My kid's - Do it yourself - On his little old cycle

 My elder kid Surya busy painting his dismantled tricycle in red colour.

After finishing paint job, its now refitting schedule
 

 Some pride of having finished a job which is first in his lifetime

The tricycle is ready after do-it-yourself paint job and refitting done by Suriya.
My younger kid Lokashyam joins the elder one Suriya and the joy ride goes on in this little tricycle

Pongal Festival at home

Pongal celebrations had been a grand one all these years in my life time here at my home. But this year, parents and grand parents went to Chennai for brother's home. As grandma and dad are both not well, the whole family was not able to travel back to Cuddalore to enjoy the festive celebrations.

So, we were at loss of the grandeur and me, wife and two kids were the only people this time here in Cuddalore to celebrate the Pongal festival.

All these years, there would be grandma who would have been keeping an eye on the traditional earthen stove. This stove is fired with twigs and fire wood. Often we encounter mistakes in maintaining a uniform flame and she intervenes to correct our mistakes.

The mistakes would be

1. We would have pushed too much twigs into the stove and snuff out the flame, resulting in too much smoke engulfing out of the stove.

2. People around would be suffering from soaring eyes due to the smoke. Folks (me or brother) behind the stove usually go away from the spot to escape the burning sensation.
 
3. Grandma would intervene and correct the system of the firewood inside the stove and shortly the fire engulfs, snuffing out our worries.

4. Sometimes  we push in too much twigs and the fire would be blowing in too fiercely and grandma intervenes to maintain uniformity.

So much of these years, we were in for a surprise and challenges in maintaining fire in this stove. At the end we enjoy at the sight of the boiling Paal (Milk) Pongal gushing out of the utensil.

This year was the first time ever in my life in which there is no one to guide us through. I was cooking alone in this challenging earthen stove. Wife was tied up with other chores to keep the festive going through. After setting up the placement of the system, she left. My kids helped in getting the fire wood and twigs nearer to the stove.

So, with a little dose of fear I sat in front of this stove. It was sheer luck that the whole process went on well. I kept to my idea of pushing twigs of small size at uniform intervals into the stove. So, the flame did not get off as well as not to grow much fiercly.

After some 15 minutes the Pongal boiled out and pushed the steel plate off and gave us some ecstatic  interesting moments.

A Pongal enjoyed well !
This too is a first time responsible experience which has come out well.

Happy Pongal!!

Photographer was my elder kid Suriya
Camera : FujiFilm F770EXR

Suriya joined Tae Kwon Do

Got to enroll my kid Suriya in 'Tae Kwon Do' last week.

Why Tae Kwon Do.... ?

I was into Karate long back during student days. But, have not pursued the martial art since the timings clashed with my academic. There was nobody to motivate or push me to go.

The benefit of pursuing a martial art is that kids who are regular, would not get into bad habit which is especially witnessed when they are crossing past their adolescence. Through systematic practice a person's physical fitness gets a boost as the whole body is exercised and the entire muscular system is activated. Beyond contributing to physical fitness, martial arts training also has benefits for mental health, contributing to self-esteem, self-control, emotional and spiritual well-being.

I was particular to get Suriya into Tae Kwon Do rather that Karate. Reason is that, Tae Kwon Do is a sport recognized by the Govt. of India and certifications won through the tournaments get greener points in sports category...

 And, thats Suriya practising the martial art on the first day (7 July 2013) into the class. The venue is St. Joseph's M.Hr.Sec School at Koothapakkam in Cuddalore. This is the same venue where I pursued my 3rd Standard during the year 1983.

Racing Smashes - Created at Home

My son Suriya has a pair of toy race cars and he often creates an accident situation with his play and catches that in the digital camera in the form of a video. But, today he came up with a different idea. To make it in the form of a picture.
First he asked me for the camera which I readily obliged. Then he was experimenting the two toy cars and making one of the car be on the floor and another in his hand as if it hits in an angle. He took some five clicks with the cars at different angles and got satisfied with one of the shot.
Then he involved me in his experiment. He asked me to transfer the pic into computer and delete the info other than the two cars. I used paint brush utility, erased the spots with the eraser utility and got a result like the one below.

He then asked me to take the below photo from the archives in the computer. This was the MRF arch at the Madras Motor Race Track situated at Irungattukottai in Chennai. The pic was clicked couple of years when I went for the MRF Racing event. This comes up as screen saver in the home computer at times. 

So far, I was not clear on the idea he was having in his mind, but, was responding to his demands and giving him the results with the Paint Brush utility on the home computer.
Finally he asked me to create a scenario in which his cars would appear as if it had smashed at the race track exactly below the arch.
At this point, I became more than impressed with his idea. So, continued with pasting the toy car picture onto the race track picture and doing miniscule cut & paste jobs to match the texture around.

The end result was so fantastic. At first I was in the mood to hit the bed and take a good sleep. But, his wonderful idea made me to sit back at the computer and record such an innovative work by him at this age of just 7 years.

Portraiture photography session in progress

As the portraiture photography session being done my kids was in progress, I managed to freeze the moments on my camera.

The subject in the photograph was being captured in different perspectives.

Need to dig out the pics from that mobile phone. There were lot of pics on the mobile phone which needs to be transferred to the computer.

My son Suriya's paint brush art # 2

Nowadays we often see our 7 year old son Surya tied up with the computer, using the paint brush tools and making out some interesting artworks on the computer.

I created a specific folder on the computer for storing his paint brush arts and set the screen saver to display his works whenever the computer is idle. Ofcourse this has made him motivated to do some more paintbrush art on the computer. Anyhow we are forced to coerce him to go out from the computer and play in the street so that he don't get addicted too much with the computer.

Here is one more nice piece of art which I fished out from his folder.

There has been a definite improvement in his strokes compared to his earlier art work which I posted here.

My son Suriya's paint brush art

Its my kid Suriya's work. He drew this Ultra Deluxe A/C bus using the paint brush utility in our home PC.

my kid's scribblings

My little son 3.25 years old Surya's scribbling on the paint brush programme turned out to be a memorable image for my blog.
Just blogging it so that i could recall it to him when he learns blogging.
But who knows, blogging may cease and some other technology may enter this tech world.
Here his scribbling goes...

Doctor Vs Barber

Happened to click my tot Master.Surya getting a haircut.



This is the place where I frequent for hair cut for the past many years.
Charges - Rs.20.
Haircut charges for adults - Rs.30 (US $0.75)

Although the usual fees for consulting a doctor is Rs.25 (around here) the charges towards a hair cut for an adult is Rs.30.

See the logic here,
A doctor incurs a heavy expenditure towards his education, invests in a clinic and then practises his profession.
A barber practises from his childhood, then invests for his shop at a younger age and does service to more heads than that performed by the doctor.

Doctors are more here than the number of barbers. The barber caters to more number of people and earns more.
What a noble barber? - A high paying profession with good customer base. Remember he caters to 4 people from my family.