Twisted Rhymes

With Jenny growing older and becoming more verbal, we have started playing nursery rhymes at home.  There are so many versions of the same rhymes...some with better music, some slower, some with better enunciation and so on.  There is no lack of variety.  And they are quite cute...one can keep them playing at home and not be bothered by them.  But if one pays closer attention to these rhymes, they can be quite disturbing.  And I am not kidding.  They are really, really dark.  So dark, that I would actually think twice before explaining their meanings to my child.  In this blog, I intend to showcase some choicest rhymes and their meanings.  Thanks to the internet, I found sources that already dealt with the topic like I did.

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep:  This song apparently has its roots in slave-trade related matters.  It has its origins around the year 1744 and it comes from Britain.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Rock-a-bye Baby:  Another British 1765 rhyme.  One attributed story of origin is that the baby is supposed to be the son of James VII and II, who was widely believed to be someone else's child smuggled into the birthing room in order to provide a Catholic heir for James.  The "wind" may be that political "wind" or force "blowing" or coming from the Netherlands bringing James' nephew and son-in-law, William III of England, a.k.a. William of Orange, who would eventually depose King James II in the revolution. (Source: Wikipedia)

Jack and Jill:  1765 Britain again.  One possible explanation is that Jack and Jill signify the 18th century Louis XVI of France, who was deposed and beheaded (lost his crown), and his Queen, Marie Antoinette (who came tumbling after).  (Source: Wikipedia)

London Bridge Is Falling Down:  1659 Britain.  The theory that the song refers to the burying, perhaps alive, of children in the foundations of the bridge was first advanced by Alice Bertha Gomme (later Lady Gomme) in The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland.  This was based around the idea that 'primitive' cultures believed that a bridge would collapse unless the body of a human sacrifice were buried in its foundations.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Ring a Ring o' Roses:  1790 USA.  
(Source: http://www.fairiesvampires.com/forum/topics/nursery-rhymes-hidden-meanings)

• "Ring around the rosy" - A plague buboe appears on someone's cheek, that make little rings that look like rosé bumps all over the person’s body.
• "A pocket full of posies" - A popular way of fending off the plague… they thought the foul air caused the plague, so they tried making the air sweet.
• "Atischoo, atischoo" - Sneezing was an early sign of plague infection
• (or) "Ashes, ashes" - It’s about the Burial of the Dead ("Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" )
• (or) "Husha, husha" - "Be quiet, he's about to die."
• "We all fall down" - We all die

Humpty Dumpty:  1797 Britain.  One theory is that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard III of England, depicted in Tudor histories, and particularly in Shakespeare's play, as humpbacked and who was defeated, despite his armies at Bosworth Field in 1485.  (Source: Wikipedia)

I guess I made my point clear...these are some of the most beloved nursery rhymes...and yet, many fail to understand where they come from.  I am not saying the origins I quoted are accurate or precise.  I just intended to show that there is more to them that meets the eye.

I have found another site (http://www.rhymes.org.uk/nursery-rhyme.htm) which deals with this topic.  I would like to quote one or two points from this site, as they made a lot of sense to me.

1. A rhyme is often short and easy to remember and this was a critical element when many people were unable to read or write and a rhyme was verbally passed from generation to generation - it was also a vital element when commoners wanted to comment on the events of the day!  It must be remembered that direct criticism or dissent would often have been punishable by death!
2. The wording of an individual rhyme can often be associated with historical events and the plausible explanations given to many a rhyme can be seen as political satire.  The first really important English rhyme dates back to the fourteenth century!  This little rhyme was passed quickly from one person to another, was easily remembered and led to an English revolution - a call for recognition and class equality!

In short, nursery rhymes do have their values and there is a sense in teaching them to our kids.  But it would be good if parents would just think and understand what they are teaching instead of just blindly singing them to your kid.

I was tagged!

Last Movie You Saw In A Theatre: Inception. It absolutely blew my mind.

What Book Are You Reading: Clive Cussler's Medusa.  Has been lying next to my bed for more than a month now.

Favorite Board Game: Mensch ärgere dich nicht 

Favourite Magazine: Digit Magazine

Favourite Smells: The smell of freshly baked bread

Favourite Sound: Church bells during the early hours of the day

Worst Feeling In The World: Frustration

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?  What day is it today? 

Favourite Fast Food Place: The Only Place

Favourite Child’s Name: TILJ! 

Finish This Statement:  “If I had a lot of money, I’d…start travelling and see the world."

Do You Drive Fast?  Not at all.

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?  Next question, please!

Storms-Cool Or Scary?  Very cool

What Was Your First Car?  A hand-me-down Tata Indigo CS 

Favorite Drink:  Chilled plain soda

Finish This Statement:  “If I had the time, I'd …work on finding a productive hobby.”

Do You Eat The Stems On Broccoli?  The question should be: Do you eat Broccoli?

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Colour, What Would Be Your Choice?  What hair?

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You Have Lived In:  Towns and Cities?  I guess only Trivandrum, Bangalore and Mysore.  

Favourite Sports To Watch:  Decathlon

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:  She would keep reminding me that she 'tagged' me in this blog!.

What’s Under Your Bed?  Haven't checked in ages to be sure!

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?  I surely would...but would others like it? 

Morning Person Or Night Owl?  Morning!  The earlier the better

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?  Among the 2 options: over easy

Favourite Place To Relax:  Bench near a lake

Favourite Pie:  Strawberry

Favourite Ice Cream Flavour:  Chocolate

You pass this tag to:  Sandeep, Fr. Daniel, Sibi, Leena

Of All The People You Tagged This To, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?  I hope I can motivate Sandeep to do so.

1st Birthday Series: Cards, Theme, Decorations

So far in this series, topics ranging from venue hunting through beautification to the dress have been covered at length.  I guess the next part should obviously cover the 'behind-the-scenes' of the birthday preparations.  I do not know yet if there will be enough material to make this a good blog entry, but let's see how it will develop.

When I was a kid, birthday parties seemed simple.  Invite friends, have balloons and some confetti, prepare some snacks, conduct some games, cut the cake and have a good time.  I really have no idea how much work this meant for our parents, but if I just look at it from my angle, it seems quite direct and uncomplicated.  Times have changed...now is the time of 'event managers'!  I am not quoting any source or am not revealing any names...but one of my acquaintances recently went for a kid party with the theme "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  Apart from the usual jumping castles and magicians and face painters, they actually got a chocolate fountain and had chocolate bars wrapped up in special 'tickets' as gifts for the kids.  Every kid had to earn a bar cum ticket before being allowed inside (it wasn't as harsh as it sounds).  And in the end, every kid was given a DVD of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  Being the typical Indian that I am (!), I calculated that if I were to invite 50 kids to a party and have to give 50 DVDs, it would cost already more than my planned party!!!

A quick search on the internet suggests that all the 'good' parties nowadays require event managers.  Since my kid is too young to actually appreciate what we do for her, we decided to do everything ourselves.  My sister is already a veteran at children's first birthday parties (as she conducted two herself and attended couple of others herself).  She advised us to decide on a theme first and then work from there.  The reader may want to Google "First Birthday Party Themes" and will get "38,700,000" results!  After a couple of brain storming sessions (with less brain activities and more of internet searching!), we finally unanimously decided on My little Pony as the theme.  It seemed perfect...suited for a girl...very nice colours...and with options to develop (which means plenty of characters to use for theme related stuff).

My wife and I started 'designing' an invitation card after that, with the help of the theme.  Wife took care of the text and I of the formatting.  After a couple of drafts, we finally seem to have incorporated the theme with our joy of celebrating Jenny's birthday.  

Once the card was ready, we decided to have it printed and we posted it (yes, via snail mail!), we sent it (via email) and we distributed them (via husband) and spread the word.  I was particularly motivated to invite people from afar (since I was 100% sure they wouldn't come but would feel happy they got invited!).  

Finally, the decorations.  With 8 more days to go, I am a little embarrassed to say that we have not reached anywhere concretely yet.  We want a backdrop (theme and baby combined) and I got couple of quotations already.  We visited some 'party shops' and saw what they have to offer.  I consulted a few 'artistic' friends and they are thinking about what to do.  I have approached healthy friends to help with the balloons on that day!  So, let's see how it turns out.  I have learned from experience that 'last minute panic' sometimes works wonders in my case.  I hope the same applies here.

This was the 4th entry in the birthday preparation series.  I intend to write one more on 'final preps'...so I guess I will not be publishing anything on this topic for another week.  But let's see...life is always full of surprises! :)

1st Birthday Series: The Dress

Have you heard the expression "To poison one's mind"?  I would like to explain this using references from the movie Inception.  Inception is the process of implanting an idea into somebody else's mind in such a manner that the other person never realises that the idea is not his/her own (I think I got it right!).  In other words: the idea belongs to somebody else...but it is implanted in another person's mind.  The same thing happened in this topic.

My sister is blessed with two sons.  She has a very interesting sense of fashion and her boys are always well dressed and very often non-conventionally (I doubt I have seen a baby younger than 6 months wearing a shervani yet!).  Through her friends and colleagues, she heard of a fashion boutique that specialises in designer clothes for kids (daughters!).  The place is called Strawberry.   Ever since Jennifer was born, my sister has been telling us that we just have to get her birthday dress from there.  

I have my reservations concerning designer wear...I find them over-priced and frankly, not that special.  I mean unless one is aware of what is happening in the fashion circles, I doubt people would recognise a certain design as 'one of its kind'.  And unless a design is recognised as unique, what is the point of spending such sums on such attires?  Especially if the person wearing them is only 12 months old and is happiest running around sans clothes!  That's a personal thought.

However, as fate would have it, my wife is a woman, too!!!  Obviously, the thought of her first-born wearing a designer dress for her own party is too overwhelming.  So, being the good husband that I am (Note: I can promote my positive points on my blog!), I agreed a year back that we would get the dress from 'Strawberry' for the birthday.

Months passed.  Birthday approached fast.  Husband got reminded now and then about his 'Strawberry' promise.  Finally, the time came when I had to act upon my word.  Circumstances were kind to us and my sister couldn't come along (he he he!).  Our nuclear family went on foot from MG Road and tried to spot the 'designer store'.  Considering the types of designer stores I have seen in Indiranagar and other places, I had my expectations set.  These said expectations came quickly crashing down!

'Strawberry' turned out to be a small shop (maybe 3x5m dimensions), with hardly any proper lighting, no ventilation (except one fan above the cashier's chair) and hundreds of dresses.  We showed Jennifer to them and asked for birthday gowns.  I don't know what happened, but suddenly my thoughts and those of my wife were in perfect sync.  We unanimously found the colours too loud and the designs not that special.  Readers, kindly don't get me wrong.  The place had some very nice gowns for slightly bigger kids, but we hardly found anything that we thought would suit Jenny.  The whole store-browsing took about quarter hour.

We left the shop without any pangs of sorrow that our kid would not be wearing a designer dress on her birthday.  In fact, I was even happier that the decision was shared by my wife and did not have to come from my mouth.  However, less than half hour later, we found a dress for Jenny in another shop nearby that we liked immediately, which cost almost 1/3rd of the other gown and which was still branded (though not designer wear!).  

As usual, our expedition ended with a good dinner at a place called 'Crazy Kababs and Curries', which I strongly recommend to people favouring Indian cuisine to try.  It was very cosy, nice ambience, very good food and quite reasonably priced.  Thus ended the year long anticipated 'dress shopping'.

Next part of the series ideally should be concerning the theme, decoration, cards and so on...let's hope I can stick to the plan. :)

1st Birthday Series: Beautification

With a party on the horizon and two women at home (wife and daughter of mine!), it is but natural that the personal preparations started as early as all the other preparations for the 'Day'.

It was a matter of discussion ever since Jenny was born about when her ears should be pierced.  Call me a 'softee' but I was totally against the idea of 'piercing my daughters body' (even if it just for an ear ring) and would have preferred to get it done when she was old enough to want it.  However, the experts (on the internet!!!) are of the opinion that the earlier the ears get pierced, the better, as the young kid would hardly realise that anything happened.  

So, I kept postponing this matter and finally agreed telling that when Jenny's grandparents would come, they could all go together (without me) and get it done.  But somehow, all this changed with the advent of the birthday.  How could we invite dozens of guests for Jenny's party and have her not 'dressed up'!  A woman needs to look her best at her own party!

Plans were made...the official family photographer was summoned (my sister!) and we went to the new Joy Alukkas centre on MG Road.  The place is really something else...the area is vast...the treatment is courteous...and the glitter and glimmer is intoxicating.  We told what we were there for, and they took us to a different floor so that it would be calmer when 'the deed needed to be done'.

There is a reason why I don't like going to jewellery stores.  I mean, at the end it is gold...how different does one ring look from another and so on...I like to keep it simple: decide on a budget, decide what to buy and get the first thing that satisfies the said criteria.  As simple as that.  However, when one accompanies women and if it is for an occasion and not just simple shopping (as if buying gold is ever simple!), things reach a whole new level.  Sales people are nicer...selection is bigger...and confusion increases!  They had the cutest studs available, in perfect sizes for Jenny which perfectly fitted out budget.  But things are never this simple.  Turns out, these are studs for noses and are charged per piece!  

Well, finally we found a pair that looked really nice (had to stretch our budget a bit, but what the heck!).  Now came the part where I intended to leave Jenny in the capable hands of her mother and aunt.  Which father can bear the sight of tears on his first born daughter's face?  Again, I was proven wrong.  Apparently, it is better if the father held the daughter as he had the firmer grip.  Yeah, right.  To cut a long story short: ears were marked and pierced (gun shot)...baby cried briefly (very briefly)...and dad ended up drenched in sweat in such a manner that people thought Jenny had relieved herself!!!  The day ended with a very satisfying dinner at Samarkhand.

Step 2 in the beautification process is the hairdo.  Jenny's was easy...wife took her to the beauty parlour and got the hair trimmed.  Regular readers might remember my previous post about how Jenny is cursed to have her father's hair.  So, as of now, nothing much can be done there.  But wife also has been wanting a change in style for sometime.  After hearing the recommendations of my colleague, we got her an appointment at Bounce.  Wife went for haircut...daughter and I bonded, while treading the footpaths in front of UB City and making Jenny play with the fountains.  Wife got her haircut...was not sure if she liked it or not since it was different from the earlier 'Kerala cuts', but I liked it (that's what matters, right?).  Again, the evening ended with a pleasant take out dinner at Plantain Leaf (we like eating out and keep finding excuses to do so!).

That more or less covers the beautification part.  The next part would be about getting Jenny the right dress.

1st Birthday Series: Venue Hunting

On the 30th of October, our little one is turning one!  Wow!  I cannot believe a year has passed by.  At the risk of sounding cliché, I need to agree with the general opinion that time actually does fly by.  I will write more of my thoughts concerning her turning one at some other time.  Right now, I intend to focus more on the event.  Since there are a lot of factors involved in celebrating her birthday, I intend to write them one-blog-entry-at-a-time in a more or less chronological order, with the culmination being a blog entry about the actual party.

The first thing we did when we started thinking about having a party was the 'where'.  I have heard that halls in Bangalore are always overbooked and constantly in demand.  So we decided it was better if we started well in advance.  My wife and I decided to keep the party small (since all 'wise' baby sites warned us that big birthday parties might scare babies!).  Jenny's birth and baptism happened in Kerala; so most of our Bangalore relatives and acquaintances were unable to attend.  So we made a list of people essential to the party and started to check out halls.  

This was the first time I was planning a party for myself in Bangalore.  Hence, I was quite unaware of the terms and conditions of halls, rates and so on.  I printed out a menu suggestion that we liked and went from restaurant to restaurant within a five km radius.  The scenario in most places is that the hall comes free but that the food has to be taken from that restaurant itself.  This is reasonable enough.  However, when one compares the rates from hotel to hotel, that's where the difference shows.  For the same food prices varied from 150 INR to more than 350 INR.  Which I found was unreasonable, since none of the hotels were of Star Quality or much different from the rest.  

The next option was to rent a hall, independent of a restaurant, and to have the food catered.  This would have been the ideal choice.  But apparently, the party halls that exist in our area are primarily meant for wedding parties and would be too big for our small one.  We finally did find a good one, which belongs to a convent.  It was perfect and we agreed to take it.  The rate was reasonable, too.  However, two days later, I received a call from the Mother Superior of the convent, in which she informed us that since it was a convent and they would be having prayers in the evening, they could not have parties after 6 pm.  Which was inconvenient, since we thought of having our party from 6.30 pm on...I mean, for a birthday party, half the attraction are the lights and decorations, which, I think, lose out their charm in day light.  Nothing like artificial light to bring out colours!

So, this option was out, too.  3rd option was to build a 'tent' on the roof of our house and to have the party there.  Well, I was against this idea from the very outset.  Let's face it...people from the south are not that used to standing dinner parties.  They need to be seated and they like to sit when they eat.  And for a seated dinner party, our roof would surely not suffice.

Finally, we decided to go for a hall cum menu from one of the reasonably priced restaurants, which had a pretty good hall, too.  Calls were made, menu's were discussed, numbers were exchanged: everything was done.  

Apparently not yet!  The week when all this was decided was the last week of September.  That week was important in India as on the 30th of September, the Ayodhya judgement was to be taken.  So, the day after I confirmed the hall, I got a call from the hotel telling me that they would not be able to have the party since it would be the day of the judgement and unrest in the city was expected.  I smiled and told them that our party was on 30th of October, which cleared the matter.  They just got confused since we planned things to far ahead of time.  Well, I would rather be safe than sorry.

So, now we have the hall.  The next step in the 'saga' would come in the next blog entry! :)