Aadi's Artwork (Kindergarten)

Fall 2014

Hickory Dickory Dock!

First Love

Date: Nov 27^th 2014

To,

Our First House

12415, 44^th Place N

Plymouth, MN 55442

Subject: We will miss you.

Dear House,

You were a good home. This is the biggest compliment one could pay to a house, and you earned it.

You were a dream house for sure, it was love at first sight. Once we saw you, passion won over reason and we knew you were the one. All our careful planning (financial and otherwise) went out of one of your many doors or one of your sunlit windows, we do not know which – we had to have you. I still cannot decide what is your best feature – the open kitchen which became the heart of our family or all the sunlight you let in or the basement which promises to be a sanctuary or the master bedroom which befits a commander (even though we have none and Diya threatens to take over the post) or the lush backyard which we tried to turn into a heaven bit-by-bit – we cherished every square foot.

Of course, we were young and naïve and did not know that a house’s destiny is to become a home. I hope we fared well in earning you that status.  Our pride and joy – Diya and Aadi (respectively) were born here;  Maple and Mishti joined us, so did the rest of our family and many friends. We decorated you with flowers (and occasional vegetables), never mind that we could never really furnish you completely, but we tried our best to keep you healthy and sound.

More than anything else, I hope you realize that we made our best memories here – visits from our families, our friends, the fun in the backyard, the parties, the barbeques  and more than anything else – the smell of coming “home” to you after we were gone for any length of time - that’s when we knew that you were the one and you earned it.

We wish you good luck for eternity – for the next …. what do houses have ? … owners/beneficiaries/families??? I hope they live up to you the way we tried to and I hope the next house we have lives up to us the way you did …. and becomes our next home. With a heavy heart I wish you adios, my friend my home.

They say that our motto in life should be to look forward and never look back.

 I wonder if I would wake up in the middle of night some day and not know where I am and walk 13 steps downstairs, take a left and a right and expect to open a refrigerator to fetch some milk … maybe it will be there, maybe it won’t.

With love:

-Ankur

Panda Bear

A Walk in the Park

Ankur came back from her China trip and was dead tired. So, I decided to take Aadi (who slept for 10+ hours and had to burn off his energy) to the French park as soon as he got up.

I forgot what Diya was doing … a play date? Anyway, it was 3rd July and we all had the day off. Which also means dealing with two high energy kids all through the day! 

Aadi was thrilled to "hike" for the first time in French park. He started off walking slowly looking all around. He was mesmerized to see the sunlight trickling down through the tree canopy …. just for a bit and then made a dash for it! :)  

We had a great time playing in the "spider net" (cargo rope net)! At one time Aadi decided to climb a 20 ft vertical wall to use as an "illegal" shortcut to between to two pathways one of top of the other. Not cool! (… but kind of cool :) ) 

After a while I got tired playing in the cargo rope net. So, I sat down on a bench and started reading Joe Nesbo's "The Devil's Star" on my iPhone. After a few pages (locations?), when I looked up to check on Aadi, I found that he has managed to find some older girls to include him with them and spin him around on the tire swing! ( … there's always a way.) 

And of course, the coolest thing for Aadi at the end was to cool off with his favorite ice-cream - Sponge-bob! :)

BDay Celebration - Kingsuk & Suvo

July 4th Fireworks - Aadi Dancing!

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/aEwmAUYnzdI


Aadi's excited dancing is more spectacular than the fireworks! He was so excited he could hardly speak. I have to say these fireworks produced more bang for the buck we hoped for.

Ramleela!

Aadi was restless this evening and very cranky. So I decided to do something to keep him occupied. I told him-"Aadi come on, let's do something funny. It will be our secret." Funny and Secret are his keywords these days.

We went upstairs to our bedroom without much plan and I got the idea to dress him up - drawing inspiration from recently watched movie "Ramleela". It took 5 minutes to get him ready, 10 minutes to find my camera and take a few pictures and then, 15 minutes to convince him to come downstairs and show his costume to Baba and Diya. He refused to do so saying this was supposed to be a Secret and that he was Freaky (new keyword). So I had no option but to blog it!

Diya's Crayon-work

End of July 4th Weekend

Sun, 10 pm, July 6, 2014

Night 

Absolute Bliss. Serenity.

In the living room now listening to soft piano on Pandora. Aadi on the lap. Diya reading her book (Ramona's World) on the yellow sofa. Mishti lying down on her bed with her be we-collar. Ankur finishing a quick phone call.

Morning

- Woke at 9 am after a 11 hr sleep. Enjoyed coffee and smoothie. 

- Cleaned up the windows with Aadi (inside and outside).

- Dusted the blinds. Took the paneling off of a window, filed the rot with Diya, re polished, and put it back upside down to show the unwhethered wood.

- Ankur took an early shower and went out to Costco in her new reddish-pink dashing dress. Worth a shopping trip after a long day working in the yard doing major deweedeing! Although, strictly speaking, Costco is by no means a substitute for a real shopping experience.

Afternoon

- Took a quick shower while Ankur was feeding the kids (butter chicken for Aadi and Anaheim chilli stuffed). Lunch was ready when I came back at 1 pm. Cholar daal, red cabbage, cauliflower. The kids were playing by themselves elsewhere, so it was peaceful. Mishti was quite subdues due to her new collar.

- Ankur went to take a nap. I played carrom for some time all by myself. Although my aim is not so good these days (when was it really good?), I relished playing and practicing ... until drowsiness took over. Went upstairs. The room was dark. Lied down. Was debating whether to start the new Harry Hole book after just finishing Devil's Star. But gave up soon and almost immediately felt asleep.

- Woke up at 4 pm ... listening to the soft complaining from Mishti as Ben and Katie was at the door and she was locked up. She didn't bark ... probably hurts her tummy ... so it was different intonation a of moaning. Ankur made a great traditional Indian tea. We sat at the front patio, and sipped our tea, taking about how are life is at this point. It was the perfect moment, and the way to live life ... some work at home, playing with the kids, good meal, rest (most important) - all leading to a blissful state.

- When I said aloud that this is the perfect moment, and before I could say that these are the moments we should cherish and remember, what we should strive for, Ankur said what we should strive for is focus on doing activities that create such moments. And added that the fact that we are not having any vagueness going on at our workplaces is a big contributing factor.

- I was setting up the plastic water sprout for the kids (Aadi's BDay present), Ankur came and told that Diya won't be participating as she got grounded (opening up all the snack packets, which she bought for the kid lunch, for Katie and Ben even after their Dad said not to snack as dinner is ready). And I remembered some many similar incidents when Jhumur and I were at their age. I kept smiling.

Night

- End of the day. Ankur reading Tagore. Aadi and Mishri asleep. Diya on the ground in our room reading a book with the excuse of a mosquito in her room.

I cannot think of asking for anything more. I will sleep well tonight.

Also, tomorrow is Sunday, but no blues.

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Sunday Comics

Student and Teacher

Art class - Diya teacher, Aadi student.

A rare scenario in this house - almost always I end up as the student with two aggressively competing teachers - not a fun situation to be in!

And that happens even before I get a chance to explain to them what I am about to teach them. :)

Perhaps I should concentrate more on having them explore and discover rather than being told how things are or are supposed to be ...

Sent from my iPhone

Aadi's Artwork

Pink Rock

We had the following conversation on the way to Diya and Aadi's
swimming lesson today -

Suvo: Diya, did you pack Aadi's flip-flops?

Diya: No ... :(

Suvo: Do you remember that I asked you 3 times to pack his when you
were getting yours.

Diya: I didn't hear it :(

Suvo: ... or did you hear but forgot? It's ok if you tell the truth.

Diya: (after a pause) I forgot.

As I promised I didn't tell her anything .

Diya felt a bit generous (mainly because she was not yelled at ... so
better play nice) and told Aadi ...

Diya: Aadi, if you want you can take my slippers. They are pink, and
large. So, it's ok if you don't like it. ...

Since Aadi didn't respond, she was pretty sure Aadi was not interested
in the deal, and continued ...

Diya: Baba, you know ... it doesn't make sense to have some colors
only for girls. Boys can wear pink too. And girls blue!

Aadi chimed in …

Aadi: And boys can wear earrings. Like the ones with the round hole ...

Suvo: What!?

Diya immediately explained which versions Aadi was thinking about.

Diya: ... so, Aadi those earrings are cool, right?

Aadi: Yes! Cool boys wear cool ear-rings! Like the a Rock-n-Roll people. :)

Suvo: How do you know about Roll-n-Roll people?

Aadi: They play cool guitar.

Diya: So Baba, cool guitar means electrical guitar! Aadi - what else
do they play?

Aadi: They play drums. And they sing very loudly!! :)

I was dumbfounded. Aadi is just 4 years old! Where the heck did he
pick this up!?

I took the picture after their swimming class. They bought two gums … and as luck would have it, Aadi got a pink one, and Diya a blue! (Of course, Diya immediately exchanged the gums after taking the picture :) )

Career Counseling

Diya and Aadi came with us to bring Mishti home

from the breeders, when she was ready at 12 weeks of age. While I was finishing
up the paperwork and making the final payment etc, Diya asked the lady -”How
much do the puppies cost?”. She answered -”My puppies are two thousand
dollars.” I saw Diya's eyes becoming big and the gears starting to turn in her
head … and then the question came without any hesitation -”How much profit do
you make on them”. The lady was little taken aback but also decided to engage
Diya in a collegial sort of way. She explained all the costs involved in
running a breeder business and raising puppies and concluded that there is
really not much profit in this, they do it because they love to do it.
Meanwhile, Aadi was rolling on the ground with puppies jumping on him. 


On the drive back, Aadi was pensive and suddenly



declared -”When I grow up, I want to be a breeder”. We were surprised as this
is something we expect to hear from Diya not Aadi. Diya constantly shares new
plans for her future based on what ever is inspiring her at the moment.
Whenever we asked Aadi what he wants to be when he grows up though, his answers
have been -”when I grow up I will be Aadi” or “I don't know” or simply “unhh?”.
We figured he must have been really touched by the puppies and the breeder to
say something like this. But before we could react to it in any way Diya jumped
in. 



Diya - “Aadi you don't want to do that.” 

Aadi - “What?”

Diya - “You don't want to become a breeder. Or
maybe this can be your second job. OR something you can do after you retire …”

Aadi - “Why?”

Diya - “There is no money in it. You need a job
where you can make money.” (conversation closed) 



Aadi has been mulling over it since then. We
were amazed (&alarmed) at our 8 yrs old giving career advice to our 4
yrs old.



Later I had a heart to heart with Diya and
shared my thoughts that we should not pick a job just because of money … it has
to be something you love to do and are good at it naturally ... otherwise you'd
be miserable. Her answer was “ Oh that ... ya ya ya”. As if that part was
completely obvious. Since then she has discusses with me many times about one
job or another … mostly she is interested to find out the relative compensation
packages but then knowing where I will take the conversation adds …. and I know
you have to be good at doing it and like it too :).



Recently, one day when Suvo went to pick her up
after school she showed him what they did that day …. on a wall there were
sheets of paper where everyone in the class had written their names, hobbies,
names of pets and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Many of her
classmates are still fantasizing about superheros and fairies … wishing to
develop magical powers as they grow up. Diya's sheet stood out with “I want to
be a doctor and a teacher”. Suvo asked her why she wrote that and she said …
because these are the highest paying jobs! I am hoping she added in her mind
the other criteria that we have been talking about. 



But in any case … if that is what she wants to
do then we are looking at an MD PhD …. gosh we need to a bigger college
education budget!!!!!!!!! (I wonder where she learned to worry about money so
much?! :))



P.S.: We are on vacation in Florida this week
and Diya has started inquiring about prices of houses and cost of living here !

Mishti - Getting Civilized

Diya's Face Art

Surprised to find out ~1500 photos in my iPad this morning … 80% of them created by Diya using the PhotoStream App! 

While I got initially angry to find all these Junk Photos … thanks to the 'Motion' feature in Google Photos (PicasaWeb), it turned out to be a good content for a blog post :)

Cartoons - Getting Started

Last week I ended up buying a couple of books on cartoon drawing. I have been thinking about going to Barnes and Noble for several months, but couldn't get it to it until last week.

But when I got home with the books, it turned out that Diya and Aadi were more interested in getting started than I am.

Here's the 1st lesson and Aadi's sketch!

Mishti

This Christmas Santa had a special present for all of us – Mishti! The kids are thrilled and Mishti has filled our lives in a way only a puppy can. She is with everyone and everywhere and into everything at the same time.

She is absolutely fearless and quite adventurous. She simply cannot be contained. She jumps over baby gates, she crawls under the TV stand, she sneaks behind the sofa,  she flies up and down the stairs, she dashes out in the snow even in the arctic cold we have right now. She causes so much mischief that our friend Ken has coined a new word for her, Mishti-evious !

She clearly prefers the  kids over the adults. She is constantly following Diya around and Aadi is her favorite play-pal as she likes his toys ! She is constantly trying to pick up one of his matchbox cars and then the Aadi-Mishti chase begins and is a sight to behold. With me her business is all about potty training. With Suvo, her relationship is about chewing his stuff – the dozens of wires he has lying around the house, his slippers, his office bag!  Infact we cannot leave her out of our sight for a minute because you never know what she will start eating. Little Mish-terror!

We were initially very hesitant to bring home a new puppy – given how busy we are already and the winter etc etc. All those worries are gone. Mishti is trying so hard to be a good puppy – she eats on schedule, sleeps through the night and is a trooper when it comes to potty training. She has also brought a step change in the kids behaviors – Diya is a “proud little Mamma” who puts Mishti’s needs before her own and Aadi is trying to be a big brother, constantly worried that Mishti will get hurt or chew something small and choke. We are now thoroughly convinced it was no Mish-take,  Mishti was meant to be part of our family and we are completely Mishti-fied !