“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.”

This post of mine is something which I had thought of writing and then you know one of those days when you are not able to write due to your busy schedule or when you are sick …yup this was supposed to come before that confused state of mine post :D..!

“You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it” ~ Voltaire

If you remember I had posted on paint ball game and the gun craze in USA, yes and as I look around myself I see these many and find that common people find it very difficult to raise there kids!

“Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas” ~ Paula Poundstone

The other day I happened to be invited for a get-together where everyone gathered…people with there husbands and kids and everyone had a gala of time as for people like me :D….delicious food was prepared and for men who would like to drink had those arrangements too!
Kids were the most excited as they were able to meet there friends whom usually they don’t meet since they don’t go to the same school!

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”

I remember there were many boys and couple of gals among the kids…and one of this boy seemed to be very aggressive in whatever he does…he will jump and scream and the mother was getting very upset… as when she looks around other kids…they all seem to play and share things where as her son is always demanding and sometimes using words such as …”I will kill them all” ..or “I will shoot them” all these made the mother very emotional and I tried to console her saying boys are a bit aggressive than gals and so just chill out!

The boy got scolding from mother and he started crying…we felt bad for him since it’s always embarrassing even when we were kids and our parents scold us in front of other friends and family!

“Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

But the sooner the guy got pacified, he talks to another friend of his mom that “we should stuck that in there throat and should kill them” – I guess this was the last straw and the mother got very angry with tears in her eyes - She said I feel so bad when I get calls from his school saying your son is being very naughty!

“The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grief and fears: they cannot utter the one, nor will they utter the other” ~ Francis Bacon, Sr.

That day I kept on thinking about the mother…her worries and concerns for her only son…whom should we blame? The parents because they love him and want the best for him ….or the little boy… who has no clue at this age as what he is saying and what’s the literal meaning of it!!!!

“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

And guess what, it’s the craze of guns in USA. I was wondering people talk all kinds of terrorism and the camps and the activity camps where they teach teenagers to use the guns etc but that is at least at that age but in USA what I see is …the cartoons and the movies all of those shows are about guns and killing the other person and being a hero!

“We call a child's mind "small" simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort” ~ Christopher Morley

Which is the schooling ground? And does this have any age???
Think about it and I wonder sometimes where we are heading with all these….!

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.”

Today I am going to write about my childhood memory which now a days keeps on coming into my mind…and sometimes I wonder is it trying to give me some kind of signal …!!??!!

“Good friends are like stars.... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there”

Well this is when I was 1st grade and I remember our school was a co-ed and hence the whole class was made to sit as one gal and one boy! You will never see any two gals sitting together or two boys sitting together.
I also had a bench partner – a Punjabi Jatt guy Harpal Singh, I often remember him..in fact even now I remember him in his maroon turban the one the kids have not the grown-ups. It was only on Wednesdays that he used to wear a white one since that was our PT day and everything has to be white. But I used to like him very much in the sense I always used to feel I have a special bench mate with the turban where as all other boys were without turban!
Harpal, though a true jatt in physical aspect because many times new teachers often used to ask him if he is in 5th grade and I remember I used to tease him a lot!!!!
Gosh, I always thought I was a sober, shy and reserved person but now I think I wasn’t: D
But Harpal’s behavior was more or less was like a child…a careless, carefree and selfless kind. We used to fight a lot because we had so many differences but somehow I always used to appreciate his innocence –yeah it was only in my mind. I never expressed it and probably that’s why am here today with my story :D

“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”

He had a craze about Trains…such a bad that I think probably he used to even dream during day time :D…! Any free period we used to get he used to ask me what am I going to do and I used to tell him ..am going to write and he as usual says – I am going to draw rails (yes these were his words) and he used to make the steam engine so black that am sure his grand-parents always had to store pencils for him :D!
This guy will either draw train or else he will make the noise of the train whistle with his hand and friends its not only that but the whistle no one was able to hear as all the saliva used to come and spread like a sprinkler on the desk. I used to get mad at this and I remember we often used to fight for this simple reason!

We used to become friends also very quickly and let me confess it was him who used to forgive everything and come to me to talk and he will also apologize and say that now on I will make sure I don’t do like that :D….now when I think …he was so innocent and loving guy!

I remember one day it was games period and the teacher was sick so we had another teacher who just made us to sit in the class and said do what ever you like but with limited noise.

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”

I remember I was drawing some mountains, sun and peacock where as this guy started his train and I said you always draw trains and nothing else..! He said ok today am not going to draw and make a mess of the desk so he packed his bag (since it was our last period and he always like to get ready and set out of the school as the first bell rings for us to go home) and started his brrrrr noise with his lips trying to drive the truck ………….GOSH! that was it as his saliva started falling on my drawing and I got so mad that I pulled out his turban and I remember it got loosened a bit and he started crying….:( I guess that’s when I was too harsh on him. I apologized immediately but I made him understand how he should behave and you know what he told me guys….I have no younger sister or brother …am the youngest and my elder sisters they all scold me or spoil me with pamper and my grand-parents they never scold me and always protect me from others scolding!

You are the one who always make me straight and when I go home and tell my Didi’s (elder sisters), they all make fun of me and probably that’s why I fight with you but now on I am not going to fight with you…we will be always good friends and we will show our class that we are the best buddies :D….!
It was sad that next year he never joined my class and when I enquired he had left the place as his grand parents and sisters they all were moving to Punjab!

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”

Harpal no matter where you are…whether you remember me or not…but I do remember you…the real friend with who I grew up and Trains always remind me of you.

This is a true remembrance from my side for my friend – Harpal Singh

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.”

“Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious...”

Yes! its been a long break after the Onam feast...I guess that also gives a lesson as no matter how good and tasty the food is..one must think of his/her own capacity ;)

"I seldom think of my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers"

Well...its not that I had nothing to blog but I guess more or less it was at a point where I had too many things to blog and you know what I was not being myself...coz otherwise I wont be thinking whether to blog or not! Hence what! I lost my topics and thoughts too :(

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

But never mind...I have retained my spontanity where I will write whatever I think about ...whatever that prompts and provokes my thoughts :D

So for now....no more chillin ;)

“Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely?”

Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by

Onam the time when Mahabali visits the state Kerala where everyone want to show this king that his people are living in happy and lively :) ! This is expressed by having variety of food (believe me you will love them all - its pure vegitarian), though there were discussions on this that its not compulsory to have veg as after all its to express your joy and happiness and if someone is happy with non-veg then why not ..lol!
Well, I had the opportunity to meet at a friend's place where it was a pot-luck sadya (feast). There were lots and lots of delicious food items and four types of payasams (desert).

“I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food”

To add the beauty and welcoming note there were flowers decorations as shown above to welcome Mahabali for this year Onam.
I had an awesome time, did you all Mallu's? Well let me take this opportunity to wish all the Keralites across the world a Very Happy and Joyful Onam. May Mahabali bring the good luck to you and your family.

“May good luck be your friend in whatever you do and may trouble be always a stranger to you.”

“Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.”

Thursday was a very normal day. There wasn’t much work on the project and we had a team event planned in the afternoon – Paintball Game :D

I didn’t bring the proper clothing for this game and hence was in two minds whether to join the crowd or not…but by the time it was 1:00 p.m. everyone started pushing me to go home and change as we have play against Development team ;) and guess what I took off for home and got changed and reached the venue of the game.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” ~ Albert Einstein

This game I have never played before but I have seen on TV which I could only figure-out when I was in the game! In Canada, at least in Toronto I have never heard of such a game and neither there have they allowed anything that has to do with a toy-gun!

“A Canadian is sort of like an American, but without the gun”

You have to wear multiple layers of clothing and you get the vests and masks and gun with the paint balls. These balls are hard coated from outside and inside you will see the liquid paint which when you get hit by the ball breaks and the paint splashes all over you. By the way did I tell you this paint is not washable: D! There are big bunkers created in different shapes where you have to hide yourself and tactically hit the opponent.

“The way a man plays a game shows some of his character. The way he loses shows all of it.”

Our first game was against Developers and believe me, no one was an expert and more over our team was a small one with only few members as compared to the development and guess what :D we won …we shot them all and conquered there space!

The rule of the game is if you get hit by the ball you must voluntarily come out of it, and the thing is you cant lie as the paint is splashed all over you and so you have no escape ..;)

“Life, like all other games, becomes fun when one realizes that it's just a game” ~ Nerijus Stasiulis

Any way, I must say I enjoyed the game as many people left and still we were some crazy people out there who were still playing and over all we played more than 5 games.
I got hit on my right wrist – which I could only realize when I reached home. The second on the shoulder and the third on the back….boy, I never thought any one would shoot be from behind …well it’s a good fast paced and strategy planned game but somehow it left me with the thought that…the motive is to shoot the opponent and in US everywhere I hear about gun show, shooting games and all these makes me remember the incident which took place in Texas school where one kid brought a gun in the school and shot couple of his classmates.

“Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules” ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

I remember these things were banned in Toronto schools as such things give ideas to small kids and hence the results that we used to hear in US schools.
Anyway, I was damn tired of this game and hence came home, had a shower and got down to watch a movie ‘Inside Man’ to my amazing when the star casts are shown the music in the background was ‘Chal chaiya chaiya ‘from Indian movie “Dil Se” haha boy I totally got zapped and started wondering if I picked up the wrong video but to my surprise in this movie where ever they needed a background music this song was played…:D! Good for AR Rehman!
Movie is awesome; if you get a chance and haven’t seen, please do so! A lot credit goes to the script writer I would say – of course Denzel Washington adds his glory along with Clive Owen and the rest.
I have some bruises but I was happy to be in the team event ;) we were the winner :D

“Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.”