Akank had me in splits last evening with this conversation. We were discussing her friends - yet again. We seem to do this very often these days, evaluating who is "nice" who is not, who is "ok to hang around with" or " to bring home to play".  While we discussed, I was appreciative of a "mature,sweet and well behaved" friend that she played with in the neighbourhood, telling Akank that she should make more friends like her .  Akank was quick to tell me that its not always what it seemed. She recalled what had happened a few days back to prove to me how wrong I was with my evaluation.

This friend and Akank are " team leaders" for the rest of the children who play every evening. Akank tells me that the teams play different games one of which was racing each other. When Akank's team lost one day, the child that I evaluated as "mature",  magnanimously declared that " it was not about winning but about competing". Akank who hates to lose to anyone,  found the declaration reassuring to accept another challenge to race the team the next day. However, Akank's team failed to avenge themselves the following day as well. At the end of the race when Akank repeated what the other child had said about the spirit of  " competing and not always having to win" she was rudely surprised when the "so called"  mature child quipped .... " competing and beating"

:-) SO much for maturity in under 12's.

I have tried my best to make Akank happy with her hair. I guess I have to do better than my best if I want her happy. She is forever checking her hair after I braid them in the mornings before school.

" Ma, don't you think my hair looks weird "
" Have you parted them into two equal halves?"
" Don't you think the left braid is closer to the ear than the right braid? "
" Do you think it looks good from behind ? "
" Won't my friends laugh when they see my braids today?"
" Are you sure it looks ok ma?"
" I wonder why my hair cannot be straight and normal "
" Do you think I can straighten my hair? Maybe when I am 18? "

I have been cheesed off,  irritated, annoyed, exasperated to various degrees at her observations. Now I am calm and do not react to her remarks.

 I am even amused at how much girls worry about hair even before they turn 10 :-)

Its the season of the king of the fruits- The mango. Akank however has her reservations about eating the fruit. Ever since school began. Not even then. Ever since her science teacher told the class about the chemicals that are added to the mango fruit that make them ripen faster. Last night when her father chose a ripe mango for his dessert, she screamed at the loudest allowed decibel and warned him of the hazardous fruit . When I dished out a serving of mango along with breakfast, she could not resist popping a few pieces in. No sooner than she did that, she complained of an itchy burning sensation in the corner of her mouth and wanted an ice pack. I supposed that it was an odd sour piece which I had cut from close to the seed, but she supposed back that it was the chemicals that her teacher warned her class about.

I explained to her that what we had at home were not the chemically enhanced yellow mangoes but the naturally ripened ones. And that there was some truth in what her teacher told her about the chemicals. I also showed her that we washed the fruit and every other vegetable / fruit that we consume at home. It did not look like Akank was convinced.

She has sworn to stay off the fruit for the rest of the season. I have sworn to make her break her promise. Let the truth prevail:-)

Akank is not a foodie. She is not enthusiastic about trying out new dishes or recipes however exotic it looks or sounds. She largely depends on her sense of smell to decide whether she likes the dish or not. Her staple breakfast food has been a bowl of cornflakes ( not flavoured or sweetened- fruit, honey or choco but regular natural cornflakes)with a few pieces of banana, raisins and cold milk. At best she will try a different fruit topping like apple. At home when the rest of us have oats for breakfast, Akank took a dislike to the name. Till two days back she refused to try it in any disguised format.

Her loyalities switched from her favourite brand of Cornflakes to my favourite brand of Oats since two days:-) She was busy with a game when I slyly fed her a spoonful of Oats and expected her to choke on it. She made a face at first. Then she realized that it involved lesser chewing and therefore would be easier to consume on busy school mornings. She has decided to eat Oats on school - mornings and cornflakes on weekends.

Since we are discussing food, here is another trivia on Akanks " food-iosyncrasies "!!

Guess what Akank calls mustard seeds that she finds in the food? ( And we in the South of India use a lot of mustard in our dishes!) " The hard parts of the Ants " :-)

Akank has a few friends in a neighbouring apartment with who she likes to spend her play time in the evenings. However, the kids in that block come to play only after 7 in the evening by which time Akank is supposed to be back home. Akank has two hours ( typically  between 5 and 7 in the evening)  to play, cycle, skip, walk, talk, pet dogs and whatever she chooses to do outside in the apartment courtyard. The rule, however, is for her to return home at 7pm when it is sufficiently dark and unsuitable for "play time".
She misses meeting her friends from the neighbouring block on most days.

When the kids in the other block call out to her, around 7 or sometimes even later, she tries her best to convince me to let her go back to play. On weekends and other days when she has no school the next morning, I let her go back for half an hour. ( She has a lot of convincing to do for that 30 minutes!) But more often than not, she does not get to go back. Last evening was one such occassion. When I told Akank to let her friends know that she will not be able to play because its past her play time, she was upset and she stormed back to the balcony to tell them. One of the girls called back about " but -you-said- till - 7.30 " to which Akank loudly said something like " if- you-didn't-hear- me-right-its-your-problem". I was aghast!

I counseled Akank and told her that it was an inappropriate remark and that she owed her friend an apology. She didn't seem to agree at first and then after sulking a bit told me that she wants to call out an apology from the balcony. When Akank called out to the girl to say how sorry she was for being rude, the girl promptly called back aloud - " But you were not rude!"

:-) Well. So much for proper guidance!!

Akank has been regularly using the pool at a local gym facility for a few months now. Though she has been "swimming" since she turned four, she had not really begun to enjoy her lessons until recently. Yesterday after lessons at the pool, she announced that she had learnt a few new strokes by herself. Looking pretty impressed I asked her about it. Expecting her to rattle out the different styles of swimming strokes, I was tickled with what she came up!

" The Harry Potter Grindylow stroke"- A stroke that resembles that of the water demons in Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire where Harry has to fight them in the 2nd task of the Triwizard tournament. ( Incidentally, Akank just completed the book and is on to her fifth).

" The underwater stroke" - When you go completely underwater and glide just above the floor.

" The twister stroke" - When you twist / rotate over and over again in the water and move sideways. ( She must have tried this after she accidentally twisted once!)

Holi, Anastasia and Pasqual are all grown up and look gorgeous like their parents. Holi turned out to be a pure white budgie, unlike his dad and Anastasia and Pasqual have more green than yellow, very unlike the mom. Another update - Polly, the mother bird is readying for her next hatch! Akank is absolutely excited about the new developement and is already "counting- the-chicks" so to speak!  This time around though, the babies will have to find new homes when they arrive.  Akank doesn't think that squeezing an extra half an hour into my most busy morning hours, to clean the cage , change feed, talk to them is a big deal. 

According to her, I afterall dont have to go to school or bring after school work home!

So! Akank has been off school for almost 6 weeks now. Another week and she will start a fresh academic year! Of the 6 weeks , we have been 'out- of- towner's' for more than 4 weeks. First we went to visit family and attend a few social gatherings at our home town, came back to unpack and repack for a week long vacation to Europe! It was our (Akanks and mine) first visit to any European country. We spent four days at Switzerland,  (at Lucern and Interlaken) and four days at Paris.  Akank was a good sport through out our vacation in Europe. She never once complained of the schedules or places we wanted to see. She missed home food though. We made her vacation spectacular by spending a day at Eurodisney at Paris. I am hoping to upload some pictures on Jambav soon- just when it allows me to!

Well. That was some break! Akank was (still is! ) on vacation from school and we have not been in town for over 4 weeks! Its good to be back home and blogging. Will write about our vacations in my next blog entry. Meanwhile, blog sweet blog!

Its been 3 weeks since our budgie babies arrived. Holi, Pasqual and Anastasia are growing into beautiful birds. Holi is going to look like dad and the other two like ma Polly. It will be another 2 weeks before they come hopping out of their little nest. The babies chirp only when they need feeding. Meanwhile the parent birds have gotten into fights and have made up for now.

The site is not allowing me to upload pictures. I will, when it does!