The naming...

One of the few things i enjoy in
being the mother of a toddler
is teaching her stuff.
It is immensely satisfying
more satisfying than feeding her i suppose!
But lately i have been facing a unique problem

1-10 is done. She had problems with 7 but it is all in the past.
She simply rattles away.

A B C D E is done.

T A N Y A is done.

Now comes the part where she really excels...
naming the body parts.
Or rather should i say pointing to the correct parts when we name them.

Eyes is eyes
nose is nose
mouth is mouth.
ears is ears
hair is hair
head is head
leg is leg
hand is hand
stomach is stomach
lips is lips
tongue is tongue.

But it is nails that is the problem.
she knows what a nail is.
but she insists
that
nail is infact the tongue.
i say NO.
She doesnt care. She says NO and points her tiny forefinger
to her tongue when i say nails.
If i insist taking her cue on insisting she gives a roaring NO sound and sticks her finger really hard on her tongue.
She gives me a look which says,

" Didn't you hear me lady, how long is it going to take for me to
get it through your head as to what a nail is!!"
I'm sure she is thinking along those lines.

Well, what can i say
When those big eyes look at me with a certain kind of 'sternness' a tiny doubt creeps in
maybe, just maybe Samuel Johnson did go wrong when he made the dictionary.
Maybe nail is infact the tongue.

What if?

One can get away with all the ridiculous ideas
just by pre-fixing those with' What if?' right?

for instance,
What if someday the sun rises in the west?
What if ours is actually the world of the dead and
the dead are the ones who are actually living??

all such questions which stand on a really thin wire wobbling
some where between idiocy and imagination find their way
in those science fiction movies and thrillers and even books.
But today is not the day we'll be discussing about its stupidity
but a brand new one... ;)

What if there was only one government which governed the entire world?

tut tut tut.... before anybody tries to form any statements,
arguments as to why this isn't possible and how stupid and impractical this whole idea is
well..... just hear me out first.

1. This will not be right now. It will evolve.
If evolution can happen to create perfect human beings (that's subjective i agree) from just a teeny tiny cell, we'll all have to rethink on what we consider as possible and impossible in this world.

2. All the fiscal problems will be solved with single currency system (SCS) ofcourse but before that there is a major problem to be addressed which brings us to point no.3.

3. The demarcation amongst first, second and third world countries could be erased
if only India is let to make a call on that! Reservations of course. (I'm for it by the way) .

4. The population should be distributed almost equally. You know, spread out.
It could start with Rs. 10,000 per person to go to any european country!
No passport or Visa required since the whole world is yours. Just pay for the tickets.
And what's more, those governments which pay their citizens to make
babies in their country will have one less problem to worry about right?
A Bihar from India would suffice. ( Canada and Australia could be helped right away)

5. The form of the govt. will be entirely new. i.e. neither democracy , communism, socialism
capitalism will rule the world. It will be a new form. And that needs to evolve as well as you might all have guessed.

(I had a discussion with people around me here and these were
some problems that could come up.)

Prob 1. Nobody would want to be here then, they'll all migrate to the US, UK, Europe etc.
Ans. After the evolution the whole world would be as pleasant or as dirty so there might not be much of a difference.

Prob 2. And how exactly is this evolution going to take place?
Ans. I don't have answers to all your questions, Why don't you come up with an idea for the start of this evolution.

Prob 3. If all the places look the same where will people go for vacations?
Ans.1. Virtual reality.
Ans 2. Travelling to other planets.
Ans 3. Since each country's history has been different there would still be different
historical stuffs to look at and enjoy.

Prob 4. Language problem?
Ans 1. A new language (english being heterogeneous could infact absorb more words from different languages and decide the best words to be used)
Ans 2. No language required for communication. It's all telepathic.
Ans 3. Translators could be attached to the brains at birth.

Eventhough the above is just a part of the conversation i had with a very patient man
you can all agree that i'm getting somewhere right? So how is the idea?

The walls have opened...

The walls have opened...

The walls have opened ,
the mist has come in,
the stars have sunken,
and the waters are drunken
with wrath, lust, envy
waiting to gush in
twirling and twisting
from beyond the misty mountains,
behind the terrain
from below the valleys
and by the trees,
waiting to gush in.
The earth has shaken
but what really did happen?
alas! the walls never opened,
they were broken.
Broken to let the water come in.
not gush in.
The walls were broken by men
and women.
to let the waters flow in.
NOT gush in!

This is what the media is doing today.
Making the good look bad and
the bad look good
as and when they please.
When all are done reading, writing and
fighting against reservations
you could click on this link.
It might perhaps bring about a teeny tiny
change in your perspectives. GL.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/03/stories/2006060301841000.htm

Something from the past..

It is always curious when there is a power cut.
Because it cuts you off from your routine.
And it becomes interesting when your mind tries to occupy
itself with things that are available.

Yesterday night there was a power cut for about an hour and a half at approx. 2 a.m.
It had been a really hot day and there was absolutely no breeze.
Aravind was next to me trying desperately to go back to sleep,
and tanya was already asleep and i was hoping she wouldn't wake up.
I wasn't trying to sleep because i can never sleep when there is no breeze.
So i got some newspaper and started fanning Tanya.

And this was when i remembered a funny story from the past.
You see my mother and her aunt happened to be of almost same age.
Odd, i know but it is a fact.
They were in the same school but different mediums.
mom in eng. medium and her aunt in tamil medium school.
So these two met only during breaks and while commuting to school and back.
Annual day functions were nearing and people were selected for
different cultural programs in school.
And aunt got selected to play a part in a tamil play of a king-queen era.
And she was the queen.
She announced this at home and people at home
(which was a really big group of
over fifteen people in a really huge house. Six sisters and some
of their families living in the house )
got excited about this because
nobody has ever been IN a drama before.
But aunt wasnt really forthcoming with any information but was prompt
in going for practice sessions.
She wouldn't even tell mom much about it eventhough they were thick friends.
So the day was nearing and when there was only a day left for the show
aunt announced that nobody from home should come to the play.
If she knew that there were people coming she wouldn't go.
After a lot of questioning, finally all of the them agreed that they wouldn't come.
But you should know better than to believe that. There was a secret plan ;)
It was show time, aunt had left earlier
and the whole group got dressed really quick with even a few neighbours
joining in. They were all stacked up in 3 huge cars.
This was 35 years before. So going in a car was a big deal and
that too for all the ladies leaving at the same time was an event of a
different magnitude all together.
The cars reached the school grounds.
Great grandad was very well known and respected so they had a huge welcome show.
They were all seated in the VIP rows and they all waited for the show to start.
The king came... after a while the queen entered the stage.
the moment had come... but it was not aunt,
(as some of you might have guessed!)
The family was promptly in confusion and after some futile discussion
concluded that there might be another queen in the play.
But someone said the story has only one queen.
That is when mom spotted one of aunt's class mate and asked her where Shanta(aunt) is.
And she pointed to the stage.
But there was only the queen there.
Maybe it was afterall Shanta with all the make-up looking different.
Mom said " she looks different with all that make-up"
"With that crown it is almost impossible to believe"
Friend says " crown? Oh my God. It is not the queen
but the one that is fanning the queen."
It took a while for the whole party to digest this information
and they all promptly looked behind the queen and spotted the girl
and burst out laughing.
All this while she had gone for practice sessions to fan the queen.
They couldnt stop laughing and grandad was upset with this whole fiasco.
After the play the whole group came home ( aunt was to come later)
with firm instructions from granda that nobody should laugh or ask any questions
regarding this. Granda was a serious person and not one had the guts to defy him.
So she came home, and people were curiously silent
she probably expected a parade of questions,
she looked relieved until grandad very innocently asked someone to switch on the fan for the
girl and they all started laughing uncontrollably and aunt burst out crying
and for the next 10 years all they had to do was mention the word
and she'd start her moaning very very silently slowly turning it to a loud cry.
But the family had one more thing to laugh at and never missed a chance.....