kholo kholo

the TZP hangover has still not died down in our home. I bought the audio cd of the movie recently and all four of us listen to the songs frequently. The kids listen intently to most of the songs of that movie except bum bum bole. They dance to that one with vigor and seem to remember the dance steps well. I find kholo kholo song very inspiring and nidhi loves it too. She generally picks the tune of a song very quickly (mostly by the 2nd time she hears a song). She has got my genes there. I used to be good at that (am still good) and would pick tune and lyrics of movie songs very quickly. I could even sing more than 20 tamil songs for which rahman composed music. I'm a huge AR fan and even though i dont know tamil, repetitive listening made me pick the tune and sounds (cant call them lyrics cos they made no sense to me). For languages i understand (kannada & hindi), i think i have used (or wasted) about 60% of my memory cells on songs. I can claim to know the lyrics of atleast 100 each of kishore, rafi, mukesh, spb & raj kumar songs. then there are duets of these singers that i remember as well!

hindi songs' lyrics are probably nice sounds for nidhi at this time. so it is fun to hear her sing kholo kholo now. she goes like:

kholo kholo & slience (she doesnt know the remainder of the mukda)

thu dhoop hain, cham serikhe

thu ye nadhi, thu ye gabbar

beh chal kahin, ud chal kahin, dil khush jaha

there is a manzil hain vahii....

the lyrics are:

thu dhoop hain, cham se bikhar

thu hain nadhi, oh bekhabar
beh chal kahin, ud chal kahin, dil khush jaha
teri to manzil hain vahii...

nidhi converts the last line to a hinglish sentence. the good thing is her line is semantically very close to the original lyrics. but she sings this song with amazing passion and very close to tune. I'll be posting the video of her singing this one here soon.

Chitra Santhe

Dec 30 2007 was 'Chitra Santhe' day at Chitra Kala Parishath, Kumara Krupa Road. I've tried to attend the santhe unsuccessfully the last two times now. This time, we missed it as we had to attend a function (homa where kids sang makhan chor) on 30th. I wanted to see whats on show there and then show such work to my kids and see how they react to it. To kind of make up for that loss, I decided to spend time that evening at home and recognise and celebrate all the art work that neha & nidhi have done over the last few months.

We have got them a bundle of paper (DMP printer ones). Every day they pull out a couple of sheets from the bundle, express their imaginations on them and leave it on the floor. I have collected all those sheets for the last few months. 30th evening I checked all of them and asked the kids to explain what they've drawn. I've scanned a few such paintings below and have put some text along with them to explain. Please open the drawing on a separate window to see the text.

Innocence can kill too

Innocence can be a powerful weapon. How else can you embarass an elderly well respected person. Not that you want to but here is what happened yesterday. Nidhi was feasting on her lunch on a plantain leaf sitting next to neha & veena at a family gathering. An elderly man who is very well respected, admired by all kind of personality, was sitting opposite her. Here is the conversation he tried to have with nidhi:

elderly person: shall i also come to your school?

nidhi: but you dont have uniform

elderly person: then i'll wear your uniform and come

nidhi: then your underwear will show and my madam will say 'shame shame poppy shame, all the monkeys know your name, thatha'

elderly person: probably wanted to dig a hole and bury himself there

Kids & Devotional Songs

it is not often that somebody sings the title track of a cartoon TV serial at the end of "satya narayana pooja". But with kids anything is possible or to quote Adidas tag line impossible is nothing
The day was last Sunday and venue was a family gathering to view & attend & feast at a party hall where some relative performed gana homa, ayush homa & a couple of other homas & finally satyanarayana pooja. After the pooja and final mangala arati, one girl sung a devotional song on vishnu. The next scene was neha & nidhi jumping around near the place of worship and shouting we'll also sing, we'll also sing. I was only a spectator for all this as I was standing behind rows of people while neha & nidhi squeezed between people's legs and reached the front where the priests, family conducting the pooja & the gods had assembled. I did not want to stop neha & nidhi from singing but they had gone to the front with their slippers on! I was hoping that nobody observes that and censures them for that innocent act. After they got the nod from someone to sing, both looked at each other, whispered & decided which song to sing and went ahead in chorus "chor chor maakhan chor, chaliya maakhan chor" That is the track on TV when krishna cartoon serial is played at 7:30 pm every evening. And that is one of the regular shows that neha & nidhi watch. They also sang the music that comes in between the song. After they finished singing, expectedly somebody asked them why are you singing a TV serial song and nidhi shot back "ಇದು ದೇವರ ಹಾಡೇ, ಕೃಷ್ನಂದು" (idhu devara haade, krishnandu - this is also a song on god, on kirshna) and the wise elder person just shut his mouth afterwards.

The other time they sung a song that was not 100% appropriate was when somebody in the apartment complex had invited veena & kids during dasara. they had sung the song from manjunatha movie where the atheist hero chides shiva as kalla, sulla,....

But the credit of best joke I've heard about kids & songs goes to my cousin's son - karthik. On his first day at pre-school, the teacher made all the kids sit quiet and asked them, "ಯಾರಿಗಾದರು ದೇವರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹಾಡು ಬರುತ್ತಾ?" (yaarigaadru devara bagge haadu barotha) , karthik raised his hand. teacher asked him to sing and he went on " ದೇವರು ವರವನು ಕೊಟ್ರೆ ನಾ ನಿನ್ನೆ ಕೋರುವೆ ಚಲುವೆ..." (devaru vara vanu kotre naa ninne koruve cheluve)