A Big Leap
10 years ago
So, AM has now decided that he wants to be a Policeman when he grows up.. no hang on.. what was that? Oh sorry... I meant he wants to be a Doctor when he grows up so he can give me an injection.. ah!
Two career-choices-of-the-day!
Labels: career choices, kids
I've decided to track the evolution in the choice of future career of my sons, AM (3 yrs 9 months) and IM (1 year 7 months). Since IM can barely speak yet, we'll begin to track his progress in a little while. But what inspired me to write this is the little talk AM and I had last night just before going to bed. He was asking me why one needs to go to school everyday. So the obvious answer to this was "Well, to become a better person, to study well and do something in life". I further went on to give him examples of how me, his dad and one of his grandpas were engineers, and one of his grannies was a teacher, the other a doctor and his other grandpa a lawyer, and how his aunt was studying so hard to become a lawyer... and so on and so forth. This led to a sudden lighting up on AM's face... I was trying to bore him to sleep.. but I guess the reaction was totally opposite to what I was hoping for. He was all chirpy again. I thought he'd say something like "When I grow up I want to be Ram/Laxman/Hanuman/Superman/Spiderman" or something to that effect considering his current obsession with Ramanyan. But, instead, and to my utter surprise, what he said was "When I grow up, I want to be a Lawyer!" He probably has no idea what/who a lawyer is...but hey.. this goes down in my book as career-choice-of-the-day.
Labels: career choices, kids
Happy New Year, folks! Last week has been a kind of revelation... nothing to be really proud of... a little disorientating, to put it mildly. Loads of things happened to make me feel that I'm, well... not that young... anymore. So I thought about it... and I have here my own list of the top ten (in no particular order) signs that you can look for, to determine whether or not you've had a reasonable amount of progress in terms of age..
- When most of the bottles and jars in your shower rack or dressing table have some version of the word "age-defying" on them.
- When the beauty parlor lady begins to plead with you to at least now, colour your "virgin head of hair".. and the top reason is not because it "improves your hair quality" or "makes your hair softer" but because it "will hide your greys for longer". (What!?!? I have grey hair?? I was in denial all this while I guess!!)
- When you suddenly feel that you're being stared at by one and all while you're browsing in the Misses section in the clothes department.
- When you think of the last ten parties you've been to and the list only includes birthdays of toddlers.
- When you find yourself checking a higher age-range while filling a form.
- When the list of your routine medical tests gets just a tad longer.
- When you hear from an old friend after a number of years which is greater than how many you believe you've been alive for!
- When you suddenly find that if a teenager is calling out to "Aunty..", its you they are referring to.
- When you meet your niece/nephew after a long time and you realise that she/he's not a teenager any more!
- When the bhaaji-wallah starts to address you as "Behen-ji" as opposed to the "Shishter" title you've gotten used to.
When I shared these thoughts with a few friends they definitely tried to make me feel better with words like "Yummy Mummy" and "still the same cartoon I knew five years ago" flying around... thanks, guys. Still I guess I will take a few days to get over this disconcerting feeling! My sons are being a great help though... I can really be a kid with them!! :) Its fun jumping around and yelling and singing like no one's watching... or listening. So here's to a new year full of happy things to look forward to. If you've got ears, say "Cheers!"
Have a great 2009!
Something unique I came across today. Disney is trying to sell me a trip to Disney World and this is how they promote it.
What a great idea!! :)
The following thoughts have been stimulated by the post, Cynic in Wonderland: Minding the Mind, by a friend.
Dear Cynic, all your hypotheses about the slowdown in one's intellectual growth are just fine. What you have not done, is consider external elements that tend to shake up the equilibrium. Let me illustrate. A perfect example of these external elements would be children. Well, you did briefly mention, in your third hypothesis, "real life, earning one’s livelihood, responsibilities" and children, I would say, become your prime responsibility. Combine this with "earning one's livelihood" and you've got yourself a highly combustible mixture. Suddenly you see yourself sliding back down the left side of the bell curve.
From devouring one cryptic crossword a day, suddenly you're down to five clues a month. From looking for intellectually challenging reads or New York Times bestsellers and the likes, suddenly you find yourself scanning the horizon for "Bruno learns to share" or "Pepper plays with fire" and other picture books with big letters. And, you know you've hit rock bottom when the only song you can think of to sing at the office picnic is "This old man, he played one...".
Then when you're slowly climbing back up the curve with the children, you realise that this is not the same route you took when you were growing up. The curve looks a lot different now, a lot steeper than you remember. And you find that your children have no trouble running up it, they've already reached way above you and calling out to you from the top, mocking you, as you struggle to keep up.
So, dear Cynic, think about this, and think hard because there's no turning back, no exit, no escape route, nothing... once you've gone in through this door.
Although, on the up side, if your inner child is still alive and kicking and wishes to stay that way, then these could end up being the best years of your life. In this case, you will find it just as exciting to plan a toddler-friendly trip to Disney World as you would a snorkeling trip to the Maldives. So the choice, dear friend, is all yours!
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