Update

December 29:  Played with the dogs

Today morning I got up and played with the dogs at Manganam.  Bachhi and Pippi.  Bachi is a big black dog (slightly smaller than a lab).   When she saw me, she rolled on her back, and said that she wanted her tummy scratched.  It was a very pleasant sensation, because I haven't scratched any dog's tummy for a long time.  You see, my parents wont allow me to get  a pet. Mean, isn't it.  

December 30:  Plucked a bean  by myself

Today I plucked a bean all by myself.  I saw a bean that was ripe, and I asked Purshottam uncle, who was there at the time, if it would be alright to pluck it.   Purshottam is a worker at Aruvey house.  He used to work at my grandparents house when they stayed in another part of the country.  He still visits us for a month or two every year and stays and helps my grandparents.  Anyway, I was allowed to pluck the bean.  I told you we would get back to the bean.  How did I predict the future so well?

December 31: New Year's Eve: cracking my first coconut

Today we were at Vazhoor for most of the day.  Vazhoor and Manganam are close to each other—maybe ten miles away.   I must have forgotten to tell you that between Manganam and Vazhoor we have seven dogs in India, and one cat.  So that makes the total up to eight pets altogether.  My grandfather at Vazhoor (my mother's father) showed me how to crack a coconut's husk. You put it on this special machine and you put the foot at the base to stop it from falling over and then put the coconut on the two sharp edges that are together.  There is a lever to pull one edge down.  That opens up the coconut.  Then you have to shred the straw kind that of substance (husk) that surrounds it.  Each coconut has some black circles at the top.  You make a hole in one of them, and drink the water by putting a straw in, or you could just pour it into a glass, but that's much more boring.  I like cracking coconuts, but I am not really fond of coconut water. 

January 1: Two Elephants. 

On my trip to Vazhoor today I saw an elephant.  We passed right by it in our car.  It was walking on the road. It was at least twice as tall as our car.  It had a few palm leaves in its trunk.  A palm leaf is approximately twice as tall as a full grown man.  It's legs where chained together so that it couldn't run away.  It was, like you probably expected, an Asian elephant.  Now you might be wondering why I called this story two elephants.  Well, by chance, when we were going back to Manganam, we saw another elephant.  It was near a lumber yard.  I did not get a good look at it, so I am not sure whether it had any wood on its back or not. 

There are many elephants in Kerala.  Two hours from Vazhoor, there is a big forest where there are many wild elephants.  There are also many tame elephants, like the two we saw.  I rode on a tame elephant last year.    I will be posting a picture of an elephant soon. 

On a completely unrelated subject, Ms Moosbrugger, I am sorry that I didn't email you, but I was busy writing this blog on open office.  I am going to post it on a site on blogger.  Hopefully we will be able to make search engines find it soon. 

January 2: Sleepover

Today Maluchechi slept over at Manganam House. It was so fun. On our way back we picked up some biscuits called marie gold and tiger. When we got home we had a wonderful time. All three of us played a lot of games, and had cake and biscuits. I slept next to maluchechi and not next to chechi (my sister).  It was a wonderful sleepover.

January 3: Anu comes over

Anu's real name is arunima, like my sister's. (my sister too goes by a shorter name,aru). She is a friend of my father, from his days as a college student in England. Now she is a teacher in Delhi, capital of India. When she was leaving we went to the railway station to see her off. It was a very busy railway station – it was like the busiest place I have ever seen. Purushotham uncle left for Gujarat the same day. My grand mother and sister made a cake for naina deedi and phalguni (Purushotham uncle's daughters). It was so good that we wanted to make another for ourselves. And this time we made a marble cake -  that does not mean it was made of marbles, or marble. And we gobbed it up. gobble..gobble.. gobble.. yummy...yummy .. yum