Chakli aka Mullu Murukku (முள்ளு முறுக்கு)- do it yourself

We buy the Chakli (which goes by Mullu Murukku  முள்ளு முறுக்கு in Tamil) from the local desi stores. However there is one problem. It has sesame seeds in it. Everyone loves it including daddy who pretty much is restricted to eating a small piece for taste. 

So every now and then we make it at home with cumin seeds substituting for sesame seeds to give it a slightly different flavor!

Yesterday we had mom away from the house for a few hours and that was the perfect time to launch into the Chakli project with the kids. They pretty much did everything except the frying part. In a few years they will do that also. 

Two hopes as this video is posted

1. Folks who see it use it to make hot chakli 

2. some day Jr. and the little one play this back and make it with their kids (who knows if I will be around to watch that?! at least the video is there to remind them of good times.)

It is not expensive to make. Just time consuming. The end result is great! 

We also made a few bhajjis after the chakli was done to use up the oil that was still left. 

It has been a busy January with work, thoughts of work, a more regular Yoga practice and trying to catch up on sleep. 

Now Feb is flying by! It is almost Valentines day! Should make something special for my babies on Valentines day..

Learning

Yesterday I was trying to teach the little one Chess after she saw me playing a game with Jr. 

So we tried to start with placing the pieces on the board. Before the first sentence was out of my mouth, she said "I Know daddy. I know.." and started placing the pawns in a row.. after that she was stuck. 

Jr. does the same thing. She knows everything! If they do not listen to any instruction completely how will they ever learn anythign?

The google generation defintely has a challenge when it comes to developing listening skills! 

Given that, seriously think that teaching Yoga to this generation will be a lot more challenging than teaching the previous one.. and that in itself is a challenge. 

A yoga teacher knows what his brain is telling his body to do and how it reacts. Given every body is different slightly but has the same features, he has to take that thought and transfer it into your head so it can make your body to the exact same thing.

In geek terms, this is like taking a piece of code on a windows machine and putting it in a Mac which has almost the same processors, memory, logic etc.. and making that code do a similar thing on a different machine.

The instruction has to be very clear and specific. As in an earlier post Jim Kallet managed to pull this off for me. 

Also there is a picture on the BYSJ site. Someone had taken a cell phone photo. Thank you! 

Somehow my body trusted his words better than it trusted my own brain and that is interesting. Why? 

Will figure it out in time!

Had signed up for six months of Unlimited visits. Today is the last day of the six month period. My attendance was not that great for the last six months. 64 classes here and 7 in Austin. That is 40% attendance. The travels continue with the new job and manage to go 4 times a week these days. 

Have never been able to beat the attendance that my MIL and me had last year. We went 91 days in the first 100. 

All said and done the deal with San to renew the commit was "at least 50 classes in 6 months" to keep this going. Passed that test!

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!

Jr. figures it out

Jr. has been playing with the Alto Sax, trying to figure out the Carnatic music scales on the instrument. She saw so many kids perform instrument solos at the Navarathri Golu festival and saw it was an easier alternative to singing everywhere. 

Started with renewed vigor today and she did it! (There was no school today and that meant boredom at home. At least the time was used a little constructively for figuring this out!)

Next year at the Golus... Jr. might be playing a Tamil song on the Alto Sax. Can't wait to see that!

Gods for a day

The kids got treated like gods, quite literally on Monday when we went to a Gujrathi family for Navarathri celebrations. 

The ladies in the house line up all the little girls aged 3 to 10 and wash their feet, put flowers, perfumes on them and then do a prayer with the girls treated as the deities!

Needless to say this is followed by some amazing food...

It was a great experience for the kids and they blushed at all the attention.

Truly happy that they are getting an all Indian experience and are not restricted to a simply south Indian Golu tradition. Only in the bay area!