Nursery Rhymes

Lot of miles , they say , has flown past by my car’s wheels. What used to be an immensely enjoyable drive to Calicut has been reduced to a slightly bitter experience due to the condition of roads in Kerala.

But that is not the point I am trying to make. I was listening to my wife sing some nursery rhymes with my daughter and I am startled how violent some of these are !!

Take Goosey Goosey Gander

Goosey goosey gander,
Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man
Who wouldn't say his prayers,
So I took him by his left leg
And threw him down the stairs

And of course there is poor old Humpty Dumpty who seems to have met a rather violent end

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Now there can’t be a problem with Jack and Jill, can there ? Multiple fractures at the bare minimum, the following lines would suggest ..

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

What about the three little blind mice ? Listen to this ghastly tail chopping tale ….

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice

Hmmmmm, looks like we should be more worried about the nursery rhymes than about violence on TV :-)) Now I know why I always had a soft spot for Twinkle Twinkle little star :-)

On Education

This is courtesy of another blog that I read often , two wonderful videos on education

Doctors and the weekend

Finally got over my huge inertia and kick started my volunteering again !! Feels nice to be back, I do enjoy teaching and have been missing it quite a bit.

Wifey’s MD exams are fast approaching, starting on 27th May to be exact. My respect for doctors has gone up quite a few notches after marrying one. Did I hear some married man snicker in the background ? “Did you have another choice other than to respect your wife”, did I hear them say ?  Come out in the open buddy and say it in front of your wife . And if you survive tell me about it :-))

I mean the sheer amount of effort that Doctors have to put in is quite mind boggling. Compared to my wife, I practically slept through my engineering and Masters :-))  

And to think that I was considered one of the better academics tells you all that there is about the effort levels needed to get by in engineering ;)

Except for a select few Doctors, I doubt if it the paybacks are in proportion to the efforts put. Unless you are one of those rare genuine human beings who think that helping to heal another human being is the reward in itself !!

School admission

My daughter has cleared the "interview" for admission to L.K.G . We had expected this all along. She will have to wear a uniform to school. Would be so cute, right ? Already she has started pestering my parents about getting her the uniform , school does not start till June !! :-)


The key question that the principal asked was , "How much can you give ?" . I am referring to donations, of course. The smart reply that came to my mind was the JFK derived quote "Ask not what I can do for your school - ask what you can do for my daughter". Instead we responded with "How much do you expect ? ". The deal was struck for a relatively reasonable amount. All parties are happy now !!

I wonder if a day will come when good students can actually sell their marks also to the weaker ones ? :-)