There are some mechanics whose work I admire. They have an orderliness about them. They take out things packed in 30 mm space, spread it out over 100 sq metres and put them back in 30 mm with minimum fuss and mess. I have always admired such souls of toil. So, when the father and daughter were pandering upstairs with a laptop lying open on the desk, I went up a couple of times partly out of curiosity and partly to keep the toddler son away from the table. (The son thinks he is helping out on the task and gets sorely disappointed when told that he can’t place his toy cars on that convenient hole inside the laptop where the hard disk used to reside. ) Halfway through the task, I saw the pair of them chattering about something and come downstairs. “Commencing after lunch!” said the mechanics. “But you just had coffee and chocolate milk!” said I. This was received with a chuckle and no retort. A moment later, the pair of them switched on the Television.
“Going to watch Television? “ I asked in that tone that mildly encourages one to finish up the laptop work. Among other things I was worried that a small thing will go astray and I will be called upon to get down on all fours and search.
“TV Amma. Not television. Television sounds so formal and then you don’t feel like relaxing with it.”
“Well, what happened to the laptop?” I asked.
“We watched a you-tube video on how to do it Amma. Relax. So, I know everything. We just could not do it because Appa wants to take another backup of the disk now.”
I launched into what I call my Science Teacher mode. “You can learn more by doing than by watching you-tube videos. “ I went on in this vein for a few sentences, and then let the thing rest.
A few days later, I caught her again and told her about the Science experiments that the President lauded, and how these children had taken simple problems and solved them.
http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/article_5de64612-f01a-11e3-afbe-001a4bcf887a.html
It was a lovely afternoon chat, and I asked her what I could do to help her along in her ambition to become a biologist.
“You can buy me a pet!” said she before I had completed my sentence.
“WHAT?!”
“What amma? You just said that I will learn more by doing than by reading books or watching documentaries. So, in order for me to become a biologist, I think a pet would help me nicely. Maybe a dog, or a duck or a parrot.”
“I like snake.” said the toddler son playing with his toy cars.
“Or how about some fish?”
“I want bumblebee Amma” said the son.
I want respite.
Happy Science Days to all of you.
Nourish-n-Cherish 
Just to clarify other readers, the snake comment from the little one was real. As soon as he uttered it though the author climbed on the table with the agility of a mountain climber and refuse to come down till the poor little one take back his request.
It really was funny to see everyone’s reaction : mine especially so!
On another note Sri, one of the valuable lessons I learned in two decades of marriage is ‘If you want some workmanship , call the workmen and pay them some money. It actually gets done.’ Otherwise, coffees, juices, lunches, TV shows, hot showers and broken tools later, nothing gets done anyway.
The problem with you (all) Jayashree is, you have very short term vision. When we start a project we tend to finish it in our own sweet time. So, at any given point it is not abandoned but just paused 🙂
Right! I agree that DIY has its merits: bragging being one of them, adulation from a father-in-law being another and for that alone, I think our house will blunder on with its share of its DIY fix-it projects Jashi.