Saint or Sinner

"Fakir 'beheads' toddler, 'drinks' his blood in Tamil Nadu" - This was a heading in the Times of India a couple of days back (to read the full story, follow the link).  To cut a long story short: a religious man gets a vision of his goddess who demands a human sacrifice from him.  He obliges by beheading an 18 month old child and drinks its blood, too, in order to really please his god.  

Religions often demand acts of piety from its believers.  I am OK with that.  I mean, as long as people believe that their religion offers them a means to salvation or shows them a path to a peaceful existence, by all means make the believers work towards it.  Then again, I would suppose that religion would show the people how to live (via guidelines) and most likely instruct them on what not to do.  It may not have to be as structured as the Ten Commandments of the Bible, but there should definitely be indicators on how to live one's life.

Basically, I would say the underlying message of all religions should be (and would most likely be) that creation should coexist peacefully.  People should respect and never exploit nature.  People should peacefully coexist with other human beings.  I believe that all religions are moving towards this ideal in their own manner with their own philosophy.

But if a god asks of a believer to kill in his name or to wage wars; if this god justifies violence to attain an end, I guess there is something wrong.  Which omnipotent and omniscient power would ask of a believer to end the life of another human being?  In this case, the victim was not even a sinner or a criminal who defied the god; it was an 18 month old child!  I look at my 9 month old child and do not think this 18 month old child could have been much different!  

How dare this animal justify his action attributing his mission to be god-given?  How can anyone justify the taking of a human life?  How can the taking of one innocent life improve the life of another?  How can one call oneself religious if one doesn't have a conscience?  How can one call oneself a human being if one cannot look upon a child with love and compassion?

I really feel something is really wrong.  If any religion or god teaches anything that is not about peace and harmony, I do not think that they should be called 'god' or 'religion'.  Why waste such sublime terminologies on something that cannot and shouldn't even be spoken off in relationship with human actions and beliefs?  There is something seriously wrong in this world...I wish more people would speak out and at least try that such trends are completely done away with.

Daddy's home!

I was travelling for almost a week.  Though in my line of work, trips cannot be strictly called business trips, it was still an official trip!  It was a blend between a road trip and a business trip.  My boss and I travelled by car an approximate of 400 km daily, seeing the sites and visiting places of commercial, social and cultural interests.  Though it was my home state, we visited many places where I myself had never been to.

So, after all the travel, I got home yesterday.  Readers might remember how I expressed my fear before on whether my daughter would recognise me after a gap of a couple of days.  These thoughts were going through my head when I was going up the stairs to my house.

There she was, in her mothers arms.  She looked at me with concentration written all over her face.  Then she smiled!  So, what did I do?  I swept her into my arms like I always do.  Big mistake!  She immediately 'demanded' to go back to mother's arms.  She might have smiled at me, but that didn't mean she was full recognising me yet!  

The next 5 minutes were fully dedicated in re-introducing me!  Once I got her laughing and smiling, I guess she understood me to be the guy who lives in the same house. :)

In two weeks, Jenny and her mother are going on a trip of their own for 3 weeks.  If a 5 day trip required me to spend 5 minutes on re-introducing myself, I am wondering whether the same ratio applies when I meet her again after those 3 weeks.  Wishful thinking, methinks!!!

Marco - Polo

Marco Polo is a children's game usually played in water.  One player is blindfolded and calls out 'Marco' and another random player has to reply 'Polo'.  Marco has then to find Polo while remaining blindfolded...but he/she can keep calling 'Marco' and 'Polo' has to answer.  

Where am I going with this?  Has Jenny started playing?  No.  Has she started swimming?  No.  Then why am I explaining a game that people play in their swimming pools?

We just found out the cutes thing yesterday.  My wife keeps playing with Jenny as if she cannot find her.  She keeps saying, "Jenny!  Where is Jenny?  Where did Jenny go?" and Jennifer usually would come crawling with a big grin on her face!  However, yesterday when the same game was played and when my wife said those famous "where is Jenny" words, our daughter said, "Ga!"  We tried again.  "Ga!"  Again and again, the result was the same.  She somehow figured out that when she is being called, she has to respond.  

I know I am repeating myself, but toddlers never fail to amaze me how they figure out stuff.  I mean we have not taught her how to respond when being called; we find her too young for that.  But somehow she saw my wife and I responding when called and she figured out that she had to do the same.  I have said it before and I say it again, if we were still as smart and observant as we were when we were young, there would be no end to our learning and to the things we gain in our lives.

Spice is the variety of life

What to feed a baby is always a matter of confusion to parents.  Parents are always worried if they provide the right food with the right amount of nutrients which is healthy and tasty to the baby as well.  Initially it seems easy: the baby can get its entire dietary requirements from its mother.  But after the first couple of months, milk somehow doesn't suffice any more!

Luckily, we found a doctor who is quite different in his approach.  From her 4th month onwards, he recommended that we get her started on solid food.  And by solid food, he didn't mean the purred food that supermarkets sell as baby food (Jenny hated it!), but the ordinary food her parents deemed worthy to eat, although by reducing the salt and spices for her.

She is 8 months old now.  For the past 4 months, we have been feeding her everything: from rice to pasta to bread.  From carrots to cabbage to beans.  From milk to juice to porridge.  She eats everything.  Thank God.  And we pay proper attention not to make anything too salty, too spicy or even too sweet (the day she has a bit of sweetness in the form of chocolate or ice-cream, she remains hyperactive for hours on end!).  

However, last week she surprised us.  We had a family dinner with my sister's family at a restaurant.  When one has 3 kids below the age at the same table, order and quiet are too things that stay away from said table.  Not that it was chaos; but it was loud and all kept talking and chatting and feeding babies...and wiping chins...and feeding water...and trying to eat and so on...all of us were super busy!  

In the midst of the excitement,  Jenny took a piece of starter from the plate.  Though the food was not in particularly spicy as such, it was still degrees hotter from what we have given her so far!  But lo!  She didn't even mind the spiciness.  Maybe it was the party ambience or maybe her taste buds are actually stronger that we thought, she 'ate' the starter.  We were shocked and surprised, because she usually cries at the first sign of spice.  Anyway, we learned two valuable lessons on that day. 1) Babies do not behave their usual way when other babies are around, and 2) We have no idea what is spicy and what isn't when it comes to baby's cuisine! :)

Heyy Baby!

If I have not said it before, I would like to say it now: babies are natural relationship bridges.  Wherever we go and whomever we encounter, people immediately start talking and playing with the baby.  And vice-versa.  If we see people with babies, we also take our baby to them and 'make them talk'!  But it is very nice.  It makes one think that if everyone in the world had a baby, everyone would talk to everyone and everyone would be nice to everyone.  It's just a thought.

Till one week ago, Jennifer would realise the significance of seeing other kids.  Other kids would come to talk to her, but she wouldn't know the difference between them and their parents!  However, this week, this all seems to have changed.  We went to a shop and had to wait sometime in the queue.  In front of me was another couple of their kid. Suddenly Jennifer started making these "hey" sounds while looking at the baby.  It may not be exactly like how we would say 'hey' but the message was clear: she was trying to get the baby's attention.  I was really surprised.  How does she know how to call out to people?  Who taught her that?

And that was not all.  We met some other kids these days, and Jenny immediately crawls up to them (if it is not on the street) and wants to play (which usually involves her pulling their hair!).  The main thing is that she recognises her peers now.  She feels more free with them around.  She knows she can play with them better than with grown-ups.  And all this without anyone actually having to tell her...it is by instinct...it is as if she can sense the purity and innocence in other children that match her own.

The more I get to see how children are and how much love and kindness is in their lives, the more I wonder, "Where did we change?"

The ways of the Ninja

Ninja's were (in simple terms) the assassins of Japan.  They were known for their efficiency and ruthlessness, but especially for their stealth.  They were usually dressed head-to-toe in black and could move about as silent as can possibly be imagined.  They were the best in Japan and feared everywhere.  

The Ninja-quality I would like to highlight here is 'stealth'.  It is a ninja's strongest weapon.  The more silent a ninja can move, the more efficient he would be in his job or in executing his task.  The classic Japanese movies show how masterful ninja's were in running around, climbing, swimming and the like, all the while never making a sound.

My daughter seems to be quite Japanese in this aspect.  My wife and I constantly get surprised by her stealth.  For example:

• Jenny sleeps with both her parents.  In the middle of the night, I sometimes find her sitting next to either of us, wide awake without us having heard a sound.
• She wears silver anklets that make cling-cling sounds while going around.  Still she manages to enter rooms without making the slightest sounds.
• Not hearing a sound from her usually means 'trouble', as she is too preoccupied with something 'taboo' to make noise!  Like putting stuff into her mouth!

We are learning the hard way that when it comes to toddlers, less stealth or less silence the better.  Since they cannot talk, they express themselves through sounds...and if she doesn't make sound, the parent immediately should check!  It might be a false alarm, but there are often instances that prove otherwise.  And silence makes us paranoid as well.  When she is asleep and alone in her bed, and the two of us are not in the room, we keep rushing to her room just to make sure she is not jumping off the bed in silence!  And more often than not, she would still be asleep; but why take chances?  Silence might be golden, but I guess I could do with a little less silence from the baby at home! :)

Bedtime Stories

When one is a first-time parent, one actually welcomes all kinds of advices and suggestions.  It actually is weird since otherwise, people do not appreciate being told how to do their stuff.  But once a baby comes along, we cannot get enough.  We ask people, share information, look up on the internet, read books, watch other parents and so on a so forth.  It seems that nothing we know is enough for us to look after our kid properly.  

Thankfully, there are plenty of websites nowadays that deal with parenting, even from the beginning of pregnancy on. The mother-to-be just has to enter details pertaining to her pregnancy, and she will get weekly and monthly newsletters which are aimed at guiding her throughout the period.  And from our experience, these newsletters are really good.  For example, during pregnancy, we were able to understand what was happening each month, what changes in food my wife had to observe, what things I should do as the supporting husband and so on.  And now, once she baby was born, these newsletters started coming only on a monthly basis, but informing us about the stages of growth in the baby's life, what new food to introduce to the baby, what games to play and so on.  Very helpful and informative.

Likewise, the newsletter 'told' us last month that we should start reading bedtime stories to the baby.  So, my friend and I went to a book store and started looking at options.  Apparently, things have changed here, too.  When I was little, we have fairytales of the Brothers Grimm or Fables and so on.  I used to love them all.  However, my friend and I were amused to find 'Bedtime Stories for Girls', 'Bedtime Stories for Boys', 'Animal Stories' and so on!  I was mildly confused whether I should introduce my girl to boys by making her read 'Bedtime stories for Boys'!  Finally, we opted for a unisex book that mentioned nothing about boys and girls, and which had nice pictures.

Now, there is not much yet to tell about the reading part.  My wife and I take Jenny to bed at more or less a regular time.  Then we take out the book and start reading.  Every page is wonderfully coloured, nicely sketched and has hardly 20 words.  But we end up spending more time on each page that I would have spent on a novel.  We point out the characters in the picture, we make sounds, we make baby point out things and yeah, we read the words, too!  I am 100% sure she doesn't understand a thing of the stories we narrate.  But she still giggles along.  I guess she is encouraging us to keep up the good work!

I myself am a very chronic reader of fiction.  I have been reading about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the journey to Treasure Island, the investigations of the Hardy Boys, and the like from very young days on.  And I still remember them fondly.  I hope I can instil this love for books and stories in my little girl and that these books will enrich her life and imagination the same way as they have enriched mine. :)