Erm...

It has been six months since I last posted and the reason for that had to be something phenomenal.

Right?


Sigh...

How about 'The wordsmith in me was on leave and forgot to get back?"

The only reason I've rushed to post something is because a reader who obviously does not know me too well, sort of  asked if i was expecting some 'good news'!

GULP!!!!

The only good news that I can expect right now, is that my 7 yrold who acts as if he is 13/14/15 goes back to acting his sweet 7 again.

As for me, after the great spring break, days flew and soon it was time for "The Grand Summer Break".

70 days of premier-quality parenting sort of broke my routine permanently!

India and Istanbul have been seen and raved about, the boys have been STILL behaving angelic, perhaps it is time to take out the keyboard.

Now to entice that wordsmith back. Any ideas?

The great spring break...

boy 2: "What's for lunch?"

boy 1: "Parathas? Thank you...!!!!"

boy2: "Why parathas, why not maggi?"

boy1: "You made burgers? you always make his favorite,'

boy1: "Pasta? wow, amma thank you...erm..can you put less veggies next time?"

boy2: "Can we buy this baguette? for garlic bread?"

boy1: "Not rice again!!!! can we have at least 1 ricefree day!"

boy2: "I'm hungry, not the fruit kind of hungry!"

boy1: "can you tell him to stop smirking!"

boy2: "he's kicking me under the table"

boy1: "he's bugging me'

boy2: "no, i didn't! i just stood in the doorway!"

As you can see, everything is revolving around food and the nerves these days!

Yes, the great spring break has arrived and with it, the endless arguments and comments on the lunch/dinner menu, and the snack items and the temperature of the milk. Next time remind me to print a menu!

Having a 12 yrold and 7 yrold at home the whole day, is good exercise to the vocal chords, theirs and mine. They spend their day practising their sarcasm or getting on each others' nerves. I spend my day, deciphering the insults and practising my unruffled, serene mom act.

One wants to go swimming, the other wants to chill out. One wants to watch cartoon, the other wants to watch his IPL! One uses his words and the other one his tears!

Where was i? yes, the hols! You would think that i would get the luxury of sleeping till the birds came knocking at my windows.

I thought so too!

It turns out that my 12 yrold has been selected for his school's basketball team for which he has to attend school practice during his holidays. (They have tournaments when school reopens, hence the practice during holidays) Which in turn means that i still have to get up at 5.45 in the morning and wake up the birds and then my son.

Then this week he was given a 5 day break.

So now i have a 12 yrold sprawled on the sofa reading, eating, playing, arguing, reading, eating and yes playing. Of course he is taking it easy, very easy. Extremely easy in fact! So much so i want to join him on that sofa and just stretch out my hand, for that juice and snacks, but then I'm the only candidate at the moment for the coveted post of '24 hr do whip up something tasty' cook!

I also have a 7 yrold sprawled on the bed since 8.00, looking at the clock ticking away , because for some reason he has made up his mind that he wants to wake up at 11.00 today!

So I contemplated aloud on what could be done with 5 glorious days of vacation - museum, football in the park, a beach run?, library, ice skating, swimming!? So much to do in 5 days, right?





Museum?

swimming!






Park anyone?







beach?



A very unamused 12 yrold voice threatened, "If you continue, i'm going to start counting days for my basket ball practice so that i can get back to school asap! I just want to stay at home"

And the 7 yrold excitedly exclaimed: "oooh, ice skating? beach? YES!!!"

Oh!

Welcome to the lazy, crazy days! Lazy for them, crazy for me!


But either way, i'm lurving it! :) :) :)

When the unimaginable happens!

I have a 12 yrold who has to be reminded that he is a part of this family and therefore needs to pitch in with chores, not add to them by dropping towels in dustbins and plates in toilet sinks, thankfully not toilet bowls! He is after all my boy, a master in the art of absentmindedness, something in which i excel in!

He does what he is told to do, the key word emphasised here is told.

So what do you do when the above mentioned 12 yrold breezes into your room, and asks:: "Can I vacuum my room?"

You try not to fall. You do not pinch yourself to see if you are sleeping. You do not look at him suspiciously, trying to figure out a hidden plot.

But you very calmly say, "Yes, you can,..." in just the right tone, else he realises his mistake.

After 10 minutes, the same 12 yrold says:: "There i've cleaned my room."

What do i do?

I empty my luck quota for the whole month, and milk the opportunity. I say, ' How about doing the whole house?"

He says yes!

and does it well too, even the balcony. Throws the trash too...

The result is:

I think it will snow here in Dubai.

I realise that he has used his study time (he has his final exams going on) for an unscheduled long break

I wish they have exams all year through :p

He is a sweetheart, because i do have a clean house

and

I'm still searching for my house slippers.

Happy weekend, folks :)

Going international!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's around six thousand words worth....

Ah well! I fell a thousand short. :)

So last week my 7 yrold got to travel to 36 countries, as you can see from his passport :). Their school had an international day, where most countries are showcased. Since the schools here have a good mix of students from different nationalities, it is a common event in most schools here to host an international day. It is similiar to a mini global village, the difference is that the non-profit stalls are put up by the parents.

A lovely concept of introducing different countries and getting to know from which place their classmates came from! Even if most of the kids were more interested in getting their passports filled with all the flags! i could see my 7 yrold flitting from stall to stall, trying to get the flags at breakneck speed! He took great pride in telling me that his friend was from Macedonia, and that his teacher came from South Africa.

Unintended humor came as usual from my side. Twice my boy rushed to me asking for idly, and when i shoved a plate of mini idlies in front of him (we had lots of yummy food, contributed by teh parents), he exasperatedly yelled "ITALY, amma, Italy, I want to know where ITALY is"

Oh!

I'm sure you appreciate how diligently I must have been doing my job of representing my country and the food!

India was quite well represented by flowers, food, colours, henna and diyas and us. The children loved the bangles and bindis that we gave them. The henna was a hit, as were the flowers.

When the school had announced this event two months back, asking for representatives to lead their respective countries, there were just three of us for India. I wondered whether we would even pull it through but then after the initial hiccups, we got rolling. Most parents came forward towards the end, helping with contributions in the form of money, food, artefacts and decoratives. A few hubbies did their bit too, by going where no one could reach, notably the highest places on the fence.

It was nice to see so many in their traditional attire, the sarees were a hit and we, ahem! ahem!got photographed quite a bit! In the end, we must have got something right, because we did get the 2nd place and more importantly everyone had fun!

These were our 9 kids dancing to 'Jai ho', which was well received.

All in all a lovely day indeed! School is so much fun this way, don't you think?

Then i thought to myself "What a wonderful thing to implement in our Indian schools as a way of introducing the different states in India. It would break a lot of stereotype notions and bring out a lot of awareness as far as culture, cuisine and languages go"!

But then you know what, knowing the competitive spirt in which every thing is taken these days, it may not be such a great idea after all!

(psst...this post's for you, tara )

This and that...

It seems like ages since I wrote here! Even though I did peek a bit every two days to read the comments.

Thank you all for the warm wishes/ecards sent on my birthday. This particular birthday was quite special because my parents , grandmom, uncle and aunt were around. It was extremely touching to see them try to surprise me with gifts and food.

(For those who missed wishing me, don't you worry...I celebrate my birthday the whole of February :)...just saying!)

The past 15 days have been very hectic but satisfying. My parents, my grandmother came a-visiting and were joined by my aunt and uncle (my mom's sister) for the last week of their stay It was fun having them around and now I miss the daily chitchat and hustle bustle in the kitchen. Everyday I would want them to sit down and chat while they would insist on evicting me from the kitchen. And so it happened that we would get out of the house by 10.30 every morning, be back just in time to pick my 7 yrold from school and then head out again in the evening after my 12 yrold returned from his school. We've gone to beaches, parks, malls, the tallest building, and a whole lot of restaurants!

This was the first time my grandmom was visiting me and there were times when i could not believe that she was actually here, with me. Ever since my grandfather passed away, 15 months ago, she's been a shadow of her old self. This trip did her a lot of good, she smiled more and she enjoyed herself, even though she missed having grandpa around.

And of course the school also thought it was a perfect time to schedule projects. The 12 yrold had to make a waterfilter. It had to be natural, it had to be different and it had to work. My son had a 'Eureka' moment in the bathtub, and rushed out, (thankfully fully clothed) to tell me his brilliant idea. Ofcourse i did what i was good at...i outsourced the project to my father. Grandfather and grandson bonded over a water filter which actually did work.

The 7 yrold had to learn about puppets. I suggested he take me along as an example, since that's what i do everyday...dance to their tunes! He was not amused and we made a pair of sock puppets instead.

Currently, we are supposed to demonstrate how lungs work using balloons, straws and a bottle. I casually told my son that the reasons my lungs worked well everyday, was solely due to them and due to the deep breaths taken and the shouting which goes on. Maybe I should go to school to demonstrate? He too was not amused!

So you take care while I brush up on my science and also try and decrease the obscene number that my google reader is currently showing.

:)

No, really, Look who's back :)

The Dubai Sentimental Times reports:


"Last night saw a very happy reunion between an otherwise sane looking woman and her ...erm...suitcase. The lost bag finally made its way back to the owner after ten days of gallivanting among strange baggage. "


It is great when something unexpected happens. It's absolutely fantastic when it happens after my shopping's done. Now that's what i call a good bag!

Aaall izz definitely well!

:) :) :)

Look who's back!

Phew! Back finally after three road trips, six cities, in 18 days. All i remember of the trip is unzipping and zipping up my bags. And a whole lot of phone calls. And ofcourse the last end of the trip where both kids decided to have a vomiting session in the middle of the night!

Relatives, temples, sarees and touching various feet of different sizes, i think i've done my whole year's quota in these two weeks.

Since there were two family fuinctions, we met hordes of relatives. The surprised way in which most greeted us, made me feel like a lost and found item. The most discussed topic must have been our weight. They looked at the kids and hubby in horror and looked at me accusingly. 'Why are they so thin?"

Finally the sarcastic me kicked the polite me and i replied 'oh, i'm too busy stuffing myself!'
He went away satisfied with the answer! Hello? come back, i was just joking!

I couldn't meet a few friends who i really wanted to, but managed to speak to a few even with the crappy coverage that Bangalore offers. I managed to meet a Delhi friend in Udupi, a college friend in Bombay (we literally jumped around like giddy children) and WIAN and I almost, almost met. We've decided that such a momentous moment must be reserved for another time :)

So now it's back to Dubai and exams and cleaning and a bit of loneliness...so ofcourse to liven things up, one of my luggage decided to play truant.

I'm still waiting for it...and everyday i realise that most items which i use everyday was in that bag. The guy at the baggage counter asked me to fill an inventory list stating the baggage's contents and its value. What value can i place on that pair of earrings which my sister had got specially for me, or that hair brush which i've been using for ages? or the food items which an uncle went all across town to get for me?

On the bright side, i need some retail therapy, and the weather in dubai is perfect.

So what's been up with you?