3 books, 1 pick

Jr. got one book with the 4 bucks from mommy and between her and the little one puppyfaced me into buying two more books when I went to pick her up from school! Apparently the book fair was on till 5:00PM the next day in their common hall.

Now we have three books..

Bad Kitty Gets a bath - by Nick Bruel

June B. first grader, Dumb Bunny - by Barbara Park

Spongebob Slapshot - by Nickelodeon (how it makes it to a book fair is beyond me)

(The last one was picked by the LO, instigated and approved by Jr. with the vested interest of making it her book on a "binaami" name. She knows the LO cannot read yet!)

Of the three, the best book I liked (and we can speak for Jr. as well here) is Bad kitty gets a bath.

Why?

This is the first true humor book that Jr. has read! She reads it, over and over again and laughs out loud! I get to laugh as well.

If you want to get a kid hooked to reading, or books for that matter, humor is the way to go!

Jr. does like the other two books as well. She seems to get the Spongebob book, but we don't. Maybe because she knows the characters and understands the stuff between the lines while we are lost and go "what do you see in that book?". Guess, we just have to get used to it over time ?!

If you have a five or six year old who is just getting into reading,

Bad kitty has a bath is very very strongly recommended!

ps. The LO still claims Spongebob to be "my" book and pretends to read it with made up sentences. It is so heartwarming to see her imitate her akka.

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Humility

Over the last few years, a rare opportunity has come my way of being in charge of operating a unique semiconductor facility. Usually this blog does a better job of separation of work and fate, much better than the governmnet does with separation of church and state. This time however, we have to make an exception and mention something that came up through work.

Every year, a bunch of international military leaders visit my workplace and I get to give them a tour of the facility. They are part of a program through the NDU.

As usual, this year we hosted an amazing bunch of people. (Got to shake hands and take pictures with a Colonel from the Indian Army as well! What a guy! You talk to him for a few seconds and see why he is a leader).

This is the who's who of the military world, and you see that their thought process and questions are very impresive. After spending two hours with them you can kind of figure out the LCM between these guys and you know why they are special.

They all are:

1. good listeners
2. able to "cut to the chase" and "come to the point" with minimum words
3. full of life!
4. practitioners of "give respect and take respect"!

This year, when I finished the last tour of the faciilty, a bunch of them insisted on taking a picture with me, and then gave me a memento of sorts for taking the time to answer all their questions. In a few minutes they made it feel like an award ceremony!

Was so moved by their gesture. Just loved it!

Going to cherish this one for a long long time. The nickname my colleagues have for me at work is "The General" and every year, the irony of that title just sinks in a little deeper. These guys are so humble. Something you would not expect out of top military folks especially the way the movie industry portrays them.

Yes, these are all very macho guys who keep punching each other on the shoulders or hi fi everyone at every opportunity (and they all seem to have learnt the choicest bad words in international languages) but they were listening to every word that was being said in the tour and they asked questions that were thought provoking. Even top CEO's and CTO's who get the fab tour have not asked such questions!

There is so much to learn, so little time!

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Same Same but different

Conversation overheard:

Little One : What mammu (food) are you going to make?
Grandma : Rasam
Jr. : What about More (More in Tamizh is buttermilk!)
Grandma : A little confused because she thought Jr. is mentioning the english word "more" for more Rasam rice..

then while I feed the kids, Grandma decides to start a game..

Kids, lets find out other words that say the same thing, but mean different things in English and Tamizh!

Jr. : Poo !
Grandma : How? (me looking puzzled as well, How?)
Jr. : Poo Poo means two flowers in Tamizh (saying the word twice apparently counts as two flowers!) and Poo Poo means what we go in the bathroom!

we started laughing out loud and that is when the little one chipped in with

"I have another word.. I have another word"

As the equal opportunity daddy, I ask Jr. to keep quiet and say

"Okay LO, your turn now! Tell us." and the response?

Potty! It means grandma in Tamizh and bathroom in english!

Jr.'s mention of Poo Poo led the little one to think Potty and she made a connection with Paati vs. Potti!

Slight pronunciation difference.. but she gets points for being creative!

Now the question for the readers.

Is there a single word for this in the english dictionary? Same phonetically sounding word, that means different things in different languages?!

Let me know. In the meantime we will explore more such words and hopefully we will move away from the bathroom to living room related words!

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