Pic courtesy: AKARAKINGDOMS at Freedigitalphotos.net
This is a very random post about random happenings around our home focussing on the boys. For one, their first unit tests of the new academic year are on. Today is the last day for the younger son. I must be more happy than him for sure. 😀 In case, you didn’t know, I sit with him and teach him. I would like him to follow the elder brother in studying on his own but that still seems to be a long way away. He has starting doing his own homework, so that’s a great start.
Oh by the way, I have to tell you about this huge monster bigger than T-Rex that inhabits our mindspaces every time someone says the word assessment. The elder one was relaxed as that dinosaur was out of his life on the very first assessment day itself. The younger one was not so fortunate. The menace of this monster is so terrifying that even I start trembling by the very mention of it. HINDI is that monster. Seriously, the people designing the curriculum are high on a lot of things except commonsense. The kind of Hindi that we teach our kids is something no one (outside of UP or Rajasthan) speaks or understands these days.
Yes, Hindi is our mother tongue, but the kids are definitely not into shuddh Hindi. Their genders are messed up courtesy their dad who has uniformly made everything masculine in every sentence. And, I like a stuck record, keep correcting their conversations all the time. At least their pronunciation is correct.
But when my younger one has to learn really difficult words and their meanings, he gets tears in his eyes and I get a massive headache. Through tantrums, frustrations and vows of studying harder that never materialize, we somehow plough through the chapters. It makes me very sad because I love Hindi, and I am damn good at it. But, I understand that the kids don’t have the kind of exposure or love that I had for the language, and no one speaks that kind of Sanskritized Hindi anymore. I don’t know if ever the curriculum will be upgraded and brought to realistic levels. But till that time, Hindi continues to be a stuff of nightmare for my boys.
In other news, the teen in the home has suddenly taken to singing at all times. He is not blessed with the most tonally correct voices, not that it deters him ever. When I am on the edge in the evenings especially when my evenings are spent slogging with a younger child who is driving me nuts studying, I find it so hard to cope with his loud singing. And hence like every teen, he must sing as often as possible. 🙂 Welcome to being a teen mom, I guess.
The elder one is off all medication and diet restrictions, thus one may expect some goodies to be cooked this weekend at our place. But, I have learned to be evasive about this because the younger son has the memory of an elephant and the negotiation skills and persistence of a lawyer. Once I promise that I am making something, he keeps reminding me and cajoling me till I make good that promise kicking and screaming. Nah, never commit anything to the kids!
Coco is doing much better now on that take-off-and-not-come-back-routine. I have allowed him to run off a couple of times, yes deliberately, and not go chasing him. I want the novelty of eloping to wear off. Hopefully, it will. He is behaving himself for now till he sees the next stray dog or cat.
So, that is all on the boys front for now. Never a dull moment in this house as there are at least a 100 fights in a day that lead to indignation, accusations, refereeing, disappointment from mom for not doling out adequate punishment, mom sulking, lecture by mom, apologies all around, make up. Start the cycle again. This goes on in loop. If I completely lose it one of these days, here is the written evidence about who was responsible. 🙂
So long then and have a great weekend!
This is exactly why I love your posts Rachna. You mirror my thoughts. I love your ‘Random’ posts best. I’m a true blue UPite and I love Hindi and am pretty good at it too. But the kids .. OMG!! The less said the better. I never thought I’d have to deal with problems in Hindi. I’ve been blaming myself all along wondering how I couldn’t have inculcated my love for the language in them. It made me angry and sad by turns. But now that you say it – I get it – No one speaks Hindi like that anymore, certainly not here in Maharashtra. The curriculum needs to be worked upon. Thanks, I needed to hear that.
Oh and that bit about making a promise to your kids – so bang on true. Never ever ever do that. – Learnt that lesson the hard way.
Lol to the musically inclined son. Teenage is cute.
So nice to share so many things in common with you, Tulika. Chalo, at least we both are in the same boat and can take solace in each other’s misery about the linguistic challenge that our kids face with respect to Hindi. 🙂 Thanks for reading and for such a lovely comment.
Rachna, it is a very interesting post. This is the story of every house. BUT,alas we miss all this tu tu mein mein, when they grow up.
Yes, I am sure I will when they are older. Thank you, Ushaji for reading.
Aah! Hindi is one sore subject for Aaryan too. He is terrible at it. Hope he does better in this subject. Oh yes, anything that you promise the kids is never forgotten, in fact is reminded till you do it. Have to be very careful of what you promise to them. Good that Coco is learning to come back too. Enjoyed reading the fun happenings at your place 🙂
Thanks, Shilpa. 🙂
Adding a personal touch to the post makes it interesting…Loved it 🙂
Thanks, Uma.
It’s amazing that your teen sings a lot. We boys generally are more apprehensive when it comes to singing at home as compared to girls. Then again, maybe I’ve grown old and failed to notice the world around me changing.
The part when the eldest makes everything masculine while in Hindi had me in fits. Yes, surely you must be thinking: “It’s easier to laugh when you don’t have to manage it all every single day.” 😀
New fad I guess with him. I thought everyone sings at home. 🙂 It is in public that most people shy away.
I guess, you mean the husband by the eldest. Oh yes! Luckily, he has a sense of humor to handle it well. 🙂 Laugh away. It was a lighthearted post for a reason.
The teen ages have arrived…. all the best…. but you never know you may have a budding rock-star at home… 🙂
But now that the schools have reopened..may be the boys will be more busy with studies…
hahaha I doubt the part about the rock star. Oh, the schools here opened on 1st June. They are already through with their first unit tests. 🙂
Ha ha! I enjoyed reading your post – loud singing, assessments and Hindi 😀
You are right – we talk in Hindi but it is so much different than in the books. Poor boys, it’s so hard for them!
hahah Poor boys and poor me too. 🙂 Glad you liked the post, Parul.
Oh God! You know Rachna Hindi was a monster for me too…We had Hindi till the 6th standard and after that it was Additional English so I was saved…Hindi, oh God even now I’m bad at reading anything written in the language !
Anyways, looks like you have your hands full each day! Reminds me of my childhood days..I must call mom now 😀
haha I can imagine. Despite being Hindi speaking, my kids find it hard to cope. So, I can quite understand your angst when you were younger. Chalo, one good thing, you will call your mom. 🙂 Hands full — that’s about right I say. 🙂
Teen and singing….that’s surprising. I thought they become more shy now. Shuddh Hindi…hahaha…reminds me of my own struggles making them talk broken Telugu if not shuddh Telugu…As crazy as I am, I chose Hindi as my second language in high school and messed up my 10th % age. I was so good at Telugu, I would have scored a 80 + if I had taken that.
Glad to know Sid is doing good. oh yes, never promise anything to cook unless you really mean to. I know that well with my girl. 🙂 btw, I think my Hindi is getting better whenever I try to use it as a code lang. 😛
Oh, this guy keeps singing all the time. 🙂 I was excellent at both Hindi and English and scored well in them. haha Code language.
This took me back to when I was a kid and me and my younger sis were such a riot. I was the one who needed help in Hindi and remember Mum staying up with me late night before the exams to help me with those hindi essays! 😉
Loved this random post!
hehe Indeed, we all remember our childhoods and what a riot we were. Thanks for reading, Aditi.
Haha, a very sweet post reflecting everyday struggles of a mother. 🙂
Thanks, Deeshani. Yep, just another day in paradise. 🙂
I thought I was reading about my own household of a few years back! For you, it is Hindi and for my children, it was Tamil for a year or two. Tamil grammar is very tough. Then I changed it to Hindi for one and to Sanskrit for other. Somehow, they were OK.
Fighting was there forever! Promising to make something special during weekend…it was tough to skip for any reason!
I liked to read about your son singing! It must be fun! My sons heard music all the time but they were not singing! Guitar used to get strummed all the time, I remember now!
For you, it is Coco and for us, it was Andy. He used to run away often with his chain and sit somewhere even if the chain was struck in a tiny grass! We had to go on search!
Enjoyed this post of yours, Rachna..reminded me of my sons’ teen age days!
Oh, they get good grades, Sandhya. But I feel sad with the struggle. Languages should be fun not taxing. So glad to hear that the post reminded you of the olden days, Life is so enjoyable with kids and their quirks.
Loved reading your daily tidbits Rachna. Speaking of language, when I first shifted ti Mumbai from Delhi, it took me sometime to get accustomed to the the difference in Hindi spoken in the two cities. When it comes to singing it is better if your son sings rather than sitting with earphones plugged on to the ears all the time, something that my daughter does all the time and it irritates me to the core. 🙂
Thanks, Somali. Yeah, I can imagine. My mum faced the same. Most times she thought that the bai was quarreling with her. 🙂 She addressed everyone as aap and patiently spoke in shuddh Hindi while they look at her baffled. hehehe Trust you to make me see the positive in his incessant singing. It does feel better now. 🙂
Learning lannguages could be fun or a challenge based on the environment:) A nice read!
Thanks Rahul.
hahaha I enjoyed reading these little tidbits about the boys 😀 how about recording the younger one’s singing and letting us hear too 😀 Hindi was my weak spot to. I would get all the choti and badi matra wrong. I remember asking my teacher what does Vichumbit means… he looked at me and said it means kiss {of all the words I found that to ask him }
Thanks, Rajlakshmi. Yes, I should try doing that recording. hehehe about that episode. Your teacher must have given your amused smiles. 🙂
My father had the audio tape of my “SONGS” till I was in college and used to pull my legs with that.
hahaha Now it seems like a great idea. Let me try it too. 🙂
And now I’m worried. Already. Sigh! Why can’t education be more fun and be something we’d use more practically.
I guess that is an ongoing battle. Though, they are better balanced in terms of co-curricular activities than we were, the curriculum does need to be overhauled. I wonder if anyone is paying attention. Exactly, why not make it fun, interesting and usable. Thanks for reading, Sid.
Honestly, I never enjoyed hindi in school but loved Marathi and Sanskrit. I do not know if it was the curriculum or the teacher. I was hoping the state of education would be better before my kid comes to school. Now I am dreading S’s school years. Great news about Coco behaving and not taking off often. The novelty will wear of soon. The news of the kid singing took me back to my teen years, I used to sing more than talk. Loved this post.
Ah! Hindi in school — tell me about it. Hubby and I were talking about this just last evening. I swear it was the sthreeling/puling thing for every word that made Hindi difficult for me.
Watching a lot of Hindi on TV made it a lot easier; I just happened to pick up some of that gender thing without my knowledge. Maybe that will help G 😉
That’s a sweet post on the all the craziness that motherhood is all about. 🙂
I speak the language correctly. But they had to pick up their father’s unisex Hindi. 🙂 Thanks for reading.
My struggle with Hindi is very different. Living in the US, I will consider myself fortunate if my son can speak fluent hindi and write the basics. I love the language so much that I can’t imagine him not being able to understand it. He understands quite a bit now, but I am not sure how it will be going ahead, when he goes to school and makes friends who don’t speak the language at all.
It was fun reading about the boys. I hope you add more “random” posts to mix. 🙂
I can understand, Shantala. It really saddens me that they don’t feel the same love for the language. But, yes they do speak Hindi fluently. Thanks heavens. I can understand what you are saying. If they don’t hear or converse in the language, then slowly it dies. 🙁
Yep, those random posts are fun. 🙂 Thanks for reading.
Soon he will be singing love tracks!! 😉
It seems like a busy household indeed! Happy to take a walk through it.
Hehe I am waiting for a love-lorn teen in the house. 😉
Thanks. Never a dull moment here.