Bachpan ke din bhi kya din the

Albert Einstein once said "Imagination is more important than knowledge". I don't know about that but it certainly is way more fun. Do you remember the times when your imagination worked over-time giving shape to some kick-ass ideas and concepts? I have a good laugh even now when I look back on the silly ideas of those times.

1. Back in those days when biology and anatomy were still alien words to me, I had formulated a theory on how we grow tall -Here goes: The food we eat travels downwards in our body (of course gravity did not have to do anything with this!). When we have consumed enough and there is no more space, the pressure on our feet enables our body to expand magically as if somebody was pulling us from both ends. Imagine how tall we would have all been!

2. Back in those times when the shape of the world (not earth) was not even a question, my brother and I would "line up" all the countries we knew (thanks to our cricket loving dad). So in our world, Zimbabwe was the "last" country and Australia was the "first" and so on.

3. I discovered this not very long ago. We used to shout "timple" ("ti" as in tie and "mple" as in temple) when we played chase and catch games (joot ata, lock and key etc). This was typically used when somebody needed a break from running. Had no idea what this meant and did not care at that time. Turned out to be an abbreviation for "time please" - time pl.

4. Remember mugging the tables in those kg classes? When the whole class used to chant in one single breath - "one one za one, one two za two....two ten za twenty"...? The "za" like sound there was of no concern to me and in my mind, I associated it with the "=" sign because of the way we write this: 2 x 10 = 20. Learnt later that what we were actually trying to say was "two ones are two... two tens are twenty".

5. ICE PICE - This is another classic. We used to play hide and seek. Folks called it ice-pice and so did I. In reality, it stands for eye-spies :)

I can remember only these many for now, but I am sure there are many more hidden in the crevices of my mind. It was a fun exercise never the less. I like to think that I am not the only one with these many misunderstandings to account for. I tag all the readers of this post to list 5 or more such misconceptions, silliness etc etc you may have had as a kid or even as a grown-up. Unleash your "bachpanapan" and let's have some good laugh!

Cheers!

Bitter truth

All this time, I had faith. Not in the corrupt system but in basic human sense of ethics and morality. I have heard folks complain about trust issues - oh, in India getting this done would take ages, oh, in India you cant dream of doing this without getting duped or bribing or facing zillions of obstacles at every step - but pooh poohed such claims all along, branding the owners of such sentiments as firangi-lovers, paranoids and what not. What was I thinking? What did I base my confidence on? True, I am an Indian, have lived in India for the better part of my life. But am I qualified to comment on or repudiate such claims? Do I have experience in dealing with the "system" out there? The answer is a BIG NO! I will not go into the painful details but I will say this - for the past one month, we have been facing one nightmarish issue after another regarding an investment in Bangalore, right at the last minute. I feel so let down, I have no words for it. I hope I have not misled anyone based on my misplaced confidence.

On a related note, this experience makes me re-consider my whole "we will go back to India" stand. I can mentally prepare for the bad traffic conditions, power-cuts, water problems et al, prior experience prepares you for these things. What scares me is the thought that we would need to start worrying about things we take for granted here - like times when I need gas connection, telephone connection, have electricity issues and other basic necessities. I am not used to fighting with the system for such mundane needs. I am spoiled by how smooth and seamlessly such things get done here, in this part of the world. I have always maintained that there are pros and cons of living in either San Jose or Bangalore, Its just that right now, to my mind, the cons of living in Bangalore seem to outweigh any other parameter big time.

A nostalgic friday

I was at work, trying to get my work done as early as possible and I see this e-mail in my inbox. It was about a picassa album link for VVSHS (my high school) alumni meet photos. Oh good, I can see them later at home, I thought. But no, curiosity got the better of me and I had to see the photos right then. Curiosity about what, you ask? To get a glimpse of my teachers of course. Surely, I did get to see all of my teachers and I have to say this - how well they have aged!! I don't know why but going through those photos made my heart beat faster. Even after all these years - seems like a lifetime now, it is amazing how they have the same impact on you. Seeing them there, blissfully sitting among the students against the hauntingly familiar school yard as the backdrop, I was transported to those good old days. Myriad of emotions gush through me - respect and gratitude for the teachers who have created lasting, indelible memories. These are people I have some of the fondest memories of.
Oh! to go back to those days of arguing with teachers for an extra 1/2 a mark. I remember, our monthly tests had 1/4th total marks (of final exam) for each subject. So math, science, social studies, english and kannada were f0r 25 marks and Sanskrit was for 31.5 (because in the final exam, it was for 125, well not 1/4th exactly). Half the class used to have 30.5 in sanskrit. If by chance you fall in the other half, even if you land a 30, you try your best to find loopholes in the correction (the great AV at his funniest saying "ardha markle en agthada, thogo hogli") and get that 1/2 mark by hook or crook. I remember how I used to suck at drawing India map. This one time our social studies question paper had only 4 questions, each of them needed the map to be drawn. I ended up with 4/25 on that paper and my crying knew no end for days to come. The fact that 11 was the highest was no consolation what so ever. The best part was of course the school timing - 12 pm to 5:30 pm. No need to wake up early in the morning! Saturday though was 7:30 to 11:30 and I ended up bunking most of them ;). I have rattled on and I can go on for pages but I think I will stop here.

Naman's corner: To say that he is a brat is an understatement. The sweet, innocent baby is fast turning out to be a master manipulator. Not yet 6 months, he just has to have his way in everything. He is still trying hard to crawl but I think it will take some time before he gets there. His interest to sit on his own has diminished, he now wants to stand up and pulls himself up all the time. He also tries to move on his butt when we try to make him sit. In short, you spend an hour or 2 handling him and you get a nice work out :) Oh and his dad got him a new friend - "my pal scout". It is basically a toy puppy which can be programmed to talk. It is cute but it cannot pronounce the name Naman. So we chose his nickame as "champ". Scout sings some rhymes, chants "I love you champ" and stuff like that. Naman doesn't get these still, all he wants is the pup's nose and to lick it all over.