Arigatou once again:-))

A BIG Thank You to all of you who responded to the previous post, my mails and messages.

Special Thanks to all who delurked for the first time and after a long time, thank U also to the lurkers who have voted:-)). 

The competition closed last night. The drawings as of now are placed in the 11^th & 12^th place. I’m not sure we stand a chance to win the prize but we are HOPEFUL.

The kids were thrilled with all the attention and comments except for a comment which was full of hate. Poor things were totally taken aback by that one comment. I encouraged them to look beyond that it but it was difficult. I myself was a little disturbed. But atleast I understand that there are all kinds of people making this world.

There were other minor issues too….like Nikita who simply couldn’t understand how Naina all of a sudden got ahead of her in the votes tally;-D.

And Naina the eternal complainer is still walking around with a gloomy expression because she got lesser comments than her Chechi. She is not bothered about the votes all that much. Talk about priorities;-/.

They also brought in quite a few votes by telling their teachers, classmates & friends in School. And when they saw another kid in the competition posting messages in each contestants comment box asking for votes they asked me if they could do the same. And quite a few responded backJ.

We also learnt that there was a bit of hera-pheri going on. Some of the contestants were accused of using proxy sites to vote for their drawing. I was not exactly sure how this worked & so couldn’t explain to the kids when they asked. All I could tell them was that there was a suspicion that a few contestants were bringing in votes the illegal way. At first they were hopping mad but later on hopeful that the organisers will see through it and then they’ll stand a GOOD chance of being selected among the 5 finalists.

All in all a very good experience. I normally don’t push the kids to do anything they don’t like or are uncomfortable with because I remember my own hang-ups as a kid. Believe me I had a lot of them. But when I see enterprising parents all around me I feel I need to encourage them more. After all how do they know whether they’ll enjoy it or not until they try it.

Spelling Bee Competition is next. Naina has on her own come forward and asked if she could take part whereas Nikita is not very interested[she knows the hard work involved;-P]. I have cunningly[reverse psychology people, reverse psychology;-D] got her to register. If I’m going exert effort training one kid, for the same effort I can do two, right. Plus I need something to occupy them in the summer hols.

Which brings me to the next part……….I have tentatively decided to take a break from blogging. Maybe till September or October. We’ve decided not to go home this year. Which is why this blog-break doesn’t make any sense even to me. But I feel like one. But like I said I’m not sure. I still haven't forgotten my last blog-break, I almost didn’t get back. And that is my one and only fear.

So I’m thinking I won’t close all avenues. If I really feel like posting something…..like pictures or interesting forwards I’ll do that. And whether I post or not I’ll be around…checking on all of you whether you guys are behaving yourselves and ofcourse posting my ‘valuable’ inputs on your posts….hah you can’t stop me there;-D.

And yeah IF we win I’ll definitely tell YOU about it;-D.

Thank YOU once again for all the support!!!!!!!!!!

Moo's the word....

The first I heard about it was when the kids brought home a promotion pack from school in early June. The pack contained lots of puzzles, questions, stickers and facts about milk and things related to Milk.

“What’s the occasion???” I wonder.

“It was World Milk Day on June 1^st” the kids educate me.

The UAE Ministry of Education was working alongside a popular Milk Brand to raise awareness about the importance of milk in the diet of growing children. Hence the goody packs.

The kids were also talking about a picture they had to draw & post on a website which will win them exciting prizes. I was okay with them doing the puzzles and reading up facts but since they had unit tests coming up I sternly told them they could work on the drawing after the tests. Anyways they had time till June 20^th to upload their picture didn’t they???

As the week passed I could hear them discussing amongst themselves about the other kids who posted their pictures and collected ‘n’ number of votes, all the while throwing hopeful/dark/beseeching looks at me. All the emotional blackmail didn’t affect me..…the unit tests were not a joke, a percentage of the marks were added to the final examination total. We couldn’t afford to sit back and take it easy. 

A week or so later after the kids left to school, I found the competition form while I was clearing up and decided to read what the whole hullabaloo was about. One of the things which caught my eye was the prize. There were 3 prizes….each was an all-expenses paid family holiday to New Zealand, the home of Anchor. My heart stopped beating for a moment; I dropped everything and sat down to read everything about the competition.

Anybody who has followed this blog for more than 2 years now, know about my fascination with New Zealand. You've noticed right, how every meme which asks “Favourite Place to visit” has New Zealand plastered on it. 

You get what I’m driving at……it seemed like a sign. It was like somebody sitting high up above was telling me “You always wanted to go there right, I’ll give you a chance to work at it”. A feeling of guilt I was trying to fulfil a dream of mine through the kids also ran through the mind but was quickly dismissed to focus on more important matters.

The subject for the competition was “Draw your Dream New Zealand Farm” and the only condition was that the farm should show pasture, cows and milk. Didn’t sound too hard huh???

When the kids came back home I magnanimously told them they could get started on their drawings provided they finished their lessons first. The kids were so thrilled that post lunch, foregoing their usual reading time, they sat down and finished all their portions in one go.

Nikita had a vision of what she was going to draw and was soon involved in it but Naina as usual dawdled, every once in a while craning her head to look at her Chechi was doing and trying to emulate her. You see, Nikita can draw from the images in her head whereas Naina till today drew from picture books.

I was not even sure whether Naina was going to finish her drawing but it was important that she tried because…..

She needed to be given the opportunity.

She needed to build her confidence.

She’ll eat our heads and make all of us miserable complaining that we didn’t even give her a chance. That she was never given any importance because she is youngest. That she wished she was born eldest. That life is so unfair. That she is SAD. That nobody understands her. That…..

By now we are all ready to pull our hair out.

Naina draws well but has no confidence in her abilities. The better-half & I are so tired of telling her she is as good as her sister if not better. Anyways, fed up with the whining I picked up a few picture books and asked her to find pictures depicting farm life and take inspiration from that. She took one look at me and knew I had reached the end of my tether & quietly started going thru the books.

It took them both 2 days to complete the pictures. One day to draw & the next to colour. On the 2^nd day again Naina was found loitering around disconsolately. Her grouse…her picture was not as ‘full of details’ as Chechi’s. Personally I liked Naina’s picture better but how do I tell her??? Nikita was sitting there colouring her picture and her ears were trained in this direction. And even if I took her aside and told her the 1^st thing she’ll do is go and triumphantly tell her sister what I said. And now for goodness sakes, now you guys don’t rat on me.

I gathered every ounce of patience I had[I was this close to telling her to quit] and sat with her till she finished. Finally we posted both the pictures on the site. And voted.

1 vote each.

We then checked out the rest of the competition. And that was when it hit us. VOTES. We needed votes. Lots of them. And that was when I realised how much they lost out on because they hadn’t posted their pictures earlier. I set to work immediately and sent out an SOS to almost all the names on my contact list, then sent messages to many FB friends. Almost 96% of you replied back within a day to say you voted. 

Thank U!!!!!!

A special thanks to Sakshi who not only voted from all the machines/ipad/smartphones in her house but also personally went to her husband’s office in the evening and forced all the people in the office to vote for 2 little kids she has never seen.

In the course of one week my children accumulated 300 votes and stood first from their school. In this process we learnt a lot. Atleast I felt like I woke up from a deep sleep. For all my dreams about going to NZ I didn’t put much effort, just mailed everybody and thought I did my bit. But as the votes kept mounting and good wishes poured in the kids were so happy……..ecstatic about EACH & EVERY vote they got. Every comment was precious. It was infectious. I too began to feel that my kids actually stood a chance. I began thinking about what else I could do. 

To be honest I was not going to post it on the blog at all. I felt a bit silly. Like I was advertising or begging even. And all for what….for my daughters’ doodles. Now emails are different. How different??? I am not sure…more kind of private-like, I suppose. No logic, I know;-).

So I then scanned my contact list again & mailed a few people who I had omitted when I sent emails earlier. Like aunties who I don’t keep in touch all that much, who will think ‘Oho she needs help, so she contacted us now’. Like Uncles who held important positions in their companies, who might laugh at this niece who has no other work than to bug people for votes for her daughters’ scribbles. 
Guess what??? 
In reply they all called me, discussed with me how they could help & with child-like enthusiasm promised me they would forward it to all their contacts and even post it on their Facebook accounts;-D.

I mean, seriously?????

I was so touched. From my friends yes I expected & received support but people who I never expected any attention from, it just floored me. Made me think.

The votes have crossed 400+ now and we have just 2 days[last date: 20^th June 2012] to accumulate another 400 votes to be on par with the others. Tall order I know. The kids are enthusiastically campaigning for votes at school. The better-half has finally started telling his friends about it. And I am posting it on my blog and asking you ALL to go to the link given below and vote. I’ll go as far as to ask you to vote from every single laptop/tablet/smartphone around the vicinity[they've got this 1 machine=1 vote funda] and plus mail people you think will help. If you are too busy it's okay because even your ONE vote is precious. That I know you will give me. Thank YOU already:-))!!!!!

The links:

Removed.

We may or may not win but we are determined to go down trying!!!!

p.s: Just as I was ending the post I realised that I could have just copy/pasted the short mail I sent to everybody earlier but you know me...on the blog I metamorphosize into this alien being who needs to explain in great detail the whys & wherefores.

Of Colds, Cakes and Curtains

My original intention was to let the pictures do the talking.  I thought for once I'll spare you the long-winded monologues and come directly to the point. I'm sure we all agree that original intentions are always usually well-meaning ones. If I had followed my original intentions I'd have climbed atleast 2 mountains by now, served as a librarian in my spare time and raised money for charity inbetween. 

Note to people who wandered in for the first time: Now is the perfect time to get out of here, most posts on this page are about the blogger and her 'frog in the well' existence. A perfect example is this post...she is updating on what happened to her between the last update and today. 

"What happened???" You ask.

Why, nothing!!!

Aaaah you are getting the gist!!! 

Thats right, the blogger loves to believe people are interested in her ramblings. 

What about all the people who comment on her blog????

They are all people with hearts of Gold, I salute them for their patience and kind-heartedness.

So just go, Go, GO before you get entangled in her nothings!!!!!

Without further ado......

We caught a cold.

We medicated ourselves and successfully managed to turn it into an infection.

We are now dutifully following the doctor's instructions. 

Naina was the only one who was excited. 

The doc prescribed antibiotics in the form of tablets[instead of the usual bitter syrup] for her. 

She makes a big production out of it. First time you see. 

• Tablet - check
• Water - check
• Chair to sit on - check
• Table to place water & tablet on - check
• Jug of water closeby in case she needs more - check

Method:

First she drinks a little water to moisten her mouth.

Then she places the tablet in the centre of her tongue.

She raises glass of water immediately to mouth and swallows 3-4 gulps of it in quick succession.

Then grins at me triumphantly as if she is the only kid in the world who has swallowed tablets.

I cater to all her whims.

Just grateful she eats them without a fuss.

Reason: I hated tablets when I was young; my mum went thru a harrowing 20 minutes every time it was time for my medicines.

I think we fell sick because of this stoopid, stoopid park. It's right behind our apartment. I leaned far out and took this picture from my balcony to show you; the things I do to keep you guys entertained. 

We knew summer[the horrid humid months] was around the corner so we wanted to make the most of the good weather. I went for morning walks & badminton, the kids played till they dropped & the better-half exercised & played volleyball. 

Moral of the story: People who are couch-potatoes by nature should not attempt heroics.

Remember this plant??? 

Oh dont mind the Aloe Vera, it cant decide whether it wants to live or die. 

I'm talking about the tiny stalk in the brown pot. 

The one I got from the park from my morning walks. 

The one I planted over Naina's plum seed. Remember??? 

Good news: It blooomed;-D. 

Bad news: Naina is expecting to eat plums very soon.

At school

Coming back to how we fell sick, there could be another reason. Last weekend we sat outside in the humidity for more than 2 hours waiting for Nikita's program to start. It could also have happened because we went hunting for black stockings in the hot sun the previous day because Nikita piteously cried about how they would throw her out of the song if she went without them. 

Reaction: Hopping mad when I saw more than half the kids were not wearing them;-/.

The only good thing about infections is that we stay put. 

No energy to move equals more puzzle pieces finding their groove. 

Move....groove......gosh, I'm waxing poetry now;-o

What do u mean you can't make out any difference from the last picture I posted and this???? 

I fixed the mountains and 30% of the forest. 

See???? 

Favourite Quote: Believe you can and you are halfway there ~Theodore Roosevelt

Like I said, no energy to move means no energy to light the stove.

Now I really have to set aside a separate book for poetry.

What's the point of cooking something we can't taste right??? 

But one must make the effort.

Heights of Perseverance: We dragged ourselves to the nearest burger joint and forced ourselves to eat.

I claim no credit for the white scribblings

When complaints of 'no taste in the mouth' rose to a crescendo it was time.....

Time to let go.

Time to raise the bar.

Time to bake a cake silly;-).

That box with the blue lid.....there's a perfectly good reason why it's there in the picture.

Honest Truth: It's got cupcakes. 

=================================================

Now my original intention was to end this post with the cake picture.

Way back in April I wrote about my glass window & the need for curtains. 

Everybody agreed I needed curtains.

The next post when I talk about my complicated thought process, you comment "Did you put up the curtains???"  

Then when I blog about the anti-social elements I'm raising in my backyard and you are "Don't tell me you haven't got those curtains yet????"

I don't blog for 2 weeks and I get tongue-in-cheek mails asking if I was busy shopping for curtains???

So settling all doubts & queries in that direction.....

Proof: The curtains!!!!

Everything nice and not so mice

It's been ages since I wrote about the kids. On the surface there is nothing much to write about them…nothing worth noting down anyway. Yeah they are growing ….too fast in my opinion and behaving like teenagers even though they have more than a couple of years to reach there.

If you ask me ‘what are they doing right now????’ I don’t have to look to see what they are upto…..I can tell you just like that. They are arguing.....most of the time they are at it……

You did.

I did not.

I saw you.

You did not.

Mamaaaaaa…….

Tell-tale.

I am notttttt.

Cry baby.

Stopppp ittttt!!!!!!!

STOP IT BOTH OF YOU!!!!!!!!

Similar phrases in varying tones can be heard throughout the day. And it continues into the night. They are at it even in their sleep. Honest I heard them.

I’m so grateful to the Great Sages who invented schools.

But most schools here wind up before 1pm.

I threaten them with boarding schools.

They suggest Malory Towers and St. Clares and look at me very hopefully. 

I know I’m rambling but thats because I desperately trying to recall some worthwhile things to write about them. 

Meanwhile posting some pictures about ‘things’ they do in the little time they are not sparring with eachother.....

Background for a science project

Nikita's class were divided in groups to make models for a science project. Her group was given the subject 'Sustainable energy' and it was Nikita's job to provide the background. We were not pleased that she had to do this when her unit tests were going on and so she did it all very quietly so as to not aggravate us further. Secretly her father & I were impressed, we hung around waiting for her to ask for help & very 'reluctantly' helped her stick it all on the board with super glue. I deliberately flattened those windmills down so that you could take a good look at it;-P.

They draw very rarely nowadays;-(

The kids got diaries with locks from their aunt. They were very thrilled and spent a lot of time decorating the first page with their names and such. I could see Nikita writing in it and keeping it away carefully. Then one day she asks.....

Nikita: What exactly is one supposed to write in a diary???

Mama: Anything you want.

Nikita: Should I write everyday??

Mama: If you want.

Nikita: Can I write about something what happened 2 years back???

Mama: What happened two yrs back????

No, nothing I’m just asking.

Yes you can write about anything……time doesn’t matter.

Can I write about sad things????

What sad things???

Nothing happened*exasperated* I’m just asking whether I should write only about the happy things which happen to me or also the sad stuff.

I told you, you can write about anything…….happy, sad, ordinary, special, feelings, anything…

Okayyyyy.

Mama[cannot help herself]: What sad things?????

Nikita: Nothing Mama, I was just asking*walking away*.

Mama[calling out anxiously]: Or you can also tell Mama about it.

Nikita*wearily*: That’s what I do…..I tell you first and then write in the Diary.

Then why do you need to lock the diary*finally voicing what was troubling me*

“To keep Naina out” says Nikita grimly.

Naina[8yrs] who was following the conversation avidly grins unrepentantly.

Mama[irritated]: Naina, its bad, BAAD manners, why don’t you write in your own diary instead of reading other peoples’???

Naina[mournfully]: I lost the lock.

Periwinkle Plant

Naina plants a plum seed in an empty pot and waters it diligently everyday.

After a few days Mama brings a small sapling of a flowering plant from the park, plants it in the same pot.

“Oh shoot, Naina planted a seed in that, she's going to make my life miserable" thinks Mama tiredly.

Naina comes back from school and “Mama, Chechi LOOOOOK………my plum seed has sprouted….YAAAAAYAYAAY”.

Mama gets a few months reprieve.

Fridge magnets made by them & an old poloroid picture

[Last night at the dining table]

Naina: what is the meaning of ‘seer’????

Mama: Sear means like burn or scorch.

Naina: No not tht sear, s-e-e-r seer???

Mama: Ah ok, that seer is a person who can prophecy, who can tell what's going to happen in the future.

After a minute….

Naina:  I think I have got all the makings of a true seer.*

Nikita[under her breath]: Ohhhh puh-leeese.

Mama[looking impressed]: Really!!!!

"Yes, I can tell the future" Naina waves her fork grandly.

Father: Can you forsee the punishment you’ll get if you don’t finish what’s on your plate in 5 minutes????

Nikita guffaws.

Mama looks reproachfully at Papa.

Naina who took a few seconds to understand the nuances of that statement, prudently decides to use the fork to finish her spaghetti.

Click & enlarge to read a newspaper report

Please ignore all grammatical & spelling mistakes.....Nikita is not usually so careless, the only explanation I can offer here is that I think she wrote it very fast. Now one word…..one particular word on the board, referred to Naina in a manner she found offending. She pleaded with her sister to remove it but Nikita didnt budge. Finally Naina resorted to sneaking into the room when Nikita wasn’t there, rubbed out the offending word and substituted it with princess/ beautiful girl/ intelligent human being and such-like, then tiptoed away. When she went back into the room later, it would have magically reverted back to the original word. Then she would repeat the process all over again. This went on till the father came back from his trip & put Naina out of her misery;-D. 

Book-mice:-)

Book-mouse. Ever heard of this word??? I heard it for the first time last week. Nikita showed me a "How to make a Book-Mouse" article in a Tom & Jerry comic book and talked excitedly about making them. She launched into a loooong explanation which I listened with half a ear smiling at her enthusiasm. Book-mouse is a mouse made of clay with a long tail which served as a book-mark and....*didnt hear*.....and.you have to give me a string.....and...*didnt hear*...I'm going to make them. Is that alright with you Mama????

Sure, I'm okay.

Yippeeeee......you are the best Mama in the whole world!!!!

Children, I shake my head. It takes so little to make them happy. I hunt for a string for the tail. 

She comes back in no time with a book-mouse in hand.

"It's nice" I make all the right noises, very carefully not touching the mouse.

"Isn't it??? Now let's bake it." says Nikita.

"Whaat" I look up confused.

"Haven't you been listening to anything I said????" demands Nikita.

I fidget guiltily.

"We have to bake this mouse to harden it. I told you."

Realisation dawns. 

"No baking mice in my oven." I say firmly.

"Mammaaa" wails Nikita.

"I'm not going to waste energy for a little thing like that. Why don't you dry it in the sun. It may take longer but it will have the same effect."

"Okay then I'll make some more of them, I have to make some for my friends anyway. If I make say, 10 of them will you bake it then"

I stare in horror. I couldn't get myself to imagine baking 1 mouse let alone a dozen of them.

I know they are fake. But Urrrrgghhhh.......No Way.

After 1/2 an hour of pleading Nikita goes away in a huff & places them on the balcony. After she leaves, I go there and quickly click a picture. 

I may shrink at the idea of baking mice in my oven but have no qualms about serving it on the blog;-D

p.s: Some of the pictures and the incidents written below it have no connection with eachother. 


* I knew there was something fishy about that sentence. It came to me after a couple of hours.....it is lifted out of a Harry Potter book;-/.

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;-).

The Glass Window

The shifting went off eventfully. Long story, so I won't get into that. But the movers were good, everything was intact except for a broken glass but even that I can’t be too sure because I may just have had something to do with it.

I already am aware of the fact that I have no sense of direction. What I didn’t know was that I also couldn’t measure space. When I first saw the flat I got the feeling the rooms were small. And I had seen the flat twice before moving in. I kept cribbing to everybody & remember telling you also that there was not much space. Now that I have moved in and kept all my furniture in place I realise I am wrong. There is space, much more space than I anticipated.

The first day was a nightmare. I walked around the new apartment with a million things buzzing through my mind but did absolutely nothing. It felt like jetlag, this feeling of numbness which overwhelmed me. I have never experienced jetlag personally. But if I ever did I'm sure its just going to be like this.

When it was time to sleep I realised none of the beds had mattresses on them.

“I told the packers to dispose all of them.” says better-half casually.

I stare at him in disbelief.

So the first night we all slept on the floor.

That whole week we slept on the floor. Because the furniture guys took one week to deliver the bedding we ordered. Though we padded the floor well with blankets and flannel we all got up with aching bones everyday. The kids were cribbing big-time & I thought I was going to fall sick if it went on like this.

On the last night of this ordeal I got up in the middle of the night for something. It was then it struck me. I could sleep on the sofa. I lowered myself onto the soft cushiony foam and sighed in bliss. And kicked myself for not thinking of it earlier.

The better-half gets up as if on cue and orders me off.

I pretend to be deeply asleep.

He wakes me up.

I mumble "5 minutes" hoping he’ll nod off by then.

Exactly 5 minutes later he wakes me again and reminds me they are leather sofas.

A few minutes later I heard an exasperated intake of breath.

Again a few minutes later I hear him sigh ‘They’ll sag under your weight’.

Muttering uncomplimentary things about where he can get off with his precious sofas, I go back to the cold floor. Atleast I got uninterrupted sleep there.

The first week was terrible. We literally lived in a glass house. All the rooms have huge windows. But the living room window takes the cake. One whole wall is a window. At first we thought it had reflective glass. On the 1^st night I went out into the balcony to confirm and my heart dropped. It was clear as day. Every single thing we did could be seen from outside. And directly opposite were around 6 windows of the neighbouring apartments.

I suggested to the better-half that we cover the windows with newspapers till we get the curtains. The better-half disagreed. 

“We’ll buy curtains as soon as possible, until then it will remain bare” he remained adamant.

I shook my head wearily and placed the cartons I had already unpacked, in front of the window. After a few days we got somebody to drill holes for the bedroom curtain rods. I used the curtains I already had, so those rooms were ok.

Once the immediate requirements were completed we went curtain shopping. And came back home pretty pleased with ourselves. We went to a store who dealt with curtains and the accessories. We selected the curtain material, then the gauzy material to let the light through, then the blackout cloth which blocked out the light if we didn’t want it, chose the rods and the mechanisms to open & close the curtains. Then waited for them to give us the estimation.

The price when it was revealed shattered us. Let’s just say that for the same amount I could have brought the entire furniture in my living room. Well almost. For now it’s back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile we are all on our best behaviour, atleast in the living room.

In other news[related to the move, everything is related to the move], the kids come back home a whole hour early coz theirs is the first stop from the school. They were so thrilled in the beginning but now are complaining they don’t get enough time to bond with their bus-friends;-/.

I found a nice supermarket[nice meaning there’s lots of Indian foodstuff] tucked away in the corner. Just 5 minutes away. I’m so lucky. They opened newly around 3 weeks back. Imagine. I’m imagining that all Indians in the locality must be so pleased. 

An Indian family has moved in on the floor below mine. They are Malayalee Christians; I have not met them or even seen them but I knowJ. How??? When I open my kitchen window I can hear them. Especially when the lady is on the phone, I can hear her through the din the pigeons make. Her conversations are peppered with pullikaaran[an old-fashioned way of referring to the husband] and Ammaniamamma and Sunnychayans :-D. I’m not particularly looking to meet them, just content they are around.

My Mil sent duck roast all the way from Kerala through a cousin.

It was like manna from heaven.

I know what you are thinking??? You are wondering why this Nancy’s reactions are always OTT.

Well let me put it another way. You are bone-weary from all that unpacking, tiredly thinking of what to make for dinner when all you want to do is flop on the bed; just then the door-bell rings and this packet of delicious duck-roast is placed in your hands.

I rest my case.

.........

If any of the neighbours were watching through the window, they would have caught sight of a fat lady clutching a newspaper covered package complete with strings close to her heart, sinking to her knees in slow motion and weeping tears of joy.

Now that is going Over The Top even by my standards;-D

The Glass Window 

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.