With The Kids @ NDA

There were two main reasons why I had volunteered for accompanying a few kids from an orphanage to the NDA, the first being that I had been thinking of taking up some sort of a social activity for a long time and secondly due to the fact that till not so long ago, I wanted to be a part of the academy myself. So, even before the visit got underway I knew that I was not going to regret the early morning start I would have to give myself to make it on time for visit.

We were about six colleagues and we were at the pick up point at 0830 hrs sharp. The moment the kids got inside the bus, the excitement amongst the kids brought a smile on our faces. While interacting with the kids, the first thing that hits you, is their street smartness! They sure do know how to find a way for themselves. The kids were surprisingly well mannered. They would thank us every time we gave them biscuits or a soft drink or every time we did something for them. I remember as a kid, my mother would have to remind me in front of strangers to thank them. The kids here had learnt their lessons well and they did not need anyone to remind them of their matters in front of strangers.

Something in common amongst all the kids was their fascination for the camera. My photographer colleague was in high demand with all the requests of 'One photo please!'. Suprisingly quite a few of the kids were very well aware of the latest handsets and the their features. Something that I must admit, is not the case with me.

They were all disciplined. Be it the fear of their care taker around or the efforts to put on a good show in front of the outsiders, I thought the kids were a lot easy to manage than the kids from other schools that were also present there. This being a first of its kind trip for me, I had a lot of fun and I also got to see the lives of the cadets from close quarters and here's to many more such activities in future. Cheers!

Hindi ki Izzat

We recently had a colleague from our US office visiting India. The firang guy had a tough time surviving on the food in our cafeteria everyday. So, we accompanied him out for lunch on a couple of occasions. One fine day, we ended up talking about languages over lunch.

To start off with, he was amazed by the number of languages that we have in our country. The concept of Mumbaiyya hindi, North Indian Hindi and Puneri Hindi was also beyond his limits of comprehension. He was of the opinion that the richness of a language is based on the fact that there are synonyms for words in one language found in other languages. Like, fat in English is the same as mota in hindi. This got us to finding words in English that do not have synonyms in Hindi and vice versa. The very first word proved to be a show stopper.

While finishing up the last few drops of chocolate sauce on his sizzling brownie, he asked us for the hindi equivalent of the word - sizzling! And my colleague and myself had no clue about this. We tried different hindi words but could not get to one hindi word that best explains what sizzle means in English. So, in case you are proud of your marks in hindi in high school, do take some time off and think of the hindi equivalent for sizzle. Yeh hindi ki izzat ka sawaal hain.

P.S. I have another word that I would know the hindi equivalent of - dieting!