Tag: GBee (Page 2 of 2)

Among the Dragonflies!

May 18, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

*** This post was written in during the Corona Lockdown of 2020***

How to spend time during the lockdown?

Well, GBee and I spend our mornings chasing after dragon flies.

It all started when it was decided that all the terrace space was going waste, so pots have been installed and seeds sown. Luckily for us, Rain God blessed us early on and with regular watering by Mr.Bee, the seeds have sprouted and plants grew in size.

We have climbers of cucumber and bottle gourd, plants of ladies finger (okra) and beans. Little coriander stalks with a couple of florets at the top, wave at us, with the slight breeze that lingers on the terrace, always.

The result of a dozen potted plants is, we now get to see a minimum of 10 dragonflies flying about our terrace at any given point of time, mostly the early mornings. Some 50 dragonflies already zoom around the bigger trees in our vicinity. (Almost all houses have huge trees.)

QueenBee and GBee discussing the dragonflies!

The impromptu meeting of the dragonflies!

To kill time, one fine morning, I showed GBee a dragon fly, resting on a random plant. Boy, was he hooked! Our daily routine now includes selecting a dragon fly and stalking it (out of its wits!), till it escapes from our line of vision by zooming away, above into the sky, probably for a peaceful life!

I, sometimes hum my favourite song, ‘thuneega thuneega’, a Telugu song, about two childhood friends running after dragonfly! (I am into situational songs!)

Now that we see dragonflies on a daily basis, we have discovered there are many varieties of them, which differ in colour, size and also texture. (Some look like they have been polished and some look rough, like they were chiseled by an amateur artist!)

Sadly, we are nowhere near Harry Potter’s amazing skills as a Seeker. He has keen vision which makes its easier to see and snatch a snitch in almost all his Quidditch matches.

GBee and I tried stalking a young dragonfly, which was hardly visible. It was a difficult task, because the fly was so thin and grayish in colour, matching the cement flooring on the terrace. It flew at a height of 5cm from the ground (low flier), and was difficult to perceive. I, now admire Harry Potter even more!

Nope, I and Gbee are not meant to be seekers, but we may get there soon, with practice and a little hardwork, stalking the dragonflies, that is!

P.S:

This was before KBee was born.
I hated the lockdown, because that made GBee a silent kid. Luckily, once the lockdown was lifted, we would regularly visit maternal grandparents, because, we didn’t trust any other place during Covid and slowly things came back to normal.
Incidentally, during PP-2 graduation ceremony in March 2023, all the parents of GBee’s classmates had similar stories to share, about kids being affected due to Covid lockdown. (Parents were asked to speak on stage during the ceremony, impromptu!)

Till the next post!

Rowdy Baby!

March 21, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Thanks to the energetic and graceful dancer Sai Pallavi and Rajnikanth’s Mapillai (son in law) Dhanush, Rowdy Baby is a popular chart buster in South India. The song is beautifully pictured and choreographed and is a foot tapping number, which doesn’t bore us, even if we have seen it more than a couple of times in one sitting!

The context in which I am going to use the said catch phrase of Rowdy Baby is completely different though. This one literally means a baby who is a rowdy, i.e. KBee!

Two years ago, when the little baby KBee was born, I and Mr.Bee were alone in the hospital thanks to COVID restrictions, we had everyone of our family near us but no one was allowed inside! (So near yet so far!) We had to fend for ourselves, leaving GBee at maternal grandparents’ house and ya, it felt lonely!

Since we were managing everything by ourselves, we had little to, no sleep. Mr.Bee and I took turns to sleep when the tiny KBee was awake and when he was asleep, both of us would sleep.

On the day of his birth, by evening, the duty pediatrician had arrived, to check the progress of KBee.

Queen Bee in a post partum daze, standing with her hand on imaginary wall!

The pediatrician was so good as to warn us before hand, that the baby is going to be one hell of a rowdy fellow! I laughed it off, poor Queen Bee!

One and half years later…one evening…

1.5 years later, KBee, kicking the books, like there is no tomorrow!

KBee enjoys throwing all the books from their shelves on to the ground and stamping and kicking them, like they owe him an apology for some reason! I am yet to come up with a reasonable explanation, except that boys will be boys and they tend to ‘rough-house’! I pity all those books, which have lost their covers or miss their pages and which are forever imperfect, thanks to the rough housing! Suddenly I am thankful that they have managed to survive these many years, without all the abuse, so that is a plus.

Some other times, KBee tends to bring his shoes, wear them and plead me to take him outside to play. If I ever tell him NO, then all the hell breaks loose.

A ‘no’ from me gets, flying flip flops as a reply!

I once told KBee that the Moon was already out and it is not the time to wear his ‘shoos’ and go to play outside. The next second, I saw flying flip flops and a tantrum throwing baby on the ground and I knew he will surely shine in soccer or football or whatever it is Lionel Messi is good at! (Soccer = Football, but these people love to confuse us with two different terms for the same sport.)

With incidents like these happening in quick succession, a memory suddenly flashed before my eyes…The one, where the duty pediatrician had commented about KBee being a Rowdy Baby!

The prophecy comes true ; Rowdy Baby indeed!

What else can I do now, except play Rowdy Baby in a loop!

P.S:

Disclaimer : I am in no way trying to demean Dhanush by saying he is just a son in law of popular superstar and nothing else! I wanted to use the little Tamil that I know in the post and that is the only reason for such a usage. No offense intended.

By the way, I prefer the Rowdy Baby song in Tamil, than in Telugu. Which one do you like? Do drop in comments.

Till the next post…cheerio!

The Elephant Whisperers

March 14, 2023 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Like how every situation has a positive and negative angle, being a person who watches movies or documentaries, if and only if the review is good has a drawback. It means we have to depend on others good review or opinion. We may sometimes miss out on a gem, if there was no review or if someone didn’t understand the said movie or documentary at all!

I would have missed out on watching The Elephant Whisperers, had they not won an Oscar! There are also other documentaries on elephants and the elephant whisperers, but I have never watched them. I think this is the time to get into watching the new genre that is the documentaries!

Belli and Raghu – The Elephant Whisperers

Title : The Elephant Whisperers

Director : Karthiki Gonsalves

Made and Released in: December 2022

QB watched on: March 2023

Streamed on Netflix

Review:

Firstly, I remember watching many a news about how elephants in South India, mostly in Kerala region, would enter villages and towns, destroy property and in one incident, which I will forever remember, an elephant was captured killing its Mahut, almost like how Hulk beats up Loki in the Avenger movie.

In The Elephant Whisperers, however, we get to see the beautiful bond between an Elephant Whisperer (can be a Mahut or the trainer, but who uses soft language/body language to train the animal) and the elephant Raghu.

When the forest officials of Mudumalai National Park rescue a baby elephant, Raghu, who has its tail bitten off by stray dogs and has skin infested with maggots, they entrust the responsibility to Belli, a local tribal man, whose forefathers have also been involved in raising elephants. To assist him, they also assign Bomman, who is the lone woman elephant whisperer in South India and also probably in India!

Through the documentary I understood that, raising an elephant is similar to having an overweight baby! Difficult as well as dangerous and injuries happen! Also, by raising Raghu, Bomman is able to overcome her personal tragedies of losing both her husband and daughter.

The beautiful scenery of the Mudumalai National Park forms the perfect backdrop to the touching tale of how two individuals come together to raise an elephant and later end up marrying each other! Their family becomes complete once Ammu, a baby girl elephant joins them.

It is indeed interesting to know that Raghu and Ammu fight for their parents’ affection just like any human siblings! (Sibling rivalry!)

Although I never expected it, I managed to shed a tear or two after watching the documentary. It is worth a watch and it is really difficult to write at length about all the emotions one feels watching it.

The best scene which stole my heart and made me smile was when Bomman and Belli comb her hair and tie two pigtails for baby Ammu! She is a 3 year girl after-all, albeit an elephant!

P.S:

Have you ever heard about the world famous South Africa born, Wildlife conservationist, Lawrence Anthony, the original Elephant Whisperer ? It is said that after his untimely death, number of elephants visited his home, to mourn his death, treating him as one of their own. I think I watched his program during my childhood on National Geographic Channel.
Interestingly, even before this documentary was released, we had planned on visiting the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve during November 2022, but due to unforeseen circumstances, our trip had been shelved indefinitely!
I have been trying to write a post for more than a week, but thanks to Mr.Bee, it was a no-show from my side. Normally, after he is back from work, he takes care of the kiddos, while I write away. But thanks to his busy schedule from past 10 days, he couldn’t spare a minute and I ended up having little time on my hands. Even if I start writing, KBee is always behind my chair, breathing down my back, playing peek-a-boo and I can hardly shoo him away! GBee doesn’t disturb me when I am writing, I think he understands I am working.
Stray dogs can be a menace even for baby elephants! GHMC has given guidelines to follow in Hyderabad, on how to behave when under attack by stray dogs, such is the menace. I am already scared of dogs and stray dogs don’t help improve my opinion at all!
By the way, congratulations to team The Elephant Whisperers and team RRR for their respective Oscar wins.

Till the next post, cheerio dear friends!

Holi Ke Din….

March 6, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

As usual, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I was eagerly waiting for the return of GBee from his school. Just as he put his foot inside the hall, I saw his face. It was covered partially with green colour on his cheeks and forehead. That was when it hit me that tomorrow is Holi!

The rectangular thing in my hand is supposed to be a cell!

Looking at GBee in colours reminded me that, gone are the days when I would look forward to Holi!

I remember the days when we used to return to school with traces of gulaal (pink colour) in our hair, faces and hands. The more pink one appeared, the more proud we would feel. Being pink meant, we had played and enjoyed the festival!

QB with pink highlights in hair and some random classmates talking about Holi

There used to be this gang of rowdy boys, who would come to our apartment every year on Holi, They would catch hold of the guys in our apartment and brush their teeth with gulaal and blue colours! (Yuk!Who would want dirty colours in their mouth and teeth? Beats me!) They would also throw eggs at us kids. Phew, who would want smelly eggs on their heads, mixed with bunch of colours? Double yuk! If you are being chased by someone with an egg in hand, suddenly sit down on the floor and you probably would avoid being hit!

Trying to avoid an egg on the head? Just sit down suddenly!

Those were the days, we would drench each other in buckets of gulaal water and begin to shiver. To stop the shiver, we would stand under the Sun, in the middle of the road! (Who even does that now?)

Even the uncles in the apartment would play Holi. I remember one particular incident when someone brought silver colour to play and the next day, my father and I had severe rashes on our faces. (Silver is danger!)

The ladies in the apartment would play with the good old kumkum and haldi. We even had fun scaring away the domestic helps, who would come to their respective flats to work. We would sneak attack! If we sneak attack now, we may get beatings, people are less forgiving these days.

During one Holi celebrations in my schooling days, I had taken an egg in my hair, from K, who was younger to me. (How dare he mess up with a senior!) I waited in the verandah, till my mom had hot water ready for my bath . Meanwhile, I was fed lunch, by my dad. What fun!

I pity the generation of kids who have no idea how to spend time away from a t.v. or cell. They have no idea of how safe our world was and how carefree we were, while we played on the streets, away from deranged people who lay hands on innocent kids or the violent stray dogs or the lack of traffic and vehicles on streets. Those days can never come back!

P.S:

Before going out to play Holi, it is better to apply oil on your face and hands. This way, you won’t look like a pink alien in office. This is for all those who hate looking like they drank gulaal!
My favourite Holi song is Arey Jaa re Hatt from Navrang, a very old Hindi movie, directed by Shantaram. Not everyone likes it, but check it out. The dancer Sandhya acts as both boy and girl in the song. It was a sensation in those days. (Let me be your DJ for Holi and suggest grooving to these songs…)

and also this…from Sholay, hence the title of the post!

Lastly, I would like to mention Balam Pichkari from Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani….

Did I miss any popular Holi song? Do drop a comment and let me know. Till the next post, cheerio!

The Loudest of all

March 2, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

While on most days, the kiddos manage to entertain themselves with some games and a little bit of rough housing, some times, they have, who is the loudest matches!

Almost always, the one to initiate these matches is GBee. He loves to shout and scream at the top of his lungs. It is such a regular occurrence that, once in a while, if he manages to stay quiet, our neighbours are worried! Why is there little or no noise? Is GBee sleeping? These are the questions I get from them.

One fine day, I was busy being the bookworm, reading and dwelling in the imaginary world. That’s when GBee starts to shout! He hates it when my attention is elsewhere!

GBee, shouting and scaring QB in the process.

Before I could get back to my book, I heard the baby KBee, reciprocating GBee’s shout!

KBee imitates GBee, while continuing to play.

KBee is like a Koel. Koel never run away from competition. Have you ever tried imitating a koel? I did. I used to imitate the cry it made during the onset of monsoons. That’s when Koel begin to sing along. It is like our own Pitch Perfect competition! Koel don’t like to lose. That’s for sure.

Anyway…

Feeling Proud, listening to KBee

While I was busy admiring KBee and got pulled into the shouting contest, I was worried about the dogs in my locality! KBee was able to shout in ultrasonic frequency!

Meanwhile, the stray dogs in my area, visibly whimpering at their daily meeting!

Ultrasonic sounds scare the dogs, even if the one making them is hardly 2 years old!

P.S:

Our neighbours have their hands full with 3 dogs. The dogs are so noisy, always barking at perfectly calm people walking on the street. In-spite of all this, the owners manage to hear the noise GBee and KBee make! (Or even observe, when my kids are silent)
The next time you hear a koel singing, do imitate it and sing loudly, The koel changes the tempo of its beautiful song – like cry, to beat us. The early monsoon is the best time for a singing competition with Koel!
The one who shouts the loudest is GBee. But the one who shouts at ultrasonic levels is KBee.
GBee’s class teacher once complained to me that he has the habit of shouting suddenly during the class. One particular day, he scared his teacher and got beaten! He is 5 years old. He can be childish sometimes!

The Tale of the White Leaf!

February 22, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Before I start today’s post, let me tell you that, if you ever read any post titles, which sound at once intriguing, rest assured that it is related to the kids. This is one such incident I would love to elaborate on…

The daily routine of GBee is, to wake up at 7 a.m. Laze around on the bed, planning ahead, about what he is going to do for the particular day! Then after much coaxing and coddling, get out of the bed at 7:40 a.m.

The next step is to run around the bed, either to wake up his baby brother KBee or to bring his school bag, open the pouch and begin sharpening his pencils and chatting all the while. He has his pouch always filled up with atleast 10 pencils. He writes with a different one each day. (Never buy kids pencils in various colours, they ask us for one in each colour. Buy them boring pencils in same colour and they never ask for another. Don’t repeat my mistake! I bought him colourful pencils and now he has one in each colour ready for any emergencies and still asks me for more!)

When we first joined him in school, he would cry incessantly and always plead me not to send him to school. (I spent many nights wondering if he would ever make any friends or go to school at all!)

Because he manages to cry a lot, he would throw up before going to school, each day. So feeding him breakfast early in the morning was a bad idea. In his early school days, he never ate anything before going to school and always brought his tiffin / snack box, as it is, without eating. (For a week, it felt like he was fasting and opposing the school, in his silent way!)

That’s when I decided to just give him milk before going to school. To make him slowly begin eating at school, I would send his box filled with his favourite cookies and pooris in the shapes of hearts, squares and circles. The little GBee, never liked Pediasure to begin with. (Any new food / beverage never interests him. He has zero interest in trying new food) To get GBee interested in Pediasure, I bought the Vanilla flavoured one and would mix it in milk and give it to him before school and slowly he began drinking it. He never knew I mixed anything in milk, because, vanilla flavoured Pediasure was off white in colour.

Just as I was getting used to him having his morning cup of milk, one day ….

A white leaf!

Since I was busy packing his snack box, I really didn’t understand what he meant at first. My mind was occupied.

He was referring to the layer of protein on the milk, a White Leaf!

Milk Skin = White Leaf

I say ‘sad’ layer because, I hate the layer of protein on top of milk. I just hate when the milk skin forms on milk. Or even tea for that matter. I exaggerate and tell everyone who listens to me, that milk skins suffocate the throat, so I can’t have it! (which is a lie)

After he complained about the ‘white leaf’, i filtered the milk for him and then and ‘only’ then did he drink his milk.

That, dear readers, is the Tale of the White Leaf!

P.S:

I was inspired by ‘The Tale of Two cities’ of Charles Dickens while naming the blog post. I may read it in future.
The milk skin infact has a scientific name, Lactoderm! But, as usual, I love the one coined by GBee, ‘White Leaf’. He also calls grey hair as ‘White Grass’!
Do you know ‘the Order of White Lotus’? If you are an Avatar geek, you may know it. If you are not, it a secret society of intellectual people who share knowledge. It is part of the ‘Avatar’, the anime and not the James Cameron Avatar.

Till the next post!

Dadamoni!

February 15, 2023 / queenbee / 1 Comment

As I begin to write yet another post, I am beginning to understand myself a whole lot better. I keep going back and forth between movies and book references in my life! ( It must be due to my upbringing, in a family where both books and movies were treasured alike!) Today, it is the movie influence that is apparent in my post title, Dadamoni.

Dadamoni is a Bengali term, where ‘Dada’ means an elder brother and ‘moni’ means a jewel. An elder brother who is as good/precious as a jewel! (If you have been Indian cricket fan, you will know Sourav Ganguly was referred to as Dada. But the original Dadamoni was the actor Ashok Kumar, the elder brother of the eccentric Bollywood singer Kishore Kumar da)

Since I am done with the introduction, lets jump into today’s cartoon…

The scene starts with an interaction between QueenBee and KBee. My aim was to teach KBee some basic words. KBee had successfully repeated Amma, after me. Then I make him repeat Nanna, Anna and other two letter words. Then, I see GBee zooming away, running fast, passing us both, shouting at the top of his lungs ….

Jumping right away into bigger words!

Just when KBee was getting comfortable with two lettered words, I threw a bigger word at him, Dadamoni! (I am a para bhasha priya! One who loves other languages, more than their own. My bad!) It is safe to say that KBee found it difficult to even utter ‘dada‘. He already calls his brother, anna.

Meanwhile, Mr.Bee in his office room…

Done with two syllable words already!

I would still prefer if KBee referred to GBee as Dadamoni, but, I am not going to force it upon him! Some words are just so beautiful, they remain with us. Dadamoni is one such word, which captured my heart, during my movie research, years ago.

Does anyone like Golden Oldies? Like the movies of Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and the likes?

P.S:

My all time favourite actor has always been Shammi Kapoor.
Dev Anand’s brother,Vijay Anand, played a detective in an old Hindi serial in Doordarshan, Tehkikaat. It was the first detective serial I had ever watched, not that I remember much. I hope to watch it again. I also watched Byomkesh Bakshi, a series in Doordarshan, starring Rajit Kapur and not the one starring Sushant Singh Rajput. (God I feel so old!)
Some day I will surely write about all the detective movies and series, I ever watched. It may end up being my longest post. And, did anyone observe that today’s post has a lot of Bengali flavour! 😉
I think Mr.Bee in today’s cartoon looks very young! I should have given him a stubble!

Until my next post, cheerio!

The Banana Guava!

February 9, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

After almost a year and half, I have taken to drawing a cartoon again. It feels so gratifying, being able to draw and write, like I used to. It is also the first cartoon my new character, my younger son, KBee is debuting in!

Anyway, coming to the present topic, the title must have confused you readers, let’s be frank, its not even a word. It is a group of words. Thanks to GBee for coining the term for me and as I put our conversation here, it will be a tiny part of internet history!

As is usually the case, whenever we bring home vegetables and fruits after buying them from the market, we lay down everything in the open, ready to put them in separate covers.

This time around, we did the same and had all the vegetables out on the floor. Little did we guess that we may get the attention of the baby, KBee! He and his brother had been immersed in D-Billions, but then, who can resist colourful vegetables? Not a certain KBee!

KBee picking up the bottle gourd, (Lauki.)

KBee usually enjoys, ‘tomato’napping (kidnapping tomatoes), mostly to either smash them or bite them off. But this time, he ran away with a bottle gourd! I went after him, to ask him, if he knew what he was taking…but the kid hardly knew how to say amma! (He was a little over 1 year, during this particular scene)

Once, KBee he had our undivided attention,GBee, likes to be included too! GBee, who had been listening to me, had given me his answer…

Getting a response to one’s question can sometimes baffle us!

Yes! He replied Banana Guava!

Eye opening moment

Even though it was a baffling moment. It was also crystal clear, why GBee had given me the answer he gave! (He looked happy and content, he felt proud of himself, for coming up with an answer, to shut his mother down!)

According to him bottle gourd is Banana Guava, because, it is elongated and almost shaped like a banana and also in the colour of a fresh guava. Hence the name. Of course, this was my deduction, since I know GBee like the back of my hand.

So the next time you see a bottle gourd, I hope you remember ‘The Banana Guava’ episode!

P.S:

Apart from Cocomelon, Chuchu tv, Infobells, Grizzy and the Lemmings, the kids love watching D-Billions, which is fun to watch. Even I like watching those. (Actually, its the only stuff I get to watch on T.V. Our T.V. has been conquered by Samrat GBee for now. It is under his rule! Some day, it may be under the rule of Samrat KBee.) Mera number kab ayega? Can’t say!

Cheerio till the next post.

Ignorance is (NOT) Bliss!

October 21, 2022 / queenbee / 3 Comments

Whoever said ignorance is a bliss needs to meet me personally, to get an earful! They must be joking, right?

I learnt my lesson the hard way.

Let me elaborate on the point…

All had been well and I remember announcing the arrival of Baby No. 2 , KBee, in my blog and that was my last post for 2021. I also re-christened my first born, from Baby Bee to GBee, now that he is not a baby anymore, but a pre-schooler. (We named our first born as MG and the younger one as MK. )

Anyway….coming back to my original plot of the post…

2021 had been a busy year, what with my share of good and not so good experiences. By the time we entered the last quarter of 2021, I had been so ignorant that my hosting plan had expired! I couldn’t renew it within a month of expiry date, due to issues with the credit card. (My blog was being hosted with my previous USA address, even after relocating to India)

I cursed the bank and the Government for the new guidelines, which made the renewal difficult. (Conspiracy right under my nose!) I lost all the years worth of my precious moments, events and prize winning blog posts to the “black hole” of internet. (Sadly my backups failed me.)

I don’t know how Lord Voldemort must have felt when Harry Potter destroyed all the seven horcruxes, the 7 parts of his evil soul, one at a time, but when I lost all the 7 year worth of precious data, I felt “this” must be it! (I am a Harry Potter nerd , through and through. I tend to drag Harry Potter world into my life, drawing parallels. J.K.Rowling must be thankful for having me as a fan! I hate ‘The Cursed Child’, that’s there!)

I felt so sad for a couple of days, I never knew one could connect so emotionally to one’s own writings. I shed many a precious tears, I mourned the early and sudden demise of my blog.

Slowly I let bygones be bygones and decided to start afresh.

So here’s to a new beginning of the blog, albeit with an old name!

Welcome back to BeeAfterYou, where the buzzing is always true!

P.S:

It feels so gratifying and encouraging when friends and family enquire after my blog and my writing schedule or the lack there of! It is such a humbling experience and truly inspires me to sit , write , edit, edit, edit, edit and post!

Thank you for all the love and I truly appreciate the concern. Lots and lots of love, dear readers…. QueenBee is back!

😉

P.P.S:

It is better to back up all your files regularly. If you are a fellow blogger, please back up and store it in a fool proof place.

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