Revisiting Kohlberg
Psychology is a subject I must read up now. I thought I did read quite a bit in the Cognitive development and Moral development and you-name-it development by Piaget, Kohlberg and who not - but I still am not prepared for what the children are throwing up - so I obviously do not know enough.
While out eating lunch the other day, I leaned forward to pick up the quinoa salad when Arunav very casually said, 'Mama, you may want to pull up your t-shirt a little bit.' He continued eating his sandwich as if it was a remark about the weather, while leaving me stuttering for words. He is in HK, he must be seeing 100s of women wearing low cuts, why me?! Never have I been wearing so conservative that he has a preconceived notion, neither has he been influenced by society (hardly one exists here for us)...and yet I am missing something here. Why did he think that was not proper?
And then the other day while watching one of the Harry Potters, he quickly told off Aarushi just before a kissing scene, 'Aarushi close your eyes now.' Aarushi equally non-chalantly,'Are they going to kiss?' Arunav,'Yes, I will tell you when to open.' Arunav coolly watches the scene while Aarushi is all squeezed up.
Both me and Shyam were silent spectators at the sofa beside - they did not realize how dumb founded we were. We never told Arunav to close eyes for ANY scene - least of all kissing - and here we go...
So Kohlberg, here I come - I should have read more about you in that class rather than just the handouts.
She
said she felt very happy when the doctor said, 'your D has written the email with such clarity and included all relevant information that I do not need to ask you much. I just had to see you to make sure all's well....' She felt happy (that I had helped?), and I wondered why there was still a doubt (that I would). Only a small detail that became visible to her.... rest remained in obscurity, rest remained in doubt.
Show is essential. There's no faith; one which once entrusted cannot be questioned... the faith has to be reinforced over and over again for you to retain your position. Akin to a piece of paper valued up and down in the market...
There's no one way a person can become an object.
What price
So today's discussion (!).
"You should not run in a treadmill at 9kph right after eating breakfast."
"If I am not having a problem, what's the problem? My body feels totally ok."
What can one answer to that. Can apparently literate people really be so illiterate? So the question Chad and Trey asked in that discussion was relevant - how really educated are these people who seem to be so brilliant in a particular area that they spend a lifetime in it. Are they educated enough to have a happy family, are they educated enough to live life - education is about having life skills...wholistic.... ahh, I did not agree with them that time. I thought they can be acquired....
....question is acquired when and at what price?
In the meantime, Aarushi declared yesterday, "Papa, next time I want to bring my own money to shop, so I can buy all those things that you don''t let me buy like pink jewellery, shiny hairbands, - it's my money after all."
Oh my darling!
So Aarushi and Arunav were doing Maths. Aarushi completed and I wrote a 'darling' in front of where she had written her name in the sheet of paper. She was over the moon, 'Mama called me darling.' (Ok, yeah I don't call her that often enough)
When Arunav completed, I wrote, 'Naughty..' in front of his name and he protested, 'Hey, how come Aarushi gets darling and I am naughty?'
Aarushi replied, 'Are you a girl that mama will call you darling?'
Arunav said, 'What has darling got to do with girls?' I supported him too.
Aarushi, 'Well you see the word G I R L is inside the word "darling" - that's what it has to do.'
She did not take even 2 seconds to say that - the answer came pat!
Yet, her favourite subject is "lunch" and she normally "sleeps" in school :) Or should I say 'because' instead of 'yet' ???
The funny girl ?
I remember when Aarushi started going to Small World(SWCK), when asked what she did in school she had said, "I slept."
Yesterday I asked her what are her favourite subjects in school. In absolute seriousness, she said, "Art n craft and lunch."
I do hope she changes by the time she will be writing SOPs and doing interviews !! I am beginning to get worried...
Rentree
Kids start school tomorrow. We came back and slept for hours on end, as if there is no tomorrow, there was no yesterday.
We survived - for the time being at least.
I had a chocolate ice cream. I had a sumptuous chicken curry and rice. I had some medicines while remembering that fat, jovial doctor looking keenly into me and telling S, "Very often people who are drowning, if they do not put up their hands and cry for help - no one notices, and they die." He turned to me and said, "That would be very foolish, wouldn't it?" and at my expression gave me the widest brightest smile - I must have given him a really incredulous look for him to smile like that :)
India is always a surprise. Surprise is stored in every corner of it - and springs at you when you least expect it! I absolutely love that country, it is no short of a miracle. It is so difficult to find India in the newspapers - it is in the walking around, interactions, smiles, cries, openly lingering everywhere. It is true of every country of course - but whether due to my familiarity or not, I find it true of India in a far greater scale than for others.
