The routine at K’s home:
A normal scene a week before
4 pm: K and S are both back from office. They grab a plate and have a generous helping of rice and homemade curries with pappad. Both love food and enjoy a good meal thoroughly.
K: “What sweets do we have?” after a burp of satisfaction, finishing off his meal.
S: “Nothing, we finished the payasam I made a week back and I haven’t had the time to cook anything new.”
K gives S a look of dissatisfaction. The way to K’s heart is through his stomach and well, let’s not talk about the other …
But S is not bothered. After 14 years of marriage who wants to be in the husband’s heart, anywhere near the purse is where she yearns to be!
S: “But there are those Arabic sweets, you can have those.”
K moves towards his next target, a bit mollified.
S doesn’t budge from her position, with her legs outstretched…and hands not letting go of the remote, a precious possession now….
The younger 11 year old, Kav is prowling nearby.
One has to be careful, or the programme would be suddenly change to Kav’s preferred Hannah Montana or Wizards of Waverly place…
K finishes the sweets and moves towards the bedroom and gestures to S, asking her to follow.
S ignores him while watching a mediocre Mallu programme and acts as if it is the most interesting programme till K gives up and moves on …
10 minutets later
K: “Daaa…”
S: ‘Varunnu….coming.”
Another 10 minutes pass by but S hasn’t budged from her seat
10 minutes and a sterner “Daaa,” later, S relinquishes her power position and hands over the remote to a victorious Kav.(who was expecting this move anyway)
S settles in quietly between K and N and the whole household rests in peace, the afternoon siesta time which extends into evening…
By 7pm
S is up and about making coffee and repeatedly calls out to K to come and have his cup…
By 7.30 finally K is up and relaxes with his coffee watching TV.
S cooks dinner while watching over the kid’s HW.
A peaceful scene but look out, a storm is already brewing in there…
K trys to be helpful but soon enough there is a huge commotion, Kav is not agreeing with the father K’s version to a certain solution and thus starts the war…
The younger N leaves her HW half done. She escapes unnoticed in the commotion and packs her books back into her bag.
By the time S reaches with her peace mission, the atmosphere is charged with verbosities and emotions are flying out into the air.
S’s mission is entirely unsuccessful. Father K now accuses S of bringing up the kid leniently and thus the entire cause of the whole incident is now resting squarely on S’s shoulder. She carries the load back to the kitchen, leaving the war scene unresolved…
By 9.30PM…the angry family again converges for more verbal debates and dinner….

The scene now at K’s house:
K’s family has finally registered with a club, after a month of hunting through the few options available. K has finally given his verdict, found the best one and the family too seconds the master’s decision.
6PM: K’s household is thriving with activity and everyone seems to be in a rush…packing, trying out old and unfitting training gear.
The younger one, N is again trying to finish her HW as that was a condition for being taken, but she leaves it after a few futile attempts…
N’s completed HW is a dream for the whole family and for N too …
K is smarter; she has cut short her TV watching session and has completed her HW way ahead of time.
The afternoon siesta is cut short, the bickering sessions are minimal and by 7pm, the whole family is on their way....

Moral of the story:“An active family is a peaceful family”
Quick take:“Hope they keep this interest alive for a month at least…”

40 years of Moonhood

Remember the static sounds and the near muffled words uttered on the unclear and dark backdrop of the moon. Relive the excitement evoked every time you saw the clipping even if you were born years after this moment in history. Who can forget the ‘One step for man a giant leap for mankind’ quip by Neil Armstrong? I get goose pimples every time I hear these words and now, that historic moment is said to be faked.
Is the world really so unscrupulous or are we just cynical and sceptical of everything that is being reported? Is the media at fault here too for revealing their questioning nature for anything in particular?
And to make matters worse, the original recording of this historic moment has disappeared.
How can such slip-ups ever be forgiven? Why can’t an organisation that has launched man on the moon, the technological leap of the century, hold on to one of the most treasured moments in history and keep it safe?
According to NASA it has been erased and re-used, but newly restored copies of the original broadcast look even better.
Now that does smell suspicious, even to me… (I believe everything, even my younger one fool me and gets away with it.)
So what do you think,was this really a NASA fabricated lie by US to silence the Russians and their believed space supremacy?!

I am gay

Now that is something to make people come running to my post, so guys it was just a standfirst, something that comes before a headline to attract readers to a story…Sorry to disappoint you, I am not 'that' Gay.
But I am happy! Because I have finished my second paper and am now hoping God blesses Mr Gavin, who will be correcting my paper, and keeps him in the best of spirits so that he can liberally overlook my literals!
But talking about that interesting word, ‘gay’, there are so many facets and many of them are being colourfully brought out in all the dailies without much restrain.
I am all for freedom as long as mine is not impinged.
But I do have an issue with one ‘minor’ detail that I just can’t understand. It could be my view but I have to say this aloud. I just can’t understand why gay men (at least some of them) behave and dress so outrageously almost as if vying for attention. If they want to be 'seen'as normal men why would they do that…why would they want to stand out and attract attention to themselves and be branded as ‘different’.
While that is just my thought on this I strongly feel that we are on the right path. It might take long for a tradition-bound society to accept homosexuals but after Section 377 was rewritten by the High Court; we have taken one big step that makes us think twice before we criminalise someone just for their nature.
And at this stage, I think of the beautiful movie, Philadelphia which was instrumental in making me consider homosexuality as natural as heterosexuality. Well, almost….(and that’s my primitive self raising its head)

Family calling...

Deeps photo tag was so cute, UMMON's so very touching...Now here is my version of the photo tag.

It is June, the month when I start getting this urge, this irresistive pull towards by home town. June, the month of rains, that time of the month when the fields are lush and green, when towns and cities get a new lease of life, cleaned and washed by rains...when the smell of wet earth gives me this queer joy that is secondary only to being at home...

And bringing back these memories is this picture...taken two years back at my husband's hometown, M....., a quiet village really but the one place that my kids love to go(other than my mom's house ofcourse), every year, to see the same sights, gaze at tall coconut trees, poke jackfruits hanging from short trees, look at the ponds and try counting the lotus floating on the murky waters, kill umpteen insects...go behind the cow and count the hens...followed, monitored and even encouraged by their two most lovable grand moms.


My mother-in-law (she is the shorter of the two in blue saree) and her sister(who lives there, she has no kids and but loves kids and is a child (at heart) herself)with my two...

And I wish it will be August soon and I can see them both, hug them and talk to them of things that don't matter at all in the big scheme of things, but still talk to feel loved, to be a part of family, to be near mother nature, to see my kids and my husband happy and carefree...

Questions..and some answers...

UMMON tagged me here...and she did the same too...
I follow...

What is something I always say to you?
N(the younger one): Sundarikutty (beautiful baby)
K(the elder, wiser one): Don’t watch TV, GO and study

Am I so impartial?!

What makes me happy?
N: when I do my HW
K: when I get full marks

Like any competitive mom?!

What makes me sad?
N: When I am not doing my HW and going to J..’s house
K: When I don’t take bath

How do I make you laugh?
N: When you cuddle and kiss me
K: When you dance and say silly things

What do you think I was like as a child?
N: A beautiful girl (she is a big ‘maska’mari one, I should tell you)
K: Always studying (that’s is the impression I gave her)

How old am I?
N: 10 (and when I laughed, she corrected it to 11)
K: 36

Ah, my kids, the younger they are the younger I get!

How tall am I?
N: very tall
K: same as my height

What is my favourite thing to do?
N: kiss
K:blog (ah, she knows me!)

What do I do when you’re not around?
N: Go to office
K: Go to office

Not very orginal, a boring mom!

If I become famous, what will it be for?
N: being a good mother
K: for writing a book! (wow…)

What am I really good at?
N: Loving me ( she first said kissing…did K, MY HUS, tell her or what?!)
K : shouting and scaring me (she has suddenly realised that she is making me happy and changes tactics)

What am I not really good at?
N: ugh (she means amma is good at everything, my intrepetation)
K: playing with us! (Look out for more mean-stuff from her…)


What is my job?
N: cooking…
K: chief correspondent

What is my favourite food?
N: everything…
K:Hameel fried rice! (Yummy, the cheapest but tastiest joint)

What makes you proud of me?
N: ………(she didn’t understand)
K: when you came to school to take journalism class

What makes me proud of you?
N: ….
K: when will this get over, so boring…

What do you and I do together?
N: HW
K:nothg

How are we the same?
N:We are girls
K: We have brains

How are you and I different?
N: different hair (now she is desperate to go off and watch Mr Bean)
K: You don’t put any good accessories (bangles, earrings etc)

What is one thing you wish you could change about me?
N: (she has left…)
K: bossy attitude

I stop here…both are too irritated and I am sure they might do something drastic if I don’t.
Reflections, I am waiting to hear your version(I know you will tell me I have lots of tags to finish!), Smitha's, Solilo (who is already tagged) and Deeps(too tagged), Renu,Overdrive...everyone who wants to join in, please do...this tag...

K's exhibition

She has been pestering me a lot for this…and finally I am doing it.
All of you are invited to a special preview of my elder one’s paintings. She is talented as you can see (and I hope this is not just mother’s pride talking here) but what I like most about her creativity is how she converts useless throwaway items into pieces of art. And as I show these, I pray that she keeps at this wonderful talent and doesn’t loose interest in it as she grows older...
These are the paintings she has done over two years with the guidance of a wonderful artist friend of mine who is so very unassuming and down-to-earth. I always like to think K is learning more than just art at her place but that she learns a lesson or two in humility too.

So here they go...







Do you remember this one below, UMMON, I had borrowed an Eid greeing card from you, well this is an attempted recreation of that









This one is her own attempt at creating a Warli painting...



I love this one, the effect looks good, though it is just crayons...



This one is also from an Eid greeting, she got a prize for this one too...



An earlier painting of hers...



And this one is in colour pencils done almost two years back...



And this is her attempt at creating something new, the colours are beautiful here aren't they?



This is what I like best, how she created beautiful pen-stands out of used soda cans...

The Silver Lining

As if to debunk my myth on friendship and to remind me of some friendship that have tided over time and place, I went out with my college friend last week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were no concealed jabs, no underlying messages no whines over infinitesimal pains and aches, just open and ceaseless positive conversation, lot of gossip, a bit of nostalgia (thinking about college and our carefree life then), a bit of husband comparison (we came to the consensus that they are all the same), genuine thoughts on parenting thrown in with some good food, and excellent interiors (we can’t help but noticing that detail!)

Though my junior in college (she reminds of that minor detail incessantly), we hit it off from the moment we met in college and she was constantly in my room, talking about our passion then, architecture and our individual boyfriends…

Our passions have undergone a major change, she is now into sustainable architecture ( a slight change) and me into writing (a major change here) and our boyfriends have become our husbands so they are no longer a passion!

And our friendship has endured, and so there is a silver lining in the sky, though I take time to see it!

And this is one ingredient I wish that all of us would pepper our life with, maybe a little more generously, some girl-bonding time, a few hours in a month to connect with your friends and alone without tagging our family with us.

This is where we connected ...



How about you? And do you do this often?