Little-ita!!

Jr. has learnt from daycare that when you add "ita" to something it means "little one". I do not know exactly which spanish words were used to teach that.

Armed with this newfound knowledge she has been ita-ing everyone and everything.

She ita'ed her name, her sisters name, said things like tableita, umbrellita etc., and then realized that Sangeetha was already a "ita". Of course she did not realize the spelling difference between "ita" and "eetha", but that is not surprising since a lot of people here in the US mispell my wife's name as Sangita!

Then she came up with a brilliant one.

Daddy, I am going to call myself "Sundareetha" because I am Sundar and Sangeetha's baby!

I was so impressed.

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Too much love

Jr. got a homework assignment from her school. They gave her two germinated seeds (just germinated!), in a cup with her name on it.

The goal: Learn how plants come from seeds.
How : go home, ask your parents to put some dirt in the cup, put the seeds, water it and watch it grow and as bring it back to school.

I promptly put some mud from the backyard, planted the seeds, while mommy watered it in front of Jr. and grandma pitched in by saying "sunlight is very important. lets keep it on the window sill with the rest of the plants".

Jr. of course was learning another hidden lesson, zen style. The plant does not grow instantly. Every 5 minutes she would go look for a plant. After my repeated answers of "it takes some time to grow", she reduced the frequency to every hour or so..

The next morning, she went first to look for her plant! Still no plant. She was disappointed. I told her "Trust me. In two days there will be a plant!".

Four days later, this is what we have in the cup!

Yes. Looks like the seed has become fungus fodder!

Looks like Jr. is not the only one learning lessons here. Apparently, with the responsibility of not disappointing the poor kid, all the adults in the house, have been showering love on Jr., by indirectly showering the cup with water! Three people watering the seeds everytime they go near the kitchen sink was too much for the seedlings!!

Lessons learned :

Jr.:
Plants maybe grow from seeds?
If they grow, they need the seed, soil, water, sunlight.
It takes a long time for plants to grow, longer if grown by adults.
I hope all the other parents did the same thing with the seeds!

Mommy, grandma :
From now on only daddy does these activity homeworks.

Daddy :
My name is in the mud now, literally!!

I am sure there will be a lot more plants to grow, butterflies to incubate, cakes to bake etc. etc. in the coming years. Hope I get better at supporting those projects!

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By the people, for the people, of the people ???

Yeah, I am talking about the "D" word! Next to the "F" word it is probably the most controversial word in the making.

Cannot help but hear it at least a few times a day, be it in India or the United States.

India : largest Democracy
USA : worlds largest exporter of Democracy

So much of this word that pretty soon it would be Democrazy!!

I am writing about this after I listened to Terry's interview of Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani Journalist, on public radio. It put the word in an all new context!

Democracy is what we want it to be, people. The funny thing is everyone votes, thinking there is a majority opinion out there that has finally made it! Even if the rule of law is not representative of the majority or the system, no one will ever know! Why ? Because the people is a large body and every individual is but a drop in the ocean.

Let us say you are someone like me wondering "why is there more war talk when almost all the people around me dont want the war ?" or "why are we adjusting the clock two weeks ahead, or why are we adjusting the clocks at all ?"...

Then maybe you rationalize the fact that there is war and daylight savings inspite of everyone around you telling you that they are against it, because there must be a great many people in the ocean of democracy who want the war and the daylight savings and they have the majority vote !!

However, they do announce in opinion polls etc., that <40% of the people support the war! Either people say they do not support it and are secretly voting for it or everyone thinks there are a majority of people who must want the war, when in reality it is a few smart people who know how Democracy really works!!

It works using "the other guys must have voted against what I voted for" syndrome!!

In India I used to ask myself "why in the world would anyone do a budget like this? pass a law like this ? etc. etc." and think "I am from the middle class. India is the land of the poor. Maybe the poor majority likes these rules.". But my theory would be dashed to pieces when people who are from poorer segments, like the maids who used to help with cleaning the house and dishes also agree with my ideas or say "they dont want those things either!". Same thing in the US of A with the War!!

Hope the genius in me has finally figured this out!

Now, on the lighter side, you have to watch this video. Puts some things in context while still being hilarious!

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