Hidden talents

... So i tried my hand at water colours today (15.11.10, usually the time i write the post and the time i actually publish can span months and even years)... and a couple of days ago i make a glass painted fish from chart paper and crepe paper. and a few days before that for Show and tell at sharanya's school, i painted whiskers and a nose and made an aquarium for her (the pussy cats lunch).

As it turns out it's been months...(20-03-11)

I'm not a control freak... or am I???

... Okay so this year it was decide by ME that the Diwali cards would be made by Sharanya... So I decided the colours and type of papers... and also the design (what does a 2 year old know!!! A lot...really) and cut up all the shapes (scissors not safe for a 2 yr old!!! Ok that ones true). I alloted Sharanya the task of painting the chart paper in the colours of MY preference. We (Read:I, sharanya was only allowed to stick) also made the little diyas and lanterns...

After making three cards I realised Sharanya wasn't around anymore... She probably realised playing with pieces of waste paper was more fun than dealing with my "art and craft"

So now... she's deciding which cards should have lanterns (most of them) and which should have diyas... the colours and sticking them... The cards don't look neat... but they look lovely!

The Tiger- William Blake

Tiger, tiger, burning bright,

In the forest of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

When thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand forged thy dread feet?

What the hammer?

What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dared its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did He smile his work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright,

In the forest of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

My daughter - the grown up...

... sigh!!!
In a little more than a month's time Sharanya will be two (the terribles)... and i really can't believe how fast she's grown up. She wants to do everything herself... EVERYTHING... even getting off the damn commode. Watching her wriggle her bottom off the seat is sheer joy... of course when she runs around the house with her pyjamas around her ankle...joy turns to hilarious. And then there is the eating by herself, that's a little harder to ignore especially since there is more food on the floor (which could feed the entire continent of Africa AND the birds in our area are thriving and obesity is soon getting to be common problem for them.) than in her tummy.
She already wants to play "football" with the big boys, which means i got called aunty by 16 year olds... not good for the ego... especially since more than a couple grey hair and an every expanding waistline. She's been using her kitchen set voraciously and if that translates into her becoming this amazing, gourmet chef, I'm all for it. But its the constantly making me drink fake teas and fake dosas with fake jam and fake butter on a plastic toast, that i have a problem with. Then there's her doctors set, my temperature gets taken and my blood pressure..which is always "too high mumma" according to her. My reflexes are checked with a vengence and i cringe just thinking about the number of times my funny bone got a whack AND i've got whacked a couple of times on the legs with her hockey stick while she was trying to aim for the ball...

I'm begining to realise what a hazardous occupation being a mother is... There should a statutory warning attached to every baby: Bringing up a baby could be extremely dangerous to your health - bruising yourself and your ego, anxiety, panic attacks, being called "aunty" are a few mild side effects.

Random Stuff about me...

1. My sister and daughter are my life… sometimes I can’t think beyond them.
2. I used to ride a Bajaj 150 while in the 12th standard and my 3 yrs of graduation... It was my fathers first vehicle and anything that could go wrong with it, usually went wrong when I drove it...including the silencer falling off.
3. I panic about the most trivial things and the important things generally don’t matter
4. I pretty much worship my husband… though I don’t think he knows it.
5. My sister worships me and does everything I do…even copies my signature
6. I almost never cry
7. I love Energee and my cousin Pallavi and me make it a point to go drink it whenever I’m in Bombay
8. No trip home is complete without a fight with my father and both of us refusing to back down while my mother plays mediator.
9. I hate mangoes…
10. I don’t remember people very well… ask Monica
11. I am paranoid about everything - from slabs on the pavement, to fan falling on the head to heights, to closed spaces, to insects and bugs to animals, to needles, to blood, to... well you get the picture. (pulled this out of –my blog)
12. I’m the world’s laziest person… by far, except when I have to do something for my daughter. Case in point - Even this post has been picked up from what i'd put months back in facebook.
13. It doesn’t take me long to get bored of anything… I almost gave up on this list when I reached point 4.
14. I’m extremely controlling with respect to my husband and sister, if I could, I’d even tell them how they should breathe
15. People intimidate me. I blank out.(does this count as a random fact??? hmmm
16. I love watches big dial ones... are u listening Deepak.
17. One day I’d like to give up everything and travel…and travel and travel… hopefully with my husband
18. Sometimes… (most of the times) I am the most irresponsible person ever. I have managed to lose train tickets and miss flights and even big sums of money
19. I hate being photographed… but love taking photos of my husband and daughter.
20. I’d love to open tiny bookstore-café kind a place made up of wood…all warm and wonderful
21. My secret ambition-desire whatever you may call it, is to be able to draw and paint… can’t!!!
22. I get really really angry… and it happens very often… and then I nag and nag and nag…
23. It annoys me when my sister acts… as she says… “cool as a cucumber”
24. I adore my mother, she puts up with all the crap I dish out and still patiently deals with me
25. I'm paranoid that my daughter will be like me

Top 5 people who are nice/mean to me...

I really wanted to update my blog...and for lack of creativity, i decided to just pick up stuff from my facebook notes

This list came to be when at the Tole's, the boys were being mean to me... as usual... (and because of a threatening phone call from Surbhi)...

So here goes...

People who are mean to me...in order of rank

1. Santosh Sethumadhavan and Nikhil Kapur - Both you guys are so mean, i can't decide who is worse, so top slot for both of you.
2. Pallavi Rai - YOU... YOU... YOU. Everytime i come to bombay you say - "you've come AGAIN" so i thnk you should be up higher than Santosh n Nikhil, but since ur my cousin I'm not putting you up there
3. Vikram Tole - Well you are
4. Priyanka Rai

There are other people who are mean to me, but they really don' play a significant part in my life... so they don't really figure in my scheme of things...

People who are always nice to me... in random order

1. Shweta Bhandary - Always!!!I've a lot to be thankful for... ur one of them
2. Priyanka Rai - and so are you
3. Monica Bhatia... you always look out for me... in your own way
4. Surbhi Sinha Varma - my fashion "soul" sister. Your probably a tad bit better than me, because of Mon. Also you called and threatened me
5. Tarang Nagpal Tole
6. Ranjit Jose
7. Pooja Tandon - I know i'm not the most ideal/easy person to deal with
8. Priyanka Prasad - Despite the fact that when you call on your birthday and we talk for an hour, i forget to wish you, never call you, never lots of things. We've been friends for 12 yrs so i guess we're past all that.
9. Tushar Amin - Your the warmest person i know

Okay so the numbers of people on the list are not as planned, but neither is life so. Well at first, i really thought the the list of people nice to me would never exceed 3 people... really funny..really really funny, but in a pleasant sort of way.

A very Happy New Year to ME

... and to everyone else as well...
As i start the first blog of the year.. my daughter is chewing my knee (she's started teething). I'm wondering about my new years resolution, which most normal people would have already made, but I'm still wondering at it on the 6th day of the new year...
Well there are some issues that happened last year that i felt terribly terribly strongly about... the Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay bombing for instance... how we're destroying the world our children are going to inherit is another... about how the legal system moves so slowly in our country, even if you're right, about wars across the country and children suffering because of that.
But sitting on the 6th day day of the new year, i realised that I'm a very shallow person... because after a few days of fuming... I promptly forgot about all these things... okay maybe to say i forgot is wrong, but i obviously didn't feel strongly enough to do anything about it or because it hasn't so far affected me directly so far i let it go.
Maybe my this years resolution is not to ask for world peace... but to be a better person!

My precious little darling...

Before i was a mom..

• I never knew the words to a lullaby
• I never thought about immunizations
• I have never been puked on pooped on peed on.
• I had complete control of my mind and thoughts
• I slept through the night
• I never looked into teary eyes and cried
• I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin
• I never sat up for hours to watch a baby sleep
• I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when i couldn't stop the hurt
• I never knew something so small could affect me so much
• I never know how much i could love someone
• Before i was a mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body

PS. I didn't think this up myself...

On popular demand...

Pallavi Rai...

My oh so melodramtic cousin, who gets offended by almost everything i do...or don't... Gave this whole speil about NOT being offended that i didn't write about her in my blog...even bad things about her. Never ever calls but does a lot of drama if i don't call her... keeps saying i call her only after i call everyone else...which is absolute rubbish. Asks what gift she is getting even if its MY BIRTHDAY!!!

The only Rai I've not seen crying...ever... ever... even when she was small... even when her sister pulled her hair...almost out of her scalp... even when a heavy wooden drawer fell on her toes...

She wanted to name my daughter "Simba" and she actually meant "Sinbaad"... please DO NOT ask why, because only Pillu knows the ways of Pillu.

Sometimes I think her sole aim in life, is to annoy people by being just not affected by anything... People think she is quiet and good and all that kind of stuff.... I think they need to have a chat with me...

Oh!!! and she's even shorter than her mummy and mine...

But I louve her all the same... lots n lots kukuli

A tribute to Priyanka Rai

I first thought i could just pull out stuff from the Testimonial I wrote for her orkut and put it here, but that would not do Ms Pinku (the pet name she's fondly called by my mummy and my mummy's mummy - though she looks far from being anything close to a "pinku") justice. So i've decided to incorporate only a few parts of it here.

At some point or the other... every one's life takes a turn, some for the better and, well, some for the not so better. On 6th November 1984 mine took a turn and let me not divulge immediately what kind of turn my life took. I'll let you decide for yourself...

Being the first grandchild in the Rai family, there was a certain position I enjoyed... that of being the most pampered one! And as far i know, i did justice to my role and took the job of being spoilt very seriously. Some 2 yrs later along came Shweta, but she was no match for my charm n charisma... but 3 yrs after that along came Priyanka... and the equation suddenly changed. True she did a good job of looking cute and adorable... yeah alright a 'GREAT' job, and such a great job that even i started falling under her spell...

A little bit about my dear cousin priyanka... fondly known as pinki... pinku... her royal chubbiness...etc etc.

Her true passion apart from fluttering her nostrils… digging her nose… saying she is fat... being sloppy and dropping things all over herself (it started with her dropping boiling hot tea on herself on her first birthday) and around her… is COMPLAINING… She is the original cribber and the rest of us pale in comparison.

Being the eldest and it being my moral duty… I tried training her on the same lines as I did shweta… but alas… there is ONE bad fruit in every family… and our family has a basketful.
The biggest cry baby (after Shweta) that the world has seen…she I think could cry about everything… including a hanky left behind by Shweta.

I LOUVE YOU PINKULI...

PS. I eventually just put in the Orkut. Laziness got the better of me...

Once upon a time...

... in a tiny little village, there lived a girl and her name was suhaya. She had the attention span of a goldfish in a bowl. One day she decided to start posting blogs and it started out really well, but obviously as the days went by and a couple of blogs later, she lost interest.


And after 6 months when she finally decided to write a little blog, everyone in the village wondered what spurred on this interest??? Well... it so happened that she was peacefully going through her daily mails and happened to come across a certain mail from a certain well wisher, who put it very eloquently... - Why have you stopped writing... So she decided to get her scroll and put ink to paper.

But she managed to put this bit of writing and lost interest again. It took another 2 months again for her to resume... by which time the villagers had lost interest!!!

A Historical moment...

A special mention today, of Nikhil Kapur… not K-A-P-O-O-R but K-A-P-U-R. For the first time ever… in the History of “Nikhil Kapur knowing Suhaya Bhandary-Tandon” has he said something nice about me. Of course unlike his wife…he didn’t make the snide remark that – “u dont look like the kinds who can write well...but u do” – these are her exact words… I have a MSN Chat History to back it up. By the way the "her" is Monica “Smarty pants” Bhatia Kapur (With a U not 2 O’s). I have therefore decided to document it so that it may go down in the pages of history as one of those very very rare events where Nikhil Kapur is nice.

PS. Did I say Monica “Smarty pants” Bhatia Kapur... i meant Monica“Smart” Bhatia Kapur. I definitely deserve the juttis now!!!

3 posts in a single day… and it’s a new world record!!!

Today happens to be the day my husband was born… well not exactly today… 28 years ago today. Anyway… to celebrate the day he was born, 28 years ago (incidently, he was born on a thursday), I decided to take him for lunch (for which he paid because it’s the end of the month and he doesn't pay me enough to last till the end of the month) to Chor Bizarre (recommended by Tarang). And we were not disappointed; the food was out of this world, the Nehari Gosht combined with Ulte Tawe ka Parantha was heavenly, the ambience was very nice and had a very Old Delhi look to it.

All and all a great dining experience, that is, until we were very rudely interrupted by an unwanted guest – A Cockroach. After which I pretty much lost my appetite, but my husband continued to enjoy his lunch, even taking the piece of "gosht" that I had refused to eat after catching a glimpse of our “friendly neighborhood bug”.

But to be fair, this is probably 1 in a millionth time that there was a cockroach walking on a table at Chor Bizarre (as my husband pointed out to me); unfortunately it was walking on my table and I’d have expected a restaurant with a repute like Chor Bizarre to maintain a certain level of hygiene.

Ranting and Raving - Part II

Some chap...one of those profound thought provoking writers or philosophers said that when you really want something to happen the entire world conspires to help you make it happen (I heard it from Anand Patkar though).
I myself believe in exactly the opposite... that the entire world conspires to make you "fat"

boy am i cheezed off...

... may be the title should have been - hopping mad. Would have probably sounded exactly how I have been feeling for the past couple of days... I'm so pissed I could slap a couple of PILs around the place. I mean if you can have a PIL against Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty or MF Hussain or Mohan the relatively unknown painter before and now a prominent one... then I can definitely file a PIL against half the bloody country. Starting from the jerk who chucks cans out of his car onto the road while driving, to the dirty old men in government offices who would rather stare at your boobs while talking than at your face, to the people driving cars with CD registration, who will obey each and every rule in their own country but when they are in India they'll park the car in the middle of the road or almost run you off the road, to the cops who stare at you as if you are naked even if you're clothed from head to toe to the rioters who damage buses and other public property that I have slogged my butt off and paid for (I'm a tax payer you see)… to the supposed moral police who think they must file a PIL against film stars and celebrities, when they could be questioning the condition of the roads... of education... of the safety of women... of water supply in villages... At least my PILs would have some semblance of sanity

Oh by the way… kudos to Nanda for training other prisoners in the jail where he has been for the last 7 years, in business and teaching them how they could start up their own small businesses… so PIL me…

Ranting and Raving over...

... my mommy coolest...

Well she is!!! And I say so!!! Anyone who says otherwise will have to take on Shweta – the not so important second child and me – her first born and the spring in her stride…

She doesn't look a day over 32 (That’s the age at which she'll be for me for ever)...and by the energy with which she does things...I don't think she IS over 32. She can take on Shweta (the not so important second child) and me (the first born and the light of her life) and beat us hands down at anything. The most work we do around the house is taking the food from the plate into our mouths... and we still feel like that’s a lot of work. I honestly think she has this stash of energy drink stocked up somewhere... how else is it humanly possible to deal with 2 hooligans (her husband and the not so important second child) and look fresh as a flower at anytime of the day.

The most comforting place in the world is my mommy's cupboard. I just stick my head in and lie on a bunch of her sarees and soak in the "Harini" aroma. It is the most reassuring whiff of fragrance ever. She probably wonders why her clothes are all bunched up and crushed every time I’m visiting. Never ever… not even while she is sweating away in the kitchen doesn’t she smell of anything but “Harini aroma”…which is the nicest smell ever.

To me…at any age…even when I’m eighty… I can curl my arms and legs around her and sleep peacefully...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY AMMA

The trials and tribulations of an aspiring MBA

I'm not talking from experience... because i pretty much sailed through the entire process of written test/GD/Interview/2 yrs of academics (cough...cough).

To set things straight... I didn't sail through the above because of my brilliance or anything... i was just unbelievably lucky... What else would you call someone who makes it through the written exam despite closing her eyes and pointing her pencil onto the paper to chose the right answers...or someone who made an elaborate sketch of a beach in Mangalore on the answer sheet... which included coconut trees with coconuts intact. Who else would go through a 1 hr interview for summer placements...completely confuse the interviewer and still get placed...

Anyway... we're digressing... Life isn't exactly easy... first you need to look for a place to stay and hope and pray that the people you end up staying with, are not related to pigs or kleptomaniacs or at the very least psychopathic murderers. You end up with one or the other kind anyway... Not that I'm calling you guys any of the above - Sanjukta and Vidya.

Then there's the stress of keeping up with the rest of the batch...doing the presentations impressively...submitting reports...passing exams. And thanks to the bloody relative scoring, the results are more often than not... quite a dampner.

I'm not even going to get into the Placement Week... the killer of all weeks

... and i've lost interest in this blog...so tata now

...and i win!!!

For the first time ever...in my whole life...i have won something and no less than on the radio - 2 tickets for the Spiderman 3 movie... How cool is that??? Very!!!

Ok...thats my blog for the moment... Apart from the fact that RJ Pratap thought i speak really well...ahem...ahem

Nagraj aur Thodanga ki mauth

According to my very venerable husband...if you've not read the Nagraj series of comics as a child...your childhood have been a complete and utter waste...so be damned Little Women and Charlie and the Chocolate factory and The Emperors New Clothes (which incidently is the first book i ever read.. not because i could read... but because i learnt it by heart...thanks my cousin Pavana who is a year older and had just learnt to read and she took it upon herself..and felt it was her moral duty to teach me to read...with an iron fist- quite literally) and so on and so forth. Though i think the Marvel comic series are in the same league (NOT)

Not straying too much into the horrors of my childhood and getting back to Nagraj Comics I did go to the website of Nagraj comics... (yes it exists and there are member also)... I figured that Nagraj or Raj (as he is fondly know as in his mortal guise) is a cross between Superman (Raj the "alter ego" is a shy Public relations officer of Bharti Communications... who is afraid of...hold you breath... snakes) and Spiderman (he shoots snakes from his wrist. Not having read the book myself..my knowledge sadly is from the website...but i have been promised 1 book...so til then..i'll refrain from commenting.

By the way..for any interested party...the website is called http://www.rajcomics.com/HERO_OF_RAJ_COMICS/NAGRAJ/NAGRAJ.HTM.

Till then...tally ho...

My blog for the very first time...

Having experimented with blogs in the past...and failed miserably... i try my hand at it yet again. Lets hope i fair a little bit better this time...

Wow!!! A complete blank...after the writing the last sentence...i went a complete blank...cudn't think of a single thing to say....(most of the people i know would say its a pretty routine thing to happen to me...) Could this be the reason my previous blogs failed.... hmmmm (the great mystery unfolds)