Little Subbamma

Stay tuned for the video of her dance.

An Year of a Difference

March 21, 2010 - My first half marathon. Signed up in a fit without respect for the distance. Trained diligently, but hobbled crying across the finish line in 3:09:10

March 20, 2010 - My 5th half marathon. Signed up to see how far my mind and body had come. Trained hardcore and pulled 10-12mile weekend runs consistently. Grinned cheerfully while crossing the finish line at 2:48:39

What a difference an year has made!
What an amazing difference the year has made!

What do I want my children to learn before leaving home?

Carrie's wonderful blog post at Researched Parenting (she's a great blogger and if you are a parent, head over there) was thought provoking and I'm trying to pen my thoughts as a parent here.

What do I want my children to learn before leaving home?

I'm trying to draw parallels to my childhood here. For all my misgivings when I was a teenager (and some beyond teen years), I think my parents are the best! What did I learn (or not learn) before leaving home and how did my school and home education contribute to it?

What I learnt and What I want to pass on to my Kids

• Hard work pays - My parents made sure that I worked my a$$ off in school, and it showed. When I started slacking, that showed too (although I did not own up to that, and made excuses).
• If you don't succeed the first time, try try and try again till you do - This was one of mom's mantra's. She'd preach, and Dad would advice. But it was drummed into my head to face adversities and keep trying.
• Girls can do anything that boys can do, and can do it better. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise - This one came from both my parents and my teachers. I was one of the few girls who was good academically and everyone around me would drum it into me and everyother girl in class. 
• What matters is how kind/good you are and how you use your brains, not how pretty/fat/physical beauty - I was always a plump kid but my parents never ever made me feel that way. Maybe this worked against me because I have always refused to believe I was fat (even after I weighted 195lbs after I had Brinda, I did not look at myself as fat). My school teachers were too kind to tell me anything, and we didn't really have mean girls to tell me so. 
• Put in your best effort and leave the rest to God - Echoing one of the most famous sayings in the Gita, my parents instilled a faith of God in me. Although secular, we had an all-religion prayer at school and certainly talking about God wasn't "politically incorrect". 
• Education Education Education - There was never a question about it. Even though a Bachelors degree in Engineering (or Medicine if I had so chosen) was the only "requirement", I always felt like a Masters degree was a must too. Surprisingly, I felt no pressure. I just took it with no questions asked. And now, I have thanked my parents and my teachers a million times for making education(formal university degree education) a second nature.
• A love for books - My parents encouraged me to read and read more. I had a wonderful school librarian who used to let me borrow books as fast as I read them. 

What they tried to teach me but I did not learn

• Self Worth - I wonder where things went wrong with this. My parents made sure to teach me how awesome I was. I think teenage years and college was where I lost this. I started to realize that the world in general cared more for physical beauty than what was in me. And I had tons of self doubts. I still do. 
• Cooking - Haa .. my parents tried. My school tried. And all failed miserably to hold my attention long enough to remember one recipe. 
• Exercise - How my poor parents tried to get me ride a bicycle and jump rope as exercise! Uh Huh! Did not happen. I am so thankful that somehow somewhere I caught the running bug in the past year.

What I did NOT learn and wish to teach my kids

• Money and Budgeting - Never was taught that in school. And home was too shielded. So while I got a good idea about money in general, I never did any practical money practice until I started earning in my 20s. I have done well with what I earn (*touchwood*), but its different for kids growing up here with distractions of credit cards and student loans to get a basic education.
• Questioning and Analyzing - Neither home nor school is at fault here. Its just the Indian culture and Indian education system. You learn things without questioning it. You learn multiplication tables without understanding why you need it. You learn history without understanding what you can learn from it. I'd love for my kids to question everything around them and draw their own conclusions. I want them to be able to oppose an authority figure if they felt they need to - for whatever reason.
• Love - This might seem very strange, but truly I did not learn about love. Love is not spoken in Indian families (at least it was never spoken in mine). It was understood that you loved your parents and they you. Respect was more emphasized than love. You respected your parents, your teachers, your elders. But of love, never a word.

And to Carrie's unspoken question - what I did I learn from home that school did not teach me or vice-versa?

• I had an excellent excellent teacher in my Dad and a hard taskmaster in my Mom. I preferred to be taught by Dad rather than wait to be taught at school. So he would painstakingly spend all weekends, breaks and summer to go through all the lessons with me. So academically, I suppose I was home-schooled more than usual (all Indian parents that I know take a super active involvement in their kids' education). 
• But the camaraderie of growing up with the (almost) same group of friends from Grade 1 to 12,  the actual living education in secularism, understanding (not just tolerance) of different religions - could not have come from my ultra-conservative home.

(This post has gone on a tad too long ... and I don't think I've even finished it)

A Princess Runs

The Disney Princess Half Marathon was on the same weekend as Sudha's birthday and I thought it would be a lovely idea to combine the two together. 

It WAS a great idea. And I had a magical time. In fact, I think only Sudha and I enjoyed the trip. Brinda was too cranky for most part from lack of sleep. And Daddy was too cranky for most part from having to carry and pacify Brinda.

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The Disney Princess Half Marathon. 

Me, the anti-princess mom got swallowed by the Disney marketing magic (it was the promise of a Tiara medal that did it for me).

It started the day before as went to the Wide World of Sports for the Expo.

The expo was a madhouse. Spent 2 hrs just to pick up my stuff, and left without buying anything.

Just glad that I got this.

Carb overloaded at Ghirardelli's in Downtown Disney. 

Feb 27th

2:15am - my alarm went off and I woke up from a restless sleep of about 4 hrs. Armed with a bagel and chocolate milk (thanks to the husband who woke up to see me off, even though he was going to sleep in with the kids until I finished and came back), I took the shuttle bus from my hotel to the starting area(zero waiting time) and joined 16,000 Princesses and 500 Princes. The walk to the corrals (Corral C) took all of the promised 20 minutes.

My Princess Jasmine costume was simple - a tech T in the same color as homemade harem pants (which were great to run in even when the temp went up to 78 at the end!). Hoop earring and some harem pant fabric wrapped around my sweaty band.

The Fairy Godmother signaled the start and we were off.

That was one sassy fairy godmother :)

I knew I was running to enjoy myself, but that flat course beckoned this Atlanta girl and I had my mind on a good course time. That is - until I saw Capt. Jack Sparrow and his scurvy band of pirates. How could I resist Johnny Depp?

Another mile in and .... swoon.  (Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, Me, Flynn Rider from Tangled, Tarzan, Alladin and Capt. James Smith from Pocahontas). It was a 15min wait that was sooooo worth it!!

These guys inspired me to go faster. Until I entered Magic Kingdom, that is.

There is was!! The castle ! Where dreams come true!

To Infinity and Beyond with Buzz Lightyear

See how far I'm standing from the Red Queen. I like my head attached to my shoulders, thank you very much.

Prince Charming was .... super charming!! Cinderella had to leave when I was 5 people behind in line, but he was sooo worth the 20minutes wait.

Prince Naveen was great !! He kept making me giggle with 'Ribbit Ribbit'.

This one was for Kidlet #1. The birthday girl loves Peter Pan.

And of course Princess Jasmine needs Genie on her side.

Beast gave me a hug as I was running out. The 15minutes wait was worth that hug. Met two other girls from corral C here, who were as hopelessly taking pics as I was.

Prince Philip and Sleeping Beauty. What can I say? He made me feel like a real Princess.

Donald plays golf!

Pocahontas.

The running bug has bitten me.

Keep on moving!! Yes Sir !!! 

I'm Incredible!

I'm a Goddess! 

Kidlet #1 and My favorite Princess - Mulan!

 Don't hate me, but I really was feeling that perky and enthusiastic at Mile 13.

Just before the finish line.

 How I could not stop for this once in a lifetime picture !!! 

I'm a Princess !! (I need to take a better picture of the medal. Its super gorgeous, I promise)

The celebration at Wishes Dessert Party at Magic Kingdom - the all  you can eat buffet dessert dinner. I probably put in more calories than burned in the morning. But oh so delicious !!!! 

Before anyone asks - yes, I waited to get pictures with all characters I saw except for Lilo (dressed as Elvis) and Stitch; and Jessie from ToyStory. The pirates, the hunks heros, Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast all were 10-15minutes of wait time. But the rest were a couple minutes max.

This was also my first race with no music. Disney entertainment along the way was great (too late tonight to upload the pics). A 101 on how not to race. My disciplined run/walk turned out to be sprint to next character/stop.

Some highlights:

• My favorite part of the race - The royal way each and every Prince greeted me. Towards the end of 13.1 miles, I had myself believing that I WAS a real Princess.
• Worst part of the race - My time. It was a dismal pathetic 3hrs 39min at 16:43. A full HOUR slower than my target time.
• Favorite Character Picture - A tie between the the Mickey/Minne one Vs. The one with the 5 heros.

More Disney Magic

Sudha was more interested in meeting characters than rides. So we met as many as we could and went on rides in the night at Magic Kingdom. Brinda was fine while meeting them, but too high-strung otherwise.

Pocahontas

Dale of Chip & Dale

Daisy Duck - See how delighted Brinda was!

Alice (in Wonderland)

Jasmine and Alladin

The Castle!

I have more pics in the other camera that I need to download and upload.

Donald's Safari Breakfast

We started out our Disney vacation with a breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy at Tusker House Restaurant in Animal Kingdom. The meal was our most expensive meal to date, but soooo worth it to see the delight on the girls faces when they hugged Mickey. They also gave a celebration cupcake to Sudha for her birthday, so she was super thrilled.