When the unimaginable happens!

I have a 12 yrold who has to be reminded that he is a part of this family and therefore needs to pitch in with chores, not add to them by dropping towels in dustbins and plates in toilet sinks, thankfully not toilet bowls! He is after all my boy, a master in the art of absentmindedness, something in which i excel in!

He does what he is told to do, the key word emphasised here is told.

So what do you do when the above mentioned 12 yrold breezes into your room, and asks:: "Can I vacuum my room?"

You try not to fall. You do not pinch yourself to see if you are sleeping. You do not look at him suspiciously, trying to figure out a hidden plot.

But you very calmly say, "Yes, you can,..." in just the right tone, else he realises his mistake.

After 10 minutes, the same 12 yrold says:: "There i've cleaned my room."

What do i do?

I empty my luck quota for the whole month, and milk the opportunity. I say, ' How about doing the whole house?"

He says yes!

and does it well too, even the balcony. Throws the trash too...

The result is:

I think it will snow here in Dubai.

I realise that he has used his study time (he has his final exams going on) for an unscheduled long break

I wish they have exams all year through :p

He is a sweetheart, because i do have a clean house

and

I'm still searching for my house slippers.

Happy weekend, folks :)

Going international!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's around six thousand words worth....

Ah well! I fell a thousand short. :)

So last week my 7 yrold got to travel to 36 countries, as you can see from his passport :). Their school had an international day, where most countries are showcased. Since the schools here have a good mix of students from different nationalities, it is a common event in most schools here to host an international day. It is similiar to a mini global village, the difference is that the non-profit stalls are put up by the parents.

A lovely concept of introducing different countries and getting to know from which place their classmates came from! Even if most of the kids were more interested in getting their passports filled with all the flags! i could see my 7 yrold flitting from stall to stall, trying to get the flags at breakneck speed! He took great pride in telling me that his friend was from Macedonia, and that his teacher came from South Africa.

Unintended humor came as usual from my side. Twice my boy rushed to me asking for idly, and when i shoved a plate of mini idlies in front of him (we had lots of yummy food, contributed by teh parents), he exasperatedly yelled "ITALY, amma, Italy, I want to know where ITALY is"

Oh!

I'm sure you appreciate how diligently I must have been doing my job of representing my country and the food!

India was quite well represented by flowers, food, colours, henna and diyas and us. The children loved the bangles and bindis that we gave them. The henna was a hit, as were the flowers.

When the school had announced this event two months back, asking for representatives to lead their respective countries, there were just three of us for India. I wondered whether we would even pull it through but then after the initial hiccups, we got rolling. Most parents came forward towards the end, helping with contributions in the form of money, food, artefacts and decoratives. A few hubbies did their bit too, by going where no one could reach, notably the highest places on the fence.

It was nice to see so many in their traditional attire, the sarees were a hit and we, ahem! ahem!got photographed quite a bit! In the end, we must have got something right, because we did get the 2nd place and more importantly everyone had fun!

These were our 9 kids dancing to 'Jai ho', which was well received.

All in all a lovely day indeed! School is so much fun this way, don't you think?

Then i thought to myself "What a wonderful thing to implement in our Indian schools as a way of introducing the different states in India. It would break a lot of stereotype notions and bring out a lot of awareness as far as culture, cuisine and languages go"!

But then you know what, knowing the competitive spirt in which every thing is taken these days, it may not be such a great idea after all!

(psst...this post's for you, tara )