Long lost

Two colleagues working in the same office for the past 14 years meet one day at pantry.

[Both] : Oh! You are still here!

In the land of Tulu tribes - II

Mangaluru
1. The roads are still lined with open gutters on either side. It feels like driving on the edge. I suppose life in Mangalore is always on the edge. It's just that either you fall into a gutter or manoeuvre yourself away from one.

2. I was surprised to see dominance of non-localites ran eateries on a beach side. I mean the quality of food was horribly bad and the localites do have a reputation for serving better quality food. Why then not many competing with them? I could find many smaller 'charamuri(charamburi)', a snack made of puffed rice, stalls run by Tuluvas. So, it's not that the small scale of these joints isn't favoured by them. I'm kind of a person who gets irritated by sun, sand and sea. It's only the eateries around make me feel rejuvenated. And the beach was a big disappointment.

3. Mangalore has been in the news for moral policing. I had a first hand observation of this phenomenon. I overheard a woman on the beach loudly shouting in Tulu, "Shameless creatures! Didn't they even get a towel to wrap around their waist? Just look at them roaming around in this state." When I looked around I found couple of men walking by wearing only soakingly wet panties.

4. It appears grandmothers of Tulu region no longer liked to be addressed as 'grandmother' in local lingo. In Tulu, it's either 'dodda' or 'ajji'. However, in it's place they are making their grandchildren to call them 'ammamma'. This is the exact northern Malayali term for grandmother. Maybe common origin is expressing itself after few generations.

5. This year also I continued my unscientific survey of popularity of different Ice-cream flavours. The last year survey results were:
 gudbud : 15
 dilkush : 5
 parfait: 12
 others: negligible
This year:
gudbud: 6
dilkush: 5
parfait: 15
others: 27

others: Other big ones, not counting single scoops and slices.

It appears Parfait popularity is still strong. I must say, two decades ago it was mostly Gudbud and Dilkush. I think Gudbud is losing its popularity and Dilkush is continuing its low stagnant state. But to my surprise other flavours are gaining ground. Unfortunately, I'm still into those three flavours, I couldn't recognize them. Somehow, I feel Tiramisu is gaining over others.

It could be also that, a decade or two ago, eating Ice-cream was a rare phenomenon, hence, eating the popular ones every time could have been a renewed feeling. But nowadays, eating Ice-cream might have become a regular ritual and thus other flavours are being experimented with.

Waking up to tomorrow

Both my daughter and niece (about the same age) haven't grasped the concept of tomorrow. Interestingly, both explain it as 'after I sleep and getup'.

I suppose both have grasped the concept but were not able to map it to the term 'tomorrow'. 

Mango Connoisseur

At a supermarket you find mangoes that you want to taste. You go to the stall and find a fellow buyer smelling some of them but leave without taking any. Then you see a bald headed man coming to your direction. You pick a mango and start smelling it. He comes and smells some of them and looks at you and says with a smile, "Not going to be tasty. Are they?". You say, "Yeah, Yeah". He leaves and then a couple descend upon the place and they start smelling but don't pick any and leave. You continue with your smelling façade all through it. And then when you are alone, you quietly pick few of them and leave.

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?