The favourite game of my two and a half year old neice is to cook, clean, bathe and put to bed her family of five dolls. She could do that all day long. At times we also are dressed, bathed and fed by her. It is really adorable the way she imitates her grandma and mom in the kitchen.

Just two days ago I saw another 3 year old doing the same thing. The only difference was her game was not make believe. She actually had a pot of clothes she had soaked to wash. and she was busy putting paper to burn a fire to cook a meal. She did not have a roof over her head or doting parents or adoring relatives. All she got at the end of the day were a few whacks if she did not do her daily chores. She was doing what her mother probably does and a few boys (presumably her brothers) were doing what they saw their father do, they were playing cards and betting on it with the few coins they had.

There is nothing shocking or startling about this entire scene esp if you have been in India. But I always wonder where these kids end up.

Post script

I just nearly wrote a PS in an e-mail. Why would I do that??? In a letter, yes, I can understand but in an e-mail its just a matter of punching the 'enter' key and inserting a line.

Slowly all the letter writing rules that we learnt in school are gonna be useless. There is no need to write the date, place or return address anymore. Do they teach E-mail etiquette in school these days? I can almost hear Ms. D'souza's voice "Three parts in a letter, introduction, main content and conclusion............"

Now that we are back people here ask me all the time "How did you enjoy your stay in the US". My answer is always the same it was great fun 2.5 years we enjoyed ourselves. But what I don't tell them is the fun part was not being in the US but being married to the guy I love.

Read a good book recently. Its by Sudha Murthy. It is a compilation of the experiences which made a deep impact on her life and made her the person she is. Its meant to be a kids' book but I realised that people of all ages can read it and learn something from it. Its reminds us of the simple values and morals that we have been taught as kids but tend to forget.

The name of the book is "How I taught my grandmother to read and other stories"

How can people who shirk their responsibilites live with themselves?? They must be having stages, guilt, denial and then who-gives-a-rats-a#@! The guys who are pros must be taking the express lane to the last stage.

In the past couple of months that I have been here I have seen so many different attitudes and personalities some of people I have known all my life and some I barely know (thankfully!!!). I could write pages on each of them but if I were to sit down and analyse each one I am sure to end up in the looney bin myself!! Instead, when I see someone behave in a way that make me cringe I just make a mental note... "Do not behave like that in a similar situation."

This is strictly self expression so the few readers of my blog may not understand what I am blabbering about.