Even tigers eat grass

There is a saying in Tamil..

இந்த புலியும் புல்லை திங்குமா?

Indha puliyum Pullai thinguma? (will this tiger ever eat grass? in reference to a change of preference when it comes to dire circumstances)

Jr. did it in our India trip. A girl who has never had a penchant for planes, trains and automobiles when it comes to toys, a girl who uses purses and handbags as her only props for playing daycare, or school or hospital or anything for that matter..

had to make do with boys toys because that is all my nephew had! Planes, train sets and cars and vans of every kind.

The little one did nor care what the game was as long as there was fighting for ownership involved!

It was a treat to watch Jr. play train!

.

Frolicing in frocks

These days elders we visit with the kids give them cash and ask them to go buy clothes. We rounded up all the cash and got a few sets of fancy wear for the kids from a place called Cents and Pence in Adyar.

They have a decent collection!

Jr. is having a problem fitting into practically anything as she is now outside of the kids sizes! Pretty soon she will be shopping in the young adults section at Target. Don't know why she is in a rush to grow up. Wish I could slow it down a little and keep her the same Jr.

The little one seems to be okay as far as physical maturity goes, but mentally she talks like a 60 year old. She makes sure I don't miss my mother! At least she fits in clothes in the kids section..

More pictures next weekend..

Flexibility as we age..

All of you know that Bikram Yoga has become a part of the routine for me and the MIL and we are now regulars to a point where our laundry cycles are synchronized with the number of Yoga clothes we own!

The three week hiatus in Bikram Yoga during the India trip was interesting. My logic was that Chennai temperatures were 98 to 100 F during the time we were there and the lows were in the 88 to 90 F range. Chennai is on the coast and is usually humid and so doing Yoga in the living room should be the same as doing Bikram Yoga in the studio here.

Have never been so wrong. The first day after landing there, tried to do the exercises starting with the breathing. Usually we sweat a lot after the very first breathing exercise. There was no sweating. Forget profuse sweating.. there was simply no sweat. It was a very bad clammy feeling. Still went through the routine in a little over an hour. The timing was a little off but did finish it. The rest of the day was a bad headache. It was possibly accelerated by the Jet lag but after having missed headaches for 100+ days, it was a rude shock!

The next day tried to go through the routine again and no sweating. Then decided to stop the attempts. My body was saying "enough. go back to a hot room" and my skin was clogging up. The rest of the trip saw no yoga, only a careful watching of the diet and before we knew it, we were back home in Cupertino.

Instinct was to go do Yoga on day one, but the body was jet lagged and we decided to wait for two days. The first day of Yoga was stressful. The mind knew how far to push because of previous experience but the body did not respond. A funny thing happened. There was a lot less sweating and felt like peeling off my skin and throwing it out. That same clammy feeling. A feeling you get just before it rains after an extreme bout of heat in Chennai summers! (what we call Puzhukkam in Tamil). Would come home, take a shower and the minute I dried myself with a towel and walked to the kitchen to make tea, my vest, shirt and pants would be drenched in sweat as if I had just finished the yoga session.

Obviously something was wrong with my skin and the pores were clogging up because of the weather change. Do not know if the water change and soap change added to the weather change, but it is a possibility. After the third day of Yoga, things came back to normal.

Did have another small snag with a TdP vaccine giving me side effects that made me miss Yoga for another three days this week, but so far so good.

The kids are having fun watching try hard to get back in track..

They have a lot more flexibility because they are young! Wish they retain this as they grow old.

One thing that has been brought to my attention recently that has to be shared. Doing Bikram Yoga seems to be like a test of the body in itself. If something is wrong or about to fail the Yoga seems to bring it out. The recent health check up showed a severe Vitamin D deficiency which is being corrected. Do not know to what extent this is true but we know of three cases where an underlying health problem has been highlighted by doing Yoga. There is always a question of "did the Yoga cause the problem or help bring the symptoms to the foreground?". Google searches suggest the latter.

If you have any such experience, do share in the comment section.

Meanwhile, the Yoga experience continues...

.

We all have our reasons

A conversation from our recent India trip

Me to the kids : I want you guys to keep your mouth shut and come quietly till we go to Kollu paati's (great grandma's) house!

Jr. and LO : No, we won't!

My dad to me : I know the kids have been very noisy and troublesome all day but it is very difficult to keep them quiet..

Jr. and LO : You always ask only the two of us to keep quiet. You don't ask him (pointing at my nephew) to be quiet when he comes with us..

Me : That is because he does not talk with an American accent and increase my auto fare!

My dad (all pissed off) : And I thought you wanted peace and quiet. Aren't you ashamed ?

Me : No. Why should I be.. I bargain with the auto drivers like I am a local and that makes me feel at home for some strange reason, till one of them opens their mouth and start talking in an accent and there goes all my bargaining! Immediately the guy asks for another 30 rupees over 120! Spending 600-700 rupees a day on auto is not cheap even in $!

My dad must have had very conflicting emotions that day. Should he be proud for raising a son in his true Bargaining parampara, or should he be disappointed that his son is making him look like a spendthrift ?!

It was only a question of time before my nephew also started letting me down by bringing in fresh conversation in Tamil like

"Sundi periappa, Americavula Auto irukka?" (do they have autos in America?)

என்ன தான் வேஷ்டியை மடிச்சு கட்டிநாலும் ஆக்சென்ட் ஆக்செண்டே !

(Enna dhan veshtiya madichhu kattinallum accent accente!)

(Attempted translation: no matter how much you tie your dhoti like a Tamilian, the accent will give you away)

But I did good this time compared to last year in what should soon be an Olympic sport.

When an auto driver said
"Maambalam ponum na suttikinnu dhan sir poganum!" (if you want to go to Mambalam, I have to go the roundabout route) I responded with

"Chennaila engendhu engayaachum ponummna, suththaama poga mudiyaadhu saar!" (you cannot go from any place to any other place in Chennai without going the roundabout route) and he said "okay, let's go"

Another time a guy said "petrol price up saar" and I promptly quoted him yesterday's price and today's price and he was baffled.

He said

"சார், நீ கார் வைச்சிருக்கே , அப்புறம் எதுக்கு சார் ஆட்டோல வரே?"

"Saar, nee car vachchu iruke. Apparom yen saar autola vare?"
(you have a car then why are you traveling by auto with your kids?"

Told him we were from Mumbai and know the petrol prices because every day we were traveling by auto and invariably they stopped at a petrol pump while we are inside the auto and that is how we know the price. He was impressed..

These little wins in the sport of bargaining made my day. At the end of the day we would always give the driver 10 rupees more than what we agreed on as long as it was fair. This whole experience was new to Jr. who is now 8+ and is at an age where she can

1. follow the math (because she now knows how to count numbers in Tamil and english)
2. follow the conversation (she has been introduced to Auto Tamil)
3. she knows the existence and concept of "variable pricing"
4. she understands averages and LCM's

Last year, she would go to the driver and say "sixty vachchuko pa!" in her cute American accent and that would make the auto driver's day because she would quote 60 for something that would cost us only 40 and two the accent would take the auto driver into a

"saar, foreignlendhu vare.. edukku saar beram pesikkinu?!"

சார், பாரின்லேந்து வரே.. என்னத்துக்கு சார் பேரம் பேசிகின்னு ?!

(you come from abroad and why are you bargaining.. the assumption being we are well to do and therefore should not bargain)

By the end of the trip, Jr. realized that her keeping her mouth shut was an advantage for me. She co-operated very well.

Next trip we will make her bargain, in Tamil and make my daddy proud..

or at least make me proud!

.

Bring your kids to Yoga day!

Why not?

BYSJ had a special event today to introduce the little ones to Yoga and to have them see what their parents do in the Yoga room..

Both Jr. and the little one were good sports. They said "if it is hot and sweaty and I cannot do it, will sit down okay?"

Told them that is exactly what daddy also does in the room when it gets to be difficult.

They did great!

We have only one out of focus picture (thanks to San who needs a photography lesson even for an iPhone) but the studio took a lot more pictures. Hopefully we get to see them in some of the pictures.

It was a fun experience to show them the exercises in a not so hot room with one set of exercises, but kept them going.

Hope they make it a regular event..

.