Craft Work

Being in a co-ed school, there was always an option of choosing the crafts between the one meant for girls and the one for the boys. I had never chosen the ones meant for the girls until once it was made mandatory that girls have to do the crafts meant for them only. It was designing cross stitch patterns on a table cloth.

One day before my craft class, my mother tried hard to make her daughter master the skill. She even bought a pattern book so that I could choose the best pattern for me. But the girly things were never meant for me. Being pretty sure that nobody would be able to complete the work in the specified time, I somehow made sure that the class gets over without the teacher noticing my inability to do it. As expected none of the girls could finish the work on time and the teacher asked to complete it at home. So, I very happily took the work home for my mother to complete it.

But now, being a mother myself, there is no room for escape from the situation. Now, I have to help out my daughter who is very much unlike me as a child. She is over enthusiastic about the projects and crafts she is asked to do. She is a perfectionist and is never satisfied unless the outcome is perfect. So, now I have to struggle hard to cope up with the situation. 

Yesterday and day before yesterday, we, both mother and daughter were busy completing her two craft works - one a car hanging and the other a wind chime. Both the works to be done by beads. The car hanging was easy but was very time consuming and the wind chime needed a bit of innovation. The problem with Akanksha is that she wants to do everything by herself.

The car hanger was done using a bouncing ball, needle point pins, colored beads, colored sequences and a ribbon to hang.

The finished product was as below..

The wind chime was a bit complicated. It was done using the upper portion of a plastic bottle, glass paints, colored beads, marker pen, glass pipe, nylon thread and foil paper..

I helped Akanksha to cut the bottle in a wavy way..

She drew patterns on the bottle with the help of a marker pen before putting paints..

Each edge was marked with a dot to make a hole to hang the beads which were put together on a nylon thread..

I helped her making the holes with a punch..

Akanksha first used the black out liner over the patterns she made and let it dry. Than she filled the inside colors and put it to dry. She was doing one pattern at a time and letting it dry and than again moving to the next. This procedure made her loose all her excitement and was frowning when I tried to click pictures. So no more pictures were taken while the little lady was on action. By the time the whole painting was finished and left to dry both of us arranged the beads to be hung and once the paints dried and the beads were hung it appeared as below....

The first reaction came from the dear father waking up from a tight afternoon nap, "This is a ridiculous color combination". I tried not to listen to the comments fearing that Akanksha might again be adamant to redo it. But to her reaction I was very happy. She replied her father with a yawn, "That's all a 10 years old little girl can do. Nothing more than that". At it there was an outburst of laughter from we, the fortunate parents. 

Shooting at Doordarshan Kendra

The whole of last week was very hectic for Akanksha. Early morning she went to school and after school she had to rush to her dance school for rehearsals for a shooting of a Manipuri dance drama-Krishna Lila, at the Doordarshan Kendra on Saturday to be telecast on the occasion of Janmasthmi. 

On Saturday, all the not less than 30 odd participants reached the Doordarshan premises at the scheduled time of 12 noon. All the participants were accompanied by their moms and curious relatives. I alone accompanied Akanksha as her father had a working day. Yet he was humble enough to drop us at the venue.

The Kolkata Doordarshan Kendra is situated at the posh Golf Green area in the Southern fringe of the city. It is merely one and a half kilometers from our house. As soon as we entered the building the temperature became soothing as the whole of the building is air conditioned. It has lavish rooms and spacious corridors. The whole building is so large that it will take quite sometime to get acquainted. The interiors of the building is beautifully done but it lacked a bit of maintenance. We were led through a vast corridor to the green room. As we entered the green room we found it full of children getting dressed for the program. The seniors were helping the juniors to dress.

Professional make up artists did the make up and the procedure was over by 2 o'clock. The shooting was scheduled to start at around 2.30 p.m. But due to some technical problems it did not start in time. The children started playing antakshari to kill the time. 

Akanksha gives a pose after make-up

Akanksha with Raya

Akanksha with Gunja

In the mean time I somehow managed to enter the studio where the shooting was to take place. I was surprised to see so many people engaged for the particular job. There were camera men, sound technicians, director, helpers, light men etc,. All were busy with their own job. I was standing there and was bound to think so many hard works are behind a finished program presented before us, which we watch sitting at the cozy couch of our living rooms and also we never think twice before criticizing anything that we do not like. May be from now onwards I will give a thought before criticizing such work.

Though photography was prohibited inside, I managed to click a few pictures of the studio with my mobile. It is not clear as I clicked it from quite a distance.

It was 4o'clock but the shooting did not start yet. By then the children became restless. Most of them were hungry and sleepy and wanted to go home. We, the moms, fed them with whatever we had brought from home- cakes, biscuits, chocolates and somehow managed to cool them down. Few of us went to the canteen to bring something for them to eat. The canteen was again very specious that served very tasty tea and coffee and that too at a very cheap rate. Since we went there quite late most of the snacks were finished. There was only sweets(gulab jamuns) left. We ordered 50 gulab jamuns but each of us first sipped a cup of tea and than went to the green room and flashed the news of tea and coffee being served at the canteen. Within a fraction of seconds the waiting room was empty since the parents flocked at the canteen. The children were happy to see the gulab jamuns.

At 5.30 pm the children were finally taken to the studio. The guardians were not allowed to enter the studio and waited at the waiting room for another one and a half hour for the shooting to get over.

At 7 o'clock finally the shooting got over and all of us headed for home. Though it was tiring both for the children and the parents yet it was a whole new experience for all. Also, we parents got more time to know each other well, which otherwise is not possible. Now, waiting with fingers crossed for the day the program would be telecast.

Trip to Ooty Part-1

Approach summer vacation, my heart start pumping faster. 24X7 daughter will be home and every day have to be ready with something exciting for her. Also, she always complains that we do not take her anywhere during her vacations. Actually, the duo's (father and daughter) holiday never gel with each other. But this year was exception. Father was on an official meet till the 11th of May in Bangalore and daughter's vacation was to start from the 12th of May. So, dad made sure not to loose the opportunity and asked us to join him on the 12th in Bangalore so that we can spent a couple of days in Ooty. We packed our bags and baggage and boarded the morning flight to Bangalore.

Akanksha was very excited. Her excitement was exaggerated by the glimpse of her classmate in the flight who was on the way to her homeland, Kerela, with her mother and sister. I exchanged my seat with Merlin(my daughter's classmate) and both the young ladies had a great time together.

Merlin

Akanksha

By noon we reached Bangalore and bid adieu to Merlin and her family and joined daddy dear waiting anxiously in the airport exit area. Everything was planned perfectly by the father to make sure his little angel enjoy every moment of her holiday. But the evening was somehow ruined by a heavy downpour and have to cancel site seeing in Bangalore and instead thought of visiting our relatives there. Though we could not visit all, yet we tried to visit a few and it turned out to be quite satisfactory.

The next day early morning we set out for Ooty via Mysore. On the way we dropped in at Mysore zoo.

These two lion and lioness are adopted by Anil Kumble. I have seen a nice concept in this zoo that all the animals are being adopted by someone or the other for one year. Means, they pay for the maintenance of that particular animal for one year which makes sure that the animals are being feed and treated well by the zoo authority as the guardians always keep a close watch.

Akanksha not ready to leave. She was minutely looking at all the animals and was sad while leaving. We could not allow her to spent some more time there as we have to reach Ooty before dark. 

The way to Ooty by road passes through Bandipur Tiger Reserve Forest, in the state of Karnataka and Mandumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, in the state of Tamil Nadu. It was a thrilling experience to pass through these two National Parks. On the way we spotted many wild animals.

Than we passed through the wonderful Nilgiri Hills..

Father and daughter wanted a click amidst the Nilgiri grooves.

 Whoever passed through this point made sure to stop the car and enjoy the view for few moments.

On the way we spotted a small local colorful carnival with people engrossed dancing and merry making.


As we proceeded towards Ooty the altitude kept on rising and the weather became pleasant and the surroundings serene.

Then we reached the beautiful Pykara boat house. It is a lake in the midst of the Nilgiri hills. It is about 12kms in stretch and the only source of water being the rain. 

Than we went to the Pykara falls about 3 kms ride from Pykara boat house. The local people said that since the rain did not start yet the force of the falls was very low. Other wise it look more beautiful. Though we were not very lucky to have that view, still we enjoyed and loved whatever we got to see.

 Akanksha coming up after having a close look of the water rushing down.

Deep in thought. 

After that we drove straight to Ooty with all the wonderful memories with us and Akanksha with loads of questions for us to answer.