Ad...Bad...Sad...

Son comes home happily in the evening. Mom tells him that his supposed-to-be dad is not his true father. Son is shocked, ponders for a moment, and asks his mom why she hadn't told him earlier. Reason being he could have used his true dads' formals as well in an exchange offer of a leading shirting and suiting. Head-Bang! Bang! Bang! It was all I could do to not hit my head in the steering wheel, before changing the radio channel. How much more crappier can these ads get? Don't the ad agencies ever replay their ads once before formally releasing them? I mean, they can't just say whatever comes to their minds and release them with the product name just tagging along in the end, right? These products would seriously sell better if they don't have these ads to 'promote' them, would be my not-so-humble opinion.

Some ads are supposed to be so creative, that it takes a super-imaginative person to grasp the idea behind them. To me, they just remind me of a childhood joke, where the kid goes to an essay-writing competition having prepared to write about a cow, but he is asked to write about a tree instead. Being the creative kid that he is, he still continues to write about the cow and adds a final line to the essay stating that such and such a cow can be tied to the tree. This is the feeling I get on watching some of the ads these days. Either the ad agencies and the brand marketers don't review these ads AT ALL or my iq is so pathetic to understand them.

And I don't even want to get near the deodarant ads, where all it takes for a woman to follow a man is his deodarant, which is apparently strong enough to even attract the ladies from deep inside the amazons. God! No wonder, people start channel-hopping as soon as the commercials begin.

There used to be a time when I waited for the commercials, just to see the infectious happiness in this dairy milk girlfriend and the complan mother. I seriously miss them, not to forget the washing powder nirma and the 'kudikka venam....appdiye saapduven' horlicks kid. If I can attribute one good thing to these ads, its just that they are so completely irritating to get me started to write again. Who would have thought, these ads could be so damn powerful to revive my blog from hibernation!

Its ma b’day!!!

Yeah! Its me Swathi and I’m celebrating my b’day today! My fifth one at that! Because my mom has grown too lazy these days to write a blog post even for my b’day, I’ve decided to spare her the guilt of not giving me a b’day letter, by writing it myself! (She has the nerve not to sit and post a blog even after me reminding her to do so.)

In this last one year, I’ve played much, irritated (and have been irritated) much, fought much, and have also studied much. Unless you count the fights over the pencils, eraser, labels, water bottle, hair clips, bands, shoes, socks, window-seat, mommy, daddy, racket, mobile, chocolates and everything else under the sky, this year, I’ve been a very lovely and lovable sister, sharing almost everything else not listed above, with my sister. My mom, would say that I need to be more caring and share everything with my sister. I agree, but I can’t just give away these things, so what if they are hers, in the first place? She should learn to earn these things from me. Nothing comes free in this world, what say you?

I like to dress up, and carry myself very well, in almost all the costumes – with matching accessories, footwear, glasses, et all. And coming to costumes, I prefer wearing my sisters’ dresses more. So, what if they are second-hand, they are still new, and most importantly, they are still my sisters’ favorite. That single point is enough to make me wear them. Not because, it irritates her, but, because I love everything my sister loves. I don’t find anything wrong with this, but somehow, others don’t agree. Anyways, who cares! I get to do, what I want to do – most of the times. (read as ‘always’)

I’ve become more technology-driven this year, and have taught my dad to use his mobile, and my mom to play subway surfers and temple run. Not that she has become an expert yet. Forget about collecting the coins, she still can’t manage to run even a simple 100m without getting caught. Ask her to read a book, she can go on for ages and ages, without food and water, but can’t manage to play such simple games, I tell you. And the same goes for the physical games as well. While she has been a book-worm all through her education years, I’m more hooked to games – my favorites being badminton and basket ball. Just because I call her to play with me, she thinks she can teach me all about the game. Ha! As if already don’t know the game, all credits to my dad. None like my dad to teach me sports. My daddy always the best :)

I’m being labeled as not-so-sentimental by my mom, and I agree with her, and I don’t regret it. I love her, and she knows that. Then, what’s the point in saying the same thing again and again, and this means ‘practical’ and ‘not-so-sentimental’ in her terms. Its ok. Let me be me! Not only me, but my poor dad is also suffering from her not-so-practical behaviour.

You see, unlike my sister, I’m not much into this reading and writing stuff, so, having written this much of a post is really a huge accomplishment. And moreover, I believe in being humble. So, signing off for now, yours favorite, Swathi. Wish me happy b’day folks! Oh, I forgot to mention, mom, its not only dad, but I love you too :)

Yeah, that's me!

PS: Dear Swathi, my lovely and best birthday wishes to you! As always, you fill our life with so much energy and fun, that there’s never a single dull moment in life with you around. Thanks for coming into our lives, and may you get the best of all that life has to offer. Once again, wishing you the happiest birthday darling!

27:02:2014

My dear Smruthi,

Its your birthday again, and you are turning seven today! I’m not sure, for how many more years I would get the liberty to declare your age, but as long as I have that, (and even after that…) I would continue to be in awe at the amazing speed with which you are growing.

I sometimes feel that the days are not very far, when you would come to us and say “Mom! I know what I’m doing”. (Yes, this has been your favorite dialog from ‘Abhiyum Naanum’). I’m dreading the day you would actually mean it, not because my little butterfly is learning to fly, but in its new-found curiosity, the butterfly may actually want to fly far in its independence, and I may have to ‘let go’ as a parent. Believe me dear, as a mom, letting go is very difficult – be it when you ride your new bicycle all by yourself, (and remind me not to be like Abhi’s father, who followed her when she rode her cycle to school) be it when you go to the music class in the next street, all by yourself, or when you leave with your friends for a day’s outing, WITHOUT us, and took care of yourself for an entire day. But, all these you did do, and here I was watching you grow, wondering how fast the days are flying by!

Do you know, just a couple of days back, as I was having my dinner, you came to me and narrated an incident from school (a quite mischievous one, at that!) You didn’t necessarily say it was a secret, but the fact that you hadn’t shared it with anybody else – not your best friend, not your sister, father, grandparents – no one, but only me, made me feel honored. When asked what made you reveal this to me, and not to anyone else, imagine the answer you gave? “’Coz you are the one I love the most in this world!” You will never know, how much this means to me. It gave me a deep sense of satisfaction, that I was indeed doing something right as a mother, for you to be sharing such deep feelings with me. Trust me, I will not reveal ‘our little secret’ to anyone else. Promise J Expecting more of these little secrets in the future years to come.

Like your previous year, this year also, you have been curious enough to know and learn things, greatly, to the point of annoying me. I mean, who doesn’t get annoyed when being continuously questioned about the facts they pathetically don’t have answers to? On that note, you are most fascinated by solar system, (How do the planets stay in orbit all the time? How is it that they don’t fall down? Because they don’t have anywhere to fall down to) love, (Whom should I love when I grow up? Yeah, right! A perfect question to your mother!), child birth, (Why doesn’t the male breed of dogs give birth to puppies?). Oh God, please help me!

You are becoming more and more glued to me every day, and you proudly declare that you are a ‘Amma Gondhu!’ (Mommy’s girl) You can read my emotions and know when I’m upset, happy, angry, whatever! And you also know pretty well, how to lift my moods when I’m angry or upset with you girls. You never miss a chance to give me your teddy bear hug or that charming kiss, and tell me that I’m the best. I can never have enough of these, and I cherish each and every one of them.

The best part this year has been that you have started reading books, and just out of curiosity, I opened you up to my blogs. You did read your previous birthday letters, and head-banged on some of them, but still, you love the fact that I write a letter to you every year. Yay! Makes me the best mom again, according to you. Thanks (blushing).

Wishing you the happiest b’day dear, and may each year be better than your previous ones!

Love you dear. Now and ever!

Your mom!

Abhiyum Naanum!

I watched this movie twice in a span of three days last week, the first time, enjoying all by myself, with no kids or hubby to fight for the remote (long live schools and office) and the second time as a family. Wow! What a movie! Very few movies – very few – give you this feel-good feeling when they end. No heavy sentiments, no tragedy, no fight, just love and laughter. The bonding portrayed between the dad and his girl is simply contagious. You yearn to be that dad/daughter and start expecting the same from the counterpart as in the movie :)

When the same movie was telecast just the day after, the mom, dad and the two girls sat glued in front of the TV right from the start. And Smruthi was glued to each and every scene in the movie. When the little one was feeling bored, and irritated due to sleep, Smruthi refused to move without seeing Abhi getting married. And worse, her interrogatory skills came back in full form as she watched the movie.

- Why did she bring the beggar home? (This for the Ravi Shastri scene)

- Why has she not invited anybody else for the cake-cutting of her dad? (The lake scene)

- Why did he collapse when he heard Abhi say ‘Love you Jogi’ on the phone?

- Is loving bad?

By now, I start feeling like switching off the TV and hitting the bed, just for her sake, when she suddenly asks: ‘Maa, he said that Jogi has no parents, and only a paati, now how come there are so many relatives ma?’

Apart from being interrupted on watching a nice movie, such questions at 9:30 in the night, was starting to get on my nerves. Before being questioned further, I leave the TV and the question-bank to the dad, and retire to bed with my little one. After 10 minutes or so, I hear a loud screaming, only to see Smruthi crying, because her dad had switched off the TV just before Abhi’s marriage, So, I compel to the poor guy to let her watch the movie, just this one time, and to give her company like the nice dad in the movie. So, that was that! Smruthi slept peacefully that night after watching her first ever night-show, fully understanding a story, and loving it too :) A story like this, and who cannot?

Universal Conspiracy!

Here I was, voluntarily entering into the blogathon, resolving not to give up, till the end of the month, and what more, I actually started writing a post a day for every day of the month – for 9 days, that is! That is when it happened. My consistent writing and my exceptional writing skills (ahem! Ahem!) urged murphy to stop me from reaching the finish line of the blogathon. So, the entire universe conspired, first it was my flu, and then, consecutive hospitalization and surgeries in the family, not to forget pongal and guests in home, making me toggle between hospital, home and guests – gave me no time to breathe, let alone blog. So, ultimately fate won, and the blogathon - my very first one, lay totally forgotten somewhere in the back of my mind. Now, that things are settled and quite back to normal, I bounce back with some fresh ideas for the blogathon, and it is already end of the month! Sigh! Why is Murphy always behind me?

Me & Myself!

Giving a break to kids and romances, here, I decide to write blog solely for me and about me. So, this post is about me, me and me!!

I love reading.....anything which interests me, ranging from puzzles in 'siruvar malar', to novels, blogs, home-making. I am still crazy about Harry potter and Lord of the Rings. When nothing else is available, I pick a copy of HP and start reading randomly.

I like to do expensive shopping for self, but look at the price tag, and come back without buying it. I don't own any dresses, for which rates have been a four-digit number. Except my marriage sarees.

I don't mind buying dresses for my daughters, which easily touch the range of 2k - 3k. I don't mind spending for my kids, and most often, I end up buying more than I should have actually done. (Oops, kids agan!)

My imagination wanders to the negative extremes, when a loved one is late by more than an hour, without information.

I think I have been a good girl, good daughter, a best friend, an awesome wife, and an above-average mother.

I always feel guilty after shouting at my kids, but that has not stopped me from shouting at them again and again.

I like to cry on seeing emotional scenes in movies.

I hate back-biting.

I don't like calling up help-desks and enquire for something. I always want to leave such tasks to hubby.

I like to be a home-maker some day, and maintain my home the way I want it to be.

I am very poor in maintaining contacts, with people, whom I don't meet on a day-to-day basis.

I am very good at finding excuses.

I like to give away free-advises, but only when I am asked for!

I can be easily irritated.

Most of the times, I tend to have a guilty feeling about something or the other.

I am conscious of God, and tend to think twice, before doing something wrong, (like lying, shouting at some idiot, who tries to bang on my car, coming in the wrong route, missing rituals and customs) Not that I’m saint-incarnated, but same case as point 6 above.

I love to follow traditions and customs. I ‘love' to follow....and not that I am following all of them...

I love to put kolams, rangoli and mehendi.

I always have starting problem, be it getting up in the morning, cleaning the house, conversing with a stranger, posting a blog, whatever!

I am giving freedom to this post today, after almost two years of confinement in the drafts section.

If you know what I mean…

• When the kids sleep like logs on weekdays, and it takes you more than 10 minutes to move them out of the bed, to get them ready for school!
• When you want to sleep long on weekends, the same kids are up and awake at 6, and as if that’s not enough, demand you to give them milk. NOW!
• When you try cooking a new dish, surprisingly, it comes out tasty, and no one in the house even notices it. Let alone, compliment it!
• Having to go to office, when all the schools are declared ‘holiday due to rains’, and your kids are tempting you to bunk office for the day!
• When you rush to catch the office lift in the evening, and the lift leaves, just when you are about to catch it!
• When you desperately expect a surprise gift for your b’day/anniversary, hubby (surprisingly) gets you a new dress, and the size is XXL (for a medium person L)
• Assuming your writing to be in the likes of all the well-known authors and wondering why your blog is not a hit yet!
• Posting, what you think is a wonderful blog, and getting no comments J

Foolproof ways to overcome writer's block

Well, all bloggers at some point or the other face this! You haven’t faced this yet? Wow, you can skip this post, continue to read my other blog posts and come back when you face this. You are suffering from this currently? Join the club and read on! In a social cause to help all those affected by this block-o-mania, here are some ideas derived from a deep research and analysis from me. Some foolproof ways to overcome your writer’s block and start writing again.

• Start nagging your friends to suggest you an idea for a blogging topic, consolidate them and post a blog on the list of topics you intend to write soon, prompting your readers to come back for more!
• Call a friend who does not have a blog, brag to them on how blogging is the easiest thing to do in the world, urge them to create a blog of their own, and once they suffer from writer’s block – come and post about it in your blog. (They don’t have writer’s block yet? Good, you can post about how you were the sole reason for this person’s blog creation, and how your advice to them was instrumental!)
• Dig deep into your system, collect all the old photos, anything would do…and post a collage on the photos, with a single caption. There, another picture post is ready! Too lazy to form a collage? Randomly pick a photo and post it with the caption ‘My best/worst/favorite/boring/whatever photo’. No photos in the system? No problem. Search for your favorite desktop background, and post a screenshot of the same.
• Write a post on how you are suffering from writer’s block, and if not for this, how you would have been posting about n blogs per day, regularly!
• Create your own list of (brilliant) ideas to overcome writer’s block and form a post – like I just did J

 (We cannot altogether blame this syndrome. It can be a boon sometimes, you know? What other reason can I give for my laziness of not actually posting a blog, even when its complete and almost ready in my Drafts.)

Books & Me

2013 saw me with very few books, even though I consider it as an achievement in itself, even to have read those few ones. And am happy to see the impact it has created on my girls (much to the annoyance of hubby). Some of these books, can always be seen lying around my bedside table, either because they are my favorites or I simply haven’t got the time to move them into the shelves yet. Every night these days during bed-time, Smruthi grabs a book, and tries to read the sentences or words, which she finds easy, and Swathi does the same, simply because her sister does it. The day they start reading full sentences, and understands them will be the day, (which I believe is not far behind) I would be forced to arrange the M&B and Sidney Sheldons in the shelves. So, until then, I can keep lazing around having the books within the reach of my hands. Some of the books which I read in 2013 are:

-          Digital Fortress – Dan Brown

-          The Oath of the Vayuputras – Amish Tripathi

-          The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

And revised all the parts of HP and Lord of the Rings for the nth time! Surprisingly, I loved ‘The White Tiger’ more than the much anticipated (and disappointed) Oath of the vayuputras.

A friend introduced me to Indireads (as a reader, of course) and I got to read as much novellas as I could, until hubby threatened to cease my credit card. So, some of the novellas which I enjoyed from Indireads are:

-          Full Circle

-          Love’s Labor

-          No Such Thing as Love (This being my favorite in the romance genre)

-          Love will find a way

-          Against all Odds

-          The Gandharva

Hopefully, I get to read even more books in 2014. Fingers crossed!

Kitchen Delights

Yesterday was another one of our experiment sessions in the kitchen. Its been quite some time since I've tried a new dish in the kitchen, but never with a paneer variety. The elder one is a born favorite of paneer, and we were happy with ordering paneer dishes on our every visit to the restaurant, until one day, our dear neighbor tried a paneer gravy and shared it with us, and my daughter not contented with tasting the yummy dish, started screaming 'I WANT PANEER, I WANT PANEER...." every time I made rotis! Finally, when I ran out of excuses and we could no longer postpone it, we decided to try the same yesterday, having taken expert advice from the neighbor.

The daughter was seated in the kitchen table, and the neighbor coming in to help us, we tried and did everything as per the recipe, and finally the dish was ready. The dish looked mouth-watering, (yes, indeed!) and my girl couldn't wait until I made the roti, so she went ahead and tried the dish without the roti. I definitely didn't want to use her as the guinea pig, but it so happened, because I couldn't deny her what she had waited for so long and once she tasted, her mouth was literally running in search of water, a bit too spicy for my girl, but ok for the rest of us.The taste would have been the same as the original source, except that the paneer tasted as though it had long since expired, even though the package claimed that it was good to be used until the next week.

So, all in all, Smruthi went back to her roti-jam combination for dinner, and the rest of us had the roti-paneer gravy, except that all the paneer pieces lay discarded! So much for trying a new dish. "Try to make it better the next time" - was Smruthi's comment during bed-time. Atleast, she hadn't given up on her mom's culinary skills. Yet!

Kolams - II

Some more of my margazhi kolams!!!

Why me?

When conversing in a group, just when you think of the best line or the funniest joke to say, just when you are about to utter it, someone else in the group utters it a fraction of second before you, and the entire group acknowledges it! You feebly mutter, ‘that’ was what I was about to say, and end up feeling silly or looking stupid. Has it ever happened to you? Well, it has happened to me many times, and my previous post is just another example.

I scan and surf and search the internet for hours to find the perfect image for my blog post, succeed and post it in my blog, publish it and login to fb, when the same picture, the very same one, is staring out at me from someone else’s timeline. Wonderful! By this time, there would have been so many shares for that pic, and now, whoever read my blog would think I copied it from FB. (Not that, it is my original creation, anyways, but still!) and I get that familiar ‘feeling stupid’ feeling. Sigh! Why is that Murphy always keeps coming behind me?

New Year Resolutions - To-do or not-to-do

New Year Resolutions? Me? No! Definitely not! I have never resolved to do anything for any year, and this year continues to be the same! As far as I’m concerned, if I have been lazy enough not to do something for the past 365 days, I’m probably going to be the same for the next 365 days as well. So, why add to the guilt factor, by taking some resolutions, which I anyway know that I am not going to follow?

For example, if I had wanted to clean that clutter in my PC desktop, I should have done that when I changed my desktop background to my kids’ photos, and not waited until the new year. Had I cleaned my desktop, everytime the desktop background was changed, it would have looked cleaner than my house. (Not that my house looks clean all the time, but still, I needed something for the comparison!)

Had I taken a resolution to reduce my addiction to Dragon Balm, I should have taken it every single day. Or at least minimized the usage, when there was no head-ache as such. But I was only doing a social service – yes, whenever I use it, no one in the vicinity would get head-ache for ages. Moreover, why bring the company to a loss, to which I have been a major contributor so far?

Oh, but yes, there was this one resolution where I had decided that I would stop screaming at my kids for no reason, whatsoever! And implementing this has been the easiest. I follow it atleast a dozen times every day. Obviously, I have to stop screaming at some point, when my throat becomes sore, right! How much ever we scream and fight, none of us can sleep without the end-of-day hugs in bed. They know that their mom loves them, come what may, and to them I’m always the best, and to me they are the best!

So, what is the point of trying to be better at something, when I am already the best? ;-) 

Image source: Internet

This is the second post written for the January Blogathon!

Welcome 2014!

Hello new year,

Most welcome. As always, we sincerely hope that you will bring us the best of the best in all areas, else, as always, we are ready to judge you being good, better, best or bad, worse and worst, when you leave. Yeah, that’s our birth right – always judging others, and you are no exception. So, if you really want to get into the good looks of our blogs, you don’t have any other option, do you?

As and when you come, it has become a ritual to keep some resolutions handy. So, here I have made them ready for you, and I hope that you would break the custom by fulfilling every one of those. Otherwise, you remember, that there will be an end-of-year blog from me, right? (That’s definitely not a threat, my dear new year! What power have I to threaten you, other than a blog with minimal readers?)

First things first – my health! I have been good enough not to mention in my previous blog, the ill-effects you brought on my health last year – keeping me in bed rest for more than 2 weeks. Well, no such tricks this time! I may not be so forgiving this time in my farewell blog to you. So, keep me in good health, as long as you are here to stay, and each time you come to visit me!

Wealth? Umm….you have been good enough to me all this time, and please continue to do so. But a little extra hike in the appraisal wouldn’t hurt much. Does it? So, there you are!

Patience! Well, why don’t you just leave all the cartloads of patience you have brought with me. I can never have enough of patience, how much ever you give me. What? Me? Impatient? How dare you accuse me of impatience? Try dealing with my daughters, no, just the younger one would do - Try dealing with her for one whole day, just 24 hours, without losing your patience, and I’m all ears to accept your accusations.

And I promise to give you all my anger in exchange for your patience!

I understand that there will be some shortfalls and not-so-happy moments, but all we ask for is that the happy moments far out-run the not-so-happy moments.

So, enjoy your stay, and make it positively memorable for each and every one of us!

Yours expectantly,

Kg3.

PS: Hope you like my welcome invitation!!!