Introducing sports to kids

We started to introduce sports activities to Dhanesh one by one. We showed him the badminton racket and shuttlecock in native.

He immediately jumped and said "hey two kosu bat".

We had been using Electronic-Mosquito-Swatter / Electronic-Fly-Swatter since Dhanesh was a toddler.  The "Mosquito Bat" rather we call it as "kosu bat" (nativity name for mosquito)


below is the picture for mosquito bat. The one on right is with torch and is Dhanesh favourite as he used to play with it by covering the torch light with hankey.

 It took some time for him to understand that it is a sport item. We demonstrated how to play.

He wanted to play with that , but the bat was tall enough as him. Initially, he had bit tough time to play with.  Too early to play badminton at the age of three. Still he went on to play as he had experience with swatting using the mosquito bat.

Picture Courtesy:  from Google images. 

--Dhanesh Amma

குட்டி குறும்பு [5] - அம்மாக்கு வழி தெரியாது...

ஒரு வருடம் முன்பு, நாங்க வீடு மாற்றி , புது வீட்டில் வசிக்க ஆரம்பித்த சமயம் நடந்த சம்பவம்.

ஒரு நாள் மாலை, அருகில் இருக்கும் கடை செல்ல தீர்மானித போது , தாணு நடக்க மாட்டேன் , பைக்ல போலாம் என்றான். ரெண்டு தெரு தள்ளி இருக்கும் கடைக்கு பைக்கா  என்று யோசித்தவர் , சரி என்று பைக்கில் செல்ல முடிவானது.

கடை வாசலில் பார்கிங் செய்ய விரும்பாது என்னை மட்டும் அனுப்பினார். தாணு அவங்க அப்பா கூட ஒரே கதை. நான் திரும்பி வந்து பைக்கில் உட்கார்ந்ததை கவனிக்கவே இல்லை. வண்டி ஸ்டார்ட் ஆனதும் கத்த ஆரம்பித்து விட்டான்.

அப்பா , நிப்பாட்டு . அம்மா இன்னும் வரலை.
அம்மா வர லேட் பண்றால்ல, நடந்து வரட்டும் என்றார் அப்பா.
அம்மாக்கு வீட்டுக்கு வர வழி தெரியாது. கடைக்கு திரும்ப போ...
அப்படியா , பரவால்ல தம்பி நாம வேற அம்மா வாங்கிக்கலாம். வீட்டுக்கு போலாம் இப்போ என்றார்.
எனக்கு வேற அம்மா வேண்டாம் . இந்த அம்மா தான் வேணும். திரும்பி கடைக்கு போ என்றான்.

அதற்குள் வீடு வந்து விட , பின்னால் இருந்து இறங்கி அவன் முன் சென்று சிரித்தேன்.

தாணு என்னை பார்த்த பார்வை.. பைக்ல அமைதியா உட்கார்ந்துட்டு , என்னை டென்ஷன் படுத்திட்ட இல்ல என்பது போல இருந்தது..

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா 

Unpaid tenant

Last month, as people demolished and cleaned-up the garden in front of our house , a family of mice entered to our house.We had struggled a lot to send them all out except one.

That mischievous creature is well settled and enjoying the life in all the room. We see them running from kitchen to bedroom and to the bathroom. So far it has spoiled couple of books too. We need to catch him before he starts to spoil our dresses and bedsheets in cupboards as the wooden cupboard has a gap and today the moment I opened the door, he/she jumped out of it and ran away in a fraction of second.

We tried the capturing device using a piece of coconut to catch him red headed.

Next day we saw coconut was not there, but the culprit had escaped. Uhh.. it looks the mice is saying "catch me if you can..."


Now the fellow is staying in our house, eating our food and having a comfortable stay for more than a month, but not bothered to pay us rent.

From the way it appears, looks like moonjuru eli , which is a vahanam of Lord Ganesha. People are telling this creature visiting home is good and we are not supposed to kill it. Visiting is okay, but he is visiting outside and staying in our house. We are not completely sure if it is moonjuru eli. Also to our bad luck,  if it makes one of shelf as labor ward, we will soon have a family of mice in our home. It once happened in my native ten years back. A rat used my old notebooks as bed and gave birth to half dozen ones.

Already we have lot of tasks in the to-do list, but this one has taken high priority now.

We cannot send him out and be relaxed unless the bathroom wooden door hole is sealed. It will come back how many times we send him out.

Our goal is to catch him. Lets see how long it's going to take..

Picture Courtesy: Google images.

--Dhanesh Amma

Life style changes... (part 1)

  When I was a kid, breakfast/dinner food would mean idly, dosai , upma , pongal. Those delicious chappathi kuruma and poori masala would be prepared occasionally. We considered it as feast. (Note: No pictures posted , as I don't want to make it a feel that of cookery blog by posting food pictures.)

But as days moved on, for the next generation, chappathi and poori went as a routine item and noodles and parotta were considered special. Now after the arrival of pizza and burger, those food we cherished and enjoyed became a normal food.

Doctors are saying, those pizza and burger are not much nutritious and only high in calories and cause danger to future generation if consumed frequently.

We have to make kids understand that those food are to be had occasionally and not as a regular part of meal frequently.

Okay. At-least parents are there to tell their kids. But how about cattle ? Those poor creatures cannot speak and they have to eat what ever their masters provide.

I have seen cattle eating grass, dry grass (vaikol) , and all grains , soy, corn etc..  But these days cattle which are grown up in the city are fed with cooked rice (the no-price one [subsidized completely] which is given by the Government ) and the spoiled vegetables got at cheap rate from market and peeled of skin of fruits and vegetables etc.

sad to see those creatures too. They also roam in city and eat the food items thrown in the streets. People throw them in carry bags and these creatures dont know how to open it up, so they chew it with the cover. It is said that these bags are getting deposited in animals stomach.

Human , by their life style changes affect not only themselves, but also these poor creatures.

P.S: As title indicates part2 expected in near future.. 


Update: Read part2 here

-- Dhanesh Amma

குட்டி குறும்பு [4] - நானும் வரேன் பரீட்சைக்கு...

இரு மாதம் முன்பு, அத்தை ஒரு நாள் காலை சென்னை வந்ததும், ஒரே சந்தோஷம் மருமகனுக்கு. அத்தை நாம விளையாடலாமா என்று கேட்டான். பரீட்சைக்கு போயிட்டு வந்து உன்கூட விளையாடுறேன் கண்ணு என்று சொன்னதும். அப்போ நானும் உன்கூட பரீட்சைக்கு வரேன் என்றான். உடனே அத்தை , சின்ன பசங்க எல்லாம் பரிச்சைக்கு வர கூடாதுன்னு சொன்னங்க தம்பி என்றார். உடனே "ஏன் ?" என்று தாணு கேட்க , அவங்க அப்பா , அத்தைக்கு கேள்விக்கு பதில் எல்லாம் சொல்லி கொடுத்திருவ இல்ல , அதனால தான் என்றார்.

தாணு அதற்கும் அசராமல் , அத்தை நான் உனக்கு சொல்லி கொடுக்காம , அமைதியா உன் மடியிலேய உட்கார்ந்துகிறேன் , என்னையும் கூட்டிட்டு போ என்றான்.. பாவம் அவன், அத்தை அப்பாக்கு தான் சங்கடமா போச்சு. சின்ன பிள்ளைகள் வரகூடாது, பிடித்து வைத்து கொள்வார்கள் என்று சமாளித்து பரீட்சைக்கு சென்றார்கள்...

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா

Travel Vaccine Recommendation for South Africa

 Two years back, my friend got an offer to work on-site. It was to South Africa.

At first he was in idea to take it up, but on knowing that we have to get yellow fever vaccine couple of weeks before travel and mosquitoes are high in South Africa , he preferred to say offshore.

Picture Courtesy:  from Google images. 

I was thinking, when Africa and South America has this yellow fever vaccine for outsiders, Asia (of course India) should have something else.

On checking internet, I could find a list posted by a Doctor.

http://dr-razavi.blogspot.in/2006/03/travel-vaccine-recommendations-for.html

The list would be quite scary to some, but to me it was like a breeze.

We had born in this country, had most of these vaccines and enjoying our life.

--Dhanesh Amma

DD's favourite game

Deepak is  crawling around the house, however Dhanesh runs. Still, what ever Dhanesh takes,  be it a paper/pencil or toy/gadget or  tricycle/bicycle, Deepak demands for it.  When Dhanesh gives the stuff he has in his hand to Deepak and picks up a new one, Deepak is right behind him for grabbing that too. There was no item where both could work together.


I was under impression that it would take a year still for Dhanu & Deepu to play together without grabbing from each other. I was wrong.


They found a common game to play together. Guess what ? It's the electrical two way switch along the cot side.


Deepak would hold a hand to the wall and use the other hand to knock the switches. Dhanesh would be right near by, to switch it ON if Deepak switches it OFF.


This has become their favorite time-pass event.


below is the picture clicked when DD's [ Dhanesh & Deepak  in short ] were busy with their play.

What? checking if the image is not loaded correctly ? Image loaded correctly. It is a blank image.
DD's DD [Dhanesh Deepak 's Dear Dad in short] felt not to put kids image on web and I too felt the same.


We might change our decision in future. So for now, picture is left to your imagination.


--Dhanesh Amma