Wednesday 31 October 2012

Gold ATM


You’ve probably heard of vending machines dispensing chocolates, soft drinks, tiny cars, umbrellas, live crabs[I’ve heard there is one in Shanghai] but have you heard of gold vending machines???

If you’ve been reading my blog then ofcourse you’ve heard of it.   2 yrs back I remember writing about a Gold vending machine which was unveiled in the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Then I had wondered whether I’d ever get to see a real ‘live ’one.

Guess what, now Dubai’s got them too. Unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai believes in placing them in more accessible areas…like shopping malls where the common people can see and judge for themselves;-D. 
Burj Khalifa has supposedly got 2 of these vending machines…one at the bottom and one on the 125th floor.  

I did all I could to straighten this pic but obviously....;-/
I saw one at the Atlantis but look at my luck.......on that particular day we had spent a lot of money at the Atlantis, to spend on Gold also would have been too much. So I contented myself by taking a few pictures;-P.  


The exterior of the machine is[supposedly] coated with a thin layer of gold and offers customers 320 items to choose from, ranging from gold bars that can weigh up to 10 grams, to customized gold coins


There is also a built-in computer which updates the Gold rates inside the machine every 10 minutes. And anything you buy from the machine comes with a money-back guarantee, no questions asked, cool huh;-o

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Nature and her backlash


The headlines are terrifying...

More than 6.2 million people without power.

Hurricane Sandy unravels into post-tropical storm.

Superstorm Sandy slams East Coast leaving 17 people dead across 5 states, causing massive blackouts and flooding.

Pitted against Nature & her fierce elements how small our efforts appear. It is only when calamities of such magnitude appear do we realise how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.

Praying for the safety of the affected.
Hoping everything gets back to normal soon.
Stay safe everyone!!! Prayers and best wishes!!!


Monday 29 October 2012

15. The Lost Chambers


At the Entrance
During the summer holidays we had visited the “The Lost Chambers” at Atlantis. I was not very happy with the pictures I had taken and so had decided against putting them up on the blog. Now when I’m running out of subjects to blog about, the same pictures don’t look half so bad:-)).


The Atlantis is a famous hotel resort at Palm Jumeriah and without a doubt a must-visit-atleast-once tourist attraction of Dubai. 

The Abyss
The Lost Chambers is a series of inter-connected chambers(around 10 I think) with a theme. It boasts of maintaining 65,000 marine inhabitants. A lot of thought has gone into creating this amazing experience. 

JellyFish
The beautiful layout, lighting, recreation of habitat, the stunning displays, the astounding number of underwater species all combine to create a very unique and special one-in-a-lifetime aquarium experience.

LionFish
The whole experience if done quickly takes about 20-30 minutes but I’d encourage you to stay and explore. Read up all the material given alongside and make it worthwhile. 

StarFish & fish camouflaging themselves in sand 
There is no time restriction which means you can spend the whole day inside if you feel like it. Did you know watching fish is therapeutic according to Scientists? 

Seats to relax in and watch fish are placed in front of these tanks
Most of the aquariums have a seating arrangement; you can just lean back and let the fish lazily swimming in and out of the foliage mesmerise you.

Lobsters
My whole experience was ruined by a group of local children who used the dark chambers and its ambience as a backdrop for battle and ambush; shrieks and screams punctuated the atmosphere as they jumped out of dark corners and scared their friends But once they left it was calm and serene once more.
Sea-Horse
The whole experience is priced at 100dhs per person and the general verdict is that it is quite steep. If you[or anybody in the group] are carrying an emirates id with you then you can get a 25% discount on the ticket price. On the other hand, if you are a guest at Atlantis then the whole experience is free.
The lagoon
The whole experience is surreal like visiting a lost world. It’s definitely worth one visit and   children will love it.

Sunday 28 October 2012

14. On Mute

I feel like I am standing behind a huge sheet of glass and watching the world go by.

I can see the sea roaring and the waves powerfully crashing against the land but can’t hear a thing.

I see cars and other vehicles zooming past in unbelievable speed but can only hear the air-conditioner humming in my ear.

I can see children playing boisterously in the park but when I strain my ears I can only hear the wall-clock quietly ticking away.

____________________________________
Keywords: Eid, holidays, looong, stay indoors, boring, disappointment, all because I fell sick:-((

Saturday 27 October 2012

13. Tendjewberrymud

By the end of the conversation you'll understand the word[@title]

Read aloud for best results. Be warned, you're may find yourself talking "funny" for a while after reading this. 

This has been nominated for best email of 1999.
___________________________________________________

The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review.

Room Service (RS): "Morny. Ruin sorbees"
Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialled room-service"
RS: "Rye..Ruin sorbees..morny! Djewish to odor sunteen??"
G: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs"
RS: "Ow July den?"
G: "What??"
RS: "Ow July den?...pry, boy, pooch?"
G : "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."
RS: "Ow July dee bayhcem...crease?"
G: "Crisp will be fine."
RS: "Hokay. An San tos?"
G: "What?"
RS: "San tos. July San tos?"
G: "I don't think so"
RS: "No? Judo one toes??"
G: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo one toes' means."
RS: "Toes! toes!...why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow singlish mopping we bother?"
G: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine."
RS: "We bother?"
G: "No..just put the bother on the side."
RS: "Wad?"
G: "I mean butter...just put it on the side."
RS: "Copy?"
G: "Sorry?"
RS: "Copy...tea...mill?"
G: "Yes. Coffee please, and that's all."
RS: "One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy....rye??"
G: "Whatever you say"
RS: "Tendjewberrymud"
G: "You're welcome"

Friday 26 October 2012

A Dozen Wishes:-))



&

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Thursday 25 October 2012

11. Some Cool Facts

# Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch procejt at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter.

# If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

# The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the males head off.

# Astronauts cannot burp in space.

#The blue whales tongue weighs more than an adult elephant.
Its heart is the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

#The average French citizen eats 500 snails per year.
Any French citizen care to confirm this?????

#Pepsi-cola was originally called Brad’s drink.

#The word Tips is actually an acronym standing for “To Insure Prompt Service”

#The giant South African earthworm can grow up to 22 feet long & 1 inch in thickness.

#Virginia Woolf wrote all her books standing.

#The banana tree cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.

#India has a bill of Rights for cows.

#The Hippo's milk is Pink.

#To take an oath, ancient Romans put a hand on their testicles.

#A group of geese on the ground is called a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein.

#The Pacific island of Nauri’s economy is almost entirely based on bird droppings.

#The US Government spent $277,000 on pickle research in 1993.
Now I've heard everything.

#Smelling bananas and/or green apples[smelling, not eating] can help u lose weight.
NOW I've heard everything.

#A completely blind chameleon will still take on the colours of its environment.
Cooool huh!!!!

#Another name for a Microsoft Windows tutorial is ‘Crash Course’.
Heee…..sooo funny;-D

#Clinophobia is the fear of beds.

#The world’s youngest parents were 8 & 9 and lived in China in 1910.

#In an average lifetime a person will walk the equivalent of 3 times around the world.

#Grapes explode when u heat them in the microwave.

#Most people who read the word ‘yawning’ will yawn.
I didn’t. Did u????
Alright I felt like it but suppressed it ruthlessly;-).

Wednesday 24 October 2012

10 points for 9na


Naina

She loves books. If we let her she will read all the time. When she wakes up in the morning and finds nobody around she’ll quickly put on her glasses run to the book-shelf, choose a book and scoot back into the covers to read. Even if she watching a movie she’ll have a book with her, you know just incase. When we go out she'll try to stuff a book into her tiny bag or mine......

She loves her parents no doubts but her heart beats for her sister. She just can’t bear it if Nikita is out of her sight[only exception is school], she’ll clock-watch and drive us crazy with “How many minutes more….???”

She got selected to sing in the school choir this year and is over the moon. Just like chechi. Nikita though is not very excited;-P

Did I say she loves books??? Almost every conversation with her starts off with regard to some book.
“Why did Harry have to fight Voldemort??? Why couldn’t Dumbledore who is more powerful fight Voldemort???”[She has read the 1st 4 books the rest I’ve locked away promising to give her one each year].
“What is Appendicitis??? Sally Hope in Malory Towers was in terrible pain because she had appendicitis.”
“Mama, is New York a very dangerous place??” When I look puzzled she explains with a puzzled look herself “Frank and Joe live in New York and they always have terrible things happening to them”

Give her burgers & French fries 3 times a day 7 days a week she will never complain which is why we've stopped asking her opinion on where we should dine.

Compared to her sister she is very laid-back. Nikita is the kind who will shake the tree and then dive to catch the fruit mid-air. Meanwhile you’ll find Naina already under the same tree, mouth wide open hoping a grape or two will fall directly into her mouth. Which reminds me of an incident…

Nikita was playing a game on my iphone & grumbling away about its deficiencies[one of the oldest models you see].
“I’ll study hard and when I grow big I’ll get a nice job and earn good money and buy myself the latest iphone. Then I will be able to load all the latest games I want.”
“Even me” chimed in Naina.
Nikita: How???? You need to study hard to get a good job you know.
Naina: I’m going to marry a Sheikh.

She is a good mimic and sometimes enacts interactions between the teachers & her classmates. Sometimes it’s so funny I get a stomach-ache. Her latest inspiration is Mathilda’s mother[a dumb blonde] from the movie “Mathilda”[based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl].

Very, very shy when she meets somebody for the 1st time. She will not even look up to meet their gaze. Will just nod and smile with eyes fixed to the ground. She’ll hang around the peripherals and watch Nikita who would have taken charge by thenJ. Once she’s sure everybody’s attention is off her she’ll slowly join in.

People who meet us for the 1st time always comment on our resemblance. But none of the family members including me can see it.

But her characteristics, every single one of them[except for the mimic-ing ability] reminds me of me;-P

Tuesday 23 October 2012

9na



Sorry I just couldn't resist it[@ post-title].....I'll post something on Naina tomorrow. 

Even my last post-title was misleading. I can't for the life of me now think why I wrote “Dog ate my blog-post” in my subject-line yesterday.

For one thing, we don’t have a dog.

The kids have been asking for one for sometime now.
But the apartment we stay in don’t allow pets.

Thank goodness for that.

Don’t mistake me, I love dogs but I can’t imagine keeping a dog in an apartment. I’ve explained to the kids that animals need open spaces to run around or they’ll be sad and fall sick. We've agreed that they can have one when we go back to India.

Which brings me back to what I wanted to say….I’ve been sick for 2 days now. Had severe body-pain and flu. At the med-centre they told me I had 102 deg temperature. Was diagnosed with the ‘Infection of the Month’ and sent back home with heavy-duty antibiotics.

Feeling better today…a bit weak but so much better than yesterday.

Yesterday this time I was sick as a dog.

Monday 22 October 2012

Dog 8 the post I was working on...

When copywriter Robert Pirosh landed in Hollywood in 1934, eager to become a screenwriter, he wrote and sent the following letter to all the directors, producers, and studio executives he could think of. The approach worked, and after securing three interviews he took a job as a junior writer with MGM.

Pirosh went on to write for the Marx Brothers, and in 1949 won an Academy Award for his Battleground script.

(Source: Dear Wit.)

Dear Sir:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as strait-laced  cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around. 

I have just returned and I still like words. 

May I have a few with you?

Robert Pirosh
385 Madison Avenue
Room 610
New York
Eldorado 5-6024

Taken from here 

Sunday 21 October 2012

The 7th day


When I first came to Dubai in 1999 I was relieved to see that I didn’t have to make drastic changes to my life-style. Wherever I went I was surrounded by my country-men; Indian food was available everywhere, Indian clothes were prominently displayed in shop windows. Except for poppy seeds[khus-khus] everything else is sold openly [anybody found carrying or selling Khus-khus will face imprisonment upto 20 yrs because it comes under the drugs category].
I’m digressing here;-P. Coming back to the subject, there was one thing out here in the Middle East which took some getting used to.
The weekends.
Weekends originally fell on Thursday and Friday. I used to find it so different initially. Then around 7 yrs back the authorities changed it to Friday and Saturday. And so it has remained till today. It still took some getting used to.
When one has been going to church on Sundays all their lives, dressing up in Sunday best on Fridays took some getting used to. Children go to Sunday school on FridaysJ.
Actually I’m even prepared to overlook this but can you just imagine getting up early on a Sunday to go to work. That’s right, Sundays are working days out here. Adults get up early to get ready to go to work and children to school. I still haven’t gotten used to this. Even now when I wake up early Sunday morning I think wryly “Poor kids, imagine going to school on a Sunday;-)”
Easter Sunday is a holiday which is taken for granted everywhere else in the world but out here in the Middle East it is a working day. We need to apply for leave to spend time with family on this day.
Some interesting facts about Sunday:
Sunday is observed as a day for worship of God and rest, as the belief among Christians is that it is Lord's Day, the day of Christ's resurrection.
Sunday is a day of rest in most Western countries, part of 'the weekend'.
In most Muslim countries, and Israel, Sunday is a working day.
According to the Hebrew calendars and traditional Christian calendars, Sunday is the first day of the week.
According to the International Organization for Standardization ISO 8601 Sunday is the seventh and last day of the week.
In Russian the word for Sunday is Воскресенье (Voskreseniye) which means "Resurrection".
In other Slavic languages the word means "no work", for example Polish: Niedziela, Belorussian: Нядзеля, Croatian: Nedjelja, Serbian and Slovenian: Nedelja, Czech: Neděle,Bulgarian: Неделя.
In the United States and Canada, government buildings are closed on Sunday, with a lesser number being closed on Saturday as well.
National and regional elections in Belgium and Peru are always on Sunday, because voting is mandatory.
Sunday is associated with the Sun and symbolized by its symbol .
In Puritan times, to be born on a Sunday was interpreted as a sign of great sin. Puritans believed that children born on the Sabbath Day were conceived on this sacred day. Sexual intercourse on Sundays was a sacrilege in this austere society. As a result, Benjamin Franklin's birth on Sunday, January 6, 1706, had the potential to cause the young Franklin ignominious shame for life. To remove suspicion and eschew the scandal of having a "child of the Devil", Josiah, Benjamin's father, had Franklin quickly baptized on the same day of his birth.
Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

The term “Black Sunday” is used to refer to historical events which occurred on a Sunday, or the names of several creative works.

"Cold Sunday" was a meteorological event which took place on January 17, 1982, when unprecedentedly cold air swept down fromCanada and plunged temperatures across much of the United States far below existing all-time record lows.

And a fun fact…

A sundae is called a sundae because long ago, religious laws of Illinois banned Sunday consumption of Ice Cream/Ice Cream sodas; it was stated these ice cream sodas were too "sinful" to be eaten on a Sunday. So the spelling was changed to sundae to avoid offending religious conventions;-D.

Saturday 20 October 2012

6ers

"You know what, I feel like cleaning my Toy Box today"

[Mama falls off her chair in surprise]

"Naina, let's play Chess"

[Mama faints in shock ]

"Mama, I just swallowed a burp, do you think anything will happen to me???? Maybe we should go to the doctor.

[Mama begins to see the light]


They are ready to do anything to get out of studying;-/.


Putting up a short post today. Have a lot of portions to complete, I've got Maths and Science exams tomorrow.

Friday 19 October 2012

Fee Five Fo Fum


I was trying to get all the pictures on the laptop into some kind of order when my eyes fell on a series of photographs taken in a mall last Christmas.

Most of the malls here have loads of activities planned during the holiday season. Some malls hold colouring competitions, face painting, craft and henna-designs, some have jugglers, acrobats and clowns entertaining the crowd and some others host musical plays based on fairy tales or even on books like ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

My kids have outgrown the colouring & craft programs but like watching the plays and acrobatics. The musicals especially are very attractively put together with good looking artists, colourful costumes and elaborate sets. And sometimes there have no props of any kind and yet they are a resounding success.



One day we went to this mall to catch the 'Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs' show. We happened to reach late and so weren’t able to get seats anywhere near the front. As the kids couldn’t see anything we decided to go a level above and watch the show from the top. Even upstairs was crowded but luckily a few people moved and we got some space right in front.

The play was already in progress but we had no difficulty catching up as it was about Snow White. My kids ofcourse were already engrossed in the plot and I was idly following the act through my camera lens. 

Snow White didn’t impress, the dwarfs were just lil kids dressed up and the props weren’t upto the mark. The step-mother was good though and the songs they all sang[real singing, not lip-synched] were lovely. I was randomly clicking pictures when the prince strode into view. 

Snow White dropped everything and listened enthralled. So did we.

The prince sang like a dream. He was young; not a boy and yet not a man. He had the audience in the palm of his hand the minute he opened his mouth and he knew it. I watched my kids drinking in his every expression and couldn't help grinning to myself. If he looked cute to me then imagine how attractive he must be seeming to the kids;-D.

Just then he looked up and caught me at it. Grinning ie. I don’t know whether you’ll believe this but after that he kept looking up say every minute or so and singing soulfully to me.

My smile widened. He was charming, I had to admit. I shook my head at him. He grinned back naughtily. I zoomed my camera lens to take a picture but almost all pictures came out blurred as he was never still. Honestly, he was an entertainer in every sense of the word….he sang, danced, romanced Snow White and still found time to look up and flirt;-D.

At first I thought he was trying to impress the pretty Filipino girls standing next to me. Maybe he was. But at that point it didn’t feel like that.

When the show ended all of us clapped and cheered loudly. I wanted to put 2 fingers in my mouth and attempt one of those ear-piercing whistles. Only the fact that I didn’t know how kept me from trying. The kids rushed down after the show to take pictures with the troupe but he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he knew he was going to get mobbed:-P

Here’s the only clear picture I have of him…..


Thursday 18 October 2012

I've been thinking about it 4 sometime now


I want to work again.

Not that I'm sitting at home and twiddling my thumbs now.

There is no shortage of work at home;-/

But I want more.

I want to get up in the morning, get dressed in crisp formals and go to work.

I miss those mornings when I greeted people with a bright, plastic smile ‘Good Morning Mr. Mazen*change name every 2-3 mins*, How are you??? I’m gooood, good, thank you’ for the 1st hour of every morning.

I especially miss those ‘shrugging the shoulders & rolling the eyes’ conversations I had with my colleagues [esp. if one of us were on the phone with an unreasonable client].

I crave for those cold-cold chapatti rolls and limp sandwiches which I used to carry for lunch.

I pine for those dull boring meetings after lunch where one desperately tries to hide yawns by raising their files to face level or pretend to pick pen/paper/stapler/paper clip from floor every 2 minutes.

Did you know I started blogging initially from office and when I stopped working I had trouble blogging from home because I was just not used to it;-P.

I miss my boss who would leave me alone for the better part of the day and then dump 2 hours of work on me ½ an hour before leaving.

Jokes apart, I've been thinking about it seriously for some time now. Inspite of managing a household and a family, I don’t feel very……how do I put it….very productive. Sometimes an emptiness overwhelms me and I can’t shake it off for days. Thinking of the children puts things back somewhat in perspective. Staying home to look after the children was good reason at that time when I quit. It’s still a good reason but now I realise they don’t need that much of my attention. Infact it will do them good not to have mother hovering near their elbow all the time.

I've been thinking of my parents too.

Truth be told I’m quite intimidated at the thought of starting all over again. Especially in these times when good jobs are quite hard to come by. 


But I have to try



Wednesday 17 October 2012

3

A Fun Test

This test is a nice demonstration of how the human brain perceives things. Follow the exercise as mentioned below. 

[Please do not be tempted to check out the answer, you'll ruin it;-)]

READ this sentence:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS
OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Now count the F's in that sentence. Count them ONLY ONCE. Do not
go back and count them again. Check answer below...




ANSWER:

There are six F's in the sentence. 
A person of average intelligence will see three of them. 
If you spotted four, you're above average. 
If you saw five, you can turn your nose up at almost anybody. 
If you caught six, you are a genius.

There is no  catch.   Most people forget the OFs. 
The human brain tends to see them as V's instead of F's.

****************************************************************************

Alright I can't resist it, I simply must know what your score is;-D.

Comments are open today.


Tuesday 16 October 2012

2


Nikita walked into the kitchen to put her plate in the sink.

Mama heard her mutter something like…..

“I wish I had a life, then I would be so free…..”

It must have been one of those days….

Why else would Mama have got soo touchy.....

She placed the plates she was holding onto the counter, sighed heavily, made a big production out of turning around and scolded “Don’t be in such a hurry. Your turn at living your own life and being free will come before you know it. Enjoy your childhood now and don’t be in a rush to turn into an adult. You may not understand now but being an adult is not all great as you think it is. There are responsibilities and duties which will burden you & then you’ll be yearning for your childhood.  Enjoy this time when your parents are around to take care of you and protect you from everything. Why are kids these days……

Mamaaaa………

…….in a hurry to……

“Mamaaa…….I was just singing a song from Barbie & the Popstar.” explained Nikita confused.

And she sang…

"I wish I had her life….
Then I would be so free…..
I wish I had her life…
I'd be another me"

[insert ‘sound of loud silence’ here ]

Nikita sensed her mother made a boo-boo and tried to catch her eye.

Mama turned her burning face away from view and yelled in random direction “Nainaaaaa…..will you finish eating fast and get your plate to the kitchen, I don’t have all day”.

Monday 15 October 2012

1

I post so sporadically on the blog that sometimes I wonder why I bother.

I realise I need to get my ACT together.

Watched English-Vinglish bytheby.

Inspite of the fact kids had exams the next day.

TERM exams.

Can you even imagine the guilt???

But whattay movie I say!!! Totally motivating!!!!

Bas, I decided to post something on my blog everyday for the next 30 days.

It could be something I wrote, a forward I received, a quote, a cool fact, pictures..….anything.

Comments will be blocked for reasons I can’t explain.

Oh all right I can explain but it’s going to sound silly.

Still want to hear it???

Seee it’s like this….

There is a fear that I may not complete the task I’ve set myself.

A fear that I may not do justice to it.

Plus the fact that I feel guilty….

…..
…..

You don’t get it????

No, no forget it I can’t explain….

*N hides face in the book*

Which book???

Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama.

*N is rattled by the sudden silence her last sentence evoked*

What???? I'm not joking, I'm in the *looks in book* 243rd page right now.

He wrote this book way back before he became president. Did you know he was called Barry by everybody when he was small.

I think he is still called Barry but I can't be too sure as I haven't read till the end.

I know, I know.....if somebody told me 2 months back that I would be caught reading this book I too would have laughed at them.

See……I found this library a bus stop away soon after we shifted into our new place. The best part of it is we get to take home 20 books at a time. Cool huh!!!

The kids & I hammered out an agreement between ourselves wherein it was decided they get to take 10 books, I get 9 and the better-half gets 1.

Before you accuse me of injustice and what-not, let me tell you something about the better-half. He is a tv guy, an English[comedy] movie guy, a sleep, snooze, nap, siesta guy, even a magazine guy but not a book kinda guy.

1 book too many really.

But I told you….I was born with a guilty conscience.

So we get the books we want and he gets 1 book that I think he’ll like.

The latest ofcourse is BO’s book.

The previous was David Beckham: My Son by Ted Beckham.

I watched from afar as he scanned the pages of the latter. 

Lingered over the glossy photographs. 

And shut the book.

All this in 5 minutes.

Luckily Nikita showed some interest in the book and I was consoled.

The President’s book had no pictures.

It got 20 secs.

So I'm reading it now.

…..
….

Guilt, my friends, I've realised is a powerful motivator.