Monday, August 9, 2010

Traffic

 

The other day we were on our way to the bollywood dance class that my kids attend. This travel is very intimidating to the kids, with the unending pot holes, and stagnant endless traffic, it takes for ever to reach the class and back home. Most of the times they get nauseous, So, to distract them from this, we end up playing games. We play,  “fill up the sentence by guessing what the person had in mind”, given a few clues, or the billboard game where the other person got to spot the bill board , given a few words from it. Trust me, there are hundreds of them for every step so, its quite challenging, and many other impromptu games.

Sometimes, we have “Amar Chitra Katha” quiz also known as “Test your Mommy’s cultural awareness” quiz, where the quiz master, Neha (with input from Poojha and Kauvya)  gives a preview of the story in question. And I need to guess the characters of the story or what the title of the book is. These questions are quite challenging even for me with the million stories that there are from Indian mythology, and Panchatantra etc. All the same, I am happy,  they have gained so much knowledge in all this. They are aware of most of the characters of Mahabharat, Ramayana, Bhagawatam, the mythological epics of Indian culture.

All these activities have proved to be a hit with the kids. The other day, we were stuck in traffic for 40 minutes, at the dirtiest spot of the city (in my opinion) but, we didn’t even realize it because we were engrossed in our game. And by the time we reached our destination, the driver announced that it had taken us an hour and a half to come to class. And on another day, when we were half way to home, ( with another 30-40 mins to go), Poojha had to go potty so badly, she almost stood in the car and started to jump trying to relax her ….. Distracting her attention through one of the games, we were able to reach home safely without her having to soil herself. :-)

They have become ardent fans of Indian soaps like “Ballika Vaadu”, “India’s got talent”, “chak dhoom dhoom” , “Dance India Dance”, and such. They know the timings of the show, the names of the characters of each show. During one such conversation of TV shows, Suddenly Poojha announced

“Neha loves Balika Vadhu, All that romance….”

“Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii”, Neha shouted out to Poojha to shut up feeling embarrassed.

“I’m making kitchen championship”, Richa, my 3 year old, says, making some action like she is cooking.

“ You need to watch less TV”, I was thinking.

Sometimes, we talk plain. The driver of our car, I can see, enjoys all this conversation between the kids, with his occasional grins. There are lots of curious questions from them. During one such talk, we were talking about our wedding and..Poojha asks…

“Were we there at your wedding?”

“Were we still inside your tummy?” Kauvya asks innocently.

And I answer “Yes”

“At least half of what you are, was inside me”, I think.

“Ah…that’s not fair, why can’t we be there in your wedding?” Poojha cries.

“Mom has to be married so we could be born, Poojha”, Neha says.

“My friend M, was present at her mom and dad’s wedding when she was 4 years old, she was a flower girl, why can’t we have been there at your wedding too”, Poojha continued.

“We don’t need to be married to have babies??!!!”, Neha exclaimed, realization dawning.

“So, when I grow big, I can have a baby just like that”, She said

“You don’t need to, if you don’t want”, I said.

Somehow, she realized that her talk has reached uncomfortable limits, as the driver was listening to all this and she became quite.

Even though, I wouldn’t want to be in such traffic, I’m happy, its providing us an opportunity to talk to them without any distractions..to all our hearts content.

5 comments:

Rachna said...

Traffic is insane. We also avoid going out due to the traffic and the crowds. The other day, I wanted to take the kids to Lalbagh for the flower show, but Gurdev refused. Driving is such a pain here. But, the opportunity to play games is good fun. Though, we can hardly do that because we have to drive ourselves :)

GP said...

When I saw that subject I thought this post is gonna be about how bad the traffic is in Hyderabad and I came gleefully to read and post a comment on how really it is so bad.
But this was cuter than that. Gautam likes long car rides irrespective of the potholes and pollution. He just wants to be sitting in the car gazing outta the side window at all that's passing by. Everyday he tells me to take him to pick up Siddu. But sometimes he sleeps off and I don't take him. He then fights with us as to why I didn't take him.
Even Gautam is watching baalika vadhu with Rachna(he calls it baaluka vaadu). He says, "I like new anandi and new jaggeya"(yes he uses the little english that he has picked up at school).
Siddu is an avid fan of DID lil champions(he prefers that to the comedy circus we prefer watching at that time).
Cute that Neha feels embarrassed about romance chats :)

Gayatri said...

Hi Raju, What a coincidence, Pavan read the blog this morning(Indian time), and he said the same thing. I thought this blog is going to be about traffic!

You know, this influence on kids, of the Indian shows, is due to us, big kids. Even mom, keeps switching between Comedy Circus and the other show that coincides with it. The kids are getting a hang of watching the shows in parts....like this by switching between channels. Now mom as company.

Hi Rachna, I would agree that only super women and men like you'll and others in the country can drive through traffic as crazy as this (my pictures show the crowd). But, such games, take the boredom and restlessness, frustration away and make you aware that you are with your family. Maybe, (I know too much to suggest) driver's can play games that don't need visual attention like "find the billboard" and can engage in mindless games like "fill the blanks". I'm sure there are many possibilities, just not showing itself in my limited(ly) cached mind.

Hi Satya, Thanks for you comments on my blog. Although you comment is not visible on my blog (don't know why!!! another episode of disappearing comments?!) I did receive your comment as an email. I loved your site. The

Gayatri said...

Hi Satya, Ooops, I posted my comment before completing ..The pictures of the dishes are sooooooooo enticing, made me hungry. I'm surely going to be trying some of them..

Gayatri said...

Reposting Satya's comment..so, we don't miss out the link to her blog.

hi gayathri,

i chanced upon your lovely post ... ur are indeed a supermom...i didnt realize u had triplets until i saw ur profile...nowdays having 1 kid itself is a big effort to manage and here ur managing 4 kids...hats off to you...i love your writing style very simple and straight forward...u have superbly captured the sweet moments with your kids...

if u get time do visit my blog i am sure u will find something lovely to make for ur kids...


Satya
http://www.superyummyrecipes.com