Hum panchhi unmukt gagan ke

I am neck deep in work today\now. What with deadlines to meet before an audit at the client side and a much desired vacation planned at the end of the week. It is also one of those days when the server at the client side decides to go on a hike. Every little link takes an eternity to open. So as always, I decided to browse\blog hop when the server took its own sweet time to open a few links. And guess what I found? I found a link to a hindi poem that I just love.

"Hum panchhi unmukt gagan ke"

I loved it so much as a kid, that I had memorised the whole poem and one could wake me up from deep sleep and I could still recite the verses from the start to the end. I had long forgotten this poem except for the first few lines. Today when I found this, I was just overjoyed!! So I am sitting here in office grinning from ear to ear and going down the memory lane!!

Its amazing how these little things turn you so nostalgic. I close my eyes and am able to even recollect the page of this poem in my hindi textbook. The picture of a bird flying out of its cage, the faded letters of the textbook, the way Anitha Ma'am taught this poem(She was just WOW!!), the imagery that used to come to life in my mind and how I used to sit on the terrace under the light of an electric bulb and recite this aloud for the whole world to hear. sigghhhh...... kaash woh din laut aate!! :)

So, what is your favourite poem\lesson\song from the bygone days of your childhood? Something that brings in an avalanche of memories in your mind and a smile on your face even today. Let me know. ok...this is for the two readers of this blog..i know there are no others.. :)

Jolting me back to reality is that error which has popped up there in the other window. Work beckons and I am off!! :)

This is a lemon!!!!

Another update from kutu's world!!! My dear little boy had his first ever stage performance last weekend. The activities in his school revolve around one central theme every month. The theme for last month was "Fruits and Vegetables". His teachers had asked us send a veggie or fruit with the child every day. As a culmination to the month's activities, a programme called "Presentation" where in the children would sing the rhymes\songs based on the theme of the month and are also made to talk a few lines on some thing.

So....my little brat was given a lemon and asked to talk about it. He was of course trained by his teachers before hand. The lines were given to the parents before hand so that we could give the kids some training at home as well. The lines went something like this:

Good Morning Parents
This is a lemon
It is in two colours : yellow and green
My mother makes pickle, juice and lemon rice with it.
I like lemon juice very much.
Thank you Parents. Bye!!!

But the little tyke that he is. He never once repeated the lines correctly after me. I say "kutu...say This is a lemon". He would pick up some random object lying in the room and say " this is a box or ball" or whatever it was that he picked up. Not wanting to pressurise him too much I would proceed to the next line. "Kutu say It is in two colours: yellow and green". Then he gives me the most outrageous answer which goes something like this "It is in five colours: pink, blue, orange, black and white". He would say all other colours except yellow and green. Atleast he is did his math well and mentioned exactly five colours. The third line of course I didnt expect him to say because he has never seen his mother make any of those things. :)
So, all in all, I totally gave up.

On the day of the presentation though he was all enthu to go to the hall. Quickly got ready and off we went. Once in the hall, the teacher tied some crown kind of thing depicting a vegetable or fruit on every child's head. Kutu was a jack in the box eagerly waiting for his turn to go on stage. Then at long last his name was called. Again like an obedient little puppy, he went on stage and picked the lemon from a box lying on a desk there. And just went on to say his lines. Perfect and loud and clear!!! My jaws just dropped down! This boy never fails to surprise me! Then gave him a loud loud appalause and we were just short of wolf-whistling!!
I felt immensely happy inspite of that big lump in my throat and that little tear in my eye.




Kutu's dad has gone a trip to Japan this week for a conference. Again kutu surprised us all by not throwing a tantrum when his dad left. I asked him a couple of days ago, "Kutu where is achan? ". He said "Achan Japan poyi". Me being me, pestered him further and asked him why his dad has gone to Japan. Pop comes the answer "Presentation...achan presentation cheyyum...endhu parayum ariyaamo? Good morning parents. This is a lemon parayum". WOW!!! So, Mr Scientist....So much for your research on Molecular Imprinted Polymers. It boils down to just this in your son's POV. "If only my research was that simple" says the much amused dad! :)