Papa se guzarish

I recently wrote this poem for Kabir's Hindi poem recitation in school. I vaguely remembered the first line from my childhood, the rest were easy to write! 

daftar se ghar jaldi aaya karo papa,

door kahin sair pe le jaya karo papa

panne akhbar ke palat-te ho roz hi,

kabhi nandan, kabhi champak bhi padhaya karo papa

TV par cricket ham dekhte hain aksar,

kabhi khud sachin ban chhakke udaaya karo papa

sehat ka hamari dhyaan rakhte ho aap khoob,

chhup-chhup kar kabhi chocolate bhi khilaya karo papa

mobile aur laptop hain shayad badon ke khel,

inhe chhod pakdam-pakdai bhi khilaya karo papa

mummy ke haathon ka bana khate hain roz hi, (ok, this one is a lie!)

kabhi khud apne haathon se bana bhi khilaya karo papa

Update

Its been a while since I wrote a real blog post. I've ramped up my work to full time now and it leaves me with less time for everything else. So what is new? Here's an update.
- Kabir is now in Sr. KG. His school hours are 9am -12pm now. He's loving his school. Though I think its absolutely crazy how much they are being taught. They have started writing short sentences in English (using 2-3 letter words). He's also learning to write the Hindi alphabets and writing numbers. They still use the slate and chalk from last year, but now supplement it with pencils and work books. The part he loves most though are the songs and art/craft work that they do which is in sync with the holiday season - ganpati, Independence day, monsoon songs etc.
- Both Anu and Kabir are turning out to be two religious kids. Anu is a Ganpati bhakt and bows his head all the way to the ground to pray to jai-jai bappa. And also claps his hands to all artis and bhajans. Kabir, on the other hand, is a Hanuman bhakt. He has learnt the first few pages of Hanuman chalisa and loves reading his Hanuman story-book. Of course, this change can only be attributed to the grandparents and Anita.
- Kabu's dadosa and dadisa spent a month with us in June. Kabir is now so attached to them that he went everywhere with them, even on overnight trips to other relatives' home. He slept with them every night and demanded to hear atleast half a dozen bedtime stories everytime. He now knows more about Ramayana, Mahabharata and Alibaba than I ever did.
- We managed to do three monsoon treks in the Sahyadris this season. The highlight was the 2-day Harishchandragad trek. It was the first time that we left the kids behind at home (with dada-dadi) to go for an overnight trek. What a memorable adventure it turned out to be! The other two were Peb fort and Siddhagad-wadi. (Must post photos of the trek)
- We're still going swimming about once a week. I've started taking Anu with me now that Kabir can be on his own in the pool. The only difficult part is to make Kabu do some serious swimming instead of goofing off in the pool.
- Anurag is one big entertainer these days. He has the sweetest voice and speaks ever so innocently. Summer/monsoon has been good for him and he didn't fall sick as much as last year. (fingers crossed). I'm planning to finally start him at a playschool after we return back from our upcoming Udaipur vacation.

Ganpati bappa morya!

Anu and Kabu showing off their ganpati bappa that we made in the workshop held at staff club yesterday. Anu enjoyed making the laddoos, diyas and modak for Ganpati bappa while Kabu did the hard work on making the crown, trunk, tusk, eyes, ears and decoration for both models.

Photo Courtesy: Om Damani