lost & having fun

My direction sense is world famous in my friends circle. The ever changing road rules in Bangalore has done nothing to help me either. And since there has always been the 'plan B' - ring someone if you sense a remote possibility for trouble - I have not taken any real effort to remember the routes. The bane & the boon of cell phone is that, you can connect to whoever & whenever. It has been a few weeks that I am running without a cell phone, not since my latest phone crash landed & was completely destroyed.

Yesterday, on my way back after meeting someone in the city, I lost my way ... twice ... in the same area =-O I was lost, in a strange place, started raining and it was getting dark. What amazed me was that I was not panicking and making backup plans for plan B. Instead, was thoroughly enjoying the situation I was in. Since there were no cell phones, I had to rely on myself to get out of the situation. I was able to enjoy the beautiful drive in the evening rain for a longer period of time ... :)

I was reminded of this comment I read somewhere ... "Why do girls need direction sense, we don't find it awkward to ask for directions" ... :)

winning = ??

This Sunday, my daughter was doing her reading homework with her dad, while I was making dinner for them. They were all 3 letter words and one such word was win.

Nans : w.i.n ... win. Acha, what does win mean?
Acha : {thinking}
Nans : Oh! yes ... it means coming first!

I have been troubled since I heard this definition. I mean, is that all win means? Coming first? What about the rest of the junta who did not come first, yet won? Isn't winning to be defined by oneself?

I am reminded of my friend's words .... "I don't want to win any race, I just want to finish it gracefully."

bond or break

This sat was my 5yrs old's day out. Yes, for a change, we decided to have lunch from a place of her choice. That was how we ended up in McDonald's. What I noticed when I reached McD was that, the number of dads with their kid(s) were much more that the rest of the crowd put together.

Not sure if it was the dad having a bonding time with the kids or the mom having a break time with herself :)

flyover constructions in bangalore

Every time I pass through a flyover construction in Bangalore, I am reminded of the mechanic v/s doctor joke. I have some sort of respect towards the people working on such projects. After all they are working with the 'engine' ON and an uncontrollable engine too. Yes, I am talking about the traffic and the ignorant drivers.

One day, while I was traveling from office, I witnessed the construction workers demolish the supporting structure which holds the horizontal portion of a flyover. The cops & the workers had formed a loosely bound human chain to block the vehicular traffic. A maniac biker, squeezed his way through two workers literally hurting their spread out arms. Seeing this a cop came over to check out the situation & two cars squeeze their way through the vacant cop's spot. All this happened in a span of seconds & just when the drivers were through, the supporting structure came down with a thud.

These are situations where I believe in the force of prayer. I don't see any other reason as to why the supporting structure didn't fall on the biker or on the cars. And, if it had fallen on them, who would have been blamed - "the authorities" and/or the construction company.

Yes, I was waiting for this newspaper article to write this blog!!!

95% and nowhere to go

I was reading this article from India Today (July 4, 2011 edition). Some points mentioned in this article brought these snippets of conversation I was having a two friends of mine at different places, in an entirely different context ....

1st friend : I remember whatever I read like a picture. So, I never had to use my brain as such to clear my 12th exam. If you have practiced last 3 year's questions, you are all set for the exams. They don't even change the figures in Mathematics paper. So, just remember that picture with solution for this question & you are done with the exams.

2nd friend : I find it difficult to handle my 4th grader's English paper. They give a passage & ask questions which are directly not mentioned in the passage .... what would have been the premise for this passage, what should ideally come after the passage and so on.

The first friend is a university rank holder and she completed her 12th exam in 1997. The second is the mother of child who is currently doing her 4th grade. I can surely see the change in the education/examination system. Probably by the time this 4th grader completes her 12th grade, things would have changed in favor of the students.

Dreamzzzzz

 A couple of my friends & I were discussing about the weirdest dreams we have ever had and some interesting scenes unfurled.

Dream1 : I have dreamt that one fine morning when I woke up, I was unable to speak.
Pssst! I, being a talkative girl, can very well understand paranoia behind her statement.
Dream2 : I have dreamt that I lost all my teeth.
Dream3 : I dreamt that, I lost all my hair when I was trying to towel dry my hair after a bath.
Dream4 : I was kissing him on the lips and my teeth, the whole of it, fell into his  mouth.

No prizes for guessing who bagged the weirdest dream of the day trophy ... ;)

Know Your Child

One of my close friend is an active member of The Art of Living Foundation. On a regular day, he wouldn't ask me to attend any of their courses. But that day, he wanted me to attend the 'Know Your Child' course conducted at his residence. On any other day, I would have ran in the opposite direction. But that day, I agreed to attend this session.

The one thing that caught my attention was this question by the instructor - "Why do you want to limit your child's knowledge to what YOU know?"

Most of the parents I know, and I myself, have this urge to give 'technically correct' answers to all the questions raised by the children. And if we don't know an answer, we google & tell them. This question by the instructor opened a a whole new world of possibilities for me - The children might have an even better answer to it.

So, now when my child or her friend asks me a question, I try not to answer her question immediately. Instead, I ask her - "Hmmmm ... am not too sure ... what do you think it is?". And I was bowled over by their answers. I was completely amazed by the way they line up THEIR facts & THEIR observations & how THEY draw up THEIR conclusions. And we still call them kids!

PS.
Definition of Rain by a 3yr old boy .... I think they have switched on the air condition on the plane ... :)