Mehek - the fragrance in our lives

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T07:57:00.000+05:30

Here's wishing everyone in Blogosphere a Very Happy New Year. May this year be extremely fulfilling and happy for each one of you. Wishing you all a grand 2011. Prayers for peace, happiness, progress, smiles, sunshine, good health all around.

The new year has started on a great note. We won the Prize at Shruti's Artsy Crftsy for December with our Edible Jewellery. Thanks a lot Shruti and the judge, Smita. Really made my day.

See you all soon with more posts.

Happy New Year from all at Momoland. :)

Books, Movies, Fun in 2010

2010-12-31T08:35:00.001+05:30

Just a last rounding up post before the new year sets in.

The books I read thanks to the reviews by various bloggers.

1) Maximum City - Suketu Mehta - good one

2) Dork - Sidin Vadukut - fun

3) May I Hebb ur attention pliss - Arnab Ray - fun

4) By The Water Cooler- Parul Sharma - fun

5) Stranger to History- Aatish Taseer -mixed feelings

6) The Immortals of Meluha- Amish - okie dokie

7) The White Tiger- Arvind Adiga- okie dokie

And some other fiction stuff, John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer,Frederick Forsyth and David Baldacci.

The Films we watched on DVD: from seventymm list.

No. Movie Name Comments

1. Knight and Day - okie dokie
2. The Invention of Lying - only J saw, bit too boring

3. The Book of Eli - only J saw, bit too boring

4. Leap Year - nice, rom com

5. The Spy Next Door - okie dokie, time pass

6. Edge of Darkness - nice thriller

7. Flicka 2 - nice , family

8. Udaan - nice

9. Date Night - super fun, nice

10. Baby Mama - okie dokie, time pass

11. Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang - nice, family

12. All About Steve - didn’t watch, dvd not working

13. Hotel For Dogs - nice, family

14. The Blind Side - very nice

15. Hot Tub Time Machine - only J saw, bit too boring

16. Tooth Fairy - nice, family

17. Meet Bill - okie dokie, time pass

18. Green Zone- good

19. Up in the Air -very nice

20. 27 Dresses - nice, family

21. Juno - good

22. Hancock - only J saw

23. The Bounty Hunter - okie dokie, time pass

24. Inglourious Basterds - good

25. Extra Ordinary Measure - good, family

26. Shutter Island - good

27. Leatherheads - didn’t watch, dvd not working

28. It's Complicated - good, family

29. Percy Jackson & the Olympians:.. okie dokie, time pass

30. Street Kings - okie dokie, time pass

31. Invictus - good

32. Valentine's Day - good, family, nice

33. Gran Torino - good

34. Sherlock Holmes - good

35. Public Enemies - okie dokie, time pass

36. Death At A Funeral -good, fun

37. Open Season 2 - nice, family

38. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - nice, family

39. Toy Story II - nice, family

We also saw a lot of other tamil/ hindi/ eng movies from another library before july.

==================================

Movies seen in Theatre in 2010

1. Endhiran - 2nd day 3rd show

2. Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

3. Dabangg

4. Shrek 3

5. Toy Story 3

6. Raajneeti

7. Badmaash Company - saw in theatre in coimbatore in May, only me n J went for nite show.

I had also blogged abt the movie going experience many many months ago.

Movies I missed watching in 2010 in theatres:

1. Harry Potter - deathly hallows 1

2. The Social Network

3.Inception

Am waiting for these to come on dvd.

And of cos, seen a lot of hindi/ eng/ Tam films on cd/dvd/ tv etc.

So thats a round up of the entertainment we had this year.

of cos, we also did the following :

1) Zoo Visit - April

2) Aquarium visit - Jan

3) Borivali National Park visit -Novmber

4) Summer Holiday Visit - Ooty, Coonoor ,Coimbatore, Chennai - May

5) Jaipur, Ajmer visit - J bde, anniv - July

6) Lonavla Visit- My bde -June

7) Anand , Gujarat Visit - March

8) Lavasa - Nov

9) Rambo Circus - Nov

There were no weddings this year in the family.

Trips we planned but didnt go: Hyderabad (cancelled due to Momo's Mouth ulcer episode)

Places I want to visit in 2011: Goa, Mahabaleshwar, Bangalore, some hill station in the summer, an international destination cos now Momo can understand and enjoy.

100 Not Out - Momoirs 13

2010-12-28T17:23:00.002+05:30

Yeah, Finally I have reached this landmark. My 100th Published post.(i have some 3-4 posts in drafts:) ) Been dithering over what to write, when to write, how to write before the year ends, who to write, (me, J or Momo's thatha paati guest post). Finally I decided, after all this is Momotales, so the best would be a Momoir. Other updates/ events can wait for the next post.So here goes. (Again Momoirs collected over a period of time and as memory brings it up).A big Kala Tikka before we begin.

1) After watching Cbeebies and Mister maker for so may months, couple of things momo has picked up which will be very useful are, as she says the minute she sees scissors/ pin/ needle/ knife : Scissors are the very very very sharp, be careful on the scissors... so on for pin , needle etc. (this has been on on since july/aug this year)

2) You repeat random song/words that we utter suddenly causing us to break into smiles. Suddenly I hear u singing, my name is Anthony gonsalves... im zapped and u tell me that dadda taught u this song. Or the rhyme thatha taught u, ghas khao,chana khao, paani pat pat pee jao...(said with doin tak bak action for horse)

3) Generally dadda makes a mish mash of lyrics, so when dadda tries to sing a song and he uses wrong words, u look at me and say, dadda don’t know, or thatha don’t know. ok ok I will sing and u sing the correct words. N u don’t allow us to sing a song/ rhyme. U have to sing it urself. Like we were going in the car and all izz well w as playing and thatha sang it. N u screamed and asked him to stop saying only u can sing.

4) This was a very funny incident that happened last Saturday. We were in Bata showroom trying some shoes for dadda. U went around the whole shop, arranging and re arranging the displayed shoes much to the amusement/ ire of the shop keepers. Then I picked up a flip flop of a brand called sunshine, and I happened to mention the name sunshine loudly. What next...u burst into a very loud rendition of "give me some sunshine; give me some rain” while all the other customers/ sales staff looked on with a smile and wonder. It was such a cute scene.

5) a couple of changes for the good have happened since u turned 2.5 yrs. It’s like a barrier has been broken. ur food habits have changed for the better and there is not so much a fuss or reluctance from ur side. Same with milk. The glass gets finished in a jiffy. of cos,fruits and nuts are still a nono,except for an occasional banana. kala tikka to this definitely. Keep it up sweetie.

6) The other big change is that we are officially out of diapers, except for the night. Potty had always been communicated and done in the potty seat for a very very long time. It was only susu that was the issue. U would not tell me abt it. U would do it in the bathroom whenever I took u and made u do it, but on ur own telling me never happened. So u can imagine how sweet the words sounded to me when u said, mamma susu coming and even held it till we went into the bathroom. u would sit down and do it, but then we bought a stool for u in the bathroom using which u can climb on ur own and sit on ur potty seat and finish the job urself. U can’t reach the flush still so I am needed to clean u up. So now when we go to malls/ outside I really need not worry, cos a loo is always nearby and we manage. Yes we have made u pee on the roadside or behind the car when it was an emergency and u couldn’t not have controlled. We did try being diaper free for a few nights but with severe winter coming in, we went back to diapers. Am not pushing it too far now. Am sure u will tell me in a few days/ months time so we can stay dry all night. u do drink a lot of water before going to bed and am unable to stop u. lets try again in some time. We even managed staying away from home without ur potty seat and u managed to do potty on a regular toilet without any fuss when once we had stayed over impromptu at my sis place. my girl is alll big now... am so proud of u... kala tika.

7) we use references of Sachin Tendulkar, Saina nehwal, Sania Mirza ever so often while making u eat food/ drink etc. we say, u will become big and strong like xyz if u finish ur milk etc. when u refuse to eat something or u see us eating vegetable u say, mamma u eating all the vegetable. U will become big and strong. big dadi amma only u r, advising us. and another fave line,if i drink milk , i will become bi and stronlike saina nehwal, then i can do badminton/ tennis/ skatin/swimming/ big cycle etc(other big activities)

8) thatha had gone to the bank once and when u asked us where he had gone, we told u that he had one to bank. I dunno what u heard, cos next instant u were repeating thataa has gone to Bangkok.

9) Momo knows the different routes we take to reach home from outside. and the minute we have to head back home after the outing she startes her song: i dont want to go home. n we distract her by saying, we are not going home, we are goin to (name of the area), or name of out buildin etc, thinkign that she will not realise. but this smart cookie knows and understands. so its almost a teary entrance everytime, or once wecome inside thecomplex, she wants to o tothe park, whatever time it be. the only time she voluntarily said,i want to go home is when we picked up thatha paati from the airport when they came to visit us in October.

So that’s all folks for now. Wishing everyone a grand New Year celebration. We have no plans yet. Lets c. prayers, best wishes, hugs, lots of love to all the blogworld.

Edible Jewellery

2010-12-21T19:11:00.000+05:30

Another entry for Shruti's Arsty Craftsy. This is infact inspired from one of the links she had shared. (the cucumber car one). Thanks Maám.

Edible Jewellery

Popcorn and Tomato Disc necklace and Earrrings set

Ingredients: Popcorn- Act 2 Microwave Popcorn, Peppy Tomato Discs, Needle,Thread, an enthusiastic model to pose with the jewellry without eating it. :)

The model posing with the props

Having the corn and eating it too...

Dont they look like Mogra Gajra /Mallipoo???

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.. ate the Yummy Smiley Sun

2010-12-17T18:29:00.000+05:30

... ok the title is inspired by Eric Carle's book- "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"- urf Bhukkad Jhinga (In Hindi). its a bilingual book. Momo likes this book so we decided to make an edible caterpillar.

Caterpillar

Ingredients: Mini idlis with food colour- green and haldi. pepper for eyes, nose.

n like the carepillar in the story, this mini idli one also got hungry and what did he find to eat???

Yummy Smiley Sun

Ingredients: Big Idli, Gems, Used Honey for Sun Rays.

BTW, originally the sun was meant to be a spider, but it looked better as sun. n we call honey as brown colour sauce .

N here they go, the caterpillar and Sun to Shruti's blog for this months Artsy Craftsy.

Zip...Zap...Zooooommm

2010-12-08T23:41:00.001+05:30

..... here we go .... on my new green colour cycle...

Thatha-Paati's Diwali gift for Momo. Momo had been using a hand me down from a friend n I felt she had outgrown it and it was time for a new one. so i talked momo into sweet talking her grandparents to buying a new one for her and they were more than willing . Luckily, we got a colour of her choice- green. (rem the green cycle in CBE. she sees that one on skype everytime she chats with TP.) we got a nice bright green. thank god there was no pink cycle,else I might have influenced Momo to buy it.

the small baby cycle

So now we have a very happy little gril zooming all around our tiny flat in Mumbai on her new cycle. of cos, we take it to the park too,so she can ride it better there. n did I say, she had outgrown the old one... naah, she still likes to ride that one too, and when she is on that one she says, "ï m a small baby" and when on the big one , its "I'm a big girl".

N she saw how the guy in the shop fixed all the parts. so she too makes the cycle lie flat on the ground and does some actions lik checking tyres, tightening screws etc announcing, im repairing cycle. This is one funny girl.

Here's to a long lasting relationship with her first set of wheels.

(some facts: bought it on 16/11/10 - BSA- Dew- yellow/ green colour, has lady bird shaped bell, price- Rs. 1900)

X-Mas Tree-eat

2010-12-07T17:51:00.002+05:30

A cute theme for Artsy Craftsy this time by Shruti- Edible craft. I dont really make food attractive(errr...am not too fond of cooking..) or anything. I just give Momo food as it is. Only sometimes I use the cookie cutter to cut some shapes if she is really not cooperating. So anyway, made this today after Momo came from school. Was fun. she was all excited and helped arrange it,cut with the cutter etc.

Presenting the Edible X- Mas Tree

"Merry Christmas"

Ingredients: Tree body- Palak Paratha, Trunk- Bourbon biscuit, Star on top- Idli cut with a cutter, Mini idlis with sauce as danglers, colourful jujubes, chocolates all around as gifts. and sprinkled some cheese to look like snowflakes.

A very excited kid who was itching to eat the bourbon biscuit and the chocolates. (the paratha got eaten too thanks to the cheese sprinkling :) )

Happy Feet

2010-12-06T16:20:00.002+05:30

Well, this is a long long pending post. Abt 3 mths old story. But nevertheless, a memorable one.

Momo had a Fancy Dress activity in her play school in September. I got to know abt it just 2 days before the event ,as Momo had been a bit irregular in school those days. It was too short a time to prepare anything. I did have a few ideas, but I knew executing them would not have been easy. So I turned to the very talented and immensely creative Shruti (of Artsy Craftsy fame) in the hope of finding something from her blog. N voila, there it was. the Penguin Costume she had done for Líl P. It was quite a simple thing to do. All the material was readily available. N Momo loves Pingu. Sees them on You tube/ CD often. N it didn’t look too elaborate or cumbersome that she would be uncomfortable in it.

I took one of J's black sweatshirt, stitched it up on the sides to make it smaller and more fitting. Stitched a patch of White towel in front, made some feet and beak from yellow paper, stuck in on her shoes and cap(made eyes also) and we had our little Pingu ready. N she had a soft toy penguin too, which she carried with her to school. (had made a yellow web shape for her feet too which she stuck in school as it was tearing while walking.)

Now, I thought it was just an activity and maybe not a competition really, so was quite surprised when I saw the Notice board they had put up in school last Friday when I had gone for a meeting that Momo had won the 1st Prize . Winning is a big boost always, especially if you have made the effort. N Momo really seems lucky in this Fancy dress thing. See here and here.

Thanks a million Shruti. You really helped a lot. I’m sorry I didn’t blog abt it earlier and give you the credit. But I did sms you and thank you. :)

A Momo-R-able Sunday

2010-11-30T11:31:00.004+05:30

Finally it happened. We met. Momo and R and her mom, who blogs here .N it was a great meeting. Though short, but sweet and fun. R was a really really sweet child n her mom, simple, straightforward, friendly, warm, just like her blog. R's mom has done a neat job of giving the complete details of the event, so I think I’ll skip it. I am really glad I fixed it up with R's mom on Friday itself and went thru it without canceling or postponing... (ok yes, we did change the meeting from aft to evening) Thank God. After all I am queen of postponement.

I wanted to be on time cos I didn’t want to make them wait . But we inevitably got late. N the day u wanna reach a place early, all things have to go wrong. First, we forgot something back at my sis place so had to go back to pick it up, then I missed going under the flyover so had to go ahead and take a U turn and then, we had already run 15 kms on reserve and would have been good to go another 5-6 more maybe. Luckily we didn’t run dry. And sudden , unexpected traffic. Nevertheless, R’s,mom was sweet enuff to forgive the delay . Had told Momo since afternoon that we would be going to meet R baby. Her new friend. So she was excited. R’s mom told me that She had also told R the same and R thought I would be carrying a baby in my arms. Kids and their imagination. Momo as usual was a little shy and did not open up immediately. Momo takes time to warm up to new people so I was not surprised. but after a while it was ok n both she n R were jumping, busy licking sauce and eating the fries , exchanging gifts, n Momo told R's mom abt her trip in the morning where she saw a lion(more abt it later). It was a chaotic place to meet, as Sunday evening the place was full. N there was so much to talk abt and so little time. The conversation was easy and we talked of this n that. It was amazing to hear R's mom's tales of how they have really early morning’s n abt her routine. (Of cos her blog has all the details too.this is one hardworking woman. hats off, lady. After a while, I think the kids were a little restless. The place was also infested with some special super size local mosquitoes, so we had to keep swatting so they wouldn’t bite the kiddos. Anyway, we decided to move and Momo had a last minute crying session. All cos I fed the last piece of bred to R baby. Momo had not been eating the burger at all, while R had been nibbling a bit now n then. So I didn’t think Momo would want it. Anyways, big mistake. J quickly took her out and well she was ok soon enuff. But well that hastened the end; else I think we might have spent some more time. Anyways, it was really fun. And R was such a sweetheart. I mean she was not the quiet types; she was in her own trip and chatting now n then, in a mix of gujarati/ hindi. . A smiling happy baby, with a look full of masti/ naughtiness. N for all that her mom says that she eats n eats; there really is nothing to show. And I loved her dimpled smile. God Bless. We did miss R's dad. Am sure J would have liked some company as he was totally outnumbered by the women. me and R's mom seemed to be doign High fives for a lot of common things, and it didnt seem like we were meeting for the first time. We do hope to meet soon again. Couldnt take any snaps. Next time.

Then we got into the car and Momo who was itching to open her gift had a got and she was mighty pleased. There was a really cute teddy, in all rainbow colours. N we named him Rainbow. n she has been eating with him, playing with him, doing ringa ringa, sleeping with him, He waking her up by giving her a kiss etc etc etc. n there were a couple of nice books too, colouring one etc, which Momo wanted to do immediately. I have put it away for now and will give them to her a little later cos right now all she does with colors is do it all across the page. (It is a coloring book with pictures of Gods and somehow I don’t want Momo doing a messy job of it.)

I missed the opportunity of meeting some other Blog pals who had come down previously, and im glad this meeting happened. Cos sometimes staying in the same city also it’s not always easy to meet up. Next time a more comfortable place where the kids can run around, play a bit etc, rather than be cramped up in a small table.

Momoirs 12

2010-11-26T02:28:00.002+05:30

After a looong break we are back.. ya, break ke baad, ..(which coincidentally releases today).

Momo, sorry darlin have not captured all ur sweet words and actions. Will try and write whatever I can. This is a random recollection of this and not in any order. I wish I had at least saved all this in drafts... anyways, lets go:

1) ur english is too cute... some typical words u use: get downing, get upping, offing the tv, onning the tv, opening the light, closing the fan, where is I going?, one more/ once more used not in the right context. u also say words ulta in a sentence,like instead of water in glass, u say, glass in water, bag in my hand, u say hand in my bag etc. its not deliberate, but quite spontaneous and has me in splits all the time.

2) Sadly,ur speaking too much English these days with a few words in Tamil/ Hindi. kya karein. I try to switch to hindi/ tam whenever I catch myself talking to u in eng, but I guess the damage has been done. I know u will pick up Hindi from friends once u start having more conversations with them etc. it’s the Tamil im worried about.

3)ur such a sweet and caring child.its amazing. if u see me sneezing, n I do that every morning, u ask me, what happened, acchoo ho gaya,wait I bring towel/ kerchief for you.if my sneeze doesn’t stop, u even say, dont worry,wll go to doctor and take dava. u regularly showed u concern for giving dava and taking the concerned patients to the doc when my mom had a stomach upset, thatha has cough, dadda has pain and so on and so forth.

4) I have to mention this. u came back from school today and told me the minute u got off form the bus that S(a kid in school) had a big fall and a big oooo( oo meaning hurt) . U said, he cried a lot and had a big bump on his head. I was so touched by ur concern. I called S mom immediately and asked if S was ok. She said yes he did have a fall and hurt himself badly. she as surprised how I knew abt it.i told her momo had told me giving vivid descriptions abt the teacher putting ice also.

5) Momo loves music and sways / shows recognition when she hears a familiar song. her version of the song munni badnaam hui, from Dabanngg: munni tu baam bui, darling de de liye... yes she has mixed up the 2 lines (the zandu baam line with the first) . I once hugged Momo and said, ur my darling baby and she breaks into the song,munni tu baam bui... she recognises some songs from theopening bars of music or even some in between music or just hearing a few words. While me and J are still straining our ears to hear the words. (the songs: zor ka jhatka, pee loon, mast mast do nain, zoobie doobie, and a few more)

6) U want learn new songs and after I sang doe- a deer a couple of times, u were humming it and now can sing it very well fully. Ur quite a bathroom singer, I mean it literally. on days of leisure when her highness is soaking in her bubble bath, u can hear her sing lakdi ki, doe a deer etc with full gusto. I have some videos of the same . It’s too cute.

7) Paati decided it was time to teach u some GK and so she asked: Q.1)who is the prime minister of India?. u learnt the answer from her and this is what u used to say initially: Doctor onemore singh, then it was doctor onemohan singh to now correctly saying"doctor manmohan singh". Q.2) who is the Father of nation: this was easy and u picked it up easily without messing up the name. except for saying mahanma instead of mahatma gandhi. Q.3) what is the capital of India: this too was simple. dadda goes to Delhi often so u knew Delhi. but patti taught u to say New Delhi. and Q4.) Thanks to Obamas visit and us wathcing him on the news often, u also learnt: who is the president of america: u pronounced obama as ubama/ upuma/opama etc before now saying obama. We even named a new doll that dadda bought for u for children's day as Michelle.anyways, the highlight of all this is, what happens if I change the order of the questions. I once asked, q 1,2 and 4 in that order.got the ans correct for 1 & 2, and the answer to q4 came as new delhi. It was so funny we were all ROFL.

8) dadda bought some animal flash cards from his trip to bangkok. u knew names of all of them so it as pretty easy. but u even leant some more attributes abt some animals and u add for the particular animal: giraffe has a long neck, while touching ur neck, elephant has a long trunk and ostrich has long legs. now dadda's first name when u say fast, I think itsounded like giraffe to u. and u said (dadda name) has a loonnng neck.... we were agin inspilts and holding our tummies in pain.

9) We have been going to my sis place a lot over the last 2 weekends as my folks were there. So u experienced a new feeling, the tummy doing somersaults while going fast on the highway/ flyovers. Like the movement in a giant wheel. At first u didn’t understand what it was and kept saying , tummy paining. now u understand it and hold ur tummy tight and say, tummy going up and down.

10) U have a new fetish for arranging everything one next to the other. so we see all the toys sitting one next to another in a row, or some cars in a row,or some other stuff in a row. I wish u would arrange everything so neatly at all other times too...

11) u also are crazy abt the happy bde song and cake cutting. u take all ur toys (be it a box or a drum or a softtoy or a kadahi or anything), u arrange them all in a circle and keep something in the middle as sing happy bde and cut an imaginary cake. U keep changing places of the toys often and keep singing and repeating this endlessly.

12) ur faveline"what u doin?"" u ask everyone this ques a million times in day. or u ask, ye kya hai, or kya kar rahe hai,or what is this . My sis and BIL after spending 2 days with Momo during Diwali, kept saying what u doin to each other for the next 2 days.

I have more momoirs, but abhi itna hi. Will be back soon for more.

Dhai Saal Ka Saath

2010-10-19T10:49:00.006+05:30

... Have been more than equal to Dhai kilo ka haath...

Ok that was a bad PJ. I think ive lost it. Having stayed away from the blog or so long, the words r just not coming out right. But I gotta blog today. Cos today is special. Today my darling Momo turn Dhai saal... 2.5 yrs... 30 months... so sweetie happy 30th month birthday . mwaaahhh... and a Kala Tika to this post and blog.

Where have we been all this while, I wonder. time seems to have just vanished, the days have turned to months and suddenly we are here, with a half year of play school almost done, the festivals done, the weathers changed, the rain come and gone.

And Momo, you have changed a lot too. Your chatter is so sweet to hear. The only things I don’t like to hear are no, and nahi chaiye. you have picked up so many things now, you say and do so many things that make my heart melt(yes I should have captured them in momoirs...sigh..) your interest in music/ dance/ fun/ games etc have increased, while sadly, your interest in books has gone down a bit. You don’t seem to have the patience to sit thru a book. I haven’t been reading too much to you, so im really the one at fault. But there are times when u sit with ur books poring over the pics. Ur love for stories in not consistent. Earlier u used to demand stories at night, but these days u just want songs. Your immunity was fine till abt august, and then things have spiralled down. You have had 4 bouts of severe cold n cough and fever in the last 3 months and 1 bout of terrible hand, foot and mouth infection where you were sadly affected only in the mouth which made eating impossible for a whole week. But we have survived all that and are doin

g ok. The cough is still nagging even as I write this, but you are at school today, which means you are better. The days when you have been ill have been the worst days really. With J and his constant travel, it wasn’t easy taking care of one sick kid. But well, we are better now and I hope we continue this streak and regain all lost health.

Onto happier things, school is going on fine. You have missed a lot of school due to your infections and also late getting up, but you seem happy to go and come back happy and tell me all that you did. And yes, we have started filling out the forms for admissions to bigger schools for next year. So fingers crossed.

Baki all izz well. will do a momoirs soon. That’s a promise. Take care and stay health my baby.. loads of luv and hugs to you sweetie.

(Posting it only today , exactly 24 hrs later, cos just as I was gonna publish yest, got a call from school .the teacher said that you were crying and asked me to pick up. So had to rush. U seemed quite ok , dunno y u were crying.. well we have our good and bad days ,eh?)

btw, an explanation to the dhai kilo ka haath reference. this has happened atleast 4-5 times so far. me n J r flipping channels and sudenly we come across the film damini, and we more often than not, come across the dhai kilo ka haath scene. i dunno how it happens but it always does .imagine, out of all the scnees, we catch only this one... and we have a hearty laugh.

Anyway, Some Pics of the last few months

Dressed in Tricolour for Independence Day celebrations in the building

Some midnight masti using my kajal pencil- Mr. Momo

Eid Mubarak - pretty in my new dress

Dandiya Queen - dressed up at school

Loved these 2 poses of Momo in her new dress on 18-10-10. My baby is all grown up... Kala Tika... :)

Artsy Craftsy ke liye kuch bhi karega....

2010-09-21T16:10:00.001+05:30

This dead blog comes alive yet again thanks to the efforts of a super woman aka - Shruti. Sorry folks ive been MIA. Sorry for not replying to ur mails/ messages/ comments etc. no reasons, no excuses. Just been off blogging for no apparent reason. writers block,is thats what its called. i m no writer, so i dunno y the lethargy??? Maybe the true Gemini in me has surfaced again and after a few good months suddenly the enthu of this space seems to have gone. (I seriously hope not cos this wouldn't be fair to Momo at all). Anyway, thanks to all of you for reminding me to blog more and remembering me and missing me and Momotales.

Anyway, coming to the main agenda of this post, our entry for this months Artsy Craftsy. Last minute as usual, cos I really had no clue what to do. For Momo's b de we had mostly outsourced all stuff so cant say I hand made anything. N I have never done anything else ever. Then when I was browsing Shrutis blog yest to see the other entries, I noticed some entries abt decorations done for festivals. N it all came back to me in a flash and I remembered the decoration I had made for Navratri Golu in 2005. Luckily for me I had the pics on my laptop. Sent them to shruti and she approved. Thanks a lot dear . You are a sweetheart for allowing this and not letting Momotales miss participating in this months challenge.

Navratri is a big occasion for Tamilians.(Wiki says golu is done by all south Indian s- andhra/ kannada etc.) People usually make an arrangement of Dolls on steps called Golu and invite ladies for Haldi Kumkum amd serve them sundal (prasad). When we were young, we used to make these arrangements at home with a lot of enthu and it was great fun. After me n my sis moved out of home for further studies/ work, Mom used to just do a small Golu or not do one at all. During Navratri of 2005, I was between jobs and had some time to spend at home. So me , mom n dad decided to make a Golu for old times sake . Dad set up the boxes to make the steps and put his veshti(dhoti) around the steps to make it look even and hold the structure in one place. me and Mom got out all the dolls/ artefacts etc etc (actually whatever we could find, i mean there are some tea coasters, some old rug, some bowls from the kitchen, a duck I used to play with as a kid, a doll my sis used to play with as a kid n god knows what all.) of cos the traditional Marapachi dolls were placed first and then the decorations were done. Since I had some penguin toy, decided to make a snow area with an igloo etc. I also had some beautiful sea shells that I had collected around 8-10 yrs back during my first trip to Goa( yes, mom had kept them safely for this day wonly :), so i used the sea shells to make a sea side scenery. And lastly, my folks live quite close to the Marudhamalai temple which is the abode of Lord Murugan . So we decided to build a temple structure atop a mountain. Of cos there was a separate place for all the dolls and soft toys. And of cos the Deities occupied prime place for Dad to do puja everyday. Lastly, made a sign - Welcome with pista shells and Vanakkam with ground nutshells. Added rangoli on the side and there it was, a beautiful Golu. The fairy lights around when lit made it look even more lovely.

Here go the pics. Sorry if the quality aint so good. This was an old camera and this is 5 yrs old and I didnt really click the pics that I would put them up on a blog someday. So bear with it.

The Complete Golu

Step -1 & 2- the snow area, penguins, igloo, snowman, 3 wise men, and also the green patch is a garden area- a rug, some animals, rabbits etc.

Sep- 2,3,4 - Numerous Ganpatis, elephants, Krishna , etc

Step 5 - the topstep- Marapachi and Family

Devis and the alangaram

Marudhamalai -made the mountain by binding soil, used a clay temple at the top , and a small clay hut at the bottom, bird toys all around, placed a small bowl of water as a watering hole, placed game counters to signify people on the steps, made the steps with match sticks

the sea side- filled sand in a tray and aranged the shells and a coconut tree

Welcome -Pista shells, Vanakkam (in Tamil)- Ground nut shells, rangoli

Gum lagake Haisha...

2010-08-20T06:13:00.008+05:30

Yes, we are just in time again for this month's Artsy Craftsy- the theme being glue/ gum...

This blog seems to be dying, if not for Artsy Craftsy.

Anyway, here we go.

1) Tir-ann-ga (ann-as in ann/ food in sanskrit)

I did see another submission of a tricolour made with rice. well,we had made this craft around indy day cos this seemed like a good idea to do after Shruti's gentle reminder to post in ur crafts and her suggestion to use grains/ indy day theme. a very simple activity- for Saffron, we used-Masoor dal, for white-we used rice, for Green - moong dal and the stick is with cinnamon/dalchini. wanted paint rice for blue, but didn't have patience.

2) Rupee symbol with Pasta

The newly created symbol for rupee caught my eye and was pretty easy to do.(actually i could not think of elaborate designs to stick pasta on) just used macaroni and penne for sticking onto the design n painted it red.

3) Barbie and friends - up on Cloud No. 9 in a Hot air Balloon

another simple activity. draw designs of hot air balloons of diff size on wrapping paper. cut out cloud shapes. on a piece of paper, place the clouds (i put a little atta below so they would be raised), take some sponge, dab it in blue colour and wash it over the paper. let it dry and then stick ur hot air balloons. make a basket with small corrugated cardboard pieces. use a sketch pen to attach it to the balloon n its done. we just cut out some Barbie pics and other pics from some pamphlet and added to the decoration.

4) Desi Paul the octopus

Use a paper plate ( whatever colour or paint it like i did). paint a piece of bubble wrap using mixture of glue and paint. let it dry. then cut out strips like tentacles. stick them to the back on the plate.make eyes and a smile from white paper and stick them on. stick on some yellow dots if you wish.

Recommended age 3+ cos for all crafts i tried to involve Momo, but all that happened is her running away with the glue, mixing the grains, sticking here n there, using the glue stick as a lip balm, n really doing it her way, which made me lose my temper ever so often. anyway, we did manage this in time this month n it was good fun with J chipping in with the drawings/ cuttings / ideas etc. n of cos thanks to my dear Mister Maker for item no 3 & 4.

Ciao now and will surely update this blog with some of Momo's antics soon.

Momoirs - 11

2010-07-30T17:29:00.001+05:30

Momoirs time... yippee..

I always tell myself that i must make a draft momoir and keep adding stuff to it as and when something happens. But I never do that. N just when I sit down to write a momoir, suddenly I draw a blank..

chalo koi nahin. Will give it a shot...

1) Momo loves to make us repeat her actions.. she will say..ipdi pannu(sometimes ibbi/ ippi pannu) - meaning do like this. N the actions would be crazy silly things like raising hands above, or touching one cheek with the hands, or touching ears, or keeping hands on knees. N she loves asking us to do all these acrobatics especially when she is sitting on the pot. So it’s a hilarious scenario in the bathroom. While she is focusing the big job, we are busy entertaining her.

2) Momo has begun to understand most of what we speak meaning, our code words and so called spellings are getting redundant. A case in example, J was traveling abroad last week, and I told J that he might find this particular toy there maybe at a cheaper price and more variety maybe. Momo understood this and kept saying, dadda buy (the toy) to Mehek tomorrow. n she kept repeating it a lot of times so much that J went to Hamleys , the toy shop in phoenix mills and picked up the said toy before he left on his trip. This is one dad who will even go to the moon to fulfill his DD's wish I think.. :)

3) BTW, the said toy is "Woody Bhaiyya". yes, Woody the cowboy from Toy story. (she loves him after we saw it on screen and part 2 on dvd) n Momo was thrilled to see this toy next to her when she woke up as J kept it next to her while she was sleeping. So these days, it "woody bhaiiya, good boy,listen to mamma, woody bhaiya drinks milk, eats food, does not do masti etc etc. n what do we call buzz... well he is Buzz uncle...no she does not have buzz uncle toy yet.

4) Momo's chatter is non stop. N the time she goes to school is such a quiet and peaceful time at home. But her lips are sealed when she sees anyone on the road or lift or if someone comes home. in fact, to show that she is shy, she does such cute things.J's friend had come over the other day and I usually prepare Momo saying, today,dadda friend uncle is coming, u can play with him, chat with him, show him ur toys etc,just so she feels comfy. so when this guy came over, (no he remembered not to give me a hug, as the last time he did it, which was some1.5 yrs ago, Momo let out a blood curdling scream), Momo didn’t really cry or anything, but she kept hiding behind J, not only that, she lay down on the sofa, shut her eyes, declared she is sleeping, and even went into the bedroom to sleep. Of cos she warmed up in a few minutes and came around and started doing her usual masti, jumping, throwing ball, reading some book etc.

5) She has surely inherited a lot of genes from our ancestors, the ape men. I think she has a spring inside her. She can jump / swing non stop on anything and everything. Be it the dining table, the bed(her fave trampoline), sofa, the floor, standing on her cycle, the window, the car (holding to the holders given above and swinging).she is mehek monkey. n she says so herself after a few jumps."mehek monkey jumping..".

6) n she is obsessed with horse/ camel/ elephant after our jaipur trip. n she wants to go on these animals all the time. aanai mele pollama, mek sit on the camel tomorrow, white horsie mele pollama (go on white horse). So we fulfilled her wish and she went on her maiden horse solo ride last week. The 3 of us first went in the carriage, but there was a horse also standing and she kind of indicated she wanted to go but was a bit scared. She flinched when the boy took her and made her sit, but she was ok after that and went for a small ride n came. Hurray for that.

7) Her language skills are improving greatly, and it’s quite amusing to hear her speak. The innocence, the childishness. Is too cute. Her use of prepositions(for, to, on etc..) is so adorable, the wrong use is..(try for urself using for instead of to and so on). like she says, mamma making rice to mehek, or thank you to popcorn( instead of thank you for the pop corn). U get the drift. There are so many examples everyday. I do correct her sometimes, but other times I just let it be. She will learn it eventually. Till then, let the cuteness engulf us all. all her sentences start with saying mehek doing / saying etc. but she never uses the word "is". eg: mek doing dance (not mek is doing dance), mek drawing, mek eating, etc. n from saying "what are you songing" the first time to saying "what are you singing" these days, u want us to sing all the time. Didn’t I mention we are an entertainment company, sing, and dance, mimic as her highness pleases?

8) Momo likes to come near me and say ,if im in the kitchen "what u doing mamma, n before I can answer, she says, o, mamma making dal, o mamma making roti. The way she says the O is like as if sudden light ahs come on and realisation has happened. N then this kiddo imitates me and says, “I make roti for Mehek, u like it, u will eat it”. Naughty naughty.

9) u snuggle up to us while sleeping and pull us to you and say, come mummy/ dadda, mek paas aajao, come to mehek, kai koodu(hold hand/ give me ur hand literally) so endearingly, that I can just gobble u up then and there. I will once of these days. gobble u up, my dolly.

10) u amaze me with ur memory, n I say this in every momoir. Can’t help it. If it’s something u have kept somewhere and I ask u where is it, u tell me exactly where u have kept it. (like u left ur shoes in the bedroom one day, n when I asked u where the red shoes were after not finding it in the cupboard, u went to the room and brought it out. or u rem that me, dadda, u and S mama went to watch the cricket match ( IPL finals).or u see a lizard and remembered that u saw it at thatha's house in coimbatore. n so many such random things .

11) Its laughter time when we teach you the relations. Like when i say, mehek's dadda is my husband, immediately, u say, nahin, yeh mera husband hai. or when I say V thatha is my dadda, u say,V thatha is my friend/ my mamma or such weird things. but u correctly say, that pooky is ur sister, and v aunty is my sister and F phuphu is dadda sister.

12) a sentence I remembered that has words from all the languages. " teddy bed pe thaachi kiya" - thaachi is tamil baby talk for sleeping. n u speak such jumbled up sentences to the maid, the maids, poor thing come to me and say, yeh kya bol raha hai cos u use some eng/ tam words which they dont understand. very funny.

Ok ok. I am OBSESSED with everything u do. now if only you could stop being so whiny and a cry baby all the time and listen to mamma and not throw things around and keep them back at the place and be a good girl generally... There, we have our happy moments and our TERRIBLE TWO moments, all in a day, all in the fraction of a second. But then, if u don’t do all this now, when will u do it... So lage raho, momobhai...

Jai(pur) Ho !!!

2010-07-29T17:03:00.007+05:30

Its been ages since I got back from my short n sweet chutti, I’ve just not felt like doing anything blog related- be it write or read or comment.(except for the artsy craftsy) I’ve just been plain lazy. Dunno y this lull. I still am in the same mood, but I think I better get this done with now. I have a momoir coming too, cos there is so much Momo is doing n saying now. But first things first.

We went to a place I have been wanting to visit for ages. Rajasthan. J had an official meeting at Ajmer n we decided to tag along. (J had the option to go to either ambala or \ajmer. but God decided for us and it flooded in ambala so Ajmer it was.) J had always wanted to go to Ajmer . It was a place his mom had always wanted to visit. That was on the agenda for a while. So we didn’t want to miss this golden opportunity. Managed to get tickets blocked at the last minute. (decided on wed, n had to leave early fri morn.. ya 5.45 am flight(dates: 9-11 July)

Momo woke up at 4.30 am sharp just as we were stepping out of the house(got her changed while she was sleepin) n was awake thruout the flight to Jaipur . We went to a friends place, had bfast, changed and left for ajmer by 11 am. n Momo slept just as we were steppin out of this house. Some energy she had. Reached Ajmer pretty fast, by 1.15 types n checked into a hotel. This was an erstwhile wealthy guys house, maybe I should call it a palace, but he was not a royal. Anyway, the hotel overlooked a beautiful lake. Thought we mite get time to go boating, but unfortunately didn’t. Had typical rajasthani food for lunch, gatte ki sabji, papad ki sabji,missi roti, bajra roti n all. Then we set off for the famous Ajmer dargah of Khaja Moinuddin chisti by 4 pm. that day being Friday, there was quite a bit of crowd.but we managed to have a good visit to the shrine. On the way back to the hotel, we took a horse Tonga much to momo's delight. We kept seeing these carriages on our way to the shrine n momo wanted to go on them. Then J got busy with his event (we came as J had a meeting here, remember) so it was me, Momo and our friends's wife who had to kill time till the respective husbands got free. N that was when we discovered the play area. N Momo had a super time. She made ten types of rides form each ride. Meaning, if it was a slide, she would not just slide normally, she would go ulta, she would hang on the bars and swing, she would go inside the house type things below the slide etc etc.

(snaps at end of post below.. unable to edit it)

Dinner was along drawn affair with J's partners where we joined in and y was it long drawn.. Well we kept eating starters and realized too late in the day that we had forgotten to order the main course. Momo slept thru this whole event thanks to all her exertion on the slides etc. but she woke as we hit dessert and stayed up till abt 2 am I think (I was too sleepy.. think she was watching tom n jerry)

next morning, we set off for jaipur by 11 and reached by 1. Checked into a nice hotel, had lunch and set off sight seeing. Saw the Hawa Mahal, and then went upto the jaigarh fort to see the Jaivan. Supposed to be some biggest cannon and all. Nice view. Walked around the fort n saw a small puppet show that was put up.

Jaivana and Hawa Mahal

came down the fort t see Jal mahal. Momo slept off in the car n me n J got down to take some snaps. After she woke up did the camel ride near Jal Mahal. Momo being a seasoned camel rider now, knew what to expect and flinched a bit while getting on it, but was ok there after. post the ride, went to Amer fort to catch the Sound and Light show. I think it was my first time. It was quite good. tho Momo did get bored after a while. but we kept her busy asking her to look here, there, identify the couolr off the lights etc. post that, went upto Nahargarh fort to get a breathtaking view of the city with all its lights on. Then dinner and back to hotel to rest.

Raja camel

Next day morning, set off for Amer fort and reached just in time to get onto the elephants for a ride up the fort. We reached by 10.15 and the last ride is till 10.30 am. The journey up took us abt 18 minutes. Momo loved it. So many elephants. There were elephants behind us, ahead of us, coming back form the opposite direction. Wow. Once on top, we saw the entire fort. Lovely sheesh mahal, the views etc. there was a snake charmer and Momo was thrilled to see him live. after all she ahs seen them on Snake TV (don’t u get this channel at ur place. ohh its called animal planet is it..:) with her dad so often. then it was time for some more shopping (blue pottery, carpets, shoes, dolls, lac bangles carpets, bedsheets etc etc) for lunch I wanted to have dal baati, but the plac e we went to didn’t have .so just had rajasthani thali again.

Then back to hotel . n time for check out. The flight back home was delayed n again Momo didn’t sleep a wink. Then there was delay for the baggage . 1of the bags came in after half an hour after the first bag had come. So reached home only by 1 ish. Momo had slept off by then n me n J watched the FIFA finals.

So a short n sweet break it was. I was really happy with Momo's behaviour this time. she did not cling to J. she walked the whole fort without being carried(she normally does nto ask to be caried), she ate whatever she got- rice,roti,bread eetc) n was no trouble. am proud of you sweetheart.

So anyway, Took me a whole month to write this. Hope I come back to my regular enthu. :)

Btw, the title so,cos these days Momo loves hearing Jai ho while sleeping. am glad she has given up (sometimes) on Lakdi ki.

My fave snaps

the ajmer snaps have all come below dunno how. anyway.. :)

Hotel in ajmer

The Play area

This & That , All from Trash

2010-07-22T15:45:00.001+05:30

At last, here is our submission for this month’s Artsy Craftsyaftsy. Just in the nick of time I think. This month’s theme, Treasure from Trash was a great theme, n i have a lot of trash (i hoard all kinds of junk) . so it was quite confusing whether to use plastic bottles or plastic bags or what else. But my ever dependable Mr. Maker(Point 1 & 2 below) from Cbeebies and Toot (Point 4)came to my rescue. So here we are, an assorted bunch of things, made from all reusable material.

1) Decorated Reusable Tin containers : J had bought a lot of these cookie tins on Indigo Airlines. They are extremely useful to store Momo’s knick knacks, like clips, pens etc. so we just decorated these tins using the following:

The yummy cookie tins

a) Black paper/ sticker combo – I just stuck black paper around the tin and stuck some stickers that we had. Looks so cute n so easy to make. Momo helped stick on the stickers.

b) Clay- Glitter – chamki sequins combo –we stuck a roll of clay around the box and rolled the tin in some glitter/ sequins to get this wonderful shiny thing.

2) Spinner/ Spinning wheel – this can be a toy for a small kid (of cos used by adults) –we used the outer cover of a cheese cube box; put a pencil though the centre making a hole. Then covered the top of the cover with paint and glue mix. Again sprinkled some sequins and glitter and voila, your spinner is ready.

3) Bangle Box – I used a box which we got when I bought some bakery item from a shop here (Theobroma). Just painted it with some bright colours and there is it, my bangle and watch holder.

4) Stuart Little Family –Part 2: We had made Stuart little Family for an earlier contest. Here we have part 2- Aunt Shelly Little. Made it from a coconut shell. Its quite simple. Just clean out the coconut, then stick some coconut shell strands to make a tail on one side. Stick some more strands in the front like whiskers. Put a red colour sticker/ bindi for a nose, make some ears out of paper or anything else and stick it. (I had some sponge lying around so used it). Stick on some eyes n there you have a squeaky little mouse.

Fab Four

2010-07-08T18:39:00.001+05:30

Yest we celebrated J's Bde and our 4th anniversary. Yes.. 4 years that seem to have just gone by so fast. Seems like yesterday.

J was busy at work and reached home only by abt 11.40 pm. in the meantime, me n Momo had decorated the Board with balloons etc. (the same board we used for Momo's b de. I have replaced the white sheet with this chart paper. ) Momo was excited as usual when it comes to cake cutting, n was seen running here n here shouting, laughing, rolling on the bed, jumping etc etc . She was so hyper that she did hit her head somewhere and even go a bump on her head and started her wailing. Luckily, the teddy candle came to rescue and made the little girl smile.

the backdrop decor- 4 baloons on top for 4th anniv.n tried to make our initials with balloons below, which we then tried to burst with the pins form the dart board like the baloon bursting in beach. n a tinyvfinger which cant wait for the cake to be cut. the teddy candle smiling.:)

After cake cutting, it was time for gifts. And yes , there could be no bigger fool than me. After missing to see the earrings J had carefully hidden in the cupboard for my bde, I again fell victim to the same thing. Yes, this time he had hidden a watch and I never found it. Shows how good a housekeeper I am.but really that rack of his was so neat all these days that I never really felt like re arranging it. This time, he fished out a watch from his cupboard. A beautiful one, he bought in Amsterdam. . I am going to tear down his cupboard today and unearth any more such gifts. But seriously, Man, I love this man. He sure knows how to make me smile and go awww. I didn’t do much in the name of gifts. yes, J also bought a new watch for himself. so ya, thats my gift.(can i take credit for it..) I gave him permission to stitch a suit..(Despite the fact that he already ahs many). No just kidding J found a tailor (now is that an offensive word, what with all the controversy..), of a suit maker who has made suits for people in his office. The guy came home on Sunday to take measurements, brought the trial suit on Monday and back with the finished product on Wednesday early morning 8 am. whew am impressed. And the suit looks very smart. Nice fit n fabric. N I also gifted J a subscription for a movie rental. J is crazy abt films and we had this subscription earlier but it got over. I didn’t renew it as my sis had some unlimited subscription with another vendor and she was not using it, so gave it o me. But I had to pretend to be her and order etc. then in between when I had gone on a vacation, she also started ordering. So it became quite confusing for the poor delivery guys. So i took this. n the first DVD came yest. Toy story 2.i have never seen it and so wanted to see it after I saw toy story 3.Momo saw the DVD and has been insisting we watch it. but guess it will have to wait cos we are off on a surprise last minute chutti this weekend.

I wanna hold your hand.. one of my fave songs from the FAB Four, aka Beatles..(title ref,i LOVE The Beatles)

yes, we also did some other nice things yesterday like some charity and a visit to a holy place we had been plkannign for a long time. so it was a great and satisfying day after all...

N in other news, Momo is truly my lucky charm. And this lucky charm ahs been winning giveaways done by people who are mostly stay in out of India. First we got TPL's gift, then, we won the little birdie at Trish's Giveaway , and now we've won the give away at Pooh's Den. thank you ladies. really appreciate ur gesture.

Anymore overseas bloggers out there, who are announcing give aways, dont bother, just send across the prize to us. We will win for sure.. Just kidding guys.

Ciao now.gotta pack. But I hate packing. So am waiting for my man in shining armour to come and pack. N he’s going to be not so happy that I have been blogging instead of packing. Don’t worry, maybe he will still be in the happy b de mood and not get angry.

"Sin"drella or "Sin"bad

2010-07-02T13:20:00.000+05:30

The "My sins against gender stereotype" tag has spread like wildfire on blogosphere. Thanks to IHM for bringing it out. Has been fun to read them from all corners. Priya tagged me, so here goes my list. Am I Sindrella or Sinbad...

1. As a teenager, I had posters of sports stars- Edberg, Becker, Borg, Tendulkar,Steve Waugh, Graf, Sabatini, Seles ya even Ben Johnson in my room rather than Film stars. (Ok I did have a couple of postcards of Aamir. but I gave them off to my cousin..:))

2. I can never be called a domestic goddess. Hate typical household chores like cooking, cleaning, arranging cupboard.

3. I was the only girl (and maybe guys too) in my batch during PG who stood up to the seniors and told them a dirty joke and was spared from the ragging.

4. I was always independent during college and school days as I had my own 2 wheeler- kinetic Honda and did not have to hop on behind guys and their fancy bikes hence didn’t need chauffeuring around. I remember riding upto sinhagad on my own with guys ridin pillion on my kine as I refused to let them drive me (cant say the same now though, cos I only ride and don’t drive,n am totally dependent on J to drive me around now. :( )..

5. Have traveled to various cities on work and stayed alone in hotels all by myself, had food in the restaurant alone instead of ordering room service. Have even done sightseeing alone on these trips.

6. Enjoyed watching live cricket matches , tennis matches and cheered the players by shouting, whistling(with a whistle), clapping,doing mexican waves etc.

7. Have no issues in traveling alone at night and have done that numerous times. (Being in Mumbai, one does it inevitably)

8. Have lived alone in a flat and searched for all the houses/ PG on my own with the help of brokers. Have gone with brokers to all sorts of places in not so comfortable neighborhoods.

9. Am the last one to know all the juicy details cos vie never been interested in meddling in others affairs. The boys (colleagues, office boys even the security) in office knew more than me :)

10. Last but not the least, a trait I share with so many fellow bloggers(have found this point in almost all of the people who have done this tag.) .. Liking for only basic jewellry, flat shoes, minimal make up and simple easy to wear clothes, rather than frills and laces.

The Sindrella in me does pop out sometimes too though. I love watching/ reading mushy romantic novels(not M &B), and movies . I can cry buckets watching emotional scenes in films.(I cried watching Toy Story 3.. yes.). I can generally cry at the drop of a hat. I can only change bulbs, but need help for other repairs etc. I am scared of creepy crawlies, lizards, snakes,worms, rats, spiders.(cockroaches are ok. )

There, I have done it now. This next part is difficult. Gotta tag 12people. A lot of people have been tagged already or done the tag already. so igotta live with blue pants for next 12 years, which is cool anyways. Nevertheless, here goes: Noor, NMOTB, R's Mom,(oops, i think u just did this..) Pooh, Uma, Lavanya Sriram, Ambulisamma, Timepass, Abha, PV, Lavanya . Have fun gals. Would love to read ur SINs... I know u will have ur share of sins too. so take it away ladies..

Summer Holiday - Part 2

2010-07-02T02:20:00.000+05:30

After the detailed Ooty trip, I somehow dont feel like writing abt the Chennai trip in as much detail. well, not much to write here though except the visit to ECR Dhaba to see the birds(ducks, pigeons, fish , emu etc there, croc bank, relatives, friends visits, getting Mottai and ear piercing done for Pooky and back home.

These pics should sum it up i guess.

Quack Quack Quack!!!

Kabutar Aa Aa Aa

Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya, dana chugne baith gayi thi...

Macchli Jal Ki Rani Hai

the origin of Croc Paani (No.4)

Beauty and the Beast

naan autokaaran autokaaran, naalum therinja routukaaran, nyayam ulla rateukkaran

Chal Dhanno

Full of Beans at G uncle's home

School Tales

2010-07-01T18:14:00.001+05:30

A big kaala tikka first.

After reading abt school beginnings in so many mommy blogs, I think its time now to write abt Momo's school tales. It’s been abt 10 days since Momo started school (June 21st). It’s the same play school that she is going to where she went last year. School's been a breeze this year so far. No tears except on day 1, when I went to pick her up late... (Sorry). N no fuss abt getting ready and behaving well overall. Only trouble is waking up early. Our princess is a late riser so, waking her is the challenge. Still, we manage. School was at 10 till yest. From today it’s at 9.30 for an hour. (was only half hour till yest, will be for 1.5-2 hours after 10 days). the school is within our building complex, abt 8-10 mint walk ( make it 20 with Momo, as she stops and looks at everything and anything , jumps in the puddles, stares and points out to the bus, water tankers, taxi, cycle etc etc, n tried her best to wriggle out from my hands when we have to cross the park). So I am really glad that the minibus service will start from Monday onwards, so don’t have to make her walk all the way. It’s also a bit tough to walk with the rain and all. She is used to the bus since last year, so I don’t foresee any hitches there. A few of the kids, who were there last year, have changed to a bigger playschool a little further away. But I didn’t want to change cos I was happy with this school. Except that the space is a bit constrained, in terms of learning, play, I think its pretty ok. The teachers are nice and give individual attention as there are lesser kids too. For the space, we anyways, make it up by going to the park in the evenings. I am happy she ahs adjusted well. Unlike last year when she cried a whole 2 weeks before settling down. After reading so many episodes of kids crying etc on other blogs, I was worried too. anyways,each ones situation is different. Momo is ok,she is enjoying, learning, so I see no harm in putting her early. so, all izz well as of now. My baby, have fun and a good year at school. God bless.

some pics: last year: thank god for the uniform. tho initially i was thinkign y uniform for such a small kiddo. but it helps, as i dont need to rack my brain what to make her wear each day. :)

This year:

ok ok. I am crazy, to take pics like this arranging all items and all. but what the heck. this blog is there to capture all this, isn't it?

the same same : only shoes and same school and same Momo (tho taller)
the different : uniform changed, new tiffin box(bigger than last year), new bottle, new bag, new socks and new rain boat (as Momo calls it) didnt buy rain coat for her last year as we used to stay closer to the school and i would carry her off to school if it rained.

Summer Holiday - Part 1

2010-06-30T18:02:00.001+05:30

My detailed post abt our holiday has been long pending. N I might be going on another holiday soon (fingers crossed..) so wanna get this out of the way before that.. Here we go.... more details abt the Ooty trip. (chennai trip.. another post..)

The beginning. : We/ no I was desperate to go on a holiday. The last holiday was my Singapore trip in July 2007, (had just conceived, but didn’t know). After Momo was born, we have traveled a lot. But it has mainly been for weddings/ functions. Not a holiday. N by holiday, I mean staying in a hotel, doing sightseeing and all that. So I was thrilled when my sis suggested I could use her mahindra resorts acco and plan a trip. We initially planned thekkady, cos I have not been there n it’s close from cbe too. (Wanted to keep cbe as base. munnar ruled out as have been there twice n my folks also twice.) But thekkady was gonna be confirmed only closer to the travel date. Luckily a new resort opened in Ooty then and my sis wasted no time in getting it booked. Though I was disappointed, as have been to Ooty couple if times, but then, not much of a choice. As we had to be in Chennai in May, we had to do a south trip only and not north or anywhere. So Ooty it was.

The trip : we enquired from local people in cbe and most people said Ooty is very crowded this year and a flower show had recently concluded at the rose garden. though we were traveling on weekdays, we still didnt wanna take chances of getting stuck and so left cbe early in the morning by 6.30 am on 11th may in an Innova. N to our surprise, we hardly encountered any traffic and reached Ooty by 9 ish. Had b fast at a restaurant(Nahar),then we decided to go and see botanical gardens. The flower show in botanical gardens was due to start on 14th, so some areas were cordoned off. Momo was happy to see the colorful flowers. She tried to find her own amusement. Swinging from rods, climbing onto pots , climbing trees etc etc. n she walked the whole bit and even ran much ahead of us.

All pics at Botanical Gardens: a huge swan model made for the flower show, the animal replicas in grass, india map, me jane- u tarzan, a snooze on the soft grass under the trees

Then we went to the rose garden. It had become a bit sunny by then and we didn’t really see the whole garden/. It’s a huge place. Went near the statue of the angel and clicked some snaps.

Pics at Rose Garden : Mickeymouse exhibit, elephant exhibit, 2 angels, rose patterned tiles in rose garden

Then checked in to the resort n it was fab. Very nice and comfy and overlooking Momo’s object of affection – horses.. Yes the resort overlooked the race course and the horses’ came out to train each morning. What a sight. The jockeys running along, racing .. takbak takbak.. takbak takbak.. We had lunch, rested a while and then went out just generally to the market place. bought some caps etc and on the way back, stopped at a fun fair. Me and my dad went on a torra torra type roundabout, while Momo went on a duck and some other swing type ride.

View from the resort, race course, towel arrangement in room(notice Momo's toys tucked in)

Day 2- met up with my cousin and family who had also come to Ooty , but staying at a different place. Momo was happy to see her cousin S who is 1.5 yrs older than her. Left early after breakfast as we had planned to go to Mudumalai tiger reserve. On the way, stopped at Pykara dam . not the dam really, but a place where there was water flowing. Had a nice time getting wet there. Then ,lunch in some terrible terrible place(thanks to the idiot driver) and onwards to mudumalai. J had made arrangements to get tickets for the bus ride so we didn’t have to wait in any queue. The drive thru the forest in the bus was enjoyable cos we did see some elephants. But what was disappointing was that the officials at the counter said it would be a 45 minute drive and the driver got us back within like 20mint and said that’s it. U will only see the same animals. Not fair. Then there was a museum there which we saw. Stuffed animals and pictures and all. Then we were tempted by some guys who run jeeps and supposedly take u to another side of the forest and where we would surely see more animals. Now having come all the way, we were keen to see more animals.. N maybe spot a tiger.. (Which was next to impossible). The oldies gang, my parents and my cousins parents decided to skip this and thank god they did. The jeep ride was bumpy . This as supposed t be a 2 hour drive for some 800 rs,for 8 people. What did we see? Well, lots of deer, lot of peacock, lots of cows, a few ducks swimming near the watering hole, some bison, a huge giant squirrel, some pretty birds and that’s that. Not too happy with it, but theek hai. U gotta take such risks. Animals are not gonna parade in front of u. u gotta be lucky for these things. The last bit was the most exciting. The bus ride that we took earlier, gave us free entry to the elephant camp which was nearby. Here we saw the huge tuskers and they were being fed these huge squares of food. (ragi and what not..) Momo loved looking at them. We saw almost 7-8 elephants here. All in close range. A tiring day and we returned back to the room by 8 pm and crashed. Since mahindra has a dry kitchenette, we made full use of the stuff we had carried. I made rice for Momo. We had oats, with milk, puliyogare rice(had carried MTR packets, instant mix), chips, curd etc.

At Mudumalai : the museum, name chart of elephant, elephant's food, feeding the elephant

Day 3: this day was Amavasya n my folks prefer eating home food on this day . So we went to a family friends place in coonoor. Left by 9.30 ishe. Stopped at Sims park on the way. Unfortunately, the previous day’s trip had exhausted Momo n though she slept well at night; she slept off in the car again and slept thru Sims Park, where we left her with my parents while me and J went around the place. It’s a huge place with some lovely flowers and trees. very very pretty. There is a boating place, but we didn’t do it awe didn’t have time. Momo woke up just as we were leaving Sims park and she posed for a couple of fotos and marked her attendance at this place. He he. :)

Lunch was a simple and nice affair after which we went on further to seethe view point of Dolphins nose and Lambs rock. This is where we took this foto.

Came back from Coonor to Ooty and went to see Doddabetta. This is supposed to be the highest peak and all. Just as we finished seeing the place and were climbing down, there was a huge downpour. Me n Momo luckily managed to get top the car without getting wet, but m folks got drenched. J went back to them with the umbrellas but that didn’t help. So we had to cancel the boating trip and head back to the resort where we changed and I made some hot maggi soup and we ate some hot maggi noodles. In the evening, me and J stepped out to do some shopping. Spices, tea, home made chocolates .

View from LAmbs Rock and Doddabetta

Day 4. Checked out of the resort by8.30 am,cos we had to reach the station as our train was at 9.15.yes we took the toy train from Ooty to Coonoor. N it was fun. Momo loved it. The tunnel, the whistle, watching as the scene went by, having chai and masala vadai. this is a must do for anyone who visits Ooty. The car picked us up at coonoor and we were back in coimbatore by 1 pm.

the toy train

Rhyme Time

2010-06-28T17:13:00.001+05:30

This is our entry for Tulika's blogathon. I know im pretty late, but nevertheless.

These are some Urdu rhymes sung for children. Let me specify at the beginning that this is the language/ rhymes said by Urdu speaking Muslim families in Chennai. they may differ among the various fraternities. It is not chaste urdu like a gulzar or jaaved akhtar types. The language is more or less like hindi, but with a little south indian accent and ample usage of tamil words.

Here we go:

1. chudi chudi yahan bhaith,
chudi ka paappa yahan bhaith,
mammam kha, chiya kha,
__ (baby's name)ko leke bhurrr udd ja...

Meaning : oh Bird, come and sit here, baby bird also come and sit here, eat some food, eat some chicken/ mutton, take ____(baby's name) and fly away.

Action : touch the baby's palm as if putting some food there, and then raise ur arms above for the fly away action.

2. Dal ghotoma Dal ghoto,
Khatti Meethi Dal ghoto,
baby (include name of child) kha, ammi kha, abba kha, dada kha, dadi kha, nana kha, nani kha, kha,
____ (baby's name )ko leke bhurrr udd ja...

Meaning: Mash /mix the dal,sweet and sour dal, one serving to baby, one to mother, one to father,one to paternalgrandfather, one to paternal grandmother,poe to maternal grandfather,one to maternal grandmother, take (baby's name) and fly away.

Action : use the elbow to mash dal in the palm of other hand, feed the baby and all other people one serving and then raise ur arms above for the fly away action.

This is similar to the tamil rhyme: sadam pottu, parrupu pottu,keerai massichu, paapa ku oru vay, amma ku oru vay, etcc..vennakoddam varadhu varadhu varadhu (tickle the baby)

3.Haathi chalti, paani peeti.

Meaning: elephant is walking, elephant is drinking water.

Action : just move the fingers in a walking motion and bring it close and tickle the baby. say it slow or fast for the desired effect.

4. dulta ma haathi dulta

e ganneke bhale mangta,

e doodh malida mangta

dul re hathi dul

Meaning : the elephant is swaying

It's asking for a stack of sugarcane

it's asking for sugar and milk

the elephant is swaying.

5. Aari Bhobho chalko,

Anda deri talko

(baby's name)khayegi muttu muttu

Baataan karegi chuttu chuttu

Meaning: the hen is walking and coming

will give eggs which we will fry

(Baby' s name )will eat it, little by little

and then the baby will speak in short n sweet words(baby talk)

Most of the Tmail ones have been done by various bloggers. but here is one which i dont think i remember seeing on any site.

This is a rhyme / chant said while throwing dice in games like Ludo etc. It is just a fun thing to say. guess the meaning is bizaare..

1. Kona Kona puliyangai, kombli chatti narthangai, anaikkaran pondatti,
attukuttiyai petralaam, kaachu moochunnu kaththitham kaalai vaari erijalam.

Meaning : the tamarind stick is crooked, the jar is filled with pickle (Citron),
the elephant owner/ mahut's wife, had a baby goat(gave birth to a baby goat), the baby goat screeched and shouted, so she picked it by its legs and threw it to the side.

Great fun this was, cos i got to learn some new rhymes and got reminded of some long forgotten ones too. :)

Our new friends

2010-06-25T18:00:00.000+05:30

A couple of months ago, a very kind soul (Read TPL) had sent us something from across the seven seas,for winning the Artsy Craftsy Contest. It was a little bunny and some cute assorted stuff. And another very sweet person(read Artsy Shruti) had sent across this very pretty handmade card. Thanks a lot TPL and Shruti.

The assorted stuff TPL sent, pink n white felt, thread, stickers, doll's head, ducky, nice handmade paper, which i dont ever feel like using... n the Pink card sent by Shruti.

TPL had also sent across more material so we could make some more bunnies so this one doesnt feel lonely. Bunny, sorry for the delay, but here they are. your new friends. one more bunny, and one... mouse, ...or is it a puppy... or a kitten..or a piggy... i'm unable to decide... (made the other animal, lets call it a mouse,with help from this mnth's- June- edition of TOOT)

Hope you are all happy now...

Being together...

Sitting on top of the TV...

Or kabhi in the hands of a sweet little girl

Momoirs - 10

2010-06-24T01:37:00.006+05:30

I have to really capture this(especially point 1) so what better way than a momoir..

1) Let the mek do once, let the mek do first...-- yes you can hear this sentence a million times here these days. It all started with me telling Momo in the park to allow others to come on the slide or the bars once and await her turn. I used to say, let didi or bhaiya or baby do once, then it will be mehek's turn. Now we are subjected to this line for everything. be it to go to the bathroom, to switching on TV, to closing the main door, to eating food, to sleeping on the bed (let the mek thachi once on pillow), to riding cycle, to soaping during bath, to even washing after the big job... I do correct her sometimes by repeating her sentence without the "the", but it’s too cute the way she says. N I think this officially is her first longest sentence. Never mind the grammar...

2) these days, if u wanna do something, you come up to me very sweetly and ask me” can I do colours/ or can I go to big park, or can I get bubbles". Nice to note ur getting a hang of good manners. But of cos, most time its, ye chaiye, woh chaiye, I want this that.. With out the can I and please.. chalega baby.im mighty proud of this too..

3) eh kaa eh: read as yeh kya hai... another fave sentence of urs these days from the minute u open ur eyes. U wanna know everything now. U point out to anything and everything in the newspaper/ magazine/ book/ TV and say eh kaa eh mummy.. N we have to answer. If we answer incorrectly or absent mindedly, thinking u will not realise, we are so wrong. U pester us till we tell u exactly what it is. not that u have asked abt any embarrasing stuff or anything, but u ask for every and I mean every image .. I should be happy, cos its still, yeh kya hai. I dunno wat I will answer when u ask yeh aisa kyun hai...

4) Crocodile paani : we went to the croc bank in chennai during our trip and u saw the crocs in water there. N the crocs were in marshy water all green n dirty looking. So ur analogy for any puddle of water on the road is "yeh crocodile paani hai,dirty dirty hai, no touching". this helps me to dissuade u from drinking ur bath water which u sometimes like to do, by saying yeh croc paani hai, dont drink.

5) U amaze me with ur actions. The refrigeraider has been relentless in her pursuit of cold goodies. The so called lock that dadda fixed in intact, but yes u can open it easily so I dont bother locking it now. But these days, u open the fridge only for the cheese slices in the chiller tray. I hide them here n there, but well u do get lucky on the days I forget. One day I had kept it at the far back of the tray and u found it hard to reach. So what did u do? U wore ur bata bubble gummer shoes and stood on ur toes and managed/ tried to reach it. My god. I can’t imagine how u could think of somethin like this to increase ur height. what an idea sirji really. (We have a stand for the fridge, so it is high for Momo)

6) There are only(generally) 3 people who call on the landline. - J, my parents and my sis. U run to pick up the fone when it rings. n ur able to recognise who it is and answer accordingly and tell me, mamma, dadda fone or V thatha fone or V aunty fone. n miss courteous, u always ask V thatha , where is paati and u always ask aunty, where is A uncle ( her hubby) . u dont give me the fone asap, but keep holding it to ur ear, answering the ques the person asks. I sometimes take the other line inside and overhear the conversations. N u pretty much understand what one is asking and respond correctly. Too cool. Also sometimes when I have called thatha or dadda and I ask u to come on the line n speak, u refuse and ignore. So the best way, if anyone wants to spk to u is call the landline. Still have not figured out how to answer a call on the mobile. Thank god...

7) in the case of scissors/knife or any such item which you are not supposed to touch, u look at it and say, yeh big mamma ka hai, or only big mamma take it. .. (no reference to my size i hope baby, but just meaning older people.. :))

8) the window has become the regular spot to have ur chocolate chai these days (provided its not raining) . N u finish ur cup looking at the birds/ park/ bus and all assorted stuff. Kaala tikka..

9) arre...: you have picked this word up a lot and say it ever so often.. N emphasise it so much..aarrree... also , the word, hai na.. u use it pretty much.

10) The battle for the remote has begun. the minute dadda changes from cbeebies to football, u start ur nooo.. mister maker chaiye, iggle piggle chaiye etc. thankfully its just a couple of prog that u see, so u get easily distracted when a break comes and we change and then we say, error is coming in cbeebies channel so u cant watch..such meanies we are, hai na..

11) u suddenly recall things that happened during the trip and recount I. like u say, mamma, thatha big round round mek , white ducky, horsie. We had gone to a fun fair in Ooty and me n my dad had sat in that torra torra type thing (not giant wheel), while u watched us. N u sat on a small white duck n horse (horse with dadda). Then u suddenly mentioned, that S (ur cousin) had Ben 10 bubble box. While u had Winnie pooh bubble box. Considering that this all happened more than a month back, am surprised u remember.

12) U look at mags like mother n baby or child or anything and if u see anything of interest u wann a have it. Like those fisher price ads of the lion/ or some other toys or a sipper or a box or a crib etc. some we reason and u understand is for only babies so u cant have them. But the others, well, we find various excuses so u cant have them. But u like looking thru the mags and pointing it out neverthe less. I think I should put those books away. Paavam Momo, getting all excited and expecting new toys etc n we not giving in. ok yes we gave in and bought the water bottle and chair that u saw in the ad in a newspaper (back to school offers and all). But this was a necessity so its ok. N was not unnecessarily expensive. Im dreading the influence of ads on u as u grow up. U have till now once asked me for noodles after u saw maggi ad. Stop the tv stop the tv. Yes I can hear it loud n clear. Cant do away with it totally but limit yes. Will do.

13) yesterday, you got a karandi(serving spoon ) from the kitchen, took ur horse toy and hit its tail with the spoon.n we realised what u were doing. this was ur version of lakdi ki kathi. the spoon was ur hatoda.... my god. what co relation n imagination u use.

I know im forgetting a couple more. but abhi itna hi...

The PERFECT Birthday

2010-06-18T18:30:00.007+05:30

.. If ever there was a perfect day, then that day was yesterday. (Not counting of cos the day I got married n the day I had Momo.. those are super duper special days which no other day ever can replace..). i know i had said,last year was the bestest bde, but this year was tooo tooo good.

Isn’t it wonderful when your fone rings the whole day, you get mails / sms/ (comments on the blog, :) ) every minute, n u have a kiddo singing happy birthday to everything and anything in the house, like a sofa, glass, n remembering to add mummy’s name in between the song a few times, you get to have lotsa fun with the family, you get to eat the yummiest treats n u get a super gift... wouldn’t u call this perfect. Well all this and much more...happened yesterday.

The rain gods spared us yest, and it was meant to be my day. J landed on time and was home by 11.00ish. Suddenly we decided to drive down to Lonavla. JLT. We managed to find a driver in such a short notice and off we stepped out by 2.30 post lunch. (J's back pain still bad, so didn’t wanna drive). The weather was nice for a drive. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but no rain. Since there haven’t been much rains, there were hardly any waterfalls.

Our first stop was the newly opened celebrity wax museum. There is another such museum in Ooty, which we missed during our trip as we didn’t have time. All along the way there were hoarding proclaiming this museum with the photo of a kathakali artist image. Was quite intrigued as to why a kathakali image here in Maharashtra. The mystery was solved once we entered the museum. It is set up by people from Kerala. we walked in and were greeted by the owners/ staff who gave us info on the statues in terms of how they are made of wax, and how they have used real hair etc etc. there must’ve been around 15 statues out of which around 7-8 were people I didn’t know. thankfully there were name plates and these people were supposedly the big wigs of KErala. now don’t go thinking it would be the likes of Mohanlal and Mammooty . they were mostly politicians, some social workers , Innocent( a highly popular actor). then there were these shockers.. Adolf Hitler and saddam hussein. but I was most pleased to see AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty with their statuettes in hand. chk out these for more details .article

Quite life like, some of them.

We then went to Bushi dam. Had to walk a bit to reach the dam. Didn’t go all the way. Stopped at a small place where water had collected n Momo was thrilled to watch a lot of small fish there who scrambled for the biscuit crumbs we put in the water.

Then we drove ahead further towards sunset point and on the way, saw a place where lotsa people had parked their cars and were taking a dip in the waterfalls. we too did the same n was so much fun. J n Momo went in fully inside the water while I was happy to just wet my legs and ate yummy corn sitting on the rocks. Don’t get me wrong, I love water and would have jumped in. but there was really no place to change and I couldn’t sit in the car with wet clothes for the next 3-4 hrs. The water was fresh n chill. Momo didn’t wanna get out and we had to literally drag her out.

the fun water place.

Then we went to the sunset point which offered a beautiful view. Mountains all around. Unfortunately didn’t get to see the sun set too well as there were too many clouds.

Momo loved standing and climbing this railing.

There was another view point nearby where a surprise awaited us. There were 2 camels and they were offering camel rides. Unbelievable. I think it was my first camel ride ever. Momo didn’t agree to sit on it and cried. we forced her to sit in between us and I started singing lakdi ki kathi and she soon joined me and her fears were forgotten she was laughing and very happy. The names of the camel were KAran- Arjun. went on KAran, the older one aged 15 years. Arjun was12. Then we sat down to eat a plate of hot kanda bhajia.. yummy. n the chai was delicious. Momo had an entire cup almost.

Came back to the city and stopped at a maganlal chikki shop n I vought chikki n yes...Fudge.. It’s awesome.

Then drove back to Mumbai and Momo slept thru the return till we reached panvel. Stopped at a roadside shop selling these ceramic/mud pots etc. had been planning on buying something for some floating flowers we had bought earlier. Found the right one and picked it up along with a vase. Need to get flowers for it now.

Decided to stop at Vashi itself and let the driver go. Cos it was late and by the time we would reach home pr near pour area, it would b late to go to any restaurant. Did I mention, it was the drivers bde too. What a co incidence. He said he knew 10 more friends of his who were also born on 17th June. I too have a friend with whom I share the my b de and we have been wishing each other evry year for the last 10 years without fail, wherever we are. Anyway, back to dinner. We went to four points, Sheraton. Nice place. Service was ok. But food was yummy. It was Asian cuisine, but they had everything. Momo enjoyed the soup a bit; n placed her order to the waiter herself. PASTA… She said. N she did have a little bit of it too. It was nicely made. N J had ordered fish was done quite well too. J organized a cake and we cut it . It was a nice creamy cake. Momo loved it. Came back home by 12.30, all tired but very happy.

1 candle.. for the blogs 1st bde, eh...

What made it more perfect? My b de gift... a lovely pair of earrings from Swarovski which J had picked up from Amsterdam and which he had hidden in his cupboard all these days. (I dunno how missed it).

N the other gift that I had got exactly 1 month back which I had mentioned in an earlier post. I have always wanted to have a second hole for an earring on top. But I never had the guts to get it done, cos.. emmm.. Im scared of injection/ pain/piercing/blood etc. also my ears are quite sensitive and get festered pretty soon if I wear something constantly. So I wear danglers only when I go out. I had voiced this to J a number of times and he always told me to get it done and it was no big deal. This time we went to a jeweler in Chennai for Pooky's ear piercing ceremony. I busied myself with Momo showing her sound the shop, as J was required to hold Pooky, (mama holding baby in lap custom etc). n before I could even take one round of the shop, the piecing was done(gun shot) and pooky seemed quite calm . She cried a bit but that was cos she was being held forcefully. N it took only a few secs. So J told me it was really simple and to get it done. I still had second thought but then finally decided what the heck. I won’t get such an opportunity again. So I did it. Yes. Now i have a second piercing, that too done on 17th May. 17th..My number. Funny how all these events always happened on these dates. Me n my fixation for dates. I did buy a small gold ring in chennai to change from the gun shot stud. But came back to mumbai and bought another pair of studs like the ones Momo wears cos I liked these better. The rings, they are for you Momo. He he. I always knew I would share stuff with momo interms of may be clothes ( one day maybe in the distant future..) or maybe shoes or accessories. But starting this early.. hmmm. Cool.

2 shiny stars... twinkle twinkle...:)

So thats how the PERFECT day was. don't you think it was perfect too...

Momotales celebrates 1 year...

2010-06-17T02:22:00.001+05:30

... Yeah... Happy Birthday...Happy 1st birthday ... to this blog. It has been a great year. Though i think I have not done justice to it as I had promised in my first post, nevertheless. We are here today, and still alive, kicking and blogging. So pardon the 6 month sabbatical in between. I am pretty happy with how it has shaped up. In terms of the number of posts, the momoirs (milestones, happenings) captured, the contests participated, the challenges achieved, the awards won and the most important... Making new friends. So this post is a big thank you to all of you out there who have been so wonderful and supportive in our journey. Thanks n look forward to seeing you around as always.

The cherry on the cake are these 2 awards I have received from some lovely bloggers. Thanks Priya and NMOTB. and passing it on to all my blog pals who have made this blog even more special.

Oh yes, a happy birthday to me too. J unfortunately is out of town, but will be back in the morning n has promised to take the day off. But with the heavy rains in Mumbai, not really planned anything special. But me n Momo did have a special time a couple of hours back. Momo has been excited abt my bde since J told her yesterday. She kept singing the song as well as saying tomorrow mamma happy bde. Didn’t get a chance to get out n buy a cake. So made one in the microwave. Didn’t turn out exactly spongy, but was edible. Got J on the phone on the loudspeaker, lit a candle, n me n Momo cut the cake with J singing on the phone. Ohh I miss him. But I had my Momo with me so am happy. She was hyper tonight n we had the greatest time waiting for the clock to strike 12, laughing, rolling, playing , me becoming a horse n she riding on my back etc etc. well, hope this year is good too n hope I do the things which I have been planning to. I know writing it out will surely make me do it. But I don’t feel comfortable sharing such personal stuff on this blog. Will mention it in the course of the year as they get accomplished.

To many more posts, meeting new friends, furthering existing ones, more accomplishments n good health and happiness to the star of this blog... Darling Momo.. Cheers...

edited to add: so we get even now, huh.. J gets to celebrate 2 occasions on his bde.. his bde, and our anniv..now i too have 2 events on my b de ..my bde and n this blog's bde. ... :)

Let's start at the very beginning....

2010-06-10T17:01:00.008+05:30

.. a very good place to start..

When you read you begin with.. ABC...

So sang Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music...

(My all time fave song and film)

So here we are, at the beginning of the academic year with something that will be helpful for the little ones to learn the basics ...

Presenting our Alphabet and Number board for this month's Artsy Craftsy Contest- Block Printing.

I have used to following items for the alphabets and numbers.

1) foam alphabets and numbers

2) chart paper/ thick card

3) Sketch pen

4) Paint

5) Plah doh cutter shapes

6) Stamp Art animals

7) Wooden block from a toy

Suitable for : Age 3 +

This is how we made them.

Alphabets

A- Apple - Wooden block toy

B - Butterfly - Play doh cutter

C- Cat – Stamp Art block

D –Dog - Stamp Art

E- Elephant - Stamp Art block

F – Flower – Flower Shape cutter play doh

G- Goat - Stamp Art block

H – Horse - Stamp Art block

I – Ice Cream – wooden block for circle and triangle

J- Joker – potato for face, jisaw puzzle shap for hat, edge of foam blocks for dress

K – Kangaroo - Stamp Art block

L - Lion - Stamp Art block

M – Monkey- Stamp Art block

N – Needle – other end of paint brush

O – Orange –Potato block

P – Pig – Wooden block toy

Q – Alphabet c and I of foam blocks

R- Rabbit - Stamp Art block

S- Star – Triangle of wooden block

T- Train – Wooden block toy

U-Umbrella – Foam Alphabet J, a stencil of a semi circle for the top

V- Vase – a small toy that we got from Kinder chocolate which was in the shape of a vase,Okra flowers

W- Watch – a small round lid for the face, alphabet I for the belt

X- X Mas tree – Potato triangle, Foam Alphabet I for the tree trunk

Y – Yacht – Wooden block toy

Z- Zebra - Stamp Art block – Horse, made black stripes using a fork.

Note : The borders have been made with Okra by Momo , with a little help from me :)

Numbers:

Numbers 1 -5 are made using the cutter that comes along with Plah Doh.

1 – Horse Shape cutter

2- Elephant shape cutter

3- Rabbit shape cutter

4- Butterfly shape cutter

5- Duck shape cutter

6- Star- Potato block

7 – Triangle – Potato Block

8 – Pencil – Potato block

9 – Ball – outer ring of a glue stick lid
10 – Flowers - Okra

The materials we used

From left to right - Wooden block toy, Foam alphabets and numbers, Play doh Shape cutter, Stamp art animals

We had a lot of of fun doing this. i did it mostly when Momo slept, cos she loves paint and loves to spread it all around including doing body art. she loved doing the Okra border above.

My Craft partner J has been travelling a lot this time, hence his inputs were only restricted to suggestions on what item to put for the appropriate alphabet.

Thinking up of blocks for each alphabet was not easy and the toughest was for N. i did a nose forst, then it didnt loklike one. so i made it into a needle and the background now looks like a hay stack.. he he.. similarly for Q, i really couldnt come up with anything so ? mark . I rummaged thru all of Momo's toys and the kitchen to find suitable items.

What a lovely learning this has been. Thanks Shruti for such brilliant challenges.

And my reward.. Momo managed to identify all the items for the alphabets (like apple, butterfly etc, )except for needle, question mark, vase, yacht (she said ship). yay yay yay.

So, now you know your ABC, next time won't you sing with me...

Baarish aa gayi, Baarish aa gayi...

2010-06-07T17:50:00.003+05:30

cham cham cham... cham cham cham.. lekar chata , nikle hum, .. phisal ke gir gaye hum, upar chata , neeche hum....

(sung to the tune of Are you sleeping)

So sang Momo, yesterday, enjoying the first rains in Mumbai. Yes it has been drizzling on n off, but yest was a big downpour we had, for exactly 10 minutes. But that really was nice and Momo enjoyed standing in the window (remember the window), and singing this song, getting wet (not drip wet), n me, I enjoyed the geeli mitti ki khushbu... ummm... (didnt take snaps as were just enjoying)

J came in the morning after having been out for almost the whole of last week. So we went to the BIG park (mahindra park in breach candy) in the evening, cos I wanted to go there once before the rains set in. luckily it was not raining and Momo really had a nice time. was fun to see her stretch , slide, sit on the see saw , blow bubbles (thank god she reminded me abt it just before we left, else I would have been very upset at not remembering to blow it, especially as I had forgotten the bubbles bottle at home and we had come back to pick it up..) , play in the sand. n the sea side was simply superb.nice big waves lashing against the rocks. wowowow. I love the sea. N the best part. We saw a beautiful RAINBOW. It was so lovely. Showed it to Momo, but am not so sure if she could make out the colours etc, .

N the fun didn’t end with this. on our way back, we came via the Bandra worli sea link. yeah... whats yeah abt it. Well it was my first time.. Yes. Unbelievable, but true. I have never been on it. Though I see it everyday from my window (yes the same window mentioned above). Just never had a chance to be on it before. It was nice. All lit up. Momo kept calling it London bridge..Cos that’s the only bridge she knows from her rhymes.

We had planned on eating Chinese outside. But Momo had other plans. She had napped very little in the noon, n all the playing in the park had made her tired(it was very humid too). So she slept off in the car and so we decided to get back home and do home delivery. We ordered stuff on the way itself, so it almost reached by the time we got home. Was nice, except that the gravy was a bit too salty.

All in all a nice Sunday. It again rained a bit this afternoon. N now im just sipping a cuppa masala chai that we bought from Ooty...hmmmm. Nice nice. Oh rains please do continue, cos otherwise it becomes quite humid and sticky. N we mumbaikars need water... so desperately... please please..

Edited to add: this was my 75th post. Platinum jubilee...yayay... n we have also crossed 2000 visitors.. thank you thank you thank you... hurray...

Confusion hi confusion hai, solution kuch pata nahin...

2010-06-06T03:26:00.002+05:30

There is this blogathon going on at Sue's n it’s a real laugh riot out there, along with educating us on the right usage of words/spelling etc. :)

I am no authority on language , but these are my thoughts. (and I am gulity of a lot of errors myself.. but still...)

There are so many instances in everyday life where I come across wrong usage of words/ grammatical errors, misspelled words that it really irks me. I don’t know how, but I manage to spot these errors instantly (for this reason I was given the task of proof reading all the material we had prepared for various presentations/ reading material etc in my previous orgn:)) Each day the newspaper is full of so many errors that I really wonder how all this happens? Don’t they run a spell check? I remember long long ago in the days of DD there used to be a program called: news watch (I think that was the name) Viewers had to point out errors they come across in newspapers and this would be featured on TV and I think they even sent out some prize. I remember our entry being shown a couple of times. And its not just newspapers, I have seen errors in books too and I really feel irritated as to how such a thing happens. A writer has put in so much effort to write a good book and a few spelling mistakes here n there are left uncorrected. This really leaves a bad taste in the mouth and the author loses credibility in front of my eyes. Also, during any presentation I see, my mind invariably searches for some error and believe it or not I always manage to find something most of the time.

Ok, here is some of the stuff which irks me or cracks me up.

1) Pronunciation of the word ASK, Desk, Task as AKS, DEKS, TAKS... it happens ALL THE TIME...

2) During a session of introduction in training progs or presentations, there will at least be one person who says " Myself XYZ ABC, from so and so city/ dept”. (Using my name is...or I am so and so is much better)

3) Haven’t you heard people say "he has gone for MARKETING...??” (Shopping / to the market is what they mean)

Now the following might be region specific. No offense meant to anyone and no intention to hurt any specific community. These are just my observations.

4) I have heard this in the south a number of times. We had gone to someone’s place around tea time and the hostess asked us if we would like to have some DRINKS. It was a shocker, especially as it came from a typical Tam Bram madisaru maami type person. What the person actually meant was hot drinks like coffee/ tea /cocoa/ horlicks. (Or did it mean soft drinks. I am not sure.I think it meant the former only.)

5) I have heard this too in aamchi Mumbai. A friend was telling me the reason for her absence from office. She said, "woh mere uncle off ho gaye the, so I had to take leave". OFF.. OFF.. What a word to use... she meant "demise". Sounds so casual when the word off is used. Like some switch...

That's all for now. :)

(the title is a line from the song "All izz well")

Momoirs- 9

2010-06-04T16:48:00.002+05:30

Am taking a break from writing abt the trip cos I think its time for a momoir... no really, the reason is, i have a draft of the trip lying since last 2 days. Just not been able to finish it as i want to put up snaps n all. So just to fill in, I wanna do this momoir... n it has been time since the last one, isn't it now?

1) What do I start with? Well, Momo speak. Hmmm. there is so much she says on her own, repeats, says in the multiple languages, that i really can’t capture it all. Yes, i must mention her sentences are far longer than 2-3 words and she uses different words well. Not exactly a conversation type, but imp ok with how she expresses herself in situations. Though others still need to get a hang of what she says (she literally whispers when someone else is around, n also some words she uses are typical which only I can understand. sometimes J also doesn’t.)

2) Anything which comes in a plastic packet and she wants it and that requires to be opened, she will run to the kitchen and say, Meheks get scissors. Of cos she can’t reach them, so she will keep standing there till I come and open the packet. She knows there is a pair of scissors in the bedroom/ bathroom, so if she is in that room, she will go and stand near that cupboard.

3) Possessiveness has a whole new meaning. everything is ÿeh mehek ka ball , meks cycle, meks dolly, meheks dress, meks bedsheet, meks pillow, meks computer too. etc etc. u get the idea.

4) A kala tika to this first before I write it. during the trip,u had a few sips of chai from us. After we got back home, I used the same technique to make u finish ur milk. we have succumbed to advertising and Bournvita Líl Champs wins over Junior Horlicks, complan etc. so when I wanted u to try the bournvita, we called it chocolate chai. N it works. Of cos you don’t drink it promptly and make me run around u,but its ok. Am happy.

5) This habit of us doing the act so u do, is very helpful in taking u to the bathroom for susu. Me or dadda need to start the action of running, and you try to out do us. (actually thatha started this trend) .This doesn’t work in eating unfortunately, where you turn into a cow and keep ruminating (is that the word) . You can keep food in ur mouth for so long, it drives me nuts. Please stop this please... n eat fast, my moomoo cow.. n another habit of urs. If ur eating something, chewing endlessly for hours, then suddenly something else catches ur eye, like ur water glass or some other eatable, u just spit out what’s in ur mouth, right where ur standin.. So we need to have a one track focus while eatin. No distractions... hmmmmfff… (dunno how long my patience will last for all this natak of urs..)

6) When u do something on time or on ur own, and u know what our reaction would be, you prompt us and say, "mamma say, mehek very good girl". N if we say, mehek good girl, we get reminded, no very good girl.

7) Its fun to watch ur pretend play these days. You talk endlessly to dolly, teddy and other assorted animals and ask them bread chaiye, want milk, want pani, want to do susu, or or keep them on ur cycle and take them around or just watch you put them on ur lap and make them sleep singing lakdi ki kathi (yes I will go insane soon. My ears r full of this song which plays atleast 5 timesin the noon and ten times at night before u sleep).

8) Your memory amazes me. We had seen Stuart little on chutti tv in coimbatore a couple of times. This afternoon there was Stuart coming on pogo. U took one look at it and said chutti tv chutti tv. It took me a while to realize the connection.u had seen a small boy skating within our complex almost 2 weeks back. Uwere fascinated by that. Today out of the blue you said, Mehek do skating mummy. I asked u to repeat cos I was not sure what u said. We had not used this word skating at all after that day. God knows where and how u remember things. 

9) Dadda is a fan of Rajnikanth (i think most of chennai is...dunno y???) anyways. so dadda taught u to do this action with ur fingers and say Khatam khatam- the way rajni says in the film Baba. You had been trying it for a few days and now can do it effortlessly.

the original BABA

Momo style :)

Thats all for now. Momoir 9, so 9 points.. c ya..

June is here.. Jhinga la la Ho...

2010-06-01T17:22:00.001+05:30

... Hurray, my fave month of the year is here... June... Y fave? For obvious reasons... its my birth month, plus the rains r gonna start soon , plus lotsa new beginnings happen in june,like momo will go back to her play school, i will try and revive my WFH thing , and of cos this blog will also complete a year in June. Isn’t that enuff reason to celebrate this month...?

I know i''ve been missing from all the blog action in May. But I did mention I was on a holiday right. Well. The holiday was great, came back to Mumbai almost 12 days back, but somehow was just not able to sit and blog. Did read a few blogs but was gen feeling too lazy to update. Anyways, now the time for excuses is over and here we are. Back in action. Thanks Swaram for your comment yest that kinda pushed me to get up this morning and blog first. (posting it only now in evening...)

So anyways, lemme update on the happenings in may firstly. As in my last update (not the termocol craft one, but this.), J joined us in CBE on 8th night (Saturday). Then Tuesday monring,11th i.e. we took off for a holiday to Ooty. Yes I have been to Ooty a couple of times earlier, but this was the closest from cbe and we managed to get acco here easily, thanks to my sis. . N it was the first time for Momo. This was a lovely holiday. Peaceful, comfortable, lovely weather, great stay, etc etc. all in all a good holiday. Momo had a whale of a time. Plan to do an Ooty post separately, so details later.

Then, from Ooty, came to cbe on 14th noon and took the night train to chennai. Went to Chennai for the mottai/ mundan ceremony of momo's cousin Pooky (J's sis kid). Again, the Chennai trip was quite a good one as we managed to meet up a lot of friends and relatives from both sides. the scorching heat was the only negative. n the rain gods heard us and poured down on the day we left for the airport.. ha ha.

Came back home and J's sis family came back with us and stayed for a week. dunno how the week went by cos I have no clue . Did a sudden trip to shirdi over the weekend with them and it was a beautiful darshan that we got. It was Saibaba''s call I guess s that made it possible. Cos we have toyed with the idea of going three some other times earlier but never ended up going.

After Pooky n family left, this last week also zipped by, doing nothing. Oh yes, we did watch Shrek with Momo and she enjoyed it. It was3D, but she refused to wear the glasses. She was such a darling and sat quietly thru out the film on J's lap and sometimes I was so engrossed in the film that I even forgot she was ther. I eman she was so quiet. We went for the 4.30 pm show thinking she would sleep in the hall (didn’t let her sleep in the noon at home). But she as wide awake thru out. once the theatre became dark and even before we could tell her or it would come on the screen she said, jana gana mana... n in the next ten secs the screen showed jana gana mana. What timing momo. Amazing.

And I must mention, due to my negligence, Momo got a bad hurt on her face, very close to her right eye. I did not promptly wipe off the susu she did near the bed thinking she would not come that side as it was 12 in the night. But madam was in a playful mood and while jumping up and down the bed she slipped on the water and hit her face on the side of the bed. The right eye swelled up, became a bit blackish but luckily the eye was saved. But we did take u to he hosp in the dead of the nigh at 1 am just to ensure all was ok as it was so close to the eye. Thankfully doc ruled out any internal injury and just gave some pain killer. Now it’s much better. Thank god for everything... n so sorry momo for being careless.

N to sum up, a few points i wanna mention abt the trip, holiday etc..

1) I may have borne Momo inside for 9mths and then fed her n all that . But her closeness or should I say clinginess to J was a sight to watch for. I was completely non existent for Momo during the whole trip. It was J for everything and I mean everything (yes including the bummy wash after th big job) she would howl if i even came close to her. I must say I quite enjoyed this freedom, much to J's disapproval. N she kept saying, "ÿeh mera dadda hai"to anyone who tried to come close to J or to try and take her away or something. She still clings to him now too at home after he comes back home from work but that’s ok.

2) I need to learn to travel light... we went with 2 suitcases and 1 bag and 1 hand bag.n we came back with double the number of items all stuffed to the brim and bursting at the seams. Momo got soem gifts which we had to carry back n I did just a wee bit of shopping.no not clothes, just some decorative stuff for the home.

3) Momo's food habits went for a toss (that was expected). Cheese was the staple diet with a little idli and dosa thrown in and some only rice if she wished to eat. But she did take a liking to dosa during this trip, which earlier she would not eat.. n sometimes would gobble up idlis too.. Cream from cream biscuits, some lays chips, or banana chips and gems occasionally and water loads of water helped keep this kid up and running. But she showed no sign of fatigue or any such thing. I also didn’t worry too much cos I knew this would happen and left her... she woudl eat if she wanted too. No point force feeding her in a strange place, in front of strange people etc . It would only result in a scene.

4) Momo was crazy abt bubbles earlier too, but her craze reached greater proportions this time. As at every tourist spot, the Chinese have bombarded us with these bubble boxes. So we could not go to any spot with out buying a box of bubbles. N Momo would slow us down by stopping every now and then to blow bubbles. Bubbles in the car, bubbles in the room, bubbles while eating, bubbles while walking... n she would sing this song too... bubbles bubbles evrywhere, what do u do up in the air. Taking fairies from place to place and disappearing without a trace... not sing the full song, but bits of it)

5) Got tired of seeing and showing moomoo cow, ba ba and horsie to momo. The hills had loads of them and they provided good distraction if momo threw a tantrum.

6) We have made a pledge. No traveling to Chennai in summer. Never again. yes,am saying this despite J being a chennaiite etc. he thing is, we go for 3-4 days and have 50 visits and end up traveling too much in the hot sun. It drains you totally. n Momo, this time suffered a diaper rash cos of the heat.. Yes.. First time in 2 years, she had a red bottom. So we let her diaper free whenever we went to anyone’s house. Only put on the diaper if we were going to a place where we knew bathroom would not be easily accessible.

7) I got my bde gift exactly a month in advance.n it was a surprise too. will mention more abt it in a few days time..

signing off with a couple of my fave snaps of the trip.

At Lambs Rock point, Coonoor

At Doddabetta

Thermocol Photo Frame

2010-05-10T20:21:00.003+05:30

Here is our submission for this months Artsy Craftsy Competition - May.

Thermocol Photo Frame.

Age: 4-7 , adult help needed for cutting thermocol., painting decoration can be done by kids.

Materials
1. Thermocol Sheet
2. Colour - Paint/ sketch Pens
3. Glitter/ Sequins / any other decoration item
4. Fevicol, cutter
5. a Photo of your choice
6. Board pins/ Drawing Pins
7. Thread/ rope to hang

Method
1.Cut a thermocol piece to be used as a base according to the design you want to make and also leave some space for the photograph
2. Cut out alphabets of your choice/ initials/ names/ words etc. from thermocol
3. Paint it/ decorate as per your choice. let it dry
4. stick it on to your base using fevicol. decorate the background sheet as required
5. use drawing pins to pin up your favourite snap
6. hang a thread so you can hang it on a wall, or just let it rest on a table.
7. Voila, your photo frame is ready.

In addition, you can use the alphabets in a number of ways. stick a magnet behind it, and put it on a steel cupboard or fridge. or just the alphabet can be stuck on a cupboard to indicate kids name etc. I'm quite tempted to make some more and stick them once i go back to Mumbai.

Another idea is this can just be a board and can be used to stick post it notes or any such thing. a thermocol can be used effectively as notice boards with some decoration as pins can be used on it.

Me n my man friday for crafts, J, who came in time was pestered to help and he obliged thankfully. we make a great team i must say. me for the ideas and J for the implementation. touchwood. :)

A for Amma, M for Mamma

2010-05-09T03:21:00.001+05:30

Yes.. It means the same.. For me it’s the former, and for Momo, it’s the latter.

Today being Mothers days and all, I thought maybe I too should add my two bit to this.

Well, we have never really celebrated Mothers day or any such thing. But I do remember what I did exactly 10 years back. Yes, in 2000. I was doing my summer internship at TOI and that was the time Mothers day concept and all was coming in. so the newspaper had invited readers to put in their messages for their mother. I think I got to do it for free cos of my summers. So anyway, I did put in a msg and it did get published and my mom was quite thrilled. Not that it was in the papers, but cos the msg was special. Heres what I had written I think. "Dear Mammochaka, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Happy Mother’s day. from V-chaka (my sis name) and S- chaka(my name). Ok. What’s the story behind this?

It’s quite simple. My mom was a teacher once, for a few years. I think this was a story in the English text book. Balbharti or something. For some junior class. This was a Russian tale by the name "my mother is the most beautiful woman in the world". A gist of the story. There was a small girl called Varyachaka, who used to go with her mom to the fields every day. One sunny day, Varya was tired and went to sleep in the field. Soon it was dark and time to go home. Varyas mother looked for her everywhere, but couldn’t find her and thought she must’ve headed home and so left the field. Varya woke up later and started crying as she was lost. She somehow managed to reach a place and tell the people there she was lost. So the village elders tried to help her find her mother. when they asked varya what was the name of her mother or to describe her, little varya only said that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. So all the beautiful women of the village were brought in and varya was asked to find her mother. but varya just nodded no and kept crying for her mother. Finally a woman came along and when varya saw her, she was overjoyed. it was her mammochaka. The village people were puzzled. What they saw in front of her was nothing beautiful. This was a very ordinary looking lady with very simple features. the villagers were stunned and asked varya that she did not describe her mother properly. It was then that some wise man said. For a child, the mother is always the most beautiful. Irrespective of her height, colour, features etc. then everyone understood and were amazed to see the innocence of the statement. Varya and her Mammochaka were united and they went off happily .

What’s the connection? Well, my mom had told us this story and it had stuck in my mind and we would often call my mom mammochaka etc for r fun. so I decided to put my msg in the paper using these names. cool na.

So anyways, the moral is yes, my mother is the most beautiful woman in this world. And I am forever thankful to her. She is the sole reason for me to be in this current state of life. I mean happily married. Had she not stood by me, I would have never gone ahead. And I thought she was the weakest link and she would be the first person to object. In fact it was the other way round. Dad came around only on my mom’s insistence. Amma, u may never read this, but I owe my life to you for this.

N of cos the fact that you have always been there for us makes u even more special. I was always a mommy's girl. my sis was daddy's. (Is that the case with all first born girls?) People would compare my looks to my mom, my nature to my mom. I was always the softer, more docile types like mom, than my sis who was more assertive/ aggressive.

I am so proud of you amma, the way you are. U r unique. You don’t wish to be like others, you are forever helping, you don’t hurt anyone, and you are so gentle and kind always. Even if I could be half as what you are, I would be happy.

N Amma, I really dunnno what I would have done if not for you. you (i.e both you and dad) were there during my first 3 months of pregnancy, helping me handle all the nausea, work etc. then you again came back during my last 3 months, and cooked all my fave things etc and pampered me to the fullest. And stayed on for 3 more months after Momo was born. And of cos you were there for us when I went back to work after the maternity break, to take care of Momo.

I know I have hurt you often and have my shortcomings. Will try to work on them surely and hope you will be proud of me too. As I used to feed Momo or do everything for Momo, I used to often wonder how you managed it all in those days. 2 kids, joint family, cooking, cleaning, etc etc. but I think you did very well, cos today both of us are well settled and have our own lives.

You lost your mother when you were quite young and im sure that had an impact on you. But you showered us with all your love always and never left any stone unturned in our upbringing.

So amma, thanks for everything and wish you a very happy happy mother’s day. Today and every day.

Our whole family loves this song so thought it apt to put it here.

The Mom Song - Momo loves watching this. And as a kid she would automatically clap towards the end.

My Mother,

Is like no other,

With her around, we need not bother,

She binds us all together, forever,

Will I ever be like her?

Momo, I hope to be a better mother, so you too may say some day, "that your mother is the most beautiful woman in the world".

And a very happy Mothers day to all my fellow blogger mothers. each is unique and a sukh - dukh ka saathi. god bless and smile always. :)

also, am adding the indusladies banner here. as well as giving a link to the e book of mommy bloggers. have fun. enjoy and discover newer mommies.

Momoirs - 8

2010-05-08T20:27:00.000+05:30

Another one.. So soon. .. Well, after I finished the last one, remembered that there were many more things to write. Didn’t want to keep editing. So writing before I forget. Also today is 8th. so 8th momoir on 8th. Me n my co incidences. huh...

1) colors: I mentioned last time ur obsessed with colours and you like to mention the colour of whatever u see and u identify things also with the respective colours. So if u see a brown colour cow, ur not happy till u see a white colour cow or a black colour moo moo cow. Same goes for dog, sheep etc.. u wanna see all the colours. u have given a new name to an item . Can anyone guess what is white gems? well its, kalkand/ misri/ small sugar blocks.. Ma gave some to you and you wanted more. u didnt know the name for it so, u said "aur chaiye, white colour gems" . Shoes are also referred to by colours and u wanna wear only that particular colour shoe and no other. u get ur homeo pills in those small boxes which have diff colour caps each time they give us. right now it’s a green colour cap. so u want geen colour dava. daddas medicine is a blue colour cap, so dadda blue colour dava.

2) what’s the time? ten thirty... yes that’s the ans u will get if u pose this ques to momo. I dunno from where u picked it up but it’s a constant response anytime of the day . I have to mention, dadda bought a small kiddie watch for u from his hong kong trip last time which we gave u at mid night on ur b de. We just casually asked u for the time n u blurted ten thirty.. N it has stuck.. Dunno whats the fascination.. n u say thirty more like thiitee...

3) Wanted to also mention here what we did at midnight for ur b de. It’s not actually a momoir, but never the less. dadda had bought a mava cake, kayani cake to be precise that u love. There was no happy bde msg or anything on it. I was wondering how to write ur name atleast on it. Suddenly dadda mentioned the word gems in some other context n it struck me to use gems on the cake so. I wrote an M with the gems(M n M) n u loved it. We cut the cake with u singing happy bde song, feeding everybody the cake etc. nice midnight fun we had.

M written with M n M, new Fire truck Tee at midnight

Having my cake and eating it too, (the winnie pooh on table is a towel actually, the green colour wrapping is the b de gift- the watch)

4) I dunno how but u manage to sing the apt song at the right time. u see a horse and u spontaneously sing "lakdi ki kathi", u saw the peacocks the other days and started singing " nani teri morni", u see sheep and sing ba baa (thats obvious), u see a mouse (not real, a toy) n u sing hickory dickory dock, u see birds and u sing, chun chun karti aayi chidiys, u see aloo(potato) and sing alu kachaloo, u see dolly and sing, miss molly, u see ka ka - crow and sing ka ka shriek the crow from karadi rhymes, u see monkey and sing bandar, bindaas bandar, again karadi. U take an umbrella and sing rain rain go away. or even when it started raining that day, u started singing the same song. n there are more such instances.

5) u have been taking a toy to the dining hall every day. one day its a doll, one day its winnie, one day its a boat , one day an elephant.

6) u like dismantling everything given to u. ma gave u some wooden thing, not really a toy, it was fixed to a base. in no time u had pulled it all out. piece by piece.

7) ur sentences are improving and ur stringing more words together to make full sentences. in both, tamil, hidni, english all mix.

8) I dunno how u manage to spot things we have hidden from u.(not really hidden, but have been lazy to keep it inside, so just lying around) be it a bar of soap, or some tooth picks or some other such random stuff.

9) I dunno y, but u wanna hold someones hand while eating. be it mine/ thathas// daddas/ paati anyone. Even while drinking milk. u keep saying, kai koodu(give hand).. u used to do this when u used to drink form bottle. U always wanted to hold a hand. Then u had stopped. but now, here, while eating u wanna hold n eat. I dunno what security u get.

10) u have started expressing emotions like, scared, sad, happy etc. u keep saying mamma mile( for smile, sometimes its smile) , u know its hot, its spicy, its very cold, its yummy, its tasty, it’s very nice , it’s not nice, etc etc.

11) Someone just gifted u a small battery operated car and u had a fun time running it all around our complex and laughing like crazy. Such a small thing gave u so much happiness.

I know there are some more stuff. But will write later. A big touchwood to all.

Dadda is gonna be here in some time n its gonna be great fun . Hurray. Meeting after 7 days. Not a very long gap, but well, each day matters. We are off on a summer holiday (looovvve this song by Cliff Richard.. my childhhod song:) on Tuesday morning to the hills. Lets c if I can manage one more post before that, otherwise.. Adios amigos.

Momoirs - 7

2010-05-06T18:20:00.000+05:30

Yeah yeah, momoirs time again, but this is a kovai special. Of all the unforgettable things u have done/ started doing here in Coimbatore with TP.

1) This morning, u picked up an empty bucket, put it on ur head n guess what song u were singing??? Yes, the one and only - All izz well.. I didn’t see u jiggling ur bum like AK, but the fact that u remembered this step from the song and enacted it so spontaneously was really funny. When TP asked u to repeat the act, u sang all other songs except this one. hmmm.. Golden words not repeated, eh.

2) Paati was praising u for being a good girl and having a bath, putting powder and a nice fresh dress and unknowingly compared it to the dolly who was dirty and not had a bath. What did u do next? When no one was watching, u went with dolly to the bathroom and dunked her into the bucket full of water n said.. dolly nau nau... oh ho.. Difficult to say anything to u now, u take things so literally.

3) yest we managed to see the following animals/ birds and you were delighted : 8 peacock and pea hen on the terraces opposite. Flying from one terrace to the other, making sound, their feathers spread. Lovely sight. tho not very clear as there was a ledge, but u managed to see. Then went with Paati to see moo moo cow (saw some 5-6 of them), innumerable doggie, a couple of cats, some chicken and rooster. no horsie, cos horsie had gone for grazing.

4) With the sudden showers, there was a little water logging in and around. So we made the best of it and made a lot of paper boats and sailed them in the water. Great fun. (For me definitely, hope it was for u too)

5) U have started showing off ur knowledge of colours very well these days. u call a person, blue colour aunty (if wearing blue colour sari) or any other colour, u want to drink geen colour juice in the evenings after play (khus juice) or red colour juice (rose sherbet). U want white colour milk (no yellow colour-- thatha was drinking haldi doodh, or brown colour, ur boiurnvita. u havnt had a sip of it. ) . U want milk in onange colour cup only. u want only white colour rice n no dal. U wear any dress and u have to comment on the colour. very very amusing. n yes, white colour light, yeloow colour, blue colour for the diff colour bulbs and light that u want while sleeping. u have been sleeping only if the white light is on.

6) U has been getting gifts here. The other day, my moms cousin s family had come from chn for lunch n they got u some gifts . lego blocks and putting some shapes inside a blue elephant. u had the shapes figured out instantly. n the smart cookie that ur, instead of putting the shapes one by one in the slot, u tried to open the panel from the bottom and put them all in together. The blocks are great, cos i didnt bring them from mum cos they were too bulky. n someone also gifted a magenta colour monkey, curtain monkey.(u hav been tryign to pronounce this colour now, but it sounds like medicine types.) u make it say namaste etc by sticking the velcro together.

7) u wake up in the morning n if u don’t see thatha n paati u ask for them.. v thatha kahaan, or B paati kahaan. N yes u have done the unthinkable. u call B paati as B paati, a couple of times n if she doesn’t respond or look at u, u call her B.. As in her name. The way my dad calls her or others call her. n u do the same for thathas name too, but for paati u do it quite consistently. n the cheek u have, after u have called her just B, u also add,, nooo, B paati bolo, or B paati sollu (the way i admonish u or correct u. copy cat..)

8) u like sitting near thatha when he does pooja (sandhi) and play with the water etc. n u love putting the dava (vibhuti) on everyones forehead.

9) it’s a game for u. u take ur eyes to a corner and look at us from t he corner n keep smiling. I dunnow here u learnt this. thatha says that u both were playing one day n he did this or something like that. It’s too cute.

10) There are a lot of insects and big black ants. so u like to bend down and look at them from close quarters without being scared they will bite u. u even lie down on the floor completely to have a better look. an environmentalist u gonna be is it??

11) The dolly that u dunked in the water, in point no. 2 is actually my sis dolly. so its like some 30 + years old. n my mom has safely kept it. It’s from Germany actually. In those days, getting a foreign toy was so special so that has been preserved. I fail to understand y my sis didn’t play with it. Even more surprising is, y wasn’t I given the toy to play with. mamma, not faair.. I demand an explanation for being deprived now.. Well. May be for this day only. Cos momo loves playing with it. n its great to see the next generation use it.

12) cycle, swing are all being used to the point of a break down. no no. am just kidding.

13) U need ur daily dose of you tube songs also when thatha sits on the laptop, n u have started singing newer songs which I have never heard.. like aalo kachaloo, main to so rahi this, n some tamil songs like dosai amma, kai veesamma etc. this dosai amma song has been very helpful in getting u to eat dosai. u were not a fan of dosa so much in mumbai. But here u like it n eat it singing this song. n thee song , chun chun karti aayi chidiya - u say su su karti aayi chidiya.. it so funny. u say susu n I think u wanna go, n then u sing the rest of the song. Naughty girl.

14) Eating has been quite ok. u have a little bit of roti/ parathaa at home and u have rice with us at the common hall. kala tikka to that. n milk too is going down the throat using new smaller tumblers n other distractions.

15) a bit of cold and cough has been there since we reached here, but it has not stopped u from doing all ur masti. u want ur kapees, kappees the minute ur nose runs. (kappees = kerchief)

16) I usually tell u the name of the city where dadda has gone n this time u said.. Amsterdam so cutely... someone in a conversation mentioned the place Delhi.. n u spontaneously said.. dadda amster-- dam.. the connection was, u usually say dadda - delhi office, so when u heard Delhi, u rem dadda and said amsterdam.

17) u saw dadda on skype yest at home n u were a bit confused. u are used to seeing TP from there. So this setting was a change. u showed dadda ur cycle n told him all that u ate/ did.

18) U go everyday to see the fish kept in a tank at someone’s house. Not a tank but more like a pond. n put food there. we are still to go and see the aquarium.

19) u know the way around the houses a bit n the minute u see the door open u scoot. irrespective of whether u wearing chappals/ clothes/ chaddi. U just take off in a sprint. Poor paati really cant catch u.

20) Thank god the fridge here has a lock. But sometimes when the fridge has not been locked, u have raided and managed to find ur cheese.

21) tantrums have been quite manageable and within control. U understand and do what we say. Yes there are spume meltdowns but not really any bad episode. Sleep times have been ok. No real pattern. But manageable as I say.

22) but ur clingy. to me, TP. soem one comes near u n u start sayign mamma mamma. they just have to back off. u dont let them touch u, or if they speak to u, u cry / whine/ keeping calling mamma dadda.u dont answer them but u just say mummy mummy. i dunno if this is normal for other kids. but im beginning to worry. is this soem kinda insecurity. i hope this passes soon. if this continues, i donnu how im gonna get back to working shortly as planned.

23) all said n done u r a charmer. n people are very thrilled to see u say and do the things u do. at times u speak to them nicely , when im there n i prompt u. some one remarked, u speak quite a bit for a 2 year old n soem one said, ur a sweet baby n listens to all and quite sharp etc. my dolly, am so proud of... nazar na lage. paaati doing nazar utarofy almost daily.. he he.

That was one long momoir. What to do. So many things u do sweetie that I don’t wanna forget.

Ciao now. dadda is coming in a couple of days n we are all going on a holiday soon , I mean like a holiday destination. So get well soon I mean, the cough n cold bit n enjoy...

Momo in TP wonderland

2010-05-03T12:25:00.000+05:30

... TP as in thatha - paati..

Yes, we are on a break and Momo is thoroughly enjoying all the pampering by her doting grandparents. Not just hers, but by about as many as 50-60 grandparents. Am not kidding. my folks stay in a senior citizens complex (the link is an article by the promoter) and Momo is the youngest guest here at this point of time and everyone wants to speak to her, ask her name, ask her if she has eaten, ask her the name of her school, ask her who her friends are, ask her to come to their house, give her chocolates, biscuits and so on and so forth. though Momo has not shown much anxiety,( she doesn’t go to strangers at all)she has been smiling, shaking hands, doing Namaste, telling them her name a million times and gen answering their ques(singing lakdi ki kathi when anyone asks her to sing). , but she doesn’t easily go into others houses, n needs to look around and see me, or her TP.

Her highness wish is her TP's command, the minute we entered home momo looked around and she said, mera cycle kahann.so thatha promptly went and bought a cycle the next day for her (was raining on the day we reched hence didnt go on same day) n momo i was amazed to see u decide on what u want so early in life. When asked what colour cycle u want, u kept saying geen colour cycle.. N luckily for us, we found a geen colour cycle and how u love riding it. The day we bought it, u refused to get off from it. U wanted to keep riding it. U didn’t even let us put it in the car and bring it home. On the way home, we had to stop at another paatis house and u were so restless and kept saying cycle cycle thru out . It’s a decent cycle. Not like the one u have in Mumbai, but not bad. It serves the purpose n ur able to pedal it, tho u want someone to keep pushing it from time to time.

then, thatha has also got a jhula fixed for his little kiddo. It was lying in someone else’s house and thatah managed to bring it and fix it on our porch and well, since the time jhula got fixed, cycle has been temporarily forgotten. (Not totally) the jhula was fixed a little high initially so it was scary to leave u alone unattended adn u couldn’t climb on and off by ur self. Then we adjusted and brought it down and well, now u wanna be there the whole day. Eat food, drink milk, read book keep ur soft toys and dolls on it and play. This is like yesterday once more, cos i rem in my childhood, there was a swing in my maternal grand pas house in Chennai and we all cousins used to have a great time on that. n there was an even bigger jhula in our ancestral home (dads side) and the only attraction to go to this house used to be the jhula. So I’m glad Momo is enjoying all this too. We are putting the jhula to another use though, of bribing u. well, if u don’t do something or refuse something like going for bath or finishing milk etc, we say that we will take away the jhula or cycle n u run and do the task. Right now this is working lets c how long.

There is a common kitchen here for all the residents and u have been sweetly coming to the dining area and sitting along with us and eating off the plantain leaf. U eat rice, idli, dosa etc and have nto made too much fuss. I also come back home and give u a little rice or whatever to complete the meal as u dot have too much there. N in the hot sunny noon, u go with thatha and bring tea form the hall for all of us. N u has started drinking tea too. Very bad very bad mommy. Well, just a few sips, so it’s ok.

Ur routine is still haywire. U didn’t sleep the whole aft n sleep at 5 pm and then have a late night. But today u woke up early in morning so I’m hoping u do go for Ur nap on time.

U also went and fed bananas to the cows nearby. N there are a lot of flowers that u like to go and see admire. N there is a small rabbit farm nearby. Plan to go there and also to a park nearby. May be today/ tom.

Yes, dadda is being missed a lot, but we are managing.

More updates soon.

Zoo,Zoo Zoo and Zoobi Doobi

2010-04-30T01:21:00.000+05:30

... finally the fin, the end, finito, Khallas, Khatam . its time for Z... n lots of Zsss too, as i have spent many a night wondering what to write the next day or have written posts at the tick of 12, when i knew i would not get time the following day. n of cos, i am off to my folks place in the morning and there i will definitely catch up on Zss and a whole lota things.

a good thing we did was we went to the zoo last weekened. we did go abt 3 weeks earlier too, but to our luck, we reached the counter at 6.18 pm and the counter closed at 6.15 pm. despite our pleas to allow a teeny weeny baby who had come all the way, they did not budge. had to bring back a disappointed momo , but well, she didnt really remember. so this weekend, we decided we would go early n make the most of it.

we managed to reach by 5 .15 this time n took our time seeing all animals, n had fun. but the condition of the zoo isnt that great, so it wasnt really all that fun. the animals were old, few in number and mostly sleeping. yup, monkey, hyena, bear, rhino, hippo, crocodile, python, all sleeping, curled up in their cages. the heat was too much for them i guess. these are what we saw, awake and kicking. deer, lots of them, neelgai, birds, some snakes which moved, black swan, one croc moved, elephant (kept in a far away enclosure after an incident happened recently). waited for the rhino n hippo to surface but they didnt. they moved abt a bit and one hippo did somersaults in the water, but really didnt come out of the water. we had gone to the zoo similarly last year in March 09, when momo was less than a year. that time we were lucky to see the rhino n hippo both of which cam out of the water and paraded in front of us. have put up some snaps from last years trip.

i wish the govt would really spend soem money and make it a first class place, rather than wasting money on stupid rallies and other non value adding stuff.

enjoy the snaps.

Teddy Bear sleeping

Moomoo cow- neel gai

Hyena too sleeping

Oh Dear Deer (thats how Momo smiles when you ask her to smile for the camera)

2 Hippos sleeping in water

Rhino sleeping too

Hippo awake (last years snap)

Rhino Strolling (last years snap)

Python, of cos curled up and sleeping

on the topic of Zoo Zoo, what can i say, except that i was quite disappointed with the Zoozoos this time around. he ads were just not catchy or funny. the first lot last year during IPL was fresh, hilarious and stayed on in our minds. hope they get their act back soon.

Watch some Zoozoo ads here .

n of cos, Zoobi Doobi is a big time fave with Momo n she loves watching the song on youtube or listening to it on fm or fone. have mentioned this earlier also.

ciao folks. Coimbatoor, here we come. all my bags are packed and i'm ready to go... (ooh i love this song...).hope the journey is smooth as me n Momo r travelling alone. more posts from thatha paati land.. bye bye. :)

Yabba Dabba dooo

2010-04-29T09:37:00.001+05:30

.... that was from one of my fave cartoon shows "the Flintstones". I used to love watching this show. The pre historic times, the antics of fred and barney, the cute kids , Pebbles and bam Bam . Nice catchy jingle. The movie wasn’t that great , but movie adaptations of cartoons or books are never the same.

Since we are on a nostalgia trip, lemme also mention some other faves I had as a kid.

Fairy (Faerie Tale thea---tre), ya that’s how the host would pronounce in her American accent, was much loved and eagerly looked forward to on DD during school days. The adaptation of kiddie fairy tales was quite well presented.

Fraggle Rock: do you rem this. I think it used to come on Saturdays. The names of characters are still fresh in my memory - boober, mookey, Wembley, gobo, red fraggle .. ( I havnt googgled to chk if these are correct. am just relying on my memory) loved the opening song. found it on youtube too.

I have the Power...He MAN... oh great fun. skeletor and orko and all the other characters.

Jungle Book : jungle jungle baat chali hai... what a catchy song that is. still love it. shown momo the song a coupla times. She too liked it. We used to add some other lyrics and makeup our own songs also on this tune. Simple tale, told neatly.

Jamie and the magic torch: i dont rem this exactly, but I think there used to be a show like this.

The Simpsons : this is all from the time star tv and all came I think. not a regular watcher, but I used to like it.

Ninja turtles : the pizza loving,crime fighting turtles were fun to watch, after coming back from school

Spiderman: oh ya, how can I forget. watching the Rasna ad before spider man on sundays was a most looked forward to activity

Street Hawk : the man , the machine, Street hawk. well, what can I say, bring on the super heroes, yeah...

of cos, I really wont be able to stop once I start abt shows like "Different Strokes, Small Wonder, The Wonder Years, Dooggie Howser MD , BeverlyHills 90210 and a couple of others. They were all that my teenage years were made up of.

I have to mention, that we didn’t have cabel for a longtime and in those days, I used to satisfy myself by just reading the program guide and knowing what comes when till we pestered my parents to take cable.

Apart from TV, books and comics were quite integral of my childhood. be it classics like Little women, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, agatha Christie, to comics like Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Chandamama, Target, Phantom, mandrake, to the Famous 5, Secret 7, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew , reading was encouraged a lot at home. Sadly,now I hardly read. Not that I dont have time, its just the habit is kinda gone. I do read on and off, but would surely like to read more. But its blogging that’s eating into my space right now. Oh how do I balance both...?

I dunno how much Momo will read . But I hope she does. She isn’t into watching too much cartoon yet. Just a few mins/ half hour duirng meals either chota bheem or cbeebies or her cd's. not addicted to ben10 and ninja hatoris of the world. I will know in some time I guess where her preferences lie.

I dunno what I started with writing and where I have ended up. Anyways, I had to make up something for Y.. Finally, tomorrow is the last day n then I will be done with... hurray...

X- cellent Report card

2010-04-28T16:31:00.001+05:30

... yes, thats what Momo's annual school report card says in most categories. went to pick it up a couple of days back, n here's what it says : mostly E in categories like cognitive skill, social devpt, language devpt, number skill, creative skill, writing skill, music and dance, rhymes. there are a few G-Good in some categories, but the teacher said,she ahs been overall excellent. though she started young, and was very clingy, she then became a bit independent and then towards the end started doing masti too. she would eat her tiffin too on her own for items like bread,pasta,idlis. the teacher would feed/help for items like upma/poha which ahd to be eaten by spoon. and Momo won 2 prizes too. 1st prize for Fancy dress competition - remember Sania Mirza and consolation prize for poetry competition (she said twinkle twinkle it seems). well,it was a good year, and she will continue in the same pre school next year too. before we head on out to the Big school.

Winged Wonders

2010-04-27T14:08:00.004+05:30

Awwright, I have really nothing to write on W, so just cooked up this.

Say Hello to Rosie Rosella. She has come to life recently in our house, after being shut inside the cupboard for almost 2 years. Well, J had picked this up at Dubai airport, sometime in June 08. We had planned on putting it up at our earlier house, especially at that time Momo might have enjoyed its swinging motion as she was a new born then. But some how never got around to getting it fixed, and also there really was no open space as such to fix it. But I had decided that we will definitely put it up in this new house and well, though we put it up almost 4mths after moving to this house, still, better late than never. N its wow. Momo loves it, and sometimes when she is too cranky or crying etc, we just switch on Rosie and she moves around fluttering her wings and wow, Momo smiles. It was a big hit during the party too when the kids loved watching its motion.

Flight of Rosie

This is another birdie we found on the eve of Momo's bde in the market. This was a bird handmade out of some leaves. This was so cool, but kinda expensive(40 bucks). But real creative and artistic, I thought.

the Birdie from leaves

These birds we bought from an exhibition. It was a longer string with more birds, but now finally only these remain.

On the subject of birds, I remembered the Jurong Bird Park that we visited during our Singapore trip. It was a lovely experience. The Birds and buddies show was quite awesome. N the park is so spread out and has such a nice variety. A treat to watch. Must take Momo there once she grows up a bit more. Some snaps from the trip.

We once visited an Aquarium in Vile Parle area. I actually dont know the name of the place. Hidden in one corner, it’s not in a great shape. But it has some nice fish n lots of ducks. You can feed the ducks bread pieces. Its great fun. The turtle, duck and fish all scramble for the bread when you throw it in the pond. I wish they would maintain it well. But quite a nice spot to take the kids. These are some fotos from that trip.

Emu Hawk

Duck and Turtle

And we finally went to the Zoo this Saturday. Will do a full zoo post later, but just wanted to mention the birds we saw here. Quite a nice collection of birds they have. I was actually surprised to see them. A white peacock and pea hen, have you ever seen that? N these hornbills and flamingoes. Wow. Momo was quite pleased to see these birds.(sorry pics,not very clear)

White peacock Flamingoes

Hornbill

We always have a lot of birds coming home; I mean the pigeons and crows. In our earlier house in Mumbai, a month afer Momo was born, a pigeon had laid eggs near the window. The pigeons hatched n off they flew. Then again as soon as we shifted into this new house, we had a pigeon laying eggs again n the birds hatched and flew away. Momo used to love standing near the window and watching the mamma/ father sit on the eggs endlessly. She would try to get a glimpse of the eggs but the birds would rarely leave their postion. I didn’t take pics unfortunately (I mean I had taken the last time, but just cant seem to find the fotos. ) . N Momo used to love looking at the birds and say “biddeee aajaaoo”, ever so sweetly.

Vettri , Victory, Visitor from foreign shores and First ever Awards and Rank

2010-04-26T16:41:00.001+05:30

A quick post on the great Vettri or Victory of namma chennai super kings... am so thrilled they held their nerve and outdid the formidable Mumbai Indians in the final of IPL -3

And Yes, i went to watch it.. LIVE... with J and... Momo... yeah.. she must be the youngest in blogosphere and definitely in my family to watch a cricket match live.. was a last minute thing as J got tickets only by 2 pm and was not possible to cal my folks who were at sis place and so we didnt have a choice but to take her with us. i know there were the hazards of taking a child there,in terms of crowd, fear of stampede/ bomb blast ( mumbai being home ground n all - am i being too negative),too much noise, lights, heat etc whcih might scare a kid.. but, i am proud to say Momo was quite well behaved. but she stuck to J like fevicol for the entire time,making him carry her, not sitting on chair but on his lap,not coming to me or my cousin who had accompanied us too. J really was most patient and pampered his DD despite his backaches and pains... but post the chennai innings,momo was a little bit more settled and she cam and sat near me, ate her dinner (roti) and kept smiling and touching a small bhaiyya sitting near her. she kept clapping whenever we got upto cheer the chennai team. yes, we also cheered the mumbai team, cos Momo essentially would be a mumbaikar(being born in mumbai and all) . it was a great experience. n the cherry on top was the chennai teams victory... to watch Dhoni, and above all to watch 2maestros on the same platform: Sachin Tendulkar and AR Rahman. can it get biger and better than this? this is really a dream come true. thank God for all these opportunities in life. the crowd was crazy.in 55000 spectators, ther must have been hardly 500 supporting chennai including urs truly. but u have to see it to believe it, the passion, the craze the enrgy of mumbaikars. wow...

N to add to this victory post, wanna mention abt my first ever awards in blogosphere.

Yeah, got my first Cherry on Top Award from Dear Swaram, who i cannot stop admiring for the speed at which she reads a blog and comments. really really sweet of ya, n its extra special to receive it from a name sake. thanks a ton Swa. i know i am not really following the rules and just putting up the award. but i really have no time right now to pass it on(actually, i hardly have anyone to pass it on. the peple i had wanted to pass it on have been given by others already. Swaram,will come back and do this post again in a few days dear.

N thanks to the wonderful Artsy Shruti for this lovely- Beautiful Blogger award. thanks a lot for all the inspiration u provide.

N a huge thanks to TPL. we received the parcel, our Bunny visitor from foreign shores, the gift for winning Artsy Craftsy March challenge on Saturday evening and it was a delight. the Bunny is so so adorable, and so are the other assorted items.really a huge effort (and a very big heart )on ur part to sponsor the gifts and send them all the way from the US. Momo loved the bunny and has been telling me Aur Bunny chaiye, ever since i told her i will be making some more for her with the stuff u have sent. will make them and put up snaps soon. Thanks a ton TPL. it was very very very well appreciated by me, J n Momo. :)

N our Indiblogger Ranking has gone upto 71. yeah for that.i was thrilled the first ever rank that i got was a 63(in March). i was suprised to see the rank above 50 in the first shot itself. but now crossing, 70, thats a good one. Momo, my rock star, this is all because of you.

Utterly Butterly Delicious...

2010-04-24T20:22:00.001+05:30

.... Amooon... yes,not Amul. despite me telling Momo a million times, its amu- L and not N, she insists on saying amoon... its cute so i let it pass.

well, i had initially intended this post would be about our next submission for the paper mache contest,which was supposed to be a food item made out of paper mache,but after it dried, it dint quite look like what it was intended to be and i was too bored to colour it(being busy with the b de and all) .so i left it halfway. but i didnt have any other topic to write on the letter U, so i decided to twist the contents and write abt the real utterly butterly... yes the Amul Moppet.

this is an Ad that i love always and keep an eye on the road for the same. its amazing,how his little girl has not lost any of her spunk in all these years and still continues to tell the tale in her most unusual way. hats off to the creative team behind this wonder. though i dont really remember any ads, but it never fails to bring a smile on my face. a case study on this is every marketing students dream assignment, and i do remember doing some research on this ages back when i was studying. it fascinated me then, n continues to do so even today. though somehow, i dont have too much to say abt the media ads. i mean they r ok, but not of the same impact as the hoarding ad.some jingles are catchy,like the amul ice cream. i remember Amul, being associated with some classy programmes,like Surabhi. the one terrific show we used to look forward to on DD, not just for thecontent,but more so for the quiz atthe end and the ever smiling Renuka Shahane. (she still has that million watt smile,saw her at some awards ceremony on tv recently) .

and a co incidence, J's sis lives in the same city that is the birthplace of Amul. we are yet to visit the faco ry. waiting for Momo to grow up a bit to understand things. but well,we are avid users of Amu lproduct, butter on Momo's parathas, ghee in Dal rice, ice cream, cream etc etc.

anyways, i really dont have time to write anymore,will leave with the current hoarding on IPL and the link to this great establishment.

T- 20 - thrill, tension, timing, together

2010-04-23T17:02:00.000+05:30

yes.. yes.. yes...

Me and J went together for the 2nd IPL semi final between Chennai Super kings and Deccan Chargers last evening at the DY Patil Stadium. n it was such a Thrill(my first T 20 live match, J's first live cricket match in his entire life) of cos a lot of tension too, cos our favourites,chennai seemed to be doing quite badly at different points of time during the match , n the timing was perfect in more ways than one ( my folks had come back from my sis place luckily the previous day and were able to baby sit Momo, we managed to get tickets all together along with J's office colleagues from some stranger who luckily wanted to sell his tickets to us, it was a Chennai match that we got to saw of all the teams(Chennai’s still a dear place in both our hearts), n of cos,today when I have to write on the letter T, I have got my topic... brilliant timing isn't it?) .with all the controversy surrouding the IPL, the cricket is still fun and the national pastime.

J had been trying to get tickets for the Final thru some of his office partners etc, but we were not sure.he managed to get tickts for the 3rd place match to be held tomorrow. Then he told me to be ready in like half an hour saying we would be going for the Chennai semi final match itself. I was damn thrilled. I have been wanting to watch an IPL match live this time, but was not really sure if I wanted to take Momo along cos I knew it would be quite crazy there, the crowd, the noise, the heat n holding Momo and making her sit for 4-5 hours would have been quite touch. So yest with momo safe and happy with my folks we set out relaxed for the match. we were rooting for Chennai , (I have to admit I like dhoni, n not just for the reason that he n J share the same date of birth..:)) , so I wore a yellow shirt and J bought a Chennai supporter yellow jersey. We reached the stadium a good 1.5 hrs before. it is kinda far , this new stadium. But it was a nice stadium. We were surprised to see a lot of empty places so we kinda chose where we wanted to sit an get the best view. We were 10 of us. N from the word go, the action started.. not just the cricket, but the eating action. Things came one after the other and the ravenous group that we were, we didn’t let any vendor go empty handed. Pepsi, samosa, kurkure, lays, sandwich, burger, pizza, donut, popcorn... was all had within minutes as if we had come there ot only eat. But then wended t do some TP, as the Chennai team was really playing quite badly and the yummy donut felt so nice and cheered our souls.

The match. Well, what can be said? We knew Chennai would win, I mean we wanted to. that would be total paisa vasool. But we knew Deccan was a good team too. N Chennai kept losing its early wickets and we were all really worried. but then our man came to the rescue.dear dear dhoni n badri put up a good show and helped steer the team to a respectable score- 142. (The last couple f overs were really good. ) We cheered for every run scored, whistled at every four and jumped up with joy at every 6, and held our breath for the 3rd umpire decisions. (2 went in our favour I think, 1 was out). Our only hope was that CSK would also bowl n field tightly, and again the first 2 over made a huge mark. The openign bowlers were too good and the DC players were unable to get any runs on the board. Slowly, the wickets tumbled for DC with little difference on the score board n we knew we were home. But the one man wonder Symonds was still there n when he got out, the party began. yea yeah yeah. It was a nice thrill to see it live. (but I must say,watching onTVis not that bad at all.in fact u can see replays, ads, hear commentary etc. :) I didn’t mention the cheer leaders. Well there wer 3 sets of 3 cheerleaders each in front of each cubicle kind of place doing their moves during the breaks between overs, the strategic time outs, and when a wicket fell or a 4/6 was hit. N the music was like a party.peple got up to dance along with the cheerleaders.peopel who never get a chance to go to a disc to dance went wild, dancing to the lastes bollywood numbers. All mixed very well by the DJ.

We didnt wait for he presentation ceremony and rushed out as there was a huge jam at the parking. Reached home by 12.20, only to find Momo awake and playing. She had not slept, but was generally playing. Didn’t give any trouble to thatha paati. She went to the park with them, ate her dinner, finished her milk.. was a meks goog girl...in her words. oh my sweetie. Thanks for letting us go and have a wonderful time.

I must mention here, IPL has a special place in my memory. the first edition started on yes.. April 18, 2008. the day Momo was born. N though I didn’t watch any IPL for the first week, I watched later matches. I rem, I used to watch the matches after feeding Momo, or generally to cheer myself up or for a change of room scene n it did me a lot of good. I still remember, on the final day of th 2008 tournament, it was almost time to feed Momo. N it was the last few overs, n I just didnt wanna miss it n was hoping momo wouldnt cry for a feed. Luckily she was patient enough and let me watch the match fully (only to see Chennai lose), n also see the presentation ceremony . :) I like cricket, not passionate or anything, but T 20 is fun. The second edition also, in 2009, well, I saw a bit here n there. Nothing very memorable actually. This time too, I had hardly watched any match fully. Just like that. J would be watching, but we would switch off before the end of the match in order to put momo to sleep early. As I said, I am ok not watching. I will watch the finals though for sure (whether on tv or will J manage tickets again.. only time will tell.) till then , my prayers are with CSK, though I am a bit torn here.cos I also want Mumbai to win, being a mumbaikar and all. n for Sachin. That superb gentleman. So well, may the best man, team win.

( I had seen a test match once in Nagpur, India vs.. I don’t rem(pak,i think), will chk google later and edit), and a one day at wankhede stadium , mumbai , india vs. South africa. n yes, India had won both times)