Day 1.

We began our first day into our education with our regulation 5 km run, interspersed with various exercises like duck-walk, lunges, bunny jumps, sideways, one-legged jump, and horsey that we practice together on a part of our running track that is painted with a badminton court, and topped that with 100 court runs (this took 45 minutes) before returning home and doing 10 cycles x 6 exercises of HIIT in the next 60 minutes, following it up with stretches (we love to do the split and the headstand), core strengthening (pushups and plank), and yoga (halasan, vajrasan, dhanurasan, vrikshasan, bhujangasan, and some more), finishing with 5 minutes of guided meditation with Mamma (yes, we had to do 30 minutes of this, but come on, it’s our first day!), after which we showered, got dressed, ate (sorry, gobbled) a 2-egg omlette with shredded cheese and 2 chapatis slathered with butter and ketchup (yum!), drank a cupful of milk with Bo-Bo (Bournvita), and left with Vikas kaka (our driver and our home’s major-domo) for our piano class, which is a 4-minute-drive away.

But before that, we received a card from Mamma wishing us all the best. Mamma can make up words so well. One day, we will be able to write like her. We have already read the card three times. We shall carry it with us in our little pouch and read it whenever we want. But right now, off to Erika Ma’am for piano.

On returning from the piano class, it was time for some piano practice (since we overshot our scheduled time during our workout) and then, straight into the Syllabus class with Priyanka Ma’am, where we learnt multiplication (which seems to be just a lot of addition) and an English story about Orville and Wilbur Wright who were the world’s first pilots. My Ajoba and Abhi chacha were both pilots. And Saneera chhema‘s husband is also a pilot. And my Sidhant mama also flies very big aircrafts to the USA. So many pilots! In our family, we have pilots and we have dentists. We are never going to have bad teeth. Or bad landings.

Back to the story: Did you know the two brothers could not decide who should fly. So, Orville won a toss and became the first one to fly? A toss is where you throw a coin in the air and you have to guess what side will be up when it lands. Also, when an aircraft comes down, it is called a landing. We told Baba that the Earth is divided into water and land. So many meanings of land. Isn’t that funny? We giggled until Rafa came and jumped on our lap. And then, it was our free time.

So, we played with Rafa. He’s a naughty boy and needs lot of love. Also, because our room isn’t yet ready because Baba and Mamma are busy with so many things (Aji is shifting to be closer to us, our jam company’s office is shifting, and so is our warehouse, and Mamma works so hard), we attended classes at Masi’s, from her study. Masi’s home smells so nice. Maybe it is because it has Rafa in it. Or maybe because she is always baking cakes. I love Masi’s cakes. Just the other day, she made a cake for my best friend, Azaad, on his birthday. I hope she makes a cake for mine too!

After that, it was time for Science-Maths, and we learnt about planets. Did you know Mars is red because it has iron? Our teacher explained how we can see red when iron becomes old and rusts. Once I saw Mars and Venus so close, they looked like one bright light. Baba showed it to Mamma and me long ago. And if you think Earth is big, you should see Jupiter. It looks so small, but that’s because it is very very far. Even further than Raavi’s home in Florida.

Then, we had lunch (egg-curry-rice is yummy, but the yellow part is yuck!), and we chatted with Baba at the same time. We wondered if he also hated eating egg yolk when he was 6, and he said yes. But then, when did he decide that he liked the yolk, we asked. He could not remember. But he did say that Serena eats egg yolk and that must mean that it makes me a better athlete. Somehow, Baba seems to know everything about everything. When we are his age, perhaps we’ll also know so much.

After that, it was ISL, and you know what, the teacher just wanted to chat. We played a game and she told me she has cats, but since they were sleeping, I could not see any. Did you know the sign for ‘cat’ is using your fingers to show their whiskers? We learned how to sign ‘rainbow’ too. And to sign ‘orange’, ‘yellow’, ‘pink’, ‘blue’, ‘gold’, and ‘silver’. Baba gave us a new notebook only for ISL, but Joanna Ma’am said we don’t need one today.

There was no free time after ISL, and Baba had to run and search for the video calling link for the next class, because Khan Sir had sent it to the wrong email address. It was fun to watch Baba run to get his computer and try and find something. We then met Khan Sir. He looks like Nanaji and and we are having difficulty in understanding him. But he likes to say, ‘Mashallah‘, which must mean something nice because he smiles when he says it. We are not sure if we are understanding everything yet, and Baba said it should be fine as we meet and speak more often. We promise to try. Baba said thet Khan Sir’s method was to repeat a lesson so many times that we never forget it. And Baba knows everything. So, we trust him. By the end of Khan Sir’s class, we knew the table of two so well that we could teach it to him! How did he do it?

It was already late afternoon by then, and we do some ISL practice. We practice signing for a while, and then we are bored. But Baba wants to see our typing. Did you know you don’t need to look at the keyboard while typing? But that is only when I get really good at it. Right now, we really need to keep searching for keys. But it is so easy to erase your mistakes!

And just like that, it is evening! Free time to play, call Aji on WhatsApp Video, and play with Rafa again. And we also get to eat the last of the mangoes from Aji-Ajoba’s farm. Yay!

All we need now is for our room to get ready soon, so we don’t have to disturb Masi for the whole day. Mamma has promised that it should be all done by Wednesday. We can’t wait to show you all.

#LearningWithKymaia