Exam? what exam?...

It sure is a busy week at my house. I'm super hyper, like i'm on a taut string and a little touch will send me spiralling into the air. Exams always does this to me. The 11 yrold on the other hand is as cool as a frozen ice lolly. As far as he's concerned, its just another thing cooked up to make sure he has a rotten week. He's still reading his storybooks and decorating an arsenal timetable like he's arsenal's manager. For the uninitiated it's not weaponry but soccer...yeah...I've added the much hyped soccer-mum hat to the various other hats i wear...

Coming back to exams, I remember this history teacher in school. She was BORING!!!! and unfortunately believed that quantity is directly proportional to quality. Which meant that the longer the answers, the more the marks. So once i figured that out, it was pretty easy. The 11 yrold on the other hand is a master at brevity. He can condense a page into 5 lines. His speed-reading skills came to light when he read 5 chapters in 15 minutes. Algebra is scoffed at...the whole idea of x and y being in equations is silly...steps are skipped because 'i know it, she knows it, why the hell should i write it down"?

and yes, we have the conveniently censored expletive, "What The!!!!" going on right now....

I sympathise with him thoroughly when he complains ...Luckily for him, he's intelligent and has been getting good grades solely on what he remembers from the classes...which will not last him long. Maths needs practice and he's not too convinced about it. Besides, what is he going to do with 100%?!!!!(yes, we never fall short on confidence)

We've told him that we really don't mind the grades...what matters is that he works hard and shows some discipline in coming up with a time table and not keeping everything till the last minute....Right now, he's as receptive as the wall except when he tells me to chill!!! Still i live on eternal hope :)

The younger one on the other hand never lets me down, as far as learning goes. He has just learned about the middle finger...and the myriad expressions it brings on....He saw an 8yrold showing it, and other kids going gaga over it ' ... he patiently folds his four fingers and proceeds to show me the middle finger!

sigh...Ahhh! well, when you can't fight them, join them..i showed him how to use those fingers to make a camera....Hopefully he's going to be better occupied in school today...


and now biting my fingers...errr nails... wondering when this tune will hit my house soon?

Ain't that loverly?

You know the times when nostalgia grips you and threatens to throttle you and you end up replaying the "those were the good old days" record? You don't? then you are too young...you must be old enough to get a nostalgia attack...like me...

you do? good...let's get started. So i had an attack of the good old movies syndrome and i reminsced about the good old movies that we used to watch. The days of "Gods must be crazy", shammi kapoor's twists and the musicals, Sound of music and "My fair lady'...


so coming back to the movie, a well meaning friend had presented my boys with this dvd and the not-so-well meaning boy had pushed it way out of sight. The other day when i was digging into their dvd pile, i found Sound of Music buried under the harry potter, jurassic park, King Kong and chocolate factory movies.



So there it was, unopened and ignored. Memories of childhood came surging through...I mean, who has not heard "Do re mi' and sung "these are a few of my fav things' in school. My kids have been taught this in school as well. So I invited the boys to watch it with me...after all this was an experience to be cherished right?

After 5 minutes: the 11 yr-old said.."can i read a book? If you want i'll read it here (BIG favor!!!!) one wicket down...

the soon-to-be 6 yrold decided to give me a chance...

After Song #1 the boy asked me if Mr. superhero makes his apeearance now...

Song #2 passed by with him demanding some magic at least...

A still beaming (and gritting my teeth on the inside) me explained why maria now has to go work for a captain with 7 children...and the third song started...where she is singing on her way to the captain's house...it does have songs...its a musical!!!

2 lines into the song, the little voice puts in his two dollars worth " you know, i think she should stop singing and go , she's going to get late if she's always singing"

a smirk from the hubby completed the experience...

for the record i still watched it, songs and all...and the l'il one gave me comnpay, never mind if he fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie...

bah! What do these kids know about movies, other than special effects and spandex clad superheroes...!!and so much for my instilling some movie sense into them...hmpppf!! they want magic? i plan to unleash Mary Poppins on them ...

i need solidarity here...does anyone else like these movies?

and on a funny note...someone sent this to me...allegedly sung by Julie Andrews on her 69th birthday..i use the word allegedly, 'cos i cannot find any concrete evidence of her singing this..neverthless its funny...

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.


Cadillacs and cataracts and hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.


When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,

And then I don’t feel so bad.
Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin’,
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin’,
And we won’t mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.


When the joints ache,
When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I’ve had,
And then I don’t feel so bad.

ta-da!!!Now go sing "The rain in spain"

'BOOK'ed?

I definitely used to read more when i was in school and college...Now of course, i do more of reading text books and my 6yr-old's library books...and err...blogs

-xh tagged me light years ago on this...so here it is...

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you really love (and strikethrough the ones you hate!).(this i don't know how to do...so i'm not..)
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

so here's the list someone else has so patiently compiled...(half of what i have read is missing from this list :P)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible -parts of it
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of them)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (saw the movie)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Currently reading "the japanese wife"

of the lot above, would want to try reading hitchhiker's guide and time traveller's wife..any other recommendations? I have so many that i've not yet read :(

I had covered most of the above, when i was in school...Some i've hidden in between my study books and read... Quite a few, i wish i had waited and read later to fully appreciate the writing....

Is there a proper age and time to read certain books to interpret it in the right way? What do you think?


and..and... i tag joy, gazal,and prats...and anyone else who wants to take this up...

Its raining 'friends',

pic grabbed from preethi's blog



What's life without friends, right? Right!!!


I've sat on this for almost a week, formulating things in my mind about how I wanted to say this...but then i realised a heartfelt 'Thank You' is what i want to say right now. There have been many times when you all have been instrumental in bringing the smile back on my face. Thank you for that too.




The honest, transparent and pretty, young bloggers, Keshi and Rayshma gave me this gold card to pass on...




a card which says "Blogging friends forever"...an acknowledgement of virtual palship and i'm happy to have found friends in you too.

And would i be too demanding if i give this to

each and everyone of you who make it a point to come here, read, and leave those lovely comments. Do pass it on

(sorry guys, its not a badge but a gold card...blame it on excitement? thanks ~nm)


Another 'OMG' moment

This is what they've been recorded saying about me:

Preethi : "...Her blogs are dipped in reality and humor. ..."

Neera: '... It shows that she is one cool mom her kids are lucky to have."

Mama-Mia: "I WISH I could be that sensible and level headed..."

It's not everyday that someone calls me cool, sensible,etc. so i'm going to make the most of it :D

and this is what i would love to say about them

Preethi's totally in her element right now ( Midlife crisis?!!!, cheeky's attitude and the laughing Gods notwithstanding)...her blog is just like her, full of life, and a treat to read

I love Neera's attitude, her kids, her honest posts, her kid updates and her template. Her blog makes my day...

Mama mia's famous for her radiant 1000 watt smile, and her cubby who takes after her. esp in the beam and cuteness factor. Her optimism is contagious and i love the feel-good factor of her blog.

And these extremely sane and beautiful mothers of equally adorable kids, have decided to pass on this diamond of brilliance to moi...


glitter-graphics.com
Merci beaucoup, Preethi, Neera and Abha...It means a lot to me. It is a great feeling when people identify with your ravings and musings. It is also a great feeling to be read and appreciated. Its not a great feeling though when i fall short of words to express how i feel...




In the tradition of this tag, i pass this on to

Prats: Of emotional ecology: A year back, I chanced on Prats' blog and i was hooked!! and thus came into being aalochane...

Tys: He makes you smile, he makes you think. And he writes awfully well too :D. I do wish he would compile his posts into a book one day. and ...did i tell you? his story blog is a must-read.

Ps: She practises what she says...and her blog is one of the reasons she's looking forward to a huge moment in her life - her first book "34 bubblegums and candies'' (click on the pic in the side bar to learn more).

Keith: One of my favorite bloggers. Poems, short stories, visuals, musings - you will find them all here.

Madhumita: a petite superwoman who manages to squeeze 36 hours into her day, what with her babies and her work and her social service...:D

Ziah:: laughter unlimited...need i say more!!! yes!! She's also beauty with brains :D

manuscrypts: A man of 55 words and more, and my, does he get his points across!!!



psst..To the nosy lady who lives 3 blocks away, and who finds it difficult to believe that i cannot spare time for her kitty party, i also blog among the other inconsequential things i do!!!

Some rain, six windows and a thought

It rained and how!!! Here in Singapore, we live on the 12th floor and every time it rains, we have to close the windows so that the water does not get in. So one dark evening it rained, and I heard G say, Close windows...i was working on my laptop, I blinked, I frowned and I wondered why I should shut down my windows (my windows vista)...before the dim bulb brightened. I walked to the actual window and latched it shut… (sheesh!!!)

And of course, that was enough to get me thinking...:D




So now we live in a world where windows are what you use on the computer. Closing windows has never been this easy. Icons are no longer Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther king but those cute little miniatures on your desk top. How uninspiring!

The mouse is lamenting its loss of identity from the cute Tom tormentor to the slick one crawling on the desk. Bugs and viruses ail your computer too and the therapy is not a good drowning of smelly spray but some heavy dose of code. The worm has also made its appearance, where true to its nature, it slithers its way through the firewalls and security systems, creating havoc.

It's time not to bat an eyelid when your ten yr-old wants to burn his CD himself but ask him to do one for you too. (The shocked look on his 5 yr-old brother was priceless!!). My son is amazed that I grew up in a world without computers and mobiles. A world without Neopets and FIFA 2008 - IMPOSSIBLE!! (those are his favorite games)!! Meanwhile, someone please do explain to me why anyone would want to play a soccer game on the computer?

Friends were first segregated into best friends and friends. Next came the popular sitcom "FRIENDS" about the lives of 6, err...friends. Finally, we have 'frenship', which is highly endorsed by the social networking sites. This sure is an instant age - instant food, instant messages, instant pals...If someone were to be introduced as a friend, it’s only natural to ask "Blog friend, virtual friend, orkut friend, or ? friend? Never did I think the day would arrive when there would be so many definitions of a friend...though i must add here, i have met quite a few good people online and we've hit it off instantaneously...lucky me!!!

Web cams and Instant messengers have just brought the world into your home. Grandparents can catch a first smile, the first step, a milestone being conquered without moving a step. Bonds are tightened and the distance shortened with a click. Being in touch has never been this simple. If only we could feel as well!

In retrospect, good thing too, otherwise people would stop stepping out of their homes…:(

Ironic too, that what was invented to give us more mobility, security and time is proving to be just the opposite. The miles have been shortened but has it actually managed to bridge the distance between people? There are times when you have to message the person sitting next to you at work!!!

The web is wide indeed! No corner is inaccessible, it's just a click away...Just make sure you do not get entangled in it, and do scare away those lurking spiders who reside, disguised as internet trolls and worse.

And yes, don't be surprised when you are old, and your grandchildren look at you and say "Oh my mouse!" (That’s the future equivalent of Oh my god! since that’s how the future may soon view their God.. :P)

Hail, the mighty mouse!! might as well get used to it, I see an obsequious attitude to this slick creature in my house..

(Psst...about the disoriented baring of the thought, that's what happens when you sweep away cobwebs in the mind..., besides, i'm too busy wasting time shutting and opening windows to pay particular attention)

The need for a want...

My son's almost 11 and if i ignore his temper surges, still very much a baby, innocent and impressionable. His birthday is approaching soon, and we asked him what he wanted as a present, (a temporary lapse in sanity prompted us to ask him if he wanted a PSP, or Wii), he said NO to both. I was quite surprised!

He's most happy if you take him for a game of soccer or cricket, delirious if someone can kick ball with him all day. Those are the moments when i see the beautiful bonding between the two brothers, the natural ease with which the elder teaches the younger how to kick, how to bowl. Those are the memories which sustain me when they are at each other's throats, usually triggered by trivial matters.

He has been to friends' houses where everything is grand, cupboards overpacked with gizmos and unlimited pepsi/cocacola, in other words, a different life style from what he's used to. He's been to houses too, where it's been the opposite, low on frills but high on fun, quite like the much hyped about 'middle class' experience. He's always come back raving about the time he spent with his friends, whether it was the playstation or the game of soccer they played, never the inequality of it all.

When we moved to Singapore, we gave up a lot (wrt the support system) in delhi, our help, the driver and our cars. In Delhi, it was a constant effort to insulate the boys against the 'showing off' culture that the city is known for. It is so easy to get swayed away by affluence. There was an instance of a colleague buying a bigger car because his son was ashamed of the smaller one. Since when has contentment been measured with money? And what will happen when the money dries up?

In Singapore, we've opted not to take a car, because the public transport is one of the best in the world. Here we walk, we cycle, we take the local train,the bus or the cab, sometimes even all three, to reach our destination. Initially the kids had problems coming to terms with the forced walking, coming as they did from their chaperoned life where they had been chauffered everywhere. If you've lived in Delhi, you would know that the public transport is apalling not to mention the safety issues of sending children alone anywhere.

There were times, here, when Swaraj would ask why we didn't have a car. We would explain to him, about what he's been studying in school, about global warming, about the excellent infrastructure Singapore has to offer, about the need for it. There are times he doesn't understand, and just accepts it as a quirk of ours. But he accepts, which i feel is a big step forward.

It worries me when i see children his age, cushioned against the disappointments of life. I've seen them getting everything on a platter, and it scares me that the parents, in their bid to give them the best, are spoiling them silly. The new mantra seems to be, if you can afford it, then you must have it. The line between needing and wanting seems to be getting merged.





The 5 yr-old has a t-shirt which reads

"saw it, wanted it, threw a fit, got it!!!"

funny, because if he were to throw a fit, he would have definitely got it, a sound verbal thrashing :D

It is difficult to deny your kids something, but i realise the importance of saying no. I believe in what i've been told when growing up, of learning to handle little disappointments so that you are better at handling life's bigger challenges. Of using middles class ways of building up resilience and character. Of learning to want something bad enough to work for it. Even with all this, my mother feels that we've been bringing them up easy. Sometimes the effort seems tiring, going through all the arguments just to prepare him for something he has no clue about. Sometimes it's so easy to give in....

Till now Swaraj has been delightfully simple, happy with his sports activities and his allocated computer time. But it's getting increasingly difficult to strike a sane balance between needs and wants. Of knowing the difference between the two...of wanting him to know that whatever we own is the result of hard work and self denial...of wanting him to know about the value of money, the value of his soccer coaching, of wanting him not to take everything and everybody for granted, and of wanting him to know that value does not always mean money.

Whoever said parenting was easy? The difficulty level sure increases with their age!!! and I hope i pass, each time...:D

What was I reading?!!!

It's been two weeks since i've come back to Singapore...The kids have settled back into their routine remarkably, the husband is thrilled to come back to a noisy home and i'm still in the 'I miss everyone' mood...

So what better time than this to finish 'THE' book tag, pinned on me by Preethi of incessant musings. This tag has been appearing on everyone's blog of late, and of course as usual i'm doing it verrry late. Considering I had a few earth shattering issues to handle (READ THAT AS SETTLING BACK TO SCHOOL ROUTINE AND YELLING MY LUNGS OUT!!!), i think preethi is going to forgive me here...

The tag reads, list out my top ten literary characters... I wish it was authors, because if a chracter has managed to speak to you, it is clearly the writer's magic working there..because it is so difficult to envisage various characters and bring them to life with words...




And so i delved into the recesses of my mind to discover those characters who i fell in love with when i was in school....It was at school where i was also exposed to shakespeare and the other classics (we had a wonderful english teacher)

1. Rebellious Jo from "Little Women" by Louis May Alcott ...
I found so much in common with this spirited girl. She remains my favorite girl...



2. Carefree Huck Finn from the Adventures of Huckle berry Finn by Mark Twain...

He surely did take me on a roller coaster ride right from his escape from his drunk father to the adventures shared with his friend Tom Sawyer...

3. Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines by Sir H Rider Haggard...

Did you know the novel was the consequence of a one pound bet? Haggard's brother claimed that he would not be able to write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. But Haggard did ,taking readers like me on a complete adventure trip filled with drama, murder and a treasure hunt...

4.
The indomitable Sherlock Holmes and the very likeable Hercule Poirot...

hats off to these two gentlemen for their extremely unique ways of ensuring that my leisure hours were satisfactorily occupied. I remember being gifted a volume of "The Adventures of sherlock Holmes" and devouring it from page to page,my admiration for the detective growing immensely with each mystery he solved... As for the Belgian detective, i love him..and my mission was to read everyone of Agatha Christie's books by hook or crook, exam or no exam...which i achieved soon enough...

5. The "villain'of Wuthering Heights...the vengeful Heathcliff...

i should be hating him but oh what's forbidden did seem so alluring especially to a young mind....

6. Tom from Uncle Tom's cabin...

i read this when i was perhaps in class 5.. it dealt with slavery and racism...

7. The unnamed narrator in 'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier...and Jane of Jane Eyre

8. Perry Mason...

another dashing man and a defense attorney to boot...it's been ages since i read an earl stanley gardner!!!

9. Kabuliwalla by Rabindranath Tagore.

Needs no introduction and brings a lump into my throat everytime I read it

10. Of course the Secret Seven and Famous Five,

who enlivened many a bored day with their adventures and delicious scones...I used to always be 'hungry' after reading one of Enid Blyton's books...

11. The absentminded Lord Emsworth, the sly Jeeves and the comic Bertie Wooster...

Bring on the smiles...:)

12. Meggie Cleary in the Thorn Birds...

and her journey into love and out of it...

a special mention about the adorable Calvin who makes so much sense as long as it is not my son saying that :P

sigh...so many more to write and already 14 characters written down...

I'm ending this reluctantly...and i loved doing this, because this brought back many fond memories...

Now to pass on the tag...

Sumana, Romila, Rayshma, WIAN, JLT...

Who's your favourite?