These days in kg3 household....

In the current age, there lives a girl called Swathi. Fortunately or unfortunately, she is the youngest in the family. Her main mission in this life is to never let her elder sister be in peace. Smruthi constantly lives in the fear of what item of hers will Swathi attack next!

Every day morning, before she leaves to school, Smruthi cleans her study table, locks her crayons, pencils, boxes, sketches, story books, markers, dusters, eraser, sharpner, what more and what not. And she also does the thing, which she ought not do! She WARNS her sister NOT to touch anything of hers, after she leaves for school. Swathi nods her head, acts like a good girl in front of her sister. She literally waits for her sister to leave the house, wave tata, good-bye to her and comes upstairs to their room, and does exactly the thing which her sister told her not to do. She starts raiding the entire room, finds out all the hidden new pencils, markers and sketchpens. And to make matters worse, she also sharpens all her new pencils, till they are half-over. On seeing these, I panic, at the thought of what will happen when Smruthi sees these. So, I swap the half-sharpened pencils with new ones, clean the room of the sharpened bits and try to restore the same state of the pencils and boxes, (hoping that Smruthi doesn't find any difference) before I leave for office.

Come evening, both of them go into their room, and do something. They play, share their things, and continue with whatever they are doing. I relax thinking that all is well. Suddenly, I hear screams and shouts from their room. I panic, thinking that one of them is hurt and rush towards their room. And BOTH of them are crying. Upon investigation, seems like Swathi had received nice blastings from Smruthi, and so both were crying. Swathi - because, she was beat by her sister, and Smruthi - because her new pencils were gone.

"Ennoda pudhu pencils ellathayum iva sharp pannita"

(She has sharpened ALL my new pencils)

I try to pacify her saying that I had kept new pencils to swap her already sharpened pencils. She opens her boxes and shows me all the sharpened pencils. Seems like the little one has continued her raid and repeated the process, in the afternoon also, before Smruthi came back from school. (Swathi leaves for school after Smruthi and comes home before her!) And there goes another set of new pencils! Swathi becomes so happy, if she has succeeded in irritating her sister, and knows perfectly well, how to do this.

The other day, Smruthi comes home with a gift pack from her school , which had a full stationary set. It was a return gift given by a birthday baby in her class. Swathi tries to pacify her sister, to share them with her. But Smruthi would not budge. So, obviously, she started crying, and here goes the conversation between them:

Smruthi: No way! This was given by Ansh. I will not give you.
Swathi (crying): Wait, wait! I will tell appa, when he comes.
Smruthi (maintaing her cool): So? I will not give even then!
Swathi (still crying): Wait wait, I will tell amma not to get you lolly-pop
Smruthi : I don' t want ( in the same tone as "I-don't-care" in some old advt)
Me: (trying to intervene): Smruthi, why don't you be a good girl and give it to her just this one time?
Swathi (immdly): Amma, nee london-ke poidu ma! Akka solra pechaye ketka maatengara!!!
(Amma, you better go to London itself. Akka is not at all listening to anybody's words)
On hearing these, immediately Smruthi started crying and Swathi stopped hers.

I was totally shocked and looked dumb-founded on hearing these words.

This little git, knows perfectly well, as to what will make her sister cry and what will not!!!

7am Arivu - My view

Well, I can't stop from giving comments on this one. Never have I been so disappointed by a movie, which I wanted to watch very badly - not even the Harry Potter ones! The main reason being.....I'll come to that later. Good things first!

The movie starts with Bodhidharma leaving for China, and those were the only parts of the film which met the expectations. Even if the Bodhidharma history had been extended, the movie would have been worth watching, and Surya was as usual good - both as Aravind and Bodhidharma. And the next best thing about me watching this movie, was that both my daughters were well-behaved throughout the movie (except for frequent visits to the loo, bickering me for pop-corn and pestering me as to when the movie will end). Maybe, that is the reason why this time, the movie was not good. Murphy's law!

The script was good, and the story could have been directed even better. The second half of the movie looked as if the director didn't know what to do next, and asked the characters to go and just act on the screen. The main focus had been on projecting a powerful Dong-Lee, that all logic was forgotten to the core. The director has extended the dimensions of hypnotism, to the level of transferring the martial arts skills to the hypnotised person, within a second's look. Dialogues & dialogue deliveries too could have been better.

The main reason why I was so upset with the movie, (right from the beginning) was Shruthi Hassan. Average looks, average dance, poor dialogue delivery, and absolutely NO acting skills. And to think, she is Kamal's daughter!!! KAMAL's daughter. Forget acting, she couldn't even give a romantic expression. She was totally bland in the song - "Mun andhi saalai.." there was absolutely no expression at all!!! Looking at this song, I got the similar taste of disgust, when I saw SJ Suryah dance for "Mayilirage...'. I no more like that song after that. Shruthi Hassan could seriously do with some genetic transformation to inherit some of her father's acting skills.

Positives: Aravind, Bodhidharma & Dong-Lee
Negatives: Poor direction, loose story-line and SHRUTHI HASSAN

Overall, a nice story wasted!!!

Happiness...

Yesterday morning, when I was driving to office, there was this program in one of the radio stations, where the RJ was talking about how we measure happiness. He was saying that research has proved that, it is mostly the small small minute things, which bring great joy to our lives, like saying a small thank you, or a good morning wish and so on...(and I was wondering why a research was even required to prove this? Wasn't it obvious enough?) And then, there was the public calling and sharing their moments where a small event had made them so happy. So, here I was, wondering about the happiest moments in my life. Weirdly enough, I was able to recall only the not-so-happy moments instantly. Not that I don't have any happy memories, just that our mind resides mainly on the recent events, even when we have so many happy memories at the back of our mind...Ever since, I am recollecting all the happiest memories in my life so far (so that I don't have trouble the next time someone asks me about them)

So, down the memory lane, some of my happiest moments.....(as far as my memory can take me)

- when I got my first bi- cycle
- when I learnt to ride my father's TVS-50 without any guidance
- when my father was so proud of me pursuing an engineering career
- the all-girls talks we had in our gang during our college tour
- when I got back my supposed-to-be-lost friendship
- my engineering graduation
- when I got my first job, and I showed the offer letter to my father
- when I got my first account details and my first debit card (with zero balance)
- when Sri told me 'I love you' for the first time (and every time he tells me that, for that matter!)
- when me and sri held hands for the first time in the beach
-when i introduced sri to my friend and colleague, before our marriage, he told me that he was happy to see me happy and that we are a made-for-each-other couple
- when I realised that I was pregnant for the first time
- when Sri shouted "Smruthi di Smruthi"in the labor ward
- when I realised that even my second was a girl when Sri shouted "Its Swathi again" in my labor ward
- when Smruthi was jumping when she heard that she had a baby SISTER
- every time I fight with Sri and I WIN. :)
- every saturday morning, when smruthi confirms if I am on leave for the next two days
- the joy on my kids face last week when me and sri returned from diwali shopping, carrying bags full of crackers
- the hug which smruthi gave me for 5 whole minutes when I returned from UK
- when sri told me that I need not go for any more onsite trips when I returned (not that he does like that, but because, he missed me)
- when my best friend told me that he was so glad that he and sri have bonded so easily and we were still able to continue our friendship even after 10 odd years
-when the same friend complimented me saying that my blogs are good (I don't remember him appreciating me for anything else)
- the surprise b'day gift which sri gave me last year
- once, when I gave nice blastings to Smruthi, (for what, I don't remember now), she was crying and I felt so bad, that I went and told her as to how I am being a very bad mother, and that I should not have shouted at her, she instantly replied that, I am NOT a bad mother, even though she was still crying. That is one of the precious moments of my life.

...more to come as and when I remember....