Saturday, November 17, 2007

Children are sponges!

A very quick post before I take off on my two week trip tomorrow - me and the two kids. B has to come back home to a dark and empty house - no kids running to him, no wife arguing with him - peace and quiet - may be a little too much of it. I have been telling him that he will only miss the kids and not me. What else can he say but disagree with me! Lest I start a fight over that!
Anyways - back to my post.

Karagre vasate Lakshmi
karmadhye Saraswati
Karmule Govindaha
prabhate kar darshanam

Meaning: On the top of the palm resides Lakshmi, in the middle Saraswati, and on the base Lord Krishna. Therefore one should look at the palms each morning.

Couple of months back (when KB was 25m old) my mother started teaching him this sloka and 3 other small but fairly complicated sounding slokas in my opinion. For ex the other one goes: Kavitharthika Kalabaurutha kabalikrutha simham"...and so on.
I half jokingly told my mother "Amma, Yen maa ivvlo karadu murada solli kudukre - yedhan simple'aa sollen" (why such complicated ones, why don't you teach him simeple slokas). She completely ignored me and continued on - she would just recite it to him - that's it. And he would say the last words to each line when she asked him.
I thought to myself - fine he seems to have picked up the last words.
When she left she wrote it down for me on a sheet from my magnetic note pad on my refrigerator. KB and I call that sheet "Patti slokam". I am hardly religious, at least in the traditional sense of it. But just to continue the tradition that my mom got going, I light the lamp (try to) every evening. And I bring "Patti slokam" and recite it for KB. He watches the whole thing with fascination.
Last night, after dinner, he asked for that sheet and went to the couch and sat next to B. He looked at it as if he was reading and recited the whole sloka (and a couple of others) - complete lines, not just the last word - on his own! I was astounded. He got mad at me when I helped him out when he was pausing for a bit on some line. He told me to stop (Vendaaam!). And continued on on his own. I realized how I had under estimated what he is capable of learning (not just him, children in general). My mother on the hand just did not pay any attention to my asking her to tone it down and went ahead and just recited these to him every day. And he got it. It was a lesson for me to not under estimate the extent to which children can learn. And also be perceptive. I can see how KB esp is coping and helping me out now that my mother is not here. I can't pin point it but I really feel like he understands and is trying to help me out at least to some extent.
Adios - have fun all of you, while I am gone. I won't be at the computer much when I am there. Praying that the kids should be good on the flight and enjoy the trip.
Take care!

17 comments:

Cantaloupes.Amma (CA) said...

Have fun in your vacation!

I say the same sloka every morning .. (only small change, Karamolesite Gowri.
The same happened with Cantaloupe as well ... when my parents visited they taught her some basic slokas which I had ruled out that she would never be able to pick up... but boy she proved me so wrong. Now when there is any pooja in the house, she promptly comes up, folds her hand and recites all the slokas she has learnt and bends forward ... its amazing !

mnamma said...

Have a wonderful trip Noon! The kids wouldn't trouble you much - Like you say they are well aware of the enduring limit ;) And isn't it amazing the way he picked up the sloka. I can visualise him stopping you from prompting him and continuing on his own :)M and N picked up Srirama Rama Ramethi when they were at KB's age I agree that they have a great potential for picking up things - far more than we have imagined :)Adios Amigo!

Kumpi said...

wow cool ! Have to visit KB and KG soon! so long then, have a wonderful vacation !

PS: I learnt slightly different version: Karamule sthithe gowri, as I am typing this, I just noticed "ca" has already pointed it out :)

Anitha(Nikki's mom) said...

WOW! wonderful, children never cease to amze us.

Maggie said...

Have a nice vacation with the kids!

Anonymous said...

enjoy your vacation noon..I just came back from one..

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

Have fun and I'm impressed too by KB's shlokha prowess !

Savani said...

that is so amazing..I recite shlokas to Chip too including karagre which his dad does in the mornings).. he can complete the lines, but still can't say the whole lines clearly. That is quite an awsome feat! Have a safe trip noon and come back with lotsa tales and pictures.

Chitra said...

Hey thats a lovely post again Noon. Have a lovely trip.

DDmom said...

Lovely post. Have a wonderful trip!

Collection Of Stars said...

Grandmom's are the best teachers and I say this with experience :)
Have a great trip and hope you don't have much trouble on the flight :)

~nm said...

Of course! I've realised this so many times that how we under estimate our children! They are way too much smarter than we can imagine! The are little just by their size and by nothing else beyond that!

30in2005 said...

That is just adorable.

Have a wonderful trip.

Rohini said...

Hope you had a good flight. Looking forward to hearing all about yout trip...

the mad momma said...

ohGod... all the best. i have to hear abt the flight in detail noonie!

By Deepa and Supriya said...

you are well into your vacation by now I guess..dunno how i missed this post and that was interesting..i have failed in my attempts to teach Li'l A but then again consistency is the key
and also..i finally did your tag on the engagement story...atleast part one, sorry it is a long story!

noon said...

Thanks every one of you! I saw the comments only after I got back from my trip.
Vids - yes you have to visit!
Aryan's mom - hope you are doing a post on your trip!
Poppins - I am more impressed by my mother's faith in how much children can grasp! :)
Dotmom - you know what - amazing how you form impressions randomly - I didn't think about it too much - but somehow I can't picture Big Geek reciting Karagre in the mornings - somehow imagined him to be agnostic! :)
Orchid - will read your post soon.

Thanks every one!