this one's for me.

after a long, long time ... i am going to do something utterly completely totally selfish.
i am going to take time off and do what i want.
money be damned.
for two days, i am going to be uma. just uma. no wife. no mother. no responsible adult.

yay.

Jai Mata Di

Went to Vaishno Devi and have just one word to say : OUCH.

Tagged... by Soo

I’ve been tagged by Soo to do the sixth picture meme, so here goes:



This picture was clicked on Bandstand, Bandra, Mumbai sometime in March'04.

Meera. Mugdha and I were meeting up after Mugdha's shaadi. She was visiting us from Hyderabad. And she had a new digi-cam. And all three of us wanted to be in the picture at the same time. We were drunk on the joy of being together, the sea, silliness.
The episode resulted in a whole series of absolutely mad pictures. This is the one where I have been almost completely elbowed out by Meera (in green and red).

I tag:
Mugs
Maddie
Sri
Austere
Andy
Gaya Tree

This is what you have to do:

1. pick the 6th picture from your 6th photo folder.
2. tell the story around it.
3. pass it onto 6 other people you like.

A huge blackboard

"its like your brain is a blackboard with lots of things chalked down on it ... and then, this giant hand with a giant duster just rubs it all out ..."

thats Alzheimer's for you.

bastard disease.

Ankita Puraan - 3

All my life (well almost all my life), one of the biggest issues I have had is with my hair.
I have grown them, I have had them trimmed, cut, coloured, massaged, streaked and so on and so forth ... but I have never ever been truly happy with them. They have always been too thick, too unruly, too nonsensical to be of any use to mankind. Ok, womankind. Oh alright, me.

It must be karma of some kind.
Ita has all of 7.5 hair on her head and she is almost 7 months old.

Now what do I do with all the cute clips I have bought?

Ankita Puraan -2

Dharam sankat situation has happened. We have 3 names and we like them all.
Meghna
Krita
Ankita

Both the grandmothers like Meghna. So does Kannan, the uncle-in-law.
Krita is different and both sri and I kind of like it.
Ankita is preferred by all three aunts and the maama. And us, of course.

We thought we still had days to decide as we sauntered into the lawyers office.

The adoption deed had to go in with the name.

And so, we had a grand total of 30 seconds to decide what she was going to be called.
Yes, the lawyer was very scary looking. Like Amrish Puri in Damini, minus the oily hair... and the bad guy part. So it was that we went to file our papers with our lawyer and came back with our daughter's name. Ankita.

I just hope she doesn't hate us for not calling her Krita or Meghna. Because now, after 3 months, I kind of like Meghna better than Ankita. Go figure.

All ours.

Today is a good day. Actually, a very, very good day. Special day. Nice day. You get the picture right?

The daughter is finally all ours. The court has granted us custody.

Till the time the lawyer's assistant came up and told us to collect the final deed, I hadn't realised that there was a vague nagging fear, a fear that ita would be taken away from us... didn't realise that at a sub-conscious level, I was scared to death. But thats all over now.

Ankita Sriram Iyer. My baby ... the bane of my existance, the love of my life is mine. All mine.
Ok, "ours" as sri would insist on me saying :))

Ankita puraan

I started keeping a diary (the old-fashioned kind) during my initiation period as a mother. This is one of the first write-ups…

7th April 2008

ANKITA – Empress, one with auspicious marks.
Our daughter… our hearts, as they say are forever destined to walk out of our bodies.

We brought her home on the 10th of March 2008 from Missionaries of Charity, Delhi. Today, she is already the apple of everyone’s eyes; the grandparents, the aunts, the assorted neighbours. Ankita or ‘ita’ as we call her, is an absolute joy, except when she is sleepy and doesn’t know how to go to sleep; then she is a cranky, pain in the backside.

As I write this, she lies here next to me in an outrageously big fluorescent green shirt, dreaming. I always wondered why parents dress their kids in such awful clothes … now I know.
It could either be because the child is being so squirmy/crabby/ touchy that the parent picks the first set that is within reach OR the child, very considerately throws up/does su-su/potty at the exact moment the parent has finished dressing it up and hence are forced to do a: A ill-fated fashion disaster or b: Resort to point 1 which is to grab the first thing available to sight. There is one other reason, probably the biggest one. Gifts.

The minute people hear about so and so having had a baby, there is an influx of clothes in said person’s place. Now there are a few sensible souls who send the parents thoughtful gifts, like vitamin tablets but the others … baby sets, booties, jackets, socks and so on … in colours they think are cute (or stereotyped by the cruel marketing focused fashion police) – pink for girls, blue for boys.

Do you have any clue how a pile of pink looks to someone who last slept Lord knows when, has a howling infant waiting for her bottle and the flask has played deserter again? YES … like a strip of digene.

So the parent does what anyone with frayed nerves would do. Forage for anything that is not in pink (or blue) – clips, shoes, bibs, nappies – and put them over the antacid representing apparel.

From now on, when you see babies dressed like they are from Saturn … do not blame the parents. Give them a smile, maybe even a pat on their back. Beget some good karma. When you have a kid of your own; you will need all of it.

I thought we were smart. The day before Ankita was to come home, we went and got her a bunch of clothes in blue. So, now when we take her out, she is either dressed like Britney Spears with dark hair or gets mistaken for a boy.

such a pig..

MCP: so that woman, have you seen her boobs? i mean you cannot miss them. haha. i forgot her first name. but... who cares about that right? wow. she must have been a size ...uhm ... arre! i forgot i was talking to a woman

Me: fuming*. yes. you forget i know her.

MCP: wahi toh! you woman toh would know what size just by looking, why am i wasting my energy by trying to guess....

Me: very amazed at how idiotic the people of the opposite gender could get.

Mooch part 2, with photos

and so was chronicled our hairy brunch :)

cheers~
ps: bloody mooch tickled nose bad, wonder how people have it for ever and ever?

mooch nahi toh kooch nahi

we were supposed to meet over brunch this sunday ... and i forgot, so did sri.
we had all of 10 odd minutes to announce our departure, put ita to sleep, leave instructions for when she would wake up, get out of pyjamas, wear clean clothes (damn the bath, damn the bath... it was sunday!) and leave.

minutes before our destination and in the middle of the zillionth signal, we noticed an auto driver trying to commit suicide under a water tanker. on closer observation we realised that the guy had wedged the auto (almost) underneath the tanker so he could clean his windsheild with the water dripping from the leaking tap behing the tanker. we almost missed the bearded salesman during our enthusiastic photographing of this cleansing ritual. almost but not quite.

the false beard and moustache set we bought for Rs.15/- turned out to be a riot at the brunch meeting. fulltoo paisa vasool. all of us tried it on, with variations of course - with moustache, without moustache, the beard on the head (a few drinks later) ... and got ourselves photographed.

it was one of the most amazing meals i have had. we laughed more than we ate, which if you know us, would really tell you how much fun we were having.
if only i could find the picture of mugdha and me posing as sardars now.

No matter what.

upset or sad
yell or shout
hungry or in pain
for a hug, for a cuddle
mums are the best.

i didn't quite get it.
until now.

no matter how much i yell and keep her from doing fun things (eating the chappals, toppling dustbins, putting fingers inside sockets) ... she holds up her little hands and wants her mother to comfort her ...

i am going to miss it when she grows up.
wonder if my mum does too.

willpower

must ...

lose ...

weight ...

uhm... is that a blueberry cheesecake? i'd like 2 slices please.

i hate sequels.

thanks to the delhi book fair, i have loads of books to read. and then, there was the landmark sale. so you understand just how many options i have, right? wrong. you know why? coz, i read the part 3 of christopher paolini's eragon series: 'Brisingr'... and the thought of having to wait for another 2 years for the concluding part to arrive is driving me batty. so batty, that i cannot concentrate on any other book.

bleddy nonsense.

superb third book btw. go pick. atleast just so we can all discuss and crib about the waiting period.

Monk-ita

Apparently, ankita looks like a buddhist monk.
Only we know that she ain't no peaceful meditating kind.

So, between all of us we have agreed to call her Monkita ... half monkey, half monk, full timepass :)

Sea Saw

The husband had to travel to Chennai on business and the 'lukkha-aatma' that I am these days, ankita and I tagged along.

I had so forgotten how beautiful the sea is. And how wonderful the breeze feels.
We are lucky that the sister in law has a house that faces the sea. And thanks to the crazy schedule the daughter keeps, am up at all hours ... staring at the sea. I have seen so many shades, so many moods, so much loveliness.

And, I have been eating kaccha aam and sundal and boiled channa and bhutta ... no wonder sri ka standard joke these days is ... what did the baby elephant say when he saw toinks? Mommmmmyyyy :D:D:D

Ok bye.

my mobile phone

is not letting me download the pictures i took with it.
and i am too lazy to re-charge the battery of my camera.

stupid mobile phone.

inglis is my 18th language and i spik it well

i was reading the Zoya factor by Anuja Chauhan (nice, nice) and i actually noticed that most people around me speak just like the characters in the book. very very desi english. it is is so much easier to communicate when you have a masala mix bag of several languages and you can pluck and choose and plug in words from all of them to form one gloriously riotous language that reflects your deepest thoughts in the most effeiceint manner, unlike this long sentence.

for example, if you had a brilliant idea, you can't just say hey, i have a brilliant idea ... it is wayyy better if you say something like, abbe sun, i have this super tohdu idea. i mean .. do you see the difference?

and then we have some drastic classic examples. like the names caterers give their "special" concoctions.
like stay fried vegetables
like paneer saslick
like hukka nudles

so cool neh? they make for so much entertainment.
chalo abhi katlo.

go... went ... gone

after the initial flush, this sudden window that enables freedom is beginning to look daunting.
tomorrow is my last day at work.
i
am
so
freaked
out.

we went out for a nice lunch today. just soo, nigel, nishtha and me. and i realised, i am not going to have anybody around to maaro my stupid pjs on.
nobody is going to understand sarcasm.
nobody is going to sit with me and crib about the nonsense deadline.
nobody. nothing.
and worst of all ... no pay cheque at the end of every month.

how am i going to pay my phone bills?
and my credit card bills?

penury ... here i come.

older and poorer, thats what my tomorrow looks like. and lonelier.

mumma :(

i am obsessed

with dragons, elves, dwarves, fairies, magic and such.

now i cannot read anything else.

please tell me it is just a phase.