Starting something new..

Pari had a field visit recently, and returned home particulary tired. One may assume that the fatigue was due to going through an eventful day on a near empty stomach. As a matter of principle, she doesn't touch any food that is offered  by the organisers on such trips- which, to most kids is very enticing, but doesn't appeal to our child. However, when has lack of nourishment bothered the apple of our collective eyes. She was wornout because she had been making notes on all the things that she saw in the museum so that she can continue to refer to her diary whenever she forgot any of it. My immediate reaction was to tell her that it is alright for people to forget things that they see in museums - particularly because many museums house more objects that one can possibly see in a day, let alone remember. The British Museum boasts of 8 million objects, though only 1% objects are on display at a given time. That is still a LOT! Also, isn't it more fun just enjoying the museum than documenting it?

I am not sure how much of what I said made way into Pari's head, but it did remind me of my younger self on a South India trip way back in 1994. It was family trip - with a motley group -12 people from 4 diff places in groups of 3 who had all congregated in Hyderabad for summers. We had all gathered for my cousin's birthday, and got bored of staying home which is why my aunt had to organise this trip from us. We travelled for about 10 days visiting Bangalore, Ooty & Mysore and I remember myself taking copious notes all through - because just like Pari, I didn't want to forget any of it. Also, like Pari, I wanted to carry my notes back to Allahabad so that my parents & siblings could enjoy my travels vicariously. Little did we know then, that in not-so-distant future South India would become home to me, and we will all get to spend months and years in Bangalore! Nevertheless, I am thinking of chronicling my travel experiences once again and start a travel diary on the blog. Which means that I will need to start taking pictures, and decent ones at that of the places I visit. This is sounding a tad ambitious at this point, but let me not give up without trying. On that note, I am ready to relive Angkor Wat.. tomorrow!

Letting go..

At some point in life, we all learn to let go of things, loosen our hold on stuff.. it is 'when we learn' that makes all the difference. For some it comes naturally, a lesson learned early in life, while for others the wisdom dawns a tad late. There exists a third set too, the unfortunate ones who go before they get to let go. And then there are people who learn their lessons, forget them and then learn again, only to forget again, very conveniently at the slightest temptation. I belong to the incorrigible lot.

When did I let go? Lot of times actually. I had let go when I decided to have Pari. Again, when I quit my job to bring her up. I had let go when I finally put her in a daycare. And when I left my home and my family to come to Joka. Letting go doesn't come easily to me. But I have done it so many times.. I can certainly do it once again. I just wish it doesn't hurt so much. Actually, it shouldn't. After all, letting go of one thing is the only way to free ourselves to catch hold of something else.. something new and more meaningful, hopefully happier too.

New year revolution

I am a compulsive procrastinator. Things have come to the point where I am not even ashamed of admitting this because I have stopped considering it as my fault. It is just who I am, a part of my constitution. It is embedded in my DNA, though we are yet to discover another existing family member lethargic to this extent. For all we know, this gene could've skipped a couple of generations and finally emerged as the dominant one in my being. Procrastination is the eternal bane of my life.
The ever-growing list of posts in my drafts contrasts sharply with the miniscule number that manages to see the light of the day, and is a testimony to this. That said, my last ditch effort to revive this blog is here. I am going to post here once daily until the end of the month. Just to prove to myself that I can! Like Pari says- this could be my new year 'revolution'. To her, one cannot make a resolution in the middle of the year, it is always on new year's day. Perhaps because that is when the earth completes a revolution of the sun, making it an optimal time for us to make a 'revolution' too!

ps. Pari has 'revolved' to not poke her nose in to others' business. Unfortunately, 'others' doesn't seem to include us and the rest of the family, but otherwise, the decision seems to be working well for her, particularly in school. 

Suggestions sought..

..on new and exciting blogs. When I started this blog back in 2007, there were so many blogs that I used to follow. Somehow, most of them are inactive/closed now. Many of them were mommy blogs. The children of said mothers have grown up, and the mothers have gotten so busy raising the kids and living it up with them, that they perhaps have no time left to chronicle the journey. Also, I feel that babies provide the most fodder for blogs. As our children transition into teens/pre-teens, the content and the urge to share it just reduces. I am one mother who has resolutely held her ground and continues to write about the child - like I always say, more for my own remembrance sake than for really sharing.

We digress, but I wonder what happened to the other set of bloggers - folks who wrote about everything under the sun. Apparently, they too have lost interest in writing. Also, times are changing fast, and I realise that blogging is not the 'in' thing anymore. Paucity of time and more importantly, patience has led to the rise of twitter and FB over blogs. Again, I wonder about the paucity of time. With greater longevity, and greater-than-ever time-saving techniques(air-travel, domestic appliances, emails, cellphones, e-commerce and another zillion!) at our disposal, shouldn't we have more time than before? As it turns out, many of these have served to fill in more time than they have helped save. Talking of changing times, I was casually going through some really old emails from the year 2002-2003 and was amused to see the number of email forwards that we used to share. Of course, that was way before FB & whatsapp happened. And we did have orkut but no smartphones. Gosh.. I feel like a dinosaur!

We digress again, but the purpose of this post is to lament on my dwindling reading list, and request the kind people out there, who still visit this page, to suggest some worthwhile blogs to fill in my hours at work. I am open to all kinds, but the funnier, the better! Gracias :)

The Resident Philosopher

Last evening was rather special. After a long time, we witnessed Pari studying, and by that, I mean actually 'studying' and not pleasure reading, which is what she spends most of her waking hours on. I peeked in her notebook to realise that she was doing math, and my eyes almost welled up. This is such a rare sight in the household that the doting mother in me decided to feed the child and allow her an additional hour to finish her homework. I continued to insert roti and bhindi in her mouth while she toiled on HCF & LCM sums. While working out the HCF of 541 & 445, she decided to get a few things clarified.

Pari: 'Mumma, do all babies come from the mother's womb?' 

Me: (wondering what prompted this.. perhaps the stupid sum) Yes, that's right.

P:  (giggles) 'Oh this word is funny, sounds like 'bomb'.'

M: Corrects the pronunctiation

P: (smile disappears, grows comtemplative) Ah.. now it all makes sense. Before birth, we are in the womb, and after death, we go in a tomb. 

Hence Proven.. Math does make kids philosophical.

PS. HCF of 541 & 445, really? Either there is a misprint in the book or it was written by a complete moron who takes huge delight in torturing gentle little souls - whats the point of working all the way through it and discovering that the answer is a piddly 1. Pari now believes that the HCF for most pairs of numbers is 1 and I suspect that she is writing that as the answer to all questions without even comparing the factors, and still clocking 90% success rate!! 

TV tales

We are a very TV loving family. Our parents - mine, husband's and now the child's are all big time TV-watchers. However, there is a difference here. My parents & parents-in-law have 3 television sets each in their houses with 6 & 3 members(2 after my sister moved out) respectively, while we have just 1 set with 4 people.  To our credit, we manage this abysmal TV:viewers ratio fairly well. Firstly, we supplement it with our 4 laptops. Also, fortunately, the timings are different for us. The child watches from 3.15(or as soon as she arrives from school) until 7.00 pm(or as soon as I reach home). The husband comes in by 8.00 pm and watches tv until 10.30 pm, which is when my sister returns from work, and takes over the control(remote). I don't get much of a window, and therefore prefer to stream and watch TV on my laptop. Yes, we are a cooperative bunch!

Coming to content, Pari, like her Dad, loves to watch pretty much anything as long as it is on the TV. Presently she is hooked to the Shiva cartoon. Last week, I just casually asked her about it, and she spent about 45 min just narrating Shiva's special powers. As much as I like hearing her talk, I got really bored after the first 3 min, at which point I switched off mentally and just pretended to listen to her. You know kids.. they don't really understand that tv shows are only enjoyable when you actually watch them, not when a 9 year old retells them. This brings me to last night's episode. We got in the bed really early, all set to sleep. 5 min in the bed, I started giggling. The husband asked me to share the fun.. BIG MISTAKE on his part! I had remembered this funny episode from the old show Dharma & Greg(am currently watching the entire series)..  and so went on to relate the entire episode, punch lines et al! The man had to literally ask me to stop, and allow the two of us some sleep. This morning, while driving to work, my mind wandered off to last night and thinking of this incident made me feel really foolish and worse still, so puerile. Then I thought somemore, and suddenly remembered the time when the husband had narrated an entire episode of Bhabhiji Ghar par hain  to me. This was about a couple of months back, when we used to regularly watch the show, and I had missed that particular telecast. I immediately started to feel so much better, and absolved of all guilt. I am not juvenile, we just happen to be a family of storytellers!

मेरी माँ के तीन सवाल..

१. क्या खाना खाया?
२. क्या खा रही हो?
३. क्या खाना खाओगी?

Standard questions asked every day, on every call, except ofcourse when she is here with us, overfeeding us. I may sound irritated over the phone, but I love you so much, Mamma!