Kreativ Furnichur - Kids Vershen

In April our family with couple of my friends and their families went to Delhi, Agra and Manali. Amongst the many hundred pictures we had taken of ourselves, the scenic view of the Himalayan mountain ranges and the many monuments of Delhi, this one stood out.

Inside one of the many small streets of Hill town Manali, we stopped one of the days for a cup of Chai - Men waiting for the wives who were busy shopping. We pulled over for a Tea in a small roadside Chai shop, taking care of the kids in parallel. It was a neighbourhood with small streets that had humble dwellings - native, small and not lavish. Quiet, very little traffic, no vehicles, no crowd, very unlike the many shopping streets of Main road Manali. I finished the tea and was ready to put the cup in the corner behind the Chai shop. I noticed this creative home furniture setup, the one in the picture above. Leaning on a column were small pieces of wood, buttons, bottle caps and broken tile used to setup a nice living room table and chair as well as a cozy kitchen.

I called Kaavya and Saatvik immediately to show them this. Built by neighbourhood kids, it reflected many things - simplicity, creativity and fun without mattel and fisherprice but true kids Imaginarium.

There has been many a times I wonder what to buy for the kids when I get to a Toy Store. Books and Barbies, Cars and Gadget, they seem to have em all.

Grandparents sometimes find it challenging to get gifts for Kaav and Saat. In the end they bring simple yet compelling gifts that the kids love and dont often find in the usual stores - Peacock feather, Book of flags, Indian Mythology Story book with coloring activity, dried leaves and flower in the middle of the books being few one wont easily (or never) find in stores...

I showed Kaavya the little furniture setup done by the neighbourhood kids who probably couldnt afford the big toy stores and encouraged her to build and make her own creative games and toys. Kaavya loves to build things and I hope this would have inspired her further. Of course I had to makeup a little story to help her visualize how the kids made it all themselves and had fun playing with them.

Some interesting pictures from this trip...

Interesting India Pictures

Cows dont have hands...

I've had an interesting few days re-living my experience of taking my 3 year old to school. I am blessed I have a second chance and most likely the last one.

These days I drop Saatvik to school. I did this when Kaavya was in Montessori a few years ago. Without a doubt, the best part of my day...

Couple of days ago as Saatvik and I are in the car heading to school, I hear him say...
"Appa, cow cow..."
"What sound does a Cow make?", pretty stereo-typically, I retort...
"Appa, indha cowku, Kaiye illa"

If you know Saatvik, he has 3 questions that he will ask endlessly - Why, Who, Can you buy this for me...

But this time I know why Saatvik asked me this question. My Driver and I laugh. My driver laughed at how he asked and cant but hug Saat on why he asked. I dont have an answer.

Some days back, I started to teach Saatvik a little more than the alphabets we drive to school. Part of that was to say something more than C for Cat, Cow.

I decided to teach him what the Cow eats.
"Cow eats grass and plants. You know grass...you know cheddy "
He understood that. Asked him a few times so that he remembers and he will respond...
"Cow eats grass and..."
"PPPl", I prompt as he is more comfortable remembering the Tamil word. Lately he remembers them both and will respond with both Grass and Plants. Not to end with it he will also say, Cow gives us milk.

I went ahead said told him that cows eats grass and plants and give us milk.

Saatvik was immediate to correct me the first time he heard me teach that Cow gives milk.

"No, paper mama gives us milk. Not Cow"

He is only aware of the Paper vendor who gives us the news paper and deliver the milk packets as well. It is hard for him to fathom that the cow gives us milk. But I convinced him that the paper uncle gets it from the Cow.

Now you can relate to the observation he made that the Cow had no hands. Cow has no hands, then how can it GIVE milk to us or to the paper uncle - thats his point.

Do I teach Saatvik how Cows dont need hands to give us milk? Or
Do I teach him the difference between the cow GIVING us milk vs. we TAKING milk from the cow...

Interesting as it may seem, this is in some ways a reflection of our evolution - the human evolution. We conveniently teach the kids that all along the Cows willingly GIVE the humans milk to use, when in reality we have always TAKEN without its willful consent.

Some day Saatvik will realize this and wont feel too happy about the versions I have taught him. Should we change some of our communication to allow our next generation get an objective view of things?