Reading the Tintin comics from the public library and hence the title is an influence. :) Nandan turned out 3 last week. In the space of last 3 months, he pointed out three patterns that left me puzzled. Here are they:
1) We have a fan in the living room. It has has that light bulb built into it and the switches are those hanging knobs. One day, Nandan was playing around with a stick and was jumping up to hit one of those hanging knobs. On one stroke, he did hit and the knob went swinging in a pendulum motion. This guy took a moment of observation to sink it in and then said "Appa, that is a see saw" and made that to and fro motion. The only place he has observed a to and fro motion.
2) On a sunny morning, Nandan had just got up. The sunlight came through the patio glass door in rays and you could see the small particles in the air lighten up and make those random zig-zag motion. He was lazily observing with his sleepy eyes and then his eyes brightened up. He said "Appa, they are moving like fish in water".
3) One of those evening joy rides with the family in the car when you do not have a destination and simply drive around the farms to catch some animals and show them to Nandan. And the sky was stunning with dusk colors and a beautiful crescent moon (three days after new moon). Nandan caught the moon in all its beauty and said "Moon looks like a cut finger nail".
And the one to beat it all happened way before. This took me away completely. It was 28 July 2011. Nandan was 1 year and 6 months old. Just giving out one or two syllable words. Our favorite was how he told umbrella as 'am-bum-ba'. That day, we (my father-in-law, Ramya, Nandan and me) had gone to Dakshin Tirupathi temple (a very beautiful and isolated temple standing on a cliff overlooking large lands of farm and a beautiful river snaking below) near Hosur and on the way, gone to a shop. Now that shop had one of those trendy small fire extinguisher hanging from the wall. While my wife was shopping, I was trying to distract this guy and carrying him around. I thought the bright red extinguisher will be a good one to keep him mused for awhile and was showing it to him standing close to it. All of a sudden, Nandan started repeating 'am-bum-ba' pointing to the extinguisher. Now, I thought he had somehow taken a fancy for that word and was going gaga over it. And I was happy that I was able to keep him occupied (he he). Then, when he did not stop, I took a closer look at where he was pointing. Turned out that he was not pointing at the fire extinguisher but to an analog dial gauge (measuring the pressure) in it. And then it dawned to me. He had seen that little markings of pressure units in a semi-circle (with that perpendicular needle pointing half way) in the gauge. The semi-circle and the needle formed an umbrella pattern to him. To this day, I was amazed he could see that pattern.
