Five Questions - A tag

I am doing a tag for the first time. No one has ever tagged me. Mostly because the 3 people who were my ardent followers(all 3 are my sisters) found other interests and left this space mostly. So i am taking up this tag by myself from a lovely blog i follow  ; none other than The Blue Bride.
Here goes :)

1. One beauty product you would recommend to your girl friends.

I don't do much of make up. its not that i dont like to. Its only because i have commitment issues. I don't have it in me to even faithfully put kajal everyday. I am that bad. Ok, so the one thing i do religiously before i step out is to apply sunscreen .  Lakme Sunscreen is the absolutely essential beauty product i use and recommend.
I need to tell you this. There is a certain smell you associate with people. It was the smell of Imperial Lather soap for my grandfather, Cuticura powder for my appa. Lakme Sunscreen reminds me of chech. As soon as i pour some into my hand everyday, i can picture her standing in front of her mirror, fresh out her bath and applying sunscreen and smelling strongly of it..:)

Another beauty product i heart is Lakme eyeconic Kajal. I cant talk enough of its texture and effect. I would happily say that my search for  my perfect kajal is over and the winner is Eyeconic

2. Three Books everyone must read.

We have a great collection of books back at my home in Kottayam courtesy of my Appa's two cousins who had come down from Malaysia to do their elementary education here. On a rainy , cozy afternoon i laid my hands on this novel called, The witch of the Blackbird pond from their collection. Oh i was hooked to say the least. That book left my hand only when i finished it. It spoke about life in New England in the 17th century and about Quakers . Though it also talks about love and betraying it had such a good twist to it.

Another book i immensly enjoyed was the Thornbirds.
Memories of a Gheisa comes to a close third.
I am not sure if these are my all time favourite or not. But when i read the question these were the books that came on the top of my mind.. Maybe in a different mind set a totally different set may come up

3. Favourite online shopping site. : i was an online shopping addict. If there was a support group for online shopping addicts, i used to qualify to join them. We used to live/still lives very far away from the city and when Dan was a baby i could never find anything i wanted in the near bu shops. So i entirely got addicted to them and would order even completely useless stuffs in the bargain. It took a while to return to my senses . Pre-Dan times i used to shop for books on Flipkart. And even now i would vote for flipkart over any other shopping sites for their accuracy and timeliness of their deliveries. But amazon also wind my vote of confidence.. I like their collection of International Books for kids.. Ah, and ofcourse fruit spreads..Yumm..

4. Favourite Phone App : To sound very lame, its whatsapp. Due to the absolute fact that it has helped me to remain sane during times i have thought i will go insane.. I can just crib to anyone whether they are free or not and it feels too good to just vent out. It has made me to keep in contact with people whom it would have been difficult to be in touch with otherwise

5. One dish you are really good at making and its recipie :)
http://annatalking.blogspot.com/2012/09/stuffed-chicken.html

Rains!!!!

If you would ask me which the season i love the most in a year, undoubtedly i would say its the rainy season. Nothing can beat ,curling up on the bed with an interesting read when the rain is pelting down. Back at home, my room was surrounded by huge rain trees. The sound of rain falling on the leaves and then pitter pattering down was such music to my ears. I never minded venturing out in the rain either. To feel the rain falling all around you, blanketing you with its wet cold arm was a joy.

Times have changed. Mind you, rainy season is my favorite time of the year, closely followed by the madras winter. Madras has sucked most of the joy out of rains, owing to water logging the roads. We have a filthy pond close by home. People, cows and dogs does all thier business in it and also manages to dump their trash in there. And in the current incessant rain, said pond has over flowed into the road and i cant even think without retching what kind of water is flowing around. Thank God i don't need to cross it by foot on my way to office :(
Schools and colleges are closed due to the rains, but we poor corporate slaves need to work or need to take a leave out of the meager earned leaves we accumulate over the year. So here i am at ofice, braving the rain and the water logged roads (with its innumerable, unthinkable solvents ) . Soaked to my bones.. And wondering why the rains couldnt come on a saturday sunday, when i could make some mean bajji and sip piping hot tea, oblivious with the water logging the roads.
Still, i love the rains, with the song they sing

Fate!!!!!!

You know, there are these times you roll your eyes at someone/something one does and thinks that i will never ever do it/be like them.. I have been there , done that.. And now they have been happening in my life, so that God can teach me that everything is not black and white.

When people used to complaint that they cant tolerate the cream in the milk, i always used to wonder what the fuss was about. Once my friend and me were coming back from a long trip and we didnt have anything to eat for many hours. And the coffee that we got to buy at a shop had a layer of cream in it. She almost gagged at it and threw the coffee away and went the rest of her way home hungry. I felt very smug about the fact that what a rounded upbringing i had !!!!! And then arrives Jojo! He hates the thought of milk at the best and God forbid if there is a tiny piece of cream in it. He gags and throws up the entire meal he has had the whole day. Or if he is in a mood to have milk he will scan the entire surface of milk. If there is even a bit of milk, he will ask me to strain it out.. Daniel has no problem with the cream. he will gulp his milk with/without the cream . And i have done nothing special to either of them in this department :( Chalk and cheese i say!!!!!! Or jojo was born to instill some sense into me to quit judging others!!!!

When i was going to nursery, we were allowed to wear civilian clothes on every wednesday. This day proved out to be pure torture for my mom because i was very very choosy with my clothes and my amma had no intention of making me wear my Sunday-bests to school every week and i would go to school sulking or crying. Amma still has nightmares about those days. Then enters my eldest niece to our lives and chech and bekhs too had a few episodes about deciding clothes . Chech sorted it out by laying out clothes for the school day the previous night itself. Hah.. i was soo prepared for motherhood and for being poster mom. Hay, i even had enough lessons from chech ,right??Dan has no problems about the clothes i lay for him. Occasionally he asks for a particular dress and he is happy. Joshua is a whole different chapter... He thinks over the clothes i have laid for him, if he disapproves of it he will ask for a white tee. And is never specific at it. As the time for the bus arrives, my patience runs low and his frustration level goes high.. recipe for disaster. Laying out clothes doesn't work well with him either. Some people need to fight their own battles, me thinks !!! we are dreading the days when our little one turns into a teenager.

Habits die hard

Certain practices in life stay with you for a long long time. It would have started rather innocently, but then they become such a custom that you wont even realize doing it.

A week or so before i got married, my wise uncle told me this. During the time you are a newly-wed,you will be expected to enter everywhere you go with your right foot, so don't wait till the D-day. Start making it a habit from now onward. Since random aunties would be waiting to see what you did wrongly as a bride, i decided to heed to his advice and started using my right foot to enter anywhere starting from shopping trips to visiting old relatives to seek their blessing. Guess during the initial days of my married life i would have done this one thing rightly because i never caught any aunties whispering in between bites of meat-rolls, that i did the unthinkable act of using my left foot to enter the grooms house..
Fast forward 6 years. I was recently running to catch a train that was coming on the farthest platform and i needed to run across the over bridge to catch it. I then realized that i was using my right foot to start climbing the stairs and even used the right foot to board the train .. My uncle would be so proud of me :)
I recently heard him giving this advise to my littlest sister ,who got married (Be still my soul).. I should ask her how it has impacted her.

I always count the stairs as i am climbing.. Its something that comes automatically to me .. :) Sometimes when i am very bored, i even count the steps i am taking while walking. I count the number of compartments of a train that passes me too :D

In 2006, my cousin from Canada visited us and she had a jumbo size handbag.. I was quiet surprised at the size and my curiosity took the better of me and i asked her what she carries in it. She showed me the contents. If the world comes to a catastrophe and you are stranded with her in a lonely place at that time, you can rejoice!!! The bag had enough contents to take you through an entire week!!!! But was i inspired or not.. From that day onward i cant use a small sized handbag.. Handbags should be spacious and should see me through a day or two :P So you can mostly catch me with a shoulder-suitcase most of the time.

**I cant come with any more die-hard habits.. But then i wanted to get this blog back up and running :)  

What do you think????

At church we sit on the balcony with the kids. There the kids can run around and since the congregation up there is mostly parents and small kids, no one minds the noise these kids create.

Yesterday among others Dan and another boy his age were running around. Each on their own. They never even crossed paths. Suddenly this other boy runs to dan and whacks him on his face- no provocation. Before either Gin or me moved, the other boys mom ran to him, and pulled him off with a very stern look. The boys continued running and after about 5 minutes the same scene is repeated. This time the other boys mom went and carried him off and Gin went and took Dan off too. The other mom was scolding her boy and he was clearly upset. Screaming and hitting the mother. Finally his dad stepped in and took him outside. Daniel was least bothered , I guess mainly because it didn’t hurt him at all.

That is how small kids are. You can never say what is their next course of action. They act without any provocation and there is no point in reasoning with them. Dan has done worst things. He has bitten two little cousins of his. One was very deserving(no, that doent mean that Dan has any right to hurt the child. I agree he was completely wrong) and the other was without the least provocatoion. But I give full credit to the parents of that boy, because they acted as responsible adults and stopped their son and when the act was repeated, firmly put him in his place. Good for them and their son…

Now there was this other mom and son standing in front of me. The boy has a nice sipper with Thomas the engine on it. Dan was quiet fascinated with that. He casually walked, bent down and picked the sipper from the side pocket of that lady’s bag. As Dan’s mom, I know he only wanted to see the engine picture on it and his intention was not to drink from it. While I was moving forward to stop Dan, the lady snatched the bottle away from him and scolded Dan. Yes scolded ,in a very stern and harsh voice . Both Dan and me were quiet taken aback. And dan even froze in his path for a second. For people who know Dan, it is a big feat for my boy to be still!!!!!! What Dan did was not at all acceptable. You cant walk around picking up others stuffs let alone pull things from their bags. But I was there to stop Dan, the lady could see me moving forward to stop him and finally she could have just smiled and taken the bottle away from him. Or maybe quit that scolding session.

And here is what I wonder? Do you think you have the right to scold others kid? I don’t think so. If the said kid is doing some harm to you or yours, and their parents are doing nothing to stop it, maybe you can step in and stop in a nice way. I can very well understand the itch to give a tight slap to those very badly behaved kids, whose parents think stopping them from anything they do is going to affect them “mentally”!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe hitting them is a service you are doing to society. But even there, I belevie only the parents have the right to admonish their kids. I mean, it is none of my business .

With our kids, I wont mind people who are genuinely interested in them scolding them. I should be satisfied that the said person loves my kids enough to wish for their good and that is the reason they are stopping them.

The other day Ans came visiting and dan was at his crankiest best. She stopped or sternly told him no for one or the other things that he was doing. I wouldn’t even look at that side, because I know she loves him enough to do so…..

Don’t you think you must be wondering what right you have to stop a child or rebuke a child, before you jump headlong into it???

Dan Goes to School

Yes Daniel goes to school. No, he is not old enough to be enrolled into regular school, but given our circumstances he is being sent to a day care which the son refers to as school. He resisted going with all the might a 2 year can muster. Now, if you think that a 2 year old is a harmless type who can be cajoled with a few sweet words you are either a non-parent or a besotted aunt or his grandmother!!!! They are tough creatures. More tough and adamant that adults. And they are the least bothered about throwing tantrums in the middle of the road. So all in all the past 2 weeks were highly stressful. Gin and me would drop him at Amelio. My son would be resolutely declaring “ School bende, Beach”.. Which would translate to, Don’t want school, lets go to beach!!!! How we all wish for that, my son!!!! The floodgates would open as soon as Amelio would come to sight. He will resist with all he is worth to not get out of the car. And his mamma being the monsterella would anyway carry him through the gates. Given a chance his Appa would give him permission to never ever step into a school, if that is what he doesn’t want. So I won’t even consider getting his father’s help. And once Dan realizes that his mamma means business he will say, Mamma – Babo in a very baby-like voice and will lower his head onto my shoulders. I wonder why he says that whenever he is upset with something. Hmmm.. And he is not really sleepy too at that time. He goes in screaming at the top of his voice and trying to squirm him way out of the Ayah’s hands. Finally I leave with a heavy heart and I have the picture of a barely 2 year old wailing for his mamma in front of my eyes all day long.

No, I am not at all guilty. I know he is in a good place with efficient caring people and above all, his Good Father is watching over him. I only want him to settle and have fun in that place. There is lots to do for him and there are really lots of activities done there that will interest him. I only hope that in time he will be fine.

The day care people say that sometime after I leave he becomes kind of ok. But occasionally a wave of longing for his mamma will come and he will softly cry for me. Sigh. Being a mom is a tough tough business L And as soon as he sees me when I go to pick him up, he will cry with his lips pouting and all. And in a few minutes he is my chirpy little squirrel pointing at different things and talking.

Joshua is a whole world apart. He is happy with the maid who looks after him. And he has a wide toothless grin ready for anyone. His father is a pool of mush when the little one smiles at him. Joshua is barely 7 months but he wants to do all things Dan does. By the time he realizes that Dan has acquired better motor skills than him, he is lying flat on the floor and is wailing. A push or a shove or a whack from Dan won’t stop him from going behind his Chahca’s stuffs. No, we don’t encourage Dan being physical with Joshua, but then it happens anyway.

Back home from his day care Dan is cranky for a while. I now realize it is his way of showing his displeaseure from dropping him there all day. If I manage to distract him the evening progresses well with we playing and laughing etc. If he continues in his grim mood, God help us; it is downhill from there…

Touch wood, Dan is slowly settiling into school. He still cries violently when I drop him. Infact since he is familiar with the route now, he will start whining from the time we enter the IT park I work in. But once I leave, he has started to adjust with the people at school.So hopefully the little one will soon find happiness there J

Stuffed Chicken

I have this second cousin, Indu who was also my classmate who runs a food blog. Hmmmm. Well not a blog in my league ,definitely. She has classic recipes, well written and humourous contents and pictures that makes your mouth water for days and crave for the dish. So last week when she posted one about a stuffed chicken, i almost jumped at the idea of making one myself. But most of the evenings i am too tired to venture into anything too elaborate and hence kept it off for the weekend... And as friday came i became really brave and decided to kick start the weekend by baking a cake. So in the evening i baked a banana cake which is best not to be discussed. I blame it on the voltage and the husband on the fluffiness of the whisked eggs. Either way it was a near flop and that i went to bed feeling so terrible.. COme on, i am almost 30 and cant even bake a decent cake. My kids would be the ones who will look open-mouthedly at their classmates who bring out yum home cooked delicasies and would be shocked to find that they are made at homes by their mammas and not bought from bakeries :(

Well saturday morning saw me in a better mood. Or rather Indu's pictures on her blog did set me into a better mood and i went about marinating the chicken etc. And it was then i got a brain wave. She did fry the chicken in oil and i decided to bake it in the oven after half cooking it on the stove... I followed her recipes with slight changes, such as adding some more masalas and finally baked the half-cooked bird in the microwave for 40 minutes at 180C.. The result......

I managed to gather back my lost ego and face in front of the husband... And did have dreams of my kids superiorly opening thier snack boxes laden with goodies baked by their Nigella Lawson-like mom.....

To say the least,we had a very early dinner and a very very heavy dinner tooo.. Phew..........