Crow calls

A crow was making a call , when Dhanu was chatting with me. He told me, "Ma, crow is making sound"

I replied him, "Yes. It is calling another fellow crow by making sound as 'kaw kaw'"

I was thinking that, he would then ask me a question, why it is calling another crow.
However he responded, "No amma. you are wrong. it is not calling 'kaw kaw', it is calling "Kraw Kraw".

He was not ready to accept crow will call as kaw kaw. He said, "listen carefully again. It is saying 'Kraw Kraw' only.

In fact, during my child hood days, I too have observed and thought , crow is making sound as Kraw, may be that's why it is referred as Crow in english but we tamilians refer as Kagam or Kakka in tamil.

On a second thought, Instead of  "kaw kaw" what if we call as "kraw kraw" ? I am sure crow would be right in front of us to pick the food. Readers may give a try if you are not ready to believe me.

Crow has different types of calling based on situation. refer to the link here  for hearing its different calls

Conversation with Dhanu on Crow made me recollect the happenings during my school days.

 We used to feed crows and few became regular visitors to our home at morning 8AM when we have breakfast. They would keep calling till we open back door and give food. We give some snack be it a papad or  biscuit when food is not ready or available at home.

Appa would keep food for crows and sit for breakfast. When we have food, few crows would come and empty the food we had kept. It would keep calling us to give more. Appa , who does not will to move out to keep food, would toss out the idly pieces. Some crow would pick and fly away, some would pick and sit on compound wall and eat.  One crow would just pick the food , come to door and sit on the wooden frame on floor and eat. I am sure it was ready to come inside the room and dine with us.

We cannot just like that identify a crow from group of crows, But crows can identify us easily.

The crow had well acquaintance with us and became a pet bird. It would not fear to come near us and pick the food from our hands. I even shot a photo of my sister feeding that crow.

--Dhanesh Amma

gmail and dots

Do you guys know that gmail does not treat the dot as a character in the email address ?

say if your email address is : my.pet.name@gmail.com

then mypetname@gmail.com , mypet.name@gmail.com , m.y.p.e.t.n.a.m.e@gmail.com are all your email address only.

check out the support link from google for details.



--Dhanesh Amma

Whom you want to be?

This happened when I was doing seventh standard in school. One day class teacher while about to leave the class in evening asked  "like whom you want to become?" There would be one or two in a class, who would be right there to speak out an answer when teacher asks a question. Immediately one girl said, i want to become engineer.

Teacher then told, My question is not what you want to become, but "like whom you want to become". Students were quiet for few seconds. Teacher then asked us to think and come with an answer on the question tomorrow.

next day after prayer, she asked us to answer in order from first bench. I had only couple of students before me as I was also seated in front bench. One of the disadvantage with the first bench. You cannot listen to rest of class answers and change your answer in last minute if you find others answer better.

First one told, I want to become an engineer like my father, next one told, I want to do service like Mother Teressa, It was my turn and  I answered "I want to become teacher" . My class teacher told, i want you to point a person.

Ah I know. My mother is a teacher, few of my aunts were teachers. I have also observed some dozen teachers right from my kinder garden. But why I should I point someone ? I don't have to become a teacher like them. I have my own style. But this teacher wont allow me to sit, unless I point some person. So I told , I want to become a college teacher like my mother. Teacher said "ok". Hmm.. I can sit now. My turn is over and I can watch my fellow classmates.

There came many answer pointing some one for  scientist, astronaut , sports person, singers, musicians etc etc. Towards the end, one tall girl said " I want to be myself". Class teacher smiled and said. This is what I was looking for. One should have their own originality. We should not try to be like others. But be unique as yourself. Then she asked the student who gave this answer to her. Classmate kept smiling and said again and again that she is telling of her own. I don't know if it is true or not, or the teacher believed it or not, that's off the topic.

When I was about to complete my degree I understood that teaching is not my cup of tea. Few suggested that teaching is best suited for females, fixed working time and summer vacation etc etc and I should consider doing MPhil or MEd. I did not want to do those. I had an option of becoming Research Assistant  and take up teaching to students. However my resume was rejected as I did not furnish the degree certificate/ provisional certificate for attending interview. That closed the option of me teaching for students temporarily too.

I respect the teaching profession and teachers.

On this teachers day, I pray God for the well being of my beloved teachers.

--Dhanesh Amma

குட்டி குறும்பு [6] - பெட் , பில்லோ இருக்கா அம்மா ?

சென்ற வருடம் இதே சமயம் , தீபக் என் வயிற்றில் ஆறு மாதம். தாணுவின் சின்ன உலகத்தில், அம்மா அப்பா என்ற இருவரை தவிர மூன்றாவதாக தம்பி அல்லது தங்கை உண்டு என்பதை நாங்கள் அவனுக்கு சொல்லி கொண்டு இருந்தோம்.

உனக்கு தம்பி பாப்பா வேணுமா இல்ல தங்கச்சி பாப்பா வேணுமா என்றால் எப்பவும் தம்பி என்றே பதில் வரும். ஒரு நாள் பாப்பா என்ன பண்றாரு என்று கேட்டான். நான் பாப்பா தூங்குது. சின்ன பாப்பா இல்ல ரொம்ப நேரம் தூங்கும் என்றேன். உடனே "உள்ளே பெட் பில்லோ எல்லாம் இருக்கா அம்மா ? " என்றான்.

ஒரு விநாடி யோசித்த நான் , இருக்கு தம்பி. உள்ள மெத்து மெத்துன்னு தான் இருக்கும் என்றேன்.

எப்படி எல்லாம் யோசிக்கிறாங்க இந்த காலத்து பிள்ளைகள்..

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா

tenant vacated

This is after post of my entry about unpaid tenant to our home. He has vacated our house a week back.

Infact not only vacated our home, but also from the world. The creature was a small rat (sundeli) and he had been caught in the trap while attempting to eat the coconut piece.

 He was quiet a nice fellow. Did not give much work for us to clean the trap. Soft attack and hence it looks the creature is sleeping. He became food for a crow the moment we throwed him on the road.

Below is the picture captured , fellow captured in trap.

--Dhanesh Amma

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