Happy birthday to you!!!

14th June was Mom's B'day. HAPPY 19th B'DAY MOM!

Aren't all women the same when it comes to age! Mom JUST wouldn't let me type her real age!

My Aunt though takes the cake when it comes to age matters (pun intended). She's just sweet 16. Ironic, isn't it! The elder sister is younger than the younger sister! That kind of Maths would have fooled even Al Ein, I'm just a kid!!! But tell me something, does anyone really understand women!!!

Anyways, so coming back on track.. We had a great time. We cut Mom's birthday cake in the morning and then went picnicing to Cove Island Park, which is a nice picnic spot near where we stay.

This park, I should tell you, is a very chilled out place; people come here to play volleyball or barbecue or laze around on the beach or swim in the cool Long Island Sound waters in summer. Incidentally, summer is the season Americans enjoy the most. They just love to tan up in the sub-40 deg C temperature. Send them all to India, I say!!

If they'd have to tolerate summer year-round, like we have to in India, it wouldn't have been as much fun after all!

But I guess that's just human isn't it;

a) You don't have what you really want.

b) You don't need what you have.

c) And when you have what you really want, you go back to point #b above!!

The proverbial bird in hand loses out once again to the one in the bush..

Well, coming back to CI Park.. The best thing about it (that is , apart from the pretty girls lying around in tiny bikinis) is the train ride that takes me around the park.

Mom's B'day seemed more like my B'day, 'coz Mom took me for a long long train ride around the park! Which I LOVVEEEDDDD!!

Like the chap once said..

Go East, Go West,
Momma is the BEST!

Thanks Mom!

Exotic new languages!

Yeah yeah. I know!

The lions and tigers and gorillas and orangutans of this world may not be as pleased with my efforts..

My efforts to speak their language that is...

But for the ducks, doggies, cats, birds, squirrels and electric trains of this world, I'm a straight-A student.

Watch on..

Laptop Hunter

The eagle is a very smart bird, and an even smarter hunter. It spots its prey from far away, then persists to find a chink in its prey's armour, finishing off whenever its armory lets off even for a second.

I employ a similar strategy when it comes to hunting down Dad's laptop!! If you have read my post on my earlier attempts at laptop hunting, you would know how serious a hunter I am when it comes to laptops!! Animal Planet, you have a successor to the "Crocodile Hunter"... Me as the "Laptop Hunter".. I can even work on my "Austraayylian" accent to give viewers a seamless experience.. What say you??

So the other day, I was following Dad's laptop from the corner of my eyes, hovering nearby all the time, waiting for the right time to swoop in. But the laptop was on the table. And me being 3-foot nothing, it was a little high for me (Yeah yeah, being tiny has its disadvantages!).

There was a chair near the table which i could use to get to it. But I had to be careful not to catch my parent's attention. Hehehehe (devious laugh)!!

Time to gather some logistics! I look around... Everyone seems to be doing their own thing. Mom, at 10 o'Clock is in the kitchen (wow, that smells yummy!). Maasi at 3 o'Clock is busy straightening her hair. And Dad at 5 o'Clock is massaging his potbelly and playing "surf the channel" with the TV. The coast looks clear...

But... If i so much as put half a toe-nail on that chair, Dad would see me and I'd be at the other end of the room even before I could say "Peekaboo"...

Hmmm, I'll have to come up with a different strategy.......

Decoy!!!

What If I keep my high chair in the way?? Dad won't be able to see what I'm upto, as the high chair would hide my 3-foot nothing frame behind it (being small has its advantages too you know! ;) And voila! I'm up!!

The camouflage didn't last too long though. Dad was faster than Andrei Arshavin (who, by the way, has just taken Russia into the UEFA cup semis).

But!!

I was able to open the laptop and press 2 keys before getting busted! :D :D :D

That was fun!

Laptop Hunter's the name (devious laugh)! And I specialize in guerrilla-camouflaging myself to get to the laptop at any cost (ditto devious laugh)!!

Only... Better luck next time ;).

Or like Confucius might have said, "You shall press more keys next time, smart boy!"

I love apple.. The BIG APPLE!!

I had been to the BIG APPLE a few days back. It was a great train ride to NYC. The city was great as usual, thousands of people milling around, lots of traffic, the hustle and bustle of the big city!

City life appeals to both my parents. After all, they're from the biggest city in India, Bombay! I haven't been to Bombay (or for that matter India) yet, but my parents say NYC is as close as it gets to Bombay. For some reason, most Bombayites like to think of NYC as the equivalent of Bombay. And will proudly tell you so. Maybe because they find it as claustrophobically crowded as Bombay. Maybe because its as dirty as Bombay. Maybe because, like Bombay, NYC never quite sleeps! Maybe because like Bombay, NYC has a pulse, a rhythm, a beat to it... Dunno for sure

Speaking of rhythm; Bombayites love to sway.. Especially to the rhythm of a moving local train.. Doing the salsa on one foot (you won't know where the other one is), moving in sync with 30 other people who are squashed together on a square foot of train, with the head resting on someone's hairy arm, and the nose in another's smelly armpit, the right arm moving of its own accord, unaware of its own movements! That's what I call getting lost in the rhythm!!

Well, Love em or hate em, you just CAN'T ignore these great cities!

Anyway, coming back to NYC. We had gone to the top floor of the tallest building in NYC. It was like nothing I had ever seen before!! All the cars seemed as small as mine from up there. And the people as small as ants. I was surprised to find that miniature cars were such a hit with so many grownups! And I thought it was only us...

Ok, then we had food and then did some unnecessary woman stuff (shopping) and we were ready to leave for home! All in all, a nice time was had by all parties concerned, self included.

The journey back was pretty eventful too. More so because the train just wouldn't move!! I asked Mom about it and she explained everything to me! And now that I knew why it wasn't moving, I felt it my duty to let everyone else know about it.

I turned around and saw this nice old man sitting right behind me.

I smiled at him, pointed at the train and said "Cha... Cha!". He smiled at me and said "Oh How cute". Yeah Yeah, I know I'm cute, but I'm talking about the train right now mister!!! I repeated the "Cha Cha!!!!" this time with a little more urgency. This time it seemed like he understood.

After about 2 mins, I again couldn't contain myself. I had to let someone know why the train wasn't starting up. This was probably how Newton must have felt, when, after having discovered gravity, he found no one around to brag about it to (except perhaps the apple)!! Well what do you know! We geniuses are a lonely lot!

I looked around again after another 2. Nobody else seemed to be too bothered about the laggard train. So I made a general broadcast to nobody in particular, everybody in general, about the state of affairs... "Cha.. Cha!!!!!!!".

Having found no one particularly interested in acknowledging my broadcast, I turned to the nice gentleman again and reassured him again with a flash of my pearly whites and a "Cha.. Cha!!" on my lips.

And just as I was about to go on air for the umpteenth "Cha... Cha!!" telecast, the train finally started moving!!!! And we were home without any further delays.

This was the loveliest Memorial Day I've had in these first 2 years of my life.

Ciao till later!!




...


....


But wait a minute... I have a weird feeling that the paying public has a question they want answered.... I'm telepathic that way.

Hmmm, lemme see... I have a feeling you want to know what that "Cha.. Cha" deal was all about.. Right?

...

....

...

What Mom told me was that the train was charging up (just like Dad's phone). And it would start moving as soon as it was fully charged.

And THAT'S what I had been trying to explain to the nice old gentleman in my impeccable gibberish.

Ice Cave!

Not everyone has an ice cave at home.

I do.

And no. I'm not an eskimo!

Though Dad calls me that... Just cause I'm short and stubby with a small, round belly! Hmph!

Anyway, coming back to the ice cave. The heat of a bright sunny day melts away whenever I'm near it. The real reason I love it though is coz it takes care of all the things i love to eat.

Chocolate (or chocopuchie, as i pronounce it), Milk, Fruits, Cheese, Water, Coke (of course, i don't get to drink it as often as i would have liked to) and last but not the least, I Skeem (ditto, my pronounce).

There's magic in the way the light comes on automatically, just like Dad's car does at night.

Which is why I love to open and close it all the time...

And it seems to have an awesome magnetism about it. My colored alphabets are totally attracted to it, like moths to a flame.

It may not look as attractive from the outside, but what's inside is what matters!

Just like Mom, tough on the outside, a softie inside; ready to melt away at my slightest bruise, fall, cut or crawl.

That's what all Moms are like.

I know mine is!