Pet Peeve - Drabble Week #3

2 all ma frnds hu can rd dis: Don't ever write to me like this please, ever!
It took me about 5 minutes to think of how to write those words, and honestly it takes me as long to read something like that. My eyes literally hurt to even try! Yes, that's my pet peeve.

His Last Wish - Drabble Week #2

She waited by the bedside as he opened his eyes at last, after the massive accident that had threatened to take his life. As soon as he turned to look at her, she broke out weeping, and left.
After all, it had been her son's last wish to donate his eyes to someone in need.

- 55er written for Drabble Week Day 2 at Marathon Bloggers

The broken promise - Drabble Week #1

It was the morning after the first fallen tooth! D woke up and came to me with a disappointed look "Why didn't the tooth fairy visit me?".
A broken promise! I had forgotten to perform my job as the fairy's messenger. And I said to her "Don't worry, she's just late! She'll be here tomorrow.".

55-er written as a part of the Drabble Week challenge at my Marathon Bloggers group. Taking a break from my travelogue, but need to complete that soon as well :P.

Day 7: Red

It's the end of the day and I have NOTHING for the theme "red"!! So at the risk of seeming narcissistic, here's me again ;). This one's a selfie, a skill I'm just learning. 

One of the Photo Booth experiments when I was trying to understand the play of light .. Came across it when searching for other pics earlier in the week.

Day 6 - Date

I am really bad at remembering important dates, with just birthdays and anniversaries of immediate families being such an effort that I can't imagine how folks remember to wish their cousin's daughter's grandson ;). And yes, my dad is one of those people, so don't ask me where the genes got lost :). So when "date" is the theme, I'm going to go for a different kind of date ;). Pic not clicked by me of course as I'm in the frame.

Day 5: Tea

The picture will have to be taken when I make my evening tea but here's what the theme first brought to mind :). Tea has always been a favoured drink in our family, even if South Indian, with coffee being the first drink of the day but tea dominating the rest of it. After being married to a Malayali, the tea influence became even stronger :). I started with learning to make the low-milk tea, then learnt the more milky version, and now I dare say I have a combination all my own ;).

I have always been fascinated with different types of teacups, usually possessing 2-3 "daily" sets at any point in time. Along the way I realized that heavier cups or those with a square rim may look brilliant but can be inconvenient to use everyday. Some clicks of my current favourites:

Bone china bought as 2 pieces each in 3 lovely colours, now only 1 red and 1 yellow remain, will have to be replenished soon :).

My Warli teacups that I am very fond of, but again as they are made of clay, these are quite fragile as well and I have already lost a couple to cracks.

Again clay, love the elegant design, a gift from my mom-in-law :).

Day 4 - Shadows

Went and scrounged around in my photos for my favourite pics with shadows :). I loved how this one has so much brightness as well as the dark of the shadows..

Day 3 - Links

Hmmm.. these themes are getting more and more interesting ;)..

The link that I have no say in creating
The one that's made for me by birth
The one that could mean kicking and screaming and fighting like cats and dogs (might be an unfair comparison to the poor animals!)
But it's also the one that connects me
To someone who always has my back :)

Sis holding on to bro on a very jumpy jeep ride

Pardon my late night attempt at some sort of poetry, and let me finish with an anecdote:
When asked why she had suddenly burst into tears, D says to me: He said I'm not your brother! How can he say that?
S (very nonchalantly): But she has said she's not my sister SO MANY times!
Me (most superior of them all): I'm afraid neither of you has a say in this ;). You're brother and sister, and nobody saying anything is going to change things around here!

Day 2 - Streets

Hmm.. so I felt quite blank thinking of this theme, and then the first thing that came to mind was how my driving skills have improved trying to negotiate between two parked vehicles that leave "just" enough place for one car to go through. Of course I hold my breath until I have actually passed through ;), sometimes wishing my car was an old khatara that I could just bang into folks like these to teach them some civic sense!

For the photo though, decided to focus on the positive instead ;). And thanks to a fellow blogger's suggestion, here's me being thankful for living on one of the few roads to still possess a tree canopy :)

Day 1 - Fly

So it's back to a Marathon Bloggers challenge to revive my blog a bit :).. the idea is to pick a photo that illustrates the theme, and also to write about it.

An old pic, but one that came to mind as soon as I saw this theme. The first thing I thought of for the theme of "Fly" was something I've been pondering on recently. I have tried very hard to make the kids independent in most things that they can accomplish at the age they're at. This means not-so-efficient baths, the same socks worn thrice in a week(picked up immediately after every wash, not unwashed :P), waiting an extra couple of minutes for "help" in setting the table instead of doing it myself.. and so on. Of course, the more work it takes off my shoulders I'm happy ;).

When the kids actually get ready to "fly" and start doing more and more stuff on their own, then comes the heartbreaking part for the parent - to just let them be and not hover over their shoulder - I'm going to have a tough time of that when they are teenagers :P, but still looking forward to every bit of it!

And meanwhile,
"Time is flying never to return." - Virgil

For Day 17: Theme time again!

And one day he just willed himself to leave the bloody world behind. They said he died because they wouldn't accept him for who he was. But was it as simple as that? Could "they" ever understand the agony of being trapped in a body that he knew he didn't belong in.. Fighting the battle of living his stand in dignity and slowly but surely giving up the futile attempts at trying to make people understand... Only he knew that it was not he who died but she.




My 2nd attempt at Fiction on this blog, written for Themed Tuesday of the Marathon Bloggers December blogging challenge for the theme "They said he died because they wouldn't accept him for who he was.."

Day 10: He grit his teeth and bore the pain…

He knew it would only be a few more minutes and he just had to hold on to the pain until then.. a few more steps.. nearer.. nearer... and at last he saw it.. the finish line of his first ever Marathon. He crossed it and at last vocalized the pain.. which was now also a huge gasp of victory... and plonked down on the nearby patch of grass to soothe his aching feet.

For the themed post of #MB2013 December blogging with Marathon Bloggers. My friends who are runners, pardon me if it is factually incorrect, it was the only scenario that came to my mind :). 

Day 9: Just calling to remind you...

After getting the umpteenth reminder on my phone for something or the other, I was struck by how much my attitude has changed towards these. There was a time when I used to think "Why on earth do you think I need to be reminded to get my chimney cleaned?!".. but now in the midst of hectic schedules and a worsening memory (:P) I actually have started appreciating them. Here are some interesting interactions I have had:

• The aforesaid chimney cleaning service centre which is one from Faber keep calling me literally every 2 weeks. The service person who used to work with them and had been coming to my place for years, started his own service centre so I started telling the caller "Please take my name off your reminder list, I don't need this any more." Polite, slightly irritated and even very angry responses later, I am still getting calls :). Funny end result, I couldn't contact my regular guy for a couple of months and ended up getting help from them again in a crisis situation.
• Car service center - they remind that service is due, send someone to pick up and drop, I've literally never visited the place ;). I was most impressed especially when for the free service they provided all these conveniences and charged me Rs. 0 !!
• Tank cleaning - yes I got it done through this very professional agency called Shudhi services, and was most surprised to get a reminder call from them after 6 months!
• Pest control - The erstwhile Godrej Hi-Care who are now ISS Hi-Care are very diligent with their reminders, so much so that I renewed my contract with them after a 5 year gap simply because they kept in touch.

Other than these of course there are the usual insurance and other payment reminders by post, but the danger in depending on these is that they do occasionally get missed out and then you might be left with a delayed payment :(. The best way to handle most regular payments especially time bound ones like electricity, water is to get them on ECS, really reduces a lot of stress.

Getting back up to speed and posting on time for the Marathon Bloggers December Challenge #MB2013 :)

Day 8: Saturday Part II - Christmas program

The same day was also the Sunday School Christmas program with both D and S being a part of it. The run up to it included regular practices managed by the very dedicated team who manages the Sunday School at church. D even sang a couple of lines of solo much to my delight, especially when I learnt later that she had actually volunteered to be tested for it :). Believe me, this was a big difference from even a year back, so the new confidence was lovely to see!

S in the left corner, can you spot him?

All posts in December are part of the Marathon Blogging challenge #MB2013, a repeat of what we did last year.

Day 5: Back to baking

My Day 4 post for the Marathon on my Citizen Matters blog here:
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/gardener-s-diary/blog_posts/understanding-the-origin-of-your-food

And on to Day 5 :). I didn't have much to write about, and then realized I had a couple of photos that I hadn't yet uploaded or shared so those it will have to be.

Baking is a favourite activity of mine, but I go through these major ups and downs of having days of crazy baking, or a complete lull. To break the monotony and also get tips from an expert, I decided to go for a baking workshop with Nandita Iyer of Saffron Trail at her lovely home in Whitefield. Getting a peek at her amazing terrace garden was an added bonus ;)

As expected it was great fun, and to keep the momentum going I got back and tried the cinnamon rolls right on the next day :).

Why I missed Day 2!

As my Dec 1st post came out of my drafts, oh well who am I kidding it was pretty much fully written and I was just hesitating to post it, I forgot to mention that I have taken up a marathon blogging challenge once again for this December. And I missed day 2?! That was much earlier than I expected :(. So here's why..

My little fella has been showing a good improvement in resistance and has been battling his allergies much better than before. All I had to do was think about it to myself of course, and WHAM he's down with a bad attack of congestion followed quickly by fever. He's always a bit of a charmer and though I know that his actual discomfort is also accompanied by a whole lot of dramatics, but still when he starts screwing up his face my heart melts. Didn't feel like writing anything much, so gave it a miss yesterday. And though he's been not feeling too great, the diplomacy is all intact ;).

Me: Where do you want to eat lunch S, with me or with Paati? (My parents stay downstairs and he eats lunch with them on weekends)

S: (in a verrry subdued voice) Whatever you say..

Me: Quickly realizing he's trying to not "hurt" me, but keeping options open as he can watch some TV when downstairs which I wouldn't put on here ;). LOL! Took pity on him and sent him down to eat.

On to today's themed post next :).

Blog-a-prompt Day 7 - Addiction

Wow it seems like we have reached the end of Blog-a-Prompt week already and it has been such fun!! It was good to get a lot of things out of the system, under the pretext of the prompt ;). And here's my last chance, until the next prompt at least!

The topic for Day 7 is Addiction, and though I feel pretty addicted to blogging thanks to the prompts, there are a couple of other addictions that give me pangs of guilt so I wanted to put those down.

First and worst of them all - Facebook!! I was at this stage when I used to keep clicking on every group even if I saw 1 new notification - yes it was bad :P. I have got past that now, thankfully and though I still spend a lot of time there, I make it a point to spend stretches of time offline completely or off from FB. It's an ongoing struggle and I have a long way to go to strike that balance, but I think the worst is definitely past :).

My next biggest time-stealer - TV shows. I have quite a set of them built up over the years, the one I've been seeing the longest being Grey's Anatomy which is in it's 9th season. This is not counting some of my reality shows that keep going from strength to strength and that I usually end up watching most seasons of. There are very few like the Amazing Race that I actually stopped watching as it was getting a wee bit repetitive to watch people racing across the world :P. Others like Masterchef Australia are my all time favourites and I keep waiting for the next season to start. I do know that I don't have time to watch zillions of shows every week, so sometimes I just download them and watch many episodes at one go. Other days, I end up sitting up late when I know that's going to backfire on me the next morning. You win some, you lose some I guess!

Blog-a-Prompt Day 6 - No!

Hmm.. I had a whole other blog post ready, about how I have to deal with "No!" on a daily basis, not only as something I say to my kids, but as something that has become S's all time favourite word. But well, I usually make an effort to not share too much negative stuff here (assuming the kids are going to read some of it at some point of time :)), so in that spirit and until I find a solution and can talk about it a bit more, here's a new take on the subject.

I had written an earlier post about how I used to find it difficult to say "No!" to someone, even if the end result was inconvenient to me. A few asked me to elaborate a bit more about it, so here goes:

In general I think this has to do with a deep discomfort with confrontation of any kind, not just a fear or hurting someone as I used to think. After a few years at work, I realized that being complacent and taking things as they come doesn't always turn out well. Those who ask for what they want are definitely treated with more respect. In a home situation, while I was protected from many such confrontations that are associated with a workspace, even dealing with maids and others working for you can be quite terrifying if you put up with everything you get, just because you don't want to cause unpleasantness. So somewhere along the way I made a decision that something had to change, and started working consciously toward it. I'm not saying I don't still get taken for a ride sometimes but at least I know I am not hesitant to walk into a shop and ask the salesperson something even if I feel the question might be "silly" :). Ok at least I don't hesitate about 80% of the time ;).

Blog-a-Prompt Day 5 - Spicy!

Today is D's birthday - she turned 8 :). We have a lot of family around, so spent most of the day outside, and really not feeling like writing too much right now.

In any case, the first thing that came to mind is the simplest thing for me to post :). This chilly that has started appearing on my plant that I originally thought to be scotch bonnet, but now seems to be a kandhari variety or related. Whatever it is, it's lovely :)

The theories have been white gandhari or "ari milagu"

Yes I don't know what I'll do with all of them :)

Till tomorrow and the next prompt then :)

Blog-a-Prompt Day 4 - Disaster

It's the end of a long day, and I was nearly about to give up on writing anything today.. but seeing the lovely posts of my fellow bloggers at the Marathon Bloggers group, and remembering how sweetly they have been dropping in here, egged me on a bit :).

Somehow the first thing that comes to mind on seeing this prompt was a certain birthday party of D's. Now I am this absolutely let's-leave-it-all-to-the-last-minute-and-see-how-that-works-out kind of person. Or rather I was, and this incident changed me a wee little bit (no major turnaround yet though ;)).

So the idea was to invite the kids from her school, so that she would have familiar faces around rather than a group of grown-ups that she didn't know, and a motley group of children just because they belong to aforesaid grown-ups ;). Bad idea in retrospect, as I didn't know most of the parents personally. I requested the school for the numbers (it was a close knit montessori place, so no issues there) and set about calling everyone - I think this was a few weeks in advance of the day. Most of them were polite, said of course they would make it and so on, and I naively took their word for it.

Day of birthday arrives, hubby requests I call and check/remind people, but I am blissfully in my bubble, and believe that people will land up just because they said so. Of course you know how this ends, other than my loving family, and a couple of the invitees, no one else arrived. The magician performed to a much reduced audience, and tons of food went waste/hopefully got donated.

Well, end result was - I am older, wiser, think a lot more about whom it makes sense to call, and make sure to reconfirm!