Drawing, chatting, and playing house, STL, 270814

KTB’s drawing is improving apace; here she is, explaining who the people are (her friends, Ananya and Aditi, along with Teddy Naryanan, who was given to her mother by her mother’s uncle in 1988…and Pinky Bear, who was a gift from KTB’s great grandmother.)…and how they are sleeping:

She drew a cat:

And her parents

While video-chatting to her Nana and Grandpa in Maine:

v

I rig up a “house” for her (which she really loves to play at) after loud complaints that her brother was messing up the one she built for herself on the corner of the sofa:

She enjoys being in it:

She likes looking out, once in a while:

She’s describing her pets in her house, and her purse:

Here’s the purse, held out for inspection:’

Kalyan looks very innocent:

But..off course Kallubhai has to get in on the act here too:

He offsets the act of invasion with a charming smile:

Here’s KTB in her “house”, with the Bad Dog Walker (who as usual makes a beeline for the camera):

Due to Kallubhai’s truly terrible habit of heading directly for the camera every time he sees it, most of my shots of him look like this:

KTB finally comes out through what is apparently a side entrance:

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Walking into the sunset, 250814

When, in stories, a person “walks into the sunset”, there are no pages left in the book (except, perhaps, of a listing of other books by the same author, or similar books.) But in real life…life goes on. There may not be any conclusion of the hopes–and fears– that the person carries along…and the next sunrise awaits.

KTB: Art and writing, August 2014

Boodi Ma’s writing and art are progressing very well, now that she’s started kindergarten.

Here’s the cover illustration of a book I read to her (she read out many of the words, too):

Here’s her first version of the picture:

And the second, with the musical notes:

Here’s something she made for the Art Gala at her daycare (no, we didn’t buy it!)

She wrote, and drew, her left hand:

She didn’t display her tummy though she wrote it:

Here’s one OF her, by her daycare friend Eva:

and here’s one she made at her school,

Wilkinson

last week:

Developing fine motor skills make us happy, and grateful….v

Children, STL, 230814

When I say my grandson is de-lightful, I mean it!

After this, he started figuring out how to open the front door, and make good his escape…

And here’s KTB,singing a very old movie song:

The original, with the horrific images of the man of the house beating up his wife and kid, here:

I’ve not taught Boodi Ma the 2nd stanza, talking about how the father, after his bout of anger, will call the child..I am deeply disturbed by the culture that this song shows.

The Booda is not yet very verbal, so his singing videos will have to wait…

I, me, myself

I do not know who I am.
I seem to be an uneven mix
Of so many persons;
Someone’s daughter
(Though that person
Is now, several years,
In the past tense)
Someone’s sister
(Also in the past)
A friend to several people,
The wife of one man
To whom I gave several decades
Before that, too
Slipped into the past.
I am the butt of many jokes
The object of scorn to many;
Yet others regard me with affection.
I too have given my heart,
For life:
I am the mother of one,
The mother-in-law of one,
And the grandmother of two.
I feel, though, that sometimes
One person in me predominates
Over the others.
What I would like to be
Is a complete person:
An amalgam, a balanced mix
Of these people who live
And breathe within me.
But I seem to be more
Like a Ferris wheel
Where first one person,
And then another
Rise to the top, and the others
Sink below into unheeded
Oblivion. Where is the singer?
The theatre critic? The writer?
The quizzer? The lover of languages?
Where am I? Who am I?
I am mixed, indeed…and do not know.

Time

The days pass by
Like small notes
Slipped under the door
To someone who will come home
Only later.
Later is a time that arrives
Almost at once;
And the moment that makes up the present
Becomes the past, with each tick
Of the clock;
Living only in memory.
Existing only in chronicles and history.
Life slips away
In the leaves, torn daily,
From the calendar
That mark the inexorable passage
Of time…and our lives upon this earth.

Summer, and surgery, 190814

Even if school has begun, summer evenings are fun times.

Kobe is the little

Shih Tzu

(no, that’s not Shit Su, that name comes from the Chinese for Lion Dog!) that the neighbours, Sandy and Michael, have.

When the mother is very allergic to cats and dogs, the family can’t have pets, but the next best thing is playing with the Dog-Next-Door! (That’s Mike in the background.)

As Sandy trims the lawn, Kobe (named after Kobe Bryant), frolics with KTB.

Green grass and blue skies are made to run and jump around.

And then sit and communicate, without words:

Meanwhile, the brother goes into surgery for

adenoidectomy

not with any apprehension, but a huge joy at all the gadgets surrounding him!

The toys in the children’s ward are great, too!

And can you believe how chipper he is, back home in the evening after the surgery was successfully done:

Here’s our summer girl…

and our surgery boy:

Their smiles and play light up my heart!

Scientific experiment, STL, 170814

DnA suddenly decided that there would be a scientific experiment for the education and edification of KTB, and they chose one that involved baking soda, vinegar, a glass bottle, and a balloon.

D measured out the last of the baking soda:

KTB put it in the glass bottle, which held some vinegar:

The vinegar frothed up:

At this point, D realized that the mouth of the bottle was too wide to fit the balloon around, and the experiment was going to be repeated with a narrower-mouthed bottle:

Many hands were required for this delicate operation,because this was the last of the baking soda:

We watched the end result:

The observer observed.

I think The Booda was recording and documenting all this on his laptop, but I am not sure:

He certainly seemed happy with his efforts, though.

The balloon filled up, satisfyingly but not fully, with carbon di oxide gas:

Now I’d like KTB to realize that all the cooking done in the kitchen, that gets the food on the table, is also a series of chemical reactions, starting from the setting of her favourite “thayir” (yogurt)!

Safety and security, STL, 170814

Yesterday I went to

<a href=”http://www.academyofsciencestl.org/calendar/functions/popup.php?ev=2456888&readFile=0&readSQL=1&showCat=&oc=1″&gt; this event </a>

at the St.Louis Zoo auditorium.

I had not read in detail about the extinction of Passenger Pigeons in the US (where a population of several billion birds was wiped out, purely because of human intervention), and it was a revelation to me.

However, I did not want to call on DnA to pick me up from the Zoo auditorium and I walked back. As I did, I mused on safety and security. There was nothing different about my walking back at about 9pm from the Zoo auditorium, across Forest Park, back home, I usually do it during Muny shows, Shakespeare-in-the-Park, or the Royal Philharmonic on Art Hill (it took me about half an hour, you can go to Google maps and look at the St.Louis Zoo, and look for Christ Deliverance Ministry, Enright Ave…you’ll know where I walked) I usually cut across the grass, not always keeping to the roads. I was wondering, yesterday, if walking in the dark was a wise thing to do. Then I told myself that the fears were mostly in my own mind and perception…in fact, it was probably safer now than before the Ferguson incident,
(here’s a video of John Oliver’s take on it:

…actually, with so many police cars on the prowl ! I walked uneventfully back home. (It does help that I am a “black” person, not white, I suppose, in this area!)

So much of our fears are in our own perceptions, coloured by our own prejudices…where should we draw the line between genuine concerns and our own timorousness?

The trouble in the US is the stupid gun culture. I might be walking far away from any know source of trouble, and might get cut down by a stray bullet! Well, at the end of it all, I believe it’s Fate…and I walk briskly, not loitering. And when I’ve got home safely, I like the feeling that I didn’t give in to the feeling of “Oh, what might happen to me!” and just call DnA to leave their hectic chores and come and pick me up!

But IF something had happened, I would have been reviled for my foolhardiness…how to know, in advance, if my fears are well-founded or groundless? No way, alas, but to put it to the test, and walk home!

Nature at a bus stop, St.Louis, 120814

Here’s the patch of “weeds” at the bus stop where we wait, to send KTB off to school, and get her back again in the evening.

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You wouldn’t think that would be full of interest, would you? But you’d be wrong!

First off, the grass with its seeds looked so lovely:

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I saw these beautifully-forming seed-pods:

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14902750571&#8243; title=”DSC07839 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5595/14902750571_d6fdbe8978_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”360″ alt=”DSC07839″></a>

Another plant gave me the gift of these burrs, to disperse its seeds far and wide:

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14719176019&#8243; title=”DSC07840 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5562/14719176019_5af5bb518a_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”408″ alt=”DSC07840″></a>

Then I realized that there was a flowering Convolvulus vine, too, so I went near one flower to photograph a bee.

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I then realized that the flower had another occupant, apart from the bee….

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14902751051&#8243; title=”DSC07847 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5555/14902751051_1ffb989113_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”439″ alt=”DSC07847″></a>

There was a spider sitting there, as well as the bee!

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14882825926&#8243; title=”DSC07848 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3885/14882825926_565eb4cea7_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”446″ alt=”DSC07848″></a>

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Out she came, for me to photograph:

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14719260667&#8243; title=”DSC07852 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3919/14719260667_01acc17cf0_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”410″ alt=”DSC07852″></a>

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14905812245&#8243; title=”DSC07850 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3845/14905812245_4acf9cffae_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”433″ alt=”DSC07850″></a>

I did wonder if the bee and the spider would attack each other, but no, peaceful co-existence was the order of the day:

<a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/86494503@N00/14882826276&#8243; title=”DSC07854 by mohandep, on Flickr”><img src=”https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3891/14882826276_17730faa45_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”434″ alt=”DSC07854″></a>

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The bees took their turn with the pollen:

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I spent two hours at that bus-stop, and never got bored for a single minute! I had my fill of Nature and wildlife, just sitting in an empty lot and waiting for a bus!