Rose Apple

Crunchy combo of pear and apple. Slight citrus and distinct rosy flavour.

Exotic...
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Ironically Speaking

Tejas mugging up spellings...yay yaar c t yai c arctic

Ojas- are you tamilian that you are talking like this?
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Basic Waffle Recipe

2 eggs, 250g flour and milk, 4tbsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1tsp baking powder, 4 tbsp unsalted butter, vanilla essence.

Makes 10 squares.

Combine all.













Preheat a waffle iron.















Grease with butter.

Fill the batter. Fully, leave no gaps.

Bake till they fluff up and become brown and crisp.

Serve upside down

drizzled with maple syrup.

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Brand Snob

Finally I possess a Hush Puppy and Clark's. Sigh...
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New Loot

Sandwich maker, grill, waffle maker.


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Sudoku

So I thought that Ojas was doing Sudoku.

Ah..a proud mamma was I.

He was actually just copying the answers and writing them down on the grid.

However they did understand the two dimensional rubik cube and three dimensional maze that Mausi sent for them.

Not bad.
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Aloe Vera

Worked like magic on Ojas' half face rash that refused to go despite allegra. These were mysterious rashes ...tiny dots that merged together later and was only on the right half of the face. Non itchy thankfully.

6 days and I was getting frustrated then I just doused it with aloe Vera from the garden and on a whim applied zinc cream. And it really worked.

Wonder drug.
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On Mommyhood

And Sue's post makes me say that in the end of it all, you realize that the baby was or in my case the babies were safest inside and best kept so. Once they are out, your heart lurches every time you hear a baby cry.

I once "bumped" into a pregnant lady in the mall and she was saying, it is so difficult to keep the baby safe inside the stomach. Once it is out one can protect it better.

And I couldn't stop myself from adding my two bit that the so called "it" is safest inside you.

For as a wise one said, having a baby is like having your heart walk around for your entire life, something to that extent.

It is true. It is not just your heart that is walking around but also playing various tricks inside your self.

Your heart comes into your mouth every time the children coming running into the house screaming Mamma. You wonder where they got hurt or who troubled them or imagine the worst possible situation.

And as Sue says beautifully that it is an intensely physical journey and she couldn't have said it better.

Every month I wondered at the tenacity of my body and the so called elasticity. Every month I would say to myself that I do not think I could manage if the babies got bigger and every month I would surpass my own expectations.

The walk got laboured, the cramps more painful and the getting up from the seat even more difficult. The walk to the bathroom was the most arduous journey especially since I never knew whether I would be able to even get up from the seat or reach the bathroom on time.

The sickness never abated. So there was always this worry that I need to be around a place where it would be easy to reach a place to throw up.

And of course, the wonders of all, my eye sight magically becaming near normal and skin issues vanished and right on the day after the delivery I noticed that the TV was hazy again.

The wonders!

The Reading Genes Reared Up

Much to my relief, just one fine day, the kids began to read. Really read rather than just turn the pages of their Geranimo Stilton or Goosebumps. 

They started bringing in their school library books like Roald Dahl and then Secret Seven and now St Claire's. 

And they actually read and tell me a gist of what they have read. They worry about how they will finish a 150 pages book in a week and I tell them to take it 25 page at a time. They love counting up the chapters they have completed and even read in the car on the way back home. 

But they are foolish enough not to be exchanging their library books with each other. They vehemently refuse to read each other's books. Now that I feel, is plain silly and I can say that my sister and I had better brains than them in this respect.

And just like that, their Hindi reading and writing have become nearly effortless. 

I was worrying unnecessarily.

Of Re reading Books

There is a certain undefined pleasure in re reading old favourites.

I must have read my Enid Blytons innumerable times because these books were not readily available in my days. While we had a monthly share of Tinkle and Amar Chitra Kathas, the Enid Blytons were not easily available. I remember waiting in the school library eagerly scanning the shelves and marking in my mind the shelves where I would zero on the moment the teacher gave the nod. So that I would be the first one to get that attractive looking Enid Blyton for the week. Even in those days of paucity, I managed to complete the famous five, secret seven, Malory towers, st Claire's, mystery series, adventure series, faraway land series, naughtiest girl series, etc. The books somehow managed to make an appearance n the right time. Sometimes it was through gifts. Sometimes it was bought off the second hand book seller and sometimes it was the good old borrowing from friends. The eyes were always open for the appearance of the books so that we could complete the series that we were reading.

My first Malory Towers was In The Fifth At Malory Towers. Given away to me by an older and dear friend. I would have read that book at least a 100 times. And a few times before I got round to reading the rest in the series.

Wen I had nothing better to read, I would re read my course books. Shipwrecked, David Copperfield and Anita Desai's Village by the Sea were the frequent sufferers in that regard.

I am not even counting the number of times the Amar Chitra Kathas were thumbed and subjected to re reads.

And I had this problem of reading while in the toilet, while eating, while sleeping, while going to someone's house, basically a book was surgically attached to my hand all the time. It was my safety net against boring situations or long journeys. It was and is my favourite past time.

However, I fear reading the Enid Blytons again because with my children because I realised around 8 years ago that I have outgrown them fully and completely. I find them predictable and not so interesting and painfully short.

In fact I even seem to have outgrown Danielle Steel books. Just imagine I was reading every book by the author That I could lay my hands upon, a decade ago.

I still find book shops magical. Especially because in the small township I have lived my life, the only good book shop was in the heart of the city and not easily accessible.

Even today leave me in a book shop and I can easily spend hours there. In fact my first outing with my friend in Chennai was a two hours time spent in Odyssey book store.

And imagine what I must have felt when I started reviewing books for various publishers at The Reading Corner (www.itchingtoread.blogspot.com)

Seriously it is like a new milestone for me. Books that come to my door step and I plan to make the most of it while it lasts as book publicists are fickle and sometimes the stream of books flowing in dry up and they start looking for greener pastures to divert their book supplies to.

Anyway. I digress. The flip side of these books flowing in is that I have to give up on the joys of re reading my old favourites. I must have read the Harry Potter series crazy number of times and so also the Palace of Illusions. And seriously, I wouldn't mind reading them yet again.

And perhaps , given the chance, I would re read at least portions of the Social Butterfly series.

Or all The Jeffery Archers and Sidney Sheldons and my entire books on short stories given the chance.

What is your go to book when you have nothing else to do?









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