Four, Two ka One

4 things I’m grateful for…

My family/food/clothing/roof over my head

My friends

The ‘no pets allowed in the apartment’ rule

The 10 minute run walk to/from the school bus stop

[the only exercise I get some days]

4 questions I often ask myself..…

What is the purpose of my life??

Is there any way I can avoid cooking today???

Now where did I keep my phone???

Why do I feel guilty for wanting more out of life???

4 I wasted a lot of time over the years pondering over…

I’m actually married!!!

I’ve got TWO kids!!!!!!

How do I get the dishes to wash themselves??

What goes on in the better-half’s mind???
[But now when he replies ‘Nothing’, I believe him]

4 things I want to do...

Lose weight

Climb a mountain.

Visit New Zealand.

Win a Piano
[since I don’t play, it doesn’t make sense to buy one]

4 I wish I knew earlier..

Marriage is not the destination, it’s just a shaky start.

My kids will grow up to be teenagers.
[somehow I thought they all grew directly into adults]
I’ll see my parents only once a year.

Freedom is a state of mind.

4 reasons for this post...

It’s Halloween
[honest it was when I started this post]

My sleep is precious to me.

I have to get it out of my system

I needed to post, period.

What are the 4 questions you often ask yourself???

p.s: One, Two Ka Four

Reflection

I've been...

I've been down in the dumps.

Struggling with fears.
Couldn’t get a grip on it at first.

Now I've learned to like it here.

Summer is here and how.

The sunlight is blinding.

You'll find me lurking in the shadows.

For the darkness is soothing.

Everything’s an effort.

What’s the point??? is the question.

For every step forward,

There are two taken back.

Do not worry, my fellow blogger and let me be.

I assure you I’m content in my misery.

There is no one, who knows me as well as I do.
I’m hoping to be back among you in a month or two.

It's all under control

Won a gift voucher for books courtesy Gulf News and picked up 2 books from the Jashanmmal bookstore. The first one Tom Ang’s 'Digital Photographer’s Handbook' is a must read if you are a budding photographer. I’m so glad I picked it up because it’s written in very simple language and has photographs to illustrate every point made. What a life he must be leading I'm thinking….you know he’s practically visited every country in the world. And takes pictures for a living.

Just the kind of life I’m going to lead in my next life. And in that life my husband will be my wife and my kids will be my parents.

And I’m gonna give them hell….ohhhh yeaahhhh.

Sorry got sidetracked, the other book is Rachel Allen’s 'Cake' which you’ll love if you are a cake maniac like I am. Did you know Rachel Allen was here in Dubai for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature last month?? I so badly wanted to go watch her in action and get my book autographed at the same time but didn't because I feared she’d ask me how many cakes I baked from the book. I could see myself shrinking in shame because I hadn't made a single one.

Well technically speaking it’s not my fault I didn't make anything from the book because every recipe in there contained eggs and here we were observing Lent.

Yep, no meat, fish or eggs for 50 DAYS.

I knowww….whatever were we thinking???

Those 50 days felt like 50 weeks to me. I freaked trying to dream up different vegetarian dishes every day. I won’t mention the deep sighs & pathetic looks I got each time I served a meal. Not to mention the temptation….a neighbour came over with a huge bowl of fish biriyani one day and my heart broke into two as I sent her away. We also went for one of those horse shows and stoically ate vegetable samosas and pita bread with hummus while the others gorged on chicken pot pies, bacon wrapped shrimps and…and…I can't bear to say more. There are more such sad stories but I’ll leave it to your imagination.

To cut the story short, we survived the 50 days of Lent & it went better than expected. Looking back now we are happy we made it through and quite satisfied about the whole thing. Self-control is not easy. We may have cribbed a bit but didn't knowingly do anything to break it. Again and again it comes back to me that almost anything is possible if we put our minds to it. Lao Tzu the Chinese philosopher says “He who controls others may be powerful but he who mastered himself is mightier still”. 

I wouldn't have found the quote so meaningful if I hadn't been observing the Lent;-P.

Rachel Allen’s book in the meantime is sitting on the book shelf and staring accusingly at me;-(.

In other news, I was roped into playing teacher for a week during the holidays again; the Vacation Bible School at church, remember. I gave in without a murmur this year and managed to have a good time too. I had around 15 kids in my class and succeeded in keep them occupied for a few hours everyday. At the end of 7 days I gave them a bookmark each which I painstakingly made for them and threatened them with dire consequences if they lost it.

I've also acquired a new position…meet the Manager of the father-in-law’s facebook account. FIL had no clue how to go about on FB and asked for help. The doootiful DIL that I am found it difficult to say no. I’m now posting pictures and updating statuses on a weekly basis and quite enjoying it. FIL is very pleased with all the attention his page is getting and I feel like a master puppeteer controlling the strings of something which is not mine. Never mind my own FB account is lying unattended & gathering dust somewhere.

So that’s all in the news from the RBC* today. You have a good day too.

Wait….just remembered some more…..you know I usually cut across a park to go to the local grocery and one time when I was coming back from the grocery[back through the park] I saw a worker planting tiny shoots into the ground. He made the mistake of looking up to see who was passing by and out shot my hand expectantly. And alternatively showed him one finger [the index finger you dirty minds] signaling  ‘just one piece of the plant please’. He gave me one, then two, then three and four and went to pick the fifth out and I mimed “enough enough, thank you, thank you, beaming happily at him. All those elaborate gestures because he didn't know English and I didn't understand Tagalog. We both went our way feeling very pleased with ourselves:-).

Nice flowers????

*Reflections Broadcasting Corporation

Click

There was a photography contest in the newspaper encouraging us to shoot a picture reflecting our life in the UAE to win daily and bumper prizes. They specifically mentioned that it didn’t matter what camera we used as they were more interested in the subject than the quality of the pictures.

I carefully selected a picture from my album and sent it to them. And visited the site every day hoping my picture would be in the daily winners list.

But no such luck for me.

When I went through the pictures of other participants I noticed there were many who posted multiple entries when the site specifically mentioned only one picture per person. I shot off a mail to the concerned to ask if it was allowed. I got a nice reply back saying that it was ok in the preliminaries but if one’s picture got selected for the main prize then all these details mattered.

Since I was very sure my pictures would never make it to the final selection I confidently sent one more picture and watched the site anxiously to see if this picture would win. Maybe not the main prize but I felt my picture was good enough to be in the daily winners list. You ofcourse know which picture that was…

When the daily winners were announced at the site this picture too did not get selected.

And that was that.

Very dejected I scrolled through the earlier daily winners to check out all their pictures.

And then I see a very familiar picture, the first click I sent, nominated as a daily winner almost 3 days earlier.

I was heppy, happy, haaapyhaaapy and showed it off to everybody who made the mistake of asking why I was looking so pleased with myself;-D

I don’t know how I missed seeing it earlier…..all that disappointment for nothing;-P.

My prize was a 5 hour photography workshop at the International Institute of Art and Photography in Knowledge Village.

I registered for the workshop and chose to attend their ‘Basics of Photography’ session. The workshop was very helpful because until that day not much thought had gone into the pictures I took. I used to just ‘focus and click’ anything what caught my fancy. With the knowledge I gained from the workshop I now ‘compose’ the pictures in my mind before pressing the button.

Well I try anyway;-).

Now all this happened in December but for some reason I was reluctant to post the picture here even though I made a lot of noise about it in every post;-P. Honestly, everytime I decided to write about it I ended up writing something else and convinced myself that, that was more relevant and needed to be posted immediately. And everytime you asked about the prize-winning picture I was feeling sillier than ever because heart of hearts I felt it’s just a normal picture which was lucky to get selected.

And then somebody I know very cunningly insinuated that if I don’t post it, all of you will surely be thinking that I was talking in the air and there was no such prize-winning photograph after all.

What nonsense*N shaking her fist at the suspicious*.

Ofcourse there is one.

Please go here to check it out and while you are there, do check out the other winners too, some pictures are so beautiful.

http://www.shoot-at-sight.com/shootatsight/Daily.aspx

Then click on link 14[sorry there is no direct link to get there] to get to my picture.

But if you don’t want to go there, then here’s the picture….

A few of us had taken our kids to the Ras Al Khor Bird Sanctuary last November to see the flamingos’ which the reserve was famous for but found it closed to the public because it was a Friday. Since the weather was pleasant we stayed there for sometime. The adults[especially me] spent time craning our  heads over the wired mesh to look at the flamingos’ while the kids collected shells [I think the authorities must have brought sand from the sea-side and laid it there…how else could seashells be found right in the heart of the city]. The little boy in the picture is Neil who was running about here and there hoping to get better shells than his cousins who were at that time hunting for them on the other side.

My new DSLR has instilled in me new enthusiasm & I’m raring to go. 

Hopefully in a decade or two I’ll master the complex buttons on the gadget and post some nice pictures like Sakshi and Hitchwriter do.

p.s: If you are wondering about the flamingos’ I mentioned earlier, I've put up some pictures here.

Rule of Symbolism

I’m a great believer in symbolism.

When I see 2 flowers coyly brushing against each other in a movie I nod understandingly because I know the flowers represent the reel-life couple who are supposedly ‘doing it’.

If I’m driving and I see a multi-coloured ball rolling innocuously across the road, I’ll stand on my brakes & screech to a halt to avoid hitting the child, who I know will be dashing after the ball nano-seconds later.

The same way I firmly believe that whatever happens on Jan 1^st sets a precedent for the rest of the year. 

What do you mean you don’t see the connection between the 3 instances I mentioned above???

May I remind you are reading the blog of an ordinary, overworked, underpaid[what pay???], harassed homemaker and not one of Einstein’s theories?

Jan 1^st did not at all go the way I envisioned it.

We got up in the morning at………

Nope, not going to tell you the time.

Let's just leave it at...we had a LATE breakfast

The kids who were instructed to do some ‘symbolic’ studying vanished right after breakfast to play hang out with their friends.

Better-half also disappeared with a friend half-way thru.

Leaving me all alone contemplate where it all started to go wrong. 

Lunch when it finally happened was at 4pm.

Now take a wild guess how I felt when I found myself still in the kitchen at 6pm on New Years Day clearing away lunch while the family and friends were in the living room, heatedly discussing a highly improbable takeover of Kingfisher Airlines by Etihad Airways.

I was soooo tired and raging inwardly.

And knew there was no hope for me for the next 365 days.

2013 was going to be screwed, I just knew it.

I know you are wondering what you could possibly comment without hurting my feelings, without letting me know how big a non-issue you find the whole issue.

And me, I just hate myself when I put my favourite people in such sticky situations.

So  just for you I’ll try to recall if there was anything positive about the whole day.

…..

…..

How about this….

On Jan 1^st I ate some sinfully rich & scrumptious birthday cake. 

We had sizzlers for dinner.

Yes I've already realized I’ll be eating my way thru 2013:-S

My birthday was good though.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details. So will just give you the jist of it.

Better-half fixed an English breakfast for us.

A LATE English breakfast[CAPS helpfully added so that you don’t miss the symbolism].

The ONLY day in the whole year he makes a meal. 

I played patriotic songs on the laptop while I waited to be served.

I would rather have watched the Republic Day parade but we don't have Doordarshan.

It was GOOD.

The breakfast I mean. 

A meal fit for a Queen & her entourage.

We didn't behave like Royalty though.

We stuffed ourselves so much it was not funny.

Half an hour later when I loudly deliberated over the lunch menu; the family clamped their hands over their ears & made gagging sounds.

I mentally rubbed my hands in glee.

Because it meant I was free for the rest of the day.

Then in the evening in a surprise move they took me out and I got a DSLR for a birthday gift.

A Nikon D5200.

Now that was a wonderful surprise;-D.

I thought they were going to get me this gorgeous stooopid bag I was staring at earlier in the month.

In short a SUPER birthday.

Which brings me back to my rock-steady belief in symbolism.

After much delibration, I've decided to take the whole month into consideration[one day is too less to judge a whole year right] and have come to the conclusion that it is going to be a year of highs and lows.

It seems like the first half of every month I’ll be in the depths of despair and the next 15 days will see me as high as a kite.

Will keep you in the loop ofcourse, whether you like it or not, goes without saying.

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

p.s: If my post didn’t make you laugh then read this one…it's DI's tutorial on how to get a free postcard from Dubai. 

p.p.s: And if you want to laugh some more then read this New Year post I wrote 2 years back. I'm determined that you laugh atleast once before you leave here.

p.p.p.s: I’ll post the much-hyped photograph in my next post. I wanted to post it today but somehow found myself typing this out.

Rule of Symbolism: It's considered deep and profound for some, dumb & pretentious for others.

I'm upset

What do you mean you didn't know????

If you had just asked I would have told you;-/.

If I don't get atleast 500 likes & 200 happybudday wishing comments, I'm not putting up my prize-winning photograph like I said I would.

Apologies are also accepted.

New Year Resolutions

I make them every year and try hard to keep them. To make sure I don't break them I keep them very simple.  This year my resolutions are....

and 

to say Grace before a meal!!!!

What's yours????

In the News

Good Evening Viewers,

Welcome to the Bi-monthly from the RBC*.

The headlines

A popular blogging portal had selected Reflections last post as their Saturday Spicy pick. Confusion and chaos followed. Details below.

The term exams have started and there is tangible tension in the air.

And in sports news RBC celebrates the victory of underdogs WestIndies.

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

News in Detail

After 5 long yrs of blogging, one of Reflections post……….made it to Saturday Spicy pick.

She stared in amazement.

Rubbed her eyes and stared again.

It was true.

Her heart overcome with joy started a wild dance which refused to stop.

So what if the post was copied and pasted from an article she read.

She felt like……

She exclaimed that she couldn’t possibly explain how she felt.

But you know her, she needs to explain or she’ll burst….

We will now take you to her and let her explain in her own words how she felt….

“I was sooo thrilled. I now know how Amitabh Bachchanji must have felt when he finally received a filmfare award for Agneepath. Before I continue let me wish the superstar, "Happy 70^th Budday" *waves to camera & blows kisses*

[pausing dramatically]

But it all came crashing down when I realised they misconstrued my entire post….

Bronnie Ware is the person who worked there not me[refer previous post for details].

I wrote to the concerned authorities immediately about the error and am hopeful they’ll do the neccesary amendment.

[leans forward and looks directly into the camera]

But I am not surprised.

You see, these things happen to me all the time.

People kinda assume I’m something which I’m totally not. And I so badly wish to be what they think I am, not because I want to be what they think I am[oh alright maybe a leeetle bit] but because I don’t want them to feel they have erred in their judgement. You get what I mean. You don’t??? Yeah well it’s complicated…….”

[Fade out & back to prim newsreader looking suspiciously like Ms. N’s twin sister ]

Thank You Maam. That was Ms N clarifying her stand on the issue.

[Pauses and continues]

Ms. N also listened to Mayawati’s speech at the Party rally 2 days back and shook her head in amazement. 

“Time will reveal” she said cryptically when asked her stance on the issue and refused to comment further. 

In other news….

After 3 years and 8 months of successfully blocking the tv channels on their idiotbox, Ms. N’s family chanced upon a receiver lying unused in an acquaintance's safekeeping. They sort of blanked out after that. The next thing they know is that the receiver mysteriously found itself in their living room and nobody had logical explanation as to how it reached there. Ms N and family are now always found in front of the tv watching reruns of comedy circus back from 2009. They are also found laughing themselves silly over the episodes and don’t even leave their seats for fear of missing the wonderful advertisements aired.

Side by side, an uneasy atmosphere prevails in Ms N’s Household as the first term exams are going on. We are not prepared, the family gloomily admit. The children are quiet……very quiet, hoping to be overlooked if they made no noise and just kept to themselves. The adults ofcourse are aware that they’ll have only themselves to blame if the kids perform poorly.

On a happier note, Ms N had a celebrity moment a few days back. As you all are aware Ms N has very old friends who don’t think much of the blog and when questioned they critically analyse that there is more hype than matter in this space. So it came as a surprise to Ms N when an old friend told her that her new collegue was a big fan of this blog. The friend’s voice held a shocked element; Ms N face had a beeg grin on it and she wisely held her tongue. Ms N would like to thank this blog-friend for raising this humble blogger's value in her friend’s eyes;-D.

Sports News

Ms N was overjoyed when the West Indies lifted the T20 Trophy. Not surprising since she is always rooting for the underdogs. 
[A pop-up in the corner shows Ms N shrieking "Chris Gayle......BIG Fan*pointing to self*]

But she looked very dispirited when asked to comment about Lance Armstrong. “I’m very disappointed, seems like Heroes don’t exist anywhere except in storybooks. I keep hoping he’ll come back with proof and redeem all our faith but the evidence is damning. None of us like to admit we've been played for fools huh” shrugging her shoulders resignedly.

Ms N has also been eagerly waiting for the temperatures to drop so that she could make a start on her exercise regime. As expected, temperatures dropped but Ms N is still waiting. She is now waiting for inspiration.  Suggestion and comments on this topic are welcome. All messages will be read & replied to by Ms N personally.

That’s all in the news toda......

[News reader is handed a scrap of paper by random hand]

Reports have just come in that Ms N’s congratulatory message to Mr. Bachchan has been misconstrued by his fans. ABFA have asked for a public apology.

When questioned Ms N began dramatically “I’m completely innocent. Why is it that I am always in the news for the wrong reasons? It is all a big misunderstanding. I have nothing but respect for the old man........ ”

Fresh violence broke out among the protesters.

[fades out]

That’s all in the new today. Good day!!!!

[RBC signature tune follows] 

*Reflections Broadcasting Corporation

45 degrees

Hello….

Yup still on the blog-break.

It will re-start right after this post.

This post is a ‘couldn’t help but post’ post.

It is a cry for help.

I know most of you must be thinking[judging by the title ie] that I'm writing to talk about the horrible weather out here.

Yeah well the weather is terrible but I have a more pressing problem for which I need a solution.

And who else can I turn to but all of you kind people!!!!!!

Usually I'd phone a friend but since the problem is just about that, so I have no go but to ask you for help. 

I’m not much of a phone person but once or twice or thrice or four or five times a week I get a few calls from family/friends/relatives/acquaintances/ex-colleagues/old neighbours/church members who want latest updates on what’s going on this side of town.

That’s right, they all call me on their own free will.

Mostly they call whenever they think they are unlikely to be disturbed. Like, when they know they have a bit of free time before the next meeting or during their lunch hour or when their boss is out for the next 2 hours. Because you see, once the call is made, it is a known fact  that both parties will not get off the phone for the next 40 minutes at the very least. Only a fire or a fire drill can have the power to interrupt. Actually until a few days back we didn’t think a fire drill could affect the length of our conversation but we were forced to face the bitter truth;-o.

In short I’m so interesting that the other party can’t bear to keep the phone down.

In short they call me when they are free. And expect to be occupied for the next hour.

But that doesn’t mean I am free, right??????

Ofcourse I'm not free. You all are aware, I hold an important position in a non-profit organisation where work never ends. In my field one work leads to another. Even before I finish a job and dream about stretching my tired arms 2 more jobs are jostling to catch my eye. And if it’s not a job it’s about maintaining peace among the members in my team. Oh yes a volatile bunch I tell u. And if it’s not the team there are external factors knocking on my door, I meant figuratively ofcourse.

Right and all of you know I’m sooo busy that I took a blog break I had no wish to take. See if that’s not proof then what else is????

So as I was saying, the problem is that I hate to tell them I’m busy. I simply can’t be mean to a nice person who called me to ask how I was and want the minutes on what’s going on in my life. And I also want to know what they’ve been upto. So I try hard to fit the call inspite of my busy schedule.

I promise myself my work will not suffer.

So I place the cordless close to the ear, sort of tilt my head sideways in a 45 degrees angle, wedge the instrument between head and neck and talk.

And do my work.

And chatter away.

And do my work.

Everything is good initially.

But after 15-20 minutes it begins to hurt.

My neck, it begins to hurt.

Then I have to stop half-way the work I am doing, hold the phone with my hand for sometime and converse.

Time is ticking.

Work is pending.

Deadlines have to be met.

When the head and neck finish their rotating exercises I put the cordless back in place. But after 15 minutes the shoulder and neck starts hurting again.

You get my problem right.

Sometimes I put it on speaker but the person on the other side gets uncomfortable as soon they realise they are on speaker. And also I cannot move around freely if it is on speaker because they can’t hear me as clearly if I turn away even for a second and that moment is lost.

Momentum is everything in these situations. An ill-placed pause, a funny tapping noise from inside the phone, an unexpected doorbell ring can make the news-giver clam up and the moment is then lost forever.

Damn, damn damn then keeps echoing in the head the whole day.

Residing in the Gulf and if one is a homemaker, it is an isolated life. One is forced to stay indoors for many reasons. The blistering heat being one of them. The lack of a DL could be another. Nobody wants to hire you the biggest. Like I said, the reasons are many. So these telephone calls are actually blessings in disguise. They distract us from our mundane routine and make us aware of the problems which the rest of the population face. We forget our worries for the moment to focus on a comrade’s concerns. We get an opportunity to offer our valuable advice and many a time help them see a new perspective. We feel worthy. The reverse works too. By the end of a conversation there is a lightness in the heart, a lift in the spirits and bonus the house is sparkling clean the scheduled work for the day is completed and one never felt like one was working all the while.

Which brings me back to my problem. I’m getting a pain in the neck holding the cordless in the crick of my neck and I want a solution.

Now according to me a Bluetooth is the answer; the wireless technology seems like the perfect solution to all my problems.

So I request the better-half to get me a Bluetooth. He was ok with the idea until he found out I wanted it for the landline. Well ofcourse I want it for the landline. Local calls are free only on the landline, why else will I ask for one???? He looked at me funny. Like as if I live with my head up in the clouds. Like as if I don’t know what’s going on around me. Like how this woman would have survived out in the real world if I hadn’t married her.

I on the other hand am thinking more practically. More realistically. I’m thinking maybe he doesn't have the answer. He’s like that you know…hates to admit he doesn’t have the solution to everything. He launches into some technical jargon to explain rattle me. In the beginning it used to be terribly confusing. But after 13 yrs I can see through it all. I smile at him kindly and pat him to indicate I understand. 

I have more important things to do.....

Like googling for neck exercises. 

Like finding time to write a post when I’m so unbelievably busy.

And actively searching for a solution before I reach this stage[It's not my fault if I come across funny pics like these when I'm researching for solutions]-->

You understand right, and will help, won’t You?????

Piece of Mind

The shifting saga is not over yet. I searched my mind for some other interesting story to tell you but the mind remains stubbornly blank. Well I can’t blame my mind also…..it has never in its life ‘shifted’ anywhere and the upheaval caused by the move cannot be glossed over.

See, my mind is a creature of habit.

It hates change.

Because it is a creature of habit.

I already said that???

I apologise, please go easy on it.

Who???

My mind, I’m talking about my MIND.

It’s still living in the past.  For instance as soon as we get out of the lift it persists in turning right instead of left simply because for the past 12 years it has been turning right to reach home. It[my mind, my MIND] also directs my hand to reach for certain ingredients in the kitchen at odd places, in short wastes so much of my time. It’s almost one month since we moved in but my poor little mind still lives in my old apartment.

Me, I’m beginning to like my new home now and see potential and possibilities.  The first 2 weeks were terrible but now I’m much more relaxed. Down to the last 3 unopened cartons you see.

You still have cartons to open?????

Yeah *shamefaced* but only 3-4 of them. See the problem with me is that I’m easily distracted…….for me each carton was like Pandora’s Box. One could never predict what one would find in them. Some of the things, I hadn't seen in years. And totally evil stuff. The carton with books were the worst….and it's not just me, each of us would pause on the books we liked, then slowly wander away from the unpacking scene to sit down and read. 

Once the books were given their due the photo albums demanded their share of attention. The kids were so thrilled to go through the pictures of their babyhood[I had stashed them away for safety reasons…like sticky fingers] and I had to explain the circumstances under which each picture was taken. Not a single picture reflected tranquillity you see and so couldn't blame them for demanding explanations. After we finished with that, came the carton with my puzzles.

Jigsaw puzzles.

It was like meeting up with old friends. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you but next to my love for reading comes my fascination with Jigsaws. When the kids are busy checking out the latest toys in a Toy Store I can usually be found in the aisle where the Jigsaw puzzles are kept. I’ll not be joking if I said I can spend hours looking through the choices the store has and finally even if the kids didn’t choose anything I would have picked up a puzzle pack. The more the number of pieces in the puzzle the more I am entranced. The better-half never understood my fixaton with them.  When I edged towards the cash counter he would give me that ‘Not another one’ look and I would pretend not to notice and march off with my jigsaw pack safely cradled in my arms.

Now interest is one thing and the ability to put them together another.

No doubt I’m a passionate Jigsaw puzzle devotee but I lack the dedication to see it through. I certainly begin well; the initial 100 pieces are pieced together in a matter of hours. I would be at it whenever I had some time to spare and even manage to complete the puzzle say 70% of it within weeks. Then I get stuck. The main culprit is usually the sky or the sea and sometimes it’s both. Darkness and shadows are other terrible images to put together. Days stretch into weeks and weeks into months. Soon the pieces would find their way into the kitchen and onto the balcony. Some of them even hide themselves in the vacuum cleaner. The worst is that the better-half is the one who always finds them.

I would wince inside when he stood in front of me with a piece [which he would have fished out of don’t ask where and dammit how is it that only he finds them] and not say a single word.

After a few repeated confrontations like the above I would admit defeat and mournfully bundle up all the pieces back into its covers and pack it away safely.

You’d think I’d have learnt my lesson but no, within a few months I’d buy another pack and go through the whole ringamole once again. The thing is, everytime I pick up a new pack I convince myself that this time I’ll definitely complete it.

Truth be told I have completed many but the plain fact is that I have more incomplete stuff to my credit.

Like I said the sky and the sea just scramble my mind. After working on it for a few weeks my mind starts turning everything into a jigsaw. Anything I’m looking at sort of form into odd shaped pieces and start piecing themselves together. Just like how tetris blocks keep falling everywhere you look…ermmm tetris addicts will know what I’m talking about.

One fine day I made a decision to stop buying until I finished the previous. It was hard but I kept my word, to myself. I still went and examined all the new puzzles in the store and studied the pictures and dimensions very carefully but did not buy. Though I was totally convinced that ‘this one’ is something I can definitely complete.  

Aah well, old stories….

Wait, why did I bring that up now when I was talking about unpacking???

Because I’m back at it again. This time with a new purpose. See I got this brilliant idea, some of my walls were looking so bare so I thought I’ll piece together these puzzles, get them framed and put them on the wall. Howzattttt!!!!!

Here are a few I've been working on….

Flying

It all started when the kids took this puzzle to fix and asked me to help I ofcourse couldn't resist. I was so rusty initially that I mourned the loss of my jigsaw piecing skills. But like we never forget how to ride a bicycle I got back into rhythm after sometime. Together we fixed the puzzle in one day and were very thrilled with ourselves ‘Hmmmmm, haven’t lost my touch*pat, pat went my hand on my back*’. But it was just a 300 piece puzzle I cautioned myself.

The Road to the Sea

The kids then took this one out with the same enthusiasm but soon gave up as a 1000 piece puzzle was a different ballgame altogether. They compensated by picked out the edges, the sea and the sky and helped me a lot. I fixed the houses, the path and the greenery in 4-5 days and then took more than 1 week to put the sea and the sky together. Just look at it......the sea and the sky I mean, just pieces and pieces of light blue and dark blue. It was really tough but I made it. The satisfaction I got cannot be explained. Because this was one of the incompleted puzzles which I left half-way a year or so back, convinced that the sky and sea were inpiecable[if there is a word like that] by a normal human being. The better-half was impressed, not that he told me so in words but I could make out;-D.

Puppies in the wooden Box

Now this one is one of my oldest and a favourite. I have pieced it together more than once. I have this one memory of this puzzle. Almost 10 yrs ago when I first attempted the picture I started with the puppies first…..after a lot of trial and error I pieced together all the 6 puppies and found that I still had bits and pieces of puppy nose and paws and whiskers left. I simply couldn’t imagine why these extra pieces were there in the pack. I then pieced together the wooden chest and the fabric hanging behind the puppies. When I was nearing the end I found a gaping hole next to the 6^th puppy from the right. And what do you know, all those extra pieces came together to form a tiny 7^th puppy in the corner. It was such a lovely surprise and I still remember my excitement at piecing together something which wasn’t even there in the picture. 

Machu Picchu - 3000pcs

A few years back my brother-in-law was going to Singapore/Malaysia and I asked him to get me a puzzle pack from there. You see I had heard about and even seen some beautiful puzzle packs from there, especially the famous paintings from the bygone[Renaissance, etc] era which were promoted as puzzles. So I explained in detail what I wanted and he said he knew all about it. Then he comes back and gives me what I still think is the largest and the most complicated one. I took it out just once but kept it back within days. It was working out to be bigger than my dining table. And the bil got what he wanted, I never asked him for anything again.

The Castle - 2000pcs

I am now occupied with the above. Like the earlier one, I had attempted this one too a few years back and had given up half-way. I know it’s not going to be easy, for this one has double the pieces, the sky & forest are already giving me the creeps. But the confidence I gained after completing ‘Road to the Sea’ is something else. Makes me feel very optimistic:-).

The mind is a strange thing......whenever I'm doubtful it keeps spurring me on.  Like Buddha says "The mind is everything. What you think you become". But he wouldn't have ever thought it would get twisted this much out of context;-).

A new lesson everyday

After the final exams the kids had a fortnight off before they started school again. I usually view holidays with trepidation but this time was secretly rubbing my hands in glee because I enrolled them for the annual VBS[Vacation Bible School] at Church. Which meant that they would be out of my hair for 3-4 hours everyday for 7 days.

What is it they say about best-laid plans of mice and men……

It all started when I was standing & talking with my friend in church. A mature member of the church interrupts our very important conversation.

Yes important. We were talking about world peace.

Seriously we were.

Anyways you can’t prove we were not.

Now the nice-looking aunty requests my friend to step in as a VBS teacher since they were facing a shortage. As soon as I heard the topic of conversation my gut instincts screamed at me to "get out of there Nancy....just get the heck out of there before...". My friend like I expected cried off because she was a working woman & the timings clashed. I in the meantime was trying to merge into the solid church wall behind me.

Why????

Because these two were blocking the exit.

When the heavy and suggestive silence became too much I peeked to see 2 pairs of eyes staring expectantly for an answer to a question I'm prepared to swear I didn’t hear. That was it. Before I knew it I was signed up as Junior teacher for the VBS.

I was not pleased. All that free time I dreamed of putting into good use evaporated into thin air ;-(. Teaching kids was the last thing I wanted to do in my ‘free’ time. If I wanted to do that I would have joined as teacher in some school long back and earned big moneys.

I spent the rest of the day kicking myself for not saying NO plain and straight out.

What is the big deal you ask????

"Very big deal" I defend myself.

To begin with I don’t like kids.

Nope, not even my own.

I love them, my kids I mean but ‘like’….I'm still not so sure.

It was always like that. Even during my teenage years I used to keep away from them. Anyways it was mutual, they didn’t like me too…the kids I mean. If any of them even accidently looked at me I’d contort my face into a grotesque mask and scare the freaking daylights out of them. Their mothers would frantically scan the vicinity to see what rendered their sunny kid into a blubbering mess.

I still do that[once in a while though] to reassure myself I haven’t lost my touch.

Coming back to my original problem, I finally came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do but grin and bear it. And it was just for a week anyway.

The only silver lining……my kids were so thrilled about it.  So excited that it was ridiculous. Naina was building castles in the air. Like she was pretending that she was already in my class and I had made her the monitor of the class.

Huh….

“Naina, it doesn’t work that way, when they find out we belong to one family they’ll put you in another class.” said I, trying to let her down gently.

“But Mama they won’t find out because we have different surnames[well she has her father’s name and I have mine]” said Naina looking at me very hopefully.

On the first day of the VBS Naina’s dreams crashed. Not only was she not in my class she was not even in my section ie. Juniors. She was grouped under Primary. She was inconsolable. I pacified her in the limited time I had[I too had to reach my class right] & waved her off with another kid in relief. And Nikita was in the Intermediate Group.

Thank goodness both my kids were not anywhere in the nearest vicinity. I don’t think I could have concentrated on my work with these two trying to catch my eye every 2 minutes. As it is I was so jittery about taking classes after a long time.

I reluctantly make my way to the Juniors group leader who assigned me Section 13.

No. 13

Wonderful, now all I needed was a black cat to cross my path.

I found a tiny group of 4 patiently waiting for me when I reached my section.

Eh, just four kids???

I mugged up all that stuff in Lesson 1 to teach 4 kids???

Introduced myself and asked them their names. Made small talk. I taught the 1^st lesson really well; with lots of cunning examples and touching stories. Infact I drilled it into their heads so well that I doubt they are going to forget it anywhere in the near future. The lesson for the day was ‘Obey your parents’. Vested interests u see. I was also hoping that somewhere on the other side my kids were also taught the same by like-minded individuals.


As the evening progessed I realised I didn't have to do much. If I asked 1 question the 4 kids together had 40 things to tell me. So it was ok. And they were sweet kids. Seriously they really were. I mean they were irritating and all that but since I already had experience handling my two I was ok. Let's not forget that I was also on my best behaviour.

I cautiously declared day 1 a success.

But ofcourse all the way home Naina was acting like I gave her up for adoption or something. Huge accusing eyes followed me around for the next 24 hours. Luckily for me her teacher was a teenager who turned out to be a fun person to hang out with so she magnanimously decided to forgive me after 2 days. Drama Queen I tell u.

The next day's lesson was about Forgiveness. There were 8 students[a bunch of 8-10yr olds] in my class that day. One kid was in my class by mistake. I decided to forgive him. 8 was a decent number and I needed him to make me look good.

The next day was about Sharing; I got all of them to bring a coloured imprint of their hand on chart paper which I stapled around a decorated paper-plate[denotes sharing, get it??]. After lessons & games we all shared the donuts, samosas and mini pizzas we brought from home.

Then Humility, Faithfulness....and so on it went. All too soon it was the 7^th & the final day.  There were no classes on the final day; every class put up a play or a song or whatever they could usually with a message. Juniors group was large….there were atleast 150 kids if not more. And we were given just 20 minutes to perform whatever we wanted on stage.

We decided to go with a Malayalam song and a small play enacting it. The song was about a small injured sparrow seeking shelter from the rain. The banyan tree, the mango tree and the palm tree refused to give shelter. Finally the banana tree welcomes her into his shade. Then there is a storm and all the bad trees are destroyed but the humble banana tree survives. Good wins over bad kind of story.

Considering the fact that we started practicing only the 6^th day and ALL the 150 kids took part I thought we did a decent job. We managed to fit in around 50 kids on the stage…….around 5 kids held main parts, the rest were all trees, shrubs and flowers. The remaining 100 kids stood just below the stage and sang the song. What do I say??? It played out awesome. We felt a bit like frauds accepting all the compliments which were pouring in;-D

It was time to say good-bye. All my kids were really very sad that it was ending. Making me wonder if they lead boring lives or what. And I felt guilty that I was glad it was ending. I mean I was sad too but it was too much work. Once I decided to go ahead with it I had thrown my heart and soul into it but my h&s wouldn’t have been able to handle the strain if it went on much longer. 

I hugged them all and sent them off with loving & encouraging words. One of the boys stayed back to talk. Remember the little boy I told you who was in my class by mistake. The one I decided to forgive. Yes that one.

His name is Milan. He said something like this “Actually maam I came to your class by mistake. My papa showed me the correct class the next day but I didn’t want to go there. I loved your class very much and wanted to be here. You are the best VBS teacher I ever had”. He didn’t look old enough to have attended more than 2 years of VBS. But seriously, he said all that.

Ask Naina, she was there when he said it. She puffed out her chest in pride and beamed, like as if he was complimenting her.

And me I’m weird I tell you because I’m actually considering doing this next year too.

Aaah well, I'm hoping good sense will prevail sooner than later.