Really, I need more of them. On selective routes. Like the one from School to Office. I currently run myself into two thick jams. At Mandovi Motors I pull out my moisturiser and spend the full five minutes fighting the flaky skin. Nearing Fourm on Hosur Road, I comb my hair. Yes I do! Of course if theres no jam, then i dont comb it. Ha. Who cares. What big difference would it make anyways?
Now that I leave home early, I pack breakfast. I need a stop to eat it. Must work my way into a jam at BTM layout probably.
Probably if I hire a driver, and have traffic jams on the way to school, i can even manage to feed V in the car.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
60 days later
The last post was April 22nd.
Time to pause and recollect.
- Had three wonderful family events - one 'upanayanam' and two weddings. S wants to have his upanayanam done ASAP. When I looked woefully at my MIL, she assured me it was better this way: imagine if V were to demand her wedding right away.
- Chennai Visits: Managed to watch Indiana Jones in between a Muhurtham and Reception. Hijacked a crowd of 20 relatives to the theatre. The ones left behind disapproved of course. I want to go to South America.
- Grandmother: The 90 year old has broken her leg yet another time. This time she is not able to get back on her legs. Surgery is ruled out bcos of her age. Now completely bed-ridden. Also very delerious. I felt very disturbed.
- Coimbatore: Three day visit. Sacked out at the brothers house. Visited Guruvayoor. Very tiring journey, considering that the highway to that place is some 50 ft wide, winding though fields and little hamlets, and vehicles packed bumper-to-bumper zip at 70 kmph.
- Trains: Its impossible to share a berth with the V anymore. Gives me more reasons to lose weight.
- Friends: The grand highlight. Wonderful to meet choxbox, kbpm and the other beautiful thing from california. and their little ones. Okay, their husbands too.
- Schools and Creche: This one requires a tome.
Time to pause and recollect.
- Had three wonderful family events - one 'upanayanam' and two weddings. S wants to have his upanayanam done ASAP. When I looked woefully at my MIL, she assured me it was better this way: imagine if V were to demand her wedding right away.
- Chennai Visits: Managed to watch Indiana Jones in between a Muhurtham and Reception. Hijacked a crowd of 20 relatives to the theatre. The ones left behind disapproved of course. I want to go to South America.
- Grandmother: The 90 year old has broken her leg yet another time. This time she is not able to get back on her legs. Surgery is ruled out bcos of her age. Now completely bed-ridden. Also very delerious. I felt very disturbed.
- Coimbatore: Three day visit. Sacked out at the brothers house. Visited Guruvayoor. Very tiring journey, considering that the highway to that place is some 50 ft wide, winding though fields and little hamlets, and vehicles packed bumper-to-bumper zip at 70 kmph.
- Trains: Its impossible to share a berth with the V anymore. Gives me more reasons to lose weight.
- Friends: The grand highlight. Wonderful to meet choxbox, kbpm and the other beautiful thing from california. and their little ones. Okay, their husbands too.
- Schools and Creche: This one requires a tome.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Stolen Moments
Another routine weekday was being spent, when the husband suddenly called and said that he will be taking the kids to some function around 6pm. The said affair being the religious kind, I was compelled to stay away due to my monthly time-off.
That gave me some peaceful moments to connect with the real world. Went to the 9th Block on the grand old kinetic, parked it at GuruDutt Enterprises, our local library and decided to do the rest of the expedition by walk.
When I crossed one of those big main roads (those that are christened Double Road, if they were constructed before 2000, and Ring Road if made more recently), I realised that I was doing so on foot for the very first time. How sadly motorized my daily life has become! Anyways, it was nice to notice each and every one of those medley of shops - in the process accomplished chores like getting a motorized spirograph repaired, chatting with the tailor who was surprised that I was back from vacation so early (who also wondered what I had done to the monsters), picking up anklets for the V, eating Bharkawadi and jalebi at the Delhi Bhavan and winding it all up by renting out Milan Kundera's Ignorance from Mr.Gurudutt.
Dinner was a an eclectic mix of leftovers from morning eaten in the company of MTV's Saturday Shuffle (does it matter to them that it is now tuesday?). Damn Arbit VJ. Why do they do these shows seated on a bed, wearing some nightclothes? After some expected mish mash of Bhool Bhulaiya and the likes, I was stunned to see an item called 'Team Anthem of Knight Raiders'. I have successfully shut off all info regarding the IPL, except catching a picture of the GenX Gandhis cheering for some team, and suddenly I see this. SRK and his dance with clothes borrowed from Daler Mehndi, and the prisoners and the Bharathnatyamers and that flaming helmet! What is he upto?
Ha, the door bell is ring-a-ringing. Goodbye Stolen Moments
That gave me some peaceful moments to connect with the real world. Went to the 9th Block on the grand old kinetic, parked it at GuruDutt Enterprises, our local library and decided to do the rest of the expedition by walk.
When I crossed one of those big main roads (those that are christened Double Road, if they were constructed before 2000, and Ring Road if made more recently), I realised that I was doing so on foot for the very first time. How sadly motorized my daily life has become! Anyways, it was nice to notice each and every one of those medley of shops - in the process accomplished chores like getting a motorized spirograph repaired, chatting with the tailor who was surprised that I was back from vacation so early (who also wondered what I had done to the monsters), picking up anklets for the V, eating Bharkawadi and jalebi at the Delhi Bhavan and winding it all up by renting out Milan Kundera's Ignorance from Mr.Gurudutt.
Dinner was a an eclectic mix of leftovers from morning eaten in the company of MTV's Saturday Shuffle (does it matter to them that it is now tuesday?). Damn Arbit VJ. Why do they do these shows seated on a bed, wearing some nightclothes? After some expected mish mash of Bhool Bhulaiya and the likes, I was stunned to see an item called 'Team Anthem of Knight Raiders'. I have successfully shut off all info regarding the IPL, except catching a picture of the GenX Gandhis cheering for some team, and suddenly I see this. SRK and his dance with clothes borrowed from Daler Mehndi, and the prisoners and the Bharathnatyamers and that flaming helmet! What is he upto?
Ha, the door bell is ring-a-ringing. Goodbye Stolen Moments
Monday, March 31, 2008
Help! The 'to-do' list is empty
I was suffering the constant gnaws in my conscience...Built triangularly around it with bold arrows pushing each side inward...you get the rather gory picture right?
Side 1: Its summer vacation and I havent planned any constructive ways to occupy my childrens time. No holidays planned, no summer camps programmed...just the usual six hours at the creche where they can do whatever they please with fifteen other occupants of the space, who come in various shapes and guises - infants, toddlers, a resident grandma, a few ayahs and teachers, and one responsible seven year old.
Side 2: The never ending list of things i proposed to do around home when I get the time. SIMPLE ones like visiting the tailor, buying correct sized socks (of different, but unisex colours), coutning the number of spiders behind the TV; GRAND ones like installing the printer, figuring out the treadmill, growing plants etc.
Side 3: Work at office. If lesser elaborated, the sooner I can proceed with this post.
On Sunday afternoon, the husband was calling for a cab to take him to the airport... the smaller monster insisted that it too will accompany him on his trip(business) to Chennai....Why not! we said.... so we called to check about tix and BINGO they were off. Really and truly the monsters were whisked away by daddy dear to Chennai. And I have been alone ever since...(18 hours and counting the seconds...).
And now I seem to have nothing to do.
Side 1: Its summer vacation and I havent planned any constructive ways to occupy my childrens time. No holidays planned, no summer camps programmed...just the usual six hours at the creche where they can do whatever they please with fifteen other occupants of the space, who come in various shapes and guises - infants, toddlers, a resident grandma, a few ayahs and teachers, and one responsible seven year old.
Side 2: The never ending list of things i proposed to do around home when I get the time. SIMPLE ones like visiting the tailor, buying correct sized socks (of different, but unisex colours), coutning the number of spiders behind the TV; GRAND ones like installing the printer, figuring out the treadmill, growing plants etc.
Side 3: Work at office. If lesser elaborated, the sooner I can proceed with this post.
On Sunday afternoon, the husband was calling for a cab to take him to the airport... the smaller monster insisted that it too will accompany him on his trip(business) to Chennai....Why not! we said.... so we called to check about tix and BINGO they were off. Really and truly the monsters were whisked away by daddy dear to Chennai. And I have been alone ever since...(18 hours and counting the seconds...).
And now I seem to have nothing to do.
Friday, March 14, 2008
In response to the barrage...
kbpm's ranting on parental anxiety (among other things) made me recollect Peter Drucker sooth-saying (in 2000)about this century's revolution in human affairs.
I confess I get stressed out thinking what will happen to seven year olds who have GREAT diffculty with spellings and letter sounds (one reason why I adamantly refuse to watch TZP), but I believe they will very shortly be mature enough to understand their shortcomings and find something off beat that they will excel and also be passionate about.
"....In few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time, literally, substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choice...."Isn't that quite amazing and so true? Our generation can actually can feel the effects....to make your work relevant or irrelvant to your education, to work (outside of home) full time, part time or no time, to raise children in any crazy way we think fit, locational and vocational choices across geography, to see eye-to-eye or fist-to fist with parents, in-laws, neighbours, the whole lot..the list goes on.
I confess I get stressed out thinking what will happen to seven year olds who have GREAT diffculty with spellings and letter sounds (one reason why I adamantly refuse to watch TZP), but I believe they will very shortly be mature enough to understand their shortcomings and find something off beat that they will excel and also be passionate about.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Fireflies
The annual Fireflies Music Festival is a dusk to dawn affair. It happens in a 80 acre farm cum ashram cum cultural centre tucked away in a village called Dinnepalya nearly fifteen kilometeres down Kanakapura road. An open air amphitheater, a makefshift stage propped up against a huge pipal tree, with rocky steps serving as seats. Theres a huge canopy of trees, with a small aperture to view the starlit sky.
Go there next year - with kids, friends, pillows, mattresses, food, drinks.... and enjoy. This year I was stirred by Shabnam Virmanis performance of Kabirs poetry in the Malwa style. She was totally 'magan' and held the audience in that state as well. She is a documentary film-maker by profession. And an awesome singer.
Go there next year - with kids, friends, pillows, mattresses, food, drinks.... and enjoy. This year I was stirred by Shabnam Virmanis performance of Kabirs poetry in the Malwa style. She was totally 'magan' and held the audience in that state as well. She is a documentary film-maker by profession. And an awesome singer.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Sentiment
Broke a bottle of perfume this morning. Never the one to really follow rules that dictate replacing lids tightly and never holding glass bottles by the lid, it had to happen sooner or later....Though with this particular item it has taken a full eight years. On numerous occassions these past eight years I have rapped two tiny pairs of fingers for climbing shelves and reaching to all things on shelf three.
The mess was slovenly cleaned up. But the whole apartment was emanating fire and ice. My neighbour offered her condolences and asked if it was a rarely-used treasured object, and if I had wanted wanted to preserve for forever kinds. I was stunned at this thought. She was equally stunned at my surprise. She said she has a bottle of perfume that she had used at her wedding and that she often just smells it to recollect those moments.
Hmm...this thing occupied my mind for a few hours. I guess the environment has conditioned me. My parents moved homes/places every single year till I was fourteen. That meant eight different schools till class eight. The cleanliness freaks made sure there never was anything in the house that was not currently in use or good shape. Except of course things that were produced using Guttenberg's ideas. No artworks (if only they had been preserved - I could have VOWed my current art instructor), no school books/notebooks beyond the last day of school for the year. Though I do remember somehow culling a whole load of greeting cards (only the pictures...the messages carefully scissored away) over the decades, and my brothers having truckloads of stamps. We even disposed off the veena when I discontinued my lessons!
My in-laws...they are different. They are very sentimentally attached to places, people and things. When we visited their village last month, it was moving to listen to their narration of the house they lived in, the fields they had tilled, the temples they worshipped, the rivers they swam in... Last year they gave S the piggy bank that their children had used. They even fished out the key from and ocean of metal stuff. The ocean also yielded cute kid-sized dinner plates about thirty years new.
Now, after all these years, in the scale of sentiment I can claim to be somewhere in between my in-laws and parents, tilting more towards the former. But still, worshipping perfume bottles....I still have a long way to go.
To continue lifting lines from an ancient poetry book (my fathers copy!) to which I am sentimentally attached.. heres Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
The mess was slovenly cleaned up. But the whole apartment was emanating fire and ice. My neighbour offered her condolences and asked if it was a rarely-used treasured object, and if I had wanted wanted to preserve for forever kinds. I was stunned at this thought. She was equally stunned at my surprise. She said she has a bottle of perfume that she had used at her wedding and that she often just smells it to recollect those moments.
Hmm...this thing occupied my mind for a few hours. I guess the environment has conditioned me. My parents moved homes/places every single year till I was fourteen. That meant eight different schools till class eight. The cleanliness freaks made sure there never was anything in the house that was not currently in use or good shape. Except of course things that were produced using Guttenberg's ideas. No artworks (if only they had been preserved - I could have VOWed my current art instructor), no school books/notebooks beyond the last day of school for the year. Though I do remember somehow culling a whole load of greeting cards (only the pictures...the messages carefully scissored away) over the decades, and my brothers having truckloads of stamps. We even disposed off the veena when I discontinued my lessons!
My in-laws...they are different. They are very sentimentally attached to places, people and things. When we visited their village last month, it was moving to listen to their narration of the house they lived in, the fields they had tilled, the temples they worshipped, the rivers they swam in... Last year they gave S the piggy bank that their children had used. They even fished out the key from and ocean of metal stuff. The ocean also yielded cute kid-sized dinner plates about thirty years new.
Now, after all these years, in the scale of sentiment I can claim to be somewhere in between my in-laws and parents, tilting more towards the former. But still, worshipping perfume bottles....I still have a long way to go.
To continue lifting lines from an ancient poetry book (my fathers copy!) to which I am sentimentally attached.. heres Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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