Eiffel Tower

We recently saw the Eiffel Tower at NYC. It was a wonderful sight. We even went to the observatory on the 86th floor. The elevator was super-fast. The view from the top was really amazing. Actually this was not my first time at the Eiffel Tower. I have been there once before a couple of years back. That was in fact in the winters, at night, close to Christmas. The wind was really hard and chilly and we had a tough time keeping our camera stable. But the view was just breathtaking. Have you seen the Eiffel tower?

OK. I can understand the torment you guys must be going through. You think it has a different name isn't it? Empire State building? Damn right you are! Rested and in peace. I am sorry but I have some thing with this name. I get stuck with using "Eiffel Tower" instead of "Empire State Building" often in conversations. Thankfully my audience has never been American or French. I also do this with Julia Roberts. I never remember her name.

If that was not enough, there is this new habit I have been picking up lately- of forgetting names immediately after getting introduced. I'm definitely trying to get a hold of this syndrome because it does not make me look good. Today, I went to a birthday party and met someone whom I had met once before, in some kind of a get-together. Obviously I did not remember her name :). To my beautiful surprise she did not as well. I can't tell you how much this added to my comfort when she started with, "Sorry I don't remember your name, can you say it once again please?". It gave me the wonderful opportunity to ask her name again. Only that it was an opportunity lost "immediately". During the whole party after that, she was referring to me with my name (she had done her homework) and trying so hard to pronounce it correctly while my mind was wreaking havoc on the possibility of having to address her by any chance.

(ps: Things went well and I dint have to do that. I still don't recollect her name and thankfully it doesn't matter much. But the story goes on.)

My little cousin

Last year I took one of the "Thomas the tank engine" toys - train, engine driver, rail-tracks, station and passengers-all in a box, for my 4 year old cousin, A. His face beamed when I gave it to him and before we settled down at mama-mami's place, he had the whole package unpacked. Incidently, the train I took was mechanical and had to be pushed by hand at least onto the flyover after which it went on by itself due to inertia. I had not realised that during the buy. After playing with it for a while, his interest began to dampen. He probably would have liked it more if the toy did everything by itself and he only had to watch it like a spectator. This was work! Seeing his spirits dampened, I thought I would pep him up a bit. So I went up to him and said, "Arj.., next time I'll get you one with batteries, ok? What say?". He looked at me and then thought a little and said, "Tab toh remote wali laana" (In that case, get one with remote).

Nostalgia as sisters

I was just thinking how simple life used to be when we were kids. Fun had a completely different definition all together! My sister is four years elder to me but I never really felt much age difference and would almost treat her as my equal ;-). There were times when she was bossy and protective though but mostly she was very friendly and fun. The age gap almost disappeared by the time I became a teenager.

Back then we used to play a lot of stupid and funny games. Like, standing in the balcony, watching vehicles on the road and then guessing which one would come next. So if I guessed a bike and a bike appeared I won the game. When I was younger I used to look up to her and would always be completely mesmerized with the forever new games or puzzles she would get home. One such puzzle game was to ask the other person, "What ka matlab kya hota hai?" '(What is the meaning of what?' :)). Silly games like that. At that time I did think of it as a very intelligent game :-). These and many other such fun puzzles and stories would increase my reverence for her by multitudes. I would then replay those with my friends and classmates and bask in the glory.

She would come home from school a an hour or two later than me. Often, she would get candies along. That would be really exciting. Also, sometimes she would be generous in telling me incidents from her day in school. I always found them very fascinating -imagining what life was like when you were a senior.

I also remember my birthdays in school. A birthday used to be a really big day. I would always want it to fall on a school day. We were supposed to carry sweets to class and not be dressed in uniform. Eventually everyone would sing for the birthday kid and then he or she would distribute the sweets in class. In my case, after the celebration in my classroom, I would always go to my sis's class. And then with the usual "Please may I come in ma'am" and the obvious awareness of being the priviledged kid of the day with all eyes on you, I would walk up to her desk and give her the sweets with a sheepish grin on my face.

It just feels so hilarious when I look back at those times now. But I do miss all that simplicity and innocence.

Arjun again

So I finally got a gift for Arjun again before leaving from US. It was Robot Shoes, which looked exactly like the ones the lead protagonist wore in the animation movie "Robots". They looked really cute to me and I thought it was a good buy. Well, a friend  warned me that he had asked for "remote" controllable toys this time and you should not buy this one. I ignored thinking Arjun is too small to remember all that.

Anyways, when we visited their place in Delhi this time, Arjun just ran up to me and took me to some corner and asked promptly without a hi or a greeting, "Mere liye kya laaye ho?" (what have you brought for me). And I eagerly showed him the Robot stuff. Well, thankfully he dint ask whether it was remote controlled or not but he looked a little confused as to what fun they would be. I explained that these are shoes Robots wear and if you also wear them and walk around they will make similar sounds and you will become a Robot too. He was then curious -"Then what about the Cap on the head and the dress the robots wear? Why dint you bring that?"

Today I met him again and just to distract him from the mischives he was upto I asked him what should I bring you next time. He said "Computer or rather laptop".