the Year gone by sep 2009- sep2010

The Year Gone By!!

• Started year 4 with a rollicking party organized by Sweety mausi!!
• Acted as a tree in the ‘Diwali’ rendition of Ramayana!!
• Ran the kids’ dash at Stanchart with a medal to prove it!!
• Had a memorable vacation in Bali; Explored Pulau Ubin with friends;
Overdosed on strawberries at Cameron Highlands!!
• Fulfilled my ‘childhood’ dream of going in an amphibious vehicle and entered
the mouth of the biggest lion out there, the Merlion!!
• Managed to set a school transition record by shifting from MMI to
Yuvabharathi to home–schooling to GIIS
• Enjoyed being chaperoned to school by Anupriya ma’am
• Got my favorite uncle ‘Bhajin’ married
• Regaled Lacchi paati, Bagyam paati, Gopalan thatha, chikku-taatha and family
with my antics
• Hosted my friend from across the Pacific: Ankita and family
• Got inspired to be a hip-hop dancer by the DID Li’l Masters
• Began my efforts at being a polyglot and music aficionado with lessons in
Mandarin and piano

A peek into the past year.

My most favorite person in the world!!
I love you appa!!!Happy times……
Expressions…

sep09

Tis' the birthday season!!!

I was exposed to exotic Indonesian-Thai combo cuisine at the Bali Thai restaurant alongwith my Sweety mausi, Amma and Appa.

Amma and mausi were planning this party for a very long time and the house was transformed that day with a lot of decorations!!! There was also a rangoli of tools that my Appa did specially for me and followed a theme..
And at the right hour my friends started streaming in... and as soon as they got settled in were handed a couple of sheets to draw!!! My friends were all thinking... oh oh.. its almost like a classroom.. but they soon got over it..
Then after what seemed like ages, Appa brought the birthday cake. The topping was of tools.. wrench, screw-driver, nuts, bolts .. almost as if it was Bob.. the builder...
After this party, there was a separate dinner at Annalakshmi restaurant and we were joined by some of Appa's colleagues and friends too..
Then came the best part.. opening the gifts.. It was fun ripping apart those gift wrappers and looking at what I got...I loved all those gifts but the airport set and the Rheneas, one of the Thomas engines was special. I got a catalog of all of Thomas' engines as part of the package. The next few weeks were spent asking Appa to name each of the various engines.. I liked Gordon, a lot. Amma tried to arrange the airport set for me, gave up and Appa took over and then I had my airport set functional for my various adventures. Did you know - its got airport fire engines, airport transfer coaches, a control tower and a radar on top of it?

We went to Clarke Quay and Appa did the reverse bungy with Sweety. I was disappointed that I couldn't do it but I am sure I will do it when i grow big. We also had a nice 'packed' dinner by the river followed by ice-cream that made it a memorable evening!
We also went to the West Coast beach and saw the kite flying festival. There were so many colorful kites and Appa had half a mind to come over the next day too...but Amma vetoed it!!

There was the mandatory for Singapore visitor, Sentosa visit too. Appa took me to the underwater world where again i made my connection with the sharks and stingrays. I also was goaded on by Appa to hold a snake and pose with it. It was slimy... yet satisfying as Simba says in Lion King..We then visited the Marina Barrage, a newly built dam across from the CBD with good views overlooking the CBD and the flyer. There were some nice fountains too.. where you could dip your feet into and get wet.

Appa told me about typhoons, hurricanes, tornados and cyclones in the backdrop of Typhoon Ketsana ravaging Manila. I have been fascinated by them and keep asking Appa again and again as to what typhoons are and how they are created...

The song of the month is Love me, love me..

August 2009 update - The birthday season begins!!

Map reading ...........inspired by Appa!!!

The battle of lashes

The tricolor painting............

NDP rehearsals

We went to Marina Bay to witness the rehearsal of Singapore's National Day Parade (NDP-09), which hopefully will turn out to be an annual tradition for us. We went there last year as well and watching the fighters in formation and the final fireworks display was the highlight for me last year. This year was no different... only Sweety mausi joined as well.. The roar of the chinook in the sky leading the other helicopters in formation carrying the Singapore flag was breathtaking. We also waited for awhile to view the fireworks and when it started it was mindblowing (as all those judges in the Zee TV music program Sa Re Ga Ma Pa are seen to inanely utter)
I now am being taught Majulah Singapura in the school and Jana Gana Mana at home. One nation. One People One Singapore
There was also an inevitable Jurong Bird Park darshan for Sweety mausi. It was a race against time as always in these places trying to view as many scheduled live performances as possible with Appa performing cartographic optimization as only he can!!! A penguin feeding session here...a pelican session there... a multi-bird performance at the pools amphitheatre.

Another yearly tradition is the creation of a tricolour for the Indian Independence Day on Aug 15 every year. The change this time around was that I already knew which colors went in the flag.

Appa had to go to Bangalore as Bagyam-paati was to undergo surgery and paati recovered well after the surgery. Amma and Appa both say that paati is very strong!!

August at Toh Guan signifies the beginning of the birthday season that continues over a period of a few months.. The excitement is in selecting gifts for all the birthdays and then selecting a theme for the birthday cake and the return gifts as well..Fortunately, Amma and Appa had done some advance planning and picked up some good gifts from India for my friends' birthday parties. When it came to time for selecting my birthday cake, I selected an aeroplane cake but then finally decided on an Edible Tools cake.

The phrase of the month has to be "kids' dash". Here is the inside story. Appa registered to run the half-marathon at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in December. This year they introduced a new run called kid's dash, a 750 m run. Appa registered me for the kids' dash and he told me about it. You see, I am always amazed at the English language. I always thought that a kids' dash involved kids dashing against each other and told Appa and Amma how I would enjoy all the dashing. Appa, Amma and Sweety-mausi were rolling on the floor(??) laughing and then explained me the nuances of English phraseology and that things are not always what they seem!!
We have also started a weekly routine to sort out our recylable waste and then go over to the multi-coloured recycle bins (blue for paper, yellow for , red for ) and bin our waste that way.
Song of the month has been: Mein kahbi batlata nahin!!

Painting............inspired by Amma.

July 2009 update - Sweety mausi's visit

I promptly rejoined my alma mater MMI at West Coast. It was great seeing Ms. Rahimah, Ms. Nisha, Ms. Li Fen and the rest. Whats changed this time over is that I am chauffeured in a van to my school. Last year, it used to be Appa dropping me off in the morning for me to be picked up in the afternoon by Amma. Besides, I now have my own bus card that i carry around everywhere and tap proudly in buses!!
Sweety mausi visited us in Singapore and I had a great time taking her around Singapore. We did the mandatory Esplanade, River walk and Merlion.
Achievement of the month!!! I should tell you all that I now have the proud privilege of being able to enter Småland, kids' own area in Ikea which means that I am now 36 inches tall. I was envious all the time until now because with the height prerequisite I never could go in earlier. I had a gala time that day with me just running around just like that and watching TV and just enjoying myself in the enclosure while Appa, Amma and Sweety mausi shopped to their hearts' content.
The racial harmony day celebration at school was fun.. There was a fashion show and Appa gave me a quick lesson on how to make an impression from the catwalk stage. Not that I needed one!!! Anyways I followed his instruction to a T and Amma was mighty impressed. There were also performances by the teachers and my Amma was in traditional attire, the sari, with me in a kurta.
It was a joy to reconnect with my new big tub bath with my friends the dolphin, whale, shark, crocodile, and the sting-ray. We all also went to the newly rejuvenated 'Hort-Park' with Mihir-Vaishnavi-Annu-aunty-Kishore-uncle joining us. We fed the fish at the entrance and then played at the kids-park. Then Appa took us kids to the glasshouses which had different kinds of flora in there maintained at their appropriate temperatures. It was a great way to end the day.
Appa had planned a little surprise for Amma and Sweety chithi. He took them along to the Singapore International Jewellery Show 2009 and there he managed to surprise them with gifts. I was just yawning away and wanted to get out of there asap. The Fountain of Wealth show there was a treat for the eyes after the boring jewellery show!!! We had dinner of roti-subzi prepared by Amma and Sweety mausi by the fountain and that was awesome.
I am back to my old ways at school. It is fun and the biting is too!! I managed to bite 3 different kids over a period of 2 weeks that had Amma and Appa pulling out all stops to get me to behave. When asked why, I did tell them that I knew biting was wrong but just went ahead and did it. In addition to the regular daily discussion about how biting was bad, this episode also brought about a daily check of whether I had bit anyone that day. This daily check process helped to eliminate the biting very soon..
It was just great to be back with Appa and I had missed him very badly during my long stay in India. I also met Shreyas, my little friend at Little Guilin. It was great fun and I did love the rock climbing over there.

March 2009

 
Visit to Kalyanpur
While Appa was in Bangalore, Amma and I continued our exploration of the hinterlands around Ambikapur. The highlight in March 2009 was that of a visit to the village of Kalyanpur near Ambikapur. We saw fields of sugar-cane, stacks of sugar-cane, hills of haystacks, farmhouse with cows, goats, hens and buffaloes. A highlight of that visit was understanding the jaggery process: The sugarcane was first crushed to extract juice, juice boiled in huge vats and then balls of jaggery were made. The ladies in charge of the juice boiling department were constantly on their toes trying to prevent me from swimming in the concentrated sugarcane juice. They were saying in their Surgujya dialect "Arre o babu.. kudh jaye ho tho gud ban jaye ho (English translation - Hey kid.. don't jump.. or else you'll become jaggery).
Having come to a farmhouse, like every self-respecting kid from Singapore, I was expecting to see Barney there with his jingles and was very disappointed when I could not find him.
I also saw huge mounds of potatoes and I had fun sleeping on all those potatoes. The fields and the vegetables were so green. There was also a ride on a tractor. All this was capped off with a nice-little bath at an irrigation-pump delivering water to the fields. I saw a cow doing haggu in the open and I asked Amma why these cows didn't go to the loo to go about their business.
And then there was Holi. It was a huge difference from staid Singapore where you may get fined for throwing colors or colored water on assorted strangers. Out in Ambikapur, Holi is a spectacle. I was busy collecting pichkaris and colors and then making the holika in the street along with the other boys. Holika-dahan where the stack of all the wood and sticks and leaves and other assorted flammable material were finally burnt was a great deal of fun. The next day, we played holi from 7 am to 7 pm with both colored water with pichkaris and dry colors 'gulal'. The mystery to me was why everyone were shouting 'holi hai' (it is holi) when everyone knew that it was holi. Tag this to the list of unexplainable human eccentricities!!!

Feb 2009 update

Brrrrr... February can get very cold in Ambikapur. I got a chance to experience winter in Ambikapur. That was a month of many firsts..
Seeing the buffalos grazing near naani's house..

Winter in Ambikapur





Lacchhi-paati gets me a new toy everytime she returns back from school and I now have a good collection of those toys and I enjoy playing with them.

Here's my favorite "Rock-On" pose alongwith Shubham. I enjoy playing with him every evening and watching the sun-set sitting on the stairs.









I have my own little special bathtub. And I enjoy my weekend massage and then a bath at Aayu's place. 

Spring is also in the air now.. The garden has started blooming with many flowers - lotus, dahlia, roses, marigolds and many more. And its such a great experience watching them grow and enjoying them.Gardener Dhananjay-bhaiya also gave me some gardening lessons.















We then went to Nagpur for a surprise visit for my thatha's 70th birthday wishing my Nagpur thatha, my Nagpur paati and meeting my cousins Ankita and Uday.


















































































I also had some great fun pulling out home-grown carrots and tomatoes.





I have now also started prayers to Surya the sun god. My Sweety mausi offers jal (water) everyday to Sun and I have also picked up the practice. I love Sweety mausi so much that I call her Sweety mother (just like Lord Krishna has two mothers - Devaki and Yashoda). For everything starting with brushing teeth to sleeping, I look for Sweety mausi.











My neighbour Guddu-maama gives me a daily motorcycle ride.














































































I have my own little special bathtub. And I enjoy my weekend massage and then a bath at Aayu's place.



I also visited the school that Amma studied in and also where she taught for awhile.