The baby dairies 5 to 10 yrs

** Written in active speech, rather than third-party references **
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5 yr 1 months (Aug 2012): I am in Australia and after a long talk with Bebu (in which she shared some self-made "jokes"), I ask her if she is sad. She says "no" and I laugh. After our good-byes, she tells mom that she was sad, but she would have said "yes", then I would become sad and if I became sad then Freya would become sad and that is why she responded with a "No" to me.

She also added..."kabhi kabhi toh jhooth bol sakte hain..."!
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5 yr 3 months (Oct 2012): Freya finds a letterhead and a pencil in the hotel room in Andheri and spontaneously writes this ...
... this is what has come instantly so Vaibhav thinks that this has to be her true feeling. Otherwise as soon as there are talks of being with papa (the background being that Papa is in Australia and Freya and Vaibhav are in India at this point), the only thing Bebu talks around is to kill or hate you or not like or shout at Papa.
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5 yr 3 months (Oct 2012): Freya is now the monitor of her class. In her words, she collects books to keep in cupboard, makes sure everyone is standing in a straight line in the assembly and keeps everyone quiet in the class. She says that teacher gets a headache when she tries to do all these things, and that is why teacher has appointed a monitor to care of these tasks.
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5 yr 3 months (Oct 2012): On a phone call, Freya is getting very agitated because she clearly wants to be with Papa. So she gives him an choice - "either you come here in 10 days and get beating and punishment, or you come here in 5 days and I will tell you sorry for shouting on you". Not much of a choice is it!   :)     So I try to reason with her that there is a problem - that in 5 days, Freya needs to go to Udaipur for Regal masi's roka. So Freya shoots back - "Arre! I have met Regal masi so many times. Now I want to meet you. Can you not understand?". Urrrghhh ... yea, I understand!!
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5 yr 3 months (Oct 2012): Mom (Leela) recently got an email account. So she sent an email to Freya. Here is Freya's inspired response:
From: Freya Jain ;*********@gmail.com;
Date: Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 8:17 PM
To: Leela Jain ;*********@gmail.com;

Dadi, the petals should be all different colours and you should be wearing new saree and get wrapper and wrap the plan and gift it to me then I will be liking it so much, I love you so much. I am waiting for you to come here. You are so nice so you come here and I will do so much fun and then we will stay for so many days and love each other. Thanks you so much. I love you too. Whe you will come here to Pune, I will also give some gift and old saree for you. I am writing you so many sentences because I love you so much. And I will have so much fun with you, but dadi you are so nice so I will play with doll and love you so much. You were very big so your ma'm was making you sit in last so ha ha ha ha ha, so you have not to go to school now. Thank you thank you thank you. If you will call me on laptop it will be very nice. You have not written so big but I love you so much so I am writing so much, you are the best. Now ask the mirror, who is the fairest of them all, if the mirror will reply you, I love you too much, and then I finish my thing, can you ask you one question? Some more one two question - you have brought some small and bright toys for me so bring them here and I am very happy, I know that you will laugh at it, because I hae written so big mail and let me say some more things. Bring some new and funny toys for me and motu dadaji and like for me the barbie is looking very nice. It has become so much to send you a mail. My question is can you please come to Pune? Bring many toys, bring toy box and put the toys and its nice to tell you all these question and I have written all this in computer to make you happy. And laugh for this. I have written this in mummy's computer.Still I am not eating food by myself and you have to make me eat but I am so big that am able to eat 2 chapaties if my stomach is paining then I cannot. sorry Dadi I miss you. You are so fair and gore, you are very beautiful and fair. Thank you very much.


On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 5:03 PM, Leela Jain <**********@gmail.com> wrote:
Freya lala,
                 :Beta, this is Dadi. Lala ,I remember you so much. I
bought a new plant . There are 3 flowers in it. When youi come here in
Borivali, you will see it and you will like it so much.
                 Bye Babu.

                 Love you so much.
                                Dadi.
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5 yr 3 months (Oct 2012): And the above email was followed by this one, which seems to be an anguished cry of emotions torn between love and hate 

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 2:28 AM, Freya Jain;*********@gmail.com> wrote:
I am very angry with you because you are not coming to me and before I come if you are not coming then we will celebrate our 2-3 months of happy birthday so you dont want cake you dont want anything so what should I do, I am also very angry with you and you dont want chocolate and you dont want cake so what I can do? You only stay alone and cry for chocolate and all. You are missing me so dont miss me because when hiccups are coming to me then I dont like. Please dont be unhappy and cry. I am sending you a sad mail because I am sad because you are not coming to me. And this sad mail will make you sad and unhappy, now you cry how much you want to, I am sending this small mail because of this. I am sorry I dont love you Mrs Sameer Jain. Now go and cry and please dont cry just come to me. And if you want to cry dont cry because...you are a very bad person ...you are not a bad person so I love you so much so now I am saying that it is not sad mail, you become happy now. Papa, be happy but I am telling you small mail but it is big enough, plz dont cry. My name is Freya, I love you Mrs Sameer Jain. Now the sad mail has gone away, so dont cry and you also send me a mail. I am very sorry because I am so sad. I love you so much. Thanks you.. Dont cry because I am extremely sad because of you. You are not coming , so I am sad means sad means sad. If you will not Dadi see what I will do to you. Call dadi and say to dadi that dadi ...you are very bad person. You are extremly bad and extremely little good. I dont love you bye bye. Now I am sleeping unhappy because you are not coming and if you are coming you have only 10 days time.
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5 yr 5 months (Dec 2012): It is 4:30 in the morning in India and Vaibhav called up Papa in Australia because she could not sleep. Vaibhav is talking about how Freya passed her Abacus-Part 2 exam yesterday and how she was scared that because of the difficult sums, Freya would not pass. As an example, she told me that one of the formulas that Freya had to know as – "What is minus 6?". Vaibhav is struggling with the answer – and trying to explain that it is +10 -4 ... no no ... it is -10 +4 ... by this time Freya wakes up and asks - "मै बताऊ?!"
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5 yr 6 months (Jan 2013): Mumma is telling a story - "One day there was a dinosaur. He was troubling everyone too much". Freya - " No, don't tell 'my' story. Tell me some other story. I know I am troubling everyone so much"
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5 yr 6 months (Jan 2013): Freya would not allow mummy and papa to kiss or hug. Everytime she sees something like this, she gets angry. So we are struggling to let her know that she should not be selfish and allow everyone to show love to everyone else. But Freya is insistent that mummy should give "full love" only to her, and Papa should also give "full love" only to her. So over a number of days, she is patiently talked to and explained with stories such as that of "Magic Chapati". The story of Magic Chapati goes like this - There is a magic chapati. After you eat half chapati, how much remains? (Freya says - half remains). The story continues - But magic chapati has magic and it becomes full again. However much of the magic chapati you eat, it continues to always become full, and so it can never get over. Just like love. So it is OK to give full love to mummy, and even after that, bebu will continue to get full love.
However, this story does not cut ice with her. Finally, after constant hounding, she relents a little. The new compromise is "shiny kissu". This is what she did last night:
Freya: Mumma, give me kissu. No, not one - give me so many kissus, so that I can give the best one to Papa.
(After mumma gives her kissus) OK, Kissu मेरे पेट में जा. Good - now washing machine mein kissus are getting washed. OK, kissus have become shiny. Now most shiny kissu, please come out. Good. (Finally, Freya gives a kissu to papa). OK, now Papa has got a shiny kissu.
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5 yr 6 months (Jan 2013): Freya calls papa a "chatter box". This is because Papa tries to "explain" things to her like - why not to get angry, why not to be selfish and the likes. So to take this a step further, we give mu mumma a name too - "Complaining Mumma" (because she complains that Freya doesn't eat fast enough). And "Gussu Bebu" (because Freya can become angry on the smallest of things). BTW, we also have "Chatterbox Papa".
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5 yr 7 months (Feb 2013): Freya gets a stick from the road, shows it to papa excitedly and mentions that this was a magic stick that could "make you a rat or a dog". Papa says - Wow! That's nice - give me a high-five. Freya wants to give a high-five with her new stick, rather than her hand. Papa says - If you use your stick for high-five, then I may turn into a dog. To which Freya says - Don't worry papa. There is an off-switch in the stick and it is also password protected.
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5 yr 8 months (Mar 2013): Here is an example of the kind of stories that Freya gets to hear on email from dadi. More on a separate post:

One lion was very sad. He did not like any thing. Whole day he was
sitting unhappy under one tree. On that tree, one pigeon was staying.
He was very happy. He gave two eggs in the nest which he made on that
tree. After some days small small chicks came out from the egg. These
chick were making noise whole day because when their mummy goes out to
find food for them, they remain alone and they get very much afraid
because they see lion is sitting under the tree.
           
One day when their mummy came with food , she saw that
small small babies are crying . When babies saw that their mummy came
back, they stared crying more loudly. Mummy ask them , what happened.
Why crying so loudly. They said mummy. This lion  under our tree is
very bad . He is sitting whole day and so we are very much afraid of
him. Mummy, you  tell him to go away. Mummy pigeon went down and sat
near lion. She ask him why you are so sad and not going anywhere. Lion
told , I do not have any friend and no body like me. No one want to
play with me .This pegion told I am your friend and I and my children
will play with you.Lion became very happy and told thankyou very much.
Call your children to play with me. Pegion called his children.
Chintoo and Mintoo come down and play with lion. They came down and
lion started laughing and telling you are both very small so you sit
on my head . I will take you in the jungle and saw you so many things
. Both sat on lion's head and lion started going in the jungle. All
other animals were looking at them and laughing. But lion told both
the chicks that do not worry. They all are very bad. They are not my
friend .Only you are my friend. Now we will go to eat Bhel and
Panipuri. so they  went to one shop and started eating panipuri.
Panipuri was very Tikkha. Chintoo Mintoo's mouth started burning and
they started shouting, Water Water. Lion told wait we are going to
drink water just now..And he took them near one river.

Now lion was drinking water and birds chick were high so they were
not able to drink. As lion put his mouth in water , both the chicks
fell down in the water. They became wet and were not able to come out
of wate. They both drown and died. This lion now became afraid He
thought when I will go back to my tree, that pigeon will ask me where
are my Chintoo and Mintoo. Then how can I tell that they died.

Lion started running. He want to hide somewhere so pigeon will
not able to find him. Running running he saw one cave. So he went
inside and sat on one rock. This cave was the house of one snake.
Snake was sleeping when lion came .When snake awake , he saw lion
sitting there. Snake became angry and told to lion, go away. This is
my house. If you will not go out immediately, I will bite you so hard
that you will die. Lion told please do not bite me I will become your
friend . I am afraid of one pigeoon . He will kill me if I go out

Snake told that if you want to stay with me , you have to do all my
work. You have to cook food for me and wash my clothes also . Lion
told I will do everything for you. Snake told make Khichadi and kadhi
for me . So lion made khichadi and kadhi and snake at all food and no
food left for lion. Lion was now again upset and hungry. He thought I
have to go out and run away from this place. Next day became and snake
told today make chapati and cake for me. Lion told there is no Atta
for making chapati and no butter and sugar for cake so I want to go
out to buy things. Snake told then go to market and buy things. Lion
told I am afraid of pegion so give me one sari. I will wear sari and
go so pigeon will not able to see me. Snake gave one nice sari. Lion
wore that sari and went out. Instead of going to market , he went to
railway station and sat in one train . That  train was going to Pune
.In the train nobody recognise him because he was wearing
sari..Everybody thought he is some fat lady. so he nicely reached to
Pune.

After getting down on Pune station, He was walking on
the road and so many cars and rikshas were also going on the road. One
carwala thought that Bichari lady walking on road . Let me give her
lift so he stop his car and told Lion that come and sit in my car. I
will leave you wherever you want to go. So lion in sari sat in the car
near that man. After some time, man asked what is your name but lion
kept quiet. After some more time man asked again where should I drop
you still lion kept quiet so this man thought this lady does not have
any house so let me take her to my house. He stopped the car when his
his house came and opened the door of car and told lion to get down.
Lion in sari got down and walked after that man and came in this man's
house. Man told that because you are not telling your name, I am
keeping your name  'Jalebi bai."Now take away sari and saw me your
face. Lion take away sari and man shouted loudly Ooima , Bachao. Mar
gaya re Mar gaya. .His all neighbours heard that man is shouting. What
must have happen to that man. Let us go and find out. So so many
neighbours came together to his house and asked him what happen, why
you are shouting so loudly. He told see one lion came to my house but
every body told where is lion. This is lady. Lion was again wearing
sari so everybody thought this is lady and they told to that man that
you have become mad. Telling lady a lion.


When all the neighbours came they asked where is lion
. There is no lion.You are mad that you are telling a lady, a lion.
Because you became mad , we are calling Ambulance. Dr. will put you in
the ambulance and take you to mad hospital. So after sometime
ambulance came and everybody pushed him in the ambulance and Dr. took
him in the mad hospital. After he went away in the hospital, Lion
thought , now this is my house. I will eat so much food and will see
T.V.and will do so much Musti. After eating so much food , he started
jumping on the bed. Lion is heavy and jumping on bed so hardly that
after some time bed  broke. He started laughing and telling Achcha ho
gaya. Now I will break T.V. So he lift the  T.V. and threw it down
from the window so hard that it broke and the watchman got hurt. His
one leg broke. He went to Police station to complain about it. Lion
got afraid that police will come and catch me and put me in jail. I do
not want to go in jail so let me think of some idea. He came out of
his flat and close the door but he not took key so now he cannot go
inside the house again. He started crying and crying crying he came
down of the building . One person asked why you are crying. He said I
forgot my key in the house only. Man said do not cry. We will call
some key wala to open your house but lion told , now I do not want to
stay in this house.I am going somewhere and find out another house.
The man told come with me and stay with me. Then lion told I do not
like any man. Man asked why ? Lion said look at my face and you will
undersand .As soon as man saw lion's face,. he became unconsious .
Lion became happy and thought why people are getting so much afraid of
me. It means I am the king of Jungle so I will go back to Jungle. For
going to Jungle again , he stopped one taxi and told him chalo Jungle.
Taxi wala told I am not going to Jungle. Then lion told if I saw you
my face then you will take me. Taxiwala  told yes. So lion took away
his sari and taxi wala started shouting and so much afraid that he
left the taxi and ran away.
     
Then lion himself drive the taxi  and went to jungle.
Still in the jungle he is all alone so he thought my life is so
hopeless so let me die. He climb on one mountain and jumped. and died.
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5 yr 10 months (Apr 2013): How do you explain to a 6 year old what "software updates" are? I told Freya that a software update made my phone "smoother". She touched the face of the phone with her fingers and said - "not really?!"
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5 yr 11 months (May 2013): Freya has started to become increasingly independent at night. She has voluntarily started the "master of the bed" rotation, in which each of the parents and she rotate to sleep in the middle. She also now goes into the bedroom and closes the door behind her, waiting for us to join her later. There was no way she would do this even a couple of weeks back, because she would have been afraid.

For a very long time, Freya has absolutely insisted that she needs to be sleeping in the middle. We used to have a nightly argument around this, but she would not budge. We have been telling her that she would have to sleep on another bed when she is 4 years old, ... then 5 years old ... then 6 ... and so the "master of the bed" is finally a good start in that direction.
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5 yr 11 months (May 2013): A question went to Freya - is wasting food a good thing or a bad thing? Freya's response - "it is both a good thing and a bad thing. If some child has taken more than more food and his stomach gets full, then it is not bad to waste food. But if some child does not eat food and stomach is still empty, then that is a bad thing."
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5 yr 11 months (May 2013): Teaching and patience - Freya has started to adopt the teaching methods from School at home. She went to a camp today (unaccompanied by parents) and came back at around 8 in the evening. In the bed, she told us all that happened at the camp, and said that questions should be asked at the end. So we had to raise our hand, then we get a chance to ask questions. If we do not follow the rule of raising our hand, she will simply say "Please remember". At another time, when she was teaching counting from 1 to 10 in Japanese, she said - "Repeat after me - Ichi (one)". So papa said "Licchi". She simply kept quiet and waited with a suggestive look which said - correct yourself. So then papa went - "Ichi". She said - "Good!" and continued to teach the rest "Ni" ...
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5 yr 11 months (Jun 2013): Loss of innocence - Freya has started to ask myth bursting questions. She asked whether tooth fairy was real. When she was assured that a tooth fairy is indeed real, she asked Papa to show a picture of a tooth fairy. Papa promptly googled and showed her one - to which she simply replied - This is only a lady dressed as a tooth fairy, not a real tooth fairy. Papa said, it was time to go to bed.

Then again, she queried recently about the latter she had sent to Santa Claus in Dec 2011. Her query was - How did the letter that we sent reach Santa Claus? She was explained that the letter posted was addressed to Santa and that is how. She was not convinced; she said - How could that be? Santa stays in the sky and so how come the letter can reach there? Is Santa real? Phew!!! Had to tell her that we will explain about Santa later and that for now, lets go and watch some movie on the laptop. (That surely excites her, more than knowing about Santa).
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6 yr 1 months (Aug 2013): From last night: Freya declares she is a "second-hand baby" and beams. We are shocked and think she is suffering from a lack of self-worth. We try to assure her that she is a really "first-class" baby. But she insists that she is a second-hand baby and then shows how:
..........
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She turned 6, so she says that she now needs to use her "second-hand" to show her age.
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6 yr 1 months (Aug 2013): Freya has just learnt to ride cycle. While taking a video at the end of the cycle ride, Papa tell her - OK, now lets do your post-ride interview. While watching the video later on, she asks me that is "post ride interview". So Papa explains that "pre" means before and "post" means after. Freya's question is - Then why do we have "after"-man?
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6 yr 2 months (Sep 2013): Since a few weeks, when Freya gets up on Saturday and Sunday mornings, she wants to watch youtube VDOs on the mobile. We have told her that the internet data download is limited and if she watches too many VDOs, then our connection may be turned off. So we decided that she will watch a short VDO either on Saturday or on Sunday. This week, she watched a VDO on Saturday. Then on Sunday morning, she again insisted that she wanted to watch a VDO. We told her that she would be breaking her promise then. To which she said - I am "breaking" my promise only once, then I will "join" it for the rest of my life.
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6 yr 9 months (Apr 2014): One day while studying, Freya suddenly says "लडक़ी" is the worst word ever. We are like - Why? She says - because it has the word "लड़" in it!
What an enlightened child - she knows what women are always up to!
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6 yr 11 months (Jun 2014): While watching "The Smurfs" movie, there is a dialogue after the lead made a colossal mistake; he says - "I think I will be fired". Freya asks - "Does that mean they will shoot him with a gun?"  :)
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7 yr 0 months (Jul 2014): Three poems dished out by Freya in a matter for half an hour:


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7 yr 4 months (Nov 2014): Here is some homework Freya did today. The picture says it all.
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7 yr 10 months (May 2015): Yesterday, colleagues from Vaibhav's office had come over for Dinner.  - all adults, no child. So Freya was given a "watching license" to watch the Hindi movie "PK" to keep her from getting bored. She was also given 10 points, with the condition that if she lost all her 10 points, then she would also lose her "watching license". Not eating food properly and not being on correct behavior will see her lose points.

Later at night, she asked - "What is the real name of PK".
Papa: "On their planet, they do not have names."
Freya: "Then how do they call each other?"
Papa: "They speak with their minds - telepathy."
Freya: "Then why does PK have ears?"

And also in the last scene of the movie, Aamir Khan is shown talking to Ranbir Kapoor.
Freya: "If they talk with their minds, then why is PK actually speaking to his alien friend?"

Later this morning:
Freya: "I am going to watch PK again."
Papa: "Sorry, watching license was only valid for the day."
Freya: "Haan, toh 'day' na. That is 24 hours. I got the license last night - so 24  hours is not done. I will watch PK again."
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7 yr 11 months (Jun 2015): Freya earned "Player of the week" token at netball for week ending 20-Jun. This was for her excellent defense play, in which she stuck to the other team's WA, while Freya was a WD. Freya was over the moon with the award. Some statements:
"I am so happy, I want to die"
"I want to cry"
and various guttural sounds

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7 yr 11 months (Jun 2015): Freya's essay on - What would I do if I ruled the world for 1 day:


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8 yr 1 month (Aug 2015): There was a frame that Freya made in after school care - it was pretty pretty so papa was getting ready to hang this on the wall. He asked Freya to get cello tape, so that the staple pins protruding from the backside of the frame wouldn't dig into the wall. Freya asked - "What are you doing?" Papa said - "Watch!" Then Freya said - "Oh! I get it - you are putting the tape so that the pins do not make a hole in the wall." Papa said - "Very clever!" Freya is like - "No, its not clever, its experienced.". Papa was like "How?" Freya explains - "You see, you say stay away from the walls, and do not hit the walls, so that is how I know why you are putting the cello tape on. That is why it is called 'experienced', not 'clever'!"

Yup Freya, we agree!
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8 yr 4 months (Nov 2015): Freya's school work: 


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8 yr 7 months (Feb 2016): In the middle of home studies one Saturday, Freya says - "Oh my God! On Saturday too, you have to study when you are a child. Then when you grow up, you have to work on Saturday. This is no holiday. This is slavery." 
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8 yr 8 months (Mar 2016): A couple of snapshots of school work. This has literally told us more about Freya's preferences than she chooses to tell us if we ask her. 


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9 yr 2 months (Sep 2016): Father's day card by Freya

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9 yr 3 months (Oct 2016): Freya is really interested in food preparation and cooking activities. Cake prep, baking pizzas and cookies, cup cakes - she gets really enthusiastic about these since the last couple of years. She has recently started to knead dough too. And here is her first rolled chapati. 

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9 yr 3 months (Oct 2016): Since Freya played Monopoly at a friend's place, she has been insisting on getting one for herself. Since Freya will be in her Dadi's (granny's) place soon for most of school holidays, we thought it would be a good idea to order the game directly at Dadi's address. All's well there. And then there was a bouncer of a question from Dadi. See below :) 

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9 yr 4 months (Nov 2016): Freya was asking about India-England cricket match series that was on news. She asked "Who won?". I told her it was a 5-day match, so we do not know yet. Freya's question - "If it is a 5-day match, when do they sleep?"
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9 yr 4 months (Nov 2016): Freya did not clear up her study books again, and so got a shouting from mamma - तेरे को बोल बोल कर मेरा आधा दिमाग तो ऐसे ही खाली हो जाता है". To which Freya says - "That's  not possible because humans do not use more than 5% of their brains.
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9 yr 4 months (Nov 2016): Some beliefs of Freya from when she was younger, and which she still remembers. 1) She thought that wind is produced by trees - when trees sway, that's how wind gets generated.  2) When she used to sit inside a car, and we used to switch on indicators, she used to imagine indicator as a giant light covering half of the front of the car for the right indicator and the other half for left indicator.   3) She used to think that in America, people who live are all blacks, because America sounds like Africa.
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9 yr 6 months (Jan 2017): Song from Dangal, by Freya. 


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9 yr 9 months (Apr 2017): Morning thought from Freya. "I now know how the word ALAS was made. There was some person who did not like "t". So he took out t's from At Last and made up ALAS!"
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9 yr 10 months (May 2017): Freya has a buddy system at school, where Grade 5 gets to buddy up with a kid from Prep. This card is from Freya's buddy - Nishka




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9 yr 10 months (May 2017): Freya brings up a written set of questions to be answered by papa after she got some shouting for hitting the wall with steel glass:



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10 yr 10 months (May 2018): Freya hates animal cruelty. She hates it when animals are harmed on screen, e.g. we recently watched the movie "Sholay", in which lots of baddies fall off horses when shot (and the horses fall too) - she kept on asking if the horses would have gotten hurt.

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