I want to sleep like a baby!

Sometimes raising children can get very frustrating, when all the efforts you put in dont really lead you anywhere. Children get away doing their own thing, despite you fretting your life over it. Bringing up kids amidst several contradicting value systems in a household can be one nerve-wrecking task!

This too shall pass! Until then, you can hear me hum.....

In every life we have some trouble,
when you worry you make it double
don't worry, be happy

dont worry be happy now
dont worry be happy
dont worry be happy
dont worry be happy
dont worry be happy
aint got no place to lay your head,
somebody came and took your bed,
don't worry, be happy

the landlord say your rent is late,
he may have to litagate,
dont worry (small laugh) be happy,

look at me im happy,
don't worry, be happy

i give you my phone number,
when your worried, call me,
i make you happy

don't worry, be happy

aint got no cash, aint got no style,
aint got no gal to make you smile
but don't worry, be happy

cos when you worry, your face will frown,
and that will bring everybody down,
so don't worry, be happy

don't worry, be happy now...

don't worry, be happy
don't worry, be happy
don't worry, be happy
don't worry, be happy

now there this song i wrote
i hope you you learned it note for note
like good little children

dont worry be happy

listen to what i say
in your life expect some trouble
when you worry you make it double
dont worry be happy
be happy now

dont worry, be happy
dont worry, be happy
dont worry, be happy
dont worry, be happy
dont worry
dont worry be happy
don't worry, don't worry, don't do it,
be happy,put a smile on your face,
don't bring everybody down like this

don't worry, it will soon pass whatever it is,
don't worry, be happy,
i'm not worried

- Bob Marley

Picking up the Rashtrabasha

S1 and I talk to each other only in English or Hindi, very rarely switching to Tamil, when the other two fail in expressing certain nuances. S3 watches us very discerningly every time we converse in the alien language, for a while now, and has picked up bits and pieces of the vernacular.

Last night was the first time she spoke one full sentence in Hindi, without any prompting from any of us. We were all going through her school's new brochure and there was a picture with all the kids playing in the sand pit. She says referring to the photo, "Five (she doesnt know the Hindi equivalent yet) log matti mein khel rahe they" with a super strong Tam twang. I was rolling on the floor and S1 was also laughing his guts out. She realised she had spoken it right and dished out a victorious smile.

At the last count, my kid can speak three languages very fluently and now manoeuvring towards mastering the fourth one too! Should accomplish that before her fourth birthday, may be!

Reading...back with a bang

Finished 'Almost Single' in one day flat!

Long for the carefree days

Catch up on coffee with friends on weekend
Cheap-roadside shopping, designer shopping, shopping to no end

Long drives with stops for corn on the cob & pani puri
Facials, massages, a new hairdo- grooming would do not bad to me

Watch a movie (in a theatre) that the world is raving about
To be on my own reading a book with a drink in hand, I forgot

No, I dont want to swap what I have with all of the above,
Just thought of paying a small tribute to what more I could have!

Hunt for the right school

If there was anything that I was apprehensive about in parenthood, then this was it. And here I am today at the crossroads of choosing the right school for my kid. Different factors need to be considered and assessed, keeping in the mind the fact that our decision now will influence our child's future...whoever said, parenting is an easy task.

According to me, the perfect school has to be something that has a sound educational & value system in place, provides with fundamental amenities like clean toilets, safe & hygienic environment, large playground and has a strong focus on art and other extra curricular activites...all these at an affordable fee!

We have picked up our first ever admission form this season and am still to recover from the fee statistics provided in the document! This amount may not sound extravagant to many, but from where I come, it is a bit over the top. My concern is not so much on the fee amount really as it is about the over focus on the infrastructural strengths of the school - A/c bus, state of the art computer lab, etc (you get my point?). They emphasise and over emphasise on the school's physical facilities and do not provide adequate importance to their 'education' system or the method of teaching - the whole mighty reason why they exist, or so I presume!

Another irritant is the fact that the schools located in and around IT hubs amplify their fee structure by manifolds to optimise their revenues by charging extra from the people who earn more (the typical double income IT families - I hate them, somebody ask me about the price of vegetables in my locality...arrrgh) than the average familes!

The search is on...how I wish I could just google my way to find the right school for my kid. Until then,

"Jisse dhoondti hoon main har kahin
Jo kabhi mili mujhe hai nahin
Mujhe jiske education par ho yakeen
Woh patshaala hai kahan?"

tan-nana-tananan- tananann
tan-nana-tananan- tananann"

Sahaana the lyricist

I was humming this song while sitting in the car travelling to Sahaana's school, "Kannal pesum panne ennai mannipayya?". She started singing, "Kannal pesum panne ennai mannipayya?" And then comes her innovative lyrics..."nee ellariyum mannippa, nee enna mannipayya?"

Time stand still....dont fly

They are growing by the minute and there is so much to do before they are grown.

Let me hold you and cherish,
For every moment I know will perish,
Let the time stand still I wish,
Let the time stand still I wish.
Following are some things I want to do before the end of 2008-

• Go on a picnic with the two kids and the hubby. Drive on a long winding road, with dense greenery on either sides of the road while John Denver and Kishore Kumar play in the background. Spread out the cliched red and white checkered sheet on the green grass and dig into some home-made sandwiches (another cliche) Play frisbee, cricket and good old antakshari (this one is turning out into a tribute to cliches).
  
• Inculcate daily dose of outdoor games for the two. Want them to get back home really tired and sweaty after the games, the way we used to in our times. Have been fairly successful in building interest among the apartment kids for outdoor sports and manage to spend time atleast thrice a week for about half an hour engaging them in intense physical activites....races, exercises, etc. I get very upset when I see the kids play 'Teacher-teacher', 'Doctor-patient' or 'House-house'!


• Want to go to Bombay without the kids for a couple of days and catch up with all my friends. An afterthought, a 'couple of days' will lead nowhere, need atleast a week.


• Want to create a mommies' club in Hyderabad and have weekly/fortnightly meets with them. The kids can build their own little 'out of school and out of apartment' network.
  
• Spend a week at home alone with the kids...I want to cook all their meals, feed them and play with them without bothering about housekeeping, office work, etc.

Hmmm...that sounds like some plan for the next year. Amen!

Nicknames

Sahaana, Bashkul, Chandramukhi, Meenakshi, Pattani, Bubby, Savitri-Putri, Meenu, Mangu

Saarang, Srinivasan, Cheenu, Fiddle Maestro, Sadagoppan, Jackie Chan, Changu

Perfect Mommy

Yes, I want to be a super mom. I want not only my kids but the whole world to talk about my super mommy skills. And if it doesnt sound too blasphemous, a movie about my sacrifices would do good too - P Vasu type movie..total rona dhona!

Okay, now let me bring you to speed with what the reality is. I keep forgetting to dole out the daily dose of multi-vitamin drops to S4 every now and then (its a different story on how I dont believe in supplementary (read artifical) means of providing nutrition). I dont force S3 to gulp her glass of milk, I give in exactly five minutes after she does! And again no calcium/ multi-vitamin drops for her. Some days shen she willings slurps down the last drop, I am beaming wide, but there are no emotional threats, no howls at my mommydom. The final nail in the coffin is served by the fact that I dont follow certain rules myself to set any role model for them.

Forget super mommy status, I sometimes wonder if I deserve to have such wonderful kids at all! And it is high time I invest in some introspection and take corrective measures. It is very difficult for myself to organise myself, but if I dont do it now, it will never happen. So how do I go about it...?

- I need to start inculcating discipline in myself. Which means, I will wake up at 6 am everyday, exercise for half an hour and after the regular chores, leave for work by 8.45 am.
- 1830 hours- reach home. Feed S4, get dinner ready for S3 and feed her before 2000 hrs. Serve dinner to the rest and wrap up cleaning and other chores by 2100 hrs.
- Positively, Certainly, Definitely, Absolutely, Undeniably, Necessarily (have I made my point) read a book to both the kids. This is not substitutable by any other activities inlcuding playing, watching TV (definitely a NO), etc.

The time starts now.......(watch this space for further updates)

The family is now complete...touch wood

Yes, its been nine months since my last post. And there are so many things that I have missed out blogging about - the most important being, as the title suggests, the birth of my son. Saarang is already six months old, and has crossed several milestones in this period. He cooed, he smiled at the celing fan, he rolled over, he crawled, he started on solids, so on and so forth. I feel sad not having recorded his antics.... after all I created this blog to chronicle everything about my children- the cute gibbersih talk, their small feats, the first-times and numerous other emotional and touchy moments.

Another update is that I have resumed work (that news is stale by 3 months now). It is a tough life managing work and kids, but certainly not as bad as other working moms would have it. I have a stupendous support system back home, that I cannot stop raving about. I live with my in-laws who have agreed to 'take care' of my kids despite their old age and not so great health. And we also have a part-time maid (10 am - 5 pm) to assist them. I must also acknowledge the support from my employers for allowing me to take it easy the first few days after I joined back. I was allowed to go home twice a day during the work hours. That definitely helped me to continue nursing the kid until atleast he was six months of age. And also a prolonged weaning process that didnt act tough on the tender soul. My house being close to my work place is the icing on the cake. I leave not before 8.50 am for work, come home for lunch and am back home by 6.30 pm. Not a luxury other working moms would have, I reckon. That explains the second part of the title .... touch wood! Amen!

And now for some news on Sahaana....she continues to go to Happy Kids, despite our disappointment with her teachers and their language skills, only because of the lack of availability of any other practical options. In the last 6-7 months, her fluency in Telugu and English has significantly improved, while that in Tamil, her mother tongue, has nose dived. Lending some credibility to her name, she has also developed a good sense of 'sur' and 'taal'. Most recently she surprised us all with her perfec rendition of 'aa chal ke tujhe main leke chalon, ek aise gagan ke tale' and 'bhanware ki gunjan'.

Now that is only a snapshot of my life in the last few months. It is my promise to myself to keep this page updated.

Sahaana's first ever picnic

Red cap, red tee-shirt and jeans clad, Sahaana went off on her first ever picnic today! Her schoold has organised a field trip for their class and guess where are they off to? Pure and Natural, a fruits & vegetables store in the city that stocks some of the best quality stuff. Ever since we heard she has to go on a field trip, I have been utterly excited as any mother would be on her kid's first picnic.

Last night, after a serious hunt in the house, we realised we only have adult-type PET bottles. So I had to send Sriram out on the daunting task of fetching a water-bottle for the kiddo's picnic. Daunting, only becasue it was already 9 pm and most shops in our locality would have closed by then. He did manage to return with a bottle, nothing great in design, quality or aesthetics, but had some functional value atleast to last this trip.

This morning, I insisted on accompanying Sahaana to school. She refused to get out of the car saying, she didnt want to go to school, she was made ready to go for a picnic! We had to then explain to her that she would go for a picnic with her school teacher and classmates after they finished their breakfast at the school itself. I had to be blamed for creating this over-hype about her picnic and talking to her all evening about what they would do at a picnic. It must have been such an anti-climax for the little one to discover all that in the morning!

Anyways, I hope she has great fun and comes back with some interesting experiences. Love you pattani!!!

Remembering Nassir Hussain

Sahaana alike her cousins is very susceptible to motion sickness. The moment we get into a car, she begins to get cranky and starts throwing tantrums. The only route she si comfortable with is her way to school and back.

The other day Sriram, Sahaana and I were travelling to Kacheguda to a friend's place for dinner. On the way, we had to pick up groceries from a store in Monda Market. The whole journey lasted for close to two hours, including the time we spent navigating through the narrow streets of Secunderabad, picking up the stuff and finally settling the bills. Sahaana, was obviously very irked by the whole experience and that was making the two of us very nervous as well. We feared that by the time we would reach our friend's place, she would have got into her most anti-social moods.

So, to keep her engaged and in a reasonably cheerful way, I started doing something I would have never imagined to. I started singing absolutely bizarre songs involving family members of our friends and relatives. The tune goes like the " I hear thunder'/ "are you sleeping"...and the lyrics are like this....
Karthik Uncle, Karthink Uncle,
Madhavi Aunty, Madhavi Aunty,
Yodhin & Gaurang,
Yodhin & Gauran,
Make a Family, They Make a Family

Another one (this is Sahaan's favourite)
Nithu athai Nithu Athai
Natraj Athimber Natraj Athimber
Samhita & Shivani; Samhita & shivani
Make a Family, They Make a Family

Sahaana just took to this instantly and that definitley was a saving grace for the day. We kept singing this for the rest of our journey and ensured the young lady behaved herself.

Since that night, she insists on singing this every now and then and has also managed to induct the rest of the family members. Now we have the entire family tree woven into this tune...this way, she now remembers all the members of a particular family...ain't that cool?

We have a song for our own family, which goes like this....
Appa Cheeaam (thats how Sahaana addresses Sriram) Appa Cheeaam
Amma Chowmya Amma Chowmya
Tatha Patti Sahaana Tatha Patti Sahaana
Make a Family, They make a family!

Very 'Yaadon Ki Baarat'ish!!

Will need to think of something more creative to accommodate the soon-to-arrive new member into the song. Any ideas??

Rang De Basanti

These days after I get back home from work, I spend atleast about 30-40 minutes drawing, sketching and colouring with my kid. It is a new-found passion for the two of us. And needless to say, we thoroughly enjoy this activity, so much so that I have begun to believe that crayons is the best thing to have happened to kids after the diapers!

Sahaana brings up one of her story books every evening and I try (that word has a lot more weightage than it seems to) and sketch the characters from the book, and the little one then starts colouring them. This way she gets to learn the objects/ characters that are being drawn and identify the colours as well.

However my concern here is only about wasting so much paper everyday. I wish there was a more prudent way of having fun with colours. Sriram and I are planning to get all the used sheets of paper from our respective offices and recycle them in our own 'colurful' way! That will allow us to refrain from any regret.

I tried drawing using the slate and chalk, but it is half not as much fun as the freedom of using the crayons. I am just waiting for the day when Sahaana is old enough to play with water colours....hmm, that will be fun! And then we will progress to vegetable dyeing, thread painting, etc.

Content missing

I was aghast surfing through the various news channels a couple of days back. All that every TV channel was 'exclusively' covering was the Racism Story, post the so called debacle at the Big Brother Show. There were extensive panel discussions about how UK and the rest of the West need to get their act together about respecting the Non-Whites. I didnt watch the episodes where Shilpa was apparently victimised, but from what I read, I gathered, it was not a big deal, as it is made out to be.

Sometime back, they were busy covering the semi-pilgrimage trips of Mr & Mrs Rai, right after the wedding announcement. Every TV channel worth its salt spent crores of worth airtime on talking about the couple's temple visits, asking them annoying questions like, "Aapko kaisa lag raha hai?" so on and so forth. A few days back, it was the sensational story about Abhishek B proposing to Ash in trule filmi style...and not to mention all the airtime dedicated to speculations about their match for almost a year now!

Someone tell me, what is going on? Is there a real dearth of news stories or is this what people want to watch?

Murphy lives with me

Everytime I have an assignment that requires me to travel or stay back late at work, invariably my husband has to go out of station or has career-defining meeting at work. Not just that, my in-laws have also some compelling work on that same day or evening. So it becomes a tumultous task of assigning who will baby-sit Sahaana.

It is probably the umpteenth time today that I will have to excuse myself from joining the rest of the team, this time, for an off-site planned at city outskirts for the weekend. What else, my advanced pregnancy as an excuse! Sriram is in Bombay (havent got myself to call it Mumbai yet) and will be back only on Sunday morning. My in-laws are already exhausted with the additional chores of picking and dropping Sahaana to her play-school, the last couple of days. And to add to this, Sahaana has started clinging on to me in the nights, perhaps an insecurity phase with the birth of the new baby just a couple of months away now!

Even if I make it to ICRISAT on Saturday (will send Sahaana to her play school for a couple of hours), I will have to return the same evening...wonder how will I manage the transport? And may have to go in for a few hours on Sunday, afterall they are going to determine our KPIs for the year. I only pray Sriram manages to come early that day and takes over from my ILs.

I have another 10 days to go only before I go on my maternity leave. I will be working from home in Feb, but atleast wont be required at events from then on. And then I am off to my Mama's place to Bombay..hey hey!!

"She's brilliant"

That's the verdict from Monica Ma'm- Sahaana's teacher at her play-school cum day care centre about her. And am I elated about that? Well, when my MIL told me about it during lunch today, I tried to act very composed and reacted by just raising my brow, suggesting, "Really? That's good for the kid." Its been roughly four hours since I had that conversation with my MIL and I still cant get over it. Every now and then I am hit by these sudden pangs of pride - she is all of 31 months, mind you!

Sriram is travelling and is in the midst of back-to-back interviews, so guess, I shall have to wait until evening to break the news. Am so sure he will go ecstatic and wouldnt mind over reacting when he hears that ..." I always knew it"- type response!

When we decided to have our baby, there were a lot of things we decided we wouldnt do alike the stereotypical parents...for eg. "Baby, please sing 'Twinkle twinkle' for Uncle Ajay" or "kanna, show that drawing you made to Didi" or worse still "Will you show Aunt Pooja the dance you learnt at school?" so on and so forth, drawing lessons from our own lives where we have been bored to death by the over enthusiasm of some parents! But now look at me, I want to stand tall and tell the whole world what Sahaana's teacher thinks of her. So, here's my first post about the grand achievements of my 'Pattani' (green peas in Tamil ). At least I leave you with an option of just ignoring this post, that ways, I am not imposing my emotions. Did I hear you say, "Cheap"? :-)