Moo's the word....

The first I heard about it was when the kids brought home a promotion pack from school in early June. The pack contained lots of puzzles, questions, stickers and facts about milk and things related to Milk.

“What’s the occasion???” I wonder.

“It was World Milk Day on June 1^st” the kids educate me.

The UAE Ministry of Education was working alongside a popular Milk Brand to raise awareness about the importance of milk in the diet of growing children. Hence the goody packs.

The kids were also talking about a picture they had to draw & post on a website which will win them exciting prizes. I was okay with them doing the puzzles and reading up facts but since they had unit tests coming up I sternly told them they could work on the drawing after the tests. Anyways they had time till June 20^th to upload their picture didn’t they???

As the week passed I could hear them discussing amongst themselves about the other kids who posted their pictures and collected ‘n’ number of votes, all the while throwing hopeful/dark/beseeching looks at me. All the emotional blackmail didn’t affect me..…the unit tests were not a joke, a percentage of the marks were added to the final examination total. We couldn’t afford to sit back and take it easy. 

A week or so later after the kids left to school, I found the competition form while I was clearing up and decided to read what the whole hullabaloo was about. One of the things which caught my eye was the prize. There were 3 prizes….each was an all-expenses paid family holiday to New Zealand, the home of Anchor. My heart stopped beating for a moment; I dropped everything and sat down to read everything about the competition.

Anybody who has followed this blog for more than 2 years now, know about my fascination with New Zealand. You've noticed right, how every meme which asks “Favourite Place to visit” has New Zealand plastered on it. 

You get what I’m driving at……it seemed like a sign. It was like somebody sitting high up above was telling me “You always wanted to go there right, I’ll give you a chance to work at it”. A feeling of guilt I was trying to fulfil a dream of mine through the kids also ran through the mind but was quickly dismissed to focus on more important matters.

The subject for the competition was “Draw your Dream New Zealand Farm” and the only condition was that the farm should show pasture, cows and milk. Didn’t sound too hard huh???

When the kids came back home I magnanimously told them they could get started on their drawings provided they finished their lessons first. The kids were so thrilled that post lunch, foregoing their usual reading time, they sat down and finished all their portions in one go.

Nikita had a vision of what she was going to draw and was soon involved in it but Naina as usual dawdled, every once in a while craning her head to look at her Chechi was doing and trying to emulate her. You see, Nikita can draw from the images in her head whereas Naina till today drew from picture books.

I was not even sure whether Naina was going to finish her drawing but it was important that she tried because…..

She needed to be given the opportunity.

She needed to build her confidence.

She’ll eat our heads and make all of us miserable complaining that we didn’t even give her a chance. That she was never given any importance because she is youngest. That she wished she was born eldest. That life is so unfair. That she is SAD. That nobody understands her. That…..

By now we are all ready to pull our hair out.

Naina draws well but has no confidence in her abilities. The better-half & I are so tired of telling her she is as good as her sister if not better. Anyways, fed up with the whining I picked up a few picture books and asked her to find pictures depicting farm life and take inspiration from that. She took one look at me and knew I had reached the end of my tether & quietly started going thru the books.

It took them both 2 days to complete the pictures. One day to draw & the next to colour. On the 2^nd day again Naina was found loitering around disconsolately. Her grouse…her picture was not as ‘full of details’ as Chechi’s. Personally I liked Naina’s picture better but how do I tell her??? Nikita was sitting there colouring her picture and her ears were trained in this direction. And even if I took her aside and told her the 1^st thing she’ll do is go and triumphantly tell her sister what I said. And now for goodness sakes, now you guys don’t rat on me.

I gathered every ounce of patience I had[I was this close to telling her to quit] and sat with her till she finished. Finally we posted both the pictures on the site. And voted.

1 vote each.

We then checked out the rest of the competition. And that was when it hit us. VOTES. We needed votes. Lots of them. And that was when I realised how much they lost out on because they hadn’t posted their pictures earlier. I set to work immediately and sent out an SOS to almost all the names on my contact list, then sent messages to many FB friends. Almost 96% of you replied back within a day to say you voted. 

Thank U!!!!!!

A special thanks to Sakshi who not only voted from all the machines/ipad/smartphones in her house but also personally went to her husband’s office in the evening and forced all the people in the office to vote for 2 little kids she has never seen.

In the course of one week my children accumulated 300 votes and stood first from their school. In this process we learnt a lot. Atleast I felt like I woke up from a deep sleep. For all my dreams about going to NZ I didn’t put much effort, just mailed everybody and thought I did my bit. But as the votes kept mounting and good wishes poured in the kids were so happy……..ecstatic about EACH & EVERY vote they got. Every comment was precious. It was infectious. I too began to feel that my kids actually stood a chance. I began thinking about what else I could do. 

To be honest I was not going to post it on the blog at all. I felt a bit silly. Like I was advertising or begging even. And all for what….for my daughters’ doodles. Now emails are different. How different??? I am not sure…more kind of private-like, I suppose. No logic, I know;-).

So I then scanned my contact list again & mailed a few people who I had omitted when I sent emails earlier. Like aunties who I don’t keep in touch all that much, who will think ‘Oho she needs help, so she contacted us now’. Like Uncles who held important positions in their companies, who might laugh at this niece who has no other work than to bug people for votes for her daughters’ scribbles. 
Guess what??? 
In reply they all called me, discussed with me how they could help & with child-like enthusiasm promised me they would forward it to all their contacts and even post it on their Facebook accounts;-D.

I mean, seriously?????

I was so touched. From my friends yes I expected & received support but people who I never expected any attention from, it just floored me. Made me think.

The votes have crossed 400+ now and we have just 2 days[last date: 20^th June 2012] to accumulate another 400 votes to be on par with the others. Tall order I know. The kids are enthusiastically campaigning for votes at school. The better-half has finally started telling his friends about it. And I am posting it on my blog and asking you ALL to go to the link given below and vote. I’ll go as far as to ask you to vote from every single laptop/tablet/smartphone around the vicinity[they've got this 1 machine=1 vote funda] and plus mail people you think will help. If you are too busy it's okay because even your ONE vote is precious. That I know you will give me. Thank YOU already:-))!!!!!

The links:

Removed.

We may or may not win but we are determined to go down trying!!!!

p.s: Just as I was ending the post I realised that I could have just copy/pasted the short mail I sent to everybody earlier but you know me...on the blog I metamorphosize into this alien being who needs to explain in great detail the whys & wherefores.