Cycling - Reedy Creek

Srinidhi has learned to ride his cycle very well, now he can ride for couple of blocks. This is from the first time we took him to ride outside of our driveway. This is at Reedy Creek Park on May 23.

ஸ்ரீநிதி நன்றாக சைக்கிள் ஓட்ட கற்றுக் கொண்டான். ஒறு 100 மீட்டர் தூரம் தானாக எளிதாக ஓட்டுகிறான். இது ரீடி க்ரீக் பார்கில்.

Trip To Morrow Mountain State Park

We identified our 'Park of the year' to explore for 2005. It is Morrow Mountain State Park. During summer, we usually go west to the Smokey Mountains. It is an obvious choice. There is so much to explore in the Smokeys. It is three to four hours drive one way. So we mostly did a minimum of two day trips. With Srinidhi, we wanted to find a place where it is easy to do one day trips. I never looked east before, because I assumed the piedmont and then the coast is all pretty plain. (We like mountains) What do I know? Looking east, I found Morrow Mountain State Park, only a 90 minute drive. In their website, they say, "These steep, rugged hills-unusual topography for the area-form a stark contrast with the rolling countryside of the piedmont plateau." So I wasn't too far off in my assumption.

Anyway, we made a trip. After taking in the sights and sounds, we rented a row boat and went some distance in Yadkin River. I am not too good in rowing in the river, especially upstream it was a battle. Then we went on the Falls Mountain Trail. We enjoyed it a lot. Then we went to the mountain top to get a view of Lake Tillery. There is so much more to explore in this park. We will be back.

நாங்கள் முர்ரோ மவுண்டன் ஸ்டேட் பார்க் போய் இருந்தோம். வீட்டில் இருந்து ஒன்றறை மனி நேரம் காரில். முதலில் யாட்கின் நதியில் படகில் சென்றோம். பிறகு, ஃபால் மலை பாதையில் நடந்தோம். நல்ல பார்க். மீண்டும் வருவதாக முடிவெடுத்துள்ளோம்.

A view of Yadkin River.
யாட்கின் நதி

Begining of Fall Mountail Trail.
ஃபால் மலை பாதை ஆரம்பம்.

On the Fall Mountain Trail. Srinidhi walked almost all the way. We saw some deer at a distance from this spot.
ஃபால் மலை பாதையில். ஸ்ரீநிதி முக்கால்வாசி தூரம் தானகவே நடந்து வந்தான். இதற்க்கு அருகில் நாங்கள் சில மான்களை பார்தோம்.

Srinidhi got his feet wet in Yadkin River.
இவ்ளோ தூரம் வந்துட்டு தண்ணியில கால் நனைக்காம இருக்க முடியுமா?

View of Lake Tillery from Mountain Top Trail.
மலை உச்சியிலிருந்து டில்லரி ஏரியை பார்க்கலாம்.

Romanized keystrokes for typing Tamil

This is the mapping I use in the converter to type Tamil. I use the converter from Jaffna Library.
I did not find a map anywhere. I had to figure it out intuitively. So for the benefit of others, here it is:

Romanized keyboard mapping:

1. உயிர் (Vowels)

அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஔ ஃ
a A i I u U e E ai o O au q

2. மெய்(Consonants)

A) மெல்லினம் (soft vowels)
k s t th p r
க் ச் ட் த் ப் ர்

B) இடையினம் (Medium vowels)
ng nj N nth m n
ங் ஞ் ண் ந் ம் ன்

C) வல்லினம் (Hard vowels)
y R l v L z
ய் ற் ல் வ் ள் ழ்

5. உயிர் மெய் உதாரணம் ( Compound example )

க கா கி கீ கு கூ கெ கே கை கொ கோ கௌ
ka kA ki kI ku kU ke kE kai ko kO kau

4. சமஸ்கிருத மெய் எழுத்துக்கள் (Borrowed vowels from Sanskrit)

j sh S -h
ஜ் ஷ் ஸ் ஹ்

5. தமிழ் சமஸ்கிருத கூட்டெழுத்து உதாரணங்கள் (Tamil-Sanskrit compound letter examples)

க்ஷ் is ksh or X
க்ஷி is kshi or Xi

6. ஸ்ரீ (sri) Special letter Workarounds

ஸ்ரீ
! in Mylai font
c in Dinamani font

7. In English alphabetic order

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
அ ப் c ட் எ f க் க் இ ஜ் க் ல் ம் ந் ஒ ப் ஃ ர் ச் ட் உ வ் ந் x ய் ழ்

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ஆ B C D ஏ F G H ஈ J K ள் M ண் ஓ P Q ற் ஸ் T ஊ V W க்ஷ் Y Z

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

Found the key for ஸ்ரீ. It is SrI.

June 03, 2005 2:18 PM

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

Also, 'nth' does not always work for ந். Instead you can use -n.

June 04, 2005 6:50 PM

Sorry And Mone Kaa-Keee-Kaa

• We have been prodding Srinidhi to say sorry when ever he does some mischief, say when he hits a friend ( yeah, he does that ! But now-a-days he is not doing it as much. ). He mostly says sorry when we tell him to. Yesterday, he stepped on Veena unintentionally and immediately said 'Sorry'!! No prodding. Another first.
• He puts together full sentences for a while now. Some recent ones, 'I wan mone kaa-keee-kaa', 'Appa helmeet big, Appu helmeet smaa' , 'Macy comin nest' etc. He combines many such sentences to narrate stories.
• He knows his colors, pink, blue, purple, green and yellow. He uses mainly to get his favorite pop (lollypop).
• He knows the shapes, circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond and heart.
• Just doesn’t want to go beyond ABCD on his own. He will repeat with us to Z, but not on his own :( Same with numbers, does not want to go beyond 3 on his own! Not interested in learning alphabets or numbers yet! Since he has great memory, we figured it is just his interest and not forcing him on that. Let him be a kid and learn when it interests him.
• Oh, he knows up/down, front/back, in/out and even right/left very well.
• He wants 'mone kaa-keee-kaa' all the time. ka-kee-ka is chocolate. He said chocolate reasonably when I taught him, but he goes back 'mone kaa-keee-kaa'. I guess it is easier and fun.
• We taught him to say 'Stop' when his friend hits him (yes that happens too :). He is now very liberal with its usage. Every time he wants to resist us from enforcing something, such as, 'you are getting off the tub now, you have been in the water for 30 minutes', he says 'Stop Appa Stop'. Of course, he doesn't have to use that much against Amma!

 Anonymous said...

Sri knows White, Orange, Brown, and Red too. His favorite shapes are Oval, Square and Star. he knows open and close and many other opposites- tall and short, hot and cold, night and day, happy and sad, fast and slow. He says "Kaanum Bike", He asks, "you like it?" and "you wann mone (more)?" and "you see that?" and just now he is showing me an elephant and saying "you see aanaa (elephant)? aanaa mooku (nose) water... !" Yesterday night he saw a picture of a baby crying in the rhymes book for the "Rock a bye baby in the tree top" rhyme and got so emotional. It made me emotional to see the two year old wiping the tears off the baby and talking to it for so long. I read other rhymes to him, but he kept going back to the crying baby.

June 02, 2005 9:57 AM

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

We were talking about it and realized the list is much bigger than what we listed :) He uses lot of Tamizh words too.

June 03, 2005 8:25 AM

Happy Birthday Vikash

சென்ற ஞாயிற்று கிழமை, விகாஷின் பிறந்த நாளுக்கு சென்றிறுந்தோம். பிறந்த நாளை ஒரு வாட்டர் பார்க்கில் வைத்து இருந்தார்கள். எல்லா குழந்தைகளும் நீச்சல் குளத்தில் நன்றாக கும்மாளம் அடித்தார்கள். ஸ்ரீ நிதி என்னவோ இந்த முறை தண்ணீரில் இறங்கவே இல்லை (மத்தியான தூக்க நேரம்). அதற்கு பிறகு எல்லா குழந்தைகளும் மினி கோல்ப் விளையாடினார்கள். ஸ்ரீ நிதிக்கு அப்பொழுதுதான் மூட் வந்தது. நல்ல கொண்டாட்டம். பிறகு பிட்சா டின்னர். பிறந்த நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள் விகாஷ். (BTW, just figured out how to blog in Tamil, so this entry in Tamil. I am using a converter. Its a bit tedious, but worth it.)

In observance of Memorial Day, we visited the American Military Museum at Gastonia, NC. Then we visited worlds largest flying US flag, also in Gastonia.

An exhibit hall. Srinidhi is looking at the flags hanging.

Srinidhi looking at a model plane. (This one is a model of Enola Gay).

Exhibit.

We visited the worlds largest flying US flag at Gastonia, NC. It is 114 feet wide and 65 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Each star in the flag is 4.25 feet wide and each stripe is 5 feet high. Of course there is Super Flag which is 4 times larger than the flag at Gastonia, but the Super Flag does not fly, it is only displayed. I took this picture from half a mile away.

Thank You

On this Memorial Day, I Salute All The Brave Men And Women Who Gave Their All For Liberty, The Very Liberty I Cherish. Thank You.

(Picture is from the site linked)

Madagascar

We had been thinking about taking Srinidhi to his first Theater Movie now that he is 2+. We were worried he might be afraid of the dark theater/big screen or he might simply lose interest in few minutes. So we decided to try an open air theater/drive in theater first. We found out about the free screening of Spiderman II in a park and took him there. Oh well, It rained out!

Sooner or later we had to, so we took him to the theater yesterday to see the movie Madagascar. To our pleasant surprise, he totally enjoyed it (even though it was his naptime). He sat comfortably in his seat, he had lot, I mean lot, of popcorn (he doesn't like any soda, so only had his juice), watched the entire movie with interest, laughed at times and very excited about the whole thing. On the way back he was telling us the story, or what ever he thought it was :)