Rock On...

I can say the movie rocks, the guys were hot, uber kewl, the music or rather the frenzy or the idea of being in a "rock show" had me tapping my foot and swaying my shoulders and urging me to take the next step- get up and dance.
But no, it is not about the movie. It is about what I could identify with. A slice of my life, your life, our lives that I could see. A pattern I am getting resigned to.
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Both get married. Then get on with the business of living.
Is that all to it?
We postpone our simple pleasures because we are working for the future. We get bigger and more successful and at one point of time, it ceases to matter to us when we get that big raise or promotion, or sign that huge contract...What scares me is that nobody wants to slow down. Everyone believes that if they stop for a moment or take a break, the organisation will fail in achieving targets.
We come home and are glued to our laptops or phones and hardly talk. Because there is only so much one can pack in a day. And so we prioritise. Pick up the seemingly non negotiable ones and move on.
Changing tracks, it is essential to have that something that gives you a rush of adrenalin, a goal to work towards, and the satisfied feeling that a hard day at work gives.
But aren't we in this process losing out on the fun? How many of us have a book or an idea or a rockstar within us waiting to flutter out?
How many of us are following our true calling? How many of us have yet discovered their true calling? Are we afraid to look for it? For fear of the unconventional?
We study buyer behaviour, we do consumer studies, spend loads of money in try to solve the conundrum of which product will hit it right with the consumers, but cannot invest our time and emotions in understanding our kids, spouses, family. On understanding what will make them happy, given the choice of a few moments of our time and a toy.
I cannot decide what to feel after the movie- elated, boisterous or sad.
I don't want anything extraordinary.
I want a plain and simple mehfil in the weekend evenings. Music, food, laughter, gossip and the quintessential gana- bajana.
Well, the closest to jamming of what I would have done were the impromptu antaksharis played during recess or back home from school or during wedding gatherings. We used to have dancing and singing sessions in our hostel - not restricted to just weekends. Ah the feel good factor!
Believe me dancing, singing and having fun is not just about age. It is attitude. In my previous company we were a gang who were just looking for an excuse to dance. We had coordinated dance moves- a signal, a shout or a word and the entire gang would be matching steps much to everyone's surprise. Sigh! it was fun. If nothing else, we lost a lot of calories doing. I miss that so much. I just want to dance. Wish we had a roudy, boisterous crowd to cheer and clap during the movie.
And wish my kids did not have to do 2 rounds of potty, 3 round of popcorn, potato chips, biscuits, and many rounds of water during the movie.
And yes that was a milestone I mentioned- being able to shit in a public toilet instead of asking- "Mamma, where's baby potty"- Tejas demanded his potty even before the intermission. They believe that while they can use the adult potty at home, it has to be the child seat anywhere other than their home.

I am in the 5th Month

5 months gone buy since I last succumbed to the temptation.
I haven't even looked that way for fear of succumbing.
5 months since I went on an overdrive.
Flirting with various models. Indulging myself to the highest limit till I zeroed on quite a few of my liking.
I nearly broke my heart when I ditched the older models for the newer ones.
I have a tough time every morning in deciding which one to favour for the day.
In the harem of the models that I possess, I have my own favourites, some for regular use, some for specific occassions, some for specific activities, some to coordinate with the rest of me.
Some are ignored or rather cherished so much that I feel they are too good to be exposed to the elements. And when they go past their prime, they are neither good enough to be seen with nor bad enough to be ditched.
A few days ago, I found myself breaking my resolute. My feet automatically taking me to the objects of my desire. My heart weakening with excitement, my mind picturing the ah-inspiring looks they would evoke once on me...
With feverish excitement, I slipped each foot delicately into the inviting sandals, twirling round to admire the dressed up feet in the clear mirror, walking up and down like a model on a catwalk ramp, looking at hubby to see if his eyes light up with appreciation, observing my 5 month old purchase in disdain...(how old and worn out they look in front of the newer ones) and with bated breath I asked...
How much?

Does This Qualify as a Lullaby?

1 car 2 cars 3 cars 4 cars.....sung upto 15 cars, arre baba 15 cars to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star
with versions like red car blue car....
or
Mamma car, dadda car, ojas car, tejas car....
I composed it out of frustration as there was an endless quarrel going on on which song I should sing as a lullaby for a particular night.
The funny part is that it became an instant hit and is sung all day nowadays!

Or perhaps pajama pajama...

red pajama, blue pajama, green pajama...

plain pajama, printed pajama etc qualify ?

The Pink Flamingo

Situated right above Spencer's in Besant Nagar - the same property which house Shogun before - Flamingo is a concept restaurant which focusses on fusion - string hoppers with chicken, dosa platter with chicken, mutton, egg dosa served along with curry and chutney, chappati chicken roll with rice servings and chicken curry...you get the drift!
We arrived at 10.57 pm, well the sign said 11 am to 11 pm so technically we were there before 11 pm. Half expecting to be kicked out of the empty place except 1 occupied table, we got a pleasant surprise when we were welcomed with great aplomb.
But the server was not too keen as he rushed us up with the orders because the kitchen was closed- ie we were not allowed to order starters quickly and then he could come back after 5 minutes for the main course. He had to take the entire order at the same time. Well!
We called for mutton pepper fry - quite a big serving and stuffed kulchas & naan- very spicy but good.
The chicken lollypops were a disappointment - very dry 3 leg pieces instead of the 6-8 pieces of the wings with lot of masala binding them.
The meal for 2 costed around Rs 450/-(inclusive of a fresh lime soda)

We also explored Mash situated on the Elliots beach. We originally went there but backed out because none of the combos boasted of "plenty of chicken". Continental, breakfast-ish/ lunch-ish menu- sandwiches, pasta, steak, sizzler. Walked out shamelessly after promising the poor chef that we would surely come for a breakfast this weekend!
My grouch is why aren't the chef/ servers in such fancy places equipped well enough to explain the menu to us in terms of basic preparation, quantities of serving and recommendation based on what we are looking for!

What all We do to Spice up Our Social Life

There was a certain do in Park that we attended on the weekend.
Where the floor was packed with formally dressed and color coordinated men and wives, occupying various tables and sticking to their own mini or large groups. There were rich men, not so rich men, belongers (wordish?), not so belongers (us?), smokers, Drink-ers, eaters (me?), trendy and hot women- and so comfortable with their selves- fully clothed, semi clothed, blouseless blouses, kanchukis that would make one, well, desperate to tug at, undoing the knot, desperately-trying-hard-to-fit-in women, all definitely fitting-in in the semi dark dimly lit hall but looking strangely discordant when the lights would come on for some reason or so. Clean backed, Smooth skins, not a hair out of place, ship-shape, pointy heels, color coordinated bags, jewels & accesories...Sigh! I would never reach their level of non-chalant yet carefully done up appearance. I would never fit in. I would never be able to attain that poise inspite of reading up all the tricks in the Femina Sep 2008 edition on how to ensure you get noticed as you enter a party-
Reached Late - check
Paused after entering the hall- check
Took a stance- feet placed in a complicated fashion in front of each other- check
Walked the cat walk (practiced on the borders of the tiles or straight yellow lines on 5-S following ofice)- Check
Randomly looked around- check
Randomly looked around again-check
Would have still looked around randomly if a hassled looking guy would not have seated me on a table.
I would never learn how to do the right make up- as long as I apply uneven eye liners I will never look as if I have made an effort.
I would never be able to wear the backless blouses or sphagetti straps or the evening gowns as long as I do not loose WEIGHT
These were the women whom I have never seen on the streets or in the malls or restaurant. Gosh, these women do shop right? They do eat out right? Or perhaps I am not looking in the right places Or perhaps I am not figuring them out even if I am looking at the right places?
Sheesh! Almost 10 years in Chennai and not a single person whom I recognized. Atleast we should have bumped into someone whom we would know already. Zilch!
What a shame.
In the name of interaction and networking, I did not move beyond the introductions- that included just the names.
So I looked around, hoping to spot someone I should know, either from the customers in the 2 jobs I have held, or someone from my gym, or maybe a blogger... I looked carefully at all the kids around just in case I spotted someone familiar, and then there would be this aha moment and I would recognize the child and the mother and we would discover we are blog friends and then the social do would be a breeze. Alas, these fantasies- they definitely serve one purpose- help in time pass.
Hubby took pity on me and invited me to share his table at the far end of the hall- which was like the prostitutes table- every one stopped to place their ashtrays, or drinks there. We smoked the passive smoke and the waiters ignored our table because
a) we were not in suits
b) we were just 3 at our table
c) we were at the end of the hall hence insignificant- wherever we would have sat we would have been insignificant as another group who occupied that table after we moved to another one got served snacks at their table.
So we focussed on the waiters for an hour willing them to look our way- strangely I was reminded of this post (just do control F and say waiter- you will reach the part I am referring to) which talks of the hierarchy among waiters. True I was just looking at the ones carrying chilly chicken. But even the cutlet-wallahs did not look our way.
Now imagine sitting at a party, with no drink, no starters, no aquaintances...
After the 1st hour spent thus I insisted that the husband ask for snacks to be served at our table. We made 3 attempts and failed. Now someone give me lessons on how to grab attention- Femina did try in the afore mentioned Sep 08 edition, look in the eye, level up, speak in a firm deep voice or something of that sort- well, nothing worked. It was simply not my day.
Sigh! it makes me wish I was pregnant so that I could legitimately bawl my husband could authoritatively ask for snacks to be served pronto to his pregnant wife and I would be a waited upon like a celebrity. (Now that's an idea for next time, with my ever-pregnant-never-delivery belly)
Or perhaps I should have just brought the kids along so that in the pretext of asking stuff for the kids I could have got plates and juices served at my table endlessly.
And now imagine after all this build up - walking out after 2 hours with just a handful of awful tasting mixture (minus peanuts) in your belly because the dinner was to start a tad too late for us working parents with kids to be sent to school next morning.
Ghar kaa khana zindabad- and no straying to a restaurant because self had promised hubby no outside food for a few days to make up for the money spent on prawns the previous day! - which by-the-way was yummylicious.
Now don't ask me the logic- this is how we save money!

Cycle Quiz

Ojas was being naughty. He threw a toy across.
Mamma decided to teach him a lesson and lifted his cycle up and asked , "shall I throw your cycle away?"
Ojas had a look that meant puzzlement and defiance which changed to "I am not bothered"
Guess why?
?
?
?
Hint
Mamma equally or more puzzled lifted the cycle again and asked him- shall I throw your cycle?
A tiny whimpering sound came from somewhere. It was Tejas beginning to protest.
Now can you guess why?
?
?
?
Answer-
Because Mamma had picked up Tejas' cycle instead of Ojas' and therefore Ojas was not concerned.

Politics

Tejas- to Mamma who is sleeping in between Ojas & Tejas and has turned towards Ojas - I want to sleep near Ojas - that said he proceeds to wriggle in between the no-man's -land between Ojas & Mamma

Ojas- is positively annoyed at this invasion

Mamma- Tejas, you want to sleep next to Ojas, Mamma also wants to sleep next to Ojas- proceeds to cross to the other side and sleep next to Ojas.

Tejas- crying- no, Mamma paas... and frets until Mamma comes and sleeps in the middle - flat on the back.

So all this was drama to get Mamma sleep flat on her back.

Predictability

Mamma once kept the pudding slices in a particular tiffin box. She did that again this weekend and Tejas was spotted roaming around with that box

Mamma- why are you carrying that box?

Tejas- Pudding khaenge!

Whenever the baking dish is taken out of the crockery rack- the comment- Happy to you is thrown across generally announcing that cake would be baked today.

Pearls of Wisdom

The trouble with having a large extended family is that you hardly get to be the first one to share your news with others. It is always someone else who does it for you.

The trouble with having your blog is that while you are the first one to announce your news, you can hardly talk to your friends and relatives because anything you say will be met with "yaa, I already know that, I read it in your blog"

Another trouble with having a blog is that since people are up to date with all your news, they hardly call you up. Moreover, it is always a one-way communication with no news from the other side coming your way.

The trouble with known people reading your blog is that you cannot bull shit without getting caught or do a healthy debate on "sensitive subjects".

And the trouble with kids growing up and reading your blog is that they know for sure that you love them to bits inspite of their mischief that make you superficially tear your hair out, because you then promptly go to your keyboards and type out a awww-inspiring version of those very annoying stuff they do, on your precious blog!

Hop Scotch & Five Stones

A few girls in our complex were getting bored... too bored to play, ...I tried to motivate them to play some games out of my childhood...
As kids we never got bored with friends around. We were always at something depending on the season.
More often than not it was Hop scotch. Btw, is this game dead now? Nobody plays it anymore. And we had multiple versions of it, the circle, the 10 section one or a square with 9, 16 etc sections and there was also a single row one. And then we played them in the sand or the cement floor. And we played them in groups of 2 to many and if there was no one else with us, we played alone!
I wonder if I could skip like that anymore. As one finished 1 sequence, they were entitled ownership of a section and the rest were supposed to skip over that without resting their feet on that- Wonder if I can manage that now- something I could do expertly and with a lot of agility!
During the lunch breaks we used to have our fill of the game and if we were "lucky" some of the younger teachers would join us...They must have been in their 20s! Teachers at such young age and we were in complete awe of them!

And what about that engaging game of 5 stones or 4 stones & a marble? We were addicted to it- summer vacation was spent collecting the round-most stones for playing five stones (the flat ones were collected for playing hop scotch or kit kit as we used to call it). The stones were precious- stored safely when the game was not in season. Funny I don't see anyone playing that!

We had this game of taking a wool and making formations out of it - a game played in pairs only. Winter was the season for that - nicking a piece of good knitting wool from our moms and playing it at every available minute!
Why don't kids play these games now?

Ojas Tejas Roundup

Overheard
Ojas- Tejas, aise nahin, walk slowly. (on the way to school)

Ojas- sings - achchi nani, pyari nani rusa rusi chod de, jaldi se ek "paper" denge (instead of paise de de)
And I finish- tu signature kar de instead of tu kanjoosi chhod de.

January, February.....December, clap clap clap
Sunday, Monday...Saturday, clap, clap, clap (who wouldn't clap for saturday anyway)

Spotted
These Dora in the usual pink (and radical blue). If I didn't know better I would have thought they loved the huge, "scary" Dora mascot, the way they were swaying like "her" and discussing the dress colour.

Passed Mammas Spot Test
They were supposed to wear the dresses in the colours of the flag for independence day eve.
I asked Ojas to recall the colours of each student's dress and he did it correctly and did not change his answers when I repeated the test for him
Advisor

Tejas- Dadda, (touching his stubble), dirty, not nice.
Amazed Mamma
Calling a red Accent as "police car". We have white Accents used by Police here. Time to teach them to spot the correct names of cars rather than Mamma car, Dadda Car etc?

Discovered Potential

Of Discovery Channel as entertaining education for kids- Fish eagle feature was well taken with Ojas imitating the eagle using his famous pink blanket.

Opposites

Dad to Tejas- drink your milk fast, Ojas is drinking fast

Tejas- No. Ojas Late (I swear I never taught them the opposite of fast is late!)

And Finally (Phew) Blocks are being played the way they are meant to be

The Box in the background is the box that houses the blocks- this is a China make building blocks which have a very smooth slide into each other. Only sad thing is that they do not fit into the more common Kinder block set because of difference in fitting mechanisms. But these colours are more flouroscent and child like and the box is off course useful as storage, shifting and also for quarreling. It comes with a lid and a pull along lever- overall resembling like a bullock cart with a yoke.

We do not follow the book given for designs- we do our own like bed, chair, flyover, cycle and even potty which they fake-use with great enthusiasm.

Double Riding

The 40-Point Plan

Agar kissi cheez ko dil se chaho to saari kayanath tumhe usse milane ki koshish me lag jaati hai....
So I need to just commit on my blog on the 40 Things I simply have to do before I turn 40 and the wishes of my blog friends will ensure that I achieve them all, well most of them...
(This tag was doing the rounds in the form of 30 before 30 but since I had already crossed 30 by then, I didn't have to do it. And I was not really thinking in terms of the next decade. But then since I have ignored all what I wanted to achieve the last 2 years, I am putting them on paper typing them on this post so that I have promising them on my blog.
"pssst- scouted around for lots of such lists to get fantastic ideas..."
1. Lose excess kilos- I know it is not a SMART goal but then we don't want to announce our weight in public right!
2. Travel - atleast 1 country in each continent, Europe
3. Try my hand at entrepreneurship- culminating the ideas I have in mind like .....*****censored****
4. Write a book/ story/ publish something atleast and make money out of it
5. Drive something other than a small car, like, err, a bigger car
6. Become an ace interior decorator for my home and change it's look from its current state of storm ravaged wasteland homely look and get the garden shipshape
7. Teach/atleast do guest lectures
8. Take a sabbatical
9. Highlight/ Streak my hair
10. Take a holiday with my husband (yes, it is a rarity for me- only 1 so far and I am in the 5th year of my marriage) (sob)
11. Become an expert cook rather than a random, tentative, no frills cook- develop a fairly extensive repertoire of recipes and menu items (again goal not SMART enough because I really don't know how many I can do but I will know when I am fairly equipped to cross out this item from my list)
12. Experiment with different cuisines and continue to make them on a regular basis rather than one off kinds
13. Visit my birth place (Scotland)
14. Start celebrating festivals the way it has to be done setting a good example to the kids
15. Buy jewelry for myself (on a regular basis instead of just doing gold coins)
16. Start wearing sari on a regular basis to work
17. Go to theatre/ concert (never done it) (shame)
18. Learn Western dance
19. Re start music lessons (?)
20. Have our own house rather than a poky flat
21. Change my furniture
22. Institute 5-S in my home - already started the Seiri (Sort & Throw)
23. Go to atleast 1 or 2 non English speaking country after learning the (basic/ functional) language
24. Go in a helicopter
25. Learn to Control my Temper
26. Job related ******censored******
27. See the Himalayas
28. Go for a couple massage with Hubby off course
29. Send my parents abroad
30. See the Taj with Hubby & Kids
31. Travel in Palace on Wheels
32. Learn to bake 5 - 10 varieties of cakes
33. Learn 5 different chicken recipes and make them on a regular basis
34. Restart playing kalaeidoscope
35. Do combined puzzles with the kids (as soon as they are old enough- incl crossword, jumble, kalaiedoscope, jigsaw)
36. Start playing Monopoly & Scrabble with the kids also Carrom (though I am lousy at it)
37. Read more authors than the usual (already started)
38. Visit all the Indian States esp North East, and North- done with Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra, Goa...a loooong way to go but kya kare bad luck hi kharab hai
digression- I always though I would be taking annual dream holidays post marriage but that has never happened!
39. Get a makeover done and do it regularly- basically be an aunty "maal" - learn how to do a proper make up - get funky glasses, multiple ear rings, no made up look, hair style, eye shadows, eye liners, the works added to my just lipstick look.
40. Turn 40 in style