Understanding WMD's from previous Yugas..

It is always difficult to start explaining why the Muruga idol in the Livermore temple has a "vel" (spear) in his hand or how our favorite elephant headed god Ganesha got that head in the first place when your kids get to watch Dora or Olivia during dinner time instead of grandmas telling them tales which all center around Mount Kailash, Hastinapura and the families of the gods!

Would have been a lot easier to get them started off with Shiva and Parvathi and graduate to Ganesha and Karthikeya and on and on, but one needs study aids!

Now that Jr. is reading comics, half a suitcase on our return trip from India was allocated for books and comics. The books alone weighed close to 25 lbs! A big part of it was this series of bound volumes of Amar Chitra Katha's...

Jr. has already finished Gods and Godesses once and is on the second round trying to figure out who is married to whom. This is very similar to but slightly less complicated than the grandmas watching sun TV serial reruns to figure out how the dude who acted as the girls husband 6 months ago is suddenly playing the role of her brother!

Nevertheless, jr.is now aware of the trinity of gods (brahma, vishnu, shiva) and that shiva's family tree is very straight forward while anything and everything is an avatar of sorts for Vishnu and he has way too many wives. Every now and then when she gets a brainache trying to figure out why Krishna marries 1600 princesses who were all put in prison by Narakasura and how any man could marry 1600 women and be alive when the man in her house cannot handle one woman who bosses over him, she switches to Jataka Tales or Tinkle double digests.

The little one is more of a silent observer and is content with looking at the pictures or having her sister read to her. She is more curious about all the blood and gore depicted in these comics and how killing by the gods is mentioned so casually.

This year we did not celebrate Ganesha Chaturthi because of a death in the family, but we did read all about Ganesha in the ACK's!

Here is to Ganesha!

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Enjoying India.. especially Singaara Chennai..

Looks like the previous post on Jr.'s little autorickshaw adventure, is getting some flame..

I had posted this in September 2006!! So, all too familiar with pedophilia in US of A, that too right in our backyard !

I wasn't trying to make a spin (positive or negative) of the whole experience. I was trying to caution careless dad's like me, who let go of their kid's hands in the street while bargaining for auto's. If I had to write a post on why we bargain for autos from 120 rupees down to 70 to go from Adyar to Mambalam, it would be too long a post, and it would definitely start a comment war or sorts, so I am not going to do that..

The mistake of letting her hand go was mine and I did own up to it ! The reason for cautioning other dads was,

1. do not let your kids go out of reach, period!
2. or at least teach them a local phone number! My daughter knows her address, my cell phone number and where mom, dad work, etc. etc.. She could even direct you to our house by saying "go right, go left..etc" if she was in the local area. But in Chennai, those dont help. We have to teach her the local phone number and address here, just to be safe !

Hope that clarifies things...

As for enjoying India, we are all very much enjoying India.. We invariably always do.. We come here knowing about the mosquitos, the pollution, the autorickshaws, etc. etc. These are small things which we get used to within the first 24 hours of our stay here. After all, I was born and raised in this city and every street, every street corner brings back a flood of memories ! How could you not enjoy it ? The only reason for quoting the Delhi child abuse, was that after Jr.'s adventure, everyone around me (relatives and friends who live here) quoted it and said "things are not the same here anymore..so be careful"..

Getting adjusted to these things is easy. It takes me more time to get adjusted to "raagu kaalam", "yama kandam", "kari naal", etc. etc. in my house. This morning I was about to step out for a haircut and almost started world war III. Apparently haircut on friday's is bad for your mom's longevity, and considering the main reason for this trip was to speed up mom's post surgery recovery by showing her the grandkids, everyone cried "Sacrilege!". In the interest of helping other dads, I have taken the liberty of compiling this list..

Day Bad for

Friday : mom
Thursday : dad
Wednesday : brother
Monday : Sister
Tuesday : First cousins second cousins aunty
Sunday : First cousins second auntys dog (or cat)
Saturday : Safe day !!

(ps. except for the friday part, I made up the rest..I am sure they are bad for someone or other!)

So, that said, all are happy and enjoying our last week here.. Today, we were stuck in traffic in Doraiswamy road. Reason ? a dead body procession at peak traffic time! Jr. couldn't understand the concept. I have videotaped the traffic congestion caused by this procession and the procession itself, including the guys dancing in front of the body! Will add it to the long videoblog that is in the works..

India is India. You can't beat this experience..