A good choice?

I am so glad I am not your son! The speaker of this sentence is one of my colleagues during one of our lunch discussions. The reason for the statement? I just told him that we do not have a T V. Yes, you heard me right, my 3 men and me, we do not have a television, by choice. At least by my husband's and my choice.

That doesn't mean that the boys are totally deprived of watching anything. The boys spend a good part of their week day with their grandparents, who have a TV. Tim knows various cartoon characters varying from Pokemon and Parman to Hattori and God-knows-what. They both like watching Animal Planet and National Geographic programs. At home, we have a computer...where they get to watch a fair amount of cartoons on CD, and things that interest them like wallpapers of trains and trucks which we show them as slideshows with music in the background.....weird, you think? Well, they like it.

Do I think that they are deprived of something? No, I don't. We try and have a timetable as far as watching stuff on the PC is concerned. Any other time, we try to get them involved in finger painting, block printing, card making, play-dough, cooking, cleaning, reparing....everything that we do. Tim has already managed to learn how to role out a semi-decent roti!

Another thing I know for sure is that we have a lot more peace at home now, than we would have had with a television. I for one, would be stuck in front of the box surfing between Disney, Cartoon Network, HBO and Star Movies. Not making a general statement but I know families where no one talks about what happens to them on a day-to-day basis because one or the other person is always watching something on TV...that is definitely not something I would like to have in our home.

For all I know, we may buy a TV at some point of time and the boys will stop being interested in joining us in the things they enjoy now, but right now, I am just happy with the way things are and would not want to change anything.
My boys may not be completely prepared for school conversations when everyone discusses the latest Disney serials, but on the other hand, I hope they come back home and we can sit and talk about the day and bake something they like...and go out on fun picnics on weekends and they don't feel that they are missing out on anything else.....

A few promotions...

I love having hobbies. I've always had one or the other, be in reading or jigsaw puzzles...I generally keep myself busy.
Of late, I have taken to paper craft.
I am not particularly good at it, considering that I can't draw and depend on anything I can copy or print. My dream is that one day I can decide that I have worked enough and that it is time to relax and do the things I like. I could maybe start a small business of handmade cards or other paper items.....it's a dream....but I hope it becomes true some day.

I have a special respect for people who make time in their day to day life to work on their hobbies. People who are so dedicated to doing something outside their routine work because they have a passion for it. And I sincerely hope and pray that they will make it big in those areas and show other people that it pays to follow your dreams.

Today I want to mention a few of these people I know, who have followed their passions. They deserve a special pat on their back for taking their dream a step ahead.....or even several steps, for that matter.

Vishak Panicker is an old classmate of mine who has recently released his first music album "Loveletter"...check www.loveletteralbum.com for more info. I remember Vishak singing during our college functions....a music enthusiast. Here's the link to one of his songs....

Another person I'd like to mention is Vipin V. He's my colleague and I was recently surprised when I got to know that he and a few other colleagues made a movie.....They actually made time in their busy schedules and did this! I hope that they have more ideas like this and come out successful in life....doing the things they love.
A few parts of the movie can be seen on Youtube. Click here

Chetan J deserves a mention. This friend of mine, who is also a colleague, is a budding photographer. He spends most of his free time out in the sun (as is the case in Bangalore these days) taking photos and coming up with wonderful results. He keeps on studying new techniques and hones his skills. His photographs have gotten selected for exhibitions as well.

Some may wonder what my motive is behind writing about them...(not that many are reading this blog). My only motive is to spread the word a bit on these people and do what is in my power to help them....At the moment, there is not much I can do....but I hope that I am of some help to them and that this will motivate them to carry on....

Honey, did i spoil the kids?

My father had been here to see his grandchildren; and while he was here last week, he witnessed Nathan refusing to apologise to his brother for hitting him, even though i repeatedly told him to do that. What did my dad do? He laughed.....he found it cute that his grandson was resisting and had a mind of his own! That's when i asked him whether we had ever spoken back like this....he thought for a while and said that the first time i refused to do as said was when i refused to do my post-graduation.....i was already 21 by then.....This got me thinking about the difference in our parenting styles.....

We had a strict upbringing. Not that we didn't have fun growing up, but there was a time for everything.
A time to wake up, to go to school and to come back. To do homework, to watch TV. To play outside, to play inside....everything was according to plan and hardly ever variied.
Our TV channel showed cartoons from 4 to 5, i think....and after that we played outside. And i think that i remember more about the games we played outside, the climbing trees for cherries and all those things more fondly than the time i spent in front of the TV. We used to ask for permission for switching on the TV, the computer and even for making phone calls. I still tell my parents before i use the phone when i am there....old habits, i guess.

Back to discipline.....when i grew up and started seeing the way a lot of people brought up their children, i started appreciating the discipline our parents instilled in us. The thought "If only this kid was mine, i'd give him / her a whack" crossed my mind ever so often..... My parents raised responsible children, my brother had to look after me for the half an hour every day from when my mother went to work till my father came back when we was not even 3 years old. We never questioned our parents, we never whined...openly at least.

When i got married, I was of the opinion that a baby should not be carried around a lot and that it should sleep in a separate crib. Basically, i had this ideology because that was how our parents raised us. Before long, Tim was born and i found myself unwilling to put him down even when he was asleep....he slept with us till his brother was born and then he started sleeping in his room with his Dad. My children whine a lot, they fight a lot and they know they can get away with a lot of things.....They get up when they want to (unless school is about to start) and sleep almost at midnight....

Our parenting is definitely different.....and my parents are definitely different grandparents who don't resemble the parents they were when they were bringing up their children years ago.....Even though i failed in emulating the parenting style my parents adopted, i hope to raise responsible children. I sincerely hope that some day my boys will tell me "Thanks for bringing us up the way you did".

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
~ William Shakespeare

I think it is time to introduce my 3 men. But i want to give them a Nom de Plume....or whatever it's called in the cyberworld. But what do i name them? Something catchy for sure... what about Knight names?

Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad and Sir God-knows-what...no, i didn't like the info that i get on these knights...i need something else! Something meaningful.

Dragon names? My boys would love that!
Google -> Dragon name generator -> What??? I can't even read this, forget spelling it out.

I checked and checked...Hobbit? Nah! Elf? No...Red Indian? Greek? Viking? Ninja?

I finally decided to name them: Lindo, Timothy and Nathaniel. Brilliant, right? Why change what is already good?

So meet my family: Lindo, Timothy (aka Tim or Timmy) and Nathaniel (aka Nathan).

And the first place……does not go to me

The second place in my family for a lot of things comes easily to me. Allow me to elaborate…

I was born the second child to my parents;
the second one to play with most of my toys;
the second one to leave home for higher studies;
the second one to have an email ID (you see how this goes?)

But then, I have not always been second in life….

I was the first at home to flunk a university exam (I passed the paper the next year though);
the first one to be employed;
the first among my siblings to get married;
the first one to have a first child;
the first (and still the only one) to have a second child too.

Back to being second…. I am also the second one to start a blog.

Believe it or not, I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for the past 2-3 years. In my mind, I have been writing amazingly funny stories and interesting narrations which never managed to be typed out. Of course, none of my reasons for not starting a blog were about being lazy….the time had just not come. Now, the time has arrived. And what prompted me? My sibling Jennysdad (the one who beats me to nearly everything) and who usually does not have the kind of patience for this, started a blog!

I am starting this blog now, just in case my younger sibling decides to start one before me. You see, I am used to being second….not third.

So here's to starting a journal online…and for the patience to keep on writing…and many nice things to write about…..Welcome to my world!