Anurag teaches Alapony

Anurag is often seen fooling around with my phone. Today I found this gem in my phone gallery

Note for K

Note from Anurag to Kabir on their chalk board.
("a lot" is to be taken with a pinch of salt here)

More Anu talk

Anu: mama, I don't want to die ever. 

Me: Beta, everyone has to die. But don't worry you have many many many years to live before you start worrying about dying.

Anu: Will I die after you and papa die? Where will we live if you die?

Me: Don't worry, mama-papa are not going to die anytime soon (hopefully!). You will have your own work and house by then.

Anu: Mama, I don't want a step-mother.

(ok now I know what is fueling his imagination. Why can't we have less scary fairy tales?!)

learning division

Recently Anurag overheard Kabir and me discussing a division problem. He promptly asked that he wanted to learn division too. So I said

Me - its pretty easy. Let's take an example. When I get anything home, say chocolates (which I never do), Kabir and you insist that the chocolates be shared equally between you two, right? So if I had four chocolates, how many would each of you get?

Anurag - Each of us would get two.

Me - Perfect! So that's division. Now lets try another one. If I got 6 chocolates and we had Anurag, Kabir and Rhiku (their friend) at home, how many would each get?

Anurag - Three.

Me - ummm...how is that possible?

Anurag - Kabir gets three, I get three and Rhiku gets zero.

That's what we get for not stating our assumptions in the problem statement.

Anurag's wisdom

Anurag recently asked me - mama, I don't want to get married ever, is that ok? 

I responded - of course, thats your choice.  (Kabir helps by naming adults that he knows are single)

Anurag: Oh but I will still want to have a wife.

Me (trying to understand): Then why do you say you won't want to marry?

Anurag: I just want to live with my wife without having to marry her. I don't like this stuff about becoming a groom etc.

Me: ok, so you just don't want a wedding, that's good. (I wish I had this wisdom when I was younger!)

As an afterthought, I decided to push this: why do you think you'll want to have a wife though?

Anu: I want to live with her like you and papa. But we won't have children. We will get a dog instead.

Incredible!!

How to make writing fun

Rote learning has never been Anurag's cup of tea. He vehemently refuses to comply and if forced, comes up with such gems: Kite flying by alphabets.

A piece of peace

Recently one day, when we were in Dehradun and Anurag was really sick and clingy, I was trying to eat my breakfast while Anu sat on my lap. He had no appetite himself and was instead trying to feed me. He was trying to use a fork to cut the long papaya slices and feed me.

Annoyed, I say- Anurag, I want to eat in peace!

Innocently, he replies - pieces hi to kar raha hoon mama! (but I am giving it to you in pieces!)

Anu and autos

Anu's love of auto-rickshaws is legendary. He owns about half a dozen toy-autos at home and appears to recognize most of the autos that ply on campus. In Port Blair, we took a ride in this auto which Anu thought was "bohot hi sundar" and wanted a picture taken alongside it. 

But a far more interesting story is this. I got chatting with our auto-driver, a young man around 20 years old, during our ride. It turns out that he was doing his BA in English and aspired to be a teacher. In his spare time he worked as an auto-rickshaw driver so he could save enough money (Rs 7 lacs) to go to Chennai and pursue a B.Ed. degree. He told us all about his family and their association with the Andamans, the local politics and so on. It was a fascinating ride. After we got off, I gave a little lecture to the kids (quite predictably) on how fortunate they should feel about the opportunities they have and see how this guy has to drive an auto so that he can study and pursue his dreams etc. Kabir nodded but Anu apparently got a different message. He said, "mama, I promise I will study very very hard so I can become an auto-rickshaw driver!"

Anurag's golden words

Sometime ago, Anu made this request to me (loosely translated from Hindi below):

A: Mama, when you go to the market next time get a BIG box of money.

Me: what will you do with it beta?

A: I will give it to A aunty (our babysitter/maid). She doesn't have money. No money to buy clothes and no money to give to autowalla. I want to give her a very big box of money. Will you get one from the market?

Such shame that I need my son to tell me this.

Pampu and Papi

It is hard to believe that Pampu and Papi have so far never found a mention on this mommy-blog even though they are such an integral part of our family. But its never too late and so here is a long overdue post about them. Pampu and Papi are two special people who have lived with us for well over a year now. But what makes it hard to introduce them is that they have a bit of identity crisis. Some times they are Anurag's closest friends and some times they make him very angry. Often they pretend to be Anurag's children and lately they have even become his students. Regardless, they are the naughtiest kids who live in our house and always the ones to be blamed for any mischief caused - a broken lamp, objects thrown down our window, crayon marks on the wall, useful stuff thrown in the dustbin etc. Meet Pampu and Papi - Anurag's beautiful "imaginary" friends. 

If you talk to Anurag, he can tell you stories after stories of Pampu and Papi. Like how they are bad boys because they don't drink milk and then cry when they have to go to school. They haven't learn their alphabets and numbers yet and so Anu has to teach it to them. Sometimes they are difficult and ask Anu not to go to bed at bedtime or naptime and play with them instead. They are always creating mischief even though Anu asks them not to do it (like breaking the lamp, throwing objects down the balcony etc...). Sometimes they make Anu their mama and he has to take care of them, drop them to school, feed them, read them stories and even scold them when they are naughty.They always travel with us wherever we go. If you ever want to know where they are and what they are upto at any instant, all you need to do is ask Anu and he gives a detailed response.

Most recently a third child called "Lapan" has joined the team. He is a new entrant to the family so we are yet to discover him fully. But I am sure that he/she (we aren't sure of the gender yet) will make our lives even more interesting.

Little trouble-maker

Anurag looks a little troubled sitting in a coffee shop

On a separate note:
Overheard Anurag saying to Kashvi recently: Come sit in my dumper (truck), I'll take you for a ride.
:)

Anu talk

We ask Anu - Where does Zoya live?
Anu replies - Zoya lives in the laptop.

:-)

Its not his fault. Afterall thats where he has always seen her - in the videos and photos that bua sends and a couple of times on skype. Hopefully that will change soon.

Anu talk

This evening when the boys were engaged in post-dinner play, I opened my laptop to go through some emails. Anu tried to get my attention by calling out to me and when I didn't look up he came and sat next to me on the floor and said "mama, Anu sad ho gaya" (Anu has become sad). Its the first time he has said anything like this! I was amazed by how well he could understand his feelings and express them to me. It was only after I had shut my computer and snuggled with him for some time that he started to smile again. :)

Anu talking

I have been slow at updating the blog lately with all the craziness at work and home. I will try to catch up by posting some of the pictures taken during the last month and half. For now, here is a video of Anurag that I took yesterday.

Anu has been talking quite a bit lately. His favorite words other than the normal mama, papa, bhaiya etc are hoot (book), jalu (jhadu/broom), ball, fish (accompanied by making a fish face), joosh (juice), joota (shoes), bhau-bhau (dog), barish (rain) and all the animals in his animal book like horse, cheetah, hathi, monkey etc. My most favorite, however, is his loving "mammaaa, aa jaao" even though he usually says that pounding at the bathroom door when I'm inside!