I've been awarded a Tag:-))

Deeps thinks I’m this very resourceful, adaptable, nifty, useful, flexible kind of blogger. What other reason could be there for her to award me “The Versatile Blogger" award;-D.
Thanks Deeps, love my award & am going to put it up immediately. There is also a tag attached to this award called the random tag. I’m supposing the ‘random’ has been added deliberately to show how ‘versatile’ one can get in a single post;-P. Anyways here goes….

The rules of this tag:

 Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your Blog Post
 Thank the Blogger who nominated you
 Share 7 Random things about yourself
 Nominate 15 fellow Bloggers
 Inform the Bloggers of their nomination

I always thought almost all the posts on my blog are kinda random but now I’ve got a hepper word for it.....Versatile........I’m a Versatile Bloggah...….haahhh.

Alright let me get randomer than usual…..

First things first….

Update on the chess learning: I already told u about beating Naina but guess what, last week I also managed to win against Nikita. And it was a convincing win!!!! But now nobody wants to play chess with me anymore;-(. Nope haven’t mustered enough confidence to challenge the better-half yet;-P.
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In the inside is a cycling track

I found a park, quite close to where I live, which has a good walking track. It shows us how many metres we have covered and I just love that….as of now I’m covering around 1.5kms in 30 mins…everyday…..cool huh.
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Just realised, shdn't have clicked it against a white bckgrnd

One of Nikita’s classmate's father had to be rushed to India for an emergency surgery in December. The child missed almost a month of school. When her mother worried about the notes I got her to send across some of the child’s notebooks with Nikita. Whenever I had a bit of free time I would update all the books. When the child came back she[and mother] were thrilled to see her books……. all completed. She got Nikita some knick-knacks from India and one among them was this cute little keychain of a zoozoo. And her father is fine now and well on the road to recovery:-). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Can't wait to try out some of the recipes:-))

The Gulf News[newspaper] has this Magazine called Friday which we get every friday[duhhhh…]. It has 2 competitions in which I faithfully take part every week: the crossword and a quiz on Books & their Authors. Every once in a while I win a Dhs.100 voucher[from the quiz] to spend in any Jashanmal Bookstore. I usually get books for the kids with the voucher but this time I picked up a book I had been eyeing for a long time. The kids were not very pleased;-D.
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Barun Sobti as Arnav Singh Raizada

I’m going to tell u a secret now….. I have fallen hard for a fictional character called Arnav Singh Raizada. I chanced upon him in this show called Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon on Star Plus when I went home to India last August. In real life I would probably run a mile away from him; ASR treats the female protagonist with scant respect. He mocks her at every opportunity and manhandles her all the time. His excuse: he has a PAST. He stares, glares, smirks, ….at her and does everything a hero of a show shouldn’t. But one small smile from him and I’m ready to tolerate another 30 episodes of the same nonsense;-(.
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The Virgin MegaStore

Went to one of our favourite booknooks one weekend & I noticed they had changed their layout a bit. I was looking around trying to get my bearings when I saw some books piled up on the floor. The book on the top had a very interesting title “Books for sitting”. How very novel, I thought & tried to open it. I tugged and tugged thinking it was stuck. I know, I know I can be so dim sometimes;-/.
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I spent 15 minutes trying to make this pic vertical;-(

The shopping festival is going on full swing. Visited the Global village last weekend. We did the usual rounds and guess what I picked up amongst other things….a trolley shopping bag from the Chinese Pavilion. I've seen so many people on the Metro with these trolleys and kept thinking it would be very convenient for times when I went shopping for groceries alone. So now I don’t have to wait for taxis anymore, simply load my trolley[it can carry upto 40kgs....just saying;-D] and get back home on the Metro itself.

Phewww…….and that’s it….7 random things about me.

Now I would like to award and tag...…

Amrita

An Open Book

Anita Jeyan Sandeep

Destination Infinity

Horizon

Jyothi

Lan

Limenlemons

Lostworld

Nilu

Snow

Swaram

Tharani

Uma

Vaidegi j

The Backward Pawn

Nobody around me knew how to play chess when I was small. My parents didn’t know nor did my friends. Atleast I think my friends' didn’t because if they knew, you can be sure that I would have learnt it by default;-D. That’s how I learnt to play most of the games like scrabble, carroms, chinese checkers, Uno, bluff, roller-skating, riding a geared bike….I can go on.

What????

Oh please Snakes & ladders & ludo were kids stuff. Even now I mentioned it only because you asked;-/.

And whatever I knew I was quick to teach my kids. So they knew how to play Carroms, Chinese checkers, Scrabble, Uno…no, not bluff[ I havent introduced them to playing cards yet], before they even knew how to read.

Alright alright Scrabble came after they learnt how to read.

Gosh u guys nit-pick so much;-S.

Now chess is the one game I never learnt but heard lots about.….

Not everybody can play Chess….
You need to be good at maths to play chess....
People who play chess are very intelligent...
Chess has to be learnt young….
Eating lots of okra helped chess players….

If I tax my memory some I’ll definitely recall more useless information. But as a child & even in my teens I swallowed all these stories verbatim.

When I was in my 20’s one or two people offered to teach me seeing my interest but I shrank back from…..I don’t really know what. One reason could be that I thought it was too complicated and the person teaching me will think that I’m a fool. I had also convinced myself that it was too late to learn.

Vishwanathan Anand was a genius in my book. I never missed any article about him in the sports section. Much of the jargon on chess would have gone over my head but I still read every word on him. Chess was not like cricket or football. It was about mind games….. and Vishwanathan Anand battled against the BEST in the world and came out tops. In my mind he seemed invincible....one of the few celebrities I idolised.
Oh for goodness sakes, let’s just leave Salman Khan out of this conversation shall we. Sometimes I wonder why I tell u guys all my secrets;-/.

During the shopping festival here, some malls put rows and rows of chess boards for people to play. No prizes offered just pure entertainment for the players and the crowd. I would have no clue what was going on but I’d stand there and watch. The facial expressions of the players, the tension in the air, their fingers deliberating over the next move, everything fascinated me.


The kids playing on a life-size board

And then there are these life-sized chess boards which are put on the pavements…..mostly monopolized by little children who play the game with their companions or parents. It is heart-warming to watch little geniuses carefully considering their next move & then manfully dragging the huge pieces across the board.

The better-half taught the kids how to play the game 2 years back. I was so thrilled when they grasped the nuances of the game & began playing on their own. But soon was disappointed because they didn’t really concentrate; they played but often abandoned the game over flimsy reasons. And because I didn’t know how to play I couldn’t guide them or judge who the offender was.
The tragedy was that unlike the other games they never took the chess board out on their own to play; I had to coax and cajole them into it and they played like they were doing me a major favour;-(. Naina especially was so irritating. I would often hear her ‘Chechi look, you can kill me if you do this’. Even though I didn’t know chess I definitely knew Naina was not going to win matches if she was showing people how to score over her. After sometime I too lost interest and the chess-board was carefully packed back into its cover & stowed away.

Recently the kids went to a birthday party & Nikita won a chess set as 1st prize for some game they had played. Interest in chess returned tenfold and they spent a lot of time setting up the board and walking around the house with it. My elation dipped when realisation dawned. You see it was a magnetic chess board. They walked round and round the house with the board & its pieces facing downwards to the ground basically to test the magnetic pull between the board & the pieces;-/.

When they were finally convinced that the pieces were not going to crash to the ground they settled down to play. Their father helped them renew their memories and skill and soon they were playing with a lot more interest than what they showed last year.

“You don’t know how to play chess????” queries Naina incredulously recently when I tell her why I can’t play with her.

I shake my head mournfully.

“I’ll teach you mama” says Naina excitedly.

“Not now Naina maybe someother day, go play with chechi now” I reply absent-mindedly, my mind occupied with mundane matters.

But Naina had made up her mind she was going to teach me. She followed me all around the house with the chess-board and went on and on about the game.

I admitted defeat after sometime and sat down to let her teach me. I had to get her off my back somehow. As soon as we started Nikita appeared on the scene and competed with Naina to teach me. They then proceeded to argue, debate, shout eachother down while each tried to educate me about how chess should be played. I held my head in despair and tried to think clearly thru the din. My 1st instinct was to walk away but I knew the kids would be so disappointed. And I always wanted to learn how to play didn't I??
I finally restored calm & issued a direct order that both were not to open their mouths until I asked them to. I then asked all the questions to each of them in turns.

2 hours and 3 games later I was beginning to see the light. I was royally beaten by both of them but I got the hang of how the game worked. The very next day I beat Naina and felt like a world champion. I haven’t been able to beat Nikita yet though I scared her once or twice [yes she’s good at it but I could be biased;-D].

Honestly I was taken aback at how easily I took to it……all my life I thought that chess was some complicated labyrinth which required super powers to understand. At the ripe old age of 38 I finally learnt to play Chess.

It was all in my mind….the mental block which made me think I'm a dimwit who would not be able to grasp the rules even if somebody taught me. I’m so glad my little one bullied me into learning it. Though I pretend to be very reluctant about playing[reverse psychology…… to get the kids more interested in the game;-)] I am hooked.

Things I don’t understand I clarify with the better-half. I haven’t played a game with him yet. But one day I will. In the meantime I’m secretly practicing my moves to knock his socks off.

Oh get your mind out of the gutter people, I was talking about my chess moves;-D.

Are there any valuable tips you want to leave for this blog friend and chess enthusiast??? I need all the help I can get. I’d also love to hear about your experiences with chess.

Edited to ask: Just suppose I am at a point where I have to give up either my Bishop or the Rook, which one should I sacrifice: the Bishop or the Rook???

My New Year Resolution...

&

to learn to play Chess:-)

[click image to enlarge]

Just thinking.....

It’s back again!!!!!!

The end of the year I mean. It keeps coming back with monotonous regularity and too fast for my liking but I have never complained….till recently ie. Infact I have always looked ahead and ushered the new year in with a lot of fanfare. Then it was exciting and there were lots of possibilities. But now it sort of…I mean the end of the year depresses me when I think about it.

Years are just flying past. And I’m not so sure I like it.

Actually I don’t. Not one bit.

Stop. Slow down. What’s the big hurry dammit????

I really don’t know why I’m panicking. I’m so afraid time is running out on me, afraid that I’ll die without achieving anything. Accomplishing nothing. Achievements & accomplishments not measured in terms of a good job, position or status, more like a need within me to give back to Society what I have received. To make a difference. To feel worthy. To satisfy a hunger clawing at my insides….like it’s something I need to do.

It gets a 100 times worse when I think about it at night. Especially when I can’t sleep. Every fear is magnified and the darkness makes me feel like I’m all alone even though my loved ones are all around me. But well….they are sleeping.

Daylight brings with it a clarity wherein I console myself there is time. Lots of time. Like decades and decades stretching ahead of me to do whatever I want to. Why, take my mother who is in her 60’s……. she’s so in her element now. Almost half of her life she stayed home & took care of her family. I used to wonder secretly how she could be so content to play homemaker when she could have put her teaching degree to good use. But she says she never regretted it and just look at her now, always busy with her church meetings, conferences, voluntary work and her friends, not to forget her determination to stay in shape. I’m just so in awe of her. I hope to be atleast half of what she is when I reach that age.

Most of the time I’m content with what I have. I know that compared to many others I’m so blessed. But there is this niggling thought which refuses to go away. A thought that reminds me that I’m capable of much more and am probably wasting away the best years of my life. Alright there are no regrets when I look at it from the point of view of a mother; I’m so glad I have the choice of being a hands-on mother. I have no lofty ideals for my children; if they grow up to be grounded beings with their heart in the right place I’d consider it a job well-done.

In a couple of years I’ll be four zero. That’s like half my life over. And nothing to show for it.

Atleast that’s what it feels like.

….
….

Then again I pause to think….

Why can’t I be satisfied with what I have????

Why I am not able to convince myself that to reach out for more is not a crime???

Am I looking at the whole picture or missing out on important details???

Why do thoughts have to be so conflicting???

Wishing U All....

A Merry Christmas:-))

Sister Symphony

I’m at the bus stop watching my kids alight from the bus.

Nikita walks up to me and says excitedly “Mama, meet my new sister” pointing to her side where I can see only empty space.

I’m puzzled and turn to look at Naina who is walking behind us at a snail’s pace with a very grumpy expression on her face.

Not again I think to myself wryly. They’ve made it like a fashion statement to fight in the school bus and come home with grouses.

“Mama, mama, look at us…..my new sister is waiting for you to say hello” says Nikita tugging at my arm insistently.

“Hello new sister” I say obediently and wink at Naina at the same time.

Naina marginally brightens up at my expression and joins us.

“My new sister is the best. She listens to me and likes everything I have to say. She doesn’t argue with me or fight over silly things. I’m going to have a great time with her” announces Nikita with a quick sideways look at Naina.

“What’s your new sister’s name???” I ask.

“Pakoda*” says Nikita grandly. “I have named her Pakoda and she’s going to be my bestest ever sister.”

I coughed to hide my laughter and even Naina  couldn’t help but grin.

As we walked up the stairs Nikita was very dramatically showing off the neighbourhood to her imaginary companion.

“Pakoda, this is where we live, this is how we walk up the stairs, see this is our front door and this is my living room…….come on I’ll show you all my toys and we are going to have lots of fun together”.

For the next 1 hour she didn’t let up…….it was all Pakoda this and Pakoda that.

And inbetween she’ll look at Naina & me and say with the most innocent expression “Pakoda is the best sister I have ever had in my life. She is so much fun and I JUST love her”.

I found the whole thing amusing but couldn’t help feeling sorry for Naina who had no sense of humour when she needed it most.

Naina who was silent all this while couldn’t bear it anymore and announced her decision to have her own imaginary sister.

Nikita who was acting like she was super busy with Sister Pakoda had her ears trained in our direction all the while.

She was at our side in a flash and firmly stopped Naina’s plans from taking wings.

“The imaginary sister thing is MY idea. You can’t copy MY idea” she says authoritatively.

“Yes I can”

“No, you cant”

“Yes I can”

“No, you cant”

“Can”

“Can’t”

“Mamaaaaaaa…..”

“Stop it u twooo…”

“Naina if u copy my idea then I’ll copy ALL ur ideas for the rest of our lives and you will not able to stop me.” says Nikita resourcefully.

Nikita leaves the room leaving Naina to mull over the statement.

Naina who knew the consequences of that left it wisely alone.  She retreated for the moment and sat down to think of new strategy.

 Just then Nikita calls out “Naina, can u get me my library book, it’s on the bed”

“Ask Pakoda to get it for you” says Naina without missing a beat.

There was a resounding silence punctuated by me trying to muffle my laughter.

And for the rest of the day Nikita was royally ribbed by both Naina and me.

 “Nikita, ask Pakoda to get me your lunch-box from your bag”.

“Chechi** will Pakoda play with me if I ask her nicely”

“Pakoda lay the table for me please”

“Pakoda I like u more than my real sister”

By the end of the day Nikita looked like she wished she’d never started it  but very good-naturedly endured all the teasing;-D.
The next day the teasing continued and in desperation Nikita put Pakoda to sleep from 2 to 6pm.

Naina & I were so bothered about Pakoda ‘s sleeping pattern; we kept urging Nikita to wake her up because she won’t get any sleep at night if she slept too long.

And the next day when no mention was made about Pakoda till evening I was dying of curiousity.

“Where’s Samosa??? Errr....I mean Pakoda" I ask.

“Oh Pakoda stayed behind at school to help with the chartwork. She’ll be there till night” says Nikita very casually avoiding our eyes & had a small smile playing on her lips.

Naina grins at me from behind Nikita.

And that was that I thought with relief. The better-half when he first heard about the imaginary sister had reacted very differently from me. He was very upset and asked Nikita why she felt the need for an imaginary sister when she had a real sister who was so much fun and who thought the world of her.

Nikita who looked guilty and mutinous at the same time said that Naina was not treating her with respect and not listening to her or doing anything she asked her to do. So then her father gently explained that only if you treat her well and give her respect will she also give you the same. Just because she is your sister she can’t be expected to obey you blindly. And even after that Naina treated her with disrespect she was to tell us about it & we’ll soon set her right. I don’t know how much Nikita gleaned from the conversation but she didn’t argue anymore. Naina was also given a warning that she was not to forget that Nikita was her elder sister and that she’s not to get over-familiar with her especially in front of their friends and schoolmates.

After a few days we forgot all about it and then yesterday….

Both get off the school bus and run up to me….

“Mama, may I introduce my sister to you” says Naina excitedly pointing to Nikita.

“Meet Pakoda, my new sister!!!!!”
 Chechi stayed back in school to help with the chartwork”

And they walk off hand-in-hand talking excitedly about their plans for the afternoon.

Here we go again……

@picture above: Nikita’s new found hobby. She found an old church directory and decided it was going to be her comic book. She stuck colored paper on the front & back and illustrated it on her own. At the end of each day she cuts out the cartoon section from the newspaper and sticks it in the book. Initially the book had only her name on it but one day when Naina was sad about some incident which happened in school, Nikita magnanimously added her name below. I was sooo touched.

p.p.s: Before you go all awww…..
…when Naina does anything to irritate her the first thing Nikita does is threaten to scratch her name off the comic book;-P

*Pakoda: a small, spicy fritter containing pieces of vegetables, made usually with a batter of chickpea flour and deep-fried.
**chechi: elder sister in Malayalam

As far as I can see...

I’m checking mail, commenting on blogs, playing christmas carols…….the sunlight is pouring through the window and my screen was reflecting some of the light.

I couldn’t see clearly. Sighing in irritation I go to the window to block the light.

I pause while drawing the curtains…

And see….

The blue sky…..

The plants bending in the direction of the sharp wind…

The birds huddling together to keep warm…

It was cold….

And I think...

I’m so blessed…

To have a roof over my head….

To be able to serve hot meals for my loved ones….

To have a family who loves me….

Friends who care….

I have a laptop…

An internet connection…

I can read….

I can feel….

I have a body which follows my bidding…

I can sing…

I may not have seen the world…

But I can dream…

I can see.

Hah....tagged ya:-)

It’s been a looong time since I attempted a tag & so when I came across this somewhere on the web I felt like taking it up. Its called the 7 meme post. Basically it’s all about the different types of posts you have on your blog…..and a chance to show it off;-D. I thought it would be fun to to take a walk down memory lane remembering times when I put up like 8-10 posts a month[hawwww…..;-o].

What this is about:
To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

Rules:
1) Blogger is nominated to take part

2) Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category.
The links are:
- Your most beautiful post
– Your most popular post
– Your most controversial post
– Your most helpful post
– A post whose success surprised you
– A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
– The post that you are most proud of

3) Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.

4) These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers

5) And so it goes on!

Only after cutting & pasting & writing the intro and formatting the text to my liking did I realise how tough it was going to be to choose for each category. No not because I have so many options but because I didn’t feel any of them made the cut.
Since I spent 45 minutes already on this I can’t think of back tracking & scrabbling around around for something else to post;-P.

So here goes…..

Your most beautiful post- The Unwanted Third

I wrote this in my early blogging days so you may find the words & sentences not so coordinated but I chose it simply because it was a post written from the heart. It is about my neighbours who’ve moved away now…..it is about a little baby whose face still is so clear in my mind even though I haven’t seen her in years.

Your most popular post – The baddest word of them all

I got over 100 comments for this one but that’s not why I say its popular. Every single day my stats shows me keywords like ‘baddest word’ ‘world’s baddest word’ which have been typed into google and reached my page. But I doubt my post satisfies the curiosity of the people who are searching for whatever they are searching for;-D.

Your most controversial post – Hot and Happening

Controversy and me…..hilarious*Nancy wiping tears off*. I never deliberately go out of my way to court trouble either here or real life. I do realise putting up a controversial topic on my blog can get me a lot of comments but it goes against my grain. ‘Judge ye not’ is my motto. Life is too short reallyJ. Even here in this post I was just talking about the weather…..atleast I started out saying it was too hot for words & the rest just happened;-D

Your most helpful post – How to Blog

I’m this really very helpful person in real life….so helpful that people start doubting my intentions after sometime;-(. So nowadays I act most offhand when people ask me for help. And you know what…it works. Everybody is so grateful now even if I just tell them the time. Oh yes my helpful post….I reluctantly direct most of the new, full of doubts bloggers to this post and they rave, exclaim, jump up & down and claim to find it very helpful;-D

A post whose success surprised you –

I scanned thru a lot of posts & wasted maximum time on this link……to tell u the truth, the response I used to get for every post used to be surprise me all the time. When I got up in the morning & checked out the number of comments I received I would be like “Wow, do people really relate to it this muccchhh….;-o”[note: don’t go by the present scenario, I’m talking about the golden era when a whole lot of us used to live and breathe blogs;-D ] 
Take the post I have selected for example……even today I shake my head all puzzled when I see the huge response it had generated. I mean how can people can get so excited about ‘How I met my husband" sagas…..;-D.

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved:

Nope I can’t think of a single one….like I told u I’m always surprised at the attention my posts get that I keep scrutinising my posts to see what is it exactly that all of u find so interesting out here;-P. But since I’m obliged to put one up I’ll choose a personal favourite - My Fathers (S)cars

The post that you are most proud of - Layali Dubai
I wrote this post on the Global village after going through a 100 links[atleast it felt like that]. When I was finally done it was time to make lunch and so closed the word document WITHOUT saving it……I had absent-mindedly clicked on the ‘don’t save’ option and the whole post just vanished. I stared stunned at the monitor in shock and then just put my head down on the keyboard and wept. Unlike most posts this post had not come out of my head, it had taken me 3 hours and then some more to get 2 pages of material.
The next day I sat down and waded through pages and pages of information again….can u just imagine how boring it must have been. Under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have bothered & would have convinced myself “Maybe it was not meant to be…”. Not really proud of the post as such, more proud of my determination to see it posted.

And that’s it guys, I really hope you’ll go thru the links…esp the old posts…..I really feel I had written some of my best posts then. Unlike now I had soo much to say thenJ.

The 5 bloggers I’m going to nominate here all have been in the blog world for more than a couple of years now and so surmising that they have enough material to choose from…

Anjuli – One of my favourite bloggers…..we go way back in cyber years and haven’t looked back sinceJ. Her posts make me go all wistful…….did u know she has done this overland drive from India to England in 1985 in a 1958 Morris Minor.

Kala – She’s Indian, born & brought up in Malaysia & lives in the US of A. She makes handcrafted jewellery especially with beads, also makes beautiful paintings and…yep very artistic and her writing reflects her personality.

Preeti Shenoy: She needs no introduction….writer, artist, mom, blogger all rolled into one. I love all her posts except for the ones where she posts her pictures. I tell you nobody has the right to look so sexy when they are touching 40;-(. And nope, before u ask..nope she wont be mad at me for telling her age. Atleast I think she won't. She's not like that. I'm very sure she won't. Oh dear.....

Roshan: The resident Doc. And writer. And philosopher. And Aquarius…like me;-D. Don’t tell anybody I told you this…*nancy furtively looks around & whispers*….he holds full-fledged conversations with God.

Smitha: She’s so darn friendly that when you read her posts it’s like having a face to face conversation with her. Anybody can make out when I’m reading her posts….I’m like nodding and nodding my head all the while:-).

My weekend went like this, what about yours....

<> <>

Naina drew this picture from one of her story-books

Nikita: u should have come for the movie with us Mama, u really missed it.

Me: I know but I got you some good books didn’t I.
[Raising voice slightly]Nainaaaaa, have u kept your timetable for tomorrow???? And Nikita, what about you????

Nikita: I already kept mine Mama. Captain Haddock was too good, he made us laugh soo much, I had the best time of my life today. Papa when is the next Tintin movie releasing???? You must take us for it. 

Me: Naina  what are you upto….have u or have u not kept ur books ready for tomorrow??? And you have to go for your bath after that. U know[directed at better- half] if I had hung around for some more time I could have met Shobha De & MT Vasudevan Nair. And Shashi Tharoor is going to be there tomorrow.  [After a pause]Gimme a word for ‘one of the radial rods which form the centre of a wheel’???

Naina[a faint impatient voice from another room]: I’m keeping, I’m keeping it in a moment.

Better-half: How many letters??

Nikita: Mama, Naina cant find her Science project book, that’s why she’s taking so much time. Snowy was really cute but he doesn’t talk like how he does in the comic books, he doesn’t even have speech bubbles with his thoughts in it and Professor Calculus wasn’t there at all in the whole movie.

Me: 5 letters & ends with an ‘e’.  What about Thomson & Thompson??

Better-half: Try Spoke

Nikita: Oh yes they were there, they were soo silly & made us laugh so much. Papa got us nachos with cheese & salsa & also a huge bucket of popcorn. It was so yummy. 

Me: Righttttt ‘spoke’ fits in perfectly. I suppose you are full now after eating all that junk.  NAINA if I get there & find out u haven’t started on your time-table.......

Nikita: Look mama I know how to wipe a smile off my face…look, look.....

Nikita plonks herself right in front of mama & smiles widely. Then places her hand on the top of her face & brings it down sharply to reveal a face so very serious. She did it 2-3 times[up, down, up, down] in quick succession making us shake our heads in amusement.

Me: Now u go change & come back to clear the table for dinner. And check what Naina’s upto…its awfully quiet in there.  The Arabic books aisles were so empty whereas the Indian stalls were so crowded.  And you know, there was  a cooking demonstration by Sophie Grey. She showed us how to make Whoopies from her book. There was a good selection of childrens book also. I didn’t want to pick up the usual Enid Blyton books this time… how are the books I got for the kids??? Good na.

Better-half who was idly scanning through the books nodded.

Nikita: MAMAAAAAAA…..Naina’s not keeping her time-table, she’s sitting here and reading a bookkkkkk.

Me: Nainaaaaa…..u have 5 minutes to pack your school bag, have your bath and present urself at the dining table otherwise no dinner for u. I’ve finished the crossword, hopefully I’ve got all of them right, don’t forget to fax it tomorrow.

A loud THUD & sounds of a scuffle reach the living room and the better-half goes to investigate. Loud protests & complaints were heard before the matter was sorted out and peace restored.

Conversation resumes during dinner.

Nikita: And u know mama Tintin screams ‘put out the fire, put out the fire’,  Captain Haddock pours some water from the bottle he was holding & it goes BOOOM. You know what he did, he poured whiskey instead of water……hahahaha.

Naina: Look at me I’m a Walrus.

Everybody turns to look at Naina who had 2 rib bones from the mutton curry sticking out of her mouth. She really did look like a walrus.

Better-half: Stop playing with your food and eat Naina.

Nikita: Papa what if we watch the movie on our TV…will we still need 3D glasses???

Papa: If we buy a 3D copy then we’ll need 3D glasses but I’m sure they’ll sell normal copies where we don’t need 3D glasses to watch them.

Naina: Whats the meaning of 3D????

Nikita: 3D is when the cartoon figures are life-like….

Papa: They'll have depth.

Nikita: yes…and 2D is like Tom & Jerry…they are flat figures….we cant see their backs....no depth like papa says.

Naina: What about vondy???

Nikita: There is nothing like that Naina.

Mama[who had blanked out the rest of the world to concentrate on her dinner suddenly came to life]: Yes there is,  Vondy means vehicle in Malayalam.

The family burst out laughing. U see Naina was asking if there was anything called 1D.


[Incase u r wondering what all that was about……Nikita was discussing the Tintin movie she and Naina had seen at the cinemas along with their father. I was talking about a book fair in Sharjah my friend & I had gone to. Time-tables, crosswords, arguments, walruses all comes with the territory]

Cold light of day

Been neglecting the blog I know. But you know what, for the first time I have not been overly worried about it. Earlier if I didn’t update atleast once a week my mind would have been preoccupied with it. Time to take a break u think;-o????

Thanks everybody who messaged and mailed me. I’m good, doing good, sorry about disappearing like that, been busy…..not the rushed busy but sort of the ‘occupied’ busy.  Have been reading a lot of books, tending to my plants, gone back to solving crosswords & Sudoku, baking a lot…..basically doing a bit of everything except blogging. To be honest haven’t looked into my blog for the past 1 week. No particular reason I can think of. Been sort of just pottering around and taking it easy.

And guess what, the weather has changed for the better out here finnnnally though the papers say that stating today it's going back to warm for another 10 days. But that’s ok…after 9 months of blistering heat & humidity, 10 days of moderate heat is like….like a breeze:-).  Just like the British, we here in the Middle East also obsess a lot about the weather. The other way around but. While the people in UK keep hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun we longingly wait for the drop in temperature. The sun which rose at 5.30am now shows itself only around 6.45 and the darkness which set in after 7pm envelopes us around 5pm itself. We just love it.

A slight drop in temperature and the whole lot of us are out in the sun. The parks are filled with families and kids running wild, the roads jam-packed; simply nobody wants to waste a day sitting inside the house. It’s another matter that some of these people maybe heading to the nearest hospitals & clinics as all sorts of infections viral and otherwise are dutifully doing their rounds. But that doesn’t stop any of us from making the most out of 'winter' we so affectionately term it as.

I have started going for early morning walks again. I had missed them so much. Nope not because I’m a health freak. No way. Oh alright initially I had started going for them thinking I’ll lose some weight. But now after 2 years I know better. It will take more than walks to shrug off the lard clinging so faithfully to me. I love my morning walks for many reasons; I walk to breathe in the crisp morning air. To watch the early morning rush swirling around me….just imagine this.....me in slow motion & the rest of the world in fast-forward. To watch a fat cat[no, it’s a really a FAT furry cat] sunning itself on the balcony. To not feel guilty about investing in a pair of expensive running shoes. To feel the cold air stinging my skin…..yesss that’s the real reason, to feel the morning chill biting into me. I just love that.

Was planning to post something here yesterday. But on a sudden whim went shopping. All alone. Leisurely checked out the whole store. Picked up a few items and brought it till the cash counter. Hesitated. I didn’t really need any of it did I. Went and kept them back in their proper places. That’s it, didn’t buy a thing. I just loved it. I saved so much money. Makes me wonder why I don’t do these things more often. Have it all planned out, I’m going again next week.

Please tell me I’m not crazy.