always make aure that he has ample time to finish his work.

Chica and Chiki learn a lesson

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Last night GG wanted me to tell her a story and this is what I came up with. This is a the retelling of an old story which probably everyone has heard of atleast once. For me, this was one of the stories which my paternal grandmother (‘ammama’ as I called her) used to tell me a long time ago.

Chica and Chiki learn a lesson

Once upon a time, in a forest bordered by rivers and beautiful lakes, lived two monkeys – Chica and Chiki with their parents and friends. Chica was a girl monkey and Chiki, a boy monkey and they loved to play together. They went to the jungle school with all their other animal friends.

One day, Chiki found a huge piece of puri which was left by some picnickers. He had never seen something like this before, it was that huge! He quickly picked it up before anyone else could and ran to show it to his sister. Chica marvelled at the size of the puri and wanted to have a bite of it. They then decided to divide it into two so that both could get an equal piece.

“I will divide it into two halves since I was the one who found it” Chiki said as he took the puri into his hands to break it into two. “Noooo!”, shouted Chica, “you will not divide it into two exact pieces, but will take the larger piece for yourself”, she cried. Chiki could not take this accusation lying down and started fighting with his sister about how she was the one who would take the larger piece should she be the one who gets to divide the puri. This went on for a while and all this time, the poor puri was uneaten.

Finally unable to bear her hunger pangs any longer, Chica suggested they walk down the path and the first person they saw would be the arbitrator in this argument and that person would be the one who would divide the puri into half. So they walked on a path that led them home. When they had walked a while, they came across a black hare. “The hare looks honest”, though Chica and looked at her brother. He seemed to know what she was thinking (as he would as Chica and Chiki were twins) and decided to ask the hare if he would divide the puri for them.

“Mr. Hare, we have a small problem here”, Chica said “and we wanted to ask if you would like to help us solve it”. The hare had, in the meantime, had spotted the puri in Chiki’s hands and was drooling as he had not had lunch that day and was very hungry. He forced himself to look at Chiki and listen to what he was saying. “Sure little monkey, I will be glad to help you solve your problem. How can I help you?”.

“Mr. Hare, can you divide this puri into exactly two halves so that both me and my sister can have equal pieces?” asked Chiki. Mr. Hare said he would be glad to do the job and took the puri from Chiki to cut it up. He cut it into two pieces and held it out to Chiki. Then suddenly he stopped and said, “Oh, I think one piece is slightly smaller than the other, let me cut it up a bit so that both are the same”, saying this he took a small bite from the larger piece. He then held it out to Chiki and Chica and once again said one piece was smaller than the other and took a bite to make them equal. This went on another three times when he was finally satisfied that both pieces were exactly alike.

When he gave the pieces to Chiki and Chica, they took it back with such an expression on their faces, that it needed to be seen to be believed! That was because the once huge puri has become two tiny pieces. Chica and Chiki had no choice but to accept the pieces from Mr. Hare as they had decided they would accept the verdict of the person they met and that was Mr. Hare. They popped the pieces into their mouths and left from there without a word. Mr. Hare, on the other hand, gave a nice long burp of satisfaction as his hunger was now over and he was full.

Chiki and Chica now walked back home, feeling sorry for themselves. When they reached home and told their mama the story, she just laughed and said, “serves you both monkey right. You did not trust each other, were greedy and in the process a third person took advantage of you.” With heads low, Chica and Chiki vowed never to be greedy and to always trust each other so that noone can take advantage of them ever again. They had learnt their lesson – and how!

Catching up with friends

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On Sunday evening, we went to my inlaws place for haldi Kumkum and it was a fun evening. BB & GG got to meet up with some old friends whom they hardly see these days since they’ve moved away and are in different schools. At one point there was so much noise, we couldn’t hear ourselves talk – there were about 9 kiddos in the house, including two little ones. It was funny seeing how they split themselves gender-wise – the boys playing with their cars in one room and roaring with laughter at bodily functions, something that only little boys are capable of finding humour in and the girls playing god knows what but which included loads of shouting, dancing and singining in one room. The two little ones shuttled between both rooms, somtimes scared as they saw the noise levels there.

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It was really fun catching up with friends like this and we have decided to do it once again soon (after the exams). While talking about the different activities our kiddos do I was stuck by something. Most of their friends who came visiting on Sunday were learning Indian things (classical music, classical dance etc) since they learn they non-Indian things in school, something which every self-respecting tambrahmkid does, but BB & GG are different. BB & GG have been

Image from Wikipedia

learning Indian classical Carnatic music for about a year now and GG as a counterpoint to this has been learning Ballet since the time she was around three years old. She enjoys ballet, but is not very good at it. It’s not something that she’ll be doing as a career, but it is something that gives her pleasure. I enjoy this dischotomy and it gives me pleasure that GG is blending the traditional with the modern, just like this world that is all hers!

Now I have to get BB to take something that complements what GG is doing – but BB is alll boy and so I am unsure if he will enjoy it. Well, there’s always hope. Next year, when they go to Primary 3, they need to take up some compulsary Co-Curricular Activities. Since BB is always at home – on the iPhone, on the computer or on the TV, both S and me want him to take up some physical activity like soccor, wushu or chookball!