the butterfly lion

... its a book, by Michael Morpurgo.

its a beautiful, simple book that talks to you about hope and miracle, of kites and love, of strange houses and butter scones and a school boy's need for freedom.

In my quest to stock up on books for Ankita, just in case she loves books as much as her mother, I have managed to:

a) stumble upon hitherto unread authors

b) bought more books than there is space in the house

but what the heck no? you can never have too many books. and am still not hooked on to reading online.

What re flop?

I realised, my language sucks donkey's balls.
Do you know of any place I can buy hearing nanny monitor for the daughter?
She is picking up strange strange words and phrases.
When asked aisa kyun kar rahi ho tum? she says, and very seriously, kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi.
hmpf.
only i am allowed to have foul language in house.

i love the metro

Just love it.
Metro has made delhi accessible to me.
I pledge my undying love for the Delhi Metro.
Chalte raho!

mamma blogs

here:
http://realbeauty.yahoo.com/uma-iyer

apart from that, i am reading this book called the bad dog's diary by martin howard (thank you gaya tree). it is howlarious.

no wonder i love dogs.
okbye

gully seher mein re maaro ghaghro re ghumiyo

prabha and her husband atul are visiting us. completely awesome time we are having. especially prabha and me. we love ourselves some gossiping sessions sans husbands and baccha. also, i am discovering delhi with them. went to chandni chowk and bought a fancy soorma daani. the dukaanwala insisted i put the soorma on then and there. for a couple of very scary seconds, i thought the guy was trying to scoop my eyes out, but he managed to lagao soorma, and it didn't look half as bad. so full points to the man and full money also because i bought the whole schmoodle.

from there we went to the paranthewali gully. i am very glad i am used to eating in seedy looking joints. i am also gladder that i had had no breakfast and it was almost lunch time, so i didnt get second thoughts. the place is stuffy, filthy and full on crowded. BUT. BUT, those guys sure know what they are about. we chose to eat paneer parantha, aloo parantha, dal parantha and pudina parantha. prabha ordered the rabri parantha. i thought she was being extremely brave. only later we realised she had, for some reason, thought rabri = ragda. luckily for her, the parantha turned out to be amazingly yummy. only, it does not qualify as a main meal, it is a dessert. the choice of paranthas was a mile long ranging from the regular to the absurd (khurchan parantha anyone? or maybe you'd want a sample of bhindi parantha? or nimbu?). the lassi deserves a song written on it... "aye mere pyari lassi, tujh mein meri jaan fasi" types.

then we went to the red fort ... which was closed for honest tax paying citizens of India because some vvip was due to arrive on a visit. so sweet. after all, we are here to oblige and visit again at their convenience. atul was especially very sweet about the whole thing since he had had a similar experience at the Taj the previous day. he would have loved to meet the vvip and tell him exactly how cool he found them.

then we went to dilli haat in an auto. that had a meter. and the driver WANTED to go by meter. in delhi. will wonders never cease?

there is a metro line right upto dilli haat. super freaking awesome. considering how much i love the place.

now i am tired. and i have sent the visiting couple to see akshardham. later in the evening we plan to do some more ghooming.

happy days are here again.
and my comfort salwar kameez has suddenly gone tight on me.
the price you pay for all that happiness.

tchya men ...

so we went to goa. again. it is such a lovely place. i plan to retire there you know, like some 40 million others... buy a small plot of land near the sea, open a shack, not do much, eat a lot, go for walks and hang out with the locals. i love the goans. love them, almost as much as goa itself. i love the way they smile, i love the way they talk and i absolutely love their quirky names. met a boy named beauty and a girl named august. so sweet and unassuming both of them. like their names. and then, there is the sea. ssssssighness...

i want to retire tomorrow.

maaya maya yo, maaya maaya yo, maaya maya yo ...

Delhi in Mumbai mode

After cribbing about the lack of rain here in Delhi, I have been forced to swallow my words with a few hundred litres of water.

What baarish man.

Love it.

Though, there is a baadh like situation. And I should be feeling bad and all.

Stupid excesses.

Now I cannot even freely announce I love the rain.