Life or something like it..

I'm juggling too many of those proverbial balls right now. And I know something is going to drop. Just a matter of time. There have been days these past few weeks, when I've not been able to talk properly to Adi for 24 hours! Not acceptable. Food is taking a toll. The cook is serving terrible rotis since he came back from his wedding. Wonder why? His heart is not in it? He has lost the touch? Misses his wife? He is mad at us? Almost made up my mind to let him go...but dare not. He is the only back up we have for food. The veggie shortage in the market isn't helping. My usual source of fruits and veggies has dried up for the past month. Must find some other watering hole. But when?


Weekends are good, busy. Nice and fun. But busy. The coming 4 weekends are already blocked with something or the other. And yet there is so much more to do. I don't have evenings any more. Can't get much done in the mornings, partly due to the heat.

Yes, the heat, its killing me. The rains brought some relief, but it is back to being a furnace at home. I am practicing slow breathing while riding to office...to conserve energy and stay still....so that I don't perspire much! I must be going crazy.

Very tempted to buy an AC. But do we need it? In Bangalore? Electricity wastage? When we should be trying to cut down? Why add more items to regulate? More maintenance issues? Not to mention the growing BESCOM bills..

On a positive note, Masterchef Australia starts in a few days...things have to settle down before that. 

And I won something at office today...for something very silly - participating in a survey. The results almost felt like they were rigged - in my favor - so I'm not complaining...Silver lining.


Met an old friend, made plans to meet some more friends. Got some plants, and a lovely hanging basket. Now searching for Ivy geranium for the hanging pot. Need some lovely pinks or bright reds to flower in the balcony. 


And the quest for the carpenter continues. People almost do not want to work. Why do they refuse work? They have enuf? They are lazy? They dont like my face?

He looks like me!

The world has been divided into 2 camps since Adi was born. The in-laws and my family. There is consensus in V's family that Adi looks exactly like him and my parents find him to be a copy of me.

Sometimes friends have ditched me too :( People who have not seen V as a child or as an adult for that matter, ended up telling me, my baby takes after his father.

Well, today during bath time, Adi asked me why he has dry skin. I told him he inherited it from his father (yes, I leave no opportunity to score brownie points). And then comes the brilliant follow up - "Why, because pappa sleeps with me?". (These days V is putting Adi to bed...). Can't tell him the real reason, can I? So I gave him a lame - "babies are a lot like their mummy-pappa". He bought it for now. I need more time to handle these tricky ones.

Then we ended up discussing, he is tall like his father, he can sing like his father...So he asks me, "Everything is like pappa?". I had to struggle to find traits where he takes after me! Well, hair doesn't count when it is barely a cm long. And a dead tissue at that.

So I took a risk and posed the million dollar question to him - "Who do you think you look like? And yaay, he said, he looks like me!
 
The whole world and their grandmothers can go eat their words, now.


Meanwhile, I have to go and find things that he has inherited from me...before he discovers he doesn't even look like me. 

Where the ipod is finally being put to use

Publishing an old draft...


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Had a small ipod shuffle for more than 2 years now. And it was not used until last week. Terrible, shame on me. But I really like to listen to the radio. And I don't like plugging earphones - my ears hurt. And I like to be surprised. I like knowing that someone else (some RJ) likes the same songs as me. I'm not that crazy about putting all my favorite songs in one place and listening to them in a loop. Plus, sometimes you might miss that gem :)

Anyways, a year ago, I tried to load some songs for V to listen while running. Had little success. Had some issues with iTunes and what not. Excuses. Then last week I had an inspiration to make the ipod useful - atleast for Adi. And it worked! Loaded it with some songs that I like and he now owns it...

Taking stock

Something seems to be terribly wrong with me. Bumping into sofa, table corners, chair handles - seems to be a regular feature, giving me many a black and blue spots :( 


Have acquired a couple of scratches on both arms, very very weird, can't even recollect where those came from. Yesterday, somehow peeled the skin on the lower back side of my palm! I thought, it was coming off...there was a slight scratch and I tried to pull it and it came out - a bit too long. And now it stings like hell! To top it, just now burnt the tip of my finger, by touching the gas burner, literally, touching it. I don't know how it could have happened.


Can't seem to figure out why these things are happening? Clumsiness doesn't seem to explain it. Still makes me want to stay away from fire and knives and sharp corners.


On the other hand, the obsessive need to clean had reached gigantic proportions, when I couldn't help but clean the hotel room during the weekend trip! Imagine, I couldn't walk out of the room, without keeping stuff properly, arranging luggage, folding towels and all that! What is the point of a vacation if I act like a psycho? Thankfully didn't make V and Adi do any of it :( Or did I?


Picked up a couple of lovely plants from a nursery outside Kodai along with 2 huge colorful pots! Still can't make up my mind of what to plan in those pots...Have a serious motivation this time to grow the tiny garden, will start with smaller plants. The Jasmine (creeper - called Jai - of jai-jui fame) planted last year has boosted morale a lot by growing well despite minimal care on my part. Got mogra from kodai...one of my favorite plants!


Will search for Rajnigandha and rain lilies next. I think I'm ready now...the sight of those colorful pots and the possibility of having the flowers I love right in the house is reason enuf!

Historical fiction

I always loved history in school. It is full of stories. Interesting ones. But historical fiction is still new to me. And I don't know how I stumbled upon Philippa Gregory's books. But I'm loving it! The Other Boleyn Girl was amazing. And it ensured I read more of her books. And I've not been disappointed. Was able to get my hands on The Queen's Fool, which paled in comparison to TOBG, but was a good read.

I love the books, because she writes about royalty in such a practical manner. Life as royalty is definitely tedious and nothing about feathers and a little about castles.

I have started The Tudor Series and The Cousins' War simultaneously. The Tudor reads better so far. Or Maybe the politics is more twisted and complicated? What I also like is the liberties she takes with facts....yes, I'm happy that she cares to re-interpret history in a more romantic light? Specially stuff like the Princes in the Tower. What are the odds that her version might just be plausible? In any case, the real story never came to light, so we are free to make a few assumptions, even if they have not really impacted history. If not a happy ending, I want atleast a hopeful one.

And if English history about which I know next to nothing can be so interesting, how would it be to read Indian historical fiction.? And after much research Indu Sundaresan has been shortlisted to provide fodder on the domestic front. After finishing The Sins of the Father, I'm all ready to dive into The Twentieth Wife. I hope it lives up to its expectations. And if turns out to be boring, there is always Bill Bryson.

Buying pre-used books has more advantages than I could've ever guessed! I am in possession of The White Queen -- signed by Philippa Gregory herself! Ofcourse, it is addressed to Alex. I wish I knew Alex.

Another bollywood post

This is again one of Adi's lists. He loves to watch songs and since he doesn't see a lot of movies...He didn't know the names of actors, so he would call them by the names/words of the songs they featured in. Here is his legend:

1. Shahid Kapoor is Mauji hi Mauja

2. SRK is Om Shanti Om

3. Aamir Khan is Bum bum bole

4. Hrithik Roshan is Dhoom machale

5. Salman Khan is Dhinka chika

6. Aishwarya Rai was Krazy kiya re until he saw Robot. Now she is Sana

There is hope

The trip to Chennai last month for a wedding was fruitful in more ways than I can imagine. One big advantage was that Adi started liking some of my favourite old hindi songs...Tere Ghar Ke Samne...being one of them!

He is not interested in English or Marathi songs yet...So far only Hindi and Kannada have found their way to his heart. Here is a list of songs he has liked till date...

1. Krazy kiya re - this was probably one of the first songs he listened as a baby. No matter what he was crying for, we'd put this on the mobile and he would stop crying and start looking around for the sound!

2. Mauji hi Mauja - from Jab We Met

3. Rang De Basanti - he loves to sing this one

4. Bum bum bole - from TZP. One of the few hindi movies that he has seen

5. Masterji ki aa gayi chitthi - the one with the VIP underwear and baniyan

6. Lakdi ki kathi - one of the old favorites, he can almost sing it

7. Thande thande paani se - this one helped the father to take over the bathe-the-baby job :D

8. Jaaneman Jaaneman, tere do nayan - I think he likes this one, because I hum it too often

9. Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji - I had a hard time explaining why they are searching for his jigar outside the body, but an enchanting song and a great video too!

10. Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam - the credit for this one goes to a neighbourhood car. It had this tune as the reverse music. He could not believe his eyes to see SRK in the video ;)

11. Ainvayi Ainvayi lut gaya - a hot favorite once upon a time. But not on his list anymore :(

12. Dhan te nan - from Kaminey - totally rocking

13. Tere ghar ke samne - Nutan in the glass, erhm, what is he drinking? I want it too!

14. Kisiki muskurahaton pe ho nisaar - a recent addition

15. Pt. Bhimsem Joshi's bhajans - both Marathi and Kannada (Mazhe maher pandhari, Dev banda namma, Sadayanna hridayadalli...etc.) And He can sing them better than most adults I know :D

So there is hope after all. He does like good music. And has a good ear.

I'm sure I am missing a lot of them, which were a passing craze. Will come back and edit when I remember.