6 packs

At home, we discuss a lot about health and fitness.  The basic idea of '6 packs' is something that Aditya always gets excited about.  Many time he removes his clothes, poses like a body builder and asks "do you see my 8 packs?".  Do not tell him this, I usually spot 8 bones there.

Also, on many occasions he punches my abs and says…"well its quite tight, but Dad! you have only 4 packs….go do some more work out…!!"  I get loads of free advices from my 9 year old on this topic.  Anyways I'm on my way, like any other men who can dream, on this 'packs' topic.  But in reality, I don't regret and I'm glad that even I have 6 packs.  They are well protected under a thick layer of fat.  Its just that I'm not ready to show it off yet.

It was a lazy late Saturday evening and the whole family was huddled in our car to do some shopping.  When we reached Aundh Parihar Chowk in Pune, suddenly Aditya screamed. He was certainly excited about something.  Pointing his finger towards something outside he said "Wow Appa! Look at these 6 packs…..! They are so Cool....".   For a flash of a second I thought he was showing an ad for a newly sprouted Gym in the neighborhood.  When I bent down to see what he was showing I was under a chill for a brief moment.  At the same instance even Meera noticed this and gave a gentle press on my shoulder indicating that something was going wrong (this is a most common routine these days).  I wanted to appear as if I wasn't embarrassed about the situation, kept my cool and asked "What is cool about it?" .  What he showed me was an ad hoarding for a male c*****m product.  The ad read "why boys like 6 packs".  There were 6 different colorful flavored  c*****m packets displayed under 4000 watts flood lights.

"Appa! is this a similar protein supplement that we saw in Gold Gym? What is a  c*****m and why they are flavored? What does it do to our 6-packs? Why don't you start using them? (Damn….!!!)" ....the flood gates opened and the flow of questions from my dearest son started gushing yet another time.

I'm always ready to give a lecture to anyone about this protection (protected?) topic. But chums, don't you think a 9 year old is too early to be my student for this subject?

Epilogue: Any ways, I'm aware that the ad makers target the young and the little ones to create a strong influence about the product or brand they put on their ad campaign.  The ad companies started these techniques with Health Drinks, Biscuits, Chocolates, Ice Creams, Diapers, Detergents ... now a days even Automobiles….Insurance products….Paints…even Engine Oils.  This approach is certainly doing a lot of good things to the campaign.  But certainly we are not in the age where children have started to influence, knowingly or unknowingly, the products used by their parents in private.

I'm always enthralled by the creativity of the ad designers.  My son and all the little monsters out there in every family see some of these ads and ultimately get creative for all wrong reasons.  To keep it simple, I'm not prepared to see them discussing such topics at this age.

Congratulation ad companies!!!  I'm no longer worried about 6 packs.  As a responsible parent, whether I buy your products or not, I'm deeply worried about your advertisement contents.

Travel plans...

Its quite usual to find Aditya feeling jealous whenever I share any of my travel plans with him. Well..he is quite unhappy when I talk about any of my international trips...any trip closer to Switzerland or USA or anyone travelling in airplanes.  This comes to him like someone going for a short trip to the heaven. As per him this can happen only for few gifted individuals. I usually tease him either by talking about such trips or showing him the pictures or sharing my experiences of the places that I had visited.

I was sharing my upcoming business trip to Germany followed by a weeklong trip in Switzerland in May. We talked about our last family vacation in Switzerland and remembered how 'cool' the trip was.  But, this time, I found it quite unusual to see Aditya not showing much interested in the conversation. When I asked he said "Appa, you can no longer tease me with your Europe trips...as I have bigger plans".  I was amused by this. "What has changed so much in such a short time?"

"What kind of plan do you have?" I asked

"When I grow bigger I'll be to travelling to even farther places.  Such places are always 'cool'" I saw a sheer excitement in his words.

"South America?.....Australia?.....Antartica?....Arctic?...Russia?....Mongolia?" I shot a series of country and continent names in a desperate attempt to find out his ‘bigger and cooler’ plans.

I was baffled when I received a 'No' for all these....

He continued and said..."I'll be going to places where no one has gone before....I'll be going in my space ship...the rocket pack...and visit galaxies and planets, humans have never thought of visiting. One will not find any 'travel advise' to visit such places because these are places never visited by anyone and never explored....these are really special places only accessible to smart and very intelligent astronauts like me"

P.S I see a lot of determination in him whenever I hear about his ‘future’ plans. He wants to become an astronaut and the dream continues. For the first time I was feeling jealous. 

Note:  Don't miss to see Aditya inside his astronaut suite

Contentment

Date: 8-Jan-2011

Time: 9.30 PM

Moment:  I was watching a movie in the television.

Aditya sees a Ferrari in the movie and expresses a "Wow!!"  I looked at him and asked "hm...here comes a Ferrari for you".   "Appa do you know why there are just two seats in the sports car" Aditya asked.  The sports cars have to be lighter and not for carrying more people.  Also they look really nice with just two seats, less space occupied, can go faster......." I replied confidently with my little knowledge on automobiles.

"Well..." after a pause "I think the second seat is for taking girl friends" Aditya continued....

I paused for a moment and asked whether he would take me in his car whenever he buys it.  "Possible....but I will have to custom make the car with holders for your 'walking stick', 'denture' and 'reading glasses' which will make the car bigger.

I felt proud to see my son unleashing his creative thoughts.

"Its also going to be a problem for you to sit in a fast car like this, because old people like you (?) can't stand the speed of such cars.  Moreover, I will not be driving the car the way you drive your Honda City (?), so you stick to your old Honda City...." This was really an insult for someone like me who always thinks 20 years younger.

He is also not happy with the City that I have....as as per his standards its not a 'cool' car.

Epilogue:  My father never owned an automobile in his life, forget cars or bikes, not even a bi-cycle.  I could afford a four wheeler only when I was 28 years old.  During my childhood bi-cycle tires or pressure cooker gaskets were the hot wheels, hand made wooden carts with broken or used ball bearings were the real wheels.  Aditya was born in the age of 'modern automobiles and technologies' and I find this generation to have lost an appreciation for small things and also not being contented with whatever they have.  They want the latest Ben 10's, latest Bay Blades, latest automobiles, latest Hot Wheels;  everything latest or newest or the coolest.  The best of all was 'latest version of Bournvita'. One version older is not acceptable. They are increasingly interested in more 'material possessions' and nothing in the world can satisfy them enough.  You buy one today and there comes the need for another...and the story continues.

P.S. My father feels the same about me too, huh!

Its Confession Time....

12-Jun-2010, Saturday, 11.00 PM

I was going through Aditya's school Diary (quite unusual though - its usually taken care by Meera) and found a note written by his class teacher "Dear Parents, Please come and meet me on 12-Jun-2010 at around 9.00 am"

"Meera how did you miss this note?" I sprang from the couch
"Which one?" Meera was little puzzled.

We conveniently forgot to check his diary neither did Aditya mention anything about it.  The entire Saturday went like any other weekend, we got up late went to Ramesh's home and reached home late at night.

I get jittery whenever I see a note like this.  This time with no subject mentioned I was waiting for the nightmare.  "Looks like I have to start the court martial tonight...." thought to myself.

"Aditya, can you explain" Meera and I asked this in a chorus

Aditya gave a 'completely surprised' and 'confused' look (an uncharacteristic behaviour that is ironically typical all the time)

"I did not read this note at all Appa..." he said

"Why do you think the teacher would have asked us to meet her....? did anything go wrong in the school?" I asked with concern.

"Nothing happened yesterday Appa" another standard reply from my sincere son.

"Did anything go wrong during the 'week'?"

I always know that this is not the best way of parenting, suspecting and doubting my son's behavior at school.  But in the past there were few occasions when Aditya did not share few 'interesting' stories with us but were ultimately narrated by his class teachers.  The experience wasn't that great.  This added to the problem.  My gut feel said something went wrong.

"Did you argue with the teacher? Did you trouble any other class mates? Tell me what really happened?" the questions poured.

"Nooo....nothing like that...I didnt trouble so much"

"Aditya! take a break, in next two minutes I want you to think about this and come back to me and confess...the punishment is going to be less if you tell us before we hear from the teacher"

I left the room and after 2 minutes Aditya came closer to me hesitantly and said

"I think I did a mistake"

"mmm...see Meera, I suspected this...Go ahead"

"Actually one of my friends and I both jumped through the window to get into the class yesterday"

'This doesn't seem like a problem...."but did you do that when the class was going on?'

"No Appa, first Jay did, and I followed him"

"Answer my question!!! was the class going on at that time"

"No Appa, it was the free period and we just felt like going into the class like 'that'"

"I don't think this is the problem... think for another 2 minutes and come back to me.  This time I want the real truth"  it was Meera who said that

After two minutes....

"mm...I think I argued with the teacher once...." huh! here comes the real one, we thought

WHY!!!!

"She is very strict always"

OK WHAT HAPPENED!!!

"I wanted to ask a question and was not getting her attention and was continuously calling her..."

THEN!

"she did not pay any attention..."

THEN!

"I broke one of my friends pencil tip...."

THEN!

I did not put back my books in the shelf....
.....
.....
.....the confessions continued....

"I think thats why she wrote this note" finally concluded Aditya. 

It started as a small lightenting and then came the thunder and the heavier thunder bolt, followed by a heavy shower of advices.  I finished and then Meera did the rest of the job... Hmm...when are we going to have a relief...both looked at each other with worry lines on our foreheads.

Later that night we wrote a note to the teacher to meet her on the coming week. 

The court finally was adjourned....Aditya was sent to the bed...with a sentence "No Television+No access to computer games" till we meet the teacher.

25-Jun-2010, 4.00 pm.

I was in the office and got a call from Home.  It was Aditya...."Appa, I have a good news for you and me both" sounded victorious

"Whats that Aditya...did you get any stars at school?"

"No Appa, I found the reason why my class teacher wanted to meet Mom and you"

"Alright...what was the reason?"

"Well...actually she doesn't want to meet you..."

"Why did she write that note" I asked

"She actually wanted to talk about the piled up class work during my extended vacation, She did not appear to be angry with me...and I don't think she is going to complain anything about me tomorrow"

"Well thats a good news...." I felt relieved

"Can I watch Ben-10 now?" asked my sweetest Son.

Epilogue:  Later that day Meera and I talked about the court proceedings(?) and laughed at ourselves.  We could only think about the confessions made by Melmen, the giraffe, when the plane was going down in the 'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' movie.  Finally it was found that Aditya did all the silly confessions assuming that they were all 'mistakes'.  He had been behaving very well in the school and there was nothing to worry about it.  He had to go through this 2 week long punishment even after confessing the silliest of all the mistakes that he did in his school.  Aren't we great parents?

Teachers..please write the reasons if you want to meet the parents....this will avoid all such interesting 'episodes' at homes after the school.  Are you listening....???

- Guilty Parents.

Birthday Wish

20-Apr-2010 my 36th Birthday (feeling not so great about the growing age and receding hairline)

7.00 AM

Aditya:  Aditya gets up from bed, still sleepy, "Dad....do you know you are a year older today!!!!"
Me: Well...thats not the way you wish someone who always feels very young.....why don't you wish me first?
Aditya: In 4 yrs you will be bald. If anything remains it will be white!
Me: "Why is your mouth really dirty in the morning....? Why don't you wish me "Happy Birthday!"

Ah!! What a way to start my day...

Aditya's love with Cars....Rovers!!!

Apart from his interests towards space and in general Science, Aditya has been a great lover of automobiles.  You can see his head turn swiftly whenever he spots a modern car in the Pune streets (which is quite common these days). 

Last week while driving towards the city, he literally made me stop our car (a Honda City) to look at a brand new white Jaguar.  (Even today he feels that I should have bought a Honda Civic)

"Wow Appa!!!! one day I would own such a stylish car!!"  you can hear him say this very often.

Then the conversation revolved around some more brands of cars that he was familiar with.  Ferrari, Merc, Audi, Volkswagen, Honda...etc.,

"Which car would like to drive when you become old enough to buy cars?" I asked.  Aditya calmly replied "A Rover".  I was little thrilled by the answer.  The reason was simple...he had never spotted a Rover in Pune.  Not to my knowledge....I don't even remember he talking about Rovers in the past.  I vaguely remember that we together watched a program in the Nat Geo on someone taking an expedition in a Land Rover on a frozen icy surface.  I thought that he had probably seen one on his way to his school.

"A Rover??" I chuckled...."Why would you buy a car which you really do not know anything about?"

"Well...you see it is designed to move over the rocks...tough terrains and in a low gravity atmosphere..." he said.

"Are you talking about riding the Rover up in the Himalayas....? but you will experience only pressure variations but not really much of a change in the Gravity....(These days I feel that I've too little knowledge on these subjects...too old for answering Science questions asked by Aditya....I'm competing with my son..)

"Dad! I'm not going to ride the Rover in earth" he replied.

"What?" I turned back...

"I'll be riding my faaaaaaaaavourite Rover on the rocky terrains of the Moon, it's not a Land Rover...it's a Moon Rover"

Epilogue:  This was quite interesting.  He is 8 years now and is already crazy about space, rockets, rocket boosters, Black Holes, NASA, Chandrayan...dead stars...exploring the galaxies etc.,  Meera and I have been realizing that he is having a very deep quest for space and I wish that one day he will be able to follow his dreams.  Whatever it takes.. we are completely determined to nurture and support him, after all thats the least that we can do as parents.  Lets see how far this goes.....

Our love towards our Son is growing day by day as we think about this...

- Meera and Kannan

Why should you not say Sorry!!

7-Dec-2009 9.30 PM (I was in the middle of some very important office work at home)

Aditya:  Appa! I have a question?

Me: Yes Aditya!

Aditya: Why do we say sorry?

Me:  Well! when you do something wrong, hurt someone or dropped something....or broke something....then you feel really really apologetic about that act.... and say "Sorry!"

Aditya: ....and it also means that you wont repeat that again....

Me: Yes! thats a good understanding...

Aditya:  Well then I think for one act we are expected to say sorry but we never stop doing that again! so...whenever you do that you don't have to say sorry!!!

Me:  mmm....I don't think there is anything like that...whenever you say sorry you should realize the mistake and you should stop doing that again

Aditya: No...for this thing we can't stop doing that again...

Me:  Aditya! keep it simple and quick...Appa is working...

Aditya: Yes Appa...all human beings and animals expell gas (he actually said f??t) and it is quite natural....

....and we are expected to say sorry......or excuse me...

...........but can we really stop that... even if we were apologetic?

Me: ??????

Note:  I din't felt embarassed by this question....My son is growing and let me really get prepared to face him.  Its getting really tough these days.  Anyone to feel sorry about me?  Experienced Dads!!! can you share your experiences?