baby talk!

I walk my second boy to school. It is a 10 min walk and I initially welcomed it for the compulsory exercise. I now look forward to it everyday. It is quite unhurried and relaxing. We talk, we look at birds and lazy cats, we sing songs and we argue. We also discuss serious issues like whether God is being burned to a crisp sitting there above the clouds near the sun!

Everyday we say hello to quite a few babies and dogs, both being walked around by their maids.

Just as i finish smiling and cooing at a very responsive baby, my observant son asks me " you like babies?"



Without thinking, i answer:: 'oh yes!'



Then i realise what i have got myself into and brace myself for the next inevitable question. My quick mind has already started framing a suitable response as to why we cannot have a sibling for him,



and the boy says::


"Don't tell me that YOU want ME to turn BACK into a baby?"



Oh!

Questions, questions!

"It's been such a long time?'

"Where have you been? "

"How have you been?"

"Haven't seen you around for a while?"

Feels good to hear that, doesn't it?

To know that you've been missed in the 9 days that you were not here!

I never knew the supermarket people missed me so much!

Oh no!

I'm a bit forgetful.

I remember people's faces but not the name attached to the face. There are few who take extreme delight in calling me, and continuing the conversation animatedly, without introducing themselves, while i'm pressing 'ctrl Find' in my brain to figure out who they could be - meena?, teena? ya madhu!

There have been occasions when i've talked to someone for quite sometime, totally convinced that he/she was someone else!

I forget people's names, especially if i've just met them. There is this parent at my son's school who i very sweetly smile at and talk inane stuff. Yesterday, she asked me for my phone number, just in case she gets late to school, so that i could reassure her son.

Me: My no's __________. and the name is Suma.

She: Of course, i know your name. Besides, I never forget a name .

I think furiously, my name filing system in my head has gone haywire and so I flash my pearly whites at her, hoping she forgets to give me her number.

She: and this ***** is my number

Me: okay, and how do i spell your name? (smart, am I not?)

She looks at me and says slowly: "A.N.U"

Oh!

i feebly say: "not a.n.o.o?"

She laughingly replies: "You forgot my name, didn't you?"

Aiyo!

The first one to say that i deserved this

is so ....right!

So who's been missing me?

"How is Dubai? How are you?" ask many when they spy me online.

The problem with moving to a new country is that whenever someone asks you how you are, you are so tempted to tell them "how you are". The downside is that it may take 15 minutes and then that poor gal may say erm..."i just remembered i gotta go!"

The good so far:

• I like the place we've moved into.
• The kids have their own group down and they play cricket/soccer every evening. The elder one is the star of the group, that's what he so modestly told me. We asked him about his friends, the ones who give him a high five after every goal, and he shrugged his shoulder (that shoulder of his is sometimes the most communicative part). He just knew their names, why would he want to know anything more?"
• why indeed! uncomplicated and simple, that's my boy!
• and the younger one has been given a nickname - Bob! Noone's telling me why.
• The house is just five minutes away from the supermarket, 3 stops away from the nearest mall and a 10 minute walk from school. and it has quite a bit of greenery around. and birds!I like that a lot.
• I found an art center nearby where they have all sorts of shortterm courses...I plan to join whatever's available.

Now the not-so-good.

• I miss the easy accessibility of Singapore.
• I try to take the bus when I can but i dislike the staring that happens when i'm at the busstop.
• Every Saturday night, i think"oh great tomorrow's Sunday" and then it strikes me that Sunday in this place means a working day and then i go 'Oh GREAT!!!!! tomorrow's Sunday! sigh"
• I had three families over for a pre-diwali gettogether and i cooked a huge spread, all the while wishing they were not acquaintances but people i really knew and liked! and to think they were close to nice people. Making new friends is not as easy as it once used to be.
• I think with age, i'm getting to be the opposite of social.
• And my blog! The less said the better. The wordsmith in me has suddenly taken temporary retirement. The only phrases which come to mind regularly are 'eat your food' don't scream' get up, go to sleep' wash your hands' and shhhhh!
• I think i have the Dubai blues!

Let's just call it fiction?

She had walked her son to school, waved brightly to two friends' husbands, walked to the local supermarket and met a lot of friendly people. A wonderful morning!

And then, she glanced at the mirror.

She had done it again, walked all over town wearing her shirt inside out with the label flapping merrily away!

Will you be my friend - 2

Two years back, when we moved to Singapore, I had apprehensions. Mostly about how my elder boy would take to a new school. My own 'first day at a new school' experiences would always flash in my mind and i worried a bit about how easy/difficult would it be for my boy, to make his place in a new environment.

Two years back i had written this:

Now the situation is the same, even though the location differs. I still worried. He had loved his school in Singapore, was quite popular with teachers and students and was on the school sports team. Would he compare, would he able to adjust? what if? what if? what if...?

And then he came back with a smile. He had a helpful boy sitting next to him, the other kids were friendly, he's shown off his socccer skills, sprained his wrist on the field, caught the coach's eye and he likes the place. And I'm proud of him.

Like i always tell him, never underestimate the power of a friendly smile.

We are finally moving into our new home with NO internet access, the 6 yrold has passed his entrance test, and looks like i'm back to breathing normally.

Sometimes i feel i need to worry/brood intensely for something to work out out just the way i want it to. Wish i could apply that logic to my internet access.

If folks in Dubai see a woman with a mop-head with sunglasses perched on it, clutching her laptop, searching for a socket in a mall to plug her laptop in, please say hi and guide her to one. (that's what may happen when i get desperate).

or maybe i'll be de addicted by then!

Catch you soon!

Psst: thank you, all for the lovely comments in my last post. Would have individually replied, if it were not for the fact that i'm actually supposed to be packing my bags, so that i can leave this apartment that we called 'home for a month'. Just to take those suitcases to a place two blocks away to unpack again and mess up a new place that will be home.

Double Psst: Glad to clear the confusion about my blog name...but considering i could have named it "Aiyorama, so much drama', i think the current name is way better!

My aalochane, right here and right now

I sometimes wonder whether people come here thinking this is a food blog. Perhaps they go away disappointed that i cannot even spell my 'aaloo' and 'channa' right. I contemplate changing my blog name but then that means racking my brain for something and right now the heat of Dubai has fried it to an irretrievable state.



So coming back to the blog name, when blogger sat there waiting for me to key in my blog name, all i could think of was 'Aalochane', (aalochanay) which in Kannada means 'thoughts'. And i thought i thought a LOT! Never mind the fact that most of them never got translated into posts.

So, thanks to me, you now know a new Kannada word.

But, right now I'm thinking that


the elder one has started school and went with a smile, considering he had to get up very early (which means by default i had to get up even earlier!), though I'm wasting my whole morning thinking that he's going to get lost in the huge campus.

I hope he remembers he has a nice smile.



my 6 yrold thinks all this moving around means he is never going to school (Yikes!!)


he has an assessment test day after. (*i'm going to faint)


my shipment arrives today (more YIKES!)

we will then move into our house, which means no internet for 3 weeks (yikes raised to the power of infinity!!!!)



Considering i'm guzzling cups of coffee and tea in anticipation of chaos, do be kind to say a hi if you drop by here.