There was a time..

There was a time when an economy class ticket would still get you a warm smile from the air hostesses, warm blankets, a kit with toothpaste, socks, eye patch, ear plugs for everyone, another kit with fun stuff to do for every kid that gets on the plane, veggie noodles for snacks between meals, and among other things, a deck of playing cards to pass time.

We have been playing cards at home recently with the kids as the little one is turning into a rummy champion of sorts!

The one deck of cards that has still survived in the house is this one.

This deck pre dates both Jr. and the little one. We got it in the late nineties I think. I kept it as a souvenier of what air travel used to be like. The box is all taped up and the cards were handled with care over 16 years. 

Now we are playing with it. I am tempted to return it back into my shoe box and buy a new deck of cards to play with the kids. Given it is the first time we will be paying for a deck of cards, want it to be a memorable deck for the kids.

Who knows? Maybe they will tape it all up and show it to me in 20 years? 

The Christmas gift is here at last...

This years Christmas gift was a printed version of my blog in book form. There were only three or four services that do this, that were recommened on the internet. Used Blogtoprint service and found that they allow a maximum of 1000 pictures in each book.

That meant only the first two years of the blog from 2005 - 2007 and it was 300+ pages. 

It was finally delivered today and we all loved it!

The kids have been flipping through this and laughing and crying at the same time. Given the cost of printing this thing, we have to wait for another year to get book2 printed.. 

Should have done this a long time ago.. 

Jr. tries to play the Veena

The next stop on our 2015 year end trip was to Suresh mama's house. Let posterity note that we stayed with them for days and did not make a flying visit!

As soon as we reached Suresh Mama's (uncles) house, the first thing Jr. saw was the nice Veena sitting in their family room. His mom plays the Veena and she let Jr. try it and was giving her a quick lesson. 

Jr. loved it so much that she asked to say there and play while we wanted to keep traveling. We had to pull her off the Veena.

By day 2, she got the hang of it and with more coaching from Amala paati she was able to play "Vara Veena" 

Now she wants us to buy her a Veena.

Guess nothing beats a Tanjavoor Veenai, to get a kid hooked to Carnatic music!