Happy Republic Day Everybody:-)!!!!!!

The day is also special for the Australians, Wishing everybody in Australia a Happy National Day!!!!!!

The baddest words of them all

Nikita: Mama what is the meaning of f***????

Mama[shocked]: Where did you hear this???

Nikita[8yrs]: I've seen it written on the walls.

Naina[6yrs]: And the big boys in the bus are using it all the time??? Is it a bad word???

I take a deep breath. I was expecting this question but not so soon. How am I supposed to explain a word like that to my children?

“Yes it is a bad word. Dont ever use it when u speak” I explain.

“Then why are those boys using it??? Are they BAAD boys????” asks Naina eye-eyed.

“No they are not bad boys, they are saying it unknowingly. Maybe their parents did not tell them not to use it like I have told u. Well-brought up children NEVER use that word in their conversations” I stressed.

They were impressed with the gravity of my tone and nodded vigorously to everything I said. I wasn't sure whether it was the right thing to say but that was all I could come up with at the spur of the moment.

Almost a week later….

“Mama today was a terrible day !!!! Momataasim said the BADDEST thing to me in class today” said Naina tearfully to me when she came back from school.

Momataasim* was Naina’s classmate who according to her was the baddest boy in the whole world & the bane of Naina’s existence. I looked at her concerned, hoping he didn’t use a bad word whose meaning I didn’t even want to think about let alone explain “You should just ignore these things. What did he say???”

Naina hesitated for a few minutes & after a bit of cajoling mumbled “He said 'I love You' to me!!!!”

People, u should have seen my face….I don’t know what I was expecting the BAAD word to be but it was not certainly this. My child was looking at me very miserably as if she was part of something very shameful.

I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. And Naina looked at me surprised.

I then controlled myself and explained gently “Naina its ok. He likes you and wants to be friends with you & so he told his feelings in the only way he probably knew. The next time he tells you something like this why don’t you tell him that you’ll be friends with him???”

“But mama I don’t like him, I don’t want to be friends with him” cried Naina miserably.

“Naina, please don’t say things like that. All your classmates are your age & only if you be friends with them will you enjoy going to school.”

2 days later….

Naina gets off the school bus in a foul mood.

“He wants to be doctor” bursts out Naina as soon as we reach home.

“Who, what???” asks Mama confused.

“Teacher asked what we want to be when we grow up and Momataasim wants to be a doctor” cries Naina almost in tears.

“So” Mama looks befuddled.

“You know I want to be a nurse when I grow up & now with him going to be a doctor he’ll be irritating me all my life” wails Naina frustratedly.

The penny clicked and I started grinning automatically but quickly controlled my amusement coz I knew my daughter would not take kindly to my laughing at her predicament.

“Naina, there are so many hospital in Dubai, we’ll find out which hospital Momataasim works in and then we’ll choose another hospital for you to work”.

The tears cleared magically and she looked happier.

Later when I called Naina’s teacher up regarding some matter I enquired about the boy who was giving my daughter no peace. And what do u know, Momataasim according to her, was a smart little boy who stood first in class and participated in all the activities…..yes ofcourse he was naughty but then all boys that age were naughty weren’t they???

I was impressed & thought wryly that I knew something else which the teacher didn’t – he also had good taste in women.

A few days later….

“Mama you know what Momataasim did today, whenever I turned back to look he would place his hands around his mouth and whisper “I Love You” Nobody can hear it but I can make out.” said Naina irritatedly.

“Naina if he bothers you that much why do you turn back to look. Just ignore him” I told her sensibily.

Dont know why but I was beginning to get a bit edgy. Though I laughed & handled the Naina-Momataasin episodes casually, inwardly I was quite concerned. If they were teenagers I could understand the raging hormones and deal with it accordingly……no I don’t harbour hopes they’ll listen 100% but atleast the matter could be discussed. These are just 5 and 6 yrs old and they are exchanging conversations like this.

I am under no illusions about my kids……..though they are still untouched by the real ways of the world, they know far more than I did when I was their age. For instance, almost a year back on the way back home from the bustop they found a torn piece of pink cardboard[a toy wrapper I guess] which had www.barbie.com printed on it. They badgered me continuously for a week before I gave in & registered them there. They also know most of life's little problems can be solved by a webpage called Google. Now they tell me there is something called 'u-tube' which has all sorts of fun stuff which they can watch. As of now I have pronounced u-tube as unsafe, something which produces a dangerous virus which attack computers & renders them completely useless. Nikita smells a rat but is not confident enough to argue. But I know very soon that they’ll catch me out.

Children nowadays are exposed to a lot. And in my opinion the television is the main culprit…..the vividly coloured images of scantily dressed women & men gyrating to music, sports like WWE which encourage them into thinking punching eachother is cool, advertisements like fairness beauty-creams and a few biscuit ads are so suggestive that it sickens me. Dammit, its just a biscuit….there are so many ways to present it, what is the need to add a sensual angle to it. Makes me yearn for those Doordarshan days.

And it’s not like I let them watch anything & everything. They get 1 hr of tv suited to their age-group every other day but I’m quite disappointed that barring an odd one or two, I cannot watch a single English or Indian movie in their presence. Every film either has either embarrassing physical demonstrations of love or violence or ghosts or….the list goes on.

To a certain extent living in a safe place like UAE calms my fears. It’s an Islamic country  which lives by a moral code[far more relaxed than most] & expects all the people living in it to adhere to it. Many find it restricting but the average family finds it comforting. The crime rate is quite low compared to many countries, scenes containing nudity in movies are deleted, communication lines like the internet provide information freely but at the same time block a lot of unwanted sites. Ofcourse those who want to will find ways to access it but an average child will not be able to find it immediately.

Nurturing children in a safe and secure environment until they find their feet seems to me like an unrealistic dream. Ofcourse I’m not expecting a utopia kind of life and also know there is no point comparing it to our times....but is it so naive of me to expect a reasonably stree-free environment for my children.

But like they say, Change is the only constant thing in our lives. It’s not easy but we have to learn to deal with it as it comes. So deal with it, we will!!!!

Coming back to the worrying problem which set me off on this track….

Almost a week passed by and when there were no more complaints forthcoming, curiosity prompted me to ask…

“Is Momataasim behaving himself now???”

“Oh Taasim is ok Mama, he is actually very nice. I shared my mentos with him today” says Naina casually.

“Huh….when did Naina start calling him Taasim” wondered Mama nervously.

“How come you are saying nice things about him now???” I ask cautiously.

“He’s helping me do all my tests correctly. Shall I also tell him I love him Mama???”

I groped for the nearest chair and sank weakly into it.

“My class is so boring compared to Naina’s" Nikita’s voice wistfully floated from across the room

..
..

I know, I know this is just the beginning.

*his name is spelt differently but I’ve written it like how Naina pronounces it

Spreading some cheer:-))

~ A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.
~ unknown blogger

When we[as in most of us:-)] decide to blog, in the beginning it is just for ourselves. A private place where we can let down our hair, write away our frustrations or give free rein to our thoughts. At the most we want our friends and kin to read what we write. As we explore further we realize if we stretched out a hand there is a wonderful world out there ready to receive us with open arms.

This is exactly what happened to me. Initially it was just about scribbling down some thoughts and incidents…. maybe the kids would love to know how mama was when she was younger, how the events in her life shaped her life, this way my family & friends who lived far away could be in touch with what was happening with me without me straining to write to everybody individually....u see the gains:-).

And then there was the fact that I always was interested in People, their lives, their thoughts…it was but natural to slowly start reaching out to other bloggers who had different viewpoints to share inturn opening up my mind and world.

And the rest as they say is history & lets leave it at that[meaning surely you wouldn’t want to waste time reading about it ONCE MORE]. Now, apart from the comments I love receiving I am also ecstatic about the awards I get. Lot of old-timers[Bloggers I mean] nowadays view these awards with jaundiced eyes & don’t quite believe in them anymore but for me they are all special. In real life I don’t think I ever came first or received awards for anything…no, no thts not true, I did come 1st in 1st standard and 2nd in the Lemon & Spoon race in the 3rd standard.

Ok thats it enough introduction, now coming straight to the point I thought I'd spread some cheer at the beginning of the year itself by giving away the lovely awards I received in 2009.

First things first, I want to thank my blogger-friends Athivas, Blunt edges, Colourmesunshine, Dil Se, Elegant Chic, Passionate Goof, Indianhomemaker , Lostworld , Nu, Rashworld, Shalom, Shayari, Swaram, Thethoughtfultrain, Titaxy for all these wonderful awards I have displayed below.

It gives me great pleasure to give away these awards to deserving bloggers as a token of my appreciation. I know I know I must sound like one of those pompous characters but it’s exactly what I feel……I love receiving awards but more importantly I adore giving them away. Initially I intended to write a few sentences about each blogger I was giving the awards to but gave that idea up half-way as this is a long post and it was taking me ages to just link each one of you.


The 1st award is the International Bloggers Community Award!!!!

"Be a proud member of the International Bloggers Community! " is their tagline.
The Award goes to:
Anjuli
Colours
Destination nowhere
Lakshmi
Nilu
Prabodh
Smita

Now the Rules say:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Copy the image above, the rules and the questionnaire in this post.
3. Post this in one or all of your blogs.
4. Answer the four questions following these Rules.
5. Award this to 7 friends on your Blog list. 6. Go to BLoGGiSTa iNFo CoRNeR (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS LINK) at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List.
7. Have Fun!
Questions & My Answers:
1. The person who tagged you: Thethoughtfultrain, the others who tagged me after her are Athivas, GoofyMumma and Shayari.
2. His/her site's title and url: http://thethoughtfultrain.wordpress.com/2009/06/
3. Date when you were tagged: 30th June 2009
4. Persons you award & tag are: displayed above __________________________________________________________
I’d like to award the One Lovely Blog Award to:
The Idle Devil
Jayasree
Deepti
Never Ending Memories
PinsNAshes
______________________________________________________________

"The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

Awarding the Premio Dardos Award to...
Athivas
c'est la vie
Insignia
Nu
Roshni Mitra Chintalapati
___________________________________________________________


The Sweet Blogger Award is awarded to my favourite food bloggers...
Lan for Cheenachatti
Maria for Marias Menu
OpenBook for Look who's cooking too
Renu for Meri Rasoi
Shabs for Shab's Cuisine
_____________________________________________________________
The Blog Friends award goes to those blog-friends who are silent most of the time but when I write a really good post they never hesitate to tell me how much they liked it:-) ...

Archana Gawde
Cool_Moon
Divya
Doli
Pooja Mishra
Pujathakur
Saima
SandyaS
Sulo badri
The Girl from Lokhandwala
____________________________________________________________

The I Love your Blog Award goes to those bloggers who share information in a fun and interesting way. I enjoy reading whatever they post. Its a pity they dont post more often.
Anusha
Bikerdude
Jira
Ordinary Guy
Piper
Preethi
SGD
Spontaneous Mini
WannabeWriter
________________________________________________________________

The Superior Scribbler Award doesnt need any explanation:-). It goes to...
Wanderlust
Karmickids
Sindhu
Suma
Vivek Patwardhan

The rules that accompany this award are.

* Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
* Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
* Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
* Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
* Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.
_________________________________________________________

The ‘Triple Awards’ standing for "blogs of attitude and gratitude, a member of a proud sisterhood, and a best friend of all blogs" goes to all those bloggers with whom I feel a kinship even though I've never met them......sort of like whenever we meet, we are going to hit it off immediately:-)
The award goes to...
Meira
My space
Thethoughtfultrain
Rashmi
Sadiya
Shades of Grey
___________________________________________________________

The Award “Your Blog is Super” goes to those bloggers who are very popular & well-known in the blogging community. And they are...
Blunt edges
Hitch writer
Indianhomemaker
Indyeah
Smitha
Solilo
Swaram
_____________________________________________________________
The 'Awesome Blogger Buddy Award' goes to Indian Bloggers I know across the globe


And they are:
BlueMist from Portugal
Mathew from Germany
Deeps from Qatar
J P Joshi from India
Masood from UAE
Onlooker from Kuwait
Ramesh from China
Rohini from USA
Roopa from Indonesia
Snow from Canada
Sukku from Malaysia
Sunshine from Singapore
Swathy from Australia
Vinoo John from UK

I also want to award this to 3 bloggers who come to my page regularly from Asia-pacific, Holland, Manama-Bahrain, Montego Bay-Jamaica. I’d love it if you’ll introduce urself but if you wish to remain silent I’m fine with that too but please do accept the Award:-)).
______________________________________________________

The Superstar Award is very special to me and I’m awarding this to...
Dhanya - There is honesty in her writing......and clarity, I love the way she finds joy in everyday matters.
Kochu Thressiamma from Parel Tank - A seasoned blogger, who doesnt hesitate to pen what she thinks...and it could about anything from Politics to Michael Jackson to Education to Malayalam Cinema . She's made me cry & then laugh in the very next post.
Preethi Shenoy from Just a Motheroftwo - She writes thoughtful, meaningful posts about life. I love visiting her blog and always come away feeling inspired.
Shobhaa De - The way her thoughts flow through her fingers is amazing. Her tongue-in-cheek humour & pun-intended posts are my favourite though she can write about anything under the sun and make it sound interesting.
______________________________________________________________

The 'Kreativ Award' goes to all those Bloggers who share their creativity on their blog whether it is in the form of the amazing photographs they shoot or the beautiful Art they create.

And it goes to...
Colourmesunshine
G
Lee
Lostworld
Maddy
Sakshi
SJ
Sneo
Sriram
Titaxy
___________________________________________________________
The Honest Scrap Award comes with a tag and is awarded to all those bloggers whose openess shines thru their pages.


And it goes to…
Amrita
Anishthomas
Balvinder Singh
Brocasarea
J P Joshi
Passionate Goof
Roop
SV
Tara
Umsreflections

The rules are:
Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true.
Tag 10 people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do).
Link back to the blogger who tagged you.
_____________________________________________________________

The 'Blogger Friends Award' goes to bloggers I have had the pleasure of meeting[virtually i mean:-)] in the past year...
Ash
Ashwathy
BrAiN FrEEzE
Deep
Elegant Chic
Elizabeth
Jisha
Mads
Rekha
Tanushree Pillai
Varsh
______________________________________________________________
The Addicting Blog Award goes to all those bloggers whom I need no excuse to visit:-))


Agnes
Antarman
Butterfly
I scribble here
Prashanti
Rakesh
Shalom
Sparkling
Winnie
___________________________________________________
And the 'Butterfly Award' is a favourite award, one which I had already received the previous year but Swaram awarded it to me once again and so I’d like to award it to...

Chatterbox
Datsme
Dil Se
Enigma
Gayathri-vishwanathan
Sara
____________________________________________________________
And finally the Nameless Award which comes with a tag & I’m awarding it to bloggers who’ve taken an unofficial break. This is a gentle nudge from me to get them back to blogging. And it goes to...
Abraham Menacherry
DeeplyDip
Former Sansmerci
Limenlemons
Mystery
Shayari

The rules are:
Tell your readers 7 things about you that they don’t know about u but are true.
Tag 7 people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged.
Don’t forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thats it folks!!!! Being slower than most people, it took me more than a week to put this together. I fervently hope I have mentioned everybody I know in the blog-world, if u dont see ur name please know that it was a genuine error. If u'll let just gimme a teeny-weeny hint I'll award u this Wonderfullest, Bestest Award that I have stashed away inside just for this purpose.
And not the least, CONGRATULATIONS everybody and a BIG Thank U to all of you for your amazing blogs and all the lovely comments + motivation this past year. I appreciate you all more than U'll ever know.


p.s: I'm going to start off here to all ur blogs to let u know that u've been awarded. Incase u reach this space before I reach ur blog, please claim ur Award and make it easy for me:-)).

p.p.s: If by any chance u have been awarded more than once, I swear it was not intentional;-D