Sunday, 26 August 2012

The Clattering Cake

The Birthday Cake
-------



The Birthday Cake looked lovely.

Red and White, with a pretty pretty design.

The cake sat on the Table. The round table in the middle of the room



---------------
The room looked pretty too - it was ready for the Birthday party.

There were balloons strung up, in lots of colours. And streamers swayed gently under the fan...

Oooh look, a giant Pinata too!

Mummy hid the pinata stick, to save it from me! But I know it has chocolates inside :D

-------------
Mummy is cooking for the party. She is making hot pakoras.

And sandwiches with red and green - she made the chutney herself.

And Big bowls full of popcorn.

See, she is making popcorn strings!

------------------

It’s my Birthday Party!!


But I am scared.

The nasty cake has a spell on it. I know.

I can see the evil glint in the eye.

Mummy thinks that is a circle with a dot.

But I can see the eye.

Why can mummy not see what I can see?


---------

We gather around the cake.

The candles are lit. My friends are happy.

Their faces shine with big smiles.

And I want to scream - RUN!

I blow out the candle. Mummy cuts a slice out. She is happy and wants to feed me the slice.

But I want to scream - RUN! The Cake is coming!


And then it happens!

Click! Click! Click! Click!

Four teeth Flip out of the top!


Click! Click! Click! Click!


Four teeth flip out of the bottom!

The cake has a mouth!!!


The cake wants to eat us!

RUN! I Scream!


Run, Ma Run!

-----

But Ma just laughs!

See, its a trick!

It is a toy cake!

Everybody is laughing and clapping!

Its a joke!

The Clattering Cake!

Ma gives out the Clattering cake toy to everybody. Now they are playing with it!

It has little feet. You wind it up and the cake goes - chomp clattter! clatter chomp!

Lots of little clatter chomp cakes!

Everybody loves it. Everybody is happy.

Except me.

Its my birthday. And they tricked me.

Its not funny.  It is not nice to be tricked.

The cake was scary.

-------

Ma came up to me and gave me a big hug. It felt better. But not good.

Not good enough.

But then I was growing up.

It was my Birthday today.

I was bigger and better everyday.

I can take a joke. I can handle a prank.

Everybody was laughing. No one was hurt.

Everybody was happy.

I laughed too - the clattering cake was funny.


------------------


And then we ate it up!

The Birthday Cake

The Birthday Cake


The Birthday Cake looked lovely.

Red and White, with a pretty pretty design.

The cake sat on the Table. The round table in the middle of the room

The room looked pretty too - it was ready for the Birthday party.

There were balloons strung up, in lots of colours. And streamers swayed gently under the fan...

Oooh look, a giant Pinata too!

Mummy hid the pinata stick, to save it from me! But I know it has chocolates inside :D

Mummy is cooking for the party. She is making hot pakoras.

And sandwiches with red and green - she made the chutney herself.

And Big bowls full of popcorn.

See, she is making popcorn strings!

It’s my Birthday Party!!


But I am scared.

The nasty cake has a spell on it. I know.

I can see the evil glint in the eye.

Mummy thinks that is a circle with a dot.

But I can see the eye.

Why can mummy not see what I can see?




We gather around the cake.

The candles are lit. My friends are happy.

Their faces shine with big smiles.

And I want to scream - RUN!

I blow out the candle. Mummy cuts a slice out. She is happy and wants to feed me the slice.

But I want to scream - RUN! The Cake is coming!


And then it happens!

Click! Click! Click! Click!

Four teeth Flip out of the top!
 (think pie chart, the slice is a mouth)

Click! Click! Click! Click!


Four teeth flip out of the bottom!

The cake has a mouth!!!


The cake wants to eat us!

RUN! I Scream!


Run, Ma Run!

-----

But Ma just laughs!

See, its a trick!

It is a toy cake!

Everybody is laughing and clapping!

Its a joke!

The Clattering Cake!

Ma gives out the Clattering cake toy to everybody. Now they are playing with it!

It has little feet. You wind it up and the cake goes - chomp clattter! clatter chomp!

Lots of little clatter chomp cakes!

Everybody loves it. Everybody is happy.

Except me.

Its my birthday. And they tricked me.

Its not funny.  It is not nice to be tricked.

The cake was scary.

-------

Ma came up to me and gave me a big hug. It felt better. But not good.

My ....

Thursday, 19 May 2011

Weekly shop

Finally, the perishables..


eggs
fruit
butter
veg
cheese
milk
milk
dahi
bread
water
cake
paneer
fish
chicken
mutton

Monthly shop.. basics

Admittedly, for a north Indian Household..


Biscuits:
Cereals:
biscuits- multigran, digestives, goodday, hidenseek, etc.
Nuts:Almonds, peanuts (raw and fried) etc.
Breakfast cereal- cornflakes, chocos, oats
Namkeens: min 3 per month


Basics:
masalas: jeera, rai, haldi, garam masala etc.
Daal
basics; salt sugar
dhuli ..
moong
masar
arhar
ma
chilka..
moong
ma
sabut
moong
masar
masar
raajma
chholle
Soaps
Pears
Mysore Sandal
Lifebouy type
shampoo
Surf
ariel
nirma
Vim
Pril
Kitchen tissue
cleaning materials
aluminium foil
jhadoo
tila jhadoo
duster
pocha
scrubber dishes
scrubber bathroom
bathroom brush
refills
bin liners
odomos
all out
dettol liquid
cream
toilet paper
Harpic power plus
Lizol
must have
paracetamo
safety pins
nail polish remover
burnol
boroline
dettol
bandages
painkillers

Thursday, 12 May 2011

Newspaper language exercises

Some wonderful language exercises from around the web, thanks to harini calamur




http://redmondlabs.com/eslr/




Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Indian households: range of cereals

In addition to the packaged, branded breakfast cereals, our household orders these from the shop each month.. 18 items that are cereal based (not counting variations)


Atta
Chawal
soya atta
vermicelli
pasta (3 varieties)
besan
sooji (2 varieties)
poha (2 varieties)
mumra (2 varieties)
sabudaana
maida (and somebody please tell me where I can find strong flour for baking breads!!)
Daliya (wheatgerm based)
Oats porridge
Noodles (3 varieties, plus maggi)
chane ka atta
makki/jowar/raagi atta
vrat vaala atta
corn (for pop corn)

List of tasks for a small Indian Household

This one is crying out for a project manager to create a chart!

Not specifying how many people should do this..

This one is a basic list, not a comprehensive one.. Would appreciate inputs..


Open doors and windows
Morning tea
make beds
open curtains
set up rooms: day setting
lay table
breakfast
clear table
wash breakfast dishes
coffee
Close doors and windows
Dust house
put clothes in machine to wash
Clean bathrooms
House cleaned and mopped
put clothes to dry
cook lunch
clear lunch
repair clothes
pick clothes from line
sort and fold
put them away
prepare evening warm snack
serve with tea, milk
clear tea
Evening dusting
Evening set up..curtains etc..
prepare dinner
serve, clear dinner
dishes washed, dried put away
soak for next day
night milk
water on nightstand