You realize what a chronic liar you are when...

You tell your child that the chips packet is over and he peers into the dustbin and says- I need to see the (empty) packet

And you realize what a grabber you are when your child "hides" the TV remote in the drawer before going to the dining table

A 5 Minute Date

Is sometimes enough to rejuvenate. Even if it happens for the wrong reasons.
The husband calls me up as I am sitting in office- is my wallet in your bag?
Without even checking I know it is there. And of course he behaves that it is all my fault that his wallet is in my handbag.
He drives to my office to pick his wallet up and I try hard to coax him - since he is here already and it is nearly lunch time, he might as well take me for a date.
But no. Mr Conscientious Worker has to get back to work.
However we sit for 5 minutes in his car, 5 whole minutes of solitude, no disturbances, bitching about common foes like autowallahs, motorcyclists who scratched my car (yes, yet again, just a week after body work and servicing) and of course the kids...how can we not!
It was perfect. Just perfect.
And a colleague spotted us and asked- was it like old days, sitting in the car together.
I said - no, the car was smaller.
But the affection was bigger and today, as the car gets bigger....
I laugh it away, filling in- the affection is still as big, but probably towards the car!!

When Shue Came

Sue was here in the weekend and we decided to meet at my place.
I spend a day preparing the kids, telling them about the new friend who was going to come.
Me- His name is R
(Incidentally the other set of twins in my building are called R & S)
Ojas- what about S?
Me- no only R is coming
Ojas-Lekin uska S kahan hai? (But where is his (sister) S?)
Me- About time Sue About time!

I did a cheat menu- meaning either assemble stuff or have stuff which are easy to cook. And did lots of preparatory work- made lists - to buy, to make tomorrow, to make today type of lists. And I must say the lists helped (and off course I forgot to carry the list with me when I went out to shop)
So the menu was balti chicken, chicken roast, chole (which according to me is a wonderful cheat dish- easy and quick to make), raita- which according to me is even easier than cutting loads of salad, parathas (and very cleverly I let Sue make the parathas which I rolled out) and brownies and the famous assembled fruit salad with brownies and icecream.

As V, R & S trio walked in, and before I forget, I must add that the short crop really suits her, r gathered all the 4 new dinosaur toys and Ojas began to sulk as a result.
So this is what R explained- I have taken all the dinosaurs as these dinosaurs may bite Ojas Tejas!

Naturally we expected that V & K will bond instantly and so will R, O & T. It took a while before conversation began to flow and the kids began to laugh and chase and share toys and at one point, I said to Sue- psst psst.. we two are unable to get a word in now....
So much so, it became tough to get one picture of her and me together!

Lunch was easy peasy because the kids were given their own low table with a bed sheet to cover the carpet.
R held the paratha against his face much to our amusement - we assumed he was copying O & T as they often bite bits of paratha from the centre and pretend that the paratha is a camera. But V & S were not so amused.
Turned out that R said to O & T- I just wiped my face with the paratha- now you also do that.
There was also a general community chewing of the chicken bones with the bone moving back and forth from one plate to the other.
The kids finished their lunch in record time and so Sue said- Tejas first, Ojas second and R third.
Tejas - no, Ojas also first
Sue- ok, Tejas 1st, Ojas 1st & R 2nd
O & T- he he, R is second R is second.

And so it was time to leave and we dropped the trio back and went up to say hello to Sue's parents. Turns out that the Sue's Dad was the husband's client in his previous company! Small world eh!! And off course the kids had a good time getting the grandtour of the place by R and appropriating his toys this time!
Somehow, it already makes me sad that after her parents move from here, she wouldn't be having a valid excuse to come down to Chennai!

Pants Off

Ojas- comes running crying showing his elbow- Dadda, I got hurt - blood
Dad-go wash it
Ojas washes, wets his shorts in the process, changes and starts to go out
Comes running back- Dadda, again blood is coming.
Rushes inside the bathroom, then comes rushing out, removes his shorts, washes his elbow and wears his shorts again.
Practical eh!

Overheard the word Kill in the kids' conversation
So I asked- what is the meaning of kill
Tejas- you shoot with arrow / gun and then sauce blood comes on the shirt- that is kill
movies aaargh.......

Tulika Blogathon- Lalla Lalla Lori

Tulika's latest Lori -thon is on.

And here's my list that I made earlier ...
But specific to the post is

Aa re ninda
Ninda banase
Baba aaya Mamu ghar se
Mamu ghas baba kya kya khaye
Aath pithar nau ghaaghar khaye

What I understand is that the kid is supposed to have gone to his mama's place and eaten a lot of goodies!

On Mallis and Jasmines

This old post of mine which people had anyway debated a lot on for various reasons, was linked by Sue on my request in her Red Marker Blogathon post. A reader pointed out yesterday that all flowers are not Malli- only Jasmines are called Malli!

I get her point. As I was composing arguments in my head on what exactly is my grouse with labelling "all" flowers as Malli I found they were too many, so I decided to write a post. Infact, not only with Tamil but my grouse is with English also- Read on why.

Now to me, each flower is different. Each has a unique look, feel, scent, beauty, size of plant, colour of leaves.

Take the chandni flower-Moonbeam?? - (nandiavattai- I so love this name- moves around so deftly in the mouth) - it comes in different varieties- same size and "design" of flowers on both a plant that can go upto 6 feet tall with dark leaves and a shrub with light colored leaves. On the other hand, the tiny flowers form on a tiny plant with tiny leaves-that are ideally grown in pots. Apart from this variationin size and type of plant, it comes in other "designs" also- looks like a rose, or single layered, but with twisted petals. Now I take serious offence because they are called Crepe Jasmine in english. Seriously.... why call it jasmine again- get creative now. It doesn't even oxidise like a true blue jasmine after plucking.

Similarly I take serious objection that all "jasmines" end with Malli (Ok, I am not talking about Kotta malli- that's definitely not a jasmine). In all fairness, as long as the person with whom you are communicating understands what you are saying, it is fine. So when I am asked give me "malli" I will hand over coriander rather than jasmine in 9 out of 10 instances. Still, why Malli again?

Beli, Juhi, Chameli, Parijaat (Night jasmine, Pavala-malli).... all of them are either jasmines or malli. WHY?

What about the Rangoon Creeper (Madhumalti Lata)- Irangoon /illankara Malli? SERIOUSLY WHY?

pic courtsey- Travelpod

Ok this is yet again a jasmine- Tree jasmine- Millingtonia- arrrrg jasmine again and guess what it is called in Tamil- yes.. kattu malli. And how uncreative to call it Neem Chameli in Hindi? What the Hey

Ipomoea- Cardinal Vine/ Kamlata- is called kembumalligai.. yup, malli surfaces again

Arvensis is nakamalli (pic courtsey- Wiki)

Gardenia is Tikkamalli and the joke is -it is called Dikamali in Hindi (malli minus l)

And here's a malli that has nothing to do with Malli at all- infact it is as far removed from a malli as possible- A delightful Tulika book- Mallipoo where are you- on a piglet called Mallipoo. Payto the mother piglet goes for a sugarcane walk with Amma the elephant and Hutoxi ( I so love that name) the horse, leaving Bahadur the baby elephant and his brother & sister to look after her lovely babies- all 7 of them. As luck would have it, the piglets go missing and the three of them manage to find them one by one, Mallipoo being the most elusive yet most perfect of them all- read the book to find out why I say that. Ojas and Tejas loved the book - calling out Mallipoo where are you with great gusto as we read this book. The illustrations are delightful as usual, colourful and err... illustrative in a perfect manner.

pic courtsey- Tulika books

Tamil & Botanical Names courtsey- http://siddhadreams.blogspot.com/2008/09/tamil-name-to-botanical-name.html

Red Marker Blogathon -2

I covered lots of redundant words in sentences and some more in the previous post on the red marker blogathon

In this post I would like to look at Frequently Mispronounced Words


Bury- Is pronounced as Berry rather than Burry - a lesson I learnt in class 10 - which was still a little too late for me perhaps! And since I do not bury the hatchet as often as I use the word Desserts (Dizerts) it took me very less time to get used to the right way to pronounce desserts because I had more practice with that word

Faux Pas- It is not like a fox passing but Fo Pa

Caveat Emptor- Not straight at all- Kaviat Emtore

Passe- Don't let it pass until it is said as Passay

Tortoise, Porpoise- The Alice in Wonderland silly Pun-rhyme says it all-

`no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.’
`Wouldn’t it really?’ said Alice in a tone of great surprise.
`Of course not,’ said the Mock Turtle: `why, if a fish came
to ME, and told me he was going a journey, I should say “With
what porpoise?”

So Tortus and Porpus it is- though the teacher taught this to us in class 6, I still took time to get my tongue around this one. What they say about habits dying hard.

Jewels/ Jewelry- No jwels or jwelry- Jools and Joolry

Mauve- Doesn't pronounce as is- needs to be Mowed a bit- Mowv

Suite- Doesn't suit me at all- I like it Sweet

Excited- Eggs do excite but not here- Ekcited not Egcited

Dais- Day us or Dais not Days

Vehicle- Don't take the Ve-hi-kal - take the Vee-i-kuhl

Edited to add
How could I forget my favourite Jalapeno- Ha la peno
Take a look at this site- you can just roll your mouse over a word to hear the right pronunciation
howjsay.com

Why did we worry at all!

The kids show no sign of discomfort about being in separate classes. They have adjusted beautifully with the new arrangement. Ojas said- hum nahin roenge!

Last night they discussed-
Tejas- Ojas, tumko kaun toy milaa?
Ojas- humko toy nahin milaa
Tejas- Kyon?
Ojas- Hum good boy ban rahe thay, nahin ro rahe that isiliye (so therefore people who cried got toys to play with!)
Tejas- tumko star milaa? humko milaa
Ojas- hmm hmm (I guess he didn't get)
Tejas- smiley milaa kya?
Ojas- sidetracking humko toy nahin milaa. Hum good boy hain naa

Sr Kg

The school reopens today and with much fanfare we left this morning, ready on time. This day was much awaited atleast by Ojas as the entire summer vacation he has been asking- night mein so ke, morning hoke, school jaenge?
And I would answer no, the holidays are going on.
And Ojas would get frustrated- kitna holiday hoga?
So this morning as I had done on many other days during the holidays, I gave them the talk- trying to prepare them for the inevitable- separate sections.
They protested vehemently. They could not accept the fact that they would go in separate sections or for that matter they would be going to a different class.
With bated breath I studied the list. I spotted Ojas' name in one list and inspite of scanning twice the 6 different lists, I could not find Tejas' name. Relieved I thought I will slip them inside the same section saying I suppose they have missed his name. But then, in my attempt to be doubly rather trebly sure, I scanned the list again and with a heavy heart I realized they are indeed in separate sections. Though I knew this is a planned move by the teachers as per their suggestion during the last PTA, I still had hopes that they would feel sorry and put the two in the same section.
As we walked towards the classes, Tejas balked. I had to drag him towards the class. Ojas firmly asked me to leave- tum jao and left my hand and walked confidently to Jr Kg class. I dragged him away but not before he noticed that the teacher in the Jr Kg class was not the one he was so familiar with.
We stopped in front of Tejas' class and he refused to enter.
So we walked up to Ojas' class who refused to enter without Tejas (probably he suspected I would take him home with me leaving Ojas back in school). I walked inside the class with Ojas, pointed a few toys and random friends and walked out.
Now this moment is the most heart rending moment for a mother- once, twice, every time it happens- to tear oneself away from the screaming child without a backward glance.
I dragged Tejas to his class, scooped him in my arms and walked in with him. The teacher asked him to spot his friends. A boy sitting inside gave a sweet smile and beckoned. Tejas immediately walked towards him forgetting Mamma (Nirmohi kahin kaa).
Yet again, I walked out without a backward glance to buy uniforms.
As I finished emptying my purse in exchange of uniforms- the maa kaa dil fir jaaga.
behaving like the typical annoying parent, I walked up to peep into both classes and found the boys not crying.
Reassured I drove back - back in my element cursing random autowallahs and bikes, with absolutely no time to delve on my personal sorrow of separating the duo in class- even though it is just for 3 hours- How could I agree to separate them in school?

Red Marker Blogathon

After Sue announced the red marker blogathon , I could not able to remember a single thing that I would like to write about. However I promised Sue I would revert back to her soon.

Anyways, this post is up as now I can able to remember the usage errors that get my goat.

Myself, ITW has come to discuss about Red Marker Blogathon.

Can I talk about it now?

Yes offcourse you can but you may not.

What? Please repeat again.

Let me desert you for a moment and get some deserts.

You have seen ferocious loins in the joo in zoon?

Come home and I will show you my ferocious dog who will literally pounce on you, lick your face, push you to the ground and bite your head off.

Oh, if I would have known about your fear of dogs, I would have kept him tied up, instead of allowing him to literally bite your head off .

Both participants did well. They were neck to neck with each other

CORRECTED COPY
I could not remember a single thing I that would like to write about.
Or
I was unable to remember a single thing that I would like to write about. However I promised Sue I would revert to her soon. (the back in revert back is redundant)
Anyway, this post is up as now I can remember the usage errors that get my goat. (can is redundant.)
Myself, ITW has come to discuss the Red Marker Blogathon. (Oh, this just gets my goat.. Why say the Myself or about)
May I talk about it now? (Yes I am one off those can and may brigade)
Yes offcourse you can but you may not.
What? Please repeat again. (again ko maaro goli... just say repeat)

Let me desert you for a moment and get some desserts. (It is pronounced Dizerts)
Have you seen ferocious lions in the zoo in june? (Now if you can say Joo, why can't you say June or If you can say Zoon, why can't you say Zoo?)

Oh, if I had known about your fear of dogs, I would have kept him tied up, instead of allowing him to bite your head off .
Both participants did well. They were neck and neck with each other (One more time I catch you saying neck to neck, I am going to just go for the err. jugular)

Edited to add- There are 2 deliberate errors in the post- Latha has spotted one. There is another one - look for it!