Thank you, Jet Airways

After a long, tiring weekend, we were on our way back from Kerala to Chennai. And it was exactly at lunch time too. My daughter was hungry, sleepy and tired. I was absolutely dreading the flight back knowing the last thing she needed was to be made to sit in her seat with a seatbelt and nothing but the clouds to watch outside. I made sure I had crayons and paper and a book to read to her.

Jet Air totally surprised us. I'm sure its been around for a while but this is the first I'd heard of it. They had these little TVs for inflight entertainment. And, the greatest gift of all, they had a Kids Channel that had lots of cartoons (including Dora the Explorer, my daughter's favourite!). I was delighted. She was delighted. And everyone heaved a sigh of relief! :) It was the most pleasant plane ride we've had in a while.



They also gave out little packets of coloring pencils and books for the kids in a little bag. The only drawback was their kid's meal. The steward told us that we had to have requested it earlier, which we didnt know (on the other hand, when we flew to Kerala on Paramount Airways, they had a child meal ready for her, even though we hadn't requested it - now that's called service!). But I'm not complaining. Dora beats the kid's meal anyday.

Thanks, Jet Airways. And thanks Paramount, for catering to people who don't warn in ahead!

Kosher Toys

Recently, I went on a toy-buying spree for my daughter. She had outgrown all her toys and I seemed to be forcing a 2-year old to play with rattles and silly caterpillars. Anyways, we went to the toy section at the Landmark in the Chennai Citicenter on RK Salai. They have a cramped little toy section that is quite badly organized - though they do have lots and lots of stuff if you dig deep.

We found the most amusing toy. I decided to get her a little house/kitchen-type set, and was going through the various types. The most common ones were very americanized with fried eggs and hot dogs and fried chicken. The funniest was the Indian veggie version! I guess its for those parents who are not only raising vegetarian children but who don't want the kids to know there is a world out there that is not vegetarian. Take a look. I thought it was very clever!

Here's the Fisher Price version - if you look closely you can see the fried egg and the chicken drumstick:



And here's the veggie version, complete with banana leaf and a thali meal:

Kiddie Parties

Kiddie parties in Chennai are almost cookie-cutter style. Everyone has a bouncy castle, a balloon-twister, a face-painter. The food is almost always different types of sandwiches, pizza, popcorn, bhelpuri and of course an amazingly-iced birthday cake in various shapes, colors and sizes.

Are birthday parties the same in every city? Maybe they are, but we really need to change things around a bit here. Atleast for the sanity of the mothers!! :)