The year that was 2020

 Woah! What a year that was!

The underlying message of this crazy year was to enjoy the little things.  And that we definitely did.  9 days into the year we had a blow when Biju was asked to resign from his job.  The life as we knew for many years was set for change.  

Add to that the spread of the pandemic, the health scare, the lockdown, the uncertainity, the job search, the disappointments and rejections, the school change, the online learning, the final year at school, the college applications...a crazy, topsy-turvy, twirly-whirly year!  A month by month highlight of the past 12 months.

Jan - On 9th, Biju was handed over the letter. He had to resign immediately and was offered three months' salary and visa and insurance upto renewal. This was totally unexpected and he had the biggest shock.  The only plan I had in mind was to wind up and move back to Kerala once school closed.  Aarush was in the final terms of Grade 5 and Aaryav, KG1.  But Biju had other plans and wasnt ready for a move so soon.  

Feb - Serious job hunt started.  But things were not easy as we expected.  Salary offered was less than half with no benefits.  Corona was spreading fast and wide and before we knew it, the whole world was being affected.  Abhis exams had finished and the Grade 12 classes commenced.

March - Many countries went in for a lockdown.  Abhis school closed much ahead of schedule and we brought her to UAE.  One good decision beacause a couple of days after she reached India went in for a lockdown.  Aarush and Aaryav's school closed.  We were all asked to stay indoors and step out only for essentials.  Kids were locked up at home with no one to play with.  

April - Schools reopened.  Online classes were introduced.  Aarush started his Grade 6 and Aaryav was promoted to KG2.  Aarush adapted well to the online classes but it was a daily challenge for Aaryav.

May - We celebrated Aaryav's 5th bday with a home baked cake.  Aaryav was pulled out of school as the online classes were only adding to the stress.  I decided to home school him.  He was super happy about the decision.  After almost 2 months within the walls, we started going out.  To groceries and for house hunting.  We were planning to move to a smaller and more economical space.  Finally we decided to renew at the same place and luckily, there ewas a rent reduction due to covid situation.

June -   Abhis online school started.  Aarush cleared his first terms exams.  We decided to pull him out of DPS to reduce the expenses, applied for TC and took admission in Ebener International.  I joined a weight loss group with school friends and started walking and dieting.

July - Aarush turned 11.  Summer vacations started for Aarush.  Since he cleared first terms, he could join Ebener from the second term onwards.  Weight loss kept me sane.  I lost almost 8 kgs with indoror walking and diet control.

August - Biju joined a small service provider called VolumSat for a small pay,  Hours were long, office ws far away, he had to face the traffic.  But we were immensely grateful.

September - Biju continued at VolumeSat.  Aarush stared classes at Ebenezer.  He settled in fast and started doing well.   Aaryav was chilling totally!

October - Abhi turned 17.  She was happy to spend time here with us than to be struggling in the hostel.  She started researching on colleges and even wrote her first SAT exam for which she scored 1400. Biju stopped full time work at VolumeSat.

Nov - By now, we were used to the changes in our life and to the world at large.  

Dec - Abhi took another SAT exam and she scored 1450 this time.  School closed for winter break and she started working hard on the application o NYUAD.  Application done by 29th Dec 2020.  We are waiting eagerly for the results.  Went to the desert on New Years Eve.  And watched the fireworks at Majaz.

A golden oldie

Weaning

Last night was my first nursing free night in 2 years and 5 months and the first one ever for Aaryav.  Our breastfeeding relation had been going so beautifully and my sincere intention was to continue until he decided to call it a day.  The way it was going, certainly we would have continued for another year easily. But at times fate does intervene and you are forced to take decision from the head rather than the heart.

He is a picky eater, a slim guy, yes! At 2 years 5 months he weighs only 12 kilos.  All around me pinned his puny size to breastfeeding and have been pressurizing me to stop, I have not been  too concerned and felt that he would eventually catch up in size and weight.  But the situation of his teeth were worrying me. I could see the enamel getting depleted and a few cracked teeth were a cause for alarm.  Finally, I made the dreaded visit to the dentist half ashamed that I would be judged as a careless mother.  One look and the pedodontist suggested a root canal for one of his upper incisors and a filling for 3 cavities. A root canal is definitely not something I am keen on subjecting him to at this stage.

I followed this up with a visit to the paediatrician who was more milder.  She supported my opinion of not putting him thru a traumatizing experience like the root canal just as yet and suggested an immediate weaning especially of night feeds.  And so here I am, keeping my fingers crossed that I will have the willpower to see this through.  Much earlier than I expected, I feel sad that we did not celebrate the last feed as we should have.  Even now I wonder, should I just give him another feed telling him that this is the final one in our lovely journey together?  A lovely time cuddling him and watching his little jaws move briskly satiating his hunger and comforting him.  The slowing of the rhythm while he drifts off into his sleep the only way he has known ever. I will keep my mobile away and be engrossed in him and him alone. A ceremonial goodbye to our breastfeeding days. This afternoon nap was also without feeding.  Maybe I will just give in one more time and cherish it and imprint the experience in my mind.  Come to think of it, I will not be feeding another baby again this lifetime.

Playtime Smiley time

Alarm bells started ringing frantically when it dawned on me that the little one is already 2 and still does not seem to have made much progress in his conversational skills.  All I had to do was an honest analysis of his activities through the day and it was staring me in the face that I spend way too less quality time with him, playing and communicating. Oh yes, catering to three different age group kids with totally different needs and routines can  be nerve wracking.  But excuses are not what we needed here.  Guilt was slowly inching its way into my heart. I made the strong resolve to sit down and play with him and talk to him and enjoy him more.

And like an added blessing all the toys ordered online poured in together!! There are building blocks, shape sorters, magnetic puzzle boards, shape matching kits, racing car slides etc to keep the low on energy mom and the super energetic toddler occupied on lazy mornings.

Once I started making the concious effort, I have discovered that it is indeed loads of fun to play with the small one.  In a few days I noticed marked changes in him.  He is so much more receptive and calmer.  His vocabulary has definitely improved and we celebrate each new word.  The latest ones are mooyi (movie) and toys.  I am on the look out for new games that will be fun and will challenge him more and more.

What games do you play with your toddler?

Happiness for me is.....

....these three smiling faces!

Chicken pox strikes

On May 4th Thursday, the husband decided to work from home.  So grabbed the opportunity to drive to school and pick up both the kids early. We decided to make it a fun day out for us. We had a quick lunch from Mcdonalds and saw the movie "Saira Banu" after that.   In the evening we attended Roshitha's bday get together.  After a bit, an intense tiredness and headache set in which I attributed to the walk in the scorching hot sun that I was not used to.  Headache was severe into the next day as well inspite of having a good long nap.  Thats when I noticed a water filled boil on my chest. A few more here and there soon after.  Chicken pox!! Something I had dreaded always.  And to make it more dreadful, I had been so lazy that the little one was not even vaccinated yet!! By Sunday a few spots broke out on my face as well and the numbers on the chest and the back increased rapidly.  Severe itching all over!! But it was a very mild case as I felt completely normal by Tuesday and by the end of the week all the scabs had fallen off.  All was good and I was waiting for the next attack wondering who the victim would be.

Exactly after 14 days, on a Saturday, Aarush walks in with an itchy small sore which was bugging him.  I immediately noticed the two boils on his tummy.  And on Sunday, I search all over a totally exhausted Appu and catch sight of the dreaded water filled boil on the tip of her finger and later a few popped up on her face.  The baby appears ok so far.  Keeping fingers crossed that he is spared this time.

Its day 3 today and Aarush has quite a few severely itchy boils.  Appu seems to be a milder case though its too soon to say.  Neem leaves is what we have been using mostly to get relief from the itching.  Brushing the body gently with the leaves, bathing in water boiled with neem leaves and cooled and applying paste of neem and turmeric.  We made Aarush sleep on a bed of neem leaves yesterday too.  Calamine lotion is being spread over the body at regular intervals.   I have also been adding baking soda to bath water.  Oat bath has been said to give a lot of relief so I am going to try that tomorrow.  Aarush is on Zyrtec, an antihistamine, but that is not helping him much. He is crying out and unable to sleep due to severe itching.  As I type this its 3 15 am and he has just dozed off.  I am sitting beside him brushing him with neem leaves.  Appu, the more tolerant of the two is deep in sleep thankfully.

Thats where we stand now.  Will be updating on the progress soon.

Updated to add:

Now its a household of 3 chicken pox kids.  The tiny one started breaking out in spots on Tuesday and have quite a few by now.  Temperature was moderately high for a day otherwise he is manageable.  God has been kind enough to keep it mild for all three and giving a break after my attack so that I can take care of them.  And the timing is right enough not to mess with our vacation plans.  Thankful for small mercies!

Cheers to New friendship!

So at 24 months, Aaryav has made his first official friend.  An adorable cuddly little 27 month old in our same building...just a floor below.  Surprising how we never met earlier inspite of me being on a constant search for playmates for the bored little toddler.  For now, the duo seem to be getting along well though Aaryav is a little boisterous at times and this intimidates the ever so gentle Baby A a bit. They watched and sang along with a few rhymes, read a couple of books and played with blocks. Mental note made to introduce the little one to new and better methods of expression.

Baby As mom happens to be an awesome mommie blogger and is extremely sweet and warm as well. Love her positive parenting style and look forward to getting some amazing parenting tips from her.

I chose right over wrong

I really did not like the earlier post,,but that was just as much as I could do.  Life is totally different from what it was from where I left off.  I'm 37 years old, a mother of 3 lovely kids!  Much more matured though definitely a lot more boring.

Oct 2014 was when I came to know that I was pregnant once more. Periods were delayed.  So thought of a home pregnancy check pretty sure that it would be negative,  It was a huge shock for me and Biju when it came positive.   Another baby was absolutely not in our scheme of things.  After all we were a perfectly balanced family with 2 kids, a girl and a boy that too.  I was 35 and with 2 c sections under my belt why would I even think of another child.   What about the finances, the hassle of bringing up another child.  No definitely not.  At six weeks of pregnancy went with my friend Dhanya to meet Dr Vidhula at Healers and confirm the pregnancy.  She confirmed that there was a perfectly healthy foetus.  At that point of time, all that I was worried about was the hassle of going to India and getting a termination done especially since school was on for Appu and Aarush and I would have to make so many arrangements.  I was also scared to undergo the termination procedure somehow.  But was there any other choice. No...None!!!

Dhanya, a devout Christian and another friend Reshmi kept telling me that I should go ahead with the pregnancy and not even think otherwise,  From the others that I disclosed this to I was getting mixed suggestions.  Appu was also surprisingly not receptive to the idea of having another sibling to hanker around. I was in a dilemma now.  I had to take a decision.  And that too the right one.  Age, health was not on my side.  Would my body be able to take another pregnancy and another c section?  What if something happens to me?  Should I put the kids and Biju through such a situation? What if there was something wrong with the baby? The pregnancy definitely wont be easy.  Should I let myself and my family get into a difficult situation.

But then there was this tiny life within me that had chosen me to be its mother.  Can I betray that tiny being's trust?  And it was Gods will, that cannot be wrong, can it?  Am I not a person who believes that everything happens for a reason.  No I should nurture that little life inside me and bring it out into the world.

The practical side of me suppressed the maternal feelings within me at that point of time and we decided it was in the interest of all that i terminate the pregnancy,  Accordingly a four day trip to India was made.  At the airport I signed a pregnancy declaration..I was 8 weeks pregnant.  Yes it did break my heart to think that when I return after four days I would not be having the tiny spark of life within me.  I had already bonded with the little one and had started having silent conversations with it. But I tried to push away such thoughts, It was decided that I would have the D&C done the morning I reached India so that I would have some rest too.  As planned made a visit to Bharat Hospital after having a small nap.  I still remember that day so vividly,  Around me were a lot of expectant jubilant mothers proudly walking around with their huge bellies and here I was waiting to snuff out the tiny light inside.  The meet with the doctor was very matter of fact.  She asked me to make the payment and go to the labour room after 10 minutes,  Payment for MTP was done.  Before going to the labour room as adviced, mommy asked if I could talk to the doctor as I seemed to be in two minds.  I put forward my fears about but surprisingly the doc tor was very positive and said I could go ahead with the pregnancy if I wanted to.  She definitely would not be able to assure smooth sail.  She asked me to go for a USG.  Here I saw the tiny heart beat for the first time.  The tiny life within me was flourishing confident that I would not let it down.  

The doctor must have sensed my relief and threw away the papers she had made for me asking me to go home and think about it and that she was not going to do the MTP that day.  If I chose to go ahead with the MTP I had to go the next morning.  My mind was in a turmoil.  Choose the easy wrong or the extremely hard right?  I knew whatever decision I made would be mine and mine only and I would have to take up the entire responsibility.  I spoke to Bijus Ammayi who had faced a similar situation in life and it felt so nice talking to someone who would understand.  I was bombarded with suggestions from all sides.  It was a very very long night for me.  I wonder if that tiny life too stayed awake waiting anxiously for me to decide. Or was it sleeping away peacefully completely trusting me.    No...I needed the tiny being more than it needed me.  I could not let it perish.  It would all be over in five minutes and then it would be a lifetime of longing for me if I let it go.  It was mine to be loved and nurtured.  It had chosen me as its mother and isnt a mother one who loves and nurtures.  Definitely not one who destroys.  I had made up my mind.  Come what may, I decided to protect that little life growing in me.  I firmly believed that little being had a purpose to complete.  That morning I woke up with a clear conscience and a happiness that I had not felt in a long time!!!  Cos I knew I had chosen right over wrong.......

Trying to bridge the gap

Its been too long a gap that it really does not make sense trying to fill up! But the memories saved in here are so precious that it is absolutely not fair to let this blog die I have no clue where to start from. So much has happened, so many changes, so many events.

Ours is now a five member family.  The latest addition being a handsome little 12 month old.  He entered our life on May 12th 2015.  Thats our darling little Aaryav.

His entry into our life was a huge surprise.  Totally unplanned and yes totally unprepared too.  But, surprisingly, he was the missing link,  He completes our family.  He has brought all of us so much joy!  He has made us so much more happier...he has made us so much more complete!! 

This may not be the best of posts.  But I have got to begin somewhere.  

Gifted

The little boy at home is besotted with Chotta Bheem on Pogo.  Inspite of my efforts, he still spends almost all his waking hours in front of the Tv watching this cartoon.  And at Pogo too, They happily oblige such kids by repeated re runs.  Today after seeing the bow and arrow of Raju, he set his heart on one and set out with his dad to get one.  Hubby says that at the shop, the little darling insisted on getting a flower for his mom! And since he could not get one there, he settled for this lovely hot pink purse that I instantly fell in love with! Thank you my sweetheart!

Time travel - A peep into the gap

Wow....the last post was just 6 days after the new year that was 2011. And now here we are in mid June 2013.


I have been putting off restarting the blog as I did not know where to begin, what to update, what to omit, the sequence to follow etc. Finally I have decide to just do it...no updates, no formats nothing..I start from today, now!!!

But just a brief outline of what happend in the past 30 months or so.  Mid Jan 2011, I called it quits at my work... the same place I have been working for 13 years. Of course....I was very sentimental about bidding adieu to the place that I really grew up in, that saw my transition from a mere school girl to a crazy, rebellious teenager to grown up woman with her head well set on her shoulders. Career wise there was a growth from Insurance Assistant to Operations Manager. In personal life, I became a wife, mother of 2 kids and 25 kgs heavier!! But not surprsingly, once I set my foot outside the office as an employee for the last time, I was feeling much lighter and have not missed the workplace a single day..why not even a minute after that. I have settled into the role of a SAHM and am very comfortable with it now.  My life now revloves around my favorite place, my home, and my favourite people, my kids!!!  Life is happy, peaceful and very rewarding.  I am truly happy!!  Appu has grown a lot...and at 9.5 yrs is very close to puberty.  She is in grade V at DPS Shj.  A very good student and is one of the Prefects of Nile House this year.   Aarush baby is now almost 4.  He too started school this April and is in KG1 at DPS Shj.  He is an absolute charmer and has wrapped me around his little fingers!  He is my little pet monkey!!

Im seriously into wt loss now and have been successful at putting off a few kilos. The endeavour continues and I am confident that I will see success this time!! 

I am still not a great cook.....but I have improved leaps and bounds.  From a person who could not make a decent omelette, I can now confidently manage the kitchen and can cook up a lot of tasty dishes in no time.  I can proudly call myself a good housewife now!! I love making typical kerala vegetarian dishes for lunch. 

Thats just a brief outine.  Now back to NOW!! :)

2011 - My Year!

We were among the thousands thronging the Downtown Dubai to witness the ringing in of the New Year by the much hyped world’s highest fireworks at Burj Khalifa. It lasted only for a few minutes and as we were totally awestruck at the unabashed display! Appu and her friend had their mouth wide open and eyes popping out. Later, in the car, they were very vocal about their disappointment that it did not last longer and were fuming and cribbing about the unfairness of it all – we were in the car for almost 6 hours to witness the 3 minutes show! But the young lasses did not waste a minute of these 6 hours and were chatting away and enjoying all the while. And eh… I could not help but eavesdrop on their conversation. Its fun to hear these little girls talk, uff, they left me feeling ashamed of my skills at gossip and b****ing!

A week has almost passed and I am busy trying up a lot of loose strings. “ My New Year” has not commenced yet! I am excited and jittery about this year as it is going to a very different one for me and a major turning point! Resolutions have been conciously avoided this year. But yes, a few goals are lined up at the starting point and waiting for the gunshot. Steps have been taken to chuck out and keep away all the negativities of year 2010. Positive outook and approach is on the cards for this year!

2011 – The year of Books, books and books and lots of books!
I was quite concerned about my reading being on the back burner for a while. Last year I got it rolling again, only about 12 books read but its an improvement and I am glad about it. I have signed up for the South Asian Challenge to read more of my current favourites - Asian authors, infact more of Indian authors. I am impatient to relish the fares dished out by the young crop of Indian authors. Its so much more easier to relate to them and many a times the bond is formed with the authors even before you actually start with the books.  I have also joined the 50 book challenge at Shelfari and look forward to completing atleast 50 books this year!

2011 – The year of health and fitness!
I have given away a precious year of mine being obscenely fat and resembling an overstuffed potato sack! Apart from the weight and tyres (so many that my hubby is now quite relaxed about driving around without a spare trye in the car), I have managed to gain more than my share of self loathing, a creaking knee, a borderline thyroid disfunction and worst of all, disgusted looks from Appu many a times! Yes, I am going to make this the year for reversal of the sins of the year gone by!

2011 – The year of Culinary Delights!
Well, I admit to a little bit of exaggeration there. I will take my first tiny steps into the world of gravies, stir frys, roasts, grills et al. And by the close of the year, I want to proudly proclaim “ Yeah..I can cook!”. I am not over ambitious here – as long as I can cook up a decent simple meal, and a healthy tasty snack fpr the kids, I will be happy! Ahem, ahem…..note the cookery blogs on my blogroll at the right!

So here’s 3 cheers to 2011 -
HIP HIP HOORAY!
HIP HIP HOORAY!!
HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

A healthy, peaceful, fun, contented, cheerful new year to all of you!!

Love In the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I have just finished reading Love in the Time of Cholera but I do not know how to rate it. I read umpteen reviews about it to see how others felt about it. Most of the people seem to have mixed feelings about the book too and do not seem to know whether to love it or hate it. I didn’t love it, definitely not, but I was struck by something within it.

The book was not an easy read for me and had me googling a lot to read about Caribbean culture, history and life, which I found particularly interesting. I liked the manner in which the story is woven and the way in which the plot unfolded, but did not find the style of narration much to my liking. The narration in third party did not help much at all and I did not find myself being able to connect with any of the characters in the book.

The book is about young Florentino Ariza and his passionate love for the beautiful Fermina Daza. However, Fermina’s father opposes the relation and takes her away for a year. When she returns, she is disillusioned at the sight of Florentino who was eagerly waiting for her and gets married to one of the most eligible bachelor, Dr.Juevnal Urbino. Florentino cannot get over his love for her and decides to wait patiently and optimistically for her. Opportunity comes his way after Fermina’s husband dies falling from a mango tree while trying to save his parrot. Florentino approaches her and tries to win her back after more than half a century.

None of the main characters, Florentino Ariza , Fermina Daza or Dr. Urbino,were likeable. Florentino comes across as a selfish and self destructive man at the same time. I found him very boring, with a shallow personality, totally wasting his life lost in love.  His sexual escapades were quite revolting, especially the affair with the young girl who he was guardian to and all those other hapless widows. I could not find any reason why Florentino found Fermina different or better than all the women he came across. I could not understand why, in the first place, he was not giving himself a chance to love any of the others. Also I did not understand why the author was depicting all the widowed women out there as desperate. The detailed explanation and narrative also was quite boring at times and had me sighing a lot! Any by the way, what was the relevance of the character of Jeremiah Saint-Amour. Probably to show that death is an inescapable finality of life!

My husband was left wondering why I was laboring over a book if I was not able to enjoy it. But I could not explain to him why I did not feel like leaving the book mid way through, and why on the contrary, I was immersed in it. Probably because I still have a thing for love stories! Probably, a re-read and a better analysis at a later stage will help me to understand and love the book better. Hmmmm.. deep down, I feel this is a book to be loved. I just have to learn to love it!  and yes, I will revisit this one once more!

And in the meantime, any of you who have read the book and loved it, please throw some light on this for me, will you?

Remebering 26/12/2004

I feel Indra’s smile is among the best I have come across. Its very genuine and lights up his dark, boyish face with total sincerity. I was introduced to this boy from Jaffna when I joined the branch office in 2003. He must have been in his early twenties and was employed by a cleaning company for a very low salary. He used to spend his lunch break cleaning our office and a few cars to supplement his income. He was the main bread winner of a large family and must have led a hand to mouth existence to ensure that he could send the monthly draft to his family back home to meet their expenses.

His sense of duty and punctuality was surprising. He did his humble job of vacuuming, mopping and dusting with total involvement. Even a tiny speck of dust would not miss his earnest duster. He would walk over the place and supervise his own work. On those rare days where he noticed something was not to his complete satisfaction, he would not think twice about getting the vacuum / duster out once again. Such was his commitment and his sense of responsibility. He never forgot to wish and exchange pleasantries with each and everyone in the office albeit shyly.

Towards the middle of 2004, he informed us that he is going back to his home country as he had got another job that would earn him a few more hundreds of dirhams. As per the laws of the country, he would have to exit and would have a ban of 6 months imposed. He intended to return after the ban period. He introduced us to a friend of his and requested us to let him take over his job at our office. We agreed though we missed Indra’s smile and his dedication. Eventually, he was pushed to the depths of our memory.

Until one day after Dec 26th, we were informed by his friend that Indra’s home which was along the coast was dragged away and swallowed by the tsunami. He had no further information about Indra or his family. We do not know whether he was in Jaffna then or whether he had returned to UAE after the ban. We do not know whether he still has the large family for whom he had to work tirelessly. We do not know if he has gone on with life and is still able to flash that innocent, bright smile of his!

On this day, let’s take a moment out of our busy life to remember and pray for the thousands of innocent people who were victimized by the furious giant waves of the Indian Ocean in 2004!

Taking Stock of 2010!

Here we are at the fag end of 2010 and this is the best time to take stock of the year that is whistling by.


On a personal level 2010 for me was a grey year. Though we were blessed with abundance of comforts (thank God for that!!) and things were generally smooth without any mishaps (touch wood!), I am currently immersed in a sea of negative energy and have been worrying and stressing myself out as never before. Where does all this negative energy come from?? Well, to begin with, I have identified a few people who have been gloriously passing it on to me and sucking out all my energy endlessly. No hard feelings towards them and thanks to them, I have thought about and learnt of new ways to interact with such kind. The sad part is that I have not yet been able to successfully implement these methods yet!! I have also identified the negative energy in my thinking and now this is definitely easier to deal with. But since I am straying away from my stock taking here, I leave that aside for the time being!

Since I like to view the negative aspects in the shadow of the positivity only, I begin with the plusses:

• I will start with nothing less than the crowing glory of this year. As with any one else, a place I can call my own has been a major item on my long term goals and this year I was successfully able to accomplish that. A small apartment, in a small town is all that it is but for me it is a dream fulfilled. The installments are paid up and if everything goes well, the apartment will be all ours in March 2011!!

• Completion of the Associateship was the checking off of a goal for the year! This is something I should have done last year but allowed myself a leniency since I was occupied with more demanding things such as hmmm… pregnancy and childbirth!!

• Motherhood has taken over me totally and I am enjoying the role of being a mom of two thoroughly! Sometime back I came across this post on identity by COS. At this stage of my life, I love being identified as a mother and that is how I want to be identified! Each milestone of Aarush and each development of Appu has given me immense joy and pride! This year has witnessed Appu’s evolvement into a confident young girl with a strong personality of her own and look forward to the continuous development on this front!

And now on to the minuses.....

• Career – Sadly, there were not many days I woke up this year looking forward to work and its related challenges neither were there many days I went to bed satisfied at having had a fulfilling day! For the first time in 13 years I can say that this is the year I have not truly loved what I have been doing. Neither a glorious promotion nor ample authority helped! Having to say good bye to some very close and supportive colleagues was not very helpful either! I have considered various options, change of role, change of place, change of field etc! All I can say now is that the coming year will definitely see a major change as far as career is concerned, for better or worse only time will tell.

• Health and beauty –ALL TIME LOW!! 20 kgs overweight, creaking knees, immeasurable waistline, grey blotchy skin, dry flyaway hair! Add to this an irrepressible craving for crunches and munches, religious mid night snacking, regular bingeing, an aversion towards physical activity of any sort - need I say more. All the alarms are ringing wildly and its time I sit up and take note and do something effective and soon!!

• Social Life – A lot of scope for improvement on this one! I have not been able to give the due attention to some precious friends of mine. I have been avoiding a few of them intentionally as I did not want to burden them with the aforesaid negative energy though I do know that something as invaluable as their patient hearing would have eased out things for me! On a brighter note, I have been able to develop relations with relatives! I am quite reticent and mostly plain lazy to keep in touch with relatives!

Ahh…that feels good! After having taken a stock, I feel that things were not so bad after all! A lot of new things learnt and realized, and lot of changes and amends to me made, a lot more to look forward to …isn’t that just what keeps life going! Cheers!

Thank You, Mr. Falker

When I picked up this book from the highly discounted sale at “Borders”, little did I know that I was laying my hands on a true treasure!  This is an autobiographical story written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco and tells and inspiring story based on the author’s learning disability.

Little Trisha loves the world of books and enjoys being read to. But she struggles to read on her own and finds that all the letters and numbers get jumbled up. To make matters worse she also has to hide from her classmates who bully her and call her dumb and finds solace in drawing. Help comes to her in the form of Mr. Falker, her fifth grade teacher who understands her misery and discovers her incredible artistic ability. With his efforts, she learns to successfully tackle her disability. Appu found the story very moving and was touched to the core by Trisha’s plight!

This book will be a definite source of support and reassurance for all those young ones struggling with learning disability.

Johnny Johnny..

Bappappa!
Eating Sugar?
Bappappa!
Telling lies?
Bappappa!
Open your mouth!
Bappappa!

2011 South Asian Challenge

Just happened to read about the 2011 South Aisan Challenge from Monika and Swaram and I am so excited about it!

I have been a book lover for as long as I can remember.  Books are a big part of my life and I love surrouding myself with books though of late this is the only thing that I seem to be doing, surrounding myself with more and more books and not actually reading them. Still I can proudly say that at any point of time, I would be having at least a book in my current reading list.  Allz not lost yet!

So when I came across this Challenge, I thought of grabbing up the opportunity.  I have been reading more books by Indian Authors lately and this seems to gel in so well with my current interest.  (Out of the measly 12 books that I read in 2010, 7 are by Indian Authors!!) Its also such a great opportunity to come across new authors.  This is also the first time that I am taking up any kind of challenge here and really have no clue as to how well I will be able to progress with the time constraints.  But why to put limits ….. I am ambitious and planning to read at least 10 South Asian books in 2011!  Here’s a list I have drawn up immediately upon hearing of the challenge.  Longing to start working on this and to add more!

1)      The Mistress of Spices – Chitra Banerjee

2)      The House of Blue Mangoes – David Davidar

3)      Shalimar The Clown – Salman Rushdie

4)      Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

5)      Saraswati Park – Anjali Jospeh

6)      Six Suspects – Vikas Swarup

7)      The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai (This is a re-read partly.  I am not sure if it counts)

8)     Mahashwetha - Sudha Murthy

So while you read up more about the challenge, I will go ahead and sign up here.  Happy reading to you all!

Whats the issue?

This one from Appu had me rolling with laughter.

We were travelling from Oman border with cousins and we had to present our passports to the officials at the border. Appu took back the passport from my cousin and while flipping through it asks:

Appu – “A, did you have any problem in 2005?”
My cousin starts thinking deeply and replies: “No, why did you ask?”
Appu – “Then why is it written here date of issue 2005?”

A dangerous animal

Conversation yesterday between Appu and me while deciding on which animal to speak about at her show and tell on “Endangered Animals”. Appu’s choice was the Komodo Dragon whereas I suggested the more closer to heart White Tigers.

Appu – Hmmm… I think I could talk about you also!
Me – Wha!! I am not endangered!
Appu – Ya, but you are dangerous!
Me – Huh…so u are calling me an animal?
Appu – Know why, b’cos animals can harm me and you can also harm me!

My daughter sure has a high opinion about me!