The little devil

What does it mean, when a married couple who have Tamizh and English as their default languages, are seen speaking in Hindi? This from a couple who were recently seen talking to each other in "Spell"!

If you do not know spell, here is an example.

Dad : Do I G-I-V-E her I-C-E C-R-E-A-M today ?
Mom : A L-I-T-T-L-E

or

Dad : have to G-O T-O O-F-F-I-C-E soon etc.

There are two reasons..

1. Jr. has now figured out the English language in its totality. She can speak, write and read! That means, she KNOWS spell. That also means she is privy to information that we try to keep from the little one when we talk in Spell and promptly goes and tells the little one. This makes it look like we are conspiring against baby and Jr. is her guardian angel!

2. The little one now understands Tamizh and English to a point where she can embarass us in public. Here is a conversation from our trip to the east coast over the last weekend:

Mom : enga pora ? (where are you going?)
Me : Bathroom (in hushed tone). Watch them for a few minutes.
When I come back towards the stroller...
Me : lets go
Little one : (with a big smile on her face on seeing me walk towards her)

Daddy? Pooh-pooh DONE ?

I have no idea how she heard or caught on to the fact that I was visiting the restroom. She announced the question, in a tone that would put the airport public address system to shame. Everyone in Terminals A through C would have looked up and thought "Good for you Daddy. But why tell everyone at the airport?", and continued on with their business.

Now the adults in the family only speak in Hindi.

We are also planning to enroll in Chinese classes starting next quarter at the local community college as a backup plan.

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Happy Tamizh New Year

Wishing everyone a happy Tamizh New Year.

The Tamil (Tamizh) calendar follows a sixty year cycle (like the 12 year cycle for the Chinese years). This year is Sarvasithu.

Happy new year to everyone or as they say in Tamizh "Iniya puththaandu Nal Vazhthukkal!".

Hope this year brings us a better world (an end to the Iraq war, the whole world embracing green technology, solar panels on top of every PTC bus in Chennai, no traffic jams in Cupertino, etc. etc.............). Needless to say, there are wish lists on the personal front, but I will keep those to myself! at least for now.

Looks like the New Year is indeed starting off on a brighter note!

A lot better than our previous attempt!

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Beta Beta...

I am not singing the Bhagyaraj song..

Beta beta
oh my beta
en aanandham onnodu dhaan..

(son son
oh my son
my happiness is only with you!) for those who care..

I am referring to Beta Blogger.

This harmless screen that said, great things await me when I switch to the beta version by just signing up with my gmail account, turned out to be a mixed blessing.

Beta is not different from the standard version. Except the obvious "republish blog" button is not to be found..

The minute I switched to beta

1. my sidebar went nuts
2. I lost all the original buttons I made (luckily I was able to hold on to my old template and was saved, but I almost got a heart attack!)
3. Worse, my Tamizh blog became )_&)(*^R^(*#^(*^$^(*#^@8 or something to that effect.
All the fonts, the profile everything , gone.. at the click of a button..

Took me an hour last night to put back everything, that too by playing with html (because you dont know what )*)&)(^(*&%&*(^*&%$ was and )_*)(&(*^*&^$%$ was originally!!

Finally, there is some order in my blogs again. My fellow bloggers, before you switch to beta, make sure you copy old template files, especially if they are in a foreign language..

other than that, enjoy beta blogger..