Fun With Zippy

Hello again everyone. Like I wrote in my last post, I’m going to tell you about all the fun that I had with scanman’s daughter Aathi in Salem. 

Aathi is 8-years-old and is studying in third grade, they call it third standard here in India. She talks a mixture of Tamil and English at home. She lives with her parents in an apartment block, a condominium to us Americans. The bad thing is there’s only one other kid in the entire condo, Saakshi, a 6-year-old girl who lives one floor above Aathi and is in her second year of kindergarten (they have two years of kindergarten here, lower and upper KG). Saakshi speaks a mixture of Gujarati and English at home.

Aathi has a bicycle that she rides in the ground floor parking area of the condo or in one of the quieter roads in the neighborhood when her mother Dr.P goes along in her bicycle. 

Aathi lets me ride in the basket in front..

I actually spent quite a lot of time being carried around in that basket

Aathi reads a lot of comics. Here’s one about one of the ancient Tamils kings, Raja Raja Chola who ruled the land a thousand years ago (between 985 and 1014 AD).

I was happy to see the sea and ships. Tamil Nadu has a long coastline and Aathi tells me that some of the Tamil kings sailed across oceans to conquer nearby countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Aathi likes dolls. She took me to a toy store near her house…

Aathi has a kiddie doctor Barbie with a clinic, an examining table, stethoscope, syringes, tape measures and other cool stuff. Here I am playing with Aathi, her little cousin Samyu and her friend Saakshi…

Filed under: Being a Lobster, Fun, India, Playing, Travel