My Friends in Sobha Palladian !!

I choose my friends carefully.

Some of my best friends in SP are less than 10 years old and a few in their early teens. 

And I am very comfortable and at ease amongst them.

By nature, I am quiet and not inclined to talk much, especially in a group.  Also, other than a bit of IT and some management principles, I cannot boast of a wide spectrum of knowledge and awareness. 

Politics and cricket are not my forte and now, with a failing eyesight, reading a newspaper is a great challenge and the Economic Times – impossible. 

Awareness and information gathered from the TV are unreliable at best and I would not risk any info gained from this medium in a group of Sobha Palladian intelligentsia.

Being with kids, I have no such challenges.

I am quite comfortable with them. They are not critically analytical or philosophical. And so am I.  

I know for sure that there will be no conversations on Modi’s demonetisation success, the coming 2019 general elections, Supreme Court ruling of NGT directive, Kohli’s centuries, Trump’s policies, how to mix your drinks or a debate on where we stand against China, or how you can cure your migraine with Yoga!

Even with kids I do not talk much but enjoy their company &  their animated conversations. When I take a bunch of kids to the Hippocampus Library each month, I thoroughly enjoy their endless animated chatter. And they can talk quite sensibly on Drone technology & Tesla motors and why they like chicken pop corns amongst million other topics!

And the library initiative has helped me get to them closer.

A few months back, on a Sunday morning two chubby sisters came to library to return and issue new books. They both were fresh after a shampoo bath and with wet hairs the younger one also pushed her toy pram with a Barbie doll inside.  

She proudly displayed a pink tube.

I asked – toothpaste? Where is the brush??

And she squealed – NOO Uncle! It is CREAM! Mummy gave me.

‘Let’s apply to the baby’!!

And we were now two specialists from KAYA clinic, giving a proper beauty treatment to the poor Barbie!

Incidentally my granddaughter once completely squeezed out a brand-new tube of Odomos on to plastic Goofys’s black nose, all the Barbies at home, the building blocks, doors, dressing mirror, her toys cabinet & bottom half of Godrej!  While the room smelled strongly of Odomos for an entire month the good part was that no mosquito got in.

The white board in the library is a great meeting point for all the young great minds!

There is always a demand for marker pens and eraser. And I would be glad if a few patrons contribute  a few white board marker pens every now and then.

And the kids come up with some real good originals!

A few weeks back we had a graffiti session. 3 kids with white board pens exhibited their drawing skills. 

I called out – Please draw a BIG castle!

The little one drew a tall rectangle, as high as her hand could reach and put a lot of windows inside.

Where is the Tower and the flag??

Now she had to balance on her toes to draw a few cones on top and for the flag I had to lift her up!

And Rapunzel??

The second tiny tot jumped in and drew a smiley face inside one of the windows.

What does Rapunzel have??

Loong Hair!  All of then echoed.

And I got a straight line from the nose of the smiley to the corner of the white board!

And them some more blue and red wavy lines on top to make it look really real!!

And it was fun all the way.

Unlike my generation kids, all the kids in SP are very well behaved, cleanly dressed & very sober.

But you cannot take them for granted!

You act smart wit them and you are in trouble. And I learnt it the hard way!

On the graffiti board I drew a smiley with lots of curly hairs, a pointed nose and large ears.  And I said to one- this is you!!

And her response was unforgiving!!

Yes, these soft kids can be pretty tough too.  And I am glad for them. You need to have steel in you to survive in today’s world.

Another great thing about these kids….

Wonderful English!! Also, perfect language, vocabulary and diction. A few also have a stylish American accent.

In my young days English was a challenge.!

I spoke Tamil at home and Hindi outside. Other kids spoke Hindi everywhere. And my school did not appreciate our broken English (Hinglish).

The Principal was unhappy, and he passed a rule.  Inside school everyone must speak in English only, and in good English!!

And our teachers were the worst affected!  Except for a few Anglo Indian teachers all the rest spoke passable English. 

The very next day, our lady Hindi teacher proclaimed – meri shiksha mein aap sab Hindi he bolengey! (only Hindi in my class)

Most happy were David Sir, Miss Andrew, and Mr & Mrs D’Souza.  The D’Souza couple were the first ones I met where the dad was shorter than the mom. Annie miss was a head taller than William.

She was also very sweet and beautiful. Slim and tall she wore fashionably stitched knee length skirt, flower patterned socks/stockings and high heeled shoes! And she wore wonderful smelling perfumes. (I think I was infatuated with her)

Bill wore suits daily and was a gentleman. Ever smiling, he taught Shakespeare to the senior grade students.  And the couple enthusiastically took classes on spoken English for all the teachers after school. (the ‘mind your language’ series came much later)

For today’s kids, English is no challenge.

And for many it’s the only language they can speak. Especially for those kids whose parents come from different states!

That’s sad!

While issuing a book, a young 6-year old read out the book number N49.

Tamillla sollu ? (say that that in Tamil?).

I don’t know.

Naa-ppathi om-bo-du.

Nappiditi Ombludu he blurted out!

Good try! And for the next few times he consulted his dad and came up with the correct Tamil numbers!!

Many times, I wish I had learnt Tamil well.

I can read and write Hindi but Tamil – I can only speak.

So, I have enjoyed reading Munshi Premchand’s short stories and Maithalisharan Gupt, Mahadevi Verma and Sumitra Nandan Pant. Even a few racy Karnal Ranjit Singh thrillers.

Sadly, I cannot read Parthiban’s Kanavu, nor enjoy Sujata Rangarajan’s writings.

And I am sure many of the kids might feel the same way when they reach my age.  Even at schools and colleges many prefer to take a French, Spanish, German or Japanese as an elective. No Sanskrit!

They will all sadly miss some of the wonderfully written  biographies and stories and epics and essays and drama written in Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali and many other Indian languages.

And I wish somebody volunteers to teach some us spoken Kannada...

Krish..