Explaining Death

Last night my daughter asked me about death. She was wondering why she had never seen 'ajja' , my father. I explained he wasn't feeling well, his body functions stopped, he stopped breathing, went into a never waking sleep. Not sure how much she understood.

Convention

The other day, my daughter had dictation of numbers. She wrote eight out of twenty, that were given, in reverse. She used to do it once in a while but not to that extent. I went through the articles online dealing with this and few of them mentioned that children's ability to distinguish between left and right wasn't developed fully until they were five to six years old.

That took me to the conversation I had with my four year old few days ago. She asked me to confirm her left and right hand (even though  she's generally correct with these two directions). I showed her. She wanted to know who told me that or how I knew that. I said it was a 'convention'. Our conversation was in Kasaragod Malayalam and all of a sudden I had to use an English term which she had no idea. She just repeated my word and kept quiet. I had no idea how to explain the term 'convention' in Malayalam and let it pass.

Here comes my limitation with the language. I made a point to talk to her in Malayalam even though my grasp over the language was only passable. My intention was to gradually switch over to English which I thought wouldn't be possible if I were to speak to her in Kannada, which I speak with mother-tongue fluency, from the beginning. Also, exposure to multiple languages from childhood hasn't given me any kind of advantage and on the contrary I always felt I lacked the proficiency in any single language because of it. There could be other reasons for my lack of complete grasp in any single language but I didn't want to take any chance with this respect too.

It seems children imitate their fathers' speech until they are four years old. I suppose it was something to do with limited vocabulary and simple sentences that males use as compared to females. I'm not sure whether that was a credible study or not but  I read it in the National Geographic's Geo magazine. Nevertheless, I'm afraid that's more or less true in my family as my daughter's fluency in the language appears to match mine and not my wife's who is a native speaker of the language.

Oblivious Realization - 2

It has been nearly five years since I wrote about them. The father, the mother, and the daughter who spoke Kannada. Their regular presence on the street next to my house has been my regular observational ritual. It's as if nothing has changed in the last ten  years. However, in the last few months I didn't see them for very long. I thought it's strange since they were like people who would disappear from that locality only upon their death. Their presence has made my presence on that street ancient. I wondered if one of them would be permanently missing when I see them next time. The other day, I saw only the mother and daughter(as I'd identified them). But nowadays I don't see them regularly. Will I again become new to that street as they fade away?

Staged Inspiration

She walked to the podium with a determined look. She was to perform Bharatanatyam to a packed auditorium. The Tamilatti started dancing to a Kannada song, "Krishna nee begane baro". He smirked at the horrible diction of the Kannada lyrics. Must be a Tamilatti, he thought. As the dance progressed he observed  that there was no synchronization between the song and the dance moves. Though it was a silly song, he felt, at least, it was from a time when both sexes wore similar dresses and adorned themselves with similar jewellery. In present era, only females could dance to this song written in praise of a male god.Or, maybe patriarchy hadn't entered into this art. His train of thoughts were interrupted when the song ended. Soon a Telugu song started playing and the danseuse continued her performance.

He looked around. Some people were nodding and thought smugly that many were watching with dazed attention. All of a sudden, the music stopped. It appeared as if there was a power outage. People started murmuring. The dancer made a hand gesture for people to be seated and resumed her dancing without the music. Now some people started clapping in appreciation. She continued and now started dancing by kneeling and bending close to the ground. He couldn't watch anything as the first two rows were on their feet. This strange spectacle continued for another five minutes. There was a huge applause once the show was over. Then he heard one guy exclaiming,"Wow! I didn't know that this was preplanned. There was no actual power cut. A brilliant lesson on keeping your cool under adverse conditions. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!".

Sin, Damnation and the Pope

There were pillars and curtains and possibly we were inside a room. The room was resplendent in reddish yellow as if twilight sky was flowing inside. There were men and women. I was one of them. I suppose there were three women.

We crossed the rooms and entered a hall. There were tables and chairs. We struck up a conversation. The desire was growing. She whispered something that I wanted to hear. I turned to her and saw her completely uncovered. I lifted her in my arms. She clasped me around my neck with her legs around my hips. I gripped her with my right hand and covered her exposed shame with my left hand palm and ran out of the hall. My finger felt something.

I ran and crossed few rooms on my right and came across a gate. The gate opened to a road. I crossed the road and entered a room. That was not our room. I remembered that was the third room and I should be moving to the second. So I moved still carrying her and when I was inside the room, dropped her on to the bed. When I moved I saw other two women entering the room. They said they wanted to join.

It  was a circular arena with reddish soil. I was watching it as though sitting in a Colosseum. A priest was running with a parchment paper half his length. He was shouting "The Leviticus, The Leviticus". The pope was after him saying 'not that scripture, not that scripture'. He was panting and so was I. Now nothing was coming out of his month but he was feeling a strong weight on his chest making it difficult for him to breathe. I was feeling the same. I thought I should calm down and hold my breath for some time. However, even after few moments I wasn't able to breathe. I tried to breathe forcefully and woke up violently and then started breathing normally.

Missed

[She] Do you know < name >?
[He] Yes.
[She] He was in your group, no?
[He] Yes, he was.
[She] He was such a nice chap. I couldn't believe he was so old. Did you know it?
[He] Yes, I knew.
[She] He would talk to you so nicely with his amazing measured and kind voice. He was always sarcastic in a nice way.
[He] Yes, Yes.
[She] He was such a versatile person. He worked in theatre. He directed plays. Then he came and joined the company.
[He] Yes.
[She] It's so pleasant to have a somebody like him in your team. It feels good.
[He] Yes, Yes.
[Awkward silence]
[He] Did he tell you how he got his surname?
[She] No.
[He] It seems it wasn't their original family name. His grandfather ....
[She] Really, I didn't know it.
[He] About his son....
[She] I didn't know about his family life. Nice.
[He] He was a hardcore leftist...
[She] Interesting. He'll be really missed.
[He couldn't imagine whether his stay in the company would have been much more pleasant had he known or at least talked to that person. But he was glad that he once shared a table with him and could listen to all the conversation that took place between that person and other colleagues.]

Self deprecation?

[I overheard this Hindi conversation between Doraemon and some Arab Sultan]

[S] Where are you from?

[D] We are from India. 

[S] India? Never heard that place before. Where is it located?

[D] It's in the east, close to China.

[S] Aha... You are coming from a region close to China!