My kids, sit day after day, watching Peppa Pig with utmost interest and anticipation! They love, cherish, admire and imitate Peppa Pig. Sometimes, they role-play together, with GBee playing the role of Peppa Pig and KBee imitating his favourite character George Pig!
KBee is so into Peppa Pig, that he owns a George Pig plushie and even chants the ‘dinosaur’ dialogue of George, day in and day out!
KBee learned to talk after watching Peppa. Before that, he was not into talking, but would only communicate by pointing at things!
Anyway, an average day in our house looks something like this…
Watching Peppa Pig on T.V.
GBee mostly sits on the sofa, with his full attention on the T.V screen, while KBee prefers sitting on the floor with his legs bent at knees one in each direction, forming an ‘M’ with his legs!
The kiddos managed to learn English and speak in a British accent too, thanks to Peppa Pig. KBee is one step ahead of GBee and also snorts like Peppa Pig does, from time to time! Lol!
Both of them incorporate the dialogues they see in Peppa Pig in our daily lives. Earlier, I would wonder where they learnt certain stuff. But now, I can tell blindly, where they learnt what!
One fine day, when GBee had gone to school and KBee and I were alone in the bedroom, me folding my laundry and KBee playing with his toys…
Suddenly, KBee began saying ‘rabbit’ repeatedly! After I heard him say ‘rabbit’ again a couple of times in the next 15 minutes, I decided to check what it was about.
I saw KBee holding a tiny green frog squish toy and thanks to his knowledge from Peppa Pig and another BBC special, Duggee, he began to say ‘rabbit’ in the place of ‘ribbit’, the sound made by frogs.
Rabbit or is it Ribbit?
I laughed a little after understanding what KBee meant and corrected him.
When GBee was a three year old baby, he would learn everything from me. But KBee only prefers to learn what his annaGBee teaches him. He royally ignores me!
Next in his list of teachers after his precious annais, Peppa Pig. Then come his other shows on T.V., followed by daddy and lastly, me, his mom. He ranks me last on his personal favourites list! I don’t mind though. He takes after me in almost everything!
P.S:
I have always been partial towards my dad and looked up to him. Its no wonder KBee does the same.
GBee used to watch Pocoyo, Duggee during his kindergarten years. KBee watches Peppa Pig and Duggee but hates Pocoyo.
Both learnt their English accent from British cartoon shows!
The first cartoon shows GBee and KBee both looking directly at us, the readers and not at the T.V. watching Peppa Pig. I always ask my kids to look at the camera when I take pics of them daily, anytime of the day, begging them to look at the camera. So this particular cartoon is a homage to my own self, for always asking the kids to look at the camera!
My diaries are filled up with loads of cartoons. Due to some incidents in my personal life, my blog is being grossly neglected. Hmph! Let’s see how this goes…
An idle brain is a devil’s workshop. My dad had written me an essay once, with the same opening line, during my school days and I even won the elocution. (He would write me beautiful essays to read and I would learn them to win elocution competitions. What a happy memory!) The particular competition I am talking about is when I had to talk about T.V.
Before I begin to tell why I started the post talking about the devil, let us get into flashback mode, with me as your guide.
I was a student of GSHS, a popular school in those days and later has changed its name to NHS!
Like in all schools, we had to elect our first languages. The whole class was divided into Telugu and Hindi sections only during our language period. I was part of the Hindi gang and that’s where this particular story starts.
Since our school was in a predominantly Telugu locality in Telugu state, there were less number of students in our Hindi class. Most of my fellow Hindi students were Muslims, so the Hindi I would talk in those days was a mix of Urdu and Hindi!
If you ever read the Harry Potter books, you would know that the Slytherins had their common room in the dungeons! Similarly, most of our primary classes were held underground, in the cellar! (If you ever wonder why some people have nightmares, this may be one of the reasons!)
Anyway, if you are in a Hindi class, then lucky you, you get the last classroom at the end of the cellar, the very dead end and the darkest room as your classroom. (We only move to the Hindi class during Hindi period.)
Even with lights on, I guess most army people would feel safe in it, since it resembled a bunker than a classroom! On top of the darkness and the silence, we even had rows and rows of iron benches topped with wood, piled on top of each other in the corner of the said classroom and we Hindi class kids felt their ominous presence!
While the grade 1 me was getting used to this weird classroom, one fine morning there was a rumour in our school. The assembly was buzz with students talking in whispers, that there was a devil in the empty Hindi classroom, hiding behind the , you guessed it right, the benches!
YIKES!
Suddenly some of my friends even went as far as to testify that they had seen blood red eyes looking back at them from among the piled up benches! (I have always been a scaredy cat, so that scared the hell out of me!)
An idle brain is a devil’s workshop. (Turns out that even an idle classroom is a devil’s workshop!)
As the day progressed, the afternoon was given a holiday and we were all sent home! (I don’t know if it was a coincidence or it was to get to the bottom of the rumours, but we had an afternoon off!)
While I was coming out of the cellar, from our classroom, I heard the general chatter about how the devil had scratched the P.T. sir and how his face is now disfigured and that is the reason for the day off! Even the next day had been declared a holiday!
Even though we had an unexpected holiday, I met my friends at their house, only to gossip again about how the school watchman had seen the ghost at night and how students are scared of going to the restrooms….
Once the school re-opened, we began moving about in groups. I dreaded going to the Hindi class and I bet others were scared too. Luckily, the Hindi students had some good news. We were designated a new classroom, with good lighting etc and we soon forgot the damn rumours.
Even now when I think back about the incident, I wonder if that is the real reason the Hindi classroom was changed!
Do you believe a devil or ghost can stay in an empty classroom?
P.S:
This incident happened in my primary school days when I was in Grade 1. I remember it distinctly because I was so scared at that time. I remember talking about it to my friends and family too.
I am not disclosing the name of the school because, even if our school was best at studies, who even has classes in the cellar, which is dimly lit? I even remember my first Hindi teacher, Ms. Shiva Parvathi mam.
Couple of years later, the school had been moved into its own 6 flooried building. I moved to a new school after Grade 3, it was a life changing move, because I made friends for life and also met Mr.Bee.
Thanks to the recent incessant rains in Hyderabad, the internet in our area was down for 5 days. Once the internet was up and running, schools declared holidays due to rains. Since the kids were home, I hardly had free time on hand. That dear friends is the reason I couldn’t complete the post on time.
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When I look back and think about our visit and stay at Ooty, I can’t help but feel bad for Mr.Bee. Can you imagine someone pulling at the hair on your chin? Painful, right? That’s how it felt looking at Mr.Bee trying to drive peacefully in Ooty!
Ooty, got his goatee! Goatee is Mr.Bee’s signature style. Many thanks to him, for never going through the ‘No-Shave November’ phase. I am sorry to all the bearded dudes out there, I am not a fan of beard and that is me being nice about it!
Day 6:
We woke up at 7 a.m. Our plan for the day was to check out of the hotel and go to Subramanya, in Karnataka.
But thanks to the hectic schedule of visiting Parks and what not, KBee was under the weather! He was down with fever. Two year olds have little stamina. Crocin came handy in this situation. (We took a medical kit with us.)
Mr.Bee and I, both wondered if we had to extend our stay in Ooty for a day, to give the much needed rest for KBee or start to Subramanya, hoping for the best!
We decided on going to Subramanya and sticking to our initial itinerary. The cold weather and rains had gotten to KBee, at-last! (Weather in Subrahmanya was more to our interest.) But since it started drizzling again, we waited it out and by the time we had our breakfast, it was well past 9:30 a.m.
Our host in La Montana wanted us to shoot a brief video and we spent another 30 minutes there. After loading the car with all our suitcases and stuff, it was 11:00 a.m.
Once we were on the road, the respected Traffic Police of Ooty didn’t let Mr.Bee drive in peace. They made us go about in circles on the roads. That is their way of controlling traffic, sending people into any road they find empty!
We were still in Ooty by the time it was 12:00 p.m! What sort of technique the traffic personnel use to divert people, I don’t know, but it frustrated us to no end. Mr. Bee was pissed off from driving in the same roads again and again, going in circles.
After wasting an hour, we came out of Ooty town, to the outskirts. While Mr.Bee went out to buy the pocket friendly fridge magnets, I and the kids sat inside the car, me thinking about my hunger pangs! (It was nearly lunch time and we were hardly out of Ooty!)
Anyway, I love to decorate the fridge and the Godrej almarah with funky magnets of every place we ever visit. Hence fridge magnets seemed the best choice of souvenirs.
After the brief halt to shop, we sadly bid goodbye to Ooty, bye bye Ooty! (I had fun at Ooty and at the end of every vacation I become sad!) and were en route Subrahmanya, Karnataka.
Once again, we were not allowed to take the route from Ooty, to Mysore. We were diverted again. (The roads and traffic is highly dependent on the climate, forest and animals about. This is a personal opinion. So, it is like a lottery!)
Our already late start was delayed yet again by the horses crossing the road!
Horses on roads – A rare sight indeed!
We took brief halt at the most beautiful scenery, the Picnic Lake. We took loads of photos, before getting back into our car to continue our journey. (I remember buying similar framed sceneries to give away as gifts. I liked one such frame so much, I gifted it to my mom on her birthday, when I was in primary school! Who even gifts their mom a scenery? Lol! Those were the days!)
Scenery to die for!
And more…
Lake view!
We had a hurried lunch at Gudalur, Tamil Nadu. The food was passable, but the buffet was ready to be served and we hardly had time on our hands. It was already 2:30 p.m. by the time our hands reached our mouths, to feed ourselves the lunch! (If I were to eat such food everyday, I would surely become waif thin!) I bought some fruits too, before starting our long drive to Subrahmanya. But, God had different plans for us, He changed our itinerary!
Gudalur Road – Pic Courtesy – Google
We took a wrong turn near Gudalur and instead of going towards Karnataka, we ended up going into Kerala. Imagine our surprise when I began seeing name boards in Malayalam! The roads were picturesque, scenic, beautiful as well as calming! (It felt like dejavu, a dream moment. Such simple village roads had a deep effect on me.) I began rewinding my brain to all the South Indian movies that I have seen, which must have been shot in similar locations!
We had a silent drive through Kerala. It was mesmerizing to observe each and everything, that I forgot to talk and my chatter box of a mouth was shut, for once!
Mr.Bee and I were worried that we wouldn’t be reaching Subrahmanya before 9 p.m.! We debated among ourselves about the best course of action. We are not comfortable with night driving, that too near forests and with kids, one who had a slight fever and another who ended up vomiting his lunch, thanks to the Ghat roads and Mr.Bee’s fast and furious driving! (Thankfully, Mr.Bee has hair on his head, he is not a taklu like Vin Diesel and the Rock!)
We took the advice of Mr.Bee’s colleague, R. He told us to halt for the night at Sultan Battery, since it is the biggest town in Wayanad, Kerala, instead of driving further. It was hardly half past four in the afternoon, but we decided to stop at Sultan Battery and give the much needed rest for the kiddos.
Clean town – Sultan Battery
We checked into the Thejas resort. (I selected the resort, as it was my younger son’s name!) Turns out, this was the best decision we ever made in our entire trip! The resort took us close to nature and left a lasting impression on us. While Mr.Bee was busy with the check-in procedures and the likes, GBee and I were busy clicking photos. KBee was fast asleep, though.
Sunset @ Sultan Battery – View from the resort
Our cottage looked like this….
Cottages are the way to go!
I didn’t leave out the flowers in the resort…
Violet Beauty, might be a Lily!
We ordered food from Zomato to our room. They only serve breakfast at the resort. It was the simplest and the tastiest dinner of our trip. Ghee rice with tomato curry! (Since both the kids were under the weather, that was what we selected as our dinner.)
We slept, with me admiring my room and the surroundings and Mr.Bee enjoying the IPL finals in his cell! (No t.v. in the cottages!)
P.S:
We gave KBee another dose of crocin at night and he was already showing improvement. GBee had motion sickness, so nothing to worry about.
The crickets, the peacocks and the birds in Thejas resort made sure that I wouldn’t forget the experience soon. They kept reminding us that we were indeed in Kerala! There were mosquitoes as fat as houseflies. Once the mosquito repellent was switched on, the mosquitoes were not a problem anymore.
Since there was no T.V. in the room. GBee and KBee entertained themselves with the iPad Mini and had their dinners.
Do you know about the 36 Hair Pin Bends road in Ooty? It is said to be a dangerous and difficult road to drive. We didn’t drive in this route, we have our children to thank for! We thought it was better if we didn’t go in this route. Check out this video.
