Good ideas gone bad

Every child loves their mother for the food she cooks! Food is an irreplaceable connection between the mother and child that starts right from the womb. I am not planning a philosophical post on motherhood. Rather this post is all about challenges that mums like me face everyday with our mediocre cooking skills. By the end of this post I will be able to unload the heaviness on my heart, which I have been carrying around for the last few days. Beware this is post is going to take a melodramatic twist, so prepare yourself!

To start with I am not a great cook but I like try new things for my little one. I want her to eat healthy and nourishing food. Not just for her, I believe every child deserves it. I try to incorporate all elements of balanced food into her meal everyday.  Most mornings and nights are spent thinking what to make for the little one. And on a recent afternoon I made some rice along with her favourite chicken curry and carrot pachadi, a bit of carbs, proteins and good old veggies all packed in one meal.

Now who in the right mind would like a spicy chicken curry with a sweet and sour carrot pachadi? Carrot pachadi is wonderful of combination of freshly grated carrot, gently mixed with beaten yogurt that is tempered with mustard, onions, curry leaves and green chilies. At least that is what I was thinking until Smera took one bite and declared it “YUCK”! I was heart broken. This was the first time ever in 4.5 years that the little one had called something that I made for her as – yuck. I mean there have things that she has not appreciated before, particularly when it involves veggies but her reaction had never been so harsh. So I chucked away the entire thing and spent the rest of the day brooding over it!

After a day or two, a great idea popped in my head. To make something yet again with carrot that would win her heart this time and heal my wounded heart. So it was going to be carrot and it had to be something sweet. So I decided to pull out the trump card – Carrot halwa also known as Gajar ka halwa! So I spent Thursday afternoon, preparing carrot halwa while she was at school. I put in all the best ingredients and an extra dose of love too. To be honest the halwa’s idea initially came up for hubby’s cousin but then it seemed perfect for the both of them.

So in the evening after dinner when I gave her carrot halwa, she took first bite and thankfully didn't say “yuck” however she did go on to make the dirtiest face ever.  If that wasn't enough the hubby gave her the permission to spit it out too. 

Parenting trap #1 - Perfection

What is with parents wanting nothing but the best for their children? Is good not good enough anymore? Why suddenly there is a desire for everything to be perfect? Either it’s the best school, best pediatrician, best tutor to even best prospective life partner. Does good not satiate our desires? The world around me is split into two the one with that have the best and the other striving for the best.

Competition is great and in any form would be healthy not only for the mind but also for the soul. But the question that has been going on in my head is if excellence too has the same effect? The idea of perfection is not frightening, while the idea of desiring perfection for others is asking a bit too much I guess.

We as parents want to give our children the best school, but are they worthy of it? Why not let the child prove his or her caliber in academics. We would buy the best of the branded clothes, take them best vacations or dine in the at best restaurants. But are telling them how much it costs to afford this best lifestyle?

I grew up in an environment where my parents tried their best to give me a good opportunity in everything and expected me to excel in studies. This I felt was reasonable, but somewhere from then to now things have changed and the reason being our aspirations.

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This new age parenting is a bit scary for me, we are training our children to be the best. But what are not teaching is how to get there and also understand the value of ones failures, that too many positives.  How else would the youngsters understand what it takes to be best at something, if we don’t guide them towards the right path.

I don't know why are putting ourselves and our loved ones through this pressure. We parents love to celebrate the A grades. If the child didn't win, then we wouldn't tell that child had even competed to save ourselves of the embarrassment of acknowledging that someone else was better. It is as if we are telling our children, there is no point participating if you cannot win it.

Now more than ever the youngsters must understand the concept of discipline, dedication, practice, punctuality, consistency and teach them to find positives from a failure. It is important to help them understand that we are not perfect. Even if we make mistakes, we have a share in everything that's happens to us, good and bad.

The journey of our life may not be perfect, but we will eventually reach where we want to be. We have to be careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence is what we should aim for and teach our children, perfection will follow us with persistence, patience, and by prioritising our passion.

Changing a habit a bit !!

It’s very difficult to change a habit overnight, especially when a habit makes you the person you are. For the past 2 weeks I have been on the line of fire with my family and when I start to reason it out with them, I end up sounding silly!

I haven’t been keeping well for the past few months and even after good 5 doses of antibiotics the problem would refuse to go away! I could have long come back home to either Delhi or Kochi for a second opinion instead of suffering for so long. However being the self-reliant person I am I didn’t want to bother anyone else. Now I know just as I wrote that line it sounded really Foolish!

Nonetheless there are blocks that we tend build these in our heads. We shouldn’t trouble anyone, try to manage everything ourselves as we stay so far away from family. I have always preferred to do things on my own particularly with an extremely busy husband who has just jumped into a new line of work. Who wouldn’t like an self-reliant wifey and daughter? Right!

Wrong! I over did it! This self-sufficiency habit has landed me into trouble when I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was given a choice to decide over my preferred home. So Delhi it was, I decided came down to my parents place. After a little procedure and day at the hospital, I am finally feeling better and have finally got a fit certificate too. Yay!

My habit made my mother and husband most angry. This thought process of not troubling anyone, solving my own problems is somewhere is influenced by them over the years. These two people never stop! Especially my mum she can be unwell but not a soul would know in the house. Somewhere secretly I imbibed that from my mum. My husband has always lived out of home and is the most independent person and so even somewhere even I become just like them.

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But what I tend to forgot is, we need to shout out for help when in need. It is only in times like these that you can fall back on your family and friends for help. I love to be there for everyone, but I must ask them for help too. That’s why it’s called a support system.

I have understood that, while I must also admit it is not easy for me to change. I am still struggling to get over the guilt of troubling others. I will try my best to speak to mind more often, stop feeling guilty about opening up to them.

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In all of mind over matter conflict I got to celebrate at home after 8 years, didn’t get to meet any of my besties but I tried to calling most of them, pouring out my woes whilst taking a dig at myself. I am feeling loved thanks to my support system and I promise to work on overcoming my weakness. 

Not quite black and white

During the course of one’s life, there are days when you would feel like running away. Running from situations, things and most likely from people. On many occasions I have felt like escaping into thin air and have wished for myself to become invisible to people. Just yesterday I was feeling like this and I almost ran away, looking down, hoping that nobody was seeing me.

Now this is not a usual feeling with me, but it does happen to me once a month. On such days I feel a bit of colour to could add magic to my lacklustre life and it calls for external intervention to help me cope with the grey matters.

I would like to blame it to my genes. The trouble started for me really early in life and to be honest, it would be an utter lie if I make it sound like, as if it’s just me having this big issue in my life. In fact everyone eventually reaches a stage in their life, when they would have to deal with such a situation just like I am currently in.

With time and a quite a bit of grey hair I have learned how to cope with this issue. The timeless and 100% natural Henna. It’s almost a ritual, a forced one at that, I have to colour my hair once a month. While the application is actually quite easy - I just have make my head available to the capable hands of parlour attendants. The real problem is the waiting game after the application - coming back home with a pile of cow-dung lookalike on my head.

Image courtesy: Lostinaspotlessmind.com

Once the hair is nicely packed in henna, it looks like I have undergone a brain surgery (which I am constantly encouraged to undertake by a number of people) or just returned from Mars visiting relatives. Camouflaging with a scarf makes things look even bad – the most adventurous part is getting from the cark park to the apartment   - I have overtime mastered the look-down-run-from-car-to-house routine and artfully dodging friends or neighbours.

Whoever said beauty comes from within clearly did not have grey hair issues ( and probably bald). For us women life is so tough, get out eyebrows done, get waxing, colour our hair and put on a beautiful smile. On days like this I really wish to be a man and sport the clean look just like my better half, at least would save me the embarrassment of getting caught sporting weird headgear. 

Where the mind is held without fear

2013 has been a yet another remarkable year for me. Personally it was a fabulous year and there is nothing that I could complain about. I set out this year to learn something new and I have to confess that I have not learnt anything that significant. Yes maybe a few small things here n there, but mostly about myself.

What I have come realise is that I need to get back to work and that will be the only resolution I take upon myself for the year 2014.

The year has been challenging for most of us as Indians. With the inflation sky-rocketing, corruption of all kinds setting new record-high levels and treating our fellow Indians less than equal. This has just pushed us generations back, more like the dark ages, when ignorance and lack of education prevailed.

Was life this complicated or unsafe, 20 years back when were growing up or was it we were unaware? I wish and dream of India and us as Indians setting new benchmarks in the world. Not going back to the dark ages. I stay away from the country and in a funny way I feel more Indian than ever before. 

I feel sad when a girl is brutally gang-raped, or when children go missing from their homes, good health-care is un-affordable and children falling sick after eating mid-day meals provided at schools. I want to see a society where we are not forced to live in fear.

I pray in 2014 more children go to school, people have mutual respect for everyone, let there be smiles on everyone’s face. If each one helps even if only one, even then we can achieve a lot. Let’s the cities, towns and villages be more safe for children. Compassion and empathy should pave for the change, that we are really hungry for now. 

I hate watching the news channel with depressing and heart-wrenching stories. If I want the best for my child when it comes education, health and food then why should it be any different for anyone else. The problem is more in our heads that makes us feel superior to others. If only we all practise gratitude that is the core of Indian culture, the country would be a much better place to live in.

Just last evening I was met a young boy at a coffee shop. He was thrilled to see the book I was reading “I am Malala”. He too comes from the same country as Malala and was glad to see the world can read everyday problems people are facing. He said, “Malala is just one of millions of girls who want to study” and that he wanted to go back home to teach kids in his village after he finishes his education.  At 17 he had a clear vision of what he wanted for his nation.

I think we too ask ourselves the same question what do we want and that I guess will answer most of our problems.

Let there peace, happiness, love and clarity in our hearts. For a better India and an even better world in 2014. 

Image courtesy: Amul.com, an utterly honest brand! 

Driving me crazy

I have previously written about my passive road-rage issue and this time I am going to rant about the active part of my road-rage problem. The active part really comes into play especially between 07:30 – 09:00hrs and then 16:00-17:30hrs.

On many occasions I’ve experienced near accident situations. However there was a particular incident which really agitated me. On a beautiful evening on my way to pick up Smera, I almost saved myself from colliding into a car, thankfully I had enough space between me and the next car to apply sudden brake and hazards.

Some random guy was tailgating another car while he is on the phone crashes on Sheikh Zayad Road roughly about 16:15pm. That’s not it along with it two other cars are smashed. I was fourth one in line and luckily even at 110Km/hr could safely slam the brakes without colliding into the crash. But the sight was devastating to see as two of the three cars were completely damaged.

It’s a usual thing here especially at peak time, but it frustrates me that if you are not worried about your own life, at least think about others lives.  I stopped and got out pull the person out of the third car as I could see smoke coming out of the vehicle, a few other people stopped by to help.

The lady in the third car, feeling shocked and hurt, her first question upon getting out of the car was, “Are there any kids in other cars?”. Not worrying about her injury, she was more worried about others in the crash.  Accidents are bound to happen, they cannot stop but one can help minimise it.

My husband works in the insurance field and being in the motor insurance field, I get hear awful stories of people and sometimes even an earful for being a little rash. I am not claiming to be the best driver in the world, but just imagine, I was on my way to pick up my daughter and if I too had crashed then she would have been stuck crying wondering where her mum was.

By all means drive fast in Dubai, the roads are good and you can speed up too but just use little basics:

• Leave enough gap between you and the car ahead of you.
• Tailgating a big no-no, that’s just plain rude!
• Use the wonderful device called indicators while changing lanes
• Please buckle up your kids
• Should you feel the need to sudden brake please use hazard lights
• Lastly don’t use indicators to change lanes with hazard light on, it does NOT help.

I leave you with a few stories from the newspapers here in UAE, maybe you can understand my frustration:

• Dad dies, mum and son hurt in Sharjah road smash
• Tragedy-struck Sharjah family loses breadwinner in car accident
• Accident death toll for this year
• 289 accidents reported in Dubai on foggy Tuesday

Silly Saturdays: Of opportunities and prospects

I keep thinking of writing Silly Saturdays without having Smera on my mind. But guess it’s tough when that’s the only thing I do, being a stay at home mom!

This week while getting out of school I saw Smera trying to catch hold of the magnetic door before it would close. The motherly instinct was absolutely sure that her fingers would be clasped between and I dashed to save her fingers. I couldn't save it, but in the process I dropped my phone. Forget the phone, I had a crying child to pacify, and thankfully she didn't get that badly hurt.

On reaching home I realised that my precious phone’s screen had broken. Devastated to realise that, I felt all the more bad, as I couldn't save her getting hurt and moreover the phone was broken. My Samsung Galaxy Note II, a gift from hubby was wrecked. I started crying, and I can cry even for no reason, but my little one felt really sad looking at me.

She put her little warm hands on my teary face and wiping them and saying in her gentlest voice, “Mamma don’t cry, it’s ok and you read a book and daddy will come soon!”. I was taken back by her maturity at the age of just 3, pacifying her silly mother. This was also the very first time I heard that gentle voice, I am by and large tuned to a lot of screaming and no’s in our usual conversations. Just kidding!

Feeling a little better, we got on with our usual stuff and then the door bell rings. It was hubby on the door, just as I opened the door and even before he put a step inside, she blurts out, “Daddy, mamma broke her phone, can you please scold her?”.

Call it being an opportunist or unscrupulous to get me into trouble, simultaneously trying to score some brownie points in her dad’s good books. Though I have to confess, it did lighten my mood a bit more.

That evening as me and the hubby sat down talking, we ended up discussing Smera’s career options. We mutually concluded that she could really have a good shot at Indian politics and maybe could even start a toddler’s wing of some political party! And for starters I have a name for her political party too SDP or Smera Dalbadlu Party! For those who do not understand Dalbadlu means one who deceives by double dealing! 

P.S. – The phone is fixed and was done in flat one hour thanks to the Samsung’s one-hour express service! 

There's Smileage in it

Travelling back to Doha filled me up with nostalgia. The trip must have been five years back now or then about a year and a bit since I quit my job at the Qatar Airways to move to Dubai. Getting myself comfortable in-flight I was super excited at the prospects of being back to the city which was home for over 2 years. I was also looking forward to meeting my cousins and their lovely daughter. So you can understand my disappointment when I was told at the immigration that I cannot enter the country as they had just implemented a rule which prohibits re-entry for 2 years for anyone who had cancelled their visas.

To this date I cannot figure out why anyone would have such a rule, but that is not the story. Walking into the immigration with my husband who did not have any problem getting in, I was devastated to hear that I need to fly back to Dubai and was an absolute bummer for both of us. We asked if we could meet someone more senior to reason it out. After a short wait when the manager arrived, I was fuming with anger and did not even bother to extend slightest of courtesy or to listen to what he had to say. I just lost my cool as any normal person would (?).

The answer was NO. As I was on the verge of tears, the ever so polite hubby pitched in and requested them to try one last time if possible by speaking to their supervisor. One of the biggest gift that god has bestowed him with is a calm head. And the rest was magic

Voila! All it took was his gentle words and a sweet smile, my passport was stamped. That very instant I realised my mistake and I felt so ashamed of myself, plus got an earful I got from the hubby. I could have put down plenty of reasons for my arrogant behaviour, but I didn’t once think that how difficult a job is especially when you are meeting people like me almost every day or once every hour.

 That was a big lesson for me and from then on, I have practised the art of smiling and being polite with people I meet, be it a cashier, the cleaning boy, my neighbours, taxi drivers and the list will go on. I am sure many people would even thought of me as a mad lady just randomly smiling at them.

Don’t get me wrong I haven’t turned to a saint by any stretch of imagination and still lose my cool occasionally but have reformed myself a great deal along with the improved odds of getting things done. This helps me get freshest of veggies, even if they are not on the shelf, free coffee, free clean-up of stained car seats, discounts and extra special pedicure.

 Thinking about it, I have always seen my mum practice it and my mum-in-law who retired as head of nurse, talking of empathy, putting ourselves in other’s situation but that night I forgot all that since I was upset. It took me a proverbial slap on the face to recognise that.

I am sure we all have learnt a very popular phrase – Smile and the world smiles with you, weep and you weep alone! Remember it’s not that the people are bad, sometimes the situations are. A smile can even sometimes make the impossible, possible!

Good riddance to a clumsy week

The last week had been an ultimate compilation of silly happenings. A great deal of nonsensical things took place that I am forced to put it on list as if I was going to present this first thing tomorrow morning at work.

1. Christmas is two months away and the little one is already getting into the festive mood, blame it on the school for practising well in advance for their Christmas Concert. On the weekend while driving to grab a bite, I hear my daughter sing “one ho open snake, hey jingle bells”. I am sure even the sweet Santa would not love the idea of a snake on his sleigh.

Image: Sangrywords

2. While mall-hopping I decided to tryout a pair of cool walking shoes, putting them on I got tempted to check out it in the mirror if looked as good as they fit. Thud !! – was the next sound that everyone heard. It so happened that in my excitement I didn’t realise that the shoes were strung together with a thin, plastic tag almost invisible to my eye.

 

Image: gettyimage.ae

3. Picking up myself from the embarrassing situation, I quickly evacuated the store. Of course with the shoes and I saw the hubby sitting on a barber’s chair.  Of course it wasn’t for a haircut (thank god for that), it was really for the smiling ladies who wanted him to tryout sample of Nivea’s new shaving gel.

4. Adding to all the humor in our lives, the newly rented apartment too has been acting funny with us. A little over a week and we still have not switched on the AC. The apartment is extremely cold for our liking, especially for my hubby who has lived in tropical part of India all his life.

I am not blaming him but even the coconut oil in my pantry is frozen. To top it up, my mum who is just the opposite is planning a visit soon and she has promised to bring us sweaters and mufflers, as she cannot live without the AC in Dubai. If possible she would love for us to shift to Alaska.

5. Another incident not really silly conversely flattering for me, that I was asked to show up my id at the bar to make sure I am not under the age of 21. Old enough to have a drink! There yet again a santoor moment for me but extremely hilarious thinking that the silly guy thought of me couple of years younger (ahem) than I was.

6. Lastly on Friday on morning I suddenly notice ❤beinghuman ‏ following me on twitter, that meant Salman Khan following me. I am huge fan of the star, so jumping in joy, I was about to announce this news to the whole world on my blog, facebook and twitter account, just then I realise it’s not really the star but it just a fellow blogger called Sanjay Valliath.

Image: Sangrywords

So on that note I just realised that this blog has given me a wonderful way to put up life’s little moments. And growing up my favourite song then and even now is “Taking it easy” by Eagles. The past week was been somewhat like that taking it easy, with my house settled, silly things happening again to us and finding joy in life’s little moments. 

Cheers! 

Every indigestion has an equal and opposite reaction

Staying far away from home brings in a lot of challenges for young parents like us. We had just 2 months of grand-parental supervision when Smera arrived in this world. After that we were left to taking care of her ourselves. To ensure everything worked we divided our responsibilities in such a manner that none of us lost our sanity.

Most of the tasks were very easy to deal with when it comes to an infant, except two things – one when the child poops or when the child throws up. For better or worse, task one came under my KRA and second was assigned for the hubby.

In hindsight, with this arrangement, my hubby got really lucky, as little Smera so far has on hurled 3 or 4 times in almost 3 years of her life. While pooping is an everyday affair (thankfully) and it does not matter whether I am sleeping or ignoring her call, I am still have to make good my end of the bargain.

However, last night, Smera unfortunately ate a little too much and so everything had to come out. She just could not hold it in, good thing is that she got down from my lap to unload her discomfort. But that made me really sick in my stomach.

Thank god we didn't end up like this! 

With great difficulty I managed to help a teeny-weeny bit, by not puking on her, the rest was left for hubby to do. I have to admit that he did the clean up with considerable panache – using tissues to soak up the glutinous mix of chocolate milk, apple slices, dal, chawal and other unrecognisable good stuff. Later using baby wipes to carefully remove splatters from the ground zero and then I finished it off with a clean mop.

Back to what lead to the incident. My mother is always after me to make her eat. Every time she comes to visit us, she feels the grandchild has become weaker (patli ho gayi yeh!). Following her advice coupled with my motherly love, I have made running after her with the plate full of all things good as part of my daily exercise routine. I must have had a great work out during that fateful day!

The morning after the hurling incident she was really hungry, with an appetite of hungry lion. To be honest I was really skeptical, wondering if there would repeat of the same incident.  So for a change I was feeling really unenthusiastic about feeding her. Doubtful of her little tummy,I kept asking Smera to go easy on the food.

To this the hubby just could contain his laughter, ended up saying it aloud that,” I thought I would never see this day ever my life, you asking Smera to eat less.” 

It's really hard for me to digest...

Image: gettyimages.ae 

A forgettable summer !!

The month of June was really forgettable one for many reasons. Zero motivation, summer turning me into a devil, getting a year older, a dear friend moving off to London and my temper along with Dubai temperature hitting the roof. Hitting the year’s all time low, even the words in my head dried up.

Image: gettyimages.ae

Guess it was just time to head out on a much needed vacation back home. Just as I step out of the airport with an excited toddler and hubby, the hometown welcomes me with the aromatic smell of the wet soil. As if even Gods were tired seeing my plight and telling me to cheer up.

I was going to meet my twin nephews of eight months for the first time and nothing could have been more exciting than that. We were going home for their baptism and the best part was all the having the entire family joining in for the celebrations. 10 days of – hubby’s house bursting with kids, six to be precise. Not to mention foods galore, midnight snacking and no connectivity to outside world.

For little Smera the vacation was an excellent experience, though I must admit the start was a little rough. Smera was over the moon see her baby twin cousins – Jacob and Joshua. Keen to carry them in her arms, she often found herself in trouble with me. During the time when she was not fighting with me she was with her cousin sisters, splashing in the pool, making scrambled eggs and baking cakes under her dad’s supervision.  

It was like living life in a flashback, catching fireflies, mending old toys and stealing ice-cream from the fridge. No wonder coming back to Dubai, I am feeling lost all over again. But that’s not the only reason why I am feeling low, I indulged a bit too much in junk food, hogging up all the things that I avoid during the year. 

Freewinds - Mama and baby had a big fall

Have you ever felt like going back in time? Maybe to re-live some cherished moments or to undo some mistakes we must have done. With this thought I am going to start a new segment - Freewinds! Taking time out to look back on what has happened in past, re-learn, refresh and maybe even re-live. This post is somewhat re-living what happened many years back.

I must have been in 5^th or 6^th std, it was raining very heavily. Amma wanted to get something from the nearby grocery store, so I instantly offered to help her. This was my chance to go for a walk in the rain. As I walked through the rain enjoying suddenly ground beneath me disappeared. It took me a while to realise that I had fallen into a manhole.

With my leg stuck between metal pieces, I couldn't get out. Noticing the delay in returning, Amma came looking for me and found me stuck in the manhole. She pulled me out, hugged tightly and took me home. For the rest, I do not remember except the stinging pain thanks to the fall and tetanus shot. 

The reason why I am reminded of this incident today is, my little Smera fell down from her tricycle and slightly fractured her arm. It all happened in front of my eyes and I just couldn't anything. Felt like Deja vu, just that the characters were different, I am the mum and Smera the daughter.

It was good fortune the hospital was 5 minutes away, so couldI rush her in for a quick check. My worst fear came true when the doctor said it’s a slight fracture and we need to straighten her bone. Brave little one did all this without anesthesia and got her a pink bandage to match with most of her clothes in her wardrobe. 

This entire incident has made wonder what my parents would have gone through each time I fell down and came home hurt and bleeding. This is the tough part of being a parent, to watch them fall. 

Smera has been astonishingly courageous during this whole period. It goes without saying that she gets frustrated and irritated when it itches a lot, but even then a little distraction helps her forget. I am sure this is not the only time we will be feeling like this. But that’s what growing up is!

Kudos to my little Smera, you make me and daddy so proud!

Images courtesy: gettyimages.ae

Living through the midweek crisis

I use the word crisis a moderate term to explain my frustration.  Dubai has been invaded by horrendous weather and the summers have just started. Yes they are here to stay and so is my irritable mood. Not just that, I have been having this harassing headache for more than a week.  Well it’s not as big as I am making it sound, but my sinus troubles are back.

Image: gettyimages

Well that’s not the end of it. Nope it was just the tip of the ice-berg! I have put on a kilo that I had lost with great difficulty. The best thing would be to do some extreme cardio – sprinting or brisk walking. That sounds easy right, not really when you have no stamina to do this any more than 10-15 mins.

That again is not end to my sob story. Sigh! I still had one more problem – uncontrollable hunger pangs. Whenever I fall sick or am depressed, I end up hogging on a lot of food. And so even in such a terrible state, I managed to visit Bikarnerwala and Puranmal to gorge on chaat and kachories.

I am sure I can go on cribbing for the rest of my life, but I have decided not to ponder over it too much as little Smera is ready to head out. With hubby away for a day, I have planned an exciting day out for today. Starting with - breakfast at Sarvana, hair-cut and painting toes at the parlour, afternoon siesta, evening swim and then finishing the night with our favourite movie – Lion King!

Once all this is done, I am going to cuddle her and sleep off this disastrous .  And if for some reason that too does not help, I will eventually sort to some retail therapy thanks to hubby’s credit card. 

Talaash: The search begins with a banana

Ever-since we became parents, going to the movies has become a rare affair. Call it added the responsibility or downright laziness but yes it’s true. However that definitely does not mean that we don’t watch movies at all now. We have our full-time home projector, even if we are a few months late we sure to catch up all of them minus the useless ones.

While a certain Mr. Choudhury might like to label us as boring people, for we don’t watch the first day, last show as he does. But it’s a big task to take the little one for the movies. At least that is our excuse, while for him even that is not a problem. Their little one is trained to sleep through the antics of the planet bollywood, right from her second month on planet earth.

Image courtesy: movies.zap2it.com

So on a recent movie marathon in our private theatre, we decided to put up Talaash featuring Aamir Khan. With great difficulty I managed to borrow the DVD from a friend, but just as it is meant, the DVD refused to work. Taking out the disc we realised that it was badly scratched, that meant my hopes of the finally watching the movie went down the drain.

However, my better half was not going to give up so easily. He pulled his phone asked Google for a remedy and unsurprisingly it did come up with an answer. This is the ridiculous part, Google recommends rubbing a ripe banana over the scratched surface, washing it under running water and towel drying it before using the disc.

As a fervent partisan of lord Google, the husband follows the instructions and puts the movie back on. With a slight smirk, I was absolutely sure to see the hammered look on husband’s face. However that look appeared on my face instead as the movie started. I continued to pray during the course of the movies for something to go wrong, but luck as ever was on his side.

Moral of the story is never underestimating the husband (which I always do) especially if he has checked it with the almighty! 

Silly Saturdays: Earworm the home-wrecker !

It must have happened to you many times, you listen to a song and it keeps playing in your head throughout the day or if you are like me even for days. Being a mum now the song that usually runs in my head these days is “I love you, you love me, and we’re a happy family”.  This is currently my favourite, I sing this even when I am working out at the gym.  During my initial motherhood days “Wheels of the bus goes round and round” was so deeply wired that I think I could have even mumbled the song my sleep.

This is called earworm as described by the urban dictionary “A song that sticks in your mind, and will not leave no matter how much you try”.

And just as I got dressed today to head out with my hubby here is the conversation we had:

Me: How do I look?

Hubby: He looks at me then goes back to doing what he was busy with and says “Auntyji Auntyji get up and dance!”

Me: Stare at him with a big questions mark look on my face.

Hubby: Oh you look lovely, love the salwar-kameez! Sorry I heard that song this morning and it’s been running non-stop in my head.

Now the big question is which part of the answer should I believe in first or the second one! 

P.S. – To be fair to him, it me who made him listen this song on MTV’s unplugged featuring Ash King!

Image courtesy: Getty Images 

ComforTable and ProfiTable

You may remember from one of my earlier post, in which I expressed my secret desire for a home makeover – first on the list being my microwave. I managed to convince my husband to go for a new one but I could not make up my mind after getting lost in the myriad of options at the store. So it looks like until I make up my mind, I am going to be stuck with it for some more time.

To force my hand, I took upon the Cash Converters Idea. First get rid of the stuff and then I’ll will have to buy something.

Cash Converters buys anything that you want but the goods have to be in mint condition.  So, that’s explains why the microwave didn't go, but I went ahead and sold my 6-seater dinner table and a reclining armchair.

One fine evening the cash converters guys arrived, with a truck and without the cash (that comes later, I am told), to take it all away. My little one was a wee upset but she let them once she heard mamma was going to get a new one, a smaller 4-seater dining table.

In comes the husband in the evening, after a tiring day from, I open the door with a big smile, “you look really happy today, what happened?” he asked as walked in. “Where’s our dining table ?”, “I sold it, just as we discussed”. My husband looked really shocked and then we went back to the day I formally had taken his permission to do so, but there was problem - he didn't remember any of that, very convenient!  

My next question was “should I ask them to bring it back?” and thankfully his answer was “No”. Even he found the prospect of asking back the table from a thrift shop, tad embarrassing.

The way it works at cash converters is that every week they try their best to sell the wares. If they are successful, we split the spoils 65-35. If they are not able to sell in a week, they would slash the price by 10% and repeat it until they find a buyer.  The list price is currently Dirham 1500 – or according to my in-house financial analyst, if you are really patient and wait for a year you’ll able get it under Dirham 10!

The new dining table has arrived today. Still no word from Cash Convertors – my guess is someone has already spotted the table and is eyeing that as a Christmas present.  I hope they are not thinking of the next Christmas waiting for that elusive under-10 Dirham deal!

Thumbs-up to thumb-sucking?

Lot of the toddlers in Smera’s generation within my family have thumb-sucking habit. Statistically speaking, three out of the four kids in the family have or had this problem.  To be fair I am only using statistics from Smera’s paternal side of cousins.

I was not startled when Smera too found relief with this habit, whilst I was not a fan, atleast she was taking care of herself when she started teething. When relatives and others started noticing we felt the pressure of helping her to get rid of this problem. Typical sign of a parental peer pressure! We refused to bow down to it for a while – a year to be precise, but things must change now or so I thought.

I turned to internet for solution to get rid of this problem. Armed with all the google-guided knowledge, I have used multiple techniques to kick her habit – threatening, scolding, checking with her doctors, consulting other parents. Most of them tend to point to a bitter nail polish. However I was not very keen on it, as wherever I checked, the pharmacist mentioned that the child has to be at least 3 years to conduct that experiment.

During the latest of my thumb sucking anxiety bout, I walked in to a pharmacy to meet my savior. The lovely pharmacist gave me the bitter nail polish and the confidence to try it out on my little one.  I re-checked with her to make sure but was convinced with her reassuring tone ‘No problem Ma’am, this will work!’

And one day last week, I finally laid my hands on the perfect potion to cure this problem. So all excited I discussed my plans with the hubby to apply it on her thumb next morning before sending her to school. The day started on a good note, without much fuss she had her breakfast and even finished her milk, then I applied the medicine on her explaining to how it would help her.

All set we get into the car to drop her first at her school and then to meet up my friends for a coffee morning. As soon as she was buckled up in went her finger, this was the first time Smera realised what bitter taste is. A few meters into the drive everything that she ate came out, forcing me to go back to square one – home!

The problem didn’t end there, it wasn’t going to be so easy-peasy for me. God had made the prefect plan to punish me, I washed her with soap and water but the medicine did not go – it was water-resistant! Next I wanted to try the nail-polish remover but the crying child won’t even let me touch her, then I turn to google.com but all that didn’t help either or maybe I was too hassled to even browse through the pages.

Finally I filled the bath-tub with bubbles and got her to play in the water, thankfully this trick has never failed me so far and it worked when I really wanted. While she was playing I try to scrub of her thumb with some soap and water and after good 7-8 attempts the medicine was finally gone, leaving me grounded for the day and with no coffee.

This episode left a bitter taste but gave me a chance to reflect upon things and a lesson to let go of things a little – as my wiser half says ‘Have you seen any grown ups sucking thumb ?, take it easy !’