Our daughter grew up. She is not a toddler anymore - not been so in a long time. I decided that it is best for the blog to be renamed as TWEENSPEAK. However, the entries I have made watching Akank grow up from a toddler to a tween is best captured under the current title.

I have moved to blogging at this place now.

The blog posts from August 2009 will be repeated on the site. There will be fresh entries from December 2009.
 
Its been a wonderful 6 years since I have begun blogging. I Intend to blog for many more years to come!

Thank you all for being there reading the blogs and sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you continue to do the same here on!

I have recently signed up to learn to play the guitar. Like any new learner, I have a set of challenges to overcome before belting out great musical numbers from it.  Akank is a little restless with my unskilled strumming. She has little patience with me when I play the instrument. She reads the notes from the music sheet ahead of me in her mind and is exasperated when I grope with it. " Seriously ma! I don't make so many mistakes on my keyboard when I learn my lessons!"

Akank has been learning to play the keyboard since she was four and plays it with ease now - six years hence. Even though she had a change of tutors and therefore the methodology of teaching, in between,  she coped with the change well. I explained to her that adult learners have certain other challenges and are less deft with learning to play instruments than children her age.

Someday she wants to learn to play the guitar too. Ever since she watched the movie August Rush, she dreams about playing the guitar like August does in the movie!

Akank has just got done with her term end exams and has begun the next term without a break. The school will close for Christmas now. Akank has largely done most of her revisions by herself. She still needs help with Math alone. She has not been able to stay among the top three achievers this year however she does well at school.

According to her Math teacher at school, Akank's 'attitude' towards the subject just got casual, as soon as she heard of her father's plans to relocate. Akank had to be advised to continue being her alert self till the year is done. We have alerted her of the importance of scores from this year that will fetch her a place in a reputed school in the new city we are moving to.

She signed up to participate in a few competitive evaluations at school. ( western music and western instrumental). She is also a part of the drama that is being enacted for the school annual day next fortnight. She is competing in sport activities as well. 

Some highlights from her life from I term ( June to November 2009)

* Her grandfather passed away ( July )
* The I cycle tests were largely her own responsibility ( July- August)
* Her father had swine flu! ( August )
* Her keyboard tutor stopped showing up for classes ( whole of September and October)
* She did better with her II cycle tests - with my help at revisions ( September)
* The big news of the relocation was out ( October)
* A trip to evaluate schools at the new city ( end of October)
* Her keyboard tutor renewed class ( November)
* Term I assessment results come by ( end of November)

Till date she has received scores for three subjects and she is averaging 83%

Being well read has its own disadvantages I think. Most kids in Akanks class don't seem to be inclined to reading. Where as Akank reads all the time. It is either the books in her library, or about the books in her library. Like the other day, I saw her browsing for information on Christopher Paolini's unpublished Book 4 of the Inheritance cycle. Sometimes Akank feels "left out" in class situations. The other day she recalled that her conversations with her classmates almost always revolved around what that person likes the most.  " I am very generous that way. I speak to people about what they like to speak about". She elaborated with an example.
"The other day I was speaking to Suhas who likes MJ.. But the dumb thing is he was not aware of MJ's plastic surgeries and scars, ma! "

Today she said she has been helping others with building their vocabulary. " I taught them the meaning of pigheaded". When I discouraged her  from teaching words that really don't add value, she was quick to add this
"Its not like I only tell them meanings of words like pigheaded,. I offer it like a cherry on the ice cream after I tell them meanings of words that are not so rude"

Cherry on ice cream, I tell you!:-)

Last night at bedtime, Akank had this lost look about her and was fidgeting with her comforter ( yeah, she keeps a soft cloth which is usually a well worn cotton saree and she has to have it at bed time! I know she is not going to like me talking about it on her blog) Just as I was settling down to sleep she asked me if she could ask me a "teenage question". Even though I was startled a bit, I did not show it. In a very casual voice I said " sure thing , shoot '. Then she giggled and tittered and bit her comforter and went red on her face. 

I waited patiently for her to ask me " the " question.

Then she said " Do you think I could ask Sean to come home on Saturday to borrow a book?"  (Names changed to protect privacy )
You could almost hear me sigh in relief! "Of course you can. What is the big deal"
" No... its just that he is a boy!"
" Whoa. Don't you have friends who are boys? What are Sanjay, Abhijit , Anirudh and ... ( I could have gone on and on)
" Ma! They are my buddies! Sean is ... is... an ... acquaintance!" " ( I am thinking - Isn't that supposed to be easier then?)

What is the big deal about talking to another (dumb) ten year old, Akank!

After I assured her that it was really ok to call someone home to borrow a book, she wanted to do a "dry run"  of the situation with me. We took turns being Sean and Akank and drilled a bit with questions and answers about borrowing books.  At the end of it, I adviced her that if she was not comfortable calling him home, maybe she should not.  But she wouldn't hear of it. She insisted that she will invite the child.  Only that, she warned me, " I will disappear someplace if I get embarrassed with his answer "  I had already started to dread this kid:-)

In the morning, I was busy fixing her breakfast and making her school lunch when Akank came by to the kitchen with a serious  "Hi Sean" and a raised eyebrow . That was a cue for me to slip into the role of the " boy- who- will- come- home- to- borrow- a- book".

I think we got it right. Only Akank can tell how it went:-)

The big news first. We are relocating. Not immediately but eventually. When we told Akank about the impending move, she had mixed feelings about it. First she was outraged that we had not told her about it till then. We had deliberately delayed telling her because we did not want her to start feeling restless about the move months before it actually happened.  But the real reason she was angry with us turned out to be (as she later admitted to us) that we had announced the move to her a day after schools closed for the first term break which meant that she wouldn't be able to tell her friends at school for another week!

Just after she heard the news, her first reaction was denial. Tears stung her eyes, she said she felt her stomach lurch and she even refused to sleep with us that night. We had to counsel her and assure her that everything was going to be ok. We showed her the websites of the new schools we were evaluating for the next academic year at the new place. She looked up only when we described the swimming pools some of the schools had. She slowly began to unwind and asked us a few more details. We also told her that we will be travelling to the new location soon to show her around the schools and the city. Just to make her feel that she was in control of the entire situation, we also told her that she could decide about moving with us, after she has seen the place. She seemed to think of this as a fair deal.

A few days later when I was browsing for books at a book sale I found a book that was so apt to what was happening in Akanks life. A book titled "Miss Popularity" that talked about a young girl whose parents have to relocate her school and how she is threatned by the fact that she will not be popular like she was at the current school.

Akank could not put down the book that evening. I am sure now what caused the initial outburst of outrage, shock and righteous anger:-)

A few weeks back, we heard of a separation of a couple we know, parents of one of Akank's friends from her kindergarten days. We were shocked and decided not to tell Akank about it. Its not like Akank has not heard of divorce or we protect her from the ways of the adult world but we decided not to anyway. Last week I had a telephone conversation with the mom and she mentioned that her children were coping well with the changed status. The lady in question also mentioned that her older child showed 'fatherly' affection to his younger sibling.

I gave an update of the news to Akank, who was keen to find who I was talking to. Having felt guilty about not letting Akank know, I casually mentioned that her friend's parents were not together anymore. When Akank heard the news, she said that she "kinda guessed that something was not right". That took me by surprise and when I asked her on what basis she judged that, she mentioned that she knew it when I told her about the older siblings fatherly affection towards the younger sibling! I told her that she would understand why adults have issues with relationships when she is a little older.

Yesterday when we bumped into a neighbour, a lonely old gentleman who lives with his wife, we stopped for a little chat in the foyer of the apartment.. He mentioned that he was a ' forced bachelor ' for the next few weeks since his wife was away. Akank excused herself and went home while I stayed on to talk. When I got home, Akank asked me this - " Are they ( my neighbour's) separated?" I had to stop laughing before I told her that it was not the way she thought it was and that the lady will return from her break soon!

On another note Akank also needed assurance from me if we ( her dad and I) were in it together for real and that we weren't contemplating any such horrific 'd ' words ever?:-)

Rest assured, Akank.

Akank told me about a dream from last night that I particularly found blog worthy. Just before her bedtime, we were discussing the possibility of a change in school next year and I suppose her thoughts were on it even in her dreams. Her dream in her own words -

"A bunch of my friends and I were at school and they were showing me around. We went for a swim in the pool. When we got changed after the swim it was back into our school uniforms. As we walked past a bunch of boys back to our classroom, they turned out to be bullys and so I used my taekwondo moves and saved my friends. Later I saw the Mayor of the city giving me the keys to the city! "

Bravo. Descriptive.Inventive.Graphic.Creative. Maybe thats what too much reading does to you. I am not complaining!

Akank has been reading different authors lately. She is still on Paolini's third- Brisingr. Inbetween, for light and quick reading she picks books by Megan McDonald who writes about a moody third grader called Judy Moody. She was introduced to the author by another of her 5th grade classmates who has a series of books on Judy Moody. Akank enjoys the use of language in these books.

Akank quotes from the books she reads and the movies she watches. She has this incredible power of retaining entire dialogues ( thanks to the number of times she watches the movies in her library!) from her favourite movies. She shares phrases and vocabulary she thinks is "cute and funny" and often they turn out to be hilarious to me too.

She has been dabbling in a little French too! She has this book called "French for Kids - Phrases the teacher never told you!" and keeps using a few random phrases from it on me.

I have a good idea what she is going to be reading in the first week of October. That is when the book I ordered for her online will arrive. It is a book for every girl between nine and eleven, It is called " Growing up - It's a girl thing!" by Mavin Jukes. I hope Akank will enjoy reading that too!

It took two years to convince Akank but she finally allowed us to do what we had been counseling her to do on her birthday this year!  Akank agreed to give up her birthday presents from friends who came to her get together and instead accepted a contribution to an orphange that we support!

Imagine the surprise the parents of the invitees had when I called to make the request. Some went ' Wow. Are you sure Akank is ok with this?" " How did you manage this!" and some others, " You saved me from the trouble of deciding what to gift her. thank you!"

We did not deny her gifts from the family nor any of the frills of a birthday party. Her friends watched  Kevin James in " Paul Blart: Mall Cop"over popcorns and fizzy drinks, indulged in pizzas and chocolate truffle and to top it all they danced to the beats of some music hits in a  home made mini disco!

Akank was happily exhausted at the end of the evening and said she couldn't wait for the next 365 days to pass for the next party and my proud heart helped me keep beaming throughout the evening!!

Thank you Akank, you did us proud!