Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Supremely aligned

I wonder where this feeling is coming from? This being supremely aligned with the universe? It started last Saturday when I went to OCAD and has stayed with me since...

Wonder if this is what I am supposed to do after all? 

Friday, October 28, 2016

Suddenly I felt the lonely pangs of an empty nest when I heard the piano playing softly as I was dropping off to sleep. How empty and how silent this house will be when you go away to University in less than 2 years!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

There are so many spoken words inside of my head ..unspoken

My head buzzes with these words each morning but I have chores to do and go to work..

Sometime during the day the thoughts are all flownand by the time it is evenind the left has so taken over the right that all I think of are the stops I have to make before I go home..to cook or not to cook dinner

Monday, June 20, 2016

Nostalgia comes knocking

As I make a rather elaborate dosa potato curry and chutney breakfast on Saturday my mind flies back to when weekends used to be weekends.  When you could do nothing but laze around if you wanted to.
Back in Delhi when Saturdays were off every alternate week, and my house was managed by my parents, it was only the doorbell and the kids that would wake us up and I could have a lazy cup of tea over crosswords and cartoons in the Sunday paper looking forward to a breakfast of alu parathas or puris or taking off to Haldirams for a brunch of halwa puri.  There was no mad rush for grocery shopping or laundry to be done or a dog to walk or a garden to be tended to. It all got done and though we cribbed to have every Saturday off it was enough.
The laziest weekends used to be even earlier when we got just the Sunday off in Kota. I was woken up with either the maid or the milkman whoever made it first. And while I sipped my morning cup of tea, the lovely Bimla applied henna to my hair. Usually Sarita used to be making bread rolls for breakfast which was a break from my toast with marmalade and boiled egg breakfast every day. Even though the marmalade was homemade – yes made by yours truly with the Nagpur oranges every winter- life seemed to be spread over an expanse of leisure.
Despite the laid back lifestyle I practiced productivity techniques during the weekday where my alarm clock was the milkman and I boiled my egg in my tea water, while toasting my bread in a pan on a little electric stove. The gas burner and the refrigerator came much later. The fridge when Poonam started coming over for lunch. The gas burner I don’t remember when …
Coming back to the lazy Sunday – we watched Mahabharat while devouring the bread rolls with a hennaed head before going on to the next activity which was dusting the few articles of my minimalist existence. When I had my little tape recorder this was done in accompaniment to Simon n Garfunkel’s …like a bridge.. and other numbers from a cassette Shefali had left before she moved to Delhi. Or ‘ o mere sapno ke saudagar… Since I usually whirled and twirled to the music with my duster the dusting took a little longer than warranted.
Lunch was planned while we had breakfast and I contributed my staple diet of rice and sambar ( I just boiled everything together and added the sambar powder ground in the mixie ( that’s what we called the processor back then) that I had rescued from being thrown away in Bellary and brought back with me to Kota. Sometimes I contributed pyaazwale bhindi or karela.  Sarita labored a little more with the rotis and veggies. She turned out some lovely malai koftas on occasion.
Bimla turned up by the time I finished my few chores and gave me my weekly massage filling me in on the events in her life.  A luxurious bath later from a bucket of water heated by an electric rod we congregated for lunch and the afternoon movie at Sarita’s. This was before we walked to SP uncle’s to catch the evening flick on DD.
My laundry and the dishes and the cleaning of the house was taken care of by Bimla somewhere in the course of the morning and the dhobi took the clothes away to be crisply ironed and starched.
By the time evening came, we would perhaps venture out to buy some fruits and vegetables and by this time were already wondering what to do with the rest of the evening. And this was when just had the one day off.

And here I am still checking off the things that did not get done this weekend and has to go over to the next.

Monday, June 16, 2014

All us Ugly Ducklings

There are so many of us in here.

The dreamy little child, the morbid teenager, the sometimes overly optimistic and sometimes manically depressed twenty something, the head firmly on the shoulder and heart firmly ground beneath the feet ever since...

Different in so many ways and yet alike. All so bound with the do-gooder twine....

Friday, March 07, 2014

Done with it

I think I am finally done with it! 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

All you dog lover friends..beware


I have an axe to grind with all those dog – moms that eulogized keeping a dog as the best stress buster ever! Really?

I can tell you a hundred reasons why Jibu has made my stress levels gallop skywards but I will only start with this morning.

I was late to work and had to push the daily status meeting by 15 minutes.

The first snowfall of the season – and the world outside looked pristine and white. But that’s not why I was late. 
Before I became a dog-mom, this would have meant staring out at the beautiful world and sharing this beauty with my Facebook friends. Today I worried where Jibu would go poo. Because my very knowledgeable husband had found out last night that dogs cannot be let out in the snow to do their job. The rightful owner of Jibu arose and leashed Jibu close to his pad.  I sprayed his pad with the training stuff and Isha bleary eyed departed for another round of sleep.

But Jibu is a summer dog and only knows to ‘go’ outside. Of course sometimes, just to torment me he has gone on the carpet outside my door but today he remembers he is ‘trained’

So all the while I prepared the kids lunch boxes, he whined and squealed and barked and I took him and his pad to the powder room and locked them inside hoping he will act like all of us do. He normally does that when we eat he says me too please or when I bring home the shopping - he is quite clear he is a member of the family and asks me where's my stuff?  But not this time. He continued to bring the house down. I am of course only concerned by the horror that does our daily performance appraisal. He comes down, and yells at me for being a dog abuser and to make the dog stop barking.  Very early appraisal today. :(
By now Isha and her dad know that the rant to put Jibu for sale in Kjiji is about to begin so they come down and try to take Jibu out on the porch. Our boss departs for another shut eye.

 Jibu as soon as he sees Isha and Ameeth forgets everything but fun and frolic and starts eating the snow. They declare he does not want to go and again tie him up in the kitchen table and depart - Very strategic move by both of them. For future reference this will be put down as ‘We tried’

By now Jibu is quite desperate and continues to curse me in his dog language. I keep trying to ignore him and once again spray the pad.. no luck… he will not let me have my tea or my breakfast in peace. I finally bring the big green foot rug and spray it. He does his job and continues to mutter darkly at me for not helping him out earlier!

By the time the ‘happy family’ is down for breakfast he is at peace and there is no reason why the adorable thing needs to be given away!

I think I need to give myself away!