Hair Today... Gone..ummm...Today

Vyom's curly locks finally fell under the scissors yesterday. Mamma and Baba held out as long as they could. They loved the curly-wurly imp and would have liked to keep the look. They were capable of ignoring the looks on the streets and comments by the general public on his gender. They would have also been equally capable of dealing with the general sentiment in (parts of) the family about the inappropriateness of his long tresses. And were in any case tying up his hair in top-knots and pony-tails for school. But they had to secretly admit that the hair was getting into his eyes causing him to squint and being a general bother when left open. Tied up it didn't look half as good as it did when left open.
So, yesterday evening, Thamma, Baba, Mamma and Vyom went to the hairdressers. Baba went first, watched with great interest by Vyom. He was quite eager to get on the chair and have a go.

Vyom was great, did not cry, but he did move around a lot and had to be held in place to avoid accidents

The final effect had us all dazed. "where is my baby?" cried Mum-mum. "Who is this big boy?", asked Baba. Vyom was unfazed by all the fuss and after telling mum-mum rather perfunctorily that the curly-wurly Vyom has gone to "the Himalayas", he put all his energies into the promised post-hair-cut treat - PIZZA!!!

Independence Day Spirituals

The coinciding of Janamashthami and Independence day celebrations in India last weekend made for an exciting time for Vyom. His natural propensity towards bhajans, patriotic songs and flag waving (remember "nanima zindabad" and "jhanda ooncha rahe hamara" from last year?) was assisted by school, TV, neighbourhood and of course, his mum-mum (and Thamma to a lesser extent). The repetitions of the national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" all around led him to repeatedly request the song, "in Bangla, like Baba" and then "now Hindi". He had his own version as well with "prasenjit" (Punjab, Sindh), "daari, utkal, bongo", and loves shouting "Jai He" at the end. Mamma also sang "vande maatram" to him, for a change.
On saturday night, when mamma and baba were working after Vyom and Thamma had gone to bed, baba heard some voice from their bedroom and ran in to discover Thamma fast asleep and Vyom staring at the ceiling and singing "Vande Matram". By Monday, he had a Vyom 's version (as ususal) which went
Vande Maatram
Sujalaam Sufalaam
Malayaj Sheetalaam
Shasya Shyaamlaa
Sab kuchh laam
Ravi Uncle gaadi chalaalaam
Baba ki korlaam
mum-mum office jaalaam

He didn't quite get how baby krishna fit into the whole thing and the following conversation happened on Sunday evening.

(Vyom is sitting in padmaasan in front of mum-mum's walking stick and putting a bindi made of dough on the stick)
MumMum: Vyom, aap kyaa kar rahe ho
Vyom, what are you doing?
Vyom: main puja kar rahi hoon. (he gets his genders mixed up still)
I am doing puja.
MM: ye dandaa thakur hai kyaa?
Is this stick God?
V: nahi, Vyom thakur hai
No, Vyom is God.

He then lifts the stick and moves it around like an aarti mumbling "om jai jagadeesh, something, something,..." and ends with a loud "Jai He, Jai He, Jai He" while shaking the stick vigorously up and down.

What kind of animal is a "masi"?

Mum-mum and Vyom decided to play the game of categories the other day.

Mum-mum: "Categories, if you please, name some, names of... Animals
for example, Dog..."
Vyom: " Billi-myaaoo"
m-m: "Donkey"
V: "Elephant"
.....
m-m: "tota-ram"
V: "mmmmm.... Doncy masi"
m-m: "Doncy masi is not an animal"
V: "hmmm... Pinka masi?"
m-m: "No, Pinka masi is also not an animal"
V: " Purva masi!" (half-screaming in triumph)
m-m: "No Vyom, masis are not animals. Masis are girls, see these are animals"
V (frowning and silently looking at the pictures, and then saying slowly but very firmly) " Masi, Animals, YES, Okay?"
(mum-mum moved to non-controversial categories like colours)

Conversations with Purva Masi

(This Guest Blog has been written by Purva Masi, the pix has been added by Mum-mum just to add to the visual appeal)

Today started like any other Monday for Purva Masi, the beginning of a work week, no gas in the car, rushing to lab to prepare for her meeting (which did not happen), and while she was sitting and trying to analyze and compile her data, she thought of calling her Dida to find out how she was doing. When she called, Pavel da picked up the phone and mentioned that they were done with their dinner and it was the perfect time to call. Masi could hear lil chirping in the background, so she realized that her tweet tweet VyomC was still up.
Anyways, dida came to the phone and started to talk to her and as usual she asked Vyom to talk to masi .Masi was expecting him to say a few words and run away coz like most kids at that age, he does not want to talk on the phone. But we were all in for a surprise, instead of the usual tota ram repeats and forced conversations masi got to hear a complete medley Vyom C style. It started with Tavvai totadiya -a punjabi rhyme (full version with very lil promting from mum-mum), followed by twinkle twinkle little star, and gande mande bache teri khopri mein kya hai ( a fun version of the Hindi song nanhe munhe bache teri muthhi mein kya hai, lyrics by mum mum), and chanda mama door ke (a Hindi lullaby) . Every time dida would ask " ki aapko masi se aur baat karni hai ?" ("do you want to talk to masi some more") he would say "nahee" ("no") and then immediately follow it with another recital. Encore of chanda mama door ke was followed by dum maro dum. After the recital it was time to tell masi about other things in his life like how he loves chocolate and how he had chocoloate mouves (mousse) and of course he wanted to talk to Rishi mishi , but unfortunately he was not there. so we asked Vyom a few questions about his Rishi mishi

Q: Where is Rishi Mishi?
A: Rishi mishi school gaye hain. (rishi mishi has gone to school)
Q: Rishi Mishi school kaise gaye? (how has rishi mishi gone to school)
A: Purva masi chod ke aayee (purva masi left him there)
Q: Masi ne kaise chodaa? (how did masi leave him there)
A: Aeroplane mein (followed by) nahee Helicopter se (in an aeroplane, no, in a helicopter)

Finally our lil conversation ended and he wished Masi and Mishi good night and went to maaro gup with his thamma……….
Dida and Pavel Da said that it was a new record set by Vyom coz he never ever talks to anyone for this long on phone….
VyomC’s masi was extremely happy and the 15 min conversation just made her day and even though it started like any other Monday it was one of the most wonderful days of her life…..