Kiddo's Q&A

Before starting the details of this post, I would like to introduce my wife, Varsha and my 3 years old son, Nivaan in my blogging space.

Like many other kids of this age group, Nivaan asks a lot many questions and never gets tired. Varsha and myself try very hard to keep up with his chain of questions by providing accurate answers. The process of answering grow longer and time consuming as one answer leads to his next question and this continues until we end up short of appropriate answers or when we lose our patience, well, whichever comes first :) Believe me, our limits of patience has been stretched to the maximum extend by Nivaan by now ;-)

Here are few questions he has asked and few witty replies from him during my hometown visit this Diwali.

- Why is the lamp (Diya) hot?

 During Diwali time, we had lit few lamps at our main door and on windows. He accidentally fell near the door with his hands on the burning lamp. Poor kiddo burnt his hand a little, cried a bit and continued with his business of questioning, even in that state of pain. He simply asked "Dad, why was the lamp hot?" ("Appa, deepa yaaka bisi itta?"). I answered him, just like cooking vessels, it gets hot when we lit fire. He further asks, "And why is that?" ("Yaaka?") to which I answered, "Fire has this tendency of making things hot or burn things when in contact". Before he could further ask the physical and chemical reactions that happen due to fire, I changed the topic!

 Before anyone inquires as why the lamps were kept at the door when the kid around, let me tell you, it didn't occur to us and it was a genuine mistake :)

- Why are Tom and Jerry not running around?

 Nivaan was looking at the Tom and Jerry cartoon on the wall and asks "Why are Tom and Jerry not running around?". Well, I reasoned out that since he is used to seeing the cat chase the mouse all the time in TV out of curiosity he asked as why the characters are stationary in this photo on wall. I had to tell him that this is just a photo on wall like other photos of family members and not a TV screen where they will be in motion.

- Time out : Time come

 I was playing cricket with him in our house and after few minutes of running around getting the ball which he was hitting left and right I was tried.  To get few minutes of breather time, I said "Time out" gesturing the break signal with T symbol using hands. He was super excited hitting the ball at that moment so wanted to continue it and he immediately says "Time come". I had to ask him to repeat that and he responded again, "Time come". I understood that his opposite phrase for "Time out" is "Time come" :-D I was in splits listening to that :)

- Stomach saying Fries-Fries

 One night, while driving back home, I told Varsha and Nivaan that we will stop at McDonald's for dinner. After few seconds of silence Nivaan says "My stomach is saying Fries-Fries" ("nanna tummy fries-fries annatethi") :)

- Jogging in Car or Bike

 After telling him a bed-time story I told him that I will be going for jogging the next morning so would like to sleep now. He immediately replies, "Even I will come for jogging. Will we be going in car or bike?" ("Nanu barteni jogging ga, car daga hogunu yena bike daga hogunu?") :-D

- Pronunciation and teeth connection

 One night, Varsha was giving some medicine to him and she casually asks why he used to pronounce the word for medicine as "Audh" instead of "Aushadha" when he was younger. To this he replies that he had only 2 teeth then so he used to say that way and now that he has 8 big teeth, he is able to pronounce properly :)

So these days at home, he continues to surprise us with his answers, puzzle us with questions and equally make us laugh :)

I would like to quote below lines from this link:

“In school, we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question,” Wurman pointed out. Which may explain why kids—who start off asking endless “why” and “what if” questions—gradually ask fewer and fewer of them as they progress through grade school.

"Preschool kids ask their parents an average of 100 questions a day. By middle school, they’ve basically stopped asking questions."

The Martian

It was quite sometime I hadn't read a science fiction book. Thanks to my friend Archana who gifted me this book.

This is a story about Mark Watney, an astronaut who is left stranded on Mars by his fellow astronauts, who mistook him to be dead, during a dust storm. He finds himself all alone with all the NASA R&D equipment and setup, and just enough food to survive for few more weeks. The book talks about how he motivates himself, plans for survival and also to establish communication with NASA back on earth. There are quite a few accidents and action which keeps the narration exciting. 
The best part of the character Mark Watney was his humor. Even in moments of great danger and low, Mark's character and his humor keeps things very interesting and makes you lol at many occasions.

I read initial few pages and due to many activities couldn't continue. But after a week, I could get hold of book and finished the remaining 90% in 2 days time frame. Just couldn't keep the book down.

There was the same movie running in the theaters as well, so decided to watch it as well. As expected, the book turned out to be much better. However, there were few scenes and the climax which was done differently in the movie.

A good read and would recommend if science-fiction is what you are looking for.