Of school, friends, and Woman-Fridays

It is now almost the end of our second week of back-to-school. We are thrilled to be one grade up, and the children of the earlier grade seem like little kids. A la first chapters from any of Enid Blyton's school stories- "she couldn't believe how little the first formers seemed to her now!"

A fresh new year means a new set of the uniform, new books, new classrooms, new class-teachers, new classmates, a new sitting arrangement, new rules, new extra-curriculars,...the list could go on.

We have a size issue with our uniform, as A falls into a size between the one assigned for her age, and the one below it. So we have to necessarily make do with a size a tad too large for a few months until the inevitable growth spurt combined with the (also inevitable) shrinkage of the fabric finally makes it fit over the second half of the year. I have a bone to pick with this year's set, though. What prompted the school to introduce formal trousers a certain grade onwards, when they already had such comfortable and serviceable track-pants till now? And why the change in the design of the skirt? The earlier one was smarter, IMO. And what's with the sweater in place of the jacket? Now one has to choose between shivering without it, or cooking with it, on days that are pleasantly cool. With the jacket, one could just put it on and keep it unzipped if it wasn't so cold. :(

The books seem interesting, with more focus on 'think and answer' and research oriented questions in the exercises. We recognised quite a few of the chapters and poems from the English books as excerpts from books we already have/ have read. Math is getting interesting now, as is science. There is certainly going to be more work this year, but it promises to be interesting. We just need to start focusing. Something that has been a work-in-progress for a long time now.

The problem of peers. That, too, has been a work-in-progress for a long time, now. As A tends to put it, she isn't cool enough for her peers, what with her propensity to prefer reading over all the other pursuits of the cool gang. We have a self-esteem issue here that we have been tackling for over half-a-decade now. Keeping fingers crossed.

Extracurriculars seem interesting with theatre and violin classes in the offing. As also the Indian classical vocals after school classes.

Reading? Yes, we plan to a lot of that this year too. Some of it as an adjunct to the curriculum, but most of it not.

Looking forward to a new year of learning and living life.

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Met UTBT, fellow blogger and a wonderful and hugely talented co-contributor at Saffrontree. Finally. This was her second visit to my city. Choxbox managed to meet her the first time she was here. I missed her then on account of the kid's birthday party.

She is an elfin lady, and every bit as lively and witty as she comes across online. Have just received a gift sent by her through flipkart. Seems like she has taken the hugo-mungous hint I gave here! The parcel was grabbed by both hands and ripped open immediately...

...and immediately browsed through!

Thank you, UTBT! We love the thoughtful gift! Cannot wait for the kid to come home from school and show it to her.

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My house-help had been ill for the past two weeks. She had been ill on-and-off for a couple of days at a time over the past two  months. I kept urging her to go to her doctor and get some treatment, to which she would say yes and ignore my advice. So this time when she became ill enough to not come for three days at a stretch (Amma is a dedicated, conscientious worker, who has been with me for many years now, and is my Woman Friday), I decided to take things into hand. I took her to the clinic we go to for minor maladies, one which has a reasonably well-equipped path lab.

After I spent a good half-hour acting translator between a Malayalam-Hindi-English speaking doctor and a Kannada-Telagu speaking Amma, miming some medical arguments my pidgin Kannada couldn't express, we got her to agree to a blood and urine test that she was mortally frightened of. The doctor gave her some tablets for symptomatic relief while we waited a day for the lab results.

Amma disappeared from the next day. There was no response to my phone calls to her home- the phone consistently happened to be 'out of reach'. Finally, I made my way to her house, and found an Amma who was now asymptomatic, but very weak. Her lab results and the doctors diagnosis mandated a course of antibiotics- it was a low-grade infection, that nevertheless popped up intermittantly, and was curable by a suitable course of antibiotics: an opinion with which I concurred.

Amma just could not be convinced as to the need for further medication. After all, she no longer had the symptoms, though still weak from hypoglycemia as she had not eaten properly over the last few days due to a lack of appetite and fear of throwing up. I finally made her see sense after enlisting the help of two other ladies at whose homes she works as well as at mine. We now see that she has her morning dose at my place, as she eats lunch here, and hope that she has the other dose at home after dinner! Doing some of her work myself for some time, until she has recovered completely!

Again, fingers crossed. I owe much of my free time to her attention to my home.

A COMEDY OF ERRORS, but all's well that ends well!

I happened to read a post written by a fellow blogger S recently. S is a friend of a friend, and I am an occasional reader of her blog. She had had a terrible experience at her dog's veternary surgeon's clinic, which was not very great on sterilisation of equipment, post operative care, or the consultancy.

Now I am not a dog-owner, not even really a dog-lover, but I could feel her anger and frustration at her not-so-great experience. Is there any way I could help this lady? I wondered. Sure I could.

I have a neighbour, a dog-owner, who I know is extremely fond of her dog, and considers her one of the family. I had this idea that I could ask this neighbour for information on where she gets medical treatment for her dog, and pass it on. Just reaching out to help. So I commented on her blog asking her for an email address where I could send her contact information of my neighbour's vet.

Now my neighbour's name is U, and I went to her name on the contacts list on my phone, and called her. Now bear with me as I go into the details of our conversation.

U: Oh Hi, Sandhya. How come you called?
Me: Hi, U. I hope this is not a bad time to call? If you are busy, I'll call again.
U: No, no. I'm not busy. Tell me.
Me: Actually U, I wanted some help. Actually I have a friend who has a dog, and she is very unhappy with her vet's service. She is looking for another vet. I wonder if you could tell me where you take your dog?
U: Where does she stay? So that I could refer you to a vet nearby her.
Me: I'm not sure exactly where she stays, but I think it is somewhere near J.......
U: Oh then she could go to any of my two vets. They will be nearby for her. One is on B..... Rd and the other in J........ They even come on home visits, you know. They are both very good, and answer all my questions. You know I have two dogs now, don't you?
(Here I was wondering about the fact that the vet comes all the way from there to our building, which is a good 15 kms away. But I told myself--maybe.)
Me: Oh, good. Can you give me their addresses and phone numbers, U?
U: I have them on my dog's card. Can I call you back?
Me: Ok.

She did call me back as promised and gave me details of the two vets. I thanked her for the help, said bye, and passed on the info to S. She got back to me, thanking me, since both of them were at a stone's throw for her. Then I proceeded with other pressing matters.

In the evening when I went downstairs, I met U and thanked her for the info, when she looked at me blankly, and said that either there was some mistake, or she has had selective amnesia! After probing the matter for some time, we both realised that I had called another friend, also called U, who is a blogger, and who co-incidentally is also a dog owner. I should have smelled a rat (or should I say dog?) when she mentioned that she had two dogs! Since my neighbour has only one. But then I had not met her for a few days, and it was not unlikely that she had got another in the meantime.

I was mortified. I had called up the other U after many weeks, and I had launched into asking a favour from her without so much as a hello-how-have-you-been? The culprit had been the contacts list on my phone. One was listed as just U, and the other as U-cell. I had not checked the number before dialling.

I called my blogger friend promptly the next day, and very sheepishly explained the whole comedy of errors to her. She happens to be a very gracious older lady, and was very understanding of the whole mistake. We had a hearty laugh over it. Thanks to my 'mistake', we did have a long conversation after a very long time.

I wrote to S, too, telling her all about it. Anyway, all's well that ends well. I had an excellent conversation with someone I admire but hadn't spoken to for a long time, made a new friend in the blogosphere, and consolidated my reputation as a scatterbrain bookworm in my building. Which is something I don't really mind- as there have been more positives to the whole issue!

Their need is greater than mine!

Not quite in my usual format. Too short for that But this is something I wanted to share.

Today A and I had gone out for a visit to the library and shoe-shopping. She had grown out of her play shoes, and so there we were, out on the road, walking to the shop from the library.

"Aai, I want to eat something." A.

"Do you want to eat your sandwich?" Me.

"No, something else." A suggestive look and a big grin. She knew that I had two 5-stars in my bag. For when we wanted a quick something.

"OK. You can eat one now." I took it out and gave it to her. Just then we happened to walk past a beggar woman sitting on the pavement with a small child, probably 2 yrs old. Thin, emaciated, in rags. Knowing A, I silently handed her a 2-rupee coin, which she put in front of the woman.

"Aai, why is the baby crying so much?" A.

"Maybe it is hungry." Me.

"So why doesn't it's mother give it something to eat?" A.

"She might not have anything to give it, A." Me.

"Then she should get it some food from the money we gave her."

"I'm not sure she will get anything for 2 rupees, A. Maybe she will collect some more money and then get food." Me.

A thoughtful silence for some time. "Aai, can I go back and give the baby my chocolate?"

We walked back. A gave the chocolate to the child, who forgot to cry and clutched at it.

"Good girl. Do you want the other chocolate?"

"OK!" Big smile as we walked away and I rummaged in my bag for the other 5-star. Just as I found it, we passed a man selling balloons, a 5-6 yr old girl with him. A stopped near them.

"A, if you want a balloon, I'll buy it after we finish with getting the shoes." Me.

"No Aai, I just wanted to give this chocolate to this girl. Even she looks hungry."

Big smiles on both our faces as we walked away, the girl looking at the chocolate in her hand.

I must give her a big treat. Many hugs already given. God bless you, A!