Tag: KBee

Of Successful Landings!

August 24, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Firstly, let us congratulate the ISRO! Bravo!

We should pat our backs and enjoy the proud moment, even though we hardly had anything to do with the Chandrayan-3 landing on the Moon. It is momentous, next only to India’s Independence!

Even the schools across India suggested that we should watch the Chandrayaan-3 land on the Moon. GBee’s school sent us messages to watch it with our kids and introduce them to Space Magic, which the general public refers to as Astronomy!

Anyway,Mr.Bee and I were busy discussing the Chandrayaan-3 on our terrace, no less, while intently staring at the Moon, as if naked eyes can perceive the Chandrayaan-3 from Earth!

Incidentally, the sky looked spectacular, with orange hues on one side of the sky, thanks to the setting Sun and the light blue coloured floating beauties, the clouds, near the milky Moon! Awesome view indeed. I clicked a few pictures, but I couldn’t justify the beauty with my poor photography skills!

While we were deep in our discussion, GBee and KBee were entertaining themselves with their own chichorapan and mischief!

Talking away with sky forming a dreamy background!

I began to guess the spot where Chandrayaan-3 must have landed and Mr.Bee was laughing at that. Suddenly we heard a loud BAM.

Going from 0 to 100 on the Fear Factor scale in a jiffy!

For less than 2 seconds, we looked at each other and ran towards the parapet wall, where both the kids had been playing. They are shorter than the wall and that gave us a temporary sense of security. Before the incident had happened I thought, they can’t climb the wall, they can’t see what’s on the other side, so let’s chat with Mr.Bee. That is the reason behind leaving the kids unattended!

Play time means – using a rock as a ball

KBee had found a rock for himself, which was the size of half a brick. He had thrown it over the parapet wall, not knowing that, there is an AC outdoor unit on the neighbours sun shade! The rock had landed on the AC outdoor unit, before rolling off to the ground. Thankfully, no dent was visible on the unit. We inspected it carefully.

The Chandrayaan-3 had successfully landed on the Moon and this weird rock has landed, albeit temporarily, on the AC unit. A historic moment indeed, both for India and KBee respectively! KBee got an earful from both Mr.Bee and me. He has an avid supporter in his elder brother, GBee, who pleaded his case, saying that KBee is still a baby, which is TRUE! Case closed! Khel Khatam, dukaan bandh! (which loosely translates to Game Over)

P.S:

What happened next? Did the neighbours scold? Did they fight us? These questions will not be answered! This is an open ended thriller!
I tried my best to draw the beautiful sky, but it was difficult with little time and little resources. I use ‘paint’ in my laptop! (I previously had a drawing tablet Wacom, but I couldn’t maintain it properly and it died on me.)
This disclaimer is for all the good people who find fault with anything. I didn’t compare Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon to a rock falling on an AC. I am just drawing parallels. Some situations remind us of completely different or eerily similar stuff. It can go either way.
If you find a mom, who looks like hell, it means she has had a scary moment recently. So don’t judge her and let her live in peace. She doesn’t need more stress in her life. Even a kid sleeping for an extra hour can cause stress!

Wait for the next post, till then, cheerio!

The Home Fun!

August 16, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Just as GBee began his education this year, Grade 1 and all, we have come across the term Home Fun. Gone are the olden days when we as students in school, were given ‘Home Work’! Kids these days have Home Fun, daily and that too in at least two subjects!

This specific incident happened when I was busy folding the laundry, while instructing GBee on how to go about his Home Fun! Incidentally, I always have to correct myself each time. I begin talking like, ‘GBee, let’s start your home work, I mean home fun!’

Sadly, even GBee says it is his home work! He even wrote GBee working on the wall behind the table! (He is into graffiti, lol!)

Anyway…

And..the conversation starts…

Before I could get my brain back into the groove from all the humming while folding the laundry, to even respond to GBee, KBee, the baby had replied to GBee.

I could hardly believe my eyes, I mean, ears! See, I am flustered!

KBee is a silent guy, who hardly responds to stuff. Sometimes, he prefers giving silent hand gestures to get his point across. So, seeing such a boy, reply voluntarily to his anna, was a bit overwhelming for me.

Surprised and shocked that KBee can even reply to conversations…

KBee even repeated himself, when I expressed my surprise.

Before I could gather my bearings, the kiddos were huddled together in their own private conversation.

Full blown conversation happens….

And that was how I began to see that both have their conversations.

This is the kind of Home Fun I enjoy.

Come on Home Fun, let’s do this!

P.S:

The stuff in GBee’s hand is supposed to be a text book. I hope that was clear, I tried my best to draw!
The moment I heard the word Home Fun, from GBee’s teachers, I found it vaguely familiar. Then I understood what it was. I was reminded of ‘E.T. Home Phone’! I hope you have seen and admired the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie, by Steven Spielberg. (it was released in 1982, well before I was born, but I still watched it!) It is one of the best of the best, a classic!
On an unrelated note, 1990 Tamil movie Anjali and 2003 Hindi movie Koi Mil Gaya, both were inspired by the ‘E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial‘ movie. At least Anjali had good acting!
Lastly, I really enjoyed the E.T. adventure ride at Universal Studios, Orlando.

ET adventure ride – where we can cycle around with E.T. – pic courtesy Google

P.P.S:

I will be back with the remaining vacation posts. GBee has exams this week. Cheerio!

The (Un)Lucky Worm!

August 2, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

It gives me immense pleasure when I see my kids playing outside, with worms and insects no less. I feel satisfied and pat myself on the back, when they entertain themselves with insects and not with the T.V or the much dreaded cell phone. Ya, they take after me.(Though they still have a long way to go) I had the best childhood, playing with all kinds of insects (one of the perks of being an introvert) and I still find it funny how my mom never stopped me from playing with them.(She probably never knew!)

Let me make this clear. Playing with insects involves, observing them from close quarters, seeing what they do when a leaf is placed in front of them or when food is available readily. It also involves checking out their living quarters, like an anthill and trying to understand how they manage to make those! I hope this doesn’t sound creepy, but it is entertaining in its own right.

I had previously written innumerable posts about this, but they are lost in the sea of internet and my back up issues of blogging. I may write about them in future again, but for now, the topic is the kids playing with worms, an earthworm, to be specific, if you are really into details!

We went on our bi-monthly visit to my parents house and the kids were playing in the verandah, when this little incident had taken place.

My parents have a lengthy verandah which kids their age love. They can race each other, listen to the birds early in the morning, run after the lone butterfly or even spray each other with water from the low level tap. Once or twice, some birds may even come after you, to peck your eyes out (or to kill the lice in your hair), if you make any suspicious movements!

So, one Sunday afternoon, GBee and KBee were running after their grandfather, showing him around his own garden! (Ya, they took him to a plant to show its flowers to him. They took him next to the mighty coconut tree to show him the coconuts, as if its something new. It is his own house for Heaven’s sake!)

GBee suddenly found an earthworm on the cement walkway, slowly going about its business, crawling slower than either a sloth or a snail! He called out to us. KBee too came running at once, not to miss out on the fun, whatever that excited his brother.

Spotting the rogue earthworm!

Suddenly, GBee ran away and KBee tried to touch it (or poke it, probably), but I stopped him midway. GBee returned with a tiny bucket filled with water and splashed it on top of the earthworm!

Watering the earthworm or playing with it?

I thought he was intent on killing off the poor earthworm! But I was mistaken. He was in-fact making a swimming pool for the little creepy crawly! Goes to show how much he loves a swimming pool. (He keeps asking me to buy a house with a swimming pool, as if that comes cheap!)

Once he was done pouring water, I envied it, one lucky worm, got itself a swimming pool, no less! But that might be my opinion. Who knew what the worm wanted? (It probably wanted a less adventurous life with no sudden splashes of water immersing it completely!)

Imagine if we had a downpour of rain, just like a bucket had been emptied suddenly on our heads. That would suffocate us surely. So on second thought, the earthworm must have cursed its own bad luck!

Why me?

So what do you think the worm was thinking?

P.S:

In the last panel, I zoomed the earthworm, so that I could show the facial expression better!
My daddy was impressed by GBee’s thought process, about gifting a swimming pool to the earthworm and all! Did such thought ever run in your brain? NO, right! It is so out of the box, rather, out of the bucket!
Watching insects of various sizes surely changes your perspective of life. We begin to understand life, problems and happiness are all relative. We also understand that philosophy also comes to us in bursts and intervals and thankfully, doesn’t engulf us completely. Even philosophical thoughts are temporary like our sorrows and happiness. Food for thought!
I thought my readers needed a change of pace with all the posts about Ooty. The next post will continue the progress of our vacation.

Cheerio till the next post friends.

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!

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!

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 / 2 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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