Please, thankyou gimme!

We made it a point to speak to our little girl in Malayalam (our native language) since that would be the only way she could learn the language. You see, Paunch and I, though Malayalees by birth, grew up outside Kerala and so never learned to read and write our 'Mother Tongue'. We are more comfortable speaking in English and that is our first language. We do however know how to speak semi-decent Malayalam . So we decided to speak to our daughter only in Malayalam as she will anyway pick up English from friends and school.

Our little girl is now 1 year and almost 10months and talks non-stop. She is a smart one and has noticed that Appa and Amma talk to each other in English. So she has picked up a few bits and pieces. Here are a few instances of how she has used the language.

One day, as I was watching TV, I overheard her asking our maid "what u doin?" Our maid, who speaks only Tamil, didn't know what she was saying and so said ""Eh? Enna?"(what?) Nanma repeats herself again "what u doin?"and seeing the expression on her face, laughs hysterically, thrilled at the fact that she knows more!

There was a tub of pitted prunes on the table and Nanma was demanding that she have one. I said to her "Ask nicely!" She immediately switched to English and said "Gimme pleesh tank yoo poons"

Nanma has been asking random people " yo idea? " This she picked up from a TV ad for idea mobile phone services.

One morning at the breakfast table, Paunch opens the hotbox to see upma - a south Indian breakfast he detests. Seeing him, Nanma exclaims "O mai Gawsh!"

One of her current favorite things to do is make up stories. (she's my daughter after all) Her stories usually revolve around an animal and herself. Now that she is trying to speak English, we hear funny combinations of English and Malayalam words used in a story. Like for example, her story of the Lion who went "chading, chading, chading" (chadu = jump, the íng' comes from the anglicizing the word "çhadu'')