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?

Friends and losing them

I hate losing friends, period. Even if it is a friendship forged out of convenience for the whole family, the husband’s friend and family becomes friends for the family because kids are of the same age and the guys like hanging out together.
I am like that person in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ who remembers dates and goes all emotional remembering old incidents… Yes, I too have issues with friends and more so when it is family friends, when I hold grudges against them in my hearts and even bring them up in conversations and ask for explanation but am equally fiercely protective about them. I also feel I have the sole right to say anything against them and if someone even nods in agreement to my complaints, I defend them, because yes, they might do something that hurts me but they are my friends, right…
But what do you do when the signs are obvious, when your calls aren’t returned for the umpteen time, when you are constantly forgotten to be included in group outings, or there are no group outings for now everyone prefers to be alone, when you can sense that aloofness, like a shadow lurking between words and actions…
I tried once more, called them all over for another of our get together…but that too didn’t work, it left me strained and unhappy…the magic of togetherness is lost; the fun that we shared during the Thursday night get-togethers, the constant ribbing, the easy flow of mundane conversation…is all a thing of the past.
Should I let go or keep holding on to memories…
I hold on to memories for they are just mine to revisit and relive those good-old-days, when kids were small, when life was simple and uncomplicated …
And I let go too of expectations too and hope that I have friends for ever, friends whom I don’t have to call regularly but who understand your schedules, who don’t expect anything from you, who are there just within a phone call distance, for you to talk to and be just you…
Or is it expecting too much

I am officially the mother of a ‘grown-up’. And it hurts.
It hurt when I saw her large beautiful eyes widen in deep amazement and shock at her first sight of this unwelcome monthly visitor.
...when I think she is just 11, a kid, now, tomorrow and always to me...
…when I saw tears welling up in her eyes as I explained this will be a monthly ritual that will go on for years to come.
…when I see her trying to hide her growing panic at the unexplainable pain she endures
…when she asks me every hour when this will get over
…when she implores me to not tell her father about this change in her…
It hurts when I think she can’t be that carefree, sports loving, out going, innocent little girl of mine, who can only sit with her legs up.
But I will make her understand, that this does not hinder her in any way, in any of her activities… (though I don’t think it is fair at all that we have all the pain and the ‘unfair sex’ has all the fun)
On the flip side, I can see the beginning of a deeper bond…of mom and daughter, me and her, as both of us stand huddled in the bathroom, with me talking to her about experiences that are far worse than hers. How she comes to me just to talk, to put her confused mind to rest, to share her fears and how when she fervently swore that in her next birth, she wants to be born as a ‘boy’ and when I agreed with her and said, “Yeah, me too!” and we looked at each other and smiled our secret smile…I can see the bond blooming…and I hope it will grow stronger. Touchwood.
And not far behind the doors there is a pair of investigating eyes, those of my younger ones, who is trying hard to understand why we are sharing too many bathroom secrets…

Back at it

I had work, it was hot, I was depressed…but all these were limitations I had faced earlier on,and yet could write atleast 4 blogs a month, so WHY am I not, writing…! N, is gently prodding…and I have no answers….
It is a question that I am trying to answer, should I go on…or just put a stop to it, because it is really an effort to find time and the dedication to keep this page going.
Then I remember the joy I feel, each minute I upload a new blog and yet again, I decide to go back…
I have been feeling a bit depressed with life as such, with the reason why one blogs, how to write yet not hurt anybody who reads this. I know this is where we have to write without a care but I am not made that way, for me, each action I take is weighed against the consequences it has on others…I am moulded that way, call it hereditary, or an exclusive trait, but I have this…and it is difficult to change NOW.
So I tuck in my ‘hurt’ feathers, and go on with my strutting …