Independence Day Celebrations

As usual, we organised a host of events in the building complex to celebrate Independence Day. The challenge for us was to again get a totally new set of events for across age groups.

Painting/ Sudoko for kids Cycling race for tiny tots- Since Ojas. Tejas' cycles were out of order they had to use borrowed stuff. Tejas managed with someone's cycle without 1 balancing wheel and got a prize also.

Filling bottle with water. Ofcourse Ojas & Tejas got prizes as they are thorough with this activity in their daily life

potato gathering race.

Biscuit eating race- this is one race which Tejas walked out. Ojas had a tough time because he is such a slow eater. Yet he managed to get a prize

For older kids we had a series of events like- arranging newspapers in order, making a paper boat, solving a jumble and blowing balloons. Balancing paper cups filled with water on the palms and on the head for the final round

Leading a blindfolded partner to a certain object without touching

rangoli competition

For adults we had challenging events like memory contest- display objects and then after 20 minutes they have to recall and write what they saw. Series of questions to be answered like- telling teh colors of the rainbow in 2 languages, name 7 brands/ flavours etc, name 7 residents with their flat numbers- basically 7 was the number because the building completes 7 years.

team events like- making a paper cup tower

Sari folding for men

Gift wrapping a book with 1 hand of self and 1 hand of partner

Lost in Translation

I desperatley tried to convey the words- "Ask him to mind his own business", in Tamil via the electrician + Plumber + office boy of the building

What really got translated- Madam has asked him to go to office and work.

The joke is that this guy has his own business and works largely from home!

On Protesting

What would you do if you want to protest against children playing in the society complex after a given time say 7.30 pm?
1. Call up the president every day after 7.30 and chew his/her ears out
2. Take video recording of the children as proof (like the residents need proof like that)
3. Start polishing your driving skills and honk so much that the parents get scared and take teh children away
4. Park your car in the centre of the play area
5. Smoke near the playing children so that the moms take the kids far away
6. Scream at the children, confiscate their ball or other such playing stuff if it lands in your garden
7. Campaign for restricting play hours in the association meeting

Ok, seriously what is your view on kids playing after 7.30 pm? I ask because once you decide to live in a society, there should be a certain higher threshold of tolerence for everything including noise. I remember when my kids were born, my block had lots of kids who would play right outside my window and disturb the kids' sleep. The best I could do was either close the window which is unhealthy or shift them to the back room which is more private or just request the kids to play a little away from my window.
But I wouldn't do any of the above at all.

A certain new member in the building has been doing all of the above and it is really disturbing the peace of the building at the cost of her peaceful existence. She even asked some parents to change the tuition timings so that their kids could come home early and play instead of come back from tuition and play beyond 7.30 pm.
She even said that we parents send our headache to the playground as we cannot tolerate them making a ruckus inside the house -which I silently agree! But I am not agreeing when she accuses us!!! My kids and their freinds spend almost the entire weekend or holidays outside the house- in the staircase, or the garden, or the common area. This is something even I as a child used to do. I find it much better to let kids play outside than remain inside and watch TV or err mess the house!
I want my kids to do free play, mud play, look at butterflies, or plants or flowers rather than watch TV.
Some of the evenings my kids have music classes. It becomes very difficult to restrain them at home after that because in their opinion, they have not played enough. True, I like them to be home by 7.30 pm so that it gives them time with me. But there are days when I come back at 7.00 plus, do the cooking and then walk out for some gossip with the neighbours and by the time I get inside after shepherding the kids, it is 8.00 pm. I wouldn't want anyone to restrict my freedom.

So what say?

Event Managers?

A couple of days ago we were discussing about event management people who make a big buck and don't do such a great job as per expectations.

Which brought us to the neighbours telling the two of us who organised events for the flat day and the last couple of birthdays of our kids and the independence day 2010, that we will do a much better job if we ventured into this. With a big shock I remembered that I never got around to posting the pictures of the last event that happened in August.

Anyway, the principles that we both use during organising these events or games for our kids' birthday parties are..

- activities should be centred around movement. All of them racing, gathering, running around and all that.. Like the potato gathering relay race below

...Events have to have an element of challenge and not very easy peasy- like the filling the bottle with water gathered in the palm relay race.

We noticed that the races around brain work application- solving jumble, maths olympiad were not a big hit.

...For older kids we like to have some thinking and application though- the importance on being able to learn something apart from some fun.

We gave them products and ask them to make a marketing plan. They did a brilliant job of the same.
...Similarly, we need to make stuff exciting for the kids below and focus on stuff they know well.

Like the bead threading race or bean sorting race

.... or something very very fun. Like gathering toffees in their boxes. Ojas gave the last few toffees he collected t o Tejas and Tejas emerged the winner.

...More adding variety to a standard running race by introducing stuff to gather on the way to finish line.

Like getting ready for school- carry the basket, tiffin, bottle, napkin and rush to finish line.

...Of course, not without talent show for them too.

colouring competition

...Involve the adults too.

Really getting them involved through badminton matches

Rangoli competitions by the ladies . (pictures pending!!!)

...or active games done by select people- like ice cream feeding, potato peeling or done by teams like newspaper costume making or treasure hunt.

...Not repeating events else they become boring

...Keep gathering ideas and place them in a file

...My favourite- Lists, lists, lists. Excel sheets that tell what items are needed for each game.

....Being Organized- gather items for each game in a single bag

....Get help- request people to be the judges, or stand on finish line, or help for organising the items needed.

...Gather people, make them participate- it takes very little to get people involved. After the initial inertia is tackled, their own steam takes them through- like the kaaoke event that I was hosting- I selected some songs on my own and allotted them to each team. Once the starting trouble was overcome, they began doing their own thing.

...And above all, add your unique touch. Each time, it has to be different!

Are You Smarter Than Toddlers

Was the general theme for games for adults yesterday in the building. After phase 1 of the celebrations were over, the grand finale was making the adults do stuff that even kids can do.
We first had a round of talent show- Salad making contest for ladies. Since veggies are so priceless in the current scheme of things, we made the men make veggie jewelry. This entry was from the husband and his partner.


The kids conducted a quiz for us on the lines of Are you smarter than a fifth grader. Believe me, some of us turned out be smarter, but some of us were quite dumb!
We also gave puzzles for the teams - showed them the finished work and dismantled and made them complete the puzzle again. I had to stop Ojas from helping out the uncles & aunties in sorting out his puzzles. He even commented- why are you doing wrong!The pot breaking scene- Of course with adults screaming out wrong instructions & kids screaming out correct instructions, this guy was no where near the pot and aiming wildly at the car parked nearbyBrick walking- the partner places the bricks for you to walk on...race to finish and back exchanging rolesOjas is negotiating for a bronze medal instead of gold since he had already got a gold & silver. Tejas is content with what he got, as long as he also gets to keep the cup that Mamma got for standing in one corner of the throwball court. (pssst see me in white & orange in the background, in keeping with the republic day dresscode.

The logo on the medals were designed by kids in our flat.

Of Competitive Spirit and All

The weekend was a total fun-filled one with lots of competitions and races within the building complex. We divided kids into agewise sub categories and spaced out races for all of them.

We started with doing a drawing competition for the under 6 age group-drawing a typical scene within our building and colouring it. Then was banker race- slotting coins into the piggy bank.Laundry race- kids dipping a napkin in a kiddy bucket of water

And clipping them on to a clothes linePoliceman's race- racing to put sun glasses, cap and picking up a gun and running to the finish line

Vet doctor race- tying a bandage to a soft toy animal and running to the finish line

Between the 2 of them, they covered every race with first, second or atleast 3rd- except of course the drawing/ painting!

Apart from that we had various creative races for other age groups- Including setting the table in a relay race fashion- we placed a sample setting and the kids were to copy the same on the other side - the finish line

We had dart board, making your partner wear the shirt and button up, making a queen's costume using newspapers, reverse walking, hopping race, skipping race, banana eating competition, making smaller words from a larger word.

We had badminton matches and throwball match and a cricket match for kids with certain adults playing in their kids' team and generally bossing over any kid who clapped/ cheered unecessarily- so as if on cue, we ladies would start clapping and cheering like rowdies!

So in general all was fun and we have creative games coming up for the 26th also- this time for adults.

What Would You Do?

Let's say there is a project that needs to be done for school. Would you do it yourself or get the child to do it him/herself or let the child do it with guidance from your side?

Now suppose there is some internal competition within your building. With the possibility of getting prizes. Would you do it yourself and submit it on behalf of the child or would you let the child do it with or without your guidance?

Well, I pose these questions because we are in the process of organizing events within our building. We have told kids to come up with stories & logo designs for putting up on the medals that we plan to give away as gifts. Now one kid made a submission and I casually asked - did you do it? And he honestly answered - my mother did it because I have exams and because it is meant for age group above 6.

At that moment I had 2 choices- to keep the paper quietly and not consider it as an entry thereby not making any enemies or returning it to him asking him to re submit.
I was tempted to take the easy way out- keeping the paper with me so as to avoid conflict but my heart said - no that would mean sending out the wrong message to the kid. So bravely I told him- this is easily the best of the lot since your mother has done it. But then you are supposed to do it so could you please make something yourself, may be take your mom's help and then resubmit?

Simple, but it took me a lot of effort to do it as diplomatically as possible. I resited the urge to call his mother and explain my point of view. May be it means I will have one less person in the building who will look kindly upon me. But then I am glad I did what was proper.

Seriously I wonder whom exactly are they fooling? Themselves, their kids or us- the rest of the people or the organisers or the judges?

What I feel is that this is the best way to give a free hand to the kids. Guide them if you please but let them do it by themselves. The objective should not be winning but participating and giving their best.

Ghar Mein Summer Camp

For a while I had been racking my brains with the question of what to do with the kids during summer vacation. Summer camp was one of the ideas but the trouble of dropping and bringing them back defeats the whole purpose of having them out of the hair and also keeping them busy.
What activities to keep them occupied? So I have collected color books, small alphabets, capital letters, Hindi writing books and all but how much can children write? Not the entire day. And what about the all round learning that I have always talked about
With the neighbours in the complex, we hit upon this brilliant idea.
A teacher in the complex had mentioned that she was keen to do "summer" classes which could be extended beyond the summer for the kids in the complex.
We just grabbed at the opportunity that was present right under our noses and assembled in her house to motivate her into starting soon.
So now, we have a full fledged summer camp happening in our on complex where she teaches them shlokas, rhymes, reads out stories and does activities. Parents have geared up and given their kid's story books to be read out for the session.
My neighbour and I are taking care of the activity part. We download activity sheets relevant to the story- coloring pages, join the dots, circle words, match the following and other easy and exciting stuff. We have told her to only do crayon and (color) pencil activity and do as little cutting and sticking activities because then we will require more people to assist.
We are also planning to teach them some play acting of the stories or dancing and then do a stage show in the complex at the end of the summer.
Other ideas in the pipeline is to get the older girls to teach them some dancing a few days a week and possibly get a lady in the complex who sings well and request her to teach some bhajan singing also as we progress. Lets see how this goes. I am pretty excited about the whole thing as so far it has been good.

What Did We Do On 15th August

The apartment residents geared up and put together a series of programs for Independence Day.

The day began with flag hoisting followed by painting competition for the kids (Moms eh?)

For the first time I made the effort of dressing the kids in tricolors (and also self).

Ojas was in orange & white stripes with green pants and he insisted that the orange pants matched with his T-shirt. Tejas wore green & white with orange shorts.

Then there was a running race. Both of them came last in the larger group. So the group was condensed as there was age disparity. Seeing their poor performance they were grouped with kids about 1 year younger to them- Tejas came 1st among 4 kids who participated.

Afternoon I participated (as audience) for the quiz for older kids and could not get even a single answer right. Ah, well, anyway its too early for me. I await my turn. Another 7-10 years, I will know the answers when the kids grow up.

Evening we had the fancy dress for kids and for such a short notice between morning to eveningI had to come up with the costume and had to prepare the kids for the same.

The easiest costumes that I could think of were - fruit seller and monkey man since I had the fruits, basket, soft toy monkey that could go on the back and be firmed with the velcro on the hands and a dholak.

The fruit seller's costume was my dupatta converted to a lungi.

For an hour we practiced.

Tejas the Fruit Seller
Fruits Le lo.....

Ojas was the prop for the act - How much apple?

Tejas- 100 rupees

Ojas- no 50 rupees

Tejas- hands over the guava

Tejas' handing over the guava was so spur of the moment that I decided to convert that into the script.

Ojas the Monkey Man

Naach mere bandar paisa milega

Tejas the prop- monkey walla aayo

Ojas shows a few acts using the monkey

Offcourse I directed the entire show sitting at the foot of the stage.

The fruit act was perfect with heavy prompting from me.

The monkey act was ok except that Ojas refused to sing naach mere bandar and took the mike and said- bandar kaun hai? on stage

Later in the evening there was a tambola. Offcourse I never got a single prize as the numbers that were being called out were from a different set fo numerals alltogether!

And as if I did not learn the lesson the first time, I participated in th 2nd round also.

The good part was the hangama that self, a neighbour and a bunch of kids were creating with demands of money back and calls for desired numbers..

There was musical chairs for ladies. 3 of us strategised. We move only when the one in the front moves and touches the next chair. I reached till the final using this strategy. Off course no body dared to call foul. Who will? The perks of not being a kid anymore.

I did try to buy the last competitor out during the final round.

I would have won had the other lady's husband not distracted me. I turned to talk and the music stopped!

The day (night) ended with fruit shop juice with neighbours!

Oh yes and the kids ate the fryums sort of snacks that are wheel shaped. Came to me asking- what is that on the flag- that looks like fryums (they meant the chakra)

Dress Me Up

3 years back when we bought our apartment, the first thing the visitors noted was the wall colours followed by the light fixtures and then the woodwork.
The bright sunflower yellow breaking the light green (jasmine wisp) and beige (sugarcane) colours of the rest of the walls were proving to be a talking point for our visitors.
I remember the pains we took in deciding the colours. The long hours spent at the Asian paints colour screen deciding the shades in various simulated lights. To tell you the truth what we picked up based on the computer turned out to be unpleasant on the walls. So finally we had to beg or buy a single can and try out on the wall directly before taking a call.
We were sure that we wanted a yellow breaking wall in our rooms. Apart from the reasons of it being a happy, cheery, welcoming colour, we choose it because it was the safest bright colour. I would love to have a red brick like effect or a crimson/ deep pink wall with a self pattern right behind the bed but hubby was strictly against such bashful bright colours. With both our Leo temperaments, we did not want too much of red adding fuel to the fire, not to forget that we chose the South east rather than south west room as the master bedroom. So yellow it was to break the monotony of jasmine wisp and sugarcane. And the jasmine wisp has a role to play in toning down the fiery nature of the yellow.
We also went overboard with the lighting. We did not want to leave even a single space unlit. Apart from the tube lights for everyday use, we added extra light points for “yellow’ lighting which gives a warm, cozy, romantic feel and also imparts a different glow to the skin. We found a nice shop at Mount Road called MS Lights which had a lot of trendy, modern fixtures and the owner was talking in marketing language- defining the concept and whether it is modern or traditional or futuristic. We selected quite odd shaped fixtures the prime method of selection being the quantum of light they were emitting rather than keeping it to themselves. Usually there are these flower shaped ones that don’t allow the light to emit into the room. All the yellow walls were given Picture lights so that when we invested in paintings, the light would highlight them well. We also selected a crazy looking chandelier.
For all our pains, the 1st year was spent in paranoia, nobody allowed to lay even a finger on the wall, no furniture should be touching the wall etc. Today all has gone for a toss. With Ojas & Tejas competing with each other on who scrapes the wall better with the mobile phone or the rackets, we cannot even dream of maintaining the walls now.
So tell me, what colours you chose for your walls and why? What is a nice colour or texture to experiment with? May be the next house or the next painting time we could think about it!

Rules Of the people, For the people, By the People

My portfolio as Secretary to the building association involves a lot of rule enforcement in the complex. These rules are not set by me, period. It is set by the stakeholders that is the (permanent) residents of the building and merely enforced by the association, the Secretary being the vehicle to enforce. Like one cannot blame the traffic cop for stopping you when the signal is red and neither should you dash across the red light if the cop is not in sight, (both incidents happened today), similarly one should not antagonize the Secretary for enforcing the rules.
Few incidents that leave a bad taste in my mouth-
We have strictly designated one gate as in-gate and another as out-gate for safety reasons- one person repeatedly uses the in-gate for going out on his bike- almost thrashed the Security for stopping him. I thought we should resort to gandhigiri- ask the Security to blow a trumpet, clap and garland him every time he leaves through the in-gate.
Rule enforced- no 2nd car allowed inside as we want to use the extra space for creating children’s play area. A resident is using a car park belonging to another absentee owner for her 2nd car. Association decides to collect rent for the same as the owner has defaulted in terms of paying maintenance. Lady comes back to us that she will discuss with her husband and get back. I vaguely suggest that there are others willing to pay for it and move their car in. No response from her even after a whole month has passed by. I really hate to ask them for it again and again.
A neighbour as put a clothes line in the common area…and it’s being shared by two residents.
We rent out our association hall for parties thrown by residents- it has a hall, and bedroom, kitchen, bath attached to it. Rs 500/day of usage. People question why are they being charged? Do they understand there is cleaning charges, usage of chairs, possible damage to the walls/ TT Table and other fixtures built in. And incase they rent a decent hall outside, they have to pay atleast Rs 6000-8000. Someone called up saying he wished to use it for accommodating his relatives for a few days. Good idea but I needed to check with the committee members as we had not spelled out that staying was allowed. He began to push me into allowing him to use it for accommodation. Well, sir, I do not fix the rules, I do need to discuss with the committee members. We did allow him and added the facility to the rule book.
Cricket and football not allowed in the building. A lady said please do something as her son is unable to play. We suggested TT and Badminton (facility available). She says – but he does not have a partner. Well what can I do? Procreate? Who stopped her from producing a partner for her son at the apt time?
A lady stopped the kids from even standing near her new car (civic) for fear of scratches. Since her son who was driving the civic had little civic sense himself, he dashed it real bad and the car ended in the garage. Divine Providence?
People calling at odd-hours to discuss issues/ complaints. Finally I had to put an end to it by placing a request that all complaints will be taken only at the meetings and only if the person involved is present, and I surprise myself by being strict about it.
People questioning the association why a particular commitment has not been met. Why don’t you volunteer to complete the job? Left to me I have my priorities clear- my family, my job and then the association activities. Something which was clear when I assumed the office.
I was told this is a thankless job when I accepted it. I realized, but wanted to do it, set an example, to bring the people together. It pains me to admit that barring one picnic and another competition for kids, I have not been able to organize. The garba/ new year party all went kaput as none were willing to sign up in advance/ participate/ volunteer. Even the regulars were cheesed off and chickened out- (there, I support both the non veggies and the vegans by using both terms).
Can we as individuals change? Can we become more involved in the rest of the world around us? If I had the time, I would have done much more.
I could manage to change the security, enforce the one-car only rule, self type the complex directly and get copies to all, regularize monthly meetings among other minor things.
If only the landscape guy respected my schedule and came as per the appointment I gave him, I could try my hand at bettering the greenery around. If only Mr Civic was more willing to give up his parking slot in exchange for a new one created by the association, we could formalize the children’s play area. If only people pasted the parking stickers on their cars so that the rampant entry of outside cars could be controlled. If only people were more cooperative and willing to accommodate, then things would move a lot faster. After all, we are not running the government here where stakes are much higher!