Sai Ram, Venkatesh, and Vishnu

Monday was Venkatesh’s eighth birthday, so it seems appropriate to share a little bit about him and his brothers. Last time we were at Shunem, Sai Ram and Venkatesh were here tearing it up. We met Vishnu once or twice when their parents came to visit. Now Vishnu is here, and may grow up to be the funniest of the lot. We were also excited to learn that they just had a new baby brother, Vinay Kumar, who will likely end up at Shunem at some point in the next few years.

These boys are fairly well-behaved, smart, and all a bit crazy. Sai Ram is still a protective older brother, but he is venturing out to a larger friendship group as Venkatesh and Vishnu spend lots of time together.

I learned today that Venkatesh can communicate in four languages: English, Hindi, Telugu, and Kanada. It is not as if the Indian languages are just variations of one language, either. They all even have their own alphabets. Venkatesh is learning to write in three of those four languages at present, and is doing reasonably well at it. It is fascinating to me that all of these kids can absorb so much in such a short time. Trying to learn Spanish was difficult enough for me, and it shared an alphabet and many similar words with English. Learning three alphabets and three spoken languages at a time is just crazy.

Vishnu is in kindergarten still, and coming into his own as a comedian. He never walks normally; he is always running like a nut or wobbling around like an oversized baby. He loves shouting the sections of songs that he knows whenever we are singing. When we asked him to draw his favorite fruits on a piece of paper, he covered both sides of it with grapes. Probably about 500 of them. When he drew a picture of himself after his head was shaved he pointed to it and said “my goondu boss.” Which translates loosely to “I am the boss of bald people.”

Venkatesh and Vishnu have been wrestling a lot this trip. It usually starts with Vishnu messing with Venkatesh, who then decides to teach his younger brother (by three years) a lesson. It always ends with Vishnu sitting on Venkatesh’s chest living it up.

These kids are too much.