If A Car goes Drrrrrrrrrrrrrr

How does an aeroplane go?
Answer- Aerooooooooooooooooooo (as per Ojas)

Scenario is that I am giving Ojas a wash before bedtime using running water. (turned low)
I rinse his mouth first and while he is spitting it out, I wash his lower body. And then proceed to rinse his mouth again.
Why does Ojas run away screaming and holding his mouth tightly shut?
Answer- because the water has become dirty after washing his nether regions (langu wash)

Why does Tejas refuse to place his toilet seat for shitting?
Answer- because he has just taken bath and he doesn't want to dirty himself by touching it!

Which is the best way to convince Nani to put cartoon?
Answer- threaten to break her glasses or shake the chair on which she is standing.

What is the right way to drink milk (coffee)?
Answer- on a tray with a bowl of mixture placed with it (just like how Nana, Nani drink their tea/ coffee)

How does Tejas realize I have made Complan and am passing it off as Coffee?
Answer- It is not smelling like coffee- Coffee ka doosra smell hota hai (Mamma's skills inherited)

How do you express feeling of pain in any part of the body?

Answer- legs / hands mein bhukki ayee - Hungry in the legs, hungry in the hands

How do you express your need to eat?

Answer- My stomach is full of water, will you give me peanuts?

Why should I not stand in the toilet when they are shitting?

Answer- because it will smell! how considerate- Mamma tum go karo, smell hoga

Guess Who Became Smarter?

Men in Black & Red

Guess Where?

Which of these eating joints in Chennai can you recognize?
So a lot of people got most of them right...
Barbecue nation
Pizza Hut, Adyar (yes the reflection on the screen was a blatant hint)
Don Pepe, Cathedral Road. The "mexican" on the window reflection and the name written on the coaster was the hint, but somehow the image couldn't get enlarged- I discovered a little belatedly Subway, Ascendas GRT Granddays
Cafe Coffee Day

Tough one- Ponnnuswamy, Adyar

Fruit Shop on Greams Road, Besant Nagar

He he, just showing off- my home

Is It Time to Get Worried Already?

Ojas- Aunty asked me to sit with friends (not Tejas perhaps)
Mamma- where did you sit
Ojas- With Girl friend, there was no place near Tejas
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The maid had washed their undies along with my kurta and the undies turned a pretty shade of pink.
Hoping a couple of washes would remove the pink colour, I decided to use the "pink" chuds anyway.
Ojas- you are weraing pink anderwear
Tejas- yes
Ojas- are you Mamma?
Mamma - ? ?

The Evil Mamma

-Forces the kids to choose between "having juice in Chennai with Mausi" and going to Pondicherry with Dadda & Mamma
No prizes for guessing what they chose! And who were laughing all the way to Pondy & back.

- Makes the kids get used to music on laptop and then tells them everyday that the battery doesn't work so the laptop cannot play music

- Allows them to believe that the drumstick seeds are chicken pieces

- Uses cartoons to distract them from herself

-Feeds them custard but calls it caramel pudding

-Blends milk & boost and calls it cold coffee

- Threatens that if they do not eat the cake she baked (which they had said is not good) she would switch off the cartoon

A Model Robbery (Real Incident)

And incase you wondered-some sidelines

1. Dacoit 1 stayed in the living room arguing with Uncle 1 & Kid 1 & 2 and escaped with the TV remote- he never could get the watch he was eyeing

2. It's true- dacoits do ask for the cupboard keys

3. Girl 1 (who was ha-ha -ing) burst into tears of shock as soon as the dacoits left

4. Boy 1 who was just out of his bath and loitering about in a towel immediately put on his trousers when he realized that robbers had arrived

5. And where was I- in the inner lobby and got in when Grandma walked out and was the one who was pushing the door shut - inches away from the rusted gun weilding masked dacoit- ugggh

6. One lady inside the room thought it was a good idea to cover her head with her sari - to hide her diamond earrings

7. The lady who was bravely pushing the door shut was extremely worried whether the bullet had hit her husband's new shoes stowed under the sofa

And Now for Some Brotherly Love

Off To School

In the new dress Mausi bought for them

My Terrariums

Inspired by this desert terrarium I made my own- partly because I had a terracota pot that was gathering dust all the while and I had not been able to drill a hole underneath for using as a pot and partly because I had a set of cacti that could be effectively used here and partly because this seemed the easiest of the lot for me the klutz.

The steps I followed-

1. Fill the pot with pebbles- the ugliest and the most shapeless ones that I could find in my garden as these are not going to be visible.

2. Put a layer of activated carbon bought at the aquarium store.

3. Instead of sphagnum moss I used coconut husk- and contrary to popular believe I really did not find it in just any shop- had to scout for a shop that had stocked the coconut with little bits of husk still stuck to it

4. Layer the soil

5. Plant 3 varieties of cacti, 1 kalanchoe and 1 fast growing plant for contrast

6. Find the first available animal and place it there - only to be retrieved by the kids the next day

7. Place the pretty pebbles in between the plants and sprinkle a layer of sand to go with the desert theme

8. Protect the pot from over watering by enthu kids

Here's another one- the intention being to make it a part of the husbands liquor cabinet. I am no particularly impressed with it but let's see if it flourishes inside the bottle.

And this one in a cracked borosil jug. Again I find the jug too small to be significant. As of now this is under observation. So far so good. Let me test whether my theory and practical marks match so I could move on to larger bowls and more plants!

Car Park

They are aren't they? Talking about mine too?In our case its the various cars that occupy the space under the pillow- there is a space there right?
what you see depicted in the picture is just the tip of the iceberg- or rather work in progress- what they especially Ojas usually have would be nothing less than 15 vehicles under the pillow. And he builds the collection in phases on any given night.
The process followed would be-
1. Mamma restricts- only 2 cars and all go under the pillow - with the ulterior motive that it doesn't poke Mamma in the wrong places or become the object of attention during a time which ought to be devoted for evoking sleep.
2. Ojas / Tejas comply and stick to the allotted quota
3. Tejas still complies but Ojas manages to hang from the bedside and pick any available car from the floor near the bed and keeps tucking them under the pillow
4. Tejas asks for water and Ojas immediately needs water. Uses the time we take to walk to the kitchen- drink water- come back to room to rush to the toy cupboard and pick up as many cars he can in his two hands and offers some to Tejas also.
5. Before running to bed, picks up some more cars from other parts of the room and stuffs them under the pillow until Tejas decides enough is enough and switches off the light.
6. Ojas takes additional pillow to place on top of the previous pillow which is having so many cars parked under it.
7. Ojas gets fed up and pushes the cars onto the floor/ mattress below.
8. Dadda comes and sleeps on top of most of the cars!

Crazy Containers

A tabletop chutney bowls set planted with fast growing plants

A plastic cup planted with "those plants that spill over the planters and trail down"

A steel vessel with a hole Asian painted and planted with fast growing plants (same as the cup)

A boost flask with a clip - clipped onto the garen gate and planted with a nine o'clock rose - waiting for it to flower though!A cracked borosil jug houses the money plant

a mithai ka matka planted with the ultra slow grower succulent

Terracota cup with lucky bamboo stalks

Well, a clay chulha planted with an ornamental plant. A discarded loofah tied around the open gap...

Yet another strange vessel that found its way into my home - it has a moneyplant - in the kitchen

2 Sets

SISTERS BROTHERS

Height of Amnesia

You send a cryptic SMS to yourself from your own phone to remind you of something the next morning.
You read the SMS next morning and rack your brains for a good minutes wondering what this SMS means and more important- who it is from?

It's Really Time to Lose Weight When

A pair of jeans has been lying in your spare cupboard for nearly a year and you have been asking all around who these jeans belong to....
...And with a shock you realize that this belonged to you in your pre-baby days which is less than 5 years ago!

The One in Which Tejas Tries to Trick me

After begging desperately for a biscuit at an ungodly hour, Tejas manages to get one piece from me with stern warnings that he should not ask for more.
2 minutes later Tejas comes to me and says-
give me the pack- I will put it in the box in the kitchen.
Like you will!

Bother Brother

Sis tells to Brother-Restrict access to my wedding albums on orkut/ facebook
Next day Bro tells sis- good you asked me to restrict access- someone tried to access the albums after that and failed
Sis- who tried?
Bro- ITW (yours truly who has joined orkut just to search for a particular friend and facebook just to play the word game and that's all)

Linking Up With Dreams

So I dreamt about my college friends one night, got nostalgic and the next day, on an impulsed googled for one.
Can you imagine my surprise that I discovered her whereabouts in 2 clicks - reached her on Linkedin and found that she is in Chennai!
A flurry of phone calls to her workplace led me to the answer that she quit 3 months ago and if I would leave my name and number they would reach her out and let her know of my contact.
I spent the entire morning kicking myself for not dreaming earlier and being my persuasive self with the (ex)workplace. Finally got through the HR who reluctantly but immediately gave me her mobile number.
I called her and the conversation went on like this-
Me- Is this RR?
She- Yes
Me- from xYZ college? B city?
She- yes
Me - now guess who you bad mad woman
She- keep talking I will try
Me- Guess who lives in Chennai
She- I only know ITW lived in Chennai years ago
Me- She still lives in Chennai
She- How stupid...
Me- Do you know why I searched you out? because I dreamt about you
She- Oh, you still have these wierd and funny dreams!
(Oh God- she remembers what I had forgotten- rather I had forgotten that my vague, lucid dreaming was so famous back in those days!)
And so we blah blah blahed .....and went on to discover that we live within shouting distance to each other!
Now mind you, we were talking after 12 years and getting in touch after atleast 10 years and what do we say to each other- mad? bad? stupid?
We met for a long chat and catching up at Checker's and left with promises of "more to come"!

Secrets & White Lies

2 books read back to back on the same theme - misrepresentation of the truth but taken differently. One extremely engaging, the other having an equally good turn of events for the protagonists but not crisp and snappy like the first. The second one is to me a less polished cousin of the first one, failing badly in style.

Total escape though!

The Pregnant King

I read this delightful book- ok, not completely as the crucial 40 pages that form the end of the book was missing.

Devdutt Pattanaik retells the story of Yuvanashva as told in the epic- but changes the timeline of the same making them contemporary with the Kurukshetra war. Go here to read the excerpt of the original course of events.

The book is long and twisted but pretty much tells the same thing in most of the pages. Yet it has managed to become a pageturner - the events unfold almost as if you can see them happening or as if you are part of the mind of the protagonists.

The author has evoked all episodes of dual gender existence in his book to make parallels to the central theme- whether among humans, gods or other supernatural beings like ghosts/ yakshas.

Even the God of Vallabhi is both a male and a female in one- a parallel to Radha hi Krishn hai and Krishn hi Radha hai?

Another important aspect of the book is the debate on how a situation is resolved. The most important point to consider would be that the solution is not in isolation of the current social rules and situation- there are no right or wrong answers- only the most apt of all depending upon the social scenario. The importance of logic, the tussle between brain and heart, Yama & kama, duty and feelings and how each aspect is important to the solution. The interesting aspect is that every event has been given both the Yama logic (eventuality/ reason) & the Kama logic (desire) but the result has been the same whichever logic has been employed to explain the course of the events!

Read the book to make more sense of my thoughts! And share it with me so that I could read the last 40 pages- I have still not been able to locate it!

Most Heartening

When family, colleagues & friends call up or sms to check on you and keep tabs on you when you are travelling. Leaves you with so much warmth and a feel good factor...
Eve's Lungs
Dipali
IBH
Sue
AD

To all those and more in the group of friends- thanks for checking on me during the Aila scare.

Height of Misunderstanding

When Hubby thinks that the food served for the babies are actually meant for him and he eats it all up especially if the plate the food has been served in, looks like

THIS....................

Tiny Bytes

A Missed photo Op
-When Ojas wore his socks in his hands and a watchman's cap and woke Nani up saying- Nani- coffee!

Logically Speaking
Ojas- teases Nani- Nani chee chee
Tejas- who took you for buying biscuit and eggs wearing a sari- Ojas, tejas & dadda?
Ojas- no, Ojas, Tejas & Nani
Tejas- then? nani chee or nice?
Ojas- nice!

Why should I leave them alone more often?
-They are able to wrangle new clothes for themselves from Nani & Mausi
- try their best to convince them to buy a revolving chair & calculator
-have coffee frappe every evening!

Motherly Ojas
When he puts a blanket over me and tucks it carefully on all sides

So what's Spicy?
woh jo teeta hota hai naa (explains in hindi the meaning of spicy)

Meeting the Kolkata Ladies

This Kolkata trip was extremely fruitful- and no, I am not talking about the mangoes & lichis that I bought but that I got to meet Sue & Dipali & SRE (missed meeting Eve's Lungs as she was naughty enough to catch a fever from Aila)
It was not the first time I meet Sue but it was definitely the first time I was meeting Dipali I am certain, but somehow it did not seem like that wonder why!! ;)
Sue came armed with a box of yummy chocolate cake from Cakes & Dipali brought me a lovely green tangail and books & puzzles for the kids which was incidentally read cover to cover instantly. Many thanks Dipali aunty- they say!
The gossips and talks just flowed as we moved from one venue to another- from BigBoss Palace where I was staying to Kewpies Bengali restaurant to Dipali's lovely home...and swear- we were not ready to leave even then! And was I meeting Dipali's SRE for the first time? no? yes? dunno... I can't quite place!
Kewpies is an authentic bengali cuisine restaurant with terracotta plates/ tumblers and bowls- think Amethyst in Chennai- a similar home converted to a restaurant, ancient style, art on the walls, alcogol bottles and other ceramic pottery on display, slightly musty, subdued lighting...

As I studied the menu, to my dismay Sue & dipali suggested that i take the thali- now I am not the kind who can brave a thali - and moreover it usually has a host of vegetarian stuff which to me is not needed at all. So I dithered and protested as politely as I could that I would rather pick and choose than let them serve me a thali. And the lovely ladies insisted that the thali is well balanced - bitter/ sweet/ spicy and all! On hindsight (realised exactly 15 minutes after ordering) I am glad they forced me to take the thali
My favourites were-
banana flower curry
fried brinjal- see below
prawn with lots of mustard oil
Bhetki steamed in banana leaf- I devoured the entire thing and did not share with Sue as originally intended
fluffy pooris- see below
mutton curry with the bone -I slurped the entire bone marrow!
mishti doi...yummm
green mango sweet chutney- to be eaten with papad


And while I am on food- I had lunch the next day at Jimmy's Kitchen- oldest Chinese restaurant in Kolkatta!
Deep fried chilly chicken- I took the entire plate - the colleague was kind enough to notice my greed and pick only a couple of pieces from that! Immensely satisfying - fried, flavourful !
If you come across it get in and try it! Small but popular place!

And this post gets a mentione here moments after I posted it! Thanks Sue for pointing it out to me!