Twenty fifth anniversary

I was telling Sahil about the upcoming anniversary of my sister. To make sure that he knows that it’s a big event, I told him that it’s the twenty fifth anniversary.

He was not impressed.

“So what’s the big deal?” he said. “They already had twenty four others like this.”

Ready with a plan

“Baba,” Sanjana asked one day, “how does one earn money?”.

“Well,” I answered, “you have to be good at what you do.”

“And what if I am good at everything?” Sanjana continued.

“Then,” I responded, “you will make so much money that you won’t know what to do with it.”

“Don’t be silly Baba,” She countered. “I know what to do with it. I will just put it in my piggy bank.”

Science fiction

Sahil once told me the following time travel story:

A man goes into the future and looks for himself. He asks his friends, now much older, about his whereabouts. The friends say, "we don’t know; he just disappeared one day". The man realizes what had happened and does some of the usual time travel trickery. Then he announces, "there I am". And, sure enough, there he was!

I enjoyed the story. After a moment of hesitation, he added with a chuckle

“Baba, I'm really glad that you didn’t ask me ‘how?’ when I said ‘a man goes into future’.”

And she is just learning

One day I was teaching Sanjana phonics. I would sound out the letters and she would blend it together to sound the word.

After trying a few words, she started to give me suggestions about which words I should try. She wanted me to try a word that starts with certain letter. So she said –

“Baba, now try the F-word.”

Accurate description

“I can’t eat this cheese macaroni any more,” Sanjana said.

“Why?” I asked. “You said you love cheese macaroni”.

“Because, Baba,” she said, “I am so full of it.”

On her way to literacy

“I don’t know how to read. I just remember the words and say them out loud when I see them.”

Party Girl

Sanjana was very excited about the neighborhood kids’ party. However once the party started, she was back in fifteen minutes. She complained –

“That is the most boring party ever. All they are doing is eating and talking.”

Let's get to the root of this

After the Daylight Savings time change, Sahil noticed that it was still sunny after his swimming class. When he asked, I started explaining how the time was changed to get the most of the daylight. He listened for a while and then said, in his best spare-me-the-unimportant-details voice

"Just tell me whose mistake it was"

Learning the facts of the life

After attending a couple of baby-showers in a row, Sanjana asked

“Does your tummy have to be fat for a baby-shower?“

Just demoted, or fired?

After learning recently that Pluto is no longer a planet, Sanjana asked me

“Baba, is Pluto still in the sky?”