Kids say the darndest things

Kids say the darndest things.

I know I know. I copied the title from bill cosby. (Sorry old man, btw, loved ur show).

This blogis about Vibhu. He is such a sweet kid. Time just whizzes away when you are with him. Vibhu is quite a creative and naughty kid but he does seem to understand his boundaries well. Rarely he pushes them which make him the sweetest kid around :) He is 2.5yrs old now but has the vocabulary of a 4 yr old. So, naturally, he catches us off guard almost every day.

That he Vibhu is creative was evident for us early on here are couple of glimpses. Knowing V-dad's aversion to movies, I decided to introduce him to concept of movie. The first movie he saw was 'Wednesday' (good hindi movie). five minutes into the movie, he asked me "lilote edi babai?". (Where is the remote babai?) I was like wwhaattt?? slowly it dawned me that, he thought that he was watching a big TV. lol. can you imagine the kids mind.
Another instance : the term for peeing in vibhu-speak is "chi chi povadam". One day we were in hometown karimnagar. our house is 30 years old with open ventilators just below the ceiling , you know the kind. It was raining heavily and there was small leak thru ventilators. Suddenly, Vibhu shouts at his lungs off.. "Kitikeelu chi chi potunnayi. adigo adigo.. kitikeelu chichi potunnayi". We had laugh of life. This is when he was 1.5 yrs old.

An year has passed. Vibhu is like a non-stop talking machine. He has atleast 6 adults around him to pamper and learn various stuff from and then there is the floating population of another 10 people. Everyday he learns something really new and surprises us. Other day he spilled glass full of milk on bed. following day, his mom put a glass full of milk on the floor and asked him to go have it as she knew I was supervising. She called out saying "Vibhu..Jaagratta". pat comes the reply from him "aa..jaagartane" :) unbelievable how and where he learnt to apply this. Everyday he picks up a new word from somewhere and uses it so perfectly that we are left zapped. He taught himself stuff like "already", "tappakunda". dont ask me where does a 2.5yrs old use these things.. He has a way with words.

Lets come to the main story of the blog. Vibhu loves stories. He is not a shy kid. After hearing to a story 2-3 times, he adds his own masala and narrates the story where he becomes the hero. One of his favorite stories is fight between vali and sugreeva and how Lord Rama hid behind a tree to kill Vali. (Dont gasp. I found it impossible to find a mythology story with out mentioning death. So, I said to heck with it. Credit to the kid, he takes it well too). This story sessions have been on for close to an year. He is matured from re-telling the story to doing role-plays. for ex: suddenly he comes to me and says, "babai, nenu surasa..nuvvu hanuman.. ninnu mingutunnaa.." or he takes his toy mace and says "orey duryodhana, nenu bheemunni ra, nee todalu viraggodataara.." and "babai, nenu nee meeda agneyastram vestunnaa, nuvvu sudarshana chakram veyyi" etcc.

Off late, he started this new thing. Whatever story I tell him in the night, he wakes up and tells with his own masala. Other day, I told him the story of Hanuman not finding the sanjeevani creeper and lifting the whole mountaint to lanka. Following day, he woke up and immediately started telling me, "babai, jai hanuman sanjeevani edi edi ani illanta vetikaadu. nenu mancham kinda daachipetta ani cheppagaane, akkadiki vacchi teesukupoinaadu."

Typically he wakes up around 6:30 and I around 8:30. After lot of careful explaining, he stopped waking me up for those two hours. Even if he tries to wake me up by poking his fingers in eyes I feign deep sleep and he leaves in 1-2 minutes. But last week it was different. After trying to wake me up for 2 minutes, he took his toy mace and started hitting me on the chest "Kumbhakarna, Le.. Le.. orey Kumbhakarna Le..Le.., Raavanuniki haayi ayindi. Kumbhakarna Le.." Needless to say, I woke up laughing my heart out. Finally, I started investigating who told him this story. Apparently, Dad had showed him a graphic picture of sainiks waking Kumbhakarna in Chandamama July edition.

So, thats vibhu for you. bye for now.

Driving around Hyderabad : Part 1

Returning to blog after a long time. One of the reasons is to blog about my trip to Medak.
Very first I ever heard of Medak was when I was a kid and started taking interest in assembly elections. The name Medak stuck in my mind as it is neither Urdu nor Telugu word nor English. The linguist in me could never figure out the genesis. Then I heard of Medak in some text book lesson "medaku patnam churchni choodu". I heard of Medak and its church couple of times later on wanted to visit when I got a chance. This weeekend that chance came. My good friend R's in laws are from Medak and its just 80km from Hyderabad. He was going for a day trip. So, we tagged along.
The party consisted of 7 adults and 2 kids. R, J, Uncle, aunty and the cute little sniggy in one car. My bro, sil, me and Vibhu in another car. We started at 8:30am unusually punctual for the 2 couples in picture. First stop was 'mallanna gutta'. A nice, not-so-famous village temple where deity resides in a cave on a small water pond. It was interesting. pleasant place only marred by the hot burning sun. I enclosed a pic of sniggy and vibhu. They had a great time playing in the temple and its 5-storeyed chariot.


After spending an hour, we moved on to next pit stop. Ramayapalli was the next stop. We got to see uncle's native place and the house where he grew up. It was a simple but resourceful village. Nice place to own a farmhouse (not a far-fetch as its 80Km from city, with enough water and fertile soil to grow all kinds of trees). We had an awesome lunch thanks to uncle's brother and family. We also got to meet cute and bright Lavan Kumar. 3.5 years kid who travels 30kms in auto to go to a decent school. Made me wonder if we were going back or ahead in time. It was paddy and sugarcane season, so checked their fields. After a nice lunch, we went to Medak. From there we went to a place where the much celebrated local fare 'edupayala jatara' happens.
Frankly, it was so hot, this was a part which I would nt have minded skipping. Moreover, the temple, with some live chicken cutting was pretty gory. Glad I averted my gaze in time. I dont want to remember any other things there. So, lets skip it. This is a place for hard core bhaktas or geologists who are interested in Deccan plateau's rocky terrain. Rest can avoid.

Thats a glimpse of Deccan plateau and unusual rock formation for you. Unfortunately, with the crazy painting, u cant seem them in natural forms.

Then we went to to the famous church. Cathedral is second tallest in Asia with gothic architecture. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed it was nt as I great I was imagining it to be. I have seen better churches in the west. But, once you enter inside, there are three stained glass walls which are really worth all the effort that we put in. Church is a stone structure with out much ornation. about 175 feet tall. After that we met uncle's good old friend who showed us what good hosting is about. In about 3hrs of span, I ate a samosa, kaju katli, dry fruit laddu, ice-cream with fruits and drank some frooty. Talk about obliging the host :-) It turned out, today was Easter. Nice place to go on easter. My reflections on Medak -- Take a peek at it if you are on the way. Otherwise its a small remote town with hardly any development in the past 40 years.
A pic of Medak church



So long folks...
-v
PS: Btw, I finally figured out how Medak's name came. Way back in 1100-1300AD when kakatiyas ruled from Warangal, there was a femine and Medak was the only place where they could grew rice. So, this came to be known as 'metuku seema' (The land of the rice grain). Metuku eventually became Medak.

LuckByChance

Wow, its been really really long time since I wrote anything on blog. Have been to Rajasthan during this period and had a lot of stuff to write about. But, never got the mood. Hopefully, oneday I will update it with pics et al.

What brings me to my blog today. A hindi movie called 'LuckByChance'. Farhan Akhtar has become a cult nowadays. More so for the multiplex going IT kind of folks. The dude is talented and multifaceted. After 'Rock On' brand akhtar value seems to have gone up. But alas, he is no good actor. I could nt connect to his character either in RockOn or in LuckByChance.

Surprisingly, the movie got glorious reviews and pulled me to the theater. What happens when I go there. Well, the Akthars are no different from YashRaj banner. Yashraj inspires from the chickflix of hollywood. Akthars are doing the same from drama movies of hollywood. Luckbychance is the story of upcoming actor who is talented and clever. Movies shows the underbelly of bollywood and story is pretty realistic. But if you are a veteran of hollywood dramas, you have seen it all.
One street smart guy with hunger in his belly comes to town, makes it big, loses his friends with success and then realization and redumption. Wheter its a mafia dealer, investment banker, of Priyanks Chopra in Fashio, story is same. Just that this movie exposes bollywood and typical stereotypes of bollywood.

Movie is watchable on DVD. otherwise its too slow and long for what it wants to portray. Likeable are the characters of konkona sen-sharma and isha sharvani(this lady is new shabana azmi, although not there yet completely).

Director Zoya did a great job though. Technically, this is a well made movie. 'Raahi Re' song is toooo good. one of the best I heard off late.

My reco: Buy the audio CD and DVD. No need to rush to theaters.