Saturday 3 September 2011

Shruti's Pronunciation and Story Telling @ 2 yrs and 2 months

I must write about Shruti's pronunciation of certain words. She says 'Mickey Mouse' as ' Kimmey Pouf', 'Pig' as 'Gip', 'Frog' as 'Gof', 'Monkey' as 'Kumkey', 'Dog' as 'Gog'. I was thinking, if this is going to be a problem, but she can speak other words properly. Everybody likes these words of hers and asks her to repeat.. It's fun!

Next her story telling and rhymes - She can give the hints for us to develop the story.
For eg.'
'The thirsty Crow' - Kakka (Crow) - kal (Stones)- panai (Pot) - Thanni (water)- mela (top) - Num Num Num (Drink)
'Money and Cap seller' - Kumkey (Monkey) - Tree - Cap - Aiya (Cap seller) - all others in action (throwing caps)

For rhymes, you have to hear the tune and actions to find out the rhymes:
Teddy bear, Teddy bear turn around - She will turn around, bend down to touch the ground and polish her shoes, and put her hands on the shoulders to take the bag to school
Ringa Ringa Roses - She will go around, say words like 'Hush', 'Busha', and 'Down' and sit down

You can hear more stories and rhymes from her. She can even remember small things which happened some months back and tell you about it.. Amazing kids!

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Shruti: 1 year and 8 months - shape identification

Shruti was able to identify images for quite sometime, she cannot tell, but can identify whatever you ask her from a picture book. I was astonished to see her identifying 'A' from the car number board, a week back. Now, she can also identify M, O, S. She also know that 'S' signifies Shruti. If you ask her, 'Where is S- Shruti?', she can show the letter 'S'. All credit goes to my Mother.

However I draw a crow, fan, cycle, mixie, auto, car, moon, star, feeding bottle, flower, chair, table, elephant, she identifies. Moment to feel good about my drawing skills.

Inside a car, she can point out where the gear, steering, mirror, AC, lock, seat, horn.

This is the time to teach them everything. Good Grasping power.

Friday 18 March 2011

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Shruti - 1 year and 8 months

Now, Shruti has started to talk, over the last one week. Don't remember exactly how and when she started, but it just happened! Some of her first few words after amma - kaakka (crow), paapa (baby), thatha (grandfather), Daddy (finally, her father is happy to hear this), vaava (come), .....thi (Shruti), .....kka (sister), ....nna (brother) and trying out more. Very nice to hear their first speech!

Shruti's first ride on a scooty: I never thought Shruti could stand in front and travel on the Scooty. She was crying when I took my scooty over the weekend. So I gave took her on the vehicle with some doubts. But she could stand properly and she thoroughly enjoyed the small rounds we made. When she became confident standing, she started turning around, which was little scary and I had to manage.

Her time-pass with dhal

Saturday 19 February 2011

Rise to an MD with courage

Heard about an MD from my cab friend! Worked in SBI and shifted to BHEL. BHEL has external recruitment once in a while. Internal candidates can also apply. KG Ramachandran rose to different levels in the organisation by applying externally for every level. Few lines on KG Rachandran from the net.

Mr K.G. Ramachandran obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Commerce from Mysore University and Bachelor's degree in
Law from the Bangalore University. He is also an Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He started his working career in 1968 as an officer with SBI. He worked with SBI till 1983 when he was the Deputy Chief Officer in-charge of industrial lending. He migrated to Bahrain to take up a job in credit administration with the offshore banking unit of the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait. He returned to India for personal reasons in 1993 and joined BHEL. He played an important role in setting up the new Financial Services Department to take care of treasury, cash management and foreign exchange exposure management functions. He was elevated to the Board of Directors of BHEL in November 1993 as Finance Director. He became Chairman and Managing Director of BHEL

Monday 14 February 2011

A gift to remember!

A boy and a girl, with a blossoming friendship go out to dinner with a gang of friends. They have good food, lot of fun and an icecream treat. It should be around 10 pm and all the friends walk back to their rooms in the dark and cold night. They make noise in that otherwise silent surrounding, teasing each other. Girl boy ratio will be around 4:11. The girls too walk in that night without fear, with a gang of reliable friends. They move in a group of 2 or 3 behind each other, leaving the monstrous trucks to pass by them.

The girl is also walking in this group with her new pair of slippers and the boy behind her. One small sound 'tup' and a small slip by the girl. She notices her slippers torn, the boy had stamped it. Almost one km to walk and with torn slippers, the girl finds it difficult to reach to her room. She heard the 'sorry' word again and again throughout the way, but nobody could help her. He said he will buy her a new one. The next few days passed as usual .



Time came when the group of friends had to split. They exchanged small gifts. The girl got a gift, a beautiful bridal toy shoe with a small note 'I promised to buy you shoes. Here it is.. (after all I tore the good one). Oh! I forgot to give you the other one. If you want, please contact me later'. There was only one shoe! The girl felt very happy seeing the gift. She wanted the other shoe. She felt disappointed when she came to know that the other shoe was with her room mate. She felt happy when she read the note to her friend, which also mentioned about her. Doesn't this seem to be creating a new relationship more than friendship?!

Friday 11 February 2011

My Pongal Kolam in Vellore

Some Auto Incidents

Funny and stupid!
I took an auto to reach office. I said to the driver 'Chellamal college signal'. The driver nodded, and rates agreed. We travelled through venkatnarayana Road. Auto driver took left before the signal, where we had to take right. I thought he know a better way to reach Guindy, where the though process itself was so stupid. He almost reached Teynampet, when I asked where he was taking me. He said he is going to 'Stella Mary's college'. Then I argued with him and found that he really heard the destination wrongly. He didn't fight with me much though. Then he dropped me in Office. I paid him 10 rupees extra.
Learnings:
1. I started telling 'Guindy Chellamal college signal' or my Office which has now become the landmark there
2. When in doubt, don't assume, but ask

Lost!
I missed my mobile in auto, don't know the model number but after losing, I was not so sad. It was an old model and happy that I could buy a new one. But still not the latest or the popular mobile. I have only seen in movies, where auto drivers return back stuff left in the auto. Rajinikanth in Basha returning diamonds!! I remember an incident where I went with my mother, grandmother and brother to a relatives home. We bought nice sweets and snacks from Adayar Ananda Bhavan. We place the sweets behind the seat in auto. We reached their house in Perambur and everybody got down forgetting the sweets and snacks in the auto. We realised after we entered their house and couldn't trace the auto. Here too, the auto driver didn't return. He must have really had a party!

Friday 4 February 2011

Experience with Autos

Actually, I like autos and like the ventilation aspect of autos compared to closed car. I wanted to own an auto initially, but no one liked my idea. I am mostly dependent on autos for my travel and hence had this idea. But my husband got a small car instead. I am still not comfortale driving the car alone, since no one had the courage to sit with me and guide me drive. So, my dependency on auto continues....

Travelling  by Auto from Central Station to Anna Nagar, to my Grandmother's place was a routine during summer holidays when we were kids. That was the time when I know only Anna Nagar in Chennai. I remember my father bargaining with the auto drivers on the fare. With my father, auto drivers always got bonus. Didn't use autos much in Vellore (my hometown), where my school was just 10 minutes by cycle and college was another 10 minutes by college bus. So auto holds a place in the memories of my summer holidays in Chennai.

Landed in chennai to work and travelling by small autos became little more frequent, atleast once a month and other days travel was by share autos. The travel was mostly during the day and never found difficult. Slowly learnt the art of bargaining, but still not mastered. I remember some of the official visits to Bangalore where I had to travel by auto during early morning, when it was still dark. Scared but not showing it to the auto driver, paying more for lesser distance. When I am more scared, I used to message the auto registration number to my husband. They can always trace if I don't reach safely.

Work taught me more of Chennai. Auto trips reduced after I bought my first purple Scooty out of my salary. No bargains, no fears, no fights. I was not dependent on anyone except during rains where I had to again go back to autos. I didn't get to have a pleasant trip by buses, as they are always crowded and hence preferred autos.

Friday 21 January 2011

Shruti 1 year and 6 months - full of actions

What does a one and a half year kid does? Lot of sites actually gives good information on that. Most of the activities matches except for speaking. People say that children at this age speak at least 10 to 20 words. But Shruti is slow.. learnt only 2 - Ma (for everyone) and Idhu? (This? - asks us to identify on all she sees).
She can tell everything by actions. When she
sees a tooth brush - finger on her teeth and brushing movements
sees a comb - on her head
sees a hair dryer  - sound (sssss) with hand movements on her head
bindhi, hair oil, soap, food - everything in action
"No" - Strong head movements especially for food!
She imitates everything we do. Recently, paati (Grandmother) got fracture in her ankles, operated and now on rest. One day, she saw her limping on her legs to move and from  then on, imitating her.
Sounds of animals :
elephant - aaaaah
crow -kkkccaaaaa
horse - toku toku
gotat - aaaaaah
Actually, good to see their learning phase. Kids understand everything we speak to them at this age.