So today my son made a transition from Building Blocks to Lego Blocks.
Whats the difference you may venture to ask!!
well!!! its vast
firstly the size -> lego blocks are atleast one fourth the size of his current blocks
and second and most important for me -> While i bought the BB Set for 399 to 499 Price range, the set i bought today cost me a whooping 2500!
Well... then .... Heres what i told him " No more birthday present this time. This is it!"
the poor darling nodded his wise head and said "Promise mummy, i wont "cut " my promise!!"
Ah little does his know that its not him, but me who will "cut" this promise.
After all he is the only baby in the family yet!
Friday, February 03, 2012
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Children's Day Celebrations in Purva Riviera
Since Nov 14 was a weekday, this time the children's day celebrations were held on 13th November. The days events included various competitions for kids along with food stalls and other little games. It was heartening to see a group of 10 year olds host one stall of games and no points for guessing that they pulled most of the crowd of children !
This time we had pain tattoo and a caricature artist and Prathm enjoyed at both.
He got a pretty little butterfly tattoo on his cheek. He was indeed very happy about it. Following that we stood in the queue for caricature drawing and mind you that queue was long. eventually when Pratham got his chance, he sat still like a good boy for sometime and that was enough to capture his main features says me. But the end result of the session wasnt too satisfactory for us. Na Na.. The sketch didnt capture Pratham's still Baby features and actually looked like a boy of about 8-9. Pratham too wasnt much impressed by it.
All this and we missed a good 1 hour of the colouring competition. We did hurry there and Pratham Drew a cute little garden scene complete with butterflies and clouds:-) He painted it with the new crayon set that i opened for this ocassion. We were happy with the end result and were sure he will win a prize. After all he was the youngest in the free drawing group.
The evening were supposedly exciting since the prize distributions and then the screening of a children's movie was in the cards. There was no cultural evening planned orginally, but on the 12th, the cultural team decided that they should have some items and Suja contacted me to set up some group songs. I am always ready for such challenges but wasnt aware that i would face some problem there!!!
SO immediately after the request came to me, i started going through my Karaoke collection to choose good numbers for group singing. Having done that i also set about tweaking and cutting them inorder to join them for a medley. in the meantime i contacted NY and CK so that they could join me in the singing. Well..... probably i was asking for toooo much. CK was down from abroad for a few days and had quite a few errands to complete. She did let me know when i talked to her the first time and so i was prepared for her negative answer at the afternoon of the show. But NY did dissapoint me since she didnt even have the courtesy of showing me her interest in it whether positive or negative!!! and eventually when i did call her on Nov 13 Aft to discuss the practice timings, i received terse replies from her hubby " N is napping " !!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW SO much for courtesey.
Now this is what I think -> When People request you to give a program, you should first take it as a RESPECT to you. Obviously, your were asked for a program since they though you could do it!!! else why would they bother! right? That is why, even when Suja asked me for the program at the last minute, I took it up. There is much effort involved in choosing, smoothening and setting the songs. One needs to respect that too. Thirdly, if you cant make it for whatever reason, one should have the courtesey to let the organizer(in this case -> me) know rather than springing last minute surprises!!!
BUt then you are right!!! MOST of the prople have no regard for your efforts and time. AND my luck has always been such that for every program that i set up, I have to face some sort of a negative action from someone ( i presume so do many) This has happened for almost every program i gave in my current apartment complex. (EMPTY MINDS and BIG NOISES)
Any ways, Thank god i had 3 hours before the program to get everything ready. I had to change my songs and redo the smoothening and editing and merging. The end result was a 15 minute of medley. My hubby darling(muah muah) pitched in for a song and so the end result was
1: Kajra MOhabbatwala -> me
2: Chaiya Chaiya -> Krishna
3: Dhoom Machale -> me
4: Rangeela Re -> me again.
SO in the evening , when i checked out the CD, it wasnt working well and Krishna had to rush home to get his laptop to play the mp3 (thank god that could work) . I requested one of my friends to video record the event on our camcorder till krishna finished his song and relieved her. And the ball was rolling!!!
The songs were a GREAT HIT!!! even till today, i have people (who didnt want to smile before) stopping me and saying "Hey your sang GREAT" or "We had a GOOOD TIME" .
Kishor from the cultural committee said that we should now have a 1 hour program from me for NEW YEAR CELEBRATION!!!!! WOW YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. that is an honour!!!!! Thanks Kishor.
The cultural program ended with the screening of CARS 2.
Once home, we tried playing our video. BUTTTTTTTTTTT, my friend had not recorded the initial 5 mins of the program!!!!!! All my speech and the start of Kajra MObbattwala was GONEEEEEEEEEE!!! That was disappointing !!!
I just had this feeling -> CANT i trust anyone outside my family?
Yet, Here is the video :-) Your comments will be great to read.
This time we had pain tattoo and a caricature artist and Prathm enjoyed at both.
He got a pretty little butterfly tattoo on his cheek. He was indeed very happy about it. Following that we stood in the queue for caricature drawing and mind you that queue was long. eventually when Pratham got his chance, he sat still like a good boy for sometime and that was enough to capture his main features says me. But the end result of the session wasnt too satisfactory for us. Na Na.. The sketch didnt capture Pratham's still Baby features and actually looked like a boy of about 8-9. Pratham too wasnt much impressed by it.
All this and we missed a good 1 hour of the colouring competition. We did hurry there and Pratham Drew a cute little garden scene complete with butterflies and clouds:-) He painted it with the new crayon set that i opened for this ocassion. We were happy with the end result and were sure he will win a prize. After all he was the youngest in the free drawing group.
The evening were supposedly exciting since the prize distributions and then the screening of a children's movie was in the cards. There was no cultural evening planned orginally, but on the 12th, the cultural team decided that they should have some items and Suja contacted me to set up some group songs. I am always ready for such challenges but wasnt aware that i would face some problem there!!!
SO immediately after the request came to me, i started going through my Karaoke collection to choose good numbers for group singing. Having done that i also set about tweaking and cutting them inorder to join them for a medley. in the meantime i contacted NY and CK so that they could join me in the singing. Well..... probably i was asking for toooo much. CK was down from abroad for a few days and had quite a few errands to complete. She did let me know when i talked to her the first time and so i was prepared for her negative answer at the afternoon of the show. But NY did dissapoint me since she didnt even have the courtesy of showing me her interest in it whether positive or negative!!! and eventually when i did call her on Nov 13 Aft to discuss the practice timings, i received terse replies from her hubby " N is napping " !!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW SO much for courtesey.
Now this is what I think -> When People request you to give a program, you should first take it as a RESPECT to you. Obviously, your were asked for a program since they though you could do it!!! else why would they bother! right? That is why, even when Suja asked me for the program at the last minute, I took it up. There is much effort involved in choosing, smoothening and setting the songs. One needs to respect that too. Thirdly, if you cant make it for whatever reason, one should have the courtesey to let the organizer(in this case -> me) know rather than springing last minute surprises!!!
BUt then you are right!!! MOST of the prople have no regard for your efforts and time. AND my luck has always been such that for every program that i set up, I have to face some sort of a negative action from someone ( i presume so do many) This has happened for almost every program i gave in my current apartment complex. (EMPTY MINDS and BIG NOISES)
Any ways, Thank god i had 3 hours before the program to get everything ready. I had to change my songs and redo the smoothening and editing and merging. The end result was a 15 minute of medley. My hubby darling(muah muah) pitched in for a song and so the end result was
1: Kajra MOhabbatwala -> me
2: Chaiya Chaiya -> Krishna
3: Dhoom Machale -> me
4: Rangeela Re -> me again.
SO in the evening , when i checked out the CD, it wasnt working well and Krishna had to rush home to get his laptop to play the mp3 (thank god that could work) . I requested one of my friends to video record the event on our camcorder till krishna finished his song and relieved her. And the ball was rolling!!!
The songs were a GREAT HIT!!! even till today, i have people (who didnt want to smile before) stopping me and saying "Hey your sang GREAT" or "We had a GOOOD TIME" .
Kishor from the cultural committee said that we should now have a 1 hour program from me for NEW YEAR CELEBRATION!!!!! WOW YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. that is an honour!!!!! Thanks Kishor.
The cultural program ended with the screening of CARS 2.
Once home, we tried playing our video. BUTTTTTTTTTTT, my friend had not recorded the initial 5 mins of the program!!!!!! All my speech and the start of Kajra MObbattwala was GONEEEEEEEEEE!!! That was disappointing !!!
I just had this feeling -> CANT i trust anyone outside my family?
Yet, Here is the video :-) Your comments will be great to read.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Pratham creates Greeting Cards
Pratham's fav activity for this Dasara Holiday was creating greeting cards. We actually created them and posted too... He drew everything himself, painted them and also suggested the words , which he again wrote himself. Of course i helped him with the spellings... He is still in the alphabet writing phase.:-)
Now that Dasara is over and Diwali is around the corner , he is gonna create those cards.
Should i have him send you one? :-)
Now that Dasara is over and Diwali is around the corner , he is gonna create those cards.
Should i have him send you one? :-)
Friday, October 07, 2011
Musical Performance -> Raag Hamsadhwani
I gave a Classical performance for Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations in Purva Riviera on Sept 1,2011.
The performance had Shankarji on the flute , Chandrshekharji on the Tabla and Me on the Keyboard.
The Raag was Hamsadhwani, Shankar played the Aaalap while I continued with the popular Hindi Song "Jaa Tose Nahi" and the Taana.
The performance had Shankarji on the flute , Chandrshekharji on the Tabla and Me on the Keyboard.
The Raag was Hamsadhwani, Shankar played the Aaalap while I continued with the popular Hindi Song "Jaa Tose Nahi" and the Taana.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Pratham and Cold
SO Pratham always has cold and the DOCS are of the Opinion that Bangalore Climate is the culprit. (We even had one suggesting that he has Asthma!!!!!! LOL) Anyways we are always on the NO ICE CREAM MODE . I even stopped giving him ghee(even though it was homemade) . But his Cold doesnt seem to subside!!!
WRT this cold there are a few funny things we experienced
1: Once Prathm was coughing so badly and was in no mood to take medicines. I (wrong of me) exasperatedly said "You will die coughing, take this medicine" . It worked then. And i forgot my words. The next day, Pratham got another bout of cough and immediately came running to me " Mummy Mummy!!! I am going to die now"
Me: What!!!
Pratham : I coughed and coughed and now i am going to die!!!
I realised that this was the result of my careless words and immediately hastened to pacify him.
2: At another instance Pratham Said " This cold is not GOING only!!!!!! "
3: Latest , when he went to one of my friend's house, she asked about the tears in his eyes . His answer was-
" My eyes are always leaking!! Because my COLD is IMMORTAL "
LOL
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Pratham and Ganesha Celebrations 2011
This time's Ganesha Celebrations are special to me.
Because Pratham participated in two items !!!
"Fancy Dress and Koligeet."
Fancy Dress :
Last year we had dressed him up as Krishna but Pratham was sooo not interested that he actually fell asleep and we were left feeling frustrated. But this year we decided that he should participate in this Fancy Dress event and so asked him what he wanted to become - Guess what he said ??? BUTTERFLY.
So this was the idea that we had. We create a Big Butterfly on a Chart Paper and Pratham Wears it.
Krishna is our resident painter in our family. He Sketched a wonderful Butterfly on a pink chart paper(yes pinnk.... instructions from Pratham) . He painstakingly coloured it and adorned it . Later he made straps so that Pratham could wear it. He also made a hat with antennae and probiscus . The costume was thus ready. As for the lines I wrote a small poem hoping that Pratham would sing it on stage. It went like this
"I am a butterfly, I am a butterfly
I am a dancing singing happy little Butterfly"
So on the D Day, Pratham Happily wore his costume and stood on the stage till his name was called. Although he didnt sing his piece, the judges liked his costume i presume.
Pratham Won the 2nd Prize ! HURRAH
We were happy . But Pratham wasn't!! He said " I wanted the first prize mom, why didn't they give me 1st!" We tried pacifying him that second was still a good position and we could try harder next time.
KoliDance :
Encouraged by His performance in "VIVA" where he danced on Bam Bam Bole, I decided to choreograph a KoliDance for the cultural event. I chose "Dol Doltoy Varyavar" and appropriately slashed 2 of the 4 stanzas.
What we had then was a marathon of practices. Pratham was the only boy in the entire group of 10 gals!! At one time he did say "Why am i the only boy here" to which i said "you are the main hero" of the show. That worked!
On the Actual Day, All the tiny tots danced so well. We dressed Pratham like a typical Fisherman ie a Triangular cap in black, a Maroon T-Shirt with Ganesha , a Teal short and my Flowery Duppatta as the Triangular Lungi. My darling boy wore all this without much ado. He was tickled by the thought of wearing a little lipstick and rose on the cheeks. He danced soo wellllll. and as the song ended the other kids trickled out of the stage but Pratham continued to do his step till the song ended and then gracefully ran to me.
We are sooooooooooo proud.
Here is the video
The coming events are going to be more eventful. Now that Pratham is showing a cultural bend of mind, I shall groom him to that. What say you?
On the Actual Day, All the tiny tots danced so well. We dressed Pratham like a typical Fisherman ie a Triangular cap in black, a Maroon T-Shirt with Ganesha , a Teal short and my Flowery Duppatta as the Triangular Lungi. My darling boy wore all this without much ado. He was tickled by the thought of wearing a little lipstick and rose on the cheeks. He danced soo wellllll. and as the song ended the other kids trickled out of the stage but Pratham continued to do his step till the song ended and then gracefully ran to me.
We are sooooooooooo proud.
Here is the video
The coming events are going to be more eventful. Now that Pratham is showing a cultural bend of mind, I shall groom him to that. What say you?
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Independence Day - 2011
Come August and then starts the preparations for the celebration of the mosty important day of an Indian's Life. Yes - the Independence Day.
As an artiste, the day means a channel to put forth programs celebrating the liberation from the tyrant English.
This year at Purva Riviera, I was involved with many programs in the capacity of a participant and /or as coordinator.
Firstly I set up the Swagat Geet - Swagatam Shubh Swagatam - This was originally composed by Pt. Ravishanker for the Asiad 1982.
I used the song as is but did minor changes to the alaaps in between the stanzas. Towards the end i incorprated a mixing effect of the chorus where two groups started the lines at different times and later joined together to finish.
I joined the group as the Singer and the Keyboard player.
The Video is uploaded here . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSSfnc8LCvI
The socond Item I helped set up was a Song for a group of Children . The one i chose was "Humko Manki Shakti Dena" From Guddi. The Children sang it well.
The Third item was a Classical Fusion Dance. I was one of the Odissi Dancers and the song was "Mahaganapati " Apart from Odissi, we had two more pairs performing in Bharatnatyam and Mohini Attam Styles.
The Video for this is uploaded here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q7IVfc3Ae0.
All in all it was a great event. I was happy that I could contibute to these celebrations. More so, I danced after a long time (the last i remember was in College)
Comments please.
As an artiste, the day means a channel to put forth programs celebrating the liberation from the tyrant English.
This year at Purva Riviera, I was involved with many programs in the capacity of a participant and /or as coordinator.
Firstly I set up the Swagat Geet - Swagatam Shubh Swagatam - This was originally composed by Pt. Ravishanker for the Asiad 1982.
I used the song as is but did minor changes to the alaaps in between the stanzas. Towards the end i incorprated a mixing effect of the chorus where two groups started the lines at different times and later joined together to finish.
I joined the group as the Singer and the Keyboard player.
The Video is uploaded here . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSSfnc8LCvI
The socond Item I helped set up was a Song for a group of Children . The one i chose was "Humko Manki Shakti Dena" From Guddi. The Children sang it well.
The Third item was a Classical Fusion Dance. I was one of the Odissi Dancers and the song was "Mahaganapati " Apart from Odissi, we had two more pairs performing in Bharatnatyam and Mohini Attam Styles.
The Video for this is uploaded here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q7IVfc3Ae0.
All in all it was a great event. I was happy that I could contibute to these celebrations. More so, I danced after a long time (the last i remember was in College)
Comments please.