Aanika's Little Corner

On choosing a house

A few days back, I picked up Aanika from school, and we were driving back to home. On the way, we passed a house Priya and I had liked when we were house-shopping several years back.

I asked Aanika, "We were going to buy that house, but then we bought the house that is our home. Do you like that house better?"

Aanika replied, "But Daddy, how can I say? I have only looked at this house from outside. I don't know what is inside!"

Impressed, I carried on the conversation "What do you think of leaving our current home and going to live in a new home?"

She says "Can we look inside the new home and then decide?"

"Sure".

"But then how will we take all our stuff?"

"We put it in boxes and take to the new home."

"But we will need to get a home that has a kitchen, TV room, and a room for me to fit all our things." Priorities emerge.

"Sure, but what about Mamma and Daddy's room?"

"OK, OK ! We can get a house with one more room!"

"And what about Aarav?"

"Sure, we can get one more room for Aarav also."

Silence. Then she pipes up "But Daddy, in the new home, I want to decorate my room myself. I want to put up my stars myself" referring to the glow-in-dark stars we have on her room's ceiling.

"Hmm" I said "Why do you want to do it yourself?"

"Because I want to do it with my design!"

"And what is that design?"

"I want to put the stars in straight lines from the light."

Still puzzled and trying to follow this little mind, I asked "And why that design?"

"So it looks like stars are coming out like rays from the sun!"

Thats when I realized that that little mind had bigger thoughts than I did :)

"You cannot win!"

Here is another one that happened some time back but is classic Aanika all the way.

One time, as Aanika was taking her time finishing dinner, her mom was encouraging her to finish quickly. Her mom went through the usual motivations - if you eat at regular speed, you will grow up to be big and strong - lets see if you can finish before I count to 10 - dont you want to finish quickly and then play with your toys - and so on. None of these were having their usual desired effect on Aanika today.

Now Aanika has a bit of a competitive streak in her and so her mom pulled out the final option, "Lets see if I can finishes doing dishes first or you finish your dinner first." This immediately make Aanika sit up and get going on her dinner - for a moment. After the first mouthful, back some the retort to mom, "but you just cannot win!".

Mom says, "How come?"

"Well, you see, if I dont finish my dinner, you wont have my dish to wash and without that you wont be done with your dishes. The only way you can be done with you dishes is after I am done with my dinner..." (implying, "...at my pace") "So no matter what, you cannot win!"

What an amazing grasp of cause and effect at the age of 4.

Innocence or smartness!!!

Today, I was watching share (stock) price movements in India and it is dull!. I just remembered an incident with Aanika when she was 3 1/2 years old and I was in USA with her. I was watching price movements of selected 25 shares of India (which included some from my portfolio) on laptop and she was sitting next to me.

She asked me, "What is this you are seeing with so much interest?"

"I have purchased shares with my money and I am observing if the value of my shares is increasing or decreasing", I explained to her.

"Oh! So what do you find?"

"My shares are all red which means I am losing."

"But, I see some green ones too."

"They are not my shares. They belong to other people."

"Why don't you exchange yours with them?'

"That is not possible. Why would anyone give me their good shares in place of my bad ones?'

"Then, do one thing. Open the page in paint and change the colour of your shares to green."

It made me laugh and I explained to her that it cannot be done.

I had bought her dark goggles with red glasses a few days earlier. Recalling that she suggested,
"In that case, you can, at least, buy the goggles with green glasses so that all your shares will appear green."

I was speechless and decided not to pursue the matter further knowing fully well that it would be never-ending and that I can beat an adult but not a child.

Stumped!!!

This is yet another story of Aanika when she was three and a half years old.
She has a lot of fancy for hair clips. One day she was sitting with many hair clips and counting and playing with them fixing one after the other in her hair.
I knew that it was difficult to ask her give even a single clip from the lot.
But I thought I can outsmart her and manage to get one. I explained to her that I too need hair clip as my hair was long and coming in front of my eyes. I thought that her emotional attachment towards me will work and she will immediately give me at least one clip.
She was quiet for a moment and I thought that my persuation has worked and was waiting for her response.
After a while she told,
"Do one thing. When I go for hair dressing next time, accompany me and I will get your hair trimmed so that you won't need the clip."
I had never expected that I will be stumped so badly by a kid her age!!!

What is your bank balance?

When I was in USA and Aanika was just three and a half years old, she used to sit next to me and keep asking me what I was doing in the laptop. That time, I had not even realized that she was learning many things not expected of a child of her age.

One day, she told me, "Dada, why don't you buy me a toy?"
"I have no money", I said.
"Do one thing", she said and quickly pointing her finger at internet explorer, asked me to click on it.
Her next order was to click on favorites folder, followed by finance folder and HDFC Bank website.
As soon as the HDFC Bank login page opened, she asked me to enter my user name and password and then asked me,
"What is your bank balance?"

I was stunned! Be careful if you have grandkids of her age!!

Too much TV ?

Aanika is 4 years 9 months now and growing by leaps and bounds. And she is learning new things and getting smarter by the minute. And often she will just the "darndest things".

For a while, I have been toying with the idea of writing down these incidents of utmost innocent humor as a keepsake for posterity. And then I remembered this almost-abandoned blog, remnant of an incurable case of writers block I had 4 years ago. It seems like just made for it, like a perfect excuse to get it restarted.

So here is a recent incident. This past Saturday was the 11st wedding anniversary for Priya and me, and we and kids were coming back after a fantastic dinner at Amber in Santana Row. We were quite late in returning and the clock was already showing past Aanika's bedtime. On the way back in the car, Aanika remembers our weekly tradition of watching a kids movie every Saturday, and chimes in "Mamma, we are still going to watch my movie tonight, right?"

Both Priya and I cringe at the question. I attempt to handle this diplomatically "So Aanika, how many times have you been on TV, Iphone or laptop today?"

Out come the fingers, and she counts them off "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6. 6, Daddy 6!"

"And how many times are you supposed to be on TV, Iphone or laptop in a day?"

"Just 1", her voice losing steam as she begins to understand where the conversation is going.

"So then you actually should not be on TV, iphone or laptop for the next 5 days".

Silence.

I persist, "You are supposed to have them just once, you had them 6 times today, so you had them how many more times than you are supposed to?"

"Five", her voice getting even lower.

"So then you should not have them for 5 more days".

After a quick pause, she responds "No Daddy, I should not have them for 6 more days."

"Humh? How do you figure that?" I respond thinking she is mixing up her subtraction.

Back comes the response, "Because I still have to see the kids movie after going home now."