When the hairline receedeth

A clump of hair was caught in the hood of the jacket after coming back from one of those deep freeze long haul flights. Turns out the hair that is already clinging on for dear life is easily uprooted, much like the stumps after a batsman misses a Malinga yorker. 

Unfortunately, I cannot come up with an analogy for the gray hair. 

So there were two choices.. start to dye the hair and comb what is left acros the head or get rid of it.

It was an easy decision. Nothing says "Do I look like I give a $hit" like a Tibetian Monk look. 

Jr. also decided to join in the haircut experience with me. So we took some prefies and postfies.

Looks like I have aged 2 years in the first half of 2015. Now it feels like some huge burden has been removed!

Jr. looks a lot younger than she is. At first she was complaining and all teary eyed because of her "new look". Then she realized it is easier to manage this hair and it does look cute and was all smiles. 

They are all getting used to my new look though.

On the plus side, my smile is widening now with the hairline. So we are all good!

Competing for eyeball time

It is not just the Googles, Facebook's and Amazon's that are basing their business on trying to get a share of our viewing times.

Every precious nano second where your eyes are target towards any screen, now count for real $. 

So much that there are technologies out there that actually read your cell phones vibration (from the gyro) and tell the source of what you are looking at, data about how long you looked at it, glanced at it, or just plain skipped through it.. all this from how you held your phone or iPad while viewing a page!

That is not where it stops. We like in a world where our kids are labeled "post-google" which means they grew up with the internet. So this stuff rolls over.

Three weeks ago, I had a picture of the little one as my screen saver. 

Last week Jr. comes to me in the evening, snaps her hands in front of my face and says 

"booyaah! There, I now have proof!"

Me: Please stop with this booyaah agressiveness. I dont know what it means. What proof do you have of what?

Jr. : I have more proof that you love her (little one) more than you love me!

Me : It does not matter how much proof you think you have. I KNOW that I love you both the same.

Jr. : She was on your screen saver for two weeks. Then you knew I realized it and changed your screen saver to my picture and it was not even a pretty picture. That too I was on it for 2 days. now it is a picture of both of us and she says she is cuter in that picture than me! so there you go.. Booyah! 

Me : !!!!!

Now we need a software that does facial recognition and devotes equal screensaver time for the two kids. Added plus if the kids can rate your screensaver, let you know how cute they think they look in those pictures etc. etc.

We live in a world where things are measured like never before! There is more data being collected than can be analyzed with any reasonable value. 

In case you are wondering, here are the pictures of Jr. and the final joint picture where LO is supposedly cuter..

Go figure!

Now don't get me started on the Chromecast screensaver that runs on the big screen TV in the living room... 

Conversations continue

Parents are in the kitchen while Jr. has just started eating breakfast on the couch. The little one wanders in to the living room with her blankie and announces "Daddy, your favorite person in the world is now awake!". Given the way she said it in a cute voice, I was as usual going to come in and give her a big hug. 

So I walk from the kitchen with a tea glass in hand. 

Jr. gives me a glare and a mean look and says "I knew it. See, she declares she is your favorite person and what do you do? come out with a smile?"

It has been an ordeal the last few weeks to literally prove to them that they are both loved the same. While Jr. is not trying to make a point, the little one has really been pushing it. 

Then I read out a post from my SIL that mentioned how their older daughter same down to breakfast and said she was feeling sad. When asked why, she had mentioned it was because her baby sister was sick.

The kids heard it and the responses were :

LO : Ooooh.. that is soo sweet! 

Jr. : She is making a terrible mistake. She just doesn't know it yet. She will regret it as the younger sister will turn into her worst horror! I know.. from experience!

The little one ignored it matter of factly like a fast ball outside the off stump, while the parents looked at each other and went "where did we go wrong?"

A few hours later there is a fight of sorts because Jr. has to go for some practice and she does not want the little one tagging along. 

Jr. : No. She is not coming. Why does she come to all my stuff but when I try to come with you for any of her stuff she protests?

LO: that is not true

Jr. : I am not talking to you. I am talking to Amma

LO : but you are talking about ME! 

Jr. goes on to ignore her and the little one shouts 

"I can go where I want to you know.. I have rights. This is America. I am not in India!"

Me and San burst out laughing. 

Me : Where do you get that crap from? You can go anywhere you want in India also. It is a free country. 

San starts counting the total number of weeks she has spent in India as a conscious person within two hands and we go "you have not been there much! why are you saying that?"

She said "Sorry! I said it as a funny thing." 

After much prodding and digging around it hours later figured out that what she wanted to say was this is free country. . but to emphasize she had to pick an opposite corner and she picked the only other country that comes to her mind automatically.  The logic of "if I am good, everything else is bad.. and if I have to pick an example of everything else, I go with my second favorite" made my head spin.

Trust me, these are kids that we work hard to have a world awareness. Something we find most kids growing up in the US to be lacking. In the last twenty years if there is one thing that I find surprisingly waning is the abiilty of Americans we meet daily to empathize with things that happen in other parts of the world. Blame it on the school system here, the political system or the media changing over time, but it is there.

It is funny that as kids we knew every US state capital as part of Georgraphy but many our friends here in grad school could not put even the four Indian metros on a map. Never figured out why that was? 

When all this was going through my head, was reminded of another recent conversation few weeks ago. Was driving the kids back from a saturday afternoon class when we were talking about their school.

Jr. : I think we should stop social studies as a subject in school

LO : I agree!

Me : why? you don't want to know what goes on in other parts of the world? 

Jr. and LO (at same time) : That is NOT what they teach in social studies.

Me : then what DO they teach?

Jr. : Things that have already happened before. Who killed who and who killed who back and stuff like that. Why do we need to know that. We only need to learn things that will help in the future. We dont need to know who we are supposed to like and not like! that does not help people to become one and work together

LO : I agree with her appa. What happened has already happened. we do not need to know people have been fighting all the time. 

They both had no problem with Georgraphy! They had a point. If our kids have a futuristic outlook and they want everyone in this world to get along, they see no point in all these dark reminders of the past! 

Maybe we should stop teaching history for a few decades in schools and see if conflicts across the world simmer down or subside.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could do an experiment like that in our lifetime?

Our kids constantly show us how their thought process is so different from ours, on a daily basis. It is good to watch and learn!

Throw back "everyday"

Have recently started seeing posts on Facebook for TBT (which I learned was Throw Back Thursday)! 

Old pictures are being posted for TBT. Given this blog has 60% of stuff that is nostalgic, there is a lot of Throwing back 

One thing that specially stands out is that Jr. is a splitting image of my sister. Just looking at her face when she dresses up makes it a throw back event.

Last weekend was busy for her, what with a Saxophone performance that was followed by a dance performance. Her dance school celebrated yet another annual day. 

She did an "okay" job as per her mom, sister and other critics. I was just standing in the back taking pictures and a video and going "awww. what is her rush to grow up?!" A short video clip is here. She danced for 7 minutes and we heard there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on at the end. If only she came to Yoga class with me, she can learn to breathe between steps better.. but one can only wish.. 

On the one hand there was the lecture from her mom and me which usually goes like this:

San : We work so hard to put you through all these classes, so you better not disappoint us..

Me  : when I was a kid all my parents could do was put us through a CBSE school. they could not afford to pay for extra curricular activies. I had to grow up and learn things at a much older age which makes it harder. You learn faster when you are a kid. So don't miss this chance.. 

Little One : (who does her usual armchair quarterbacking, after she has backed out of every class in less than a month) You are not dancing even the same compared to last year. You have to improve! 

Then I go through a remorse period thinking "maybe we are pushing her too hard?!" and San, who is the sanest voice in the house says "NO! we are definitely not."

We all have our own benchmarks to compare things. Most of my comparisons are considered "foul" by San and the kids because my growing up was in a "different time, different world under very different circumstances". 

All that said, my sister did not dance. She did learn to sing. If she ever wonders what she would look like in a dance costume, she need to look no further!

That was Jr. posing after we reached home. January went by fast. So fast that this is the first time I took out the Canon this year! Given pictures become few and far between from Jan to Memorial day, here is a photo of the little one! 

This one is also in a rush to grow up. Sigh! 

Our sincere hope is that all these activities teach them the importance of "trying" and "persevering" to accomplish something and that the end result is that they feel proud of what they have achieved.

Here's to many more annual days!

Jazz time

Jr. performed with the Kennedy Middle School Jazz band at the Folsom Jazz festival. Unfortunately I missed it because of travel.

However, we got to see her perform at CMEA at San Mateo's Aragon high school last weekend. 

The kids were amazed by the sound quality in the auditorium. They also got to experience a "clinic" where prominent Jazz band teachers came and gave them detailed feedback on the performance and tips to improve.

We had a great time watching the kids perform so well and be so enthusiastic about learning!

These kids have come a long way in such a short time. It is great that their teacher and school push them and make them challenge themselves.

My phone ran out of memory. This video got cut off. Hopefully next time will have a full video..