Pea Pod - A taste of everyday life

Goa! There were more women there than men. Even as we made an entry into the airport. Saw a woman all ready to set sail in the sea with a pair of knee length bermuda shorts - printed with floral pattern. We reached the hotel and saw another woman with shorts that reached her thighs. And then another with shorts that reached above her thighs and then another with shorts covering only the bare essentials. Reminded me of the Cadbury 5Star advertisement that's running on television recently. Pitaji's shorts are becoming "ek bilaank" shorter and shorter and shorter...

It's been a week of stress and more stress. Actually it was building up for quite sometime. Finally it's all over. Thank God. When your child has to go under the knife, however minor the cut, your heart breaks into pieces. When they took him inside the operation theater, I wanted to run inside with him. And when they got him out, the first word he said was "Mummy" They called us immediately as he was uncontrollable. As soon as he saw me he just hugged me so tight. I had to cry. He went off to sleep soon...in my lap. His papa then told me one thing, "Don't shout at him for a few days. Just think of this moment when you feel like."

Vacation has begun. 2 more weeks. Hubby, baby and me. Out of the cement jungle :-) Yippee!

Funniest and Strangest. My good friend in college called me that. A few more at my workplace called me that. Lately I have lost the first title. I'm only Strange :-) The question is WHAT IS STRANGE??

I miss your loving hand on my head. Everytime I made a mistake, your hand on my head made me want to get up again, fearlessly, and face the world. I miss you, Papa. Come in my dreams.

I'm neither fat, nor I am thin But have a fat blob of a soul within With oodles of love, heavy in weight And 0 Kg of the wasteful hate I have gained something, after all A little tiny, a little small It's my son, my high calorie of joy A diet that I thoroughly enjoy!

R.I.P Saturday 17th September 2011.

Non Hindus often comment on how Hindu Gods are flirts and ladies men. They specially point a finger towards Lord Krishna. It's immature to think so low of Some power who is so Up there. Usually the talk is about how Krishna used to dance and sing and romance with Radha who was older than Him. Frankly, I too wondered, not about Lord Krishna's character, of course. But why He and Radha are a symbol of love and why He romanced a girl who was older than Him. And just two days back, my son was watching this beautiful animated episode of Little Krishna on TV. Seeing the images of Radha and Krishna together, I started singing the hymn that Paramhansa Yogananda often sang - "Spirit and Nature Dancing Together Radhe Radhe Radhe Govind Jaya" Suddenly a realisation dawned upon me. There are some things that we must understand from within. Krishna is the symbol of Nature - that is our body and whatever that is ephemeral. Radha is the Spirit - our soul, that which is eternal and u...

It was just one of those weekend trips. But a very memorable one it was. From Bangalore it's only 2 hours and the all new wide windowed Shataabdi Express is a beautiful train to travel in, not to forget, extremely punctual. We reached Mysore at lunch time and checked into The Royal Orchid Metropole. A beautiful hotel. It used to be a guest house of the Maharaja of Mysore. The entrance lobby was adorned with a silver sofa set and a silver swing (coated with real silver). A spiral wooden staircase which was a work of ingenious engineering, with no support whatsoever. All the ancient furniture still retained, this place was going to give us a charming experience. The rooms were nice and warm with some antique furniture. I personally love old furniture. For me, the new age things just don't matter. The balcony was overlooking an open air restaurant and two huge mango trees said to have been planted by the Maharaja himself. There is something about living in these places of r...

This wee little fellow resists sleep all day - and night. He just doesn't want to sleep in the afternoon and in the night we actually have to force him to go to bed. Tonight, he kept singing on the bed, in spite of the lights switched off. My husband had lost his patience and told him, "Go to sleep now! It's sleeping time." And to this he replied," No, it's singing time."!!

I take my son to the garden every evening. He really makes a mess of himself in the sand pit. After playtime, I take him home and clean him up in the bathroom. This is an everyday affair that we follow. One day, since the smoldering summer has begun, I let him be in the bathroom on his own for a while. He usually fills a small bucket with water and splashes it around. While he was kept busy, I went to the bedroom to put some clothes away in the cupboard. After about a five minutes, my little fellow comes running into the bedroom shouting, "I have finished all my work." Amused, I asked him what work he had finished. He answered with a lot of pride, "I put all the water from the potty in the bucket." Yuck! He got a terrible scolding together with a Dettol bath for 'finishing all his work'!! And I had to finish cleaning up all the buckets and tumblers in the bathroom!

My mother's come down to visit me. It's so nice to have her here and talk about so many things. And today we were talking about how we should always remember who stood by us in bad times. This brought back to me many memories. With the memories, came realizations. My father's passing away was very traumatic. But there are some people who's true nature was exposed to me during that time. Some people are selfish and have no emotions or empathy. At the same time some of them were so caring and kind that I can never forget them. But these were only a few. I'd like to put down their names in writing here and give them a BIG thank you for just being there - My uncles,Vipin kaka, Mahendra kaka and Suresh mama, my dear friend Wigbert Piedade, my ex-bosses and friends Rajesh Khanna and Krishna Unni, both my brother-in-laws Anandbhai and Shaileshbhai. Thank you all...for standing by me.

Of two little princes Riding on their horses Serpent studded with a jewel Of mermaids deep under water And magical lunch boxes That gave one what he tells Of a fat li'l fellow Spoilt by his mother His bag full of laddoos And a monkey for a brother Of two different boys One good and one bad One read the books Other tore ones he had Of moon chariots And parties on the clouds Of learning lessons And making your parents proud Of thumb sized husbands Who travelled in wive's wallets And thumb sized wives Who sat in shirt pockets . Who says you have gone My dear Father? You very much live on In stories that you told us Now I pass them to my son. For My DAD. On his 75th birthday.

Little children can be a handful. But they can also be real destressers! I too have my share of tiring spells with a toddler in his 'terrible twos'. I often tell him to listen to mummy as mummy gets very tired. Today, after I gave him a bath, he sat on the sofa and made a sad little face saying, "Babboo is tired!" A few days back, we both were busy doing a puzzle in the afternoon. Of animals and thier babies. He picked up a chick and showed it to me. "That's my little baby!", I said lovingly. Immediately he picked up the hen and said "This is my mummy!" I just couldn't help but laugh out loud! And the best part about being a mother is receiving so many wet kisses before going to bed and early in the mornings. I can tolerate any of the terrible twos, threes or fours for that.

I find it too funny. And it's such a hoax! Just heard some girls talking about their life and how they were in love with someone and how things never worked out. Interesting overhearing. One girl said a guy in her office wrote a song specially for her where he put forth his love; how she was the only girl that he'd love all his life and all that crap! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! The other girl said she wasn't sure of the guy who had proposed to her. He was willing to wait for her for eternity. He told her that she was the bird he loved and he loved her so much that if he'd set her free, she would come back to him if his love was true. I found this conversation hilarious. Could I laugh out loud?! These girls need time. To think in a mature way. The promises that are made to them will fly away with time. The boys will go their own way and the girls too will find their true calling. Though I really hope that their love blossoms with time and that I would be proved wrong.

Whoever said Bangalore was the IT capital of our country? Well, in a way it is. It's the 'Inept Town' of India. I've just moved here a week back and everything seems so different when compared to Bombay. Power cuts, water cuts, rotten vegetables and fruits, snobbish locals, hardly any home delivery services, no hindi speaking help available, no sense of time in people...The list is endless. Bombay has really spoilt me. It doesn't give you the kind of space Bangalore offers, nor does it have a pleasant climate. Yet, the pace and the quality of everyday requirements is just too good to be true. My first week in Bangalore, I was down with a bad throat and a severe cough. And nowhere could I find the Ayurvedic medicine that I usually take during such times. None of the chemists had it. Back in Bombay, even the smallest of chemists would stock it! I was surprised when a the local chemist told me to go to another suburb to get it. Well, I just had to do some home remedies...

I've started toilet training for my little toddler who is still to turn two. After every meal, I put him on his baby potty and most of the time he does everything possible sitting on it except doing what he's supposed to. But one lucky day, he stood up from his potty and staring inside, he exclaimed, "BIG!" When i went close to see what he'd been refering to, I was surprised to see the 'small little BIG job!

When red and yellow is not orange When blue and yellow is not green When white is all you can see Somewhere in the world There's no harmony When the sun does not rise When the moon does not set When rivers don't flow to the sea Somewhere in the world There's no harmony When a flower does not bear fruit When a fruit does not have seed When a seed does not grow a tree Somewhere in the world There's no harmony.

Sometimes, I feel so useless. I ask myself a question. Why am I doing things that I am doing, that which I've never done? Why do I feel like breaking out of this shell of mine? Why do I feel these worldly interactions is the shell? Why do I have to interact with these entities? What is the karmic connection here? Why am I going through a certain experience and what am I going to learn from it? Why can't I show some people their mirrors and tell them what a distorted reflection they make? Why do I control my feelings when a volcano is ready to erupt within me? It's because sometimes you have to give in to this unknown power that is operating from I don't know where. Up, is it? Or is it just within all of us? Or is it that someone called God wants you to think of Him sometimes? Sometimes...I just don't have any answers. And no end to questions.

He must have turned away from his 'black' self He must have turned away from his marriages He must have turned away from normal human behaviour He must have turned away from limelight But there is one thing he could never turn away from Music. We've been together for such a long time now Music, music and me Don't care whether all our songs rhyme Now music, music and me Only know wherever I go We're as close as two friends can be There have been others But never two lovers Like music, music and me Grab a song and come along You can sing your melody In your mind you will find A world of sweet harmony Birds of a feather will fly together Now music, music and me Music and me