Fitting Finale to Spring Break

Anticipate, Negotiate, Compensate, are keys tools that parents should keep handy to tackle the present day rebellious children. Also, if possible, answers to their Why not and But Why... Thus, emerged a deal to compensate for cancelling the four-day outstation trip that got disrupted with elder grandson’s Nuclear Power Centre visit. While the two boys fulfil unfailingly their daily quota of fights, they form a support team when it comes to negotiating with parents. 

First it was to Amazing Jakes, a centre for kids of all ages to enjoy bowling, laser tag and other games, with an unlimited supply of food items lined up to fortify oneself before, after, or in between10 am and 8 pm. The concept is eat what you wish from morning till late evening for a nominal entry fee, and pay for each of the umpteen games inside. We checked in at 11.00 so that we eat an early lunch, children play to their hearts’ content till twilight, and head home after an early dinner. 

With a John Grisham’s book for Aunty and an e-book reader for me, we thought we would spend our time in the lounge as children played the games. When we drove back at 4.30 we found ourselves having to surrender our early dinner to an unobliging stomach, and having participated in almost all the games with children, not even side-glancing at the lounge. 

The Laser tag proved a fiasco for me. A group of 30  people provided with dummy laser guns are sent in to a dimly lit specially built hideout with different escape routes. You are supposed to shoot at the blinking chest of those you encounter. I did it with gay abandon, sparing only my two grandsons and Aunty, with the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator gusto, unmindful of some children staring at me in awe. “Must be admiring the incredible shooting speed of the old man”, I patted myself. I realised later that I was supposed to shoot only at those whose chest-shields were blinking blue - not every Tom, Dick and Harry. 

The Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) visit was a rewarding experience.  Over 13000 instruments were on display from all over the world. Asia alone had 32 different segments. After spending hours in the museum, we realised we were yet to cover USA, Canada and Europe which we swore we would later. As you pass through each section with the headphone on, the TV there would feature a native playing those instruments. I was delighted that for the brochure cover they had chosen an Indian Bharatanatyam lady in one of the mudras. Every month they hold about  3 or 4 musical programmes from some part of the world, and  at least one event would be from the Indian sub-continent. Music is the Language of the Soul, we agreed in toto with the inscription as felt as we drove back home.   

And, as a fitting finale, a date at the FMSC (Feed My Starving Children) - voluntary service, at the 7 to 9 pm slot. When we arrived there were100 others already seated, robbing me of that ‘exclusive service’ feeling that the prior appointment gave me. Four items would go into each packet - vitamins, veggies, soya and rice - measuring 380 to 400 gms. Groups were formed at random - to fill each of these into a packet, measure, zip it with a machine, count the packets and organise them into carton. Our counter No.9 (all of us plus others) stood second, having readied 26 cartons, missing the first  spot by just one carton. This last batch of the day had readied 168 cartons, i.e., 36,288 meals, or one meal a day for 100 children for one year - all ready for despatch to the Philippines - it was their day. 

Back home at 9.45, “organise your backbags, and finish any unattended homework tomorrow,” reminded the parents, supplying in advance the Monday-blues feeling.  But the children saw the other side. “Thatta, Patti, you two will be here for our summer break too, won't you?” Yes, if spring-break is over, can summer-break be far behind?

V V Sundaram

18 March 2018

Sports, Science, Murder Mystery...

Rohan woke me up from a late-night sleep with a shake that bordered on threat.  “Thatha, would you like to watch football match - semi-finals?” “If you insist,”  I fumbled, still unwilling to give up my quota, and settled down in front of the TV. “It’s not a telecast Thatha, but my team, Flag, (9-12 years), is playing Steelers, and we are all set to leave.” It was an revenge match for Steelers, having taken a beating from Flag the last season.

“Oh my God, has the match already started, without Rohan? Are we late?” I asked, with a feeling of guilt as we reached the ground. “No Appa, three or four matches take place simultaneously -  of different age groups,” clarified my son, his patience intact the day having just begun.  

The attendance mostly was of parents and families - around 200 in number. They make a day of it with folding-chairs, picnic boxes  overflowing with food stuff, cokes, Lays, nuts… For the less equipped, food stalls sprawled across the ground

Shankar briefed me at each stage the nuance of the game as it progressed.  In an neck to neck match Flag had just one last chance to gain 6 points and take the cake. But that was not to be. It was Steelers’ day. Fortunately, instead of taking it to heart, Rohan looked forward to the ensuing buffet lunch at Chennai Cafe.

Ashwin is of a different genre. His visits to Library is more often to a secluded, unfrequented section: Military Strategies and Wars. His last week’s collection includes: (1) Six Months in 1945: From World War to Cold War; (2) Hitler’s First War (yes, as I learn, Hitler took part in World War 1, as a soldier); (3) An Illustrated History of the First World War;  and (4) World War 1. 

As part of the Scouts team he took part in a walk through to the Nuclear Power Plant, about an hour’s drive. Initially he was disenchanted: it was on day one of his spring break; also, it upset the family’s original outstation trip plan for four days. In the evening, however, a transformed Ashwin reported back home, feeling happy not having missed the session and all eager to offload the learnings of the day. Some of the things that registered in my mind notwithstanding his 160 words per minute delivery, are:  there are two types of uranium - stable and unstable; that when a given quantity of uranium mined is refined, 99 percent of it would be stable (strangely it means unsuitable), and 1 percent unstable; that the major user of nuclear power is US Navy; a small pellet-sized uranium pack will service a submarine for 50 to 80 years; that following the Chernobyl  accident in Russia and later elsewhere, the US government has decided not to set up any fresh nuclear plant. Then he demonstrated to the eagerly awaiting home audience  the features of the memorabilia that he had brought along. 

Are there chances that Ashwin will become a nuclear scientist or a military strategist when he comes of age?  Not by his track record. During our earlier visits it was dinosaur, stegosaurus, brontosaurus, all the way - to the extent that he swore he would become a palaeontologist. But I can’t particularly recollect him having  uttered a word of that species in my last two visits. We shall keep our fingers crossed.

And for the rest of us four - Shankar, Sunita, Aunty and I - we remained glued to a Netfilx original, “The People Versus O J Simpson”, produced in 10 episodes. We said that as we did last year with the British serial, Downton Abbey, we would watch just one episode a day. With that mindset we sat to watch the first episode on Saturday morning. When switched off the TV, we found ourselves having to watch just two more episodes. So gripping. No wonder Shah Rukh Khan remarked recently that Bollywood should be wary of Netflix and Amazon Prime.

V V Sundaram

Maple 3195

12 March 2018