Barnum and Bailey

We made it to the circus today. My parents heard there was a circus in town and started going into deep nostalgic drives of the old Kamala three ring circus and how I could not stop talking about it for months after my first (and possibly only) childhood circus visit.

Have taken Jr. to the circus when she was very little and most of her memories of the circus were from reading the blog post.  Amazing what a blog post can do to jog a kids memory!

Looks like they have changed the show a lot. There was one man with six tigers before. Now it was one man with 3 tigers and 4 lions. The elephants did not do as many stunts as last time and didn't have to walk across pretty ladies.

Two new items which were really amazing were the Shaolin Kung Fu demonstration and the motorcycle dare devils. They fit 8 guys on bikes into this steel cage and it was simply superb. Have seen two guys inside the cage in the Indian circus (actually remember it). This one must be some kind of record.

The animals didn't do much and they are mostly captive born and trained and today we should be happy that Barnum at least brings elephants to big cities to show they are not "wild" creatures that are to be shot for trophies.

The protesters outside were shoving pamplets into my kids hands that said "stop going to circus, stop the cruelty" etc. they had gory pictures of dying elephants etc. This kind of upset me. No one gets to push such things to my kids. Was downright rude to one of the ladies.

This is soliciting in a way and don't understand why this is allowed. Millions of turkeys are grown in really horrible conditions in this country and slaughtered every year.

The three creatures that are supposed to be able to feel a human being accodring to old indian sages are cows, crows and snakes. They say these three creatures can sense the human vibration and a cow can actually shed a tear when it commiserates with a human.

Cows are in horrible conditions in the US. Not that they are slaughtered for food but the fact that most of them are cramped into a confined location for their entire lives and are fed things that are not normal and are not even slaughtered in a quick and relatively painless way.

It is impossible to show kids elephants, tigers or lions these days. You go to Chennai and you cannot find even the occasional temple elephants! Forget lions and tigers. Now who is responsible for this? Barnum and Bailey? Think not. These folks should go protest outside upscale chinese restaurants that serve tiger penis soup as a aphrodisiac or sell ivory products as art.

Yes! Elephants may be prodded to make them learn a few tricks. Do not know how extreme it is with this circus but the animals we saw today were all hale and healthy and looked like they were well taken care of. Same thing from last time where they were smiling as all ten of them walked past us in the back street. To me this is a better way to show kids that elephants and lions and tigers are valuable to us in some way!

My little one wants all bees dead because one little bee stung her! It took me months to teach her that without bees there will be no flowers and without flowers no fruits and vegetables and we will all starve to death pretty soon.

Same thing with spiders. Told her that we have lot of baby moths in the bathroom because she asked mommy to kill many spiders. Now the spiders are not eating the moths anymore because they are dead and instead of one spider there are ten moths!

Again, way too much digression from what started off as a post on a great show! It is still a great show. Maybe not the greatest show on earth.

That title has been conferred to the Disney pre fireworks Castle display in Orlando by the Traveling Narayanan's.

J for..

While driving back from San Francisco over the weekend we crossed a sign that said "San Jose"

The little one is now into reading every sign and billboard that comes her way. She will read, then look at me in the rear view mirror to confirm that her dad is indeed beaming with pride.

Daddy is a little tired of all the beaming over the last week, but intends to keep up with it till the little girl gets tired of it and just accepts the fact that she can now read fluently..

Every now and then though, we hit a rough spot or place, like San Jose.

She read out loud "Saaan Joe-ce, Next EXIT"

Jr. who was watching and getting tired of the "reading little one and proud daddy" routine jumped at this opportunity and said "Ha, you are wrong! It is not Saaan Joe-ce, it is pronounced Saan Hosay"

The little one was visibly upset and cried out

"I know we call it Saan Hosay, but why is it spelled with a J and not H?"

Had to intervene and say Jose is a word from Spanish and J in Spanish says H in English and also went on to say H in Spanish is G in English...

She took a few seconds to digest that and asked me a very profound question

Daddy, when a Spanish person writes "pass me the Jam" do they really want you to "pass the Ham?"

Well, it was one of those times where different people reacted differently to this question.

Jr., San and the MIL started laughing.

Daddy went back to the beaming routine and this time it was for real!

The little one's brain works in mysterious ways...

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X-mas in the Park - San Jose - Photoblog

A street in downtown San Jose filled with rides and lights, two dozen mini Christmas trees decorated with everything from lights, ornaments to music CD's, twilight giving bright hues and saturated colors..

Here are a few photographs..

Did get to practice motion blur shots and pulled off one with San and the little one on a swing ride. All the ideas not tried this year or ideas that came to my head only after reviewing the photos at home will be tried at the next opportunity.

When you see a Ferris wheel after dark, one should at least take one shot with long exposure times with a high f number and a curtain flash. Try it.

Here are some HD videos..

If you live in the bay area, X-mas in the park is definitely worth an evenings visit!

Walking around is free. The rides cost you tickets. An arm band for 13 bucks gives a kid unlimited rides. However, the kid has to be at least 42 inches to ride alone. If shorter an adult has to accompany the kid.

That costs you a lot of tickets or a screaming kid... your choice!

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Happy New Year 2011

We had another week that was a close approximation of the practically every week last year...

Some ups, some downs, but never a dull moment!

The internet connection got terminated yet again with no AT and T person capable of even figuring out why it was cut. We finally decided that enough was enough when an AT and T representative said "even I go through the same thing with AT & T because our systems are too big and they store information in multiple places and it is difficult to get answers". We then paid a hefty price and got a U-Verse connection.

It is fast and we do get 11.43 Mbps on a test, so all is well that ends well.

Watched the latest Kamalahasan movie "Man Mathan Ambu". Not sure if that space was a font mistake on the Tamil title or an intended gap. It makes sense if you think of it as Mannar, Mathanagopal, Ambu. The movie gave such high hopes of being classy by intermission time only to be a dud slapstick.

Considering this was not your run of the mill movie, but a premium price movie, it failed to make a special impact that even off beat movies are able to create these days. Kamal has his flashes of brilliance, but he continues to insult the intelligence of his audience.

Note to Kamal: If you want to make a slapstick comedy, keep it light throughout the movie. A scene or two where you show the audience you can do the crying bit like nobody's business is okay. Anything more and you are misleading us.

If Kamal ever makes porn, there is a good chance we will see the heroine use glycerine instead of massage oil... anyways, I digress. No point venting on Kamal. Hopefully he continues to make movies along the lines of PKS or Panchatantram if he intends to do slapstick!

The year did round off on a great note. We went to downtown San Jose for Christmas in the park with the cousins. It was a great evening with well lit streets, rides of all kinds for the kids, smiling faces all around..

One thing 2010 seems to have taught us is to take things in our stride and fighting over silly things is not worth it. We still start fighting and drop it before it escalates. Guess one has to be married for 10+ years to hit this stage!

The kids have grown a year older and have figured out new ways to taunt us. The good news is we are growing older as well and are figuring out counter strategies with equal gusto.

2011, here we come!

Older and as the little one would say "wiserer"!

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