Me and Meri Maggi

Maggi has always been a comfort food for most of us, easy to make and yummy to taste. Delicacy right from school days. Till date I have come across only 3 people who said they dont like Maggi, My grandpa, my dad and my husband! The latter name came as a bit of surprise though but still my grocery shopping has never been complete without maggi!

Last sunday, my house maid came in a lil late, to be specific after our breakfast was done and before our lunch was prepared. She generally never asks for tea/snacks but that day she said, amma, give me something to eat, my stomach is burning(kadupu kaluthundi). I frantically looked around to see what I could give her to eat, rice not yet cooked, no snack stock at home( thanks to my dieting!!), idly batter got finished,no fruits too! My maggi to rescue.. my saviour any day! I cooked maggi for her and she ate to her hearts content. Thank you maggi, for keeping my lazy bones in tact and also giving me the pleasure of "art of giving"!

failure my friend..

It's frightening when you encounter failure from close quarters. It shatters your self confidence, makes you feel absolutely good for nothing. You even start wondering if what you achieved till date was just by chance and not by virtue!

Going through a bad phase of failure after failure, despite the will, hardwork and some brains! Lady luck as they say hasn't been smiling on me much.. but I know this too will pass on.. Good things are just round the corner.. all I need to do is hangon!! Its only making me stronger and better.

Poppatness continues..

Last week I attended a job interview. The wierd company made me give a written test in the first round. I so wanted to say "Duh!" and leave , but yeah, I had to behave myself. I thought the test was a disaster( well, for a change I have to agree that am well past that age of sitting and writing exams!). The HR lady asked me to wait till she corrected my answer sheet. I was hardly tensed, as I knew how I gave that. When the HR came back and told me that I cleared the written test round, I blurted out "Really?" followed by a stupid grin !! Mistake number 1! I wish I had learnt better techniques of masking emotions!

Then the tech interview round 1, I was asked to write a program and while thinking, I was playing with the pen so hard that the cap flew and hit the glass wall. Mistake number 2! Why would anyone have a person as clumsy as that as their lead? but surprise!! I cleared that round too!

Cut to tech round 2.. I was careful this time not to make any mistakes, may be I just tried too hard, they never got back to me after that!

lesson learnt: be yourself how much ever clumsy you are.. the moment you try to be someone else, you will be shown the door :)

Scared for a reason!

yeah, I kept my promise to Akki, She has already recieved 2 mails from her mom.. and more to come.

Last week I learnt a valuable lesson. We usually give home made raagi porridge as breakfast for Akki. the flour got over and we went to the market and got a flour which claimed to be consisting of similar ingredients that we used and made hygienically. It was called "Health Mix". We foolishly fell for it and got a small pack to try. All the while the only thing on my mind was, if Akki would like the taste. She liked it and so did I! We fed her the same next day too. What we overlooked was she didn't poop the previous day. Story repeated the next day too. And by third day we started getting worried as she was growing cranky and not eating well. We somehow got her to poop, which was again a hard sight! The hardest stool she had ever passed, crying out of pain,all sweat.. I can never ever forget what pain she had been through! The guilt that I went through when it stuck to me that the breakfast powder had been the culprit, cannot be put in words. She suffered coz of one foolish decision of ours. She developed high fever, stomach indigestion, cough and suffered through the following week which only added more to my guilt. She was suffering and I was watching her suffer helplessly.. torture!

The lil ones are here in this world because of us, so small, so innocent, so pure! They learn everything from us, to talk, to walk, to smile, to cry, to play, to enjoy... they are a reflection of our upbringing. Our small mistake can effect them so much! Its our responsibility to protect them.. give them a good life by giving a good upbringing.

Today I am what my parents moulded me to be, and am really proud of the way they brought me up. I can say that they life I lead, is a gift they gave me. I do not want to believe in destiny. I attribute everything to them, my success, failure, happiness, everything.

I want my daughter to have the best life, I want her to be independent, self confident, generous, kind, helpful and an affectionate human being. She might have inherited some qualities by birth, but the above are the ones that we can inculcate in her. I know its a maor task at hand and I don't even know if I will be fulfill that dream. I need to be a good mother first, which means there is no scope for mistake, not even 1 percent. Scary!

P.S:I might keep going back to remember how my parents brought me up! Copy paste can be applied here also ;)

I wish...

Sometimes I wish I knew a lot more about me, I know about my childhood is only as much as my mom remembers. It really feels good to know how my mom felt when she first saw me, when she first took me in her arms.. what i did when.. my milestones..
I promise to give this gift to my daughter!
Akki, I promise to give you the pleasure of reading your childhood.. a gift that you n I would cherish forever.

Merry christmas!

Life's good and a yummy moist spongy christmas cake has made it more merrier :)
My neighbour is celebrating christmas and I joined her in just the cake part of it.
Yet to plan for the new year party! looking for ideasssssss.. post some!

Cooking is the new in thing!

Cooking is my new found interest. I have actually started enjoying the experiments. Yes, you heard me right and am perfectly alright. I still find the everyday cooking very very boring but am anytime on for a new experiment. There are these daily cookery shows that come on tv 12 pm to 1 pm. There would be atleast 1 recipe in the shows worth trying.
The end result does matter. The happiness you get when your experiment is a super duper hit is worth all the trials and failures. It gives you a creative satisfaction :)
I still can't forget the excitement when i tried making rasgollas. It came out exactly the way they showed it on the video.. all soft, puffed up and super yummy!
Yeah, am not sure second time I try the result is going to be the same so there is no fun in repeating experiments ;)

Am Back!

Am back on my blog page after a lil more than 2 month break. It really feels good to be back, coz all it means is that am in control of my current frame of mind :) A state that I love to be in!
Last 2 months have been a roller coaster ride, happy sad frustrated elated decided confused celebrated humiliated.. everything that life could offer, it did. Am glad I went through all that, coz today I think after all that, I am a better person today. I grew as a person(quite literally too!). And am only hoping I remember my lessons learnt for life !
Lets get started again...

The timing...

After a long lazy saturday and enough of stink, I finally decided to take a shower. The hot water suddenly felt too tempting to resist. I am all set to go and I turn on the shower knob only to hear an empty pipe trying to blurt out last few drops of water!

After a long break from my exercise routine, one fine day I get super motivated and decide to break that break. I keep an alarm for early next morning, wake up and take that wii fit board and switch on the tv, take the body test and got shocked when it showed the upward graph of my weight and bmi. I get super motivated again to do rigorous exercise and suddenly the message on TV, batteries of the wii fit board are empty. I need to recharge them. I keep sulking the rest of the day for waking up early for nothing and also not being able to do anything about the upward graph. What the hell!

Am running late to office and I have only 3 more minutes before the meeting begins. This ones going to be the last signal before I reach office, and I see the light green, I speed up and am almost there when the light turned red. I tried to somehow feign ignorance and pass through the signal but the hefty traffic police blows the whistle and I freeze. meeting began while i stood frozen at signal for the next 3 minutes. Shooooooooot

One day, I decided to have gulab jamun in the office cafeteria and was cutting out on the calories from morning. Oats for breakfast with honey (no sugar), Soup, salad and roti with daal for lunch. After having all that, I was craving to eat that gulab jamun even more. Tick snacks time and I went slurrping to cafe, only to find that there were no gulab jamuns made that day. Grrr..

Akshara slept in time and i wanted to catch the repeat episode of my tele soap I missed the day before. I switch on the TV to find that the cable wasnt working. I call up the customer care and they say some repair, and its going to take time. I kill time by readin paper, checking mails again and again and by the time Akshara woke up, cable also got repaired. Phew..

Whom to blame? Why only me? are just some of the many questions that go round and round in me!

Dillemma of a working mom- Part 2

Am completely in awe of people who know what their priorities in life are and stick to them no matter what and work towards their priorities. I don't care what their priorities are and why!

I realised how messed up I am with regards my priorities in life. I want everything which I know is impossible and ending up being in a confused state constantly.

I decided I am going to be a stay at home mom for an year or more and give my baby all the time she needs. I couldn't stick to this one. The idea of quitting the job didn't go very well with me. I looked for work from home opportunities, thought of all other possible ideas to keep me working at home, but nothing materialised.
Finally, I ended up getting a part time job, 5 hours at office and all other time with my baby. It seemed like the perfect thing to happen. My family came over to support me , to look after my baby while I was at work. Everything seemed to be perfectly in place till I actually started working.
I try giving my 100% at work, but I have only 50% time.
I do suffer from guilt for joining back to work everyday, when my baby cries when I leave for work.
I keep thinking about her, if she has eaten well, if she has slept well, may be she needs me now, inspite of the assurance that I have left her in safe hands. The thought that she needs me and am not there keeps coming back.

My career also isn't going great , coz no matter how much effort I put in, am only putting in 5 hrs in office compared to others who are putting in 10!
What seemed to be a perfect deal, now seems to be the most loser deal! You seriously cant get everything! You need to let go!
I have friends who are working full time and are literally not seeing their babies all weekdays. They are happy coz they are doing good at work and are ok spending only weekends with their babies.
I have friends who have quit their job and are happy dedicated moms to their lil ones.
Am neither there, nor her and am not happy.

Dedicate this post to My sister Swapna , Gunjan, Pavana, Raksha, Vijaya and harsha.

I likes!

I like the concept of negative calorie foods.. U eat them and they burn ur fat :) Talk about eating and losing weight! wow!
How? They take more calories to digest than the number of calories they provide.
Negative calorie fruits:
Papaya, peach, watermelon, pineapple, apple, strawberry, orange, lemon, lime.

Negative calorie veggies:
Onion, Beetroot, brinjal, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, tomato.

Others:
Oatmeal, garlic, green-tea, Low fat milk, curd, whole-grain cereal.

Joey Poppat: Saving money!

Last week we went out to a small eat out in the neighbourhood. I was having a masala dosa craving. Sometime after we placed our order, we were served masala pappad. We didn't order for it yet we had it assuming it might be complimentary.
Our order was served next and then the finger bowl. Akshara was in my lap and before I could respond, she toppled the used finger bowl over me. (yes , mothers need to have quick reflexes!!)
later, the bill came and we saw that the masala pappad was included in the bill which we never ordered. My sweet hubby was about to pay for it as it was only 10 bucks. But the rebel in me woke up, I wanted to revert that 10 rs from the bill. I called the waiter, the guy who took the order , did all drama , got some cheap looks when I said, we thought it was complimentary. Somehow finally, I managed to get our 10 rs back and I came home basking in the glory of saving ten rupees!! Just when we were about to reach home, I realised I left Akshara's snack bowl and the spoon in the restaurant. Spoon, my friends, was a silver one costing around hundred bucks.. naturally, we couldn't find it where we left it in the restau.
I sulked all night and vowed that I would never go back to that restau.
Ps: One question that I cannot answer is , why on earth did I carry the silver spoon to restau inspite of having hundreds of other low cost spoons! Fate, my friends!

Summer holidays are back with a Bang!

Remember those school wala summer holidays? All play and no worries? I had almost relived them this summer.. thanks to Akshara! Few kids in the neighbourhood come home everyday to play with Akshara. It was real fun watching them play, mess around the house, innocent question and even more innocent answers :)
6 year old Anu came running along the stairs and said, "Aunty give me water , my heart attack is going faster". She meant her heart beat :)
Yesterday was all the more fun. One of them said, she wanted to play hide and seek and all of them wanted to hide. So Akshara and me has to cont and find them all. yes, I played along with them and felt transported back in time forgetting all about the age difference. Later i realized I had to behave my age but it was too late. I continued playing and had super fun.
Later in the evening, in the park, one of the kids mom asked me," Did you play hide n seek with the kids? Pihu(her daughter) was telling me".
I tried doing some damage control.. "yam amyam yam.. No I was just watching them " and the last nail in my coffin came from Pihu as she suddenly appeared from nowhere and said.." Aunty don't tell lies, you played with us right?"
Her mom, my friend laughed but gave me a saving grace by changing the topic. Thank you!
But yeah, the embarrassment was all worth it. I did really have fun playing with the kids. (I don't want to sound retard, but if you ever get a chance, give it a try, you will sure have fun!)

Chocolate balls recipe

Ok, this one is a relatively low cal but lip smacking dessert.
All you need:
1 pack marie light biscuits.
4 tsp cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
handful roasted peanuts.
Milk Cream (I took Amul low fat fresh cream) - Amount.. just enough to make the mixture moist enough to make moulds.

pretty easy procedure..
1) grind the biscuits, grind the sugar.
2)Mix them with 4 tsp of cocoa powder.
3) Make it in to a dough using the cream.
4)Now make small rounds out of the dough.
5) Peanut can be placed on top of each mould but I preferred to put it in the center of the ball just for the surprise element. Take small amount of dough, flatten it on ur palm, place the peanut and then cover it up and make a ball.

Try the recipe, its seriously worth it!!

Chocolate balls saga continues...

I am very bad at remembering birthdays. But, I remember my school friend Divya's birthday, Feb 10th. During school, all my friends used to look forward to her birthday party. Reason being yummy Chocolate balls her mom, Pushpa aunty used to make without fail year after year. They were so yummy that they are fetched in all our memories for ever.
Last week, my sweet tooth attacked on me again and I craved (yes, I am having cravings way after pregnancy) for those yummy chocolate balls. Craving so strong that i called up my Mom to call up aunty and find out the recipe and pass it back to me. After 1 hour of hardwork, I had similar looking, and almost yummy chocolate balls ready!
Last week, 2 kids in the neighbourhood came home to play with Akshara. I generously offered them the chocolate balls and they were very very impressed. One of them even commented, "Aunty, I wish you were my mom because you know how to make these"!!
Next day, there were 4 other kids along with those 2 who came to play with Akshara. I was a lil surprised but soon knew why they were all there. I offered them all and they asked me when Akshara's birthday was. After I told them when it was, they asked me to make the chocolate balls for her birthday party and give them as return gifts to all of them :)
Looks like I am going to take Pushpa aunty's chocolate balls for birthday saga forward... Thanks aunty for the wonderful recipe.

P.S: Recipe in the next post.

The Zen Y

Kids can sometimes surprise you so much with their talk that they leave you wondering for hours.
There is this little 6 year old girl in my neighbourhood who comes to play with Akshara. Today while she was playing, she asked me "Aunty, you don't have AC? Its so hot today."
I said we don't and asked her if she had one at her home. She said she doesn't have but she plans to have one at her new home. With that the gossip "me" woke up and I was curious to know if my friend has bought a new place somewhere. I planned to probe the little one further and get some info from her. I asked her " Where is your new home? " She said "That I don't know, but once I shift there, even if AC is not already there, we will buy one". (OK , she was still stuck on the AC thing! )
"When will you shift to your new home?" I asked in the hope of getting atleast some info about the new house.
"After I marry aunty. Then I will go to a new home na."
The Gossip "me" went underground.

Is a 6 year old really supposed to know that she will be going to a new home after marriage?

The Past.. The Present

I was asked this question during my first job interview, "Where do you see yourself five years down the line"? and I got my answer yesterday in the train. Big time mockery of life.
We were travelling by the first AC as there were no other tickets available and we had to reach Bangalore. My first ever travel in first AC coach. Its a nice cozy coupe kind of thing for four. I think the first class is almost always underbooked, so generally they allot 2 per coupe, so its all the more cozy. Ok, coming back to our mockery thing, murphy was looking at us generously and this time the first class was also completely booked. So we were 4 per coupe and Murphy made sure we had best company in the form of a newly wed couple. They were just married and we all know how the just married are :) I instantly felt like an elderly couple sitting in front of them. It was almost like a mirror reflection of 5 years back and I've come a long long way. Some differences below:

They: were all eyes and ears for each other.
We: were happy with our own eyes and ears :)

They: were holding hands.
We: were holding baby.

They: were sitting in a small 'b' , one curled up in the other.
We: were sitting in a big 'H', with akshara completing the H for us.

They: were listening to music, sharing the ipod.
We: were also listening to music but a different kind. N was playing the background music of all the available ringtones in the mobile and I was the main lead singer singing "Eat akshara, please.. open your mouth, baby eat.. eat baby please". Those were the only lyrics available.

They: were waiting for us to sleep so that they could get all the privacy they wanted.
We: were waiting for akshara to sleep, so that we can get some sleep. All we need is some extra sleep.

They: were all giggles and sweet nothings.
We: were discussing a serious issue, a deadlock scenario. Akshara has not pooped today and hence is not eating anything. But if she eats something, she will definitely poop. How do we handle this, how do we make her eat, how do we make her poop?

They: were helping each other in making the bed.
We: were fighting over keeping the light on or off.

The more I write, the more the differences I find, so lets just stop here. Signing off in the hope that they too will be like us 5 years down their lane :)

P.S:
1) Babies are adorable and are must haves. They are worth all the trouble they give and more.
2) Jo recommends first class AC coupe to all the newly weds. :)

Pj's after long time

Ok these are copy paste from my friends email.. but liked them so posting them here.

1)Arz kiya hai…Ab toh Zindagi ka maksad hai tujhe apnana…Ab toh Zindagi ka maksad hai tujhe apnana…....................A for Apple B for Banana…WAH WAH…!!======================================================================================= (2)Arz kiya hai…
Kal tak thee jo meri present…Kal tak thee jo meri present…........Aaj ho gayee hai past…....Kal tak thee jo meri present…Aaj ho gayee hai past….......Offer valid till stocks last.. :-P=======================================================================================(3) Arz kiya hai…Bakre ne maara jo bakri ko seeng……Bakre ne maara jo bakri ko seeng……....................Toh Bakri bhi maregi bakre ko seeng.======================================================================================= (4)Arz kiya hai…Baith kar girlfriend ki Zulfon ke saaye mai aisa josh aaya…Wah-Wah, Wah-Wah…Baith kar girlfriend ki Zulfon ke saaye mai aisa josh aaya…
;;;Ki Uske papa ne dekh liya aur ICU mai hosh aaya…=======================================================================================(5)Yashomati Maiyya Se Bole Nandlala ................Waah! Waah!..Yashomati Maiyya Se Bole Nandlala ..........."Maa, Tata Sky Laga Daala To Life Jhingalala ..!!" =======================================================================================(6)Teacher to student : 1 chiku ke ped pe 10 kele lage hai, usme se 5 aam gir gaye , to btao ab kitne angoor bache…Raju : Sir 10 hathi bache…Teacher: Arrey waah, tumhe kaise pata chala
Raju : Kyunki aaj main tiffin mein methi ke pronthe laaya hun..=======================================================================================(7)Romio ne juliet se kaha ek sach........Romio ne juliet se kaha ek sach..........Asali masale sach sachMDH.....MDH ...!=======================================================================================(8) Ek Kana Ladka Kisi ladki ko Propose kare to kaun sa gana Gayega?????????????????????? !!!!!!….!!!….Ek Nazar se bhi Pyar Hota hai Maine suna Hai............................................ ============================================================
===========================(9) A scientist disconnected his doorbell.......can u guess why??? ???? try think!!! donno??? cuz .............!!!!!!!!he wanted to win the No-bell prize!!!!!!!!!! :P=======================================================================================(10)Salma ke pyaar me doob gaya Peter
Gaur farmaiye Salma ke pyaar me doob gaya Peter.......Ab hero Honda splendor 80 kilometer prati leter=======================================================================================(11)1 ladki ne kiya ladke ko gaal pe kiss1 ladki ne kiya ladke ko gaal pe kiss.....................Mutual funds are subjected to market risks……!!!!

I wish I was..

The first child! Seriously.. the charm of being the first is hitting me badly these days. First child, first ranker, first love,first bike, first hug, first kiss, first everything! Damn! I am the second child to my parents, I never came first in my class, never got anything firsthand.. all my books, dresses everything was second hand passed on from my sister.
Why this thought came now is another thing.. Was wondering the other day that if I ever have another baby will I be able to love that baby as much as I love Akshara? Will I be able to give the same level of attention and time? Love may be yes, but attention.. NO! and definitely not buy another play gym or bouncer or milk bottles! or may be I should.. should'nt I? Just for the sake that my second baby doesnt feel the same way as I am today! I dont knw! Really not worth thinking about something that has not even happened and when you have so much of time.. this is what happens!

Milestones so far..

Babies are adorable.. no arguments there. But its one thing to see others babies and play with them once in a while and another thing to bringing up your own baby.. being with them day in day out, everyday, seeing them grow and learn. It's an experience for lifetime where you too grow as a parent and learn along with your baby.
Akshara is 6 months old now and lot of milestones to celebrate :)
Month 1: We celebrated the day 1 of this month, we welcomed our little one in to our world with lot of joy and happiness. She was a natural. She latched on so easily to drink milk as if she has been doing it for the past 9 months. All she needed this month was milk, lots of sleep and loads of pee pee poo poo to be cleaned up. She wouldn't even react to any toy. But yes, she SMILED! We celebrated that for sure!
Month 2: Sometime during this month, she started reacting to toys. She could roll her eye balls along with the toy. She could perfectly track the toy as we moved it in front of her. Super duper. We rejoiced :)
Month 3: She was named this month. Akshara Koppineedi. Celebrated in a big way and loads of gifts. Her first pattu langa. Her first Flight travel. And yes.. she arrived home. Blore! We were exhilarated.
Month 4: She started giggling, chuckles, screams.. we had it all. And yeah from rolling her eyes, she was now trying to reach out for that toy. Hand eye co-ordination yayy! and more.. neck movement too. She could turn her neck in the direction of the toy she wanted!! yippie! Her first new year party. Her first play gym experience.
Month 5: She lifted her legs up, perpendicular, turned sideways and yeah,,.. she rolled over!! Initially struggled to take the hand stuck below her, but soon that was also achieved! quick learner there! Her first pongal.
Month 6: Solids!! Started on cerelac. She loved it. She started crawling. but yeah backwards. Reverse gear worked first :) Bonded big time with her granpa, granma and baamma.

There have been bad days, tough days, fun days.. complete roller coaster for life!

Mis-Interprettation

There is this beautiful song from Masoom "Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi, hairaan hoon main" .
Very well written, beautifully composed and well sung. But all these days the meaning of the first few lines always bothered me till I asked my friend for the meaning of it.
Here are the lines:
"Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi, hairan hoon main,
Teri masoom sawalon se pareshan hoon main "
This is what I interpreted:
Shabana Azmi singing this song to the little Jugal hansraj saying " AM hairaan about why Zindagi is not naraaz with you . And am pareshaan with your masoom sawaal".
Thankfully this is what it means:
Shabana Azmi singing this to herself and telling zindagi that she is not angry with life but just hairaan. And she is pareshaan about the questions zindagi is throwing at her!

Thank you Gunjan for the real meaning. And no questions on my IQ level please...

Working Mother's dillemma

I know a lot of people have gone through this before me and a lot will after me and am not the only one. But posting this just to mark that I am going through this, and may be someday my daughter will also read this.
I am very bad at making a decision and sticking to it, even if its smallest of things like selecting some snack from given menu. I would struggle to arrive at something and most of the times end up regretting why I chose this and not something else. And this time the menu card showed just two things and am still struggling. One, take a break from work, watch my baby grow and give her the best of nourishment, and my entire time and attention. Two, join back work, trust others in bringing up my baby, and give her the maximum available time left after work.
Choosing One also means I will be sitting idle for some time doing nothing( even if there are hazaar things to do, my laziness takes over me) and take care of the baby rest of the time. And Choosing Two also means a super busy life, struggling and juggling and living in constant guilt that am not able to give enough time to my baby.
I knew the above before I even got preg and taking a decision seemed so very easy! Obviously the first! Welcome break from work, no pressure of getting up early and catching the bus, no work pressure, no appraisals tension. Just some happy time at home with the baby. I made the decision of taking a break from work by choice and not by force. And am also blessed enough to be able to ignore the financial aspect while taking the decision (Thank you H) .
But now, when am actually going through it, am finding it tough to be sitting at home. I never actually realised when going for work had become an addiction for me. I know I will regret the moment I will join back work, coz by then Baby would be my bigger addiction.
Inspite of knowing everything, pros,cons it sometimes just gets to me. With not so friendly neighbours, no one to show off your new dresses to and no one to talk to the entire day(am Not talking about the one sided baby talk) , and even if I meet some other mothers at the park in the evening , it's only about babies, and it just gets too much to handle. What did I used to talk about before I had a baby??
With extremely supportive H and an absolutely adorable daughter, am just sailing through this. May God bless me with more mental strength to stick to my most sensible decision I made.

Why.. why I say?

It's really frustrating when you come face to face with your own weaknesses and even more frustrating when all your attempts at working on your weakness fail. How bad can it be to know what your problem is and still not able to work over it? very bad indeed!
One thing that's troubling me a lot these days is my weakness of not being able to delegate work. Not being able to take help from others even when its being readily offered. I want to do it all by myself even when I know I lack the energy and the time to do it. It really sounds weird but I don't like sharing work unless I reach a point where things go beyond my control. If I have started something, I wantto finish it by my own and someone else's interference(read HELP) upsets me :(
It's not that I didn't try, I did try n take help from others in doing something, but it doesn't give me the satisfaction I would've got if I did it on my own.
Am I alone or do I have company? Am I OK?

Uthuku, pindu aarey!

If I am asked to rate the most borest taks to do in life , managing clothes(washing, drying, ironing..) tops the list and if am asked to rate the most interesting things to do, shopping for clothes tops it!! Can someone please uncomplicate my lil life?

How I wish someone could make 'Use, throw and recycle' kind of dresses? That way we could wear new dress everyday and not even wash them! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy

Avvakayyara?

Life's getting lil tougher.. increasing expenditures, diminishing income, increasing population.. very chaotic! I was little taken aback when I saw the weekly groceries bill, 1500 INR for veggies, and bare minimum groceries! How long can we last this way? There was a time when I thought that if we could somehow have savings of 1 Cr INR, we could easily retire and enjoy for the rest of life. But looking at the way things are going, we might have to work till the last day to continue living the way we live now.
I wonder how my domestic help is managing, she has 4 daughters , one of them married and divorced with a child, 3 yet to be married , husband who is a drunkard and only 2 earning people.

Info on Cervical cancer vaccination

OK this one is an FYI&A for all my friends.. friends, wives and sisters of friends

My doc had asked me to take the cervical cancer vaccination yesterday and this is the info I got from him and wanted to share with you all . I know there is loads of info available everywhere but just wanted to share whatever info I have

Currently they say all girls(yes , girls !) between the age of 14-24 must get this done as a prevention for cervical cancer. But women beyond 24 can also get this done.

Its a 3 dose vaccination spread across 6 months. 0 months- 2 months- 6 months. Each one costs 3250 INR. Its advisable not to plan for pregnancy during these 6 months.

3 mistakes that I learnt from!

I had to write this post to cherish this landmark even later :)

My baby is now in to her 6th month and we had to start giving her, her first solid food. cerelac for starters. I was pretty excited about it!

1) My first hurdle came when I was mixing the food, how thick or thin should it be? I used the dumb side of my brain and thought, its called solids, so it should be pretty solid :) [First mistake]

2) Second hurdle was the position in which I should feed her, again my dumb side knocked at me and I thought, we sit while we eat so she must also be sitting and I placed her in the bouncer and sat right in front of her. [Second mistake]

3) I don't know what I was thinking when I tried to feed her with the spoon, I kept the spoon near her mouth and expected her to take it in like we do! Obviously that didn't happen!! Again a knock knock and I had put a spoonful of cerelac in her mouth. [Third mistake]

After that, I was waiting for her reaction eagerly sitting pretty close to her. and there it was.. Bhurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.. she spit out everything I had put in her mouth right on my face! cerelac facepack does'nt do much good to your skin!

And I learnt from my mistakes, thinner paste (solids doesn't literally mean SOLID!), babies can have food lying down, and small quantity each time results in a better experience and cleaner face and home :)

Grow up again???

There is this song in the movie 3 idiots.. "Gimme some Sunshine, gimme some rain, Gimme another chance, I wanna grow up once again".
But how many of you really want to grow up once again? No, Not me!!
I mean, yeah childhood was fun, no responsibilities and all that but growing up again also means studying history , geography and civics all over again! Urgggg! And it also means giving all the monday tests, board exams, entrance exams all over again! More than all that theres something else ... I was this healthy and chubby types all through out the school. While my friends in my peer group started getting love letters right from class 7, I was getting nicknames like King Kong Bundy(remember the WWF guy?.. yes the same one), KKb or K^2B for lazy people! It was a pain to listen through all your friends interesting love stories or be the agony aunt and never to have anything remotely interesting to tell! My mom had never let me diet and to make it worse she always gave me high carb foods like Kaju burfi, complan, cakes, chicken which I could never ever resist! which obviously resulted in more healthy outcome :)
And then being the second child in the family, there was always this pressure of doing better than my sister, which never really happened!
So If I have to grow up again, I have to go to an international school where there are not many exams, I should always top the few exams that I will have, and yeah no nick names please and yeah may be one or two admirers to boast of before friends!!!

I love Butterflies!

Yesterday a beautiful yellow and black butterfly came and flew around me and sat right on my hand.

Did it think I was a flower or am I really that sweet ;-)

P.S: Tag this post under self -adulation

Ever wondered what your dad thinks of you? I never even gave it a thought and just assumed that he must be thinking that his daughter is the best and a very good human being :)

I got this opportunity to know what he thinks of me. My dad took me to a homeopathic doc post delivery for some health issue. This doc wanted to know about my current emotional status before giving any medication (Post-partum deppression, anyone?) . So the doc went on asking questions about what am thinking and am I happy. If am suppressing my anger and I was giving all sorts of contradicting answers. I told him am happy but am also suppressing anger.. :) He got so confused that he decided to ask my dad about me..

The first question he asked my dad was.. what kind of a person is she? Will she agree for what others say in order to make them happy or wants to get things done her way. (I Still dont know why the doc asked this.. really!) I was half hoping that my dad would say, yeah shez more than willing to do anything to make others happy... but NO!! All he said was.. NO, she takes a very strong stance on what she wants and is not very malleable :) :) Really dad? I thought I did adjust a lot and did all things your way and made you happy :P

Ok.. a reality check done! So.. cmon people.. go find out what your dad thinks of you.. you may end up finding the real you!

Joey's laws of Fat

Law 1:

Those who are fat will remain fat unless acted upon by an external force and internal motivation.

The external forces can be some situations like below:

1)Your old loose jeans no longer fits you.

2)Your parlour lady comments "Weight zyada ho gaya"

3)You go for shopping and the salesman shows you only XL or XXL clothes.

4)When you are just tempted to eat that calorie loaded sweet, your partner says, "You really think you should be eating that?"

All the above external forces lead to some sulking and internal motivation :)

Law 2:

Your current Fat equals Amount of fat you have taken in addition to the fat you already have minus the fat you reduced(usually negligible)

Pretty self explanatory.. TF = CF +EF -RF Where RF always leads to ZERO.

Where TF= total fat, CF =Current Fat, EF= Earned Fat and RF= Reduced Fat

Fat attracts fat and more fat and you need to just keep adding unless you really think you have sweated it out and there is something to be subtracted.

Law 3:

For every calorie spent, there are usually double calories waiting to be added.

OK let me explain this more.. this ones most dangerous..

Whenever we exercise and looks like we lost some fat, we get an overconfidence on ourselves that its so easy.. its achievable after all and we think we can always have that sweet.. its well deserved and earned!! We can always exercise and reduce No? But what generally happens is after the initial success of some weight loss, followed by marathon eating , there always exists more weight gain which kills the motivation to exercise coz.. no then we will feel that No matter how much we exercise, we are only gaining weight.. so why exercise !!??comfortably forgetting about the sweet indulgence)

I think I need to patent the above laws .. May be someday I will become as famous as Newton and my laws will be taught at all the slimming centers across the world :) :)

Papa kehte hain bada naam karega.. beta humara aisa kaam karega

I had second thoughts before putting this post up.. but then thought again.. WTF.. this is my blog, so I can post whatever I want to. Ok with so much of hype created.. let me just go on with the actual content of the post..

The other day when I was watching TV (Ok.. I watch TV everyday.. most of the time!!) , I came across this Commercial for StayFree, there is this guy who comes to meet the girl for marriage proposal and this girl takes him around her city just to get to know him better. She jumps, runs to catch a bus and all and the guy just follows her happily. So that's the ad stating how happily the girl is running around even when her Aunt has visited her and hence stayfree :)

All that's fine, but I was thinking about the guy who acted in the commercial.. I have not seen him in any other commercial or soap till date so this must've been his first breakthrough ever on TV. Wondering what the guy would have told his parents when he was signed up for this commercial. "Mom, Mom Ive been selected for a commercial.. my first contract signed!!"

Mom says" Wow son.. congratulations.. I always knew you would make us proud.. by the way which commercial is it beta?"

"Mom.. Mom... its.. Mom.. Its.. er ..StayFree"..

I am still wondering what his mom's reaction wouldve been!

Jan 11:
Mood: Good
Colour: Black
Song: yeh dil.. deewana.. deewana hai yeh dil!

Gyaan : Am happy coz we planted some plants yesterday, contributing in a small way to the mother nature coz we care! we respect our mother.. mother nature and want to give a clean and green environment to our children. We use bio degradable plastic covers to dump garbage, plant trees and do whatever we can to minimise pollution. Our lil bit for nature..

Papaya and Spouses!

Ok I missed about yday..

9th Jan 2010:

Gyaan: Papaya's with seeds always taste better than the ones without seeds. But while buying you never know whats inside the papaya, you just know the papaya looks good from outside and hope that it has seeds and tastes sweet.. just like spouses.. before marriage you never know what the person is really like.. you just know the person looks good (to your eye) and seems to be nice and you just hope he or she has enough seeds and turns out to be good n sweet :)

phew.. what an anology.. Papaya and spouses!!

Mood: was OK

Colour:Maroon

State of Mind: Little light :)

Song of the day: Pyaar dewaana hotha hai mastana hotha hai Harr khushi se harr gham se begaana hotha hai

8th jan, 2010..

Life is all about Attrition and Accumulation
Attrition of soul and Accumulation of fat!

Mood: close to ok..
Colour: Off white
State of mind: Confused
Song of the day: Hanste hanste kat jaaye raste, zindagi yun hi chalti rahe....

Try these and let me Know!

Can you try these email signatures and let me know how they worked?
10) Thanks in advance for not screwing this up,
-J
9) Luke Warm Wishes,
-J
8) Highest Available Regards,
-J
7) 97% Lie Free,
-J
6) May or May not be yours,
-J
5) Not expecting a reply,
-J
4) Most non-sarcastically yours,
-J
3) Almost 100% Sincerely,
-J
2) Thank you for reading all the way to the bottom,
-J
1) Getting Lost,
-J

Business lunch etiquette put to best use!

During the initial training program in my first company, I was trained on business dinner etiquette. They tought me why its important to eat everything with a spoon and fork and to keep hands always clean. To be always ready to give a clean handshake to the client anytime during the dinner. They even tought us how to eat rotis with spoon n fork. All these years I never got an opportunity to put those skills to use. I would either first finish off with all handshakes and then start dinner or never bothered about handshakes once dinner was started. Having a peaceful n fulfilling dinner/lunch was always a priority.

Thats past now. Today other things have taken a priority. My little bundle makes sure she gets her attention while am having my lunch.

Day X: I was having my lunch and was almost midway when she started crying for feed. I had to let go of my lunch and feed her. And later didnt feel like going back to the half finished plate.

Day Y: Tried to outsmart my kiddo and fed her before I started my lunch, but this time she did the inevitable and started crying out loud to remove her dirty diaper and clean her. Again I had to leave my lunch unfinished.

Day Z: Similar to Day Y. But I managed to go back to finish my lunch. All days following this have a similar pattern. I either have to break in between or have my lunch in a hurry that she might do something now.

Time to put my business lunch etiquette skills to use. Keeping my hands clean for any sort of emergencies during the lunch :)

Gone are my glorious days of peaceful lunches and marathon sleep..

Am I wrong?

Why does it so happen that when you take a decision, you are so sure of it and when its time to execute it, you wonder why you had taken tht decision and you wish you could change it!!

Today is one such day for me, currently in a confused state of mind wondering if the decision I took 2 months back was correct.

3 Months back when Akshara was born, I was at my mom's place and for some reasons I decided I wanted to come to Bangalore as soon as possible. I was so confident of handling my baby alone and managing everything on my own seemed like an achievable task. I came to Bangalore a week back and my Mom came along to help me settle in. She left today and here I am all alone wondering how on earth did I think I could manage everything alone? I am missing my mom, my support system :( Just having her around was assurance enough that I can manage everything. Am sorry mom, for I messed up on the opportunity to stay with you for another 2 months.

Life these days is just revolving around my baby.. me enjoying my newly acquired motherhood status.. and even now my poppatness has got better of me!
Yesterday was one such day.. I was inspired by my sister who sings her baby to sleep. Her son wouldnt sleep unless she sings to him.. however bad it might be! So I thought I would just try that with my daughter and I picked up a song which I thought I can manage well.
I started singing and she first yawned and turned her head to the other side (which can be very well interpretted as.. Oh No Not again!!). I stopped and tried again later and this time as soon as I started singing to her.. she started crying!!! I got a very angry look from my mom for making the baby cry for no reason!!! Looks like I should look for more receptive audience for my songs!

Future Planning - Plan 1

"Cooking is an art and I can never master it" is a fact that I have accepted and till date I could not see any problems with that given fact. I can manage to gobble down anything I cook because I can appreciate the effort I put behind that dish .. however bad it tastes. And luckily for me my husband too doesn't complain much unless it's really pathetic.But now.. the future is what am worried about. When I was young (Ok.. am still young!!) ..So let me put it this way.. when I was small and school going, I never really liked what my mom cooked. I always thought my friends were lucky because their snack boxes always had yummy stuff and mine always had the boring Idly,dosa and upma type stuff which I hated. Luckily for me, I had a Bengali friend who used to love what my mom cooked and we used to exchange our snack boxes. I just used to love what her mom used to give .. potato mash sandwiches or ghee laden rotis with some yummy sabzee and a Sweet (remember Bengali!) or even better some paranthas. (and I really thought my friend was a fool to exchange all that for my idly's!!). And my mom was always wondering why I was getting plumpier by the day by just eating Idly's and upma and my friend's mom was wondering why she was not getting plumpier in spite of those paranthas and sweets! Now they know!
So coming to the future point, What if my daughter too hates my cooking? What if she is not as lucky as me to get a Bengali friend to exchange her tiffin? What if none of her friends like her tiffin?No..Things can't be that bad..yeh? So I think I have two options now.. one to master my cooking before she starts going to school ( 3 years sounds good enough time for that.. yeh?) Two... to find her a Bengali friend :D
The second option is the one.. anyday!

First month of Motherhood :)

This post is important to me. My memory is very unreliable and I don't want to sit 5 or 10 years down the line trying hard to recollect how exactly did I feel during the biggest transformation of my life.
A month ago, on Sept 5th 2009, 11:34 am IST my bundle of joy arrived in this world. I wanted a big band of music to welcome her, blow trumpets,play violins.. the drums.. but the little one had to settle for her own sweet and rhythmic cries as her welcome music.. well it definitely was music for me! Then my anxiety was at its peak, the sister's wouldn't show me my baby unless they had cleaned her up. Baby girl or baby boy? Baby girl, the sister said. How is she to look at? Beautiful, big eyes, small nose, button lips, long fingers.., sister told me. My agonising wait to see the baby and hold her ended after half and hour. All the past nine months I had been dreaming about this moment and imagining how I would feel.. Just like seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time, or would there be that instant mother baby bonding, would I have tears in my eyes? and when finally it happened, it was nothing like I had imagined. I was scared to hold her as I felt I was dirty enough and also because I felt she was too small for me to hold her safely and then I was trying hard to register that this was my baby and I am the mother :).

The month after that D Day just flew.. taking each day as it came, I went through a whale of emotions, mammoth learning, building patience, fighting mood swings, sharing happiness, recovering from pain, hating the weighing machine, flood of visitors, some wanted some unwanted, sleep deprived, exhausted, delighted, worried, tensed, confused, and every other emotion one can think of. I felt I was lost in time and space. I had no idea what date and which day of the week it was. Every day was another day with lot of activity packed in.

Recalling week wise:
The first week was incredibly tough. I wanted to cry at the end of each day. I felt tired, in extreme pain and exhaustion all the time, yet there was so much to do. The baby wouldn't sleep at night as she was sleeping all day and everybody would advice sleep when the baby sleeps.. easier said than done. There was constant inflow of guests, and just when I felt asleep , the baby would wake up for feed or a diaper change. There was advice pouring in from all directions. Filtering good advice from the useless ones was the most difficult part. I now feel guilty that there were a few times in that week, when I wanted to run away from everything, everyone.. rewind everything and go back to my old life. I lost interest in everything, everyone. I don't even want to now recollect the most horrible week of my life till date. Quite different from what I expected. The week my baby arrived, by my expectations I should've been the happiest, on cloud 9 but I was fighting depression, sulking most of the time when the breakthrough came on day 5 of the week. My baby's first smile!! I couldn't believe she did that! The most beautiful smile I ever saw and life started looking brighter!
Week 2 was lot lot better. I felt better health wise, and started slowly bouncing back to normal. By now I had gained some experience in feeding, cleaning and changing diapers and rocking the baby to sleep. The awkwardness while holding the baby slowly disappeared and I was lot more confident in holding her.
Week 3.. I got used to the late nights and looked forward to playing with the baby at 2:30 am :).
Week 4 was the best. My husband finally managed to get leave from work and we finally got together. All 3 of us. One happy family. The happiness I would cherish forever.
This one is for all the mother's.. God created Mothers coz he felt he couldn't be present everywhere! So True!

These are the best days of my life

Thanks to my baby and the good old traditions, I have been reliving my childhood again. Thanks to whoever made the rule that the first delivery has to happen at the mother's maternal home, I have got a chance to get pampered and get treated like a kid all over again.
A typical day in my childhood included extreme chase by my mom to make me drink milk, eat fruits, sleep and wake up on time, do some physical exercise, scoldings for watching tv for extra long hours and a lot more.. and am happy all this is happening again. It's almost like I've been living someone else's life for the last 6 years and have now come back to where I belong.
What inspired me to publish this is two events that happened today in particular.
During my school days, dad used to oil my hair everyday and comb it neatly before I left for school. I used to hate the ritual as I never wanted to go to school with such oiled hair. All my friends flaunted their wavy shampooed hair and mine was always oiled and sticky and never wavy no matter how I swayed my head while I walked. Gradually, sometime when I was in high school, dad finally gave up on me and asked me to maintain my hair the way I wanted. It was a day I celebrated by going to school with shampooed hair, beaming when my hair flew when the wind blew.. I felt like a star, "Sridevi" in particular :). Today when dad came back from office, he saw me sitting idly watching tv with my hair let open and he commented, your hair has become so dry.. go get some oil. I was a little suprised at his suggestion but then felt extremely happy to relive those olden days. Only difference being, today's oiling session made me happy beyond words. It feels good that am still the lil girl for my dad even when am just about to have a lil baby in another 2 days may be :).I had not even come out of this nostalgic moment that another one struck at me.
Dad always used to get some sweetmeat for me whenever he went to the market. Either a chocolate or a sweet from the milk parlour. Today mom sent him to the market to get some milk and he did that again.. he got me my small single pack of milk Kova sweet as my market bonus. I just loved his gesture!! And I just loved today.. yeah all the days in the past 2 months.
P.S:- Dear hubby, If you are reading this, Please dont feel left out, I am definitely missing you a lot :-*

Some tp..

There was a live standup comedy act show that happened at the community center here. As I didn't have anything better to do, I attended it. The actors doing the act were genuinely trying to be natural, trying to make everyone laugh and yes, there were people laughing. I too found myself having a good time there and now probably I can remember only one of the jokes to share. It goes like this.
Once a famous pshychotherapist opens a new clinic branch and has his clinic banner painted by a famous banner painter in the city. The doc is all set in his new clinic but finds that no patient is coming to him. He waits for days for the patients to come in but in vain. He then tries to find out why this is happening and finally finds this:
Ram's Clinic
Dr. RAM, M.B.B.S,
PSYCHO THE RAPIST

Poor Fair lady

Been a long long time since I've read nursery rhymes. Thanks to my nephew, I got a chance to listen to those rhymes again today. But one of the rhymes really took me by surprise.
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,My fair Lady.
Build it up with iron bars,
iron bars, iron bars,
Build it up with iron bars,My fair Lady.

Are we asking the fair lady to build up the broken london bridge with iron bars? I never realised this my fair lady might be a civil engineer repairing the broken bridges! :)

p.s: Ignore the sheer stupidity of this post.. but the idle brain couldnt think of anything else to post!

Independence.. what it really means?

Happy Independence day people! Welcome to an independent year of swine flu, drought, price hikes, worse weather and dirty politics! or may be August 15th today just means a public holiday, with channels telecasting special movies.. some new patriotic music albums with rakhi sawant dancing to the tunes...
I read the worst political statement in the paper yesterday.. the Andhra CM taking swine flu as easy as he can commenting that people suffering from swine flu can apply amrutanjan or zinda talisman and stop worrying else go to Tirupati to pray to God! We elected him as CM for the next 5 years! :(
It irks to even think what the future holds for us.. for our next generation.. Everyday I wake up praying that it rains today and it would help eradicate the drought and help the farmers.. but then if it rains more it would give more ground for swine flu spread! So what do I really pray for?
I just hope someone waves the magic wand and everything becomes alright!

All the best Harika...

Today was my first day at my new job. I was very tensed to start with. All my previous jobs did put a huge responsibility on me but this ones different. If I fail in this job, I would fail someone else's trust on me.
From today, I have started tutoring Harika, a second grade student. She is from a family which is categorized as lower middle class financially but with a strong desire to do well in life and provide her good education. I wanted to contribute in some way.
From the day I have started my leave, I haven't been doing much. Literally nothing other than eating, sleeping and whiling away time playing with my nephew. But today was good. Satisfying. I always thought teaching a second grader is a cake walk. How tough can it be to teach them some hard english words like "grade","request" and "wait" and lessons like "Sheetal", "pussy and parrot"? I got my answer today!It's important to establish the connect first and then get the perspective of a second grader and see how tough it can be to learn a 6 letter word spelling. Patience is the key. That's my learning for the day. Harika has her english exam tomorrow and I hope she does well.. which will only mean I did well..

God's favorite child

These days am killing my time answering only 3 questions..
1) How are you doing.. moving around freely?
2) When is the expected due date?
3) Do you know yet if its a baby boy or girl?
There are some more questions depending on how I answer the above three.. If I answer the above questions in mono syllables, there are no more questions.. else there will be more.. like have you thought of names, which doctor are you consulting, what is the weight gain, how are the baby movements and on n on n on.One questions that has been a complete googly for me is this.. " Whats the baby saying..?" I really go dumb thinking what am I supposed to answer for that.. I cant tell them that the baby cant speak yet( too dumb!) neither can I tell them its none of their business.. its a private matter between me n the baby (too rude.. one more thing that I've learnt .. preggies are not supposed to be rude, not supposed to be impatient, not supposed to use bad words or think bad or feel deppressed)! Ok.. back to the question.. it sometimes invokes some serious doubts within me about my motherly instinct.. pushes me to think that may be other women do know what their baby is trying to convey from inside and Ive just not paid enough attention to see what mine is trying to say!
That's the questionnaire part.. then comes the worse part.. everyone has a piece of advice to share and a piece of their own experience to scare! I want to shout on top of my voice.. STOP! STOP! STOP!! Did I really ask you for an advice.. why are you giving me your piece of $h!T !! (again.. the rudeness rule applies here to stop me from doing that)
Now even worse part.. All my mom n dad's friends, relatives.. close and far(I must admit.. I still don't know how exactly we are related) keep coming home to see me.. literally! They come home to see me and they do just that.. Urghhh can somebody just tell them its not good manners to stare at someone!The only good thing about these visits is that they bring some nice sweets and fruits! I sometimes feel like a Goddess creating a life inside me and then everybody coming to see me and offering me sweets and fruits! :) But this Goddess feel good feeling doesn't last for long as the stares are followed by the above questions and then the advices.. and its just a vicious cycle( a very tough one to break)!
Today one of my aunt (I think my dad's second cousin) visited us and it was all fun while she was there. But she said something while leaving that left me fuming. She said that she is hoping I will deliver a baby boy and she would definitely visit me in the hospital if its a baby boy and if its a baby girl, she asked me not to bother to even call her, that she would liesurely pay a visit once am back from the hospital. I really wanted to say.. $%^& off!! My baby really doesn't need a visit from someone like you! But then who all will I say this to.. there are loads of them around me wishing that I deliver only a baby boy.. I don't know how that's going to make even a penny of a difference to their lives! Ive decided to stop bothering about what others say or do.. I have started looking at the humorous side of the whole thing.. some humour thats definitely worth sharing..1) Someone said, if I put tattoos(mehendi) on my palms, its going to be a baby girl. The tattoos going to change the already formed baby's genitel part is it? Really?2) Someone also said that if I have swollen feet, its going to be a baby girl. Excuse me? That's called Edema and 95% pregnant women have it!3) If I become dark and ugly during pregnancy, its going to be a baby boy. Boys dont like beautiful moms is it?4) Beat this.. my sister had a baby boy 2 years back and now my granny wants me to do everything that she did.. exactly same way so that even I will have a baby boy!! like.. sleeping in the morning after breakfast, eating some particular dish that my sis ate the most during her pregnancy.. and so on!! Granny... take a break and gimme one!!
Cmon people.. cant you see.. a girl child is God's favorite child, thats why he gives every girl child a power to create another life.. a power only next to God's power! No matter what guys do, they can never experience the sheer joy of the first baby kick that you feel inside you, never feel the overwhelming joy of the first glimpse of the baby, never feel the satisfaction of feeding the baby! God has really been unfair to guys.. he has not given them so much...

New phase of life..

You go to an amusement park which has this huge roller coaster ride, which you have to take to go out of the park. You see others going through it, screaming, throwing up, some laughing, some sitting all tensed through out but you have no choice but to take it.Thats pregnancy for you! A huge roller coaster ride.. 9 months of exhilarating joy, little tension, little pain, lot of fat,big belly, lots of food and yeah some throwing up too!There is no other joy compared to the first glimpse of the baby on the scan monitor, a 9 cm little one with tiny hands, legs and a heart that beats at 140bpm!
The baby bump that keeps growing assuring you that the lil one inside you is doing all fine. The first baby kick followed by more kicks which will always bring a smile to your face and make you look beautiful!
9 more weeks to go for me to get promoted to MOM! yayyyyyyyy

Painful transformation!

I think it was not very long ago when I used to say "Amma pakkinti aunty vacharu (Mom, neighbour aunty has come for you) " whenever Mom's friend's used to visit us.
Today when I tried out a new dish and thought that my experiment was a success, I wanted my friend who lives next door to also approve of my new experiment. Their calling bell was answered by my friend's 6 year old daughter. Before I could spot where my friend was, this lil one caled out for her mom. "Amma pakkinti aunty vacharu". It hit me so hard.. it was like all those sudden shock scenes in the movies.. everything coming to standstill, going black and white from colour, ocean waves crashing on to the shore, temple bells ringing vehemently.. and then I slowly came in to the present.. the reality!
There was absolutely nothing wrong in the lil one calling me aunty but may be I was not prepared for it or rather not expecting the same line that I used to say for someone else.. someone much more older :)
Now when am writing this post, I truly feel like an aunty.. I am doing everything that "Aunties" are supposed to do . Gossipping and talking for hours with friends was always there, but now the topics which we discuss have changed. Now its all about new dishes, TV serial stories, kids, home making, husbands, money, Maid servant.. .. movies .may be, TV Serials dfinitely! Exchanging dishes, lending maid servant, lending and borrowing veggies or last minute groceries, potluck lunches .. everything so so so auntyish!
I never realised when I successfully transformed in to this "aunty" phase of life from a girl who always discussed the new shade of nail polish, new restaurant down the lane, new movie that's yet to be released, hunks, other's boyfriends, shopping , fashion, new rage songs, Hrithik, Mihir virani and yeah much treasured pocket money!
But may be the best part it I loved and enjoyed my life thoroughly then and am loving it even now (Except for the aunty word) ! So how does it matter.. just till I get used to being called "Jyo Aunty" .

Beach Road delicacy

The other day when I was casually browsing through the grocery store racks (seems like my fave pass time option these days), I came across the puffed rice packet and good old beach road delicacy "Muree Mixture" flashed on my mind. Its been a long long time since I have been to beach road along with friends, whiling time away with muree mixture, cool breeze and simply sitting watching the waves come and go. Nothing can beat that!
I promptly picked that packet and also picked up other stuff that I could think of which goes in it .. groundnuts.. lemon, tomatoes, onions.. what else???
This time around I didn't google for the recipe but preferred to go by my memory.. tried to recollect what that old man had on his lil stall while he mixed that tangy tasty dish.
I mixed everything, sliced onions, diced tomatoes, squeezed lemon, pinch of salt, tossed chilly powder and added corriander bunch and puffed rice! It was tangy, tasty, yummy.. it was everything but it lacked something.. may be the sand from the beach :)

Disorganized organizer!

Organized, Planned, ordered, structured .. All seem such good traits to have in oneself but so tough to achieve! These have ben an illusion for me since my childhood how much ever hard I try. I still cant comprehend why was it so tough to follow the everyday timetable and neatly stack my schoolbag! I used to feel good when I saw other friends school bags, textbok all neatly stacked one after other, and then the long note books and then the short ones all with short names written on the sides so that its easy to pick the notebook they want instead of emptying all its contents and searching frantically for the one you want! Mine was a mess with all books in bag everyday and most of the times out of the class because i got every other book but the one on timetable that day.
Now am managing a home, no better at it though! My mom got her shock of her life when she visited us last time and it took her an entire 2 days to bring just the kitchen in order! Am awaiting her next visit already :)
Cloth shelves are another mystery! If one day I take the pain of stacking everything and put the related stuff together, somehow magically the next day it would be the bottom most pair that I would want to wear and once I pull that off everything else falls over me and I just somehow stuff the clothes back and close the doors ASAP! done! So now a days Ive stopped taking the pain of ordering the shelves (only mine.. my husband doesnt let me touch his shelves)
Handbags... can't live without them, neither with them!
Multi compartment handbag.. you will always find the thing you were searching for in the very last compartment!
Single compartment handbag.. no chance for organization and you will be always searching for everything! Last time I decided to give up on a single compartment handbag was when I had put a ripe banana in the bag and forgot about it till the banana mash was on every damn thing.. Mobile, ipod, wallet, comb(yuck)...
God bless me with talent to bring in more structure to my life, now that I will need it all the more!! Amen!

My idea of an ideal day of my life...

It has to be a friday and salary day when the bank account shows am so much more richer!
Wake up on my own after good night's sleep(Maid has somehow entered the house and finished all her work)
Bathroom scale shows 1 or 2 kgs lesser!!
Have a new dress to wear to office. Look slimmer and beautiful in it. No new grey hairs spotted.
Steaming hot white idly with peanut chutney and sambhar , peeled and cut mango pieces with chocolate milk ready on table.
Not much traffic on road and I reach office in 25 mins! (WOW!)
Not many work mails to be cleared. A big appreciation Mail from my manager and a reward bonus of 10K (more doesnt hurt) as shopping vouchers valid at any shop in Bangalore.
Medium load work and I somehow know how to do the assigned work(No blank stares at reqmnt doc)!!The code I write executes without any hitch in the first run! Easy Peasy, I finish my work before lunch.
I get a call from reception desk saying I have a courier. I go and see it's lunch sent by Mom :)
5 box stacked lunch box. I open the first box and find hot crispy Vada in it, second has mutton curry with cashews gravy, third has muddha pappu neyya avakay annam (Dal, ghee and mango pickle rice), fourth has umm.. ok white rice for the mutton curry, fifth has creamy ras malai, and another compartment in it has gulab jamuns.
After the nice yummy lunch, I go back to my desk and see some loads of gossip mails from all old friends. Then after an hour, Manager informs govt has declared half day holiday for some reason and all companies have to follow it. So I leave office , yes no traffic again, pick up my husband at his office (remember all companies got half day holiday), then we go to PVR and get 2 gold class tickets free in some lucky draw for a Chiru/Pawan Kalyan/ shah rukh's latest movie). We finally decide on Shah Rukh's movie and the movie would obviously be awssum as it would have Shah rukh in it, plus watching it in Lazboy recliner cushioned seats with pepsi and popcorn ahaa. heaven on earth!
Then after the movie, some shopping(yeah my reward bonus vouchers) and then dinner at Afghani restaurant which serves reshmi malai kababs, paneer tikki, yummy biryani and kubhani ka meetha with vanilla icecream and cherry topping :)
Go home (of course no traffic) and .. ok not home already.. no traffic, about to rain kind of romantic weather and a long drive on smooth roads with nice music.. walk by the moonlit lake side, cool breeze (seashore wouldve been better, but Bangalore is not on coast).
Finally time to go home(Bangalore has a night life deadline). and sleep on a freshly made bed with crisp white bedsheets, plush cushions, spring mattresses, ac on a 23 deg...
and then....
A calling bell ringing somewhere distant and I wake up and come tumbling down the stairs to find its the maid servant at 6:30 am on a Monday morning....... Ohh my dream shattered!!!!

Do you like being a girl?

I want all the girls out there to honestly answer if they are really happy being a girl! I dont want to sound outrageous or hurt anyone's sentiments.. just a simple question to be taken just that way!
Till date I've never really taken pride or enjoyed being a girl. I always felt life would've been so much more fun if I was a boy! Boys have these subtle natual advantages over girls.. the way they enjoy their time at beach, bike drives with frens, late nights and to put it in one word.. a much more independent secure life! With the natural disadvantages physically girls as I see can never be that independent and given the society we live in (yeah they say its changing.. but when?) they make it all the more difficult. There are this outrageous expectations that are forced on girls not to forget the restrictions too!
One of my friends father was looking for an alliance for her. They came across this guy's profile and like all details and decided to set up a family meet and the boy meet girl drama.
The whole thing went fairly smoothly and the guy's family left. My friends father asked her if she liked the guy and she said am ok with it, but am not sure they will come back. And as she expectd, the guy's family came back saying, the guy found the girl too fast and they would not go ahead with the proposal. Her dad was obviously not very happy and came back and asked her what she spoke with the guy that he felt she was fast. Then she told this.. "The guy had said that he drinks occassionally.. not vey often. only during office parties. And I said same with me.. "
It's just not about that particular guys family.. its with every other family.. they want a girl who is beautiful (read fair) , highly educated, earning well, rich by default, has no brothers, good family background, well mannered, soft spoken, homely, being a cook and a good home maker come by default and yeah mingle completely with guy's family.. what all bull shit! Another outrageous addition to this list.. should continue working even after having a baby!!
and a girl who has all these qualities should'nt mind even if the guy is dark, short, baldy, drinks/ smokes occassionally and god knows from which Goddamn college he got his degree certificate!
When will people actually practise the equality between boys and girls. Why does a guy's family suddenly get all horns on their heads by the time they start looking for a girl for him? Why dont they understand that marriage is a mutual understanding and guy needs girl as much as the girl needs the guy for support and companionship for life.
I think the guys and girls of this generation should try and bring in the much required attitude and change in the way of thinking of our previous generation. As long as we are ready to become the bakras and witness the melodrama happening around us.. God save this country!

Ammamma nerpina koora :)

Ok here comes the recipe of the Andhra traditional curry cooked the traditional way.
Prawn Tamarind leaves curry ( Royyalu chintha chiguru iguru)
Ingredients :
Prawns 500 gms( de-shelled and de-viened)
Fresh tamarind leaves - a bunch
onions- 2 medium (sliced big)
4 green chillies
salt and chilly powder to taste
lil tamarind pulp

Procedure:
Clean the prawns and marinate in salt and red chilly powder for 2 hours.
Cleaning the tamarind leaves has a technique, you have to dry them first and rub those tiny stems between palms so that you have just the leaves separated. Throw that lil stem away.

Fry the big sliced onions and greenchillies and keep aside.
Now fry the marinated prawn and keep aside.
Now take the leaves and put the 2 tsp tamarind pulp, lil water and lil salt and chilly powder and boil the leaves till they become soft and well boilt.
Now mix everything, fried onions, prawns and boiled leaves, add ample water and keep on low flame and close the lid. after 5 minutes, add salt and chilly powder to taste and let the curry cook on low flame. Then after 10 minutes, the curry starts giving a delicious aroma.. your mouth starts dripping .. open the lid and stir gently wihtout hurting the prawns and let the remaining water evaporate.
Your dish is ready to gorge on!!! Go on.. Be a tiger!

Ammamma Day

Till date, I've never had anybody standing by me and formally teaching me how to cook step by step. I never bothered to venture in to the kitchen till the time I was with mom and even she didnt bother to drag and drop me there. And once I was on my own, it was always those last minute instructions on phone by mom, "do this.. then do that. ohh you've already done something else.. then god help your curry Bye"! Most of the recipe sharing conversations end that way!
All thanks to google, now a days if someone asks me if I know how to cook a particular dish xxx, I always say Yes even if I've no idea how to even start with it.
But today's experience was different and something I enjoyed thoroughly. May be the first time I enjoyed cooking and also the end result. You may ask What made the difference? and the answer would be "Ammamma" .. umm actually ammamma in law.. but how does it matter?
She tought me how to cook the traditional dish, prawns with fresh green tamarind leaves curry. (Recipe to be posted separately). Stood by me and explained the significance of following a procedure in cooking anything. I never gave much importance to the order of putting the ingredients but today I understood how it really really matters! She also made me thoroughly enjoy the whole process by telling old stories of her learning to cook days.
Being a mom and giving unconditional love to their children is a thing in itself but grannies are completly on a different level. They are cute, adorable, loving, and always huggable!
It's my ammamma day today!!

Learnings for life.

Some incidents of past stay with you forever. Learnings for life.
Just happened to recollect one of them and thought it was worth to pen it.
20 years back, my dad's job required him to do a lot of touring all across India. And everytime he came back from a trip, it was fun time for us, as he would definitely get some goodies for us, even if they were those free chocs given on the flight.
This particular trip of his was to Delhi which was initially scheduled for 2 weeks. We gave him a small shopping list before he left and I had asked for a digital dislay "Disco watch". I was eagerly waiting for him to come back with my watch , dreaming day and night about it. And the trip kept getting prolonged to a month and a half. Delhi to chandigarh to Jaipur to God knows where else he travelled back then in that one trip. He came back home after a 36 hr long tiring train journey. I was not at home when he arrived and later when I came back from play, mom announced Dad is back and he is taking rest. I went running to him , woke him up and he was ready to hug me, when the most insensitive me ignored his stretched hands and just asked "Dad, where's my watch? "!!! He was disappointed for sure, but he did his best to conceal it. He unpacked and gave me my watch and other goodies he got for me. I was too happy about the new stuff and went to show them off to my friends. Later, mom called me aside and asked me "Did you ask dad how his trip was? Did you tell him how much you missed him in the past month and a half and did you just sit and talk to him? He was waiting to meet you and all you asked for was the watch". It then hit me that dad was waiting to meet me and I just completely ignored him. I had never felt more guilty. I then went to dad , asked him how his trip was, told him about my school unit tests but no matter what I did, I dont know if it healed his hurt, it never healed mine. It was such a big learning for life, that till date am still making up for it. I make sure that no matter how anxious I am about the gift am going to receive from anyone, the people are far more important, and the precious moments need to be treasured and not the gifts!

But the goodies never actually hurt much ;-)

Go Away!

Did you ever feel disconnected from the world around you? Wanted to be left alone with your thoughts but still felt lonely? Confused state of mind.
One of the rare phases of life am going through for no solid reason. May be just a mood swing lingering around longer. Whatever it is, it is not helping me at all. Lot of frustration, lot of unknowns, lot of questions with no answers. It's just taking too much to have a clear thought process and convince myself that what am thinking or doing is the right thing.
My own thoughts are taking me by surprise, in retrospection. Something that I thought for someone, did to someone making me feel extremely guilty now. So bad that am not even able to get myself admit it.
Any easy way of getting rid of guilt and cheer up?

Cought Behind!

Just how tough can it be to behave like a thorough professinal, work-a-holic in office atleast during the performance review times? I just somehow end up making the most easy tasks seem like next to impossible.
The other day at office, I was getting extremely bored going through a mandatoy training audio. Please note that our managers have been kind enough not to provide us with internet, so that at work, its supposed to be only work. But we always find our ways to keep us entertained. My friend and me have this new found interest.. Pictionary! Brings the best creative talents out of people who play! So with the training audio on, my friend and me started playing pictionary and she drew some animal and asked me to guess what it was! I started guessing it as a Rat, Lizard, crocodile with a bouncy tail, dog, donkey and .. Horse! A voice said from behind! We turned back in horror to find who it was! We were so engrossed in guessing and giggling that we never realised when our big boss came and stood right behind us watching all our buffoonery!
We gave him back a sheepish grin, trying to hide our drawing pad but it was just too too late! He just remarked "Looks like there is not much work to keep you guys busy...Haffun" and till date I have not returned home before 8 PM :(

P.S: His guess was right by the way.. She wanted to depict Trojan Horse!

Jo and hunger wait for none!

Just how many times does your boss think you are worthy of solving his work related problems? Last wednesday, I dont know why, My boss called me to fix some problem he was facing in setting up his workspace. This time of the year esp when the performance reviews are on full heat, ths opportunity seemed golden! I had to by hook or crook solve his problem..(Whatever made him think I coudl!) !
Unfortunately it was my evening snacking time when he called me. It wouldve been mighty stupid to tell him "Wait.. let me first save myself from hunger death then I will look in to your issues!".Snacks can wait for the boss!
I went to his cubicle and was seriously trouble shooting the issue and then just after ten minutes, my first hunger warning bell vroom. I ignored it and continued doing what I was supposed to do. Then after ten more minutes the warning bell was a little stronger, and I fidgeted a little uncomfortably in my chair. and then... the inevitable.. a grumbling sound came out loud and clear!! I was hoping against hope that only I could hear it and not my boss. As usual, there was neve a saving grace for me.. Boss confirmed my doubts by saying this " Do you want to take a break.. we can look in to this later!!" Ughhhhhhhhhhhh!! Thanks so much for your kindnes boss!!! Jo's hunger waits for none.. not even her boss!