The Cycle of “What people don’t understand?”

What’s something most people don’t understand?

This is an interesting prompt. Haven’t posted this whole week and neither could catch up om the blogs I follow. The only reason was a mini beach vacation during the school break of the kids 😀

Got this interesting prompt, and trying a different take..

---

What people don’t understand can be answered in multiple ways. My observation though is that what one understands about ” people don’t understand” changes with age.

As a child you are anyway not bothered what people understand or what you understand!

As a teenager you think that people don’t understand you and that resentment stays with you till you become a full fledged adult

As a new adult you think people don’t understand simple things and make them difficult. Like why would someone buy a house when living on rent is so comfortable. Once they become those middle aged adults they realize that shifting homes is an ardous task.

As a middle aged adult you feel that why do the people who owe money a.k.a banks don’t understand your mental tensions.

As a retiree you think that people don’t understand how to lead a good life when you see them splurging, whiling time away.

As an old man you again start thinking that the world no longer understands you, the cycle is almost complete as it started.

On your deathbed who cares what people understand or not………..

---

The Little Graduate!!

The outcome of the Parent Teacher Meeting of Simoni.

---

Simoni has now graduated successfully from Kindergarten (The shenanigans of modern education 😀)

She got the adjective of Ms. Charming and will now move to standard one. Her school is a 5 storey building with Kindergarten on the ground floor and senior classes starting from the 1st floor. She will from now onwards climb up the stairs which are adjacent to her Kindergarten classroom and take her first step towards real life struggles 😀.

As we say goodbye to her Kindergarten , hoping she makes her outgoing teachers proud for all the love and effort they have made to bring her to this junction.

The new set of books are already ready, and boy they are a handful. The best part though was her elder sister having joy at Simoni’s expense “welcome to the real school darling”.

Loving it ❤️!!

Realizations – When Age makes you wiser!!

Enjoy. Nothing serious about this post

---

Attitude change

After 30’s : You have to accept people calling you Uncle.

After 40’s : You have to learn to stop calling people Uncle.

🙄😮‍💨😔

---

Value of money realization

World’s most costliest Creche as realized by parents.

“Kids Playzone at a mall” 😉

---

Sign of Maturity
Selecting a barber who is older than you !

---

The most satisfying feeling

With age, the most satisfying sunday mornings are when you clean the house especially the fans 🏠.

---

What made you wiser as you are ageing?

The Parent Teacher Meet!

Tomorrow I am going to attend little Simoni’s year ending parent teacher meeting (PTM). Being a dad of two and a cumulative fatherhood experience of 16 years, I am quite pro in handling these meets 😀.

The point of the post is recollection of my last PTM meet as a student which gave a very cherished gift to me!

---

PTM’s were not very common in my school. While they used be done during say board years when students passed out of school, they were not a regular feature every year. So, very little experience and lots of anxiety while riding pillion on a rickety bajaj (the legendary Indian brand) scooter with my dad.

Waiting for our turn was peppered with some intermittent chats with dad. He had closed his shop early to attend and I am sure was equally anxious.

Our turn came and surprisingly was a success. Dad was seemingly controlling his emotion and keeping a poker face on. I was relieved and had a smile plastered on my face.

The ride back home was silent, and I wanted to reach home early- thank god everything went well! On the way dad stopped his scooter near a market. He put the scooter on a stand and asked me to wait. He went to shop and returned with a Dairy milk chocolate, quite costly affair to have in those times.

He smiled and gave me the chocolate. The scooter started back towards home with me sitting pillion with “best gift received ever” in my hand.

---

PTM of Simoni coming as next post….

Preparing for future!

Few days left and little Simoni ( i dont know why I use always little for my younger daughter 🙂) will graduate from Kindergarten. She is now to migrate to primary school “big step for small feet”.

School was thoughtful enough to arrange for a “Goodbye” function with games, songs, dance and potluck. They also gave a tour of future classroom for kids to acclimatize.

How will the girl cope up only time will tell. For me it is a mixed bag, joyous as the girl is taking the next step. Probably I will have to stop calling her “Little” or stop addressing her as “Baby”. Grown tag will get attached.

Then worried about her to get up everyday before 6.30 am (her usual time has been 8am) and increased study load meaning less free time. What if the new classmates are new and not the ones who are with her now. And, there will be exams!.

So for time being let her enjoy the upcoming vacations, worrying can happen. Humans learn and cope, She will also do!

Celebrating Success!!

Suditi (My 11 year old) is very passionate about dancing.

Here celebrating her success as 2nd Prize winner in Interschool dance competition.

https://youtu.be/sHzp0rdc4Jg performance link.

More insults my way – Daughter edition Quarter 1 of 2023

My daughters miss no chance to get back to me. 1st Quarter editon 2023 of latest barbs faced by me.

---

Education system has changed a lot since our student time.

Final exam approaching…

Papa: ” Suditi you should get nothing less than 100 in every paper”

Suditi : ” Papa i will get less than 100 only since total marks is 40″

Papa: 🫡🤐

---

Papa : ” Simoni this is my portrait or a sunflower:

Simoni : ” You scribbled in my drawing book so I will make bad drawing of yours” (Revengeful daughter)

---

Suditi : ” Papa why don’t you dye your hair black”

Papa : ” No I like my greying hair, it is my salt pepper look”

Suditi: ” It is all salt now 😜”

---

Papa : “Simoni why are you watching horror film on youtube, little kids should not watch”

Simoni : ” because I am mad 🙃”

Forceful action taken to change video!!

---

No let up dad, 3/4th of the year still pending 🥵

The much maligned Destiny!!

Do you believe in fate/destiny?

Oh poor destiny. I pity you. You don’t get credit when someone does good in life, it is always due to their hard work. And, you get cursed when things go wrong with no fault of them or their shortcomings.

Believing in you totally depends on the circumstances. You know you are as definitive as death still you are either viled or celebrated. The weightage of vile is of course way higher than celebrate.

You are responsible for jealousy and hatred since you always bestow the best of you on people we hate or compete with. It is never our fault but it is you who makes the other person more successful. And when that other person fails it is because of sins of them and not their fate.

---

I believe in destiny, Probably due to the influence of “Gita” and age. In youth one believes one can control destiny. But as you age it starts becoming clear that destiny is cast in stone, fight or accept.

How do you stoke passion in your child or do you try at all?

Children can become passionate about so many hobbies or extra curricular activities. Like, my elder daughter is fond of dancing. She is also doing pretty decent for her age. The trick is to find out which activity will trigger their passion.

As parents, we tend to see the world thru our lenses. While the lenses have widened, looking from top you can categorize the hobbies into either fine arts, sports or education related like quiz / reading or even coding. Some children might not be into any of them and that is absolutely fine.

Coming, back to finding the right piece of the childhood puzzle when we talk about hobbies is a real challenge. You might notice something early on and think yes this is what my child should enroll to learn. Or worse, you might have preconceived notions about a particular thing which might be popular at that point of time and push your child into it.

Push can sometimes yield a superstar in future but incase the child is not enjoying it, then?. For us, we saw from an early age (may be 4 years) that Suditi (my elder daughter) is fond of dancing. We enrolled her in a dance school and luckily She is really enjoying it. Probably it worked, but sometimes I used to think whether are we pushing her?

Now coming to the second kid (my 6 year old), we as parents are no wiser. As a challenge things have not changed. How do we pick something that my little Simoni would love and really enjoy. What will she take as a hobby or should we let her figure out on own (Pitfall being too young to understand). Right now, She is attending a drawing class more to do with her being in a social forum rather than learning to draw.

Let time tell, as when I was young I did not having a particular hobby other and quite into my double digit age realized that I liked to read books.

So, let her bloom in her own time and pick anything if she at all wants to pick up or enjoy the way she wants.

---

Catch Suditi’s Latest Dance Act in a Talent Competition.

Rote Learning – A misunderstood art!

Ever since a popular bollywood movie criticized “Rote Learning”, it has been a very misunderstood learning method. Dictionary meaning of Rote Learning “mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned”.  And the negative connotation attached is that students just mug up the texts and reproduce in exams without understanding the meaning.

Agreed, it is indeed a faulty method, but it is not as bad as it is made to be. If we stop kids from learning the art of Rote Learning they will have trouble in many things in life later.

• They will not be able to remember the birthday’s of their spouses if they don’t memorize it by repetitive learning. It will lead to irreversible mental stress in their lives 😀
• They will forget the bank pin numbers, passwords, social security or as we have in India Aadhar number. Just imagine someone saying ” I have understood my ATM pin number” 😬
• In professional life, inability to answer any question without  seeing data on a laptop might not come across as a great attribute. 🫣
• Loose track of all the money which their friends will owe them during promises made in parties 🤑

So, don’t absolutely dissuade them from Rote Learning. They will grow up and blame you (amongst other things that they will) for these misfortunes 😀.

---

This post is a Satire !

---

POST SCRIPT : Suditi’s exams are starting and she is learning the answers to the chapter which has extract of the wonderful novel “Black Beauty”!, Rote Learning will live forever…….

---

What’s in the name?

A decade back I used to be a wannabe blogger (Not a great improvement today, but at least few well wishers read me 😀). The first blog I wrote was on an another platform and titled “What’s in the name?”, Reproducing from memory today.

---

Shakespeare said ” What’s in the name?”. I love his work and his influence is huge on me, but this line I don’t like at all. When you have a name, the meaning of which entirely changes with change of language, life can be very difficult.

My name “Suman” means “person with a good mind” in my mother tongue bengali (which I assume I am 😀. It is pronounced as “Sumon”, as somehow we bongs write “a” and pronounce “o”. The name was given by my maternal aunt, how proud she would have been when her proposal would have got selected for me!.

Now, the trouble is that “Suman” means ” Flower” in Hindi, the widespread language of India. “Suman” therefore is a feminine name in majority of India and here is where my life got into unlimited troubles.

Over the years I have to bear this gender change brunt a lot. Sample few instances….

• A cheque from a reputed bank was addressed to Ms. Suman, I threw the cheque away (money loss preferred over prestige).
• Call center enquires to speak to Suman Madam, I tell She has left the country.
• Lots of hearts broken who imagined stuff when my name appeared in a list without seeing actual person(hope you get the drift). Disappointment on the faces can be easily perceived.
• My daughter gets questioned ‘ is this your dad or mom’s name”
• Someone says ” you have a beautiful name”..should I be happy or sad, never could figure out in life.

So, there goes my name predicament, which I have learnt to take in my stride and actually enjoy it. Just imagine the fun when you tell somehow knowingly that ” madam does not stay here and the person is utterly confused !!

Football – A Prized Possession!

As a kid I watched World cup 1990 on television and got hooked to the beautiful game. The love affair continued even if i endured couple of injuries. A hairline fracture in my spine while playing for college and with and a torn knee ligament while playing with neighborhood kids. But the spirit of loving football only grows as I grow old.

The dream as a kid was to own a football. Lots of pestering, cajoling and begging of Dad ensued . Promise of good academic result was made and I fulfilled the criteria. No walking out by dad now, so in the following summer vacations I was bought a football. It costed 100 Rupees, and made me feel awesome. It was a white and black football and made me owner of a prized possession.

This was 1991. Today when I look back a 100 Rupees of 1991 is equal to ~1000 Rupees today. So, my dad brought a 1000 Rupees thing for me since I was “adamant”. That amount would have been pretty high for him since today I think twice before buying any toy even more than 300-400 Rupees for my girls.

How he made room for such a sum towards a non essential item is beyond me, considering we belonged to low middle class income group, Probably my happiness was priceless to him!

What lengths we go for our kids!

Random Assessment of a party!

It’s been a busy week with birthday celebration of the kids. Since both were having their birthdays on the same day the preparation needed to be double 😀.

Arranging a birthday party can be a good case study for management students. It all starts with strategizing the right mix of food, people and fun. Since both kids are of different age groups the menu had to be addressing both age group of friends.

Once the strategy was decided it was time to ensure the business case. How many people, what quantity of food and stuff. The Business case would always be negative NPV though.

Then came getting the invitations done which was akin to ensuring the right team, else the event would flop. Placing the order for food, return gifts and cake was equal to ensuring resource availablity at exact point of execution. The specifications were also critical so that eating or quality of return gift is experienced without hiccups.

Once everything was in place, it was important do the risk mitigation plan. What if the pizzas are late, what if we missed inviting a friend of the kid and the biggest fear – will people turn up!!.

So once strategy, planning and risk mitigation done it was time for execution. And that was as usual hectic with music, cake and Kids in different age factors having different ways of enjoying themselves.

Morale of the party was also needed to be kept high with foot tapping music blaring loud, online music subscription was leveraged for a Ad less experience. Kids should get the right environment for fun!.

And, finally after all was over came the turn of gifts,  the main morale booster of the protagonists in the story.

---

Post Script : The parents then had another couple of hours to clean the place so that the next project can be executed smoothly – Which was regular routine 😀.

---

Case study material right!

The Special Day when you celebrated your birthday at School!!

So, the girls turned 11 and 6 respectively this week. What stood out this birthday was that after the damned Covid period they could celebrate their birthdays in school this year.

---

Ah, the wonderful day when you celebrated your birthday in school. The special day when you get to be treated like someone important ✨️!!

The day when you got to wear new clothes to school instead of your regular uniform. Dress up, doll up or increase your glamour quotient, no one would say a word.

The day when you get all the wishes and attention from teachers and classmates.

The day when you get to distribute chocolates in school and feel very proud of the deed.

The day when you become the center of attention and secretly hoped that no one else shared the same day with you!

---

Celebrating birthday’s in school is one of the most wonderful memory and glad my Daughter’s especially the 6 year one could experience this. Little one never got this chances as when She started going to school Covid happened.

---

Interestingly my birthday falls during the school vacations and I never used to get a chance to enjoy this fun, remember being very bitter about it.

So, once I cajoled my parents to celebrate a fake birthday just to wear new clothes and distribute chocolates ( can’t remember which age may be 10 or 11).

---

Altered Consumption Pattern of Parents!

Life has become Topsy turvy and many things in my life are dominated by products consumed by my daughters.

Morning cup of coffee gets served in a peppa pig mug!

Kind of left overs that I have eat to avoid food wastage!

Kind of water bottle I get to drink water from !!

Kind of scary non living things I have to talk to!

Beautiful stuff which decorates my beloved music system nowadays!

Videos that are downloaded on my smartphone!

How much things change when the kids start dominating your life!

A Dance Performance by My Elder Daughter on Indian Republic Day – Choreographed by her Mom!

Hopes are still high, the eyes have changed!!

FUNNIES !!

---

Life is all about maintaining perfect balance.

Morning cycle run perfectly balanced with breakfast of Samosa, Kachori, Dhokla and some desi ghee ke jalebi 😀😀

---

Best Sign of Maturity :
Selecting a barber who is older than you !

---

Schools have become smart, and have stopped recycling vacation projects.
Parents with two kids have to think fresh 🙄

---

Most popular multiple choice question nowadays-
“Bro which QR code is working, I want to scan for paying ala scanner ?

*based on true story when you are faced with multiple scanners in a shop.

---

Prove you are middle class without mentioning you are middle class.

Me: I spray deodorant with my shirt on so that no amount of deodorant is unutilized!
😀

---

Statistical Analysis of My Kids!!

My kids provide me lots of fodder for blogging. A look at their life from an eye of a statistician!!

---

Time to bed throws up clear observation that Elder daughter is absolutely erratic while younger one is a symbol of consistency.

---

Elder daughter is living it up with her “fooding” while for younger the weight scale just ignores her!

---

The likeability of Dad and Mom goes down drastically as topic shifts to studying and stopping mobile watching!

---

Lots of improvement areas!

---

This insights are going to be analysed by Mom and Dad and action planning will be done diligently !!

Parenthood is all about sacrifices !!

---

Not a serious post

---

Parenthood is all about sacrifices, watching daughter’s annual sport day sitting under a hot sun ☀☀😀😀😀

Hope they remember these sacrifices😀😀.