One day at the movies

Few days back, my son and I had decided to watch "The Guardians of The Galaxy". He got his mandatory bowl of popcorn, after confirming with me that I was not hungry and that I would not eat multiples of five popcorns at a time and eventually finish half his tub. He exaggerates, I have no clue where he gets that trait from!

We entered the audi, took our 3 D glasses and settled ourselves, cleaned the glasses with wipes, and got ready to watch Chris Pratt in action. and Baby Groot. (love that little creature,  rooted teeny soul that he is)

Few minutes into the movie, I was pretty disappointed by the quality of the print. The images were blurry and the print quite dark. I poked my son once or twice to ask if his 3 D glasses were okay. Figured out from his impatient nodding of the head, that they were. I took one look at the filled seats to my left and resigned myself to watch the movie with my defective glasses at least till intermission. When I couldn't take it any longer, I channeled my inner ' crouching tiger, hidden dragon'  spirit, muttered a series of "excuse me , so sorry", (who in the world booked our seats right in the middle of the row?) , and hobbled to the bored looking attendant, near the exit. Cornered him and in my perfect blend of an accusatory and a hurt, 'How could you fool me? ', tone, whispered,  "these glasses are spoilt, please replace them."

The guy peered at the glasses, and then at me and then said "Erm..Maam, you've been watching the movie through your sunglasses." 

Uhoh!  I touched my head and sure enough, found the ugly square rimmed 3D glasses, perched unapologetically on my head. I grabbed my sun glasses back from the 'trying very hard not to laugh" attendant,  and went hopping back sheepishly to my seat, with as much dignity as I could muster.

The son when he heard it , rolled his eyes and laughed : "Why am I not surprised, Amma?"

I've always been err, to put it politely, quite absentminded.  I married a guy who's equally so. He's misplaced 3 sun glares, one of which he placed on the roof of his car and then drove away. He used to forget which grades the kids were in (I NEVER forget that!!) We've forgotten flights and luggage and lived to tell the tale.

As the years pass us  by,  thankfully, he seems to have toned down a bit, thereby balancing the family sanity scale. I, on the other hand,  seem to be aiming for some doctorate in the science  of forgetfulness. 

There was this time when I opened the door of my parked car and sat down, only to see a stranger there. His jaw dropped. My eyes popped out. It happened to be someone else's car. He was too busy sweating(probably his wife was due back any minute) by which time I had made good my escape to my own car,  where my driver (a necessity since a car in my control is always out of control) was hyperventilating because he thought I had lost my mind!! In my defense, it was not my fault, it was a white car, it seemed the same size , I just hadn't noticed it was from a different company.

This syndrome seems to have rubbed off on my driver too. The other day, after buying the week's groceries, I walked back to the car, dumped my packets on the seat, and had barely walked to the other side, when the car lurched forward. A long 5 minutes and 500 metres later, the car slowly reverses back to a gaping me and a sheepish face pops out " I thought you were already sitting in the car".

Sigh,  he thinks too much. 

Three thoughts occurred to me.

1) So that's how it feels to be on the receiving end.

2) Goodness, could this absent mindedness be contagious?

3) Poor poor G!

Just another day at the supermarket.

One day, I found myself at a super market. Actually a hyper market. You know, the kind of place where you go for 4 items and come out with 50, most of which you never needed in the first place. The vegetable and fruit weighing sections are generally the most crowded , with everyone clamoring to get their packets weighed and stamped, to be billed later.

So there I was , minding my business, selecting the vegetables and fruits, putting them into packets and throwing them into the cart. That's when I noticed, or rather, sensed him. A guy looking at me intently. I look at him too, and move away.

I wheel my cart over to the soap section, because as usual, there is stuff that needed to be bought a week back.  I see the same man again at the end of the lane, looking around as if searching for someone. "That's strange" I think to myself "Could he be following me?"

Taking tips from all those TV shows, I swerve through alternate lanes, when I see him again on the opposite end. He catches sight of me and walks purposefully towards me. Annoyed  and a bit alarmed by the unwelcome attention, I start walking to the billing counter,  when a thought strikes me and I stop midway.

"Hold on" I think to myself, "Why am I slinking away? He really needs to be put in his place. Some nerve he has, following me around."

I have enough practice, giving people a piece of my mind,  thanks to the teen brigade at home. Compared o them, this should be  a piece of cake.

So I turn around, just in time to see him approaching me. I put on my best scowl, and rehearse a few sharp sarcastic lines, and get ready to snap at him.

That's when he says " Ma'am, can I please have my cart back?!

Uhoh! His cart?!

 A perfect "Mother Earth please swallow me right now" moment.

I look at the cart and realise that I've left mine back at the vegetable section and have been wheeling his all over. I push his cart towards him. Red faced and sheepish, I manage to squeak out an "Ohhh I'm soooo sorryyy!" to no one in particular, considering that the annoyed gentleman is walking away as fast as he can. Of course he needn't have clutched the handle bar of his cart so tightly. As if I'd grab it now!

Ah well, it's been  just another day at the supermarket!

The Nostalgia Toast

Nostalgia on a toast!

I loved my summers, which we spent at my grandparents' place in Bangalore. My cousins from Bombay and Coimbatore, my two sisters, and I would spend a few lazy weeks, playing elastic, Hopscotch, bouncing a ball from a pillar and counting till we missed, playing hide and seek, and solving the crossword puzzle of the Deccan Herald and eating!

That crossword puzzle must have started it all. My cousin, and I particularly would compete to see who would get the paper first and solve the crossword. We would try to get up as early as we could, take a shower, gulp down our milk and wait for the newspaper man. Which was a good thing. The not so good thing was, in our eagerness to be the first, we sometimes woke up before 5am, and though my granny never showed it, I'm quite sure those tears i saw were not so much from happiness, but from despair. She must have thought "Oh no the brats are up, couldn't they wait till I had one tiny sip of filter kaapi couldn't they?

And ofcourse, being a grandmom who equated love with food, she had to think of a quick and filling pre- breakfast meal which would please us and yet not distract her from the cooking of the actual breakfast. I remember her in the kitchen, smearing slices from two jumbo loaves of bread, with homemade butter and chutney powder. While they would be toasting on the tawa, she would be washing the grinding stone for the chutney and setting the pressure cooker up. We would be given the very important task of getting the toasted bread to the table. The towers of bread slices would vanish in no time, and each one of us would be in a corner, eating, talking, fighting or reading and of course one of us would be solving the crossword puzzle while the other one would sulk and resolve to get up even more earlier the next morning.

Every once in a while, I make this, not just because I like it but because it takes me back to a world only I know about. My happy place! Today I made it almost the way my doddamma would make it, I curled up on the chair and I savored nostalgia with every bite I took. and Time actually stood still for a wee while.

This is a memory that uniquely binds the seven of us even though we are all in different parts of the world and I'm so glad for it. If this had a happiness quotient that i could rate, I would give it a perfect 100.

Grannies are the best, always!

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!

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.

Bringing up mom - 1

Many many years back, there was a wee little boy who made his way into our hearts even before he was born. We first saw him when he was 10 months old,. He was my sister's son and the first baby in our house. He was the most fussy and tempermental baby i had seen but we were his willing slaves and he knew it. We still are, even now that he has grown into a smart handsome 18 yrold and he knows it :).

My sister was an awesome parent. I would always notice how well she handled him and later on his brother. One technique which intrigued me was her counting till 5 . She would ask them to do something. As usual they would take their time getting to it. She would then start counting 1, 2, 3, 4. By the time she reached 5, the job would be done. MAGIC! i did wonder what would happen when she reached 5 and they still ignored her.

The other technique was clearing her throat! Whenever she saw any of her kids doing something they shouldn't, she would clear her throat. This was most useful especially when she had company. It was a discreet way of telling them something. and it worked like magic again!

So when i had my kids, it was but natural that i should try it out.

The counting worked fine, if you ignore the fact that it took half an hour for me to reach 5 from 4. I managed to divide that 1 unit into 50 or more subdivisions. Sometimes for variety they would hear me say 4.1, 4.23, 4.67...sometimes i would go into fractions.

The clearing of the throat was disastrous..I had to have a coughing fit for any one boy to know that i was trying to attract his attention. It is true when they say practice makes us perfect. I'm an expert cougher now.


So now i've devised my own parenting tool. The decibel level, the tone of the voice, the intensity of the glare, mix them up just right. It works well most of the time. Sometimes i overdo the glare bit and my eyes feel like they may pop out. The times it doesn't work, you can find me in the bathroom cooling off.

Now they've grown a bit and the only one who has temper tantrums is me, so life's good!

It has been ages since i've practised my 'hand me down' parenting technique. The last time i tried doing the counting thing for my 6 yrold, the 11 yrold asked me 'so what happens when you reach 5?" You wouldn't want to know what i retorted but it kept him shut!

The other day i was in the kitchen, when G, who was in the study and therefore deaf to the world, hollered: "do you need anything? did you want something?"

I was puzzled by his asking, for this guy needs a megaphone to get his attention.

I screamed back a NO! (i've learnt somewhere that every action deserves an equal reaction)

Then the 6 yrold appeared by my side. 'did you call? we were just playing?'

Now seriously flummoxed, i asked him "no i didn't call you! not unless my thoughts can magicallly reach you. Why did you ask?"

He replied airily " oh, anna sent me to find out why you were coughing"

The dim bulb brightened! I had cleared my throat a few minutes back.

I had finally got everyone's attention! after 11 years of parenting! even G's!

And i wasn't even trying.

Sigh!

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Thank you BlogAdda, you made my day :)

It fits too well!

I have many memories of my son as a child putting his little hyper feet in our shoes and then clomping about.


It was a cute sight to see those tiny feet in the huge shoes.

You think to yourself "look at those tiny feet. there is so much time to go before he can fill them up'


till suddenly a moment arrives

when you realise you don't have your gym shoes with you and you try your son's shoe half-heartedly, expecting it to be small


And it fits perfectly. Even though i have big feet


Soon he may not fit mine anymore. A sweet moment salted with just a dash of wistfulness.



Happy 12th birthday to my ubercool dude who is so like me and yet not so!

Now go fill your dad's shoes.

Do you remember the time when....

A memory comes floating back to me.

Of the 'once upon a time' phase in my life. Of cupping our palms under a tap at school and tilting it just so, the cool water from the tap wetting the parched throat. Of standing in queue at railway stations impatiently waiting for our turn. Filling giant waterbottles for the journey till the next station, apprehensive that the train may leave without us.



And then because all good things must come to an end, bottled water and water filters made their appearance. Water could not be drunk without double boiling it or passing it through the RO process. It was a necessity. Mineral water became a must on everyone's table.

And with it the usage of plastic and waste grew.

This memory got placed in the 'once upon a time' slot in my mind. All it needed was a trigger to get it out. Which happened when I saw this


At Singapore

and this was in Sydney

I used to love it when the boys would cup their hands under the tap and drink greedily. The water fountain required some practice, and it was fun to watch them trying to place the mouth just right, splashing themselves in the process. It was a luxury to not worry about the water being safe or unsafe, to drink water straight from the tap. It was nice to see something as basic as water being easily available to us, thanks to the government.

I'm glad that the boys got to try this simple pleasure even if it was for a short while; because, sadly, we are back to boiled and bottled water.

And this memory will slowly go the way most memories do, back in its slot, waiting for its next trigger.

cramping my style

Ever heard of the commenter's cramp? No?

Well, you've heard it now. I have it. Don't google it, though.


It starts with the pressure of writing a witty, sensible comment. Then it escalates with the overusage of nice, great and awesome, peppered with smileys all over. It sometimes culminates in a non comment.


I read many blogs, some because i know the person, a few because i love their writing and many because they make me aware. I generally follow a principle of trying to see the post from another's perspective. Commenting seems to be a tricky art to master. There is the pressure to be politically correct while commenting. If you want to disagree with the views expressed then you have to figure out the right way to do it gently without hurting anyone's feelings. It never used to bother me before but it does now.



If the post has touched me in some way or made me smile, like they usually do, then i have a problem expressing the level of excitement/sorrow, differently each time. I avoid using Lol, LMAO ROFTL, (the latter sounds like i'm barking). And if i do try to leave the blog without commenting, the feedjit indicator beckons me like a stern taskmaster getting an errant kid to do the job right. bah!



The commenter's cramp seems more difficult to overcome than my blogger's block. More so since i get such perfect comments from you all. That felt good! Nothing like shifting the pressure on someone else! So when i comment and its not up to your mark, you know the reason. If it continues, i better compile a blogger's dictionary and at least impress you with more adjectives like stupendous, marvellous, fantabulous, etc.

While this has cramped my style, my elder boy is going through a 'no snaps pls, i'm serious' phase. The younger one is torn between his wanting to pose and his desire to follow big bro. So, sometimes we have blurs and backs masquerading as our sons and sometimes we have this.

saying no to the 'papa'razzi !

Someone should warn G (the hubby) that if this boy is anything like me, then G better take it easy with his camera. The 'papa' could soon have a close up of his own nose or ear adorning his cell-phone.

click, click! The mother in me !

Wonderful mom! that's what someone called me recently...and i thought to myself "not really, G is frankly a better parent than me!" Though it helps that he doesn't have to multitask and think about nutrition and silly stuff like hygiene and discipline and laundry and too much computer time and ...(i'm running out of speed here)! Always nice to give credit where its due..that's how nice i am!



Having got the guilt out of the way, lets focus on the tag by Monika and Gauri on the 5 joys of being a mother...

here go my spontaneous five,

• Nothing is as beautiful as the moment when you realize you’ve given birth to a pulsating life. I'm incredibly proud of that...and the fact that noone can ever change it! I loved my babies when they were tiny...I loved the way they looked, their smell, and the fact that i was their whole world, even if it was in the role of a milk vendor...and I learnt from them, from the way they learnt to roll over, to crawl, to sit, to walk, and to talk, always picking up something new.

• I love how my 6 yrold still needs me ...his hugs and his snuggles, his innocent questions and his nature. I love the way my 11 yrold laughs and his witty remarks. His writing and his gruff way of showing affection...i love this stage because its fleeting by and i treasure these moments...

• I've been seeing the world through their eyes for a long time now and i love what i see. I'm constantly evolving as a person around them...

• I love the evenings when they return from school...they both have SO MUCH to tell me ...and life is so full of bounce when they are at home.

• I love the fact that i know how to bring a smile to their faces even if i was the one who made them cry/angry and I love that their hugs can make my bad day seem perfect!

I could go on and on, but then the tag must go on :)

tagging other lovely moms : madhumita (UAE) , prats (India), ps (Norwich), Joy (USA) and Sumana (India)

Rules:

Just write a post of your own (5 things that you love about being a mom/dad) and find someone to link to and tag - someone from your own country, if you like, but definitely someone from another country (Google is a good resource if you don't know any; google any country name and 'mom/dad' in their blog search function) (be sure to let them know that you've tagged them!) - and link back here and HBM and leave a comment.

Forget-me-not (2)

The end of a week and the beginning of a lazy day. A piping hot cup of masala chai and the settling down to read a few blogs, in peace hopefully. A sip and a thoooooo...a grimace and a sigh...

It was plain ginger flavored watery milk! I had forgotten the tea leaves..Again!

I sneak a look at the hubby. He is still sipping the warm drink, probably thinking that its another one of those concoctions i churn out once in a while, disguised under the mantle of health drink.

And when i read this, ( a post i wrote long back), i realise not much has changed.

Reminded me of the recent time i had left my handbag in the train in Sydney. I got down and had walked out of the station when suddenly i felt different. I felt very light (not lightheaded, but light as in the opposite of heavy). That's when i realised that i had left my handbag in the carriage. That handbag is what gives me the perfect balance, stuffed as it is with everything I may need! So, we rushed back, the 11 yr old enjoying this reversal of roles and proceeding to air a few mean sound bytes. The official made all the appropriate sounds before finally telling us to wait for 15 minutes, we were lucky that the train had terminated at that station and it would make its way back at the same platform. And that's how i got my bag back..

and of course just because the hubby was extremely mean to me that time, he forgot his wallet and card holder at the security check at the Perth airport, the boarding tickets at a check in counter in Melbourne. and i made a few loudly appropriate noises too.

Every time i leave home, i invariably do a few patting exercises...pat my pocket to check if my train/bus card is there, another pocket if my mobile's safe... my handbag to see if the money's there...my ears to see if I'm wearing BOTH my earrings...someone watching would be forgiven for thinking that I'm practising the latest dance moves!

So a few days back, kid senior came back from school, and sheepishly informed me that he had bought lunch at school...He had forgotten that i had made lunch for him (burgers with homemade veg patties, that too waking up at 6 am, people!) even though he had put it in his bag himself, with his own not so little hands!

'Where did you get the money from?' i asked.

Scratched his head and said "I don't know, it was there" giving the impression that it was a miracle! Turns out that the miracle occurred when two friends returned the cents they had borrowed on different occasions.

What do i say?

Lage raho?

(PS.Abha, don't make me stand in a corner, I've not YET forgotten your tag, just a few crucial details! :)

Small talk!

11 yrold : "Can i check the Arsenal website on your laptop'

Me(doing some small talk) : 'Fine....why? Is there an important arsenal match?

He nods and then a minute later, he adds : 'BTW, its 'ARE'senal not 'ARSE'nal!"

Thud, (*that was my jaw hitting the floor! anothe word joins my "think before you talk' vocab))

I enter the room to see a dedicated 6 yrold busy with his handwriting homework. Diligently drawing the T's, l's and b's with his trusted ruler.

Me (because i just can't keep my mouth shut): why do you need a ruler?!!!!

Rolling his eyes : "Beeeecause, my teacher wants NEAT handwriting!"

I give up!

In other news, I've been given the new nokia 5800, recently. And my son's drooling over it. It has a touch screen and i quite dislike seeing thumbprints all over my screen. (*cue for rolling eyes! that's what happens at home everytime i say that).

I'm still treating it like its a grenade, but other than that, it's pretty good.

So today while showing me some feature, 11 yrold enviously muttered "You are soo lucky! i wonder what you did to get it" (in other words, why i deserved it?)

sigh! Perhaps I should say "Sit down boy, this could take the whole day"!!!!

PS...his is an innocent question, but of course you, my imaginative readers, can interpret it in any way you want...:D

Q and A!

If you were that lizard/spider on my wall, chances are you would have heard these gems from my pre-teen...

Amma, i can't kneel down, my patella hurts!

My eye is red, it itches too, i think i have hindivitis! (after 30 minutes of studying Hindi)

It's that time of the month yet again. Time for glares, suspicious headaches, frequent parched throats and wrist pain. The too informed preteen helpfully tells me that he suffers from the carpal tunnel syndrome!!!! or that his pivot joints hurt.

Yes, the final assessments are upon us! and my cerebrum hurts too!

Since i'm so in the exam mood, I might as well do abha's tag.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
no.... just after myself!

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
you mean...the tears of frustration? sigh..yesterday

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
When i manage to read it, yes..(*am I glad that the question wasn't "can you read your handwriting?")

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
what's that?

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Yes!

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Hmmmm, what if i don't want to be friends with this other person i'm supposed to be...

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
i practice it on the hubby now and then, but kuch asar hi nahi hota!

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

Yes, i think so

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Not unless someone pushes me off the bridge! *gulp

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL
Meusli cereal

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
No

12. IF YOU WERE TO PICK YOU OWN FIRST NAME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I like my name, It is short and sweet...though many seem to think its an abbreviated form of a longer name. You really can't please everyone, can you?

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
not very fond of icecream, but perhaps, vanilla with hot chocolate sauce,

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
the warmth of their Smile,

15. RED OR PINK?
just because everyone's saying red! i say pink in roses and nailpaint

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF
high on temper and low on patience...

17. WHOM DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
everyone at some point of time..it could be kids, my granpa, my parents, my sisters...

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
they better, varna ___________

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
blue jeans

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
pitter patter of raindrops

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
green? blue? sigh... multicolored...my son has those crayons...:)

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
wet mud, shampooed hair, perfume

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
a friend

25. HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU
as the owner of a warm smile and the mother of the cuddable 'cubby'r. A virtual hug to you, abha.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
when not being forced to watch soccer or cricket, then tennis.

27. HAIR COLOR?
brown? black? grey!

28. EYE COLOR?
light Brown. (*sigh...only 28 questions answered, now i know how my son feels...)

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

No.

30. FAVORITE FOODS?
chocolate cake, quesadillas, grilled sandwiches, Chaat...slurp

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
comedies.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Wednesday...that too on DVD, sigh

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
a red tee.

34.SUMMER OR WINTER
I'm spoilt...can i have a bit of both?

35. HUGS OR KISSES
warm smiles, keep them coming

36. DESCRIBE YOUR PENCIL CUP
if you mean those things in which i hoard my pens, a small carved pot, and funny mugs

38. FAVORITE ARTIST(s)?

a whole range of them

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
plodding through "snow by orhan pamuk", and also reading "Jigs and reels' by Joanne Harris

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Gotcha! I don't have one

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?

Quarter part of the movie, "Namaste London'

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
currently, the whirr of the fan, the creaking chair, the click clack of the keys on the keyboard, the water fall in the pool below, the bus from far beyond, the rattle of the mrt train nearby...its amazing how many things you hear when you are alone...after the lungpower displayed during the weekend, i love this quiet time....

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?

A R Rahman!

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

Home is where the heart! Physically? Sydney

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

Of a wandering mind, which lands me in trouble when someone's talking to me...

46. WHERE WERE U BORN?

Bangalore.

47. FAVORITE PIECE OF JEWELRY?

earrings to dangle and a bracelet for a bangle

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?

At my sister's wedding!

49. FAVORITE SONG?

so many of them... one for each mood...

50.Favorite Musical?

My fair lady and Mamma Mia, the movie

____________________________________

yay! I've done it! Now for the great reward...

The first five to comment, you are tagged...(*okay, okay...only if you want to)

:D

The sneak who crept in

This weekend we had a visitor. An unwelcome one too.

Hiding behind the drapes, the creepy sneak or should i say the sneaky creep?

What do I do?

(I'm well known for not moving a muscle when it comes to those tiny things but with the power to freeze me on the spot. Lizards, flying cockroaches, mice... I'm petrified of them. I'm known to have screeched in terror mistakenly thinking that the hair which fell on my neck suddenly, was a mouse's tail.

I've spent 3 hours staring at the progress of a lizard on the ceiling and afraid to close my eyes because I was afraid that it may decide to fall into my gaping mouth..Ewwww...When the visions started getting more hideous, I had to get up and finally wake up my father (i was on a holiday in Bangalore) who chased it away.

Sigh! Fathers are the BEST! )

So this time, I had to call the only knight available, who used a broom as his sword. G is great at driving away pests. Most of them. I'm not going anywhere though.

So after much drama in the room with two kids being told to look at the lizard and not me, they managed to chase the creepy visitor out.

Me? i was as far away from the scene as possible.

Yesterday, when i entered the kitchen, what do i see? Another lizard right in the middle. Blinking at me. Perhaps wondering where its cousin had gone to?

What did i do? G wouldn't get up, so much for the knight halo. So I bravely tried to chase it away with much tapping and dancing, and it, perhaps bored with all the early morning drama, went straight into the laundry room.

We now look forward to a week of unwashed clothes, because no way am i entering that room now. Come to think of it, perhaps the smell of unwashed socks will make the thing slither out...*brightens

And then the six yr-old consoled me saying that when he gets a bat as a pet, he'll make sure that the bat keeps the lizards away!

bats? pet? WhatWhenEeksdeepbreathNOway!!!!!

Now I'm sure something scares you. Make me feel better, and tell me?

All a matter of perspective!

It's been one of those days where I’ve locked myself into the room after having performed a series of exemplary acts...I’ve rescued my towels from the dustbin (courtesy an absentminded son) saved my lights from being broken by a ball and myself from seeing stars by being socked by it, screamed my lungs out, managed to finish my editing work dead on the line, got dinner on the table and still been alive at the end of it all...

Grrrr...its no fun being a gal in all guy household...I've been brought up with two other gals(my sisters)and life was cool...And then I marry a guy who ironically has only brothers(and three of them!!!)So far so good...minor skirmishes...all forgiven in the bliss of wedded life...

Many years and two boys later...life is a medley...and I’m still finding my way. I am a woman literally in a man’s world. I think I’ve learnt to look at my roles from a different perspective. I wear many mantles and every day is a rollercoaster of emotions. A bird’s eye view …

• They go the kitchen and holler out for me as if the sky is falling down…I rush there only be asked where the sugar tin/cookies are? Huh??????? So am i the organization expert? This where perspective comes into the picture. i just perceive things faster...

• It’s no easy task to decide nutrtious meals for the day, trying to suit three hungry stomachs for there will always be one unhappy soul not liking the preparation. I’m nowhere in the picture of course! I’ll be delighted if the food does vanish without threats, bribes or tantrums. So does that make me a food management expert? a nutritionist or a cook? sigh..don't tell me, it's perspective...

• I trip over Lego pieces and supermen and the ghastly faces they call masks, only to be greeted with war cries of murder. So I have to pacify two angry boys with concocted stories of why I was rushing to the toilet, as if my life depended on it. That strikes too close to home and I’ve convinced them it was worth trampling upon their toys. Lo! Behold! I’m a crisis management expert.

• Cricket and football are the bane of my life and one day I may just sue the creator of the games. On second thoughts, I may be lynched by the cricket crazy fans before i even think of doing that, so it is time for subtle tactics. I’ve also noticed it’s a brilliant time to ask for something which you’ve wanted because the hubby is so engrossed he‘s going to nod whatever you say or do, even if you were to say you’re umm..test driving his precious car!!! So trust me to recognize an opportunity and turn it to my advantage!

• It needs great skills to involve every member of the house into tasks they don’t enjoy, without them realizing that they are doing it. It requires the right blend of firmness, nonchalance and voice power. Of course when nothing goes, an incentive works fine, just fine. That makes me a human resource management expert or a plain nag. see, again a matter of perception!

• Saying the right things at the right time, without hurting anybody’s feelings gets my diplomacy skills to the fore. How else will you answer the plaintive complaint “You love him more than me. You hate me”? He gets to hear how much more I would have loved him if I hated him, so that he wouldn’t feel hated. Got it, no? Neither did I? But surprisingly it made sense to him. Confuse the issues so that he does not realize whether he had a good thing or he missed one! That’s a diplomat at work.

not to mention the tactics employed to maintain bonding between one belligerent adult, a rebellious preteen and a hyperactive 5 yr-old... well, whom am i kidding!

But the icing on the cake is, after all the screaming, ranting and raving done, I still get the ‘You’re cool/you're beautiful' badge at the end of the day. So every day is my second chance to get it right and get that badge, (assuming of course that i want it everyday).... It is the best incentive I get to carry on for yet another day of an imperfect mother and an almost perfect wife!!!

Ah well, it IS after all, a matter of the right perspective… mine!!

For the record…no feelings were hurt in the posting of this thought, except mine!!

P.s...gals, please feel free to add to the roles above...I'm sure you agree, i've just scraped the iceberg...

P.p.s..It also appears that my boys are the smart ones, having figured out how to manipulate me emotionally!...sigh
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this just fit in very well with the writer's island prompts...

Superwoman,who me? nah!!!!

I am not a punching bag when things go wrong

I am not a Google toolbar that you stand at the doorway and ask/ holler, ...”Where’s my socks’

I am not a trash bin, dustbin, a kuppe basket, whatever

Working from home doesn’t mean I have free time, it means I have no time

I don't have to be guilty if i feed them maggi(instant noodles) once in a while, they love it and its easy

I cannot please everyone, there will be one person unhappy...let it not be me

I cannot have more hands than two, more hours than 24, so bear with me

I am not a super mom/superwoman


Sorry to break your hearts, but the above was not a tirade against the hubby… he has enough tensions battling it out in the corporate world to even attempt to get into another potentially explosive battle ground …That was more directed towards me! and a wake-up call to all those wanna-be superwomen.

Not so long ago, I used to think that I had to be perfect, in every role that I found myself in. Of course being young then, I had the advantage of being overconfident. But gradually when ‘a’ role morphed into many, umpteen ones, I was no less then a juggler, trying to juggle between them all. There would evidently be an unsatisfactory performance somewhere. Anytime I slipped, my failure would mock me. Or the wagging fingers would pounce and shred my entire attempt to pieces.

The culprit here is none other than yours truly. I realized that my own bar was raised so high that no one else could top it, including me. It does get quite stressful. Being superwoman is not what I want…..

I gave up trying to explain to people that working from home does not mean that I am trying to fill my extra time (what’s that?) with some work. It is something I’ve opted to do; because it gives me the huge advantage of being there for my children. There have been times when I have sat up nights finishing a deadline, to compensate for those hours spent with the kids. So I do exercise the right to say that I am busy…because I am!!


I gave up trying to be superwoman ages ago. That was when I realized that I was driving myself too fast trying to achieve all those fabulous results, some preconceived and some forced. Expectations can really tie you down. Some are necessary to self motivate you and some just threaten to suck you deeper into that quagmire.

It IS better being a not so super person with regular abilities than dying early trying to keep up with these self imposed missions.



I would like to think that I have prioritized my expectations and learnt to let go. It has made a difference; I am not likely to reach my grave too soon. In fact if your kids see you human and fallible, it helps. They end up not having an unreal image of you and empathize. They would feel better knowing that even you can make mistakes and it is human to err! There are times when I purposely attempt a dazed momma look and see my elder son exasperatedly doing a job…but it teaches him to be more efficient…

Delegation is a better idea and does not really take away anything from your inherent abilities! A little flexibility and realistic scheduling work wonders too.

Personally I cannot be superwoman …firstly her costume is too tight. I won’t fit into it. Secondly she’s unreal. And if she looks like that, she is the cause of more accidents that involve the male populace.


Super man on the other hand deserves a standing ovation. Anyone who can fly around saving the world with his red chaddi on a blue skintight hugger is super brave… ( not talking about chris reeve here)

So I repeat, I am not a superwoman, I’m just super at being myself!!!!

We all ARE!

it's a brand new year!!!

There is a silence in the thinking aloud household...the kids are too quiet and my mind refuses to cooperate...The last 10 days were very hectic, with my parents and nephews around. My boys had a terrific time with their cousins...not so the neighbors...and time just flew...and now, after the hullaballoo of the week before, the silence is too loud...:(

It is a strange feeling to get up with no agenda, no mom to smile at, no dad to pamper, and nothing to do...*Of course i have to help Swaraj finish the school project but that's not what i want right now*....

I loved the role reversal, when they were here. It was my turn to pamper them, which i did to my heart's content. As usual they felt I was too thin, not looking after myself and doing too much. As usual, I felt I should be doing more for them...It felt great to be giving back in some way

I'm going to take my time and leisurely read all the posts i've missed. I've managed a to catch up on a few good ones. One of the first posts happened to be Madhumita's review of the movie'KITE RUNNER. Ziah finally posted her new chapter making my day, Ps gave me a wake-up call, and hip grandma's nostalgic tale took me back in time...gosh, i've missed quite a lot of good ones...

This is such a great way to start the new year...My mind's still in a feel good mode, i don't feel like pressing it to function...I still have a week of vacation left and i'm going to live it up with the kids and hubby...

It is a beautiful morning here and I'm drunk with joy and contentment.So, here's raising a toast to 2008...I'm looking forward to more writing, seeing a few goals achieved, raising a few bars here and there and continuing being friends with my children!

It's a brand new year, what will you do with it?




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Coincidentally this happened to be the propmt at sunday scribblers...
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