Arnav and Bho-Bho

One of the fist things a kid learns to say is "papa" or "mama". The first words for Arnav, incidentally, were "bho-bho".

Aparna used to take Arnav on evening walks right from the time Arnav was 3 months young. And India being India, there is no shortage of dogs wherever you go. For a 3 month young kid, who sees noone but his mom and dad day in and day out, dogs were a welcome change. He was readily fascinated by dogs and till this day his fascination continues.

Arnav liked bho-bhos so much that for the entire first year he used to call anything and everything as bho-bho. Thankfully, he is now beginning to understand that not everything is called a "bho-bho".

Arnav has more toy-dogs in his cupboard than all the other toys put together. In fact hardly a month goes by when he does not get a new toy-dog.

Aparna, on the other hand, hates dogs like anything. Any dog within one square mile of her freaks her out. So although Arnav loves dogs, I am pretty sure, he will never be able to have a pet dog. He will have to make-do with his bho-bho pet toys only :-)

By the way, which should be Arnav's favorite cartoon character?
For all those who read Raj Comics, the answer is obvious - Doga!

Arnav's visit to Delhi

The reason for the long silence was that we had been to Delhi last weekend. Me and Vaibhav, having never been to Delhi before, were very excited about the visit. For Arnav though, it meant nothing more than disruption in his daily schedule. By the end of the trip he got positively bored and was very happy to be in Hyderabad again.

Weekends for Arnav mean a long drive in the car (where he loves to fall asleep), visit to a park/playground (where he tries to climb on swings and see-saws, tries to chase dogs and meet other small kids), and yes - shopping (where he loves testing the everything-in-its-place attitude of Shoppers Stop employees) .

Being from Hyderabad, Arnav is used to sleeping in the car. No, it is not the laid back and carefree nature of the city - it is the bumpy roads and the start-stop traffic. Not to mention the famous Hyderabadi auto-wallas who think they are the "king of the road". All these helps in keeping the car rocking always - and Arnav is pretty used to falling asleep due to this. But in Delhi - the ride is anything but rocking. The smooth roads and disciplined traffic was a rude shock to Arnav. Poor Arnav - he had to miss all his afternoon siestas!

All the places we visited seemed to have more foreigners than Indians. While the foreign tourists went ga-ga and admired the great Indian tradition, Arnav was appalled at the lack of swings, see-saws and other thing he is so used to seeing in the playground. Neither were there any small kids to hang out with. Worst of all places like Qutub-minar, India Gate, Jantar Mantar and Lotus Temple do not have dogs!

The entire weekend was spent sight-seeing and we could not do any shopping. Poor Arnav - this meant no shopping carts to run crazy with, and no neatly stacked items to ransack!

All-in-all Arnav had a poor first impression of the capital. We plan to be more careful during out upcoming visit to Kerala.

Arnav and Water Taps

If Arnav turns on light switches, frequently then it is nothing compared to his habit of turning on water taps.

All kids like to play in water, but Arnav just loves water. The fact that it was raining the day he was born - could be one reason. Another reason could be that Aparna does not approve. That makes him even more determined to turn on water taps.

In fact it is an understatement to say that Aparna does not approve. She tries everything possible to keep him away from taps. Aparna acts like an IWWA employee (along with acting like a MSEB employee also).

Unfortunately, I do not have a good theory (like in the case of light switches). Hence even I try to avoid Arnav getting near a water source.

Aparna thinks that one of these days, Arnav will empty the appartment tank and then it will be the end of all our good relations with the other flat-mates. I also think that it is a pretty strong possibility. Till then, lets keep or fingers crossed...

Arnav and Gravity

Arnav does not believe Newton.

Newton saw an apple falling and discovered gravity. Arnav thinks that gravity does not exist.

We live in a second floor apartment. Arnav's favorite pastime is to gather things from the house and toss them out of the balcony.

In addition to many small and little things, Arnav has also managed to throw away a lot of his toys. Soon fed up with this he has moved "up the value chain" to things like utensils and home accessories.

This has led to some very curious behaviors in our apartment. People have stopped parking under our house. In fact people have altogether stopped going near our balcony. Aparna has lost 1.2957 kg. climbing up and down in retrieving things. Arnav has a huge assortment of broken toys. We also have a lot less cloth hangers than before. Anytime we misplace something, our first reaction is to go to the balcony and look down.

Statistically it has been found that 30% of all the things that go out of the balcony are not found.

Not to mention, the watchman of our apartment is the only one who is happy with all this...

Arnav and the Electric Switches

To say that Arnav loves to turn on electric switches is an understatement. He spends 80% of his productive day turning on any and every switch he can get to.

To compound matters Aparna acts like an MSEB employee. She diligently turns off any switch Arnav manages to put on. She even longs for the "good old homes" in which switches were placed high above - out of a child's reach.

But Arnav is undeterred. In fact he loves this game - mom turns them off, I turn them on! The habit has gone so far now, that in any room if a switch is turned off, Arnav hears it. He drops whatever he is doing and rushes to turn on that switch. He is so obsessed with switches that now all the power sockets in our house have an insulation tape over them. We can hardly use things like electric iron or mosquito repellent. So we basically go to our neighbor's house to get our clothes ironed. And our neighbors have no mosquitoes now - thanks to Arnav.

I, however, think Arnav is very environment-friendly guy. My hypothesis is that he is very "Americanised". In America they have switches exactly opposite to that in India. So even though it seems like he is turning on the lights, he is actually trying to save energy by turning them off.

Now to actually go to America and validate the hypothesis....

Arnav and Mobile Phones

We have 4-5 mobile phones in our house. Not that we are filthy rich. Nor are we sold on the "express yourself" thing.

Its just that Arnav seems to like our mobile phones more than we do. Last week he thought that putting a mobile phone in a bucket of water was a "good idea". I lost not only my reliable Sony Ericsson, but also the phone book, lots of stored SMSes, pictures, etc. I have got a new Nokia now, which so far I have managed to keep out of Arnav's reach.

Not only us, Aparna's sister's summer vacation with us was also punctuated by a visit to the mobile shop. Anytime she thinks of Arnav, she now thinks of mobile phones.

Aparna tries time and again to get Arnav a 10 Rupee imitation phone. But Arnav seems to be much above such tricks. He has a sixth sense which guides him to look for only the real thing.

Aparna and I are now betting as to how long will the new Nokia last...

Arnav and Football

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” - Old Chinese Proverb

In Arnav's case, it is - give him a football and he will play all day!

For a kid barely a year old, Arnav has some amazing soccer skills. He plays football in the house, in the park, and even in his sleep. In fact he had started kicking even when he was in his mother's tummy. Arnav's father believes that Arnav started walking early - just because he wanted to play football.

And just like a true footballer, he practices his skills everywhere - in case the ball is not within sight, he practices with his toys, shampoo and juice bottles, and even mobile phones.

Keen observers would note that Arnav's date of birth (20th June, 2006) coincided with the FIFA World Cup. Arnav's birth-date is also shared by Frank Lampard - the amazing England midfielder. The fact that Lampard had a pathetic showing at the world cup, has not stopped Arnav from refining his football skills.

With the Indian public fast losing interest in cricket, football may be where the money will be in the future. Way to go, Arnav!

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P.S. - By the way, there is a more modern version of the proverb “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.”