Kids grow very fast than what we think....

When Dhanesh was one year old, Before Christmas, many houses had stars with light. He liked them and wanted to have one. It's too early to convince him that we don't do that. So I bought a small star , used a night lamp bulb and hung the star in bedroom. He enjoyed watching it every day.

This became a practice in our home every year. The star was hung in hall and Deepak also started enjoying it.

This year when I hung it, Dhanesh asked me, only Christians celebrate Christmas, why do we tie this star inside our house?

I then explained him what had happened when he was one year old. He then asked , when we will remove it? I replied him telling as it is hung now, lets remove after new year. 

Above photo taken today before it was removed. It will go on for hibernation for a year. If Deepak does not ask for it next year, it will go for hibernation for ever.

-- Dhanesh Amma

Bicycle

Have you read about my post on Tricycle ? If not click here


My paternal grand father and my spouse's maternal grandfather were running rental cycle shop at home as additional job. However I had not been lucky enough to see them in person. I got to see the photos of the grandpas, but not the cycle shops.

In those days, affording a bicycle is very costly and people take rental bicycle based on hours. I had also learnt cycling in rental bicycle only.

I got my first bicycle upon completing my standard ten. It is still lying in my home at native. I hope in few years, Dhanesh will be able to use it.

Dhanesh is lucky enough to get his bicycle when he was just four years old. He was continuously requesting his grandfather for bicycle. My father went to shop with my brother and got the one below.

Dhanesh got upset, as he was not taken to shop and not allowed to see and select the one he liked. My father preferred to buy the quality one and select as the shop fellow will not come for bargain if the kids are adamant to buy the cycle. Initially Dhanesh did not like the color saying as Pink is for girls. We convinced him saying this cycle is quality one and other cycles in shop was not good.

My father, having experienced in his father's cycle shop, does all the repairs of his and my bicycle by himself. puncture fixing, tube change, seat change or what ever it is. Me and my sister used to watch it when ever he does the puncture fixing work. It is equally important to know the minor repair works also , in addition to riding on any vehicle, be it bicycle or bike or car or other.

This generation kids, want to ride on bike before they step on to college. They don't prefer to pick up their bicycle after that.

--Dhanesh Amma

Tricycle

I remember riding on my tricycle with my my younger sister when I was young. It was a two seat-er. However I do not remember when and where it was bought and where it is now. I did not have passion for cycling so I did not bother much.

Now, we have a tricycle at home which was bought for Dhanesh by his grand father before he could walk and run steady.

The same cycle is used by his brother Deepak now. In this five years time the pedal of the cycle has been changed thrice.

The pedal gets damaged soon as the kids pedal them fast and hit on wall. They also invert the cycle and sit on rod to pedal the front wheel with hands. Good that spares are available in market otherwise we had to replace tricycle every time.

Last time, while we were returning from the shop with the spare pedal , one man asked where this spare is available as his grand son tricycle also having the same issue. 

Though Dhanesh is grown up and rides on bicycle, he is fond of this tricycle and uses it still. I only hope Deepak also shifts to bicycle soon and  the tricycle does not require addition pedal change.

--Dhanesh Amma

Flying Fan toys

Kids get bored easily. They need variety of toys every day. Recently I got these below toys at nearby shop, which would make kids busy for a while.

They were called as flying fan.

Hold the fan between your palms with the fan blades on top.,Give a twist to the stick by moving your right hand and release to see the fan to raise top and come down with swirl.

Hold the stick with your left hand and use your right hand and push the small piece upwards to see the fan raising up with full speed and slide down with swirl.

--Dhanesh Amma

Video Games

This post is written as SPGR has invited me to blog on it..


I was introduced to video games in Trichy Super Bazaar by my dad. The place which will be covered by most of the men and boys. I had not seen girls in that shop when ever i visited.  The shop appearance was well described by SPGR already. I think the shop charged one rupee for an hour. A long wait for the turn and my dad used to play in it. I was given chance to play towards the end of one hour duration.  I had played the shooting game there.After few such visits, I got bored in long waiting and not interested to be among crowd of boys, stopped going with my dad.

Then my father got us a brick video game as shown in the above picture. We have played in this for hours. 

When we got the computer at home, we installed many games and played in it. Mario, Prince, Aladdin Dave , Wolf , that's all I remember now. Out of these games, I had completed Aladdin and Wolf.

Out of above listed games, Aladdin is my favorite. The game is colorful and enjoyable one. 

Later, I have got chances to play games online. My favorite is book worm. 

After a while, I was introduced to Zynga's FarmVille,  which I lost interest in playing as it required co-players. 

I forgot to mention that I have played many games in the mobiles I had so far. Below are some of them which I liked.

 snake game     

galaxy balls (a type of brick game)

      ninja's fruit cut game

Now , I have option to download and play games in mobile, but for sake of Dhanesh and Deepak, I am forced to uninstall them after few attempt of playing.

These games are addicting, that it eats hours of our time. 

Now, the gaming zone at the big shopping mall suck thousand rupees in just one hour, as each game work only for few minutes and they charge 25 to 50 rupees for each game. They call it as gaming zone. Actually they should rename it as Casino, as most of them are lottery based and issue tickets based on numbers. The tickets cannot be redeemed as cash, but for toys or added to account for playing the games again. 

-- Dhanesh Amma

'துப்பாக்கி'யா, 'கத்தி'யா

நேத்து கத்தி படம் பார்த்தேங்க... படத்த பத்தி கமெண்ட் சொல்லனும்னா அது மொன்ன கத்தி தாங்க. 

துப்பாக்கி ஹிட் ஆனதாலே கதிரேசன்  கத்தி-யானார், இருந்தாலும் வெறும் டைட்டில் வச்சு படம் ஓடுறது இல்லியே...

நான் படத்த பத்தி பேச வரலைங்க...படம் பார்த்த இடத்தை பத்தி தாங்க பேச வந்தேன்...

சென்னைல, "வான நடை" மாலில் உள்ள தியேட்டர்ல தாங்க படம் பார்த்தோம்.  ஒரு டிக்கெட் 120 ரூபாய் . டிக்கெட் கவுன்ட்டர்ல பாக்ஸ் புல்லா 10 ரூபாய் சாக்லேட் வச்சிருக்காங்க . மூணு டிக்கெட் கேட்டு 500 ரூபாய் கொடுத்தா மீதி 140 ரூபாய் தராம , 120 ரூபாய் , இரண்டு  10 ரூபாய் சாக்லேட் தராங்க. சாக்லேட்  வேண்டாம் பணம் தாங்க என்றால் , சில்லறை இல்லை 60 ரூபாய் கொடுங்க என்கிறார். சில்லறை கொடுத்து டிக்கெட் வாங்கினோம் .

டிக்கெட் காண்பித்தால் தான் , தியேட்டர் உள்ளே விடுவார்கள். உள்ளே ஏகப்பட்ட செக்யூரிட்டி செக்கிங் . பெண்களுக்கு தனி செக்யூரிட்டி செக். ஹன்ட்பாக் செக் பண்ணனும் என்றார்கள் . 

நான் கூட துப்பாக்கி , கத்தி இருக்கானு செக் பண்றாங்கன்னு நினைச்சேன். அனால் கேமரா , ஸ்நாக்ஸ் இருக்கான்னு கேட்டாங்க. இல்லைன்னு சொன்னதும் விட்டுட்டாங்க. 

குழந்தைகளுடன் செல்வதனாலும் பிஸ்கட் கூட அனுமதிப்பது இல்லை. அட்லீஸ்ட் வாட்டர் பாட்டில் அனுமதிக்கிறார்கள், அதுவும் குழந்தைகளுடன் சென்றால். 

சின்ன  வயசுல அப்பா அம்மா கூட , 70 எம் எம் ல படம் பார்க்க போகும்போது ஒரு கவர் நிறைய தீனி கொண்டுபோவோம் . அதை தீர்த்துட்டு பிரேக் டைம்ல அப்பா கிட்ட  பாப்கார்ன் , சம்சா , முறுக்கு எல்லாம் வாங்கி வர சொல்லுவோம். நம்ம ராஜ்கிரண் பாடுறது போல "அது  ஒரு அழகிய கனா காலம்..." தாங்க...

ஆனா , இப்போ உள்ளே ஸ்நாக்ஸ்  அனுமதிப்பது இல்லை (டிக்கெட் விற்பவன் கொடுக்கும் சில்லறை(?) சாக்லேட் தவிர). உள்ளே விற்கும் ஒரு பாப்கார்ன் கப்  150 ரூபாய் . ஒரு பப்ஸ் 70 ரூபாய் 

எதிர்காலத்தில், டிக்கெட் வேணும்னா , ஸ்நாக் கண்டிப்பா வாங்கனும்னு சொல்லுவாங்க போல. 

டிக்கெட் வாங்குவதில்  இருந்து , உள்ளே விற்கும் ஸ்நாக் என்று எல்லா இடத்திலும் , நம்மிடம் இருந்து பல மடங்கு பணம் பெறுகிறார்கள். ஆனாலும் நாம் ஏதோ இலவச  சேவை பெறுவது போல கஸ்டமர் கவனிப்பு. 

உன்னை யாரும் இங்க வர சொல்லலை. நீயா தான் வந்த. இஷ்டம் இருந்தா இரு, இல்லனா போ அப்படிங்கற நிலை தான். ஆனாலும் கூட்டம் அள்ளுது பெரிய ஸ்க்ரீன்ல படம் பார்க்குறதுக்கு.

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா  

Vaikalama ulagathoda oru bet...

Recently I saw an advertisement which made me to laugh out loud.

The lady was telling that their fairness cream was best. They are betting against world countries best fairness creams and their product won the bet.

She was telling that, we are betting against best fairness creams of Dubai, Singapore, Japan and results was much impressing with their product. First I got a doubt, why fairness cream are necessary in a country like Japan, where most of them would be fair enough.

Then I told myself, may be those country are manufacturing and selling product in India. By telling it repeatedly in advertisement, they want to force in viewers mind that their product is the best fairness cream.

Particular fairness cream is not new. It exists in market for decades. When I was a little girl, some of my aunts were using it regularly. Other relatives would ask them, if it really works. Those aunts have replied saying that it does and also suggest others to buy and use it. Now after me observing them after a decade, I would conclude that fairness is not provided by the cream at all. May be it provides a coating to the face and we might look little bright while using it.

By nature, we south Indians are neither fair nor dark. Why don't people allow us to be ourselves. They just want to make us feel guilty that we are not fair enough and force to buy and use something which will do nothing. 

Recently they have started to advertise fairness cream for men also. When my aunt's used the fairness cream, Uncle's at home would say that it is just waste of money. I don't know what Uncle's of this generation are saying now.


-- Dhanesh Amma.