Varanam Aayiram

Saw it, liked it. Surya has done a good job. Songs are good. Good job GVM.

Post Mumbai attacks

Like every other Indian, I have been doing nothing else other than switching channels and browsing thro the net for news on the Mumbai attacks. Have read so many news items, listened to all the discussions on TV and the read thro quite a few prominent blogs.

A few points that I felt after reading the News and blogs is

1. People claiming that the hue and cry now is because of the elite places being hit and also because of Foreign causalities. Although this might be true to a certain extent, I don't think the general population are impacted by this alone. I felt anger and depression when I saw the footage. This is not becos the Taj hotel or the Oberoi was hit. The alarm I felt was due to the footage of the gunman. Did you see the smile on his face? Did you see the gleam in his eyes? This is what alarmed me. This was not an incident where someone throws a bomb. It was cold blooded murder with not an ounce of remorse. Did you read about the carnage in CST? Shooting people around you...Were these men humans or beasts?

2. The articles / blog comments suggesting the death of ATS chief as a revenge for the action against the Sadhvi..how cheap can you people get?

3. What happened to those gundas who chased away North Indians from Mumbai, when the commandos and NSG came to the rescue? Didn't they feel the need to ban them? Where will they keep their face now? It's Indianness that binds us. It's the Indianness that we should be proud of and leave all these petty politics.

I hope the candle vigilance and huge turnout at various locations in India shows our solidarity to the World. I hope something good comes out of this and we have better security.

Away from home

The daughter set off to her grandma's house two weeks back. The day before leaving, there was a lot of drama at home. She wanted to see her favourite "Snow White" CD so that she remembers it during her holidays. There was a big hue and cry when we asked her to take a nap in the afternoon as she had not completed playing with all her toys before leaving for India (as if she even looks at them when at home). Then, there was the packing of her bag. She wanted to take a lot of books to read when bored, she wanted her workbook, so she could work in the flight (that she slept thro the journey is another story), she wanted all her party dresses and if allowed, she would have taken all her things with her!! At night she wanted to sleep between us as she would miss us. This had her daddy dear almost crying. He didn't want his little daughter going anywhere.

The next day, she was up bright and early and ready within minutes. At the airport she cheerfully waved bye and was off with her aunt even before we could give a proper kiss.

So the little girl is in India now and has been in four different houses within the span of two weeks. And ma, has she made us proud? Not a complaint from any of the aunts or grandparents. The moment we speak, its only praise for her. From their talk you would think that she is the epitome of a well behaved kid. The highlight was when my mom told that she begins and ends everything with a "My mom told". So it's mom told me to wear this or wear that, mom told me to brush, mom told me to do this, the list goes on. I don't remember telling her all these, maybe a few...

The other day, while playing she had given a piece of paper to my mom telling her it was money. After a while my mom threw the paper into the bin on her way to cook. The little one goes to her grandmom and asks for the "money" after an hour. And when she came to know the fate of the "money" she reprimands my mom with these words: "Ammamma, don't you know the value of money? Without money you can't do anything. Money is next only to God!!!" My gawd, where did she get this? None of us at home had even uttered anything remotely close that would get such words from her. Now, my mom has serious doubt about my parenting skills :(

hair cut

She: I'm going to have a hair cut
He: Oh dear!!!

---That my friends, summarizes the disasters I've had with hair cuts in the recent past :(

Nothing is right

Beginning of the year, Citigroup and UBS were wrong because of the intergrated - BIG Bank model.
Mid year, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sach and ML are wrong because they are mere Investment Banks and should merge/provide other services too...
End of the year, what?

Video and the party

We were watching my son's first birthday party video. All was fine until we came to the part where the decorations were shown. The video had a long shot of the decorations and then zoomed in to the "Happy Birthday" wordings. After zooming in and out on those wordings and doing a slow motion run on each letter, it went down to show the birthday boy's name. This was a letter by letter zoom from the last letter of my son's name and it stopped mid way. The last part of my son's name is the name of my hubby's cousin who was handling the video. So he had stopped to highlight it and unfortunately forgot to continue. :(

So now, we have a video which shows "Happy Birthday Cousin".

Then the video moved on to show the guests and the next highlight was when the cake was displayed. Again, we have a slow motion run on the "Happy 1st Birthday" on the cake and a quick display of the full name followed by a slow motion, zoom in and zoom out of the "cousin's name".

What do I do now? Name the video as "Cousin's birthday party?"

Made in China

This is the scene I was greeted with when I returned home yesterday.

"Mummy, I will not eat mentos or chocolates here after. Please collect all the sweets and chocolates and biscuts and throw them into the dustbin. Don't buy any more milk from the shop. They are coming from China and there is a powder in it. If we eat it, we will die. So throw away everything. See, I have already put all the sweets and biscuts into this bag. Can I throw it away? They told us to do it in our school!!"

These were more or less the exact words from my daughter. She was waiting to throw everything out and with my son's birthday last week, we had quite a few chocolates and sweets at home. She had a big bundle. I sat her down and explained which had to be thrown and which was ok. She kept asking me even after going to bed.

I've always been surprised with the way kids seem to absorb whats told in the school. My daughter's school takes pains in explaining things to the children. When there was the HFMD scare in schools, the children were given a briefing on what it was and how it spread, the precausions and actions to be taken if one caught it. Nothing is sugar coated. Everything explained as is, such that it has a greater impact on the children.

Thundu podarathu

What is the equivalent of "Thundu Podurathu"* in Singapore?

It's "Tissue podurathu". Tissue's are extensively used in Food courts to reserve a table.

So the next time you are in Singapore, be sure to keep a tissue packet handy when you go to the food courts.

* Thundu Podurathu - a hand towel used to reserve a seat in the public bus/train in India.

Tring Tring

The term holidays started for my daughter from yesterday. I had got her a few activity books and the way she completes the activities nowadays, I thought that this would keep her occupied most of the time. So, on the first day of her term holidays, I call her to check whether she had completed any activity. She answers the phone with a

"Oh mummy, I've been very busy this morning."
"That's nice. What have you been doing?"
"I was busy calling and speaking with my friends."
"What? Who is the friend you were speaking to?"
She gives the name of two of her friends.
"Where did you get the number from?"
"I asked and wrote down all their numbers in the little telephone book on the last day to school"

So, the little miss has arrived!!! How am I going to cope with her in a decades time?

PS: She is 4 years and 8 months now.

What do we teach our children

We had been to a park near our house. The sun had gone down and there were just a few kids still playing on the tarzan type swing. There are four such swings and the one next to the one where my daughter was playing was used by a group of children. A few guys came into the area and stood next to that swing. Immediately a small girl (hardly 7) looked at one guy and shouted 'Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi, go away!!' and started throwing sand at them. The other kids cheered on. I was shocked beyond speech. The Bangladeshi guys just smiled and stood there. I thought of going over and giving the kids a piece of my mind, when I noted that their parents were also standing near by and smiling. What has happened to us? Is this what we want our children to learn? Not even a single reprimand from the parents and no apology to the guys.

This reminded me of something that happened in my daughter's school. She was in her nursery and learning her ABCs. They were associating the letters to words and had been taught about B as in Brown Bear. My daughter doesn't normally tell us about her daily activities in school. We just gather stuff as she speaks. So, once when I was feeding her, she suddenly asked me, "Mummy, am I brown?". She is fair (in the Indian sense) and I thought she was asking based on the snow white story. So I told her that she was fair. Immediately she tells me, "Mummy, fair means white. Only foreigners and Chinese can be white. All Indians are brown." I was pretty shocked. Didn't expect this from a 3 year old. I asked her where she had got this info and she just told that it was from school. On checking with her teacher later, I came to know that it was the from the other children in her class. Who would teach such things to small children? Are we introducing racial discrimination at such tender ages?

Why we need daughters

This morning, my daughter work up pretty early, 4:30am and didn't go back to sleep. I had to come to office early and so just got ready and started to leave. All the others in the house were still sleeping and I asked the little one to go back to bed. She kept coming behind me and when I was going to open the door, she asked me, "Mummy, you didn't have anything to eat!!". I said, "Yes dear, I'll pick up something on the way". She wouldn't accept it. "Mummy at least drink milk." "I'm late, so will have it on the way." By now she was almost in tears. "Mummy, you would be hungry" and starts crying.

Now, you can't ignore this right? I ended up having a biscuit, a glass of water, a very wet kiss and a satisfied kid!!!

Does God love me?

"Mummy, am I a good girl?"
"Yes darling..."
"Mummy, does God think I'm a good girl?"
"Yes darling..." (Wondering where this leads to)
"Then why doesn't he like me?"
"Who said he doesn't like you? God loves you so much"
ponders for a few mins.."I think God doesn't love me mummy. Why else would he not call me to his side"
I didn't understand what she was trying to tell and looked at her enquiringly.
She was busy watching the TV and they were showing a photo with a garland around it.
"God does love you darling. But he has work for you, work that only you can do. So he wants you to complete all those before going to him." (Although I was trying to answer her question similar to the 1000 other questions that she asks me everyday, this made my heart ache).

Indicators

We were on our way to the library. The little one in the stroller and the big sis skipping by. We had to cross a school. There were cars coming and going out of the school. Taking this as a good opportunity, I showed big sis the indicators and explained how, a left indicator means the car is going to turn left into the school and hence we need to wait for them. She took all this in and even noticed that cars that don't have the indicators on, would travel straight. Then came the masterpiece..

"Mummy, how nice it would have been if we had indicators on our butts!!"

How to get your own way...

I'm at office and I get a call from the little girl.

"Mummy, I have returned from school. There was a birthday party today and I've got a goody bag. It has lots of small toys. There is a 'chomp' and a puzzle too. I'm planning to take it to the playground with me. May I? "

Before I could answer,

" I'm going to take it to the playground".

So I ask her, " Have you decided to take it pappa?"

"Yes mummy"

"Then why are you asking me?"

"Because you might get angry if I take these to the playground"

"What would you do if I tell you no?"

"Oh no, don't tell no. I will keep the phone. I have told you right? I'm a good girl. "

And she keeps the phone.

Dasavatharam

Saw Dasavatharam during the weekend. We enjoyed it. I'm surprised at the level of criticism this film has been getting in the blog world. It certainly doesn't come under the category of "Don't watch". You can watch it once in the theatre. (Anyways, I have never watched any movie more than once in the theatre!!!)

Updates on the trip - The wedding

After the dramatic entrance made by us, we settled in quickly. The following two days was a mad rush with us getting things ready for my brother's wedding. There were the last minute purchases, checking things out and over all the fantastic chaos we normally associate with such functions :) The big sis looked like a doll. She likes to doll up and we do like to cater to it. The gagra choli and pattupavadai competed with the halter tops, frocks and mini skirts. She could carry off all these in perfect style. The little one didn't want to be left out and did his part by looking cute in a shervani, a panjakajam and even in a simple white t-shirt and shorts. There was no time after this wedding to sit and relax and savour the after math as we had another wedding in the following week. It was that of my cousin's. So off we went to my aunts house, baggage and all to continue the celebrations there.

Immediately after that wedding, we had to rush off to my hubby's native as there was a 'kumbabeshegam' in one of the temples there. My FIL was the main person in the committee doing the renovations, so all of us were quite busy. A festival in a village is almost like another wedding. All close relatives and buddies were invited and there was a three day feast at home. The following day we had the little ones head tonsured. He cried a bit but was generally OK most of the time. He looked good with a tonsured head, but his features had changed completely. Now, he resembled his sister more than his father.

to continue ...

Remember - 2

Mr. Tape Worm, do remember that the treatment meted out to you now, is the result of the unwanted pain, misery, stress, shock and loss of money you gave us.

I remember - 1

Mom, I remember the way you used to remove the curry leaves and chili before packing our lunch boxes.

Updates on the trip

Hectic is a mild word to describe the past few weeks.

It started right on the day we were leaving. The flight was delayed by 3 hours and we were supposed to go directly to my uncle's house for lunch. A feast was planned for my brother and cousin who were the two grooms getting married in the next few days. This was part of the tradition and all my uncles and aunts and cousins from my mom's family would be present. I was looking forward to being a part of the celebration. So, with the airline's blessings we reached the uncle's house at 4:30pm for lunch!!! Not bad considering the fact that they hadn't yet started the coffee shop :)

Big sis had slept in the car when coming from the airport. So we just carried her into the bedroom and she continued her blissful existence. The little bro is the one who caught us unawares. He is normally mild tempered and smiling. Have never heard him cry as much as he did when encountered by the gang at the entrance of the house. He just bawled his heart out and wouldn't be pacified at all. The sudden crowd and sound had him frightened. Even a cycle bell was enough to open the water tap in his eyes. But all this was only for the first day. From the next, he was back to his normal self. Going happily to everyone and smiling at all and sundry. In fact he went so freely that everyone started commenting that he cries only when he sees me and thats because he is frightened that I would take him back to Singapore. :)

Rest will continue in the following days...

Thrice the fun

We are off to India in two days and its going to be hectic + fun. My brother is getting married. This would be followed by my cousin's wedding. After which we would be attending the wedding of hubby's cousin. All the three would be within two weeks, starting with this sunday and ending the sunday after a week. In between we would be going for a thiruvizha (village temple festival). So you can imagine how hectic its going to be. With two kids and a hot, hot summer, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have already booked the services of the grandpas and uncles to keep the kids occupied (The ladies would all be busy with the celebrations).

As all the three weddings are of very close relatives, we would have the same people coming for all the three. So, there's no way of repeating any of the dresses or jewels. This has given me endless hours of shopping and to be precise, the main shopping was done by my parents and sister in India. I have gone around only doing the minor shopping for the kids and that in itself has been draining (I hate shopping).

The next updates would be from next month. See ya.

Back to school

Classroom sessions with my daughter are a delight. You get an insight into what happens in her class (normally she wont tell anything about what happened in class).

The little one is always the teacher and all the others in the household become the students. Sometimes imaginary ones are also added. Some GEMS from her:

"Aiya...you never listen to me!!!" - this is said with a perfect Singlish Accent.
"Good job XXX, I like what you have done"
"Will you STOP Talking and give me your attention?"
"If you keep talking, I'll write your name on the board and you wont get any goodie bags, OK?"
"Aiya, I cant teach this class. You people!!! I'm going to go away"
"Wow, this is excellent work. Can I hang it up to show it to the others too?"
"Now, now, no pushing. That is not the way good children behave. Go stand in the line and say sorry to him"
"Oh, that was good. Come, let me give you a hug!!"

The First Encyclopedia on Human Body

Got the above book yesterday and pretty happy about it. The little one took to it like a duck to the water. She has been seeing sleeping with it.

Gyan
From the book: The stomach has a machine that goes 'swish swish' and grinds the food we eat.
Her take: If there is no food it grinds itself and hence we have the stomach ache.

From the book: Too much of sweets and chocolates are bad for the teeth.
Her take: Brushing your teeth twice a day nullifies the above.

From the book: Immunizations provide vaccination against some illness.
Her take: Take thambi to the doctor and put all the injections. Then even if he puts things in his mouth, it's no problem!!

Wednesday morning Blues

The morning had started on the wrong note. First, I got up early and prepared everything and was ready for office before my hubby woke up. Normally he drops me at my office on the way to his. But as he was not feeling well last night, I just allowed him to sleep and got ready well in time to catch the train to office. But just as I was packing the lunch, he got up and told he would be able to drop me at office as he was feeling better. That was good news!! I had 30mins extra :) The children too woke up by then and so I went and had a bit of playtime with them on the bed. "All was well with the world". Then, I got up to pack the kozhambu for my colleague. I had already taken a few bottles and cleaned and dried it. When I was going to pour the kozhambu in it, my daughter came and pulled the bottle away. She wanted it. I asked her to give it back to me and offered her other bottles. She was not swayed. I tried asking her nicely, bribing her and even shouting at her. Nothing worked. So I just told her to keep the bottle and remember that not sharing is a very bad habit and that mummy was not happy. I took another bottle. (a bit bigger and so could fill only half of it). Then, I finished packing the lunch and was keeping the packet of vadam, when she came and grabbed that. It was already late and hubby was at the lift with the car keys and asking me to hurry up. So I just told her to keep the packet and told her that she would not be getting anything else from me as she doesn't like to share. I ended up late in office. :(

The scene this morning has been playing in my mind from the time I left. I normally like to make peace with her, before I leave. Today, she has been left feeling bad. When I called back home, MIL told that she had just thrown the packet down and was back to normal. It would be tough when I go back home. She would be back to normal, but I would have to bring up the incident this morning and discipline her. I can't leave it as such as she is refusing to share anything recently. She's going to dislike me today.

Second, a colleague's wife is pregnant and has the morning sickness in full force. He has been cooking for her the past few weeks. She is not able to eat anything and keeps throwing up. The tablets too don't seem to work for her. This being their first child and being so far off from the parents and relatives, they find it pretty tough. Not having any experience in cooking, he feels guilty about her going hungry. So, I prepared a few stuff, like more kuzhambu, vathakuzhambu, pullikachal and bought it to office to pass it to him. There I was sitting smugly waiting for him to come and see what I had got, when I got this mail from him. It said that he would not be able to come to office for the next two days as his wife is not feeling well. :( Now we'll have to live on 'more kozhambu' and vathakozhambu for a week as I had prepared enough for them and us. Nothing seems to work as I want it to...

Pumpkin idly

Saw the receipe for Pumpkin rava idly on the net and prepared it for dinner last night...No one liked it :(

What do u do....

...when you are in a hurry and take a cab and the cabbie drives at 60kmp in the highway when there is no traffic at all? And after you ask him to drive a bit faster, he goes at 70kmp?

...when you are seated in a train and see a hip grandma? Do you offer her your seat?(she might get offended...have had the experience...they like to think themselves on par with younger people)

...when your daughter insists on wearing only that dress whenever they say, come in 'party wear' to school?

First hand report

This weekend was wonderful. Thambi did a lot of new stuff. On Friday evening, we had put him on the mat in the hall. MIL and myself were seated on the sofa and there was a phone in front of him. He started inching forward slowly to take it. It was a wonderful moment. It was the first time he was doing and there I was, watching it :)) He moved at least two to three feet trying to get the phone. I immediately took the video cam and shot it :)) After he got the phone, he was looking at it for sometime. Then he put it into his mouth. So MIL removed it from him. He started crying immediately (almost whimpering) and then looked at me with the most pathetic eyes and started crying...like asking me to return the phone to him :)

Then, on Saturday we had been to a friend's house warming function. He had slept during the car ride and had woken up when we got down. This was his napping time and so he was not fully awake. So he kept quiet (not his usual smiley self). But he went to the host without crying and was with him for some time. Then I took him. When we were having dinner, I had thambi on my lap and was eating. So another friend's maid came and carried thambi after she had her food. Thambi was fine with her, until I left the room to get some more food. Then, he started having wobbly lips and gave a loud bawl...he would not listen to anyone or look at any of the toys...he was just crying. I immediately washed my hands and came and carried him. He stopped crying. Then he would look at me and cry. It was so funny..like scolding me for leaving him alone with someone new :))

Sunday, we had another friend visiting us for dinner. Thambi went to both of them willingly. He was even playful with the lady. No stranger anxiety (I hope it would continue when we go to India in May). When they were leaving, I told thambi to tell bye and shook his hand. The next time, he put his hand up and stretched out his fingers and shook it all by himself. :)) As you can imagine, I was excited. I made him do it for everyone. MIL tried to damp my spirit by telling that she used to shake his hand every morning when we leave. I was not daunted. I saw him do it by himself for the first time and I was on top. H was going to drop the friends at their home and so I took thambi also to the car and made him show bye to each and everyone - The guests including two kids and their parents, pappa (who was going to drop them with H) and to H...and for good measure, I made him show bye to me...:)).

Now for updates about pappa.

On Saturday, when we were getting ready for the party, I had put on a black sequined dress for her. She had matching pearls on her neck and ears. She also had matching bangles. She came in front of the mirror and had a good look at herself. She was very happy with what she saw and asked me..."mummy I'm looking very beautiful right?...but I think I would look better if I had a bit of lipstick on!! ".

At the party, there were around 4 to 5 girls of pappa's age. From the time she joined the group, she was the boss. Organising games and telling everyone how to play something or the other, getting angry if someone doesn’t listen. It was fun watching from the sidelines, for once I was not the only one being bossed around. At the end, she didn’t want to leave the party and it was 10pm already!! On the way back, I asked her to sleep and she was hyper active. When we were nearing the house, she pretended to be asleep and wouldn’t open her eyes when we reached home. She wanted to be carried. As H was carrying thambi who was fast asleep, I carried her and when I took her into the bedroom, she immediately opened her eyes and declared "I'm not sleepy anymore" I knew this was coming. So asked her to shut-up and sleep. She started howling her heart out, hoping that MIL or H would intervene and bring her out. Told them not to go to the bedroom and not to tell anything. After a few mins of crying and some threats from me, she meekly comes out and says she wants to go to the toilet. Then, she says she wants to change to her night dress. Then, she says she wants to update Grandma of the things that happened at the party, as grandma would forget that she had been to the party the next day!!

On Sunday pappa and myself went out. She was wearing a blue sandals and was very unhappy about it as it was not matching her chudidhar. It was a pink and green chudi. I had asked her to wear the pink sandals but she didn't want to. So on the way, she kept cribbing that her shoes were not matching. I pointed to a few blue flowers on her dress and told her that it was matching. She kept quiet for some time and then told, "Ma, this sandals is so childish (what the ???). I need to get a slippers that goes 'klok klok' when I walk. It would look great with this chudi! "

The Little Dancer

The little one is following in the footsteps of his sister. He is barely able to sit without support and wants to dance now itself. When he hears his favourite song "Sanjadama Sanjadu" (Tamil song) he starts shaking his body to and fro. He also enjoyes watching his sister dance. He would laugh in glee the moment she starts singing in a loud voice (almost shouting) and dancing.

Valentine's Day

Feb 14th dawned as another normal day. Hubby and I woke up as usual and went about our daily routine. Nothing was special. It was time to go to office and we were having our breakfast in a hurry. Hubby as usual was watching the morning news and having his breakfast, while I was sitting at the dinning table. Suddenly I got a big hug and a kiss with a "Happy Valentine's Day"...It was the little girl. I was literally shocked and surprised. I didn't expect her to know about Valentine's Day and and wish me too. She then wished her daddy in the same fashion.

Evening when I returned from office, I could tell that the little girl was pretty excited about something. The moment I entered the house, she started jumping around and asked me to close my eyes. She then asked me to sit on the sofa. This was followed by giggles and wispers. She then asked me to open my eyes and with a flourish gave me a hand made card. It was a big white card with a red heart in the middle. The heart was made by handprint. She then sang a Valentine's song.

The Song:

This Valentine says
I love you, I love you
I Love you

This valentine says
I love you
Yes I really do!

(This is sung to the tune of Mary had a little lamb). All this she had done in her school and her Teacher had taught her the song.

Although both hubby and me forgot that it was Valentine's day, this was by far the best Valentine day we had!!!

Back again

We are back from the long break. This was a long leave and we got to spend 3 months in India. But this didnt make it any relaxing. In fact this holiday was more hectic. We had three engagements, one house warming function and two baby showers. In all, we were kept pretty busy all three months.

Now for updates about the kids.
Big Sis has started her K1 (LKG) classes. She is able to cope inspite of losing a month of classes. She has learnt a lot of new words in Tamil. She has learnt not to ask "Yenga poreenga" (Where are you going?) when someone leaves the house. Instead she asks "Yenga iruthu varuveenga?" (Where will you be coming from?). Have enrolled her in the 'I Can Read' programme and 'Carnatic Vocal' classes.

The Little one has rolled over and is moving in circles. He loves shouting at the top of his voice for no reason at all. He is overall a happy baby who seldon cries (Anti-jinx, Anti-jinx). He has a funny way of sleeping. Always sleeps on his sides with his head thrown back. Almost like the mirror image of 'S'. Even if we move him, he is back to his position within a few minutes. I'm still unable to tell who he resembles. Everyone has their own opinion, but each one is different.

Big Sis loves the little one to nuts. She has already planned how she would play with him as he grows up. Each stage has a different game/toy. She likes to show off her brother. When we have visitors, she rattles off his achievements...some of which are fictious :). The little one too knows his sister from others. He lights up the moment he hears her voice.

Today, DH and me forgot it was valentine's day and were going about doing the regular jobs. When we were having our breakfast Big Sis comes along and gives a big hug and a kiss shouting "Happy Valentine's Day". Now, where on earth did she learn that? It was then, we realised it was Valentine's day and with a sheepish grin wished each other. So that's how Romantic we have become :))