The budding Doctor

Jr. accompanied me to the Doctor's office on Wednesday. Was feeling miserable with cold, sore throat, loose stomach and was facing near system shutdown. So took off work in the afternoon and went staight to the doctor, with Jr. in tow because she also had similar symptoms.

The doc. wrote down a page full of notes after asking me questions and then gave me mostly Over The Counter medicines and lots of advice.

Jr. came away much impressed with the doctor's note taking skills and she played doctor at home with her sister.

Today we happened to see her notes and were rolling on the floor laughing, so we decided to share the budding doctor's notes with all of you.

Jr.'s spelling is improving significantly, although she still spells some words as she hears them. Cannot blame her if she spells "Docter" because that is how most Desi's pronunce it!

For clarification (based on Jr.'s input)

Had flews = Had Flu
she / he feiles happy = he / she feels happy
We have no idea what Clifford the big red dog or Emily Elizabeth are doing in that notes!
Bathroom a lot! (you got that right!)
diriya = diarrhoea
elbo peain = elbow pain

we have no clue what the rest of the stuff is.. especially the "answer me please" part.. must be part of the doctor asking me to be a little more responsible!

The final part about the present, we understand. Irrespective of who is sick, the kids get a lollipop and sticker. They don't like the lollipop and throw it after one lick. Still they get it! This is as bad as people who don't like Panjamrudham wasting it outside the Pazhani temple..

We are all feeling better now after taking the skunk medicine!

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Sacramento Zoo

We went on a short trip to the Sacramento Zoo, the day after thanksgiving.

We had a blast. The weather was great and the kids were well behaved throughout the two hour ride from San Jose (~125 miles one way) as well as on the ride back!

This is a great zoo! Somehow all the animals seem to be happy and were interacting with the people, seem to be healthy, well maintained and comfortable. They had zoo staff, in little booths explaining things to the kids about the animals. They even have a animal hospital on display for visitors which was very informative.

The photos and videos say it all..

Bramhopadesam paramam pavithram... cut cut cut.. this was just playtime.. this pose by the two orangutans reminded me of an old Upanayanam (poonal) photo of me and my dad with a silk cloth over our head, during the "initiation ceremony"!

They were just adorable.

The kookaburra from Australia. My mom taught Jr. "Kookaburra sits on a sorgham tree..." and it is one of her favorites!

Some of the bird cages were a little cramped but the African gray parrots were still very happy!

The long necked ones, apparently have seven neck bones, same count as humans, except the bones are long! Most of these were 13 -11 years old. They also had some giraffe skin from one that passed away at the zoo at an old age of 24 (apparently in the wild they live to be 16-17 max).

Jr. put the demo lady on the spot by asking her who killed the animal, how did they get the skin out etc. Once the questions started getting very difficult, we pulled Jr. out!

They had this metal artwork and some picnic tables nearby which were very useful to do some show and tell while feeding the kids.

Spot the main difference in the two photos below. (one is a cropped version)!

The little one is sooo impatient.

She wanted to be the big Kangaroo!

We saw what appeared to be Master Shifu..

The South American ant eater, a big hit with the kids!

The Sumatran Tiger, captured to the best of my ability through glass, wire and bamboo..

The lion was way too far to be captured with an 80mm max zoom, but the Jaguar was up close!

The flamingo pond was amazing. It was like seeing them in the wild.

After the trip to the zoo, we went on to visit Fairy Tale Land and Funderland, two other attractions across the zoo. The kids really enjoyed the day.

Here is a video of the Zoo trip..

Strongly recommended for a one day outing from the bay area!

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Chennai is the new Venice

These photos are from Rangarajapuram, Chennai, where San's aunt lives.

The grandparents home in West Mambalam has water (knee to waist deep) inside the house. Luckiy they got grandpa and grandma out in time.

My dad who is 70+ years old has to wade in waist deep water to get out of the street in Mandaiveli. He tells me that the storm water drains that were installed mandatorily during JJ's time as CM, don't work because those tunnels are being used by cable TV operators as pre laid pipework for their cables!!! After they put the cables in, they apparently seal off the entry point for the the storm drains with concrete.

Sadly now, the rain water has nowhere to go! My dad says they have to get someone to clean the remaining drains that are clogged so that water can drain out faster.

He was consoling me saying "Even if you were here, you will also be wading with me in this water." Somewhere in the back of his mind, my not wading in that water is his way of giving me a better life and he is also so certain that my being there would not change anything! Do not know if it is based on the lack of confidence in his child or the absolute knowledge of a system that is doomed to fail, but that is how he justifies things internally.

For now, we go back to memories of making paper "kappals" and singing "Rain Rain go away"!

Things have a way of complicating themselves.

They also have a way to simplify themselves after reaching a critical oomplexity. Let us hope for that in this case!

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