The Seasoning

What kind...

2011-11-01T16:47:00.001+08:00

1) what kind of a mother allows her son to get a henna tattoo & does not get one for herself because she knows those ladies add hair dye to the henna!! It's not safe!!
That mother would be me.

2) what kind of a man refills a bottle of liquid hand wash with hair conditioner simply because no one is using it & the bottle is lying around in the bathroom.
That man is my husband.

Lalach buri bala

2011-10-03T07:44:00.001+08:00

Lalach buri bala means that greed is a bad habit to have.
We went today morning to the Padini warehouse sale.
We assumed very wrongly that there would not be too much of a crowd.
As we entered the industrial estate where the factory is located; we saw numerous cars parked and people walking towards the same place...again we thought that there must be some other event.
On reaching the warehouse we saw people in a line; there were drink and snack stalls! People were enjoying their drinks & snacks while chit chatting with their friends.
The line turned out to be almost 2 Km long!!!
We decided to get out of there and head to the familiar environs of a mall... What else could we do with 2 bachhas in tow!!

Volcano Salad

2011-09-25T13:55:00.001+08:00

A very thirsty baby and a bottle

2011-09-24T10:59:00.001+08:00

A very thirsty baby & a bottle of water...make that a very big bottle of water; and what happens if you put these two together???

Here's the answer

I am...

2011-09-22T18:58:00.001+08:00

If you call and I don't answer.....it means....

I am measuring baby formula !!

I hate being disturbed when i am doing that more so because I forget the count...

Have you....?

2011-09-21T10:52:00.001+08:00

Have you ever been at a gathering & when the host introduces you to someone.....they sort of 'check you out' as though to say 'oh!!! So this is neelum' !!
It makes me VERY uncomfortable!!!

The statue is located outside the Taiping museum. Handsome ain't he?

Conversations

2011-09-18T10:37:00.001+08:00

Some conversations reveal so much about the person; they may be few words, but they just open up a whole new pathway or tunnel ... Showing you another aspect or facet to that persons personality and at times these mere words reflect a layer of that person's soul........
I wish we could have such conversations more often

Thank God for languages to help us express our feelings & experiences.

What kind of world would it be if we din't have words??
Scary thought for me... Coz I love to read & can't imagine a world without words - written & spoken.

That reminds me of the annual book sale that's going to be here shortly; they say it's going to be the largest book sale in the whole world!
Looking forward to this sale; again I need a strategy for this year to pick my authors or genre before heading there.

On another note....I am singing 'its only words & words are all I have ... To take your heart away...'

A relaxed Saturday morning

2011-09-17T08:39:00.001+08:00

Well hardly.... With baby getting up at 5:30 am; and then he was super excited to see us all near him and that 'inspired' him to play n play he did for the next 3 odd hours!!!! Goshhhhhh we're ready to scream n shout out for help.
Where is super nanny when you need her??
Now the baby sleeps peacefully while we scramble around to get on with daily chores &@@&$)$&

And we are spring cleaning .... Again

2011-09-16T11:58:00.001+08:00

Every holiday day starts with us all cleaning whatever we can lay our hands on... Baby is kept busy with lots of toys.
Today we did the toy room (again); the baby's cabinet, and the study table...
All's not finished; as there are tiny things that need a place.
My plan for our home now is to follow this statement 'your home should be a reflection of who you are'; and 'your home should rise up to greet you when you step inside'.
Still a long long way to get there; but I'm going to take baby steps at this and really trim down and organize things like they used to be when I was much more energetic n enthusiastic....gwaad I'm sounding old!!

Happy weekend n stay safe!

Let me try this again...

2011-09-15T16:37:00.001+08:00

After a very eventful past year ... Birth of baby#2; a change of school for baby #1; of yes and I must remind myself to stop calling him baby ... He is 6 years old now!!
Well loads of changes n loads of challenges still looking me in the eye; but I am still make an ate or to write in this space again!!
For today let's suffice ourselves with ' I want to eat a good pizza'
Ciaooo

Time to show off !!

2010-12-02T17:43:00.004+08:00

Clap...clap....clap.....

Yesssssssssssssss we finally managed to win at the much coveted blog of Mindfull-Meanderings. Winning on this blog is no small thing....It is a BIG deal !!

I had sent in as our entry for the November Artsy-Crafts Challange, the Akaash-kandil made by Amol and Aadu.

Thanks Shruti for the chance and the lovely award that's soon going to make way to my home !!!

Can't wait to show that off as well !!

My winning picture story

2010-12-01T14:23:00.006+08:00

I sent this as my entry for the Samsung, Singapore contest, titled ' What's your winning picture story?'

I chose this picture as it depicts a very significant event in my life as a mother. Here's why....

The picture was taken on 23rd of August, 2008. My son's 3rd Birthday. It was not a normal 3rd Birthday....because that very morning my son also got discharged from hospital after his Open Heart Surgery that had taken place on the 14th of August.

In this photo, my son is sitting on his Papa's lap, and I am performing a very traditional ritual of 'Aukshan' or 'Aarti' for my son. In which I apply a red kumkum 'teeka' on his forehead, followed by raw rise. Then the 'thali' (plate) containing the Diya (lamp) is rotated in front of his face 5 times to invoke the blessings of the Gods.

The date shown on the photo is wrong !! We never paid attention to those settings and just assumed that all must be well.

The day was made special by the presence of all our family and friends that had rallied with us through this tough time of our son's surgery.

For those who wish to participate in this contest, here are the details:

How to participate:

Email your photo in JPEG format to hweiyun.ng@samsung.com, and explain in not more than 50 words its significance. Photo should be less than 2MB in size.
Include your full name, NRIC number, email and contact number (in SG)
Send entries by 5th December, 2010.

Prizes: 2 Samsung NX100 cameras to be won!

Duration: 23 Nov – 5 Dec 2010

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2010 - what I bought

2010-11-29T12:33:00.002+08:00

The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is a much awaited event in our household. The last year we really went mad and crazy and bought loads and loads of books...I have written extensively about it in this previous post.

This year we went on the 14th of November.....yes I know or rather realised later that it's Children's Day in India !!! So that was my excuse for buying books for my son and me (well I also am my parent's child no??? so it was my Children's Day also !!)

I did not have a lot of energy this time...the husband was also travelling all week so was exhausted too....but it was soooooooo sweet of him to take me to the sale and be patient enough while I browsed. He had his turn with browsing too, but this time I knew he was more tired than eager to look for good books.

My strategy for this year was to buy Asian authors for myself and non-American and Non-UK authors for my son.

Here's what all I picked up this year.

The concubine of Shanghai - Hong Ying
The river of lost footsteps. A personal history of Burma- Thant Myint - U
The immortals - Amit Chaudhuri
The opium clerk - Kunal Basu
Tiger Hills - Sarita Mandanna
The hungry tide - Amitav Ghosh

Have finished reading the first one on the list, and it was a good read, and I got to learn about life in China (a bit).

The second one is what I am reading now, and am loving every page of it. Who knew reading history could be so much fun...well especially when we don't have to mug it up for an exam !!

For Aadu here's what we picked up:

The gentle lion - Takashi Yanase
Little daughter of the snow - Arthur Ransome
Little donkey's wish - Udo Weigelt
Copy & color in
Drawing fantasy art

Considering last year's number...this year we picked up only a few....but all's OK....since we stuck to my strategy and plan.

What books have you bought/read lately?

Resuscitating our beloved blog

2010-11-28T16:38:00.003+08:00

It feels great to see that Neelum is resuscitating our blog whom we have neglected sorely this year. I was looking at all the posts and I was shocked to discover that I have posted only once this year and that too in February!!!!!!!!!

Time passes so quickly when you have young children but that's really no excuse for not posting in the blog. I have seen mothers with newborns who blog regularly and so what excuse do I have with four and a five year olds?

From now on I have pledged to myself to blog regularly.It can be a short post or even a video but it would be great if all of us can keep writing and interacting with our readers and fellow bloggers.

Memories of my oldest book

2010-11-26T18:11:00.008+08:00

The Universe listens to you and and has it's own ways of manifesting our wishes and desires.....so said a friend of mine over a cup of tea just a few days back.

She was trying to get me to blogging again, and begin I did......and I was thinking about a post about books and wanted to share my childhood favorites with all my readers. I wanted to tell everyone about the one book (from my childhood) that stays on in my mind after alllllllllllll these years.

And here I am doing this post about the same....and had it not been for Shruti's post about Diwali Moments, I would have never gone and looked at blogadaa, and all the amazing contests they have there. BTW: Shruti won the blogadda contest about Diwali Moments !!

Getting back to the memories about my oldest book....

The book was bought by my Papa, and although I don't remember the exact date/year of when he bought it, but I can say this much that I knew how to read...so maybe I was 7-8 years old. So the book has been in the family for over 26 years !! that's like quarter of a decade !!

My Papa has a practice of writing the name of the recipient on the first page of the book in the most creative manner...I follow this practice with my son's books !!

The book I'm talking about it 'The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends' by Nikolai Nosov, a Russian author. The book was translated in English by Margaret Wettlin.

The book was thick, hard bound, with a nice cover with the picture of the main character 'Dunno' on it....the cover is still picture clear in my mind.

(Image Courtesy: http://home.freeuk.net/russica2/books/nez/book.html)

The book is in my home in Pune, where it rests with all other books that Papa got for us (big brother and me) as kids. It is super fun to look through this collection whenever we go there...sadly now it's only a couple of times every year. Sigh !!!! One of the many drawbacks of not living in India :(

The very fact that the book still remains in good condition in our Pune home, shows that I have no plans of letting go of this treasure, firstly because it's a book and having parents who love books and collections of their own, I was/am never under any pressure to de-clutter or give away !! The same collect-books streak continues today at my home in KL, and every year we have to make a trip to IKEA to get a new book case !!

Secondly, we hope to pass on the book collection to our next generation, so it's our duty to safe-keep it.

The book is about the amazing little people of a fun town called 'Flower Town'. Dunno, the main character has many friends, and they manage to run into some kind of adventure after another.

The plots are simple, and very funny. One begins to love each and every character in the book.

One thing that I am going to do for sure during my next trip to India is get this book back for my son who is 5 years old, and loves books and reading !! All these years I only allowed him to browse through the book and always had a very watchful eye on him !! for fear of he causing any harm to my beloved book. And my son is a guy who has never broken a toy or torn a book !! My possessiveness comes into action unknowingly !!

I hope the book brings as much joy to my son and my brother's kids over the years ahead .... as much as we (big brother and I) had while we read it as kids.

I highly recommend this book to all parents, not only is it a great read, but it has amazing illustrations and drawings on each page which make the book more readable and super duper enjoyable !!

Through blogadda, I was happy to learn about a company called 'Friends of Books'. This looks like something I'm going to love...as they have an Online Book Rental Library and also a Bookstore full of amazing second hand books. The best part is that they operate 24x7 and 365 days a year !! Hold on...there's more....the books are delivered to your doorstep all over India !!!

Goshhhhhhhh that's like THE best thing for a book-lover like me.

I can buy the books and have them sent to my home in Pune and then have the family ship them over here !! Sadly I can't avail of their library service...but I'm going to tell all my friends in India about this great service.

and I connect with bloggers at BlogAdda.com

November 2010 Artsy Craftsy Challenge

2010-11-22T10:19:00.004+08:00

Akaash-Kandil

Amol and his little helper Aadu made this beautiful Akaash-Kandil for this Diwali.
It is a very basic and simple lamp to make. Aadu helped with the cutting and pasting.
The instruction can be found here on Balagokulam

We used up some 7 sheets of card paper that we had at home. Glue, Stapler, and some glittering sticky tape is all that you need to make this lamp.

This is the first year that Father-son did something together for Diwali. And I am proudly going to submit it to Shruti's November Artsy Craftsy Challenge.

One day at a time

2010-11-22T09:05:00.006+08:00

Yes ...'one day at a time'...............that's my motto from this day onwards.

Loads happened in the months since I last wrote on this blog. There was my India trip, and I came back with a viral...that took a while to shake off, then there was this unprecedented tiredness and weakness that took over for about 2 months....there were many visits to the doctor....then after a while I grew sick of seeing them. Then along with all this there was a newly acquired aversion to the smell of cooking oil and smells of all kinds in general.

Yes people I realized well into my 3rd month that I was pregnant !!

As of now I am taking in all the help I can possibly get, a lot of money is being spent I know...but I guess what is more important is my peace of mind and me being able to spend just as much time with my First-born (never thought i'd refer to Aadu in this manner).

There were loads of friends who I met during my India trip who said they read the blog and I was surprised coz they never comment :(

There are friends here in KL, who encouraged me to re-start writing as that would get my mind elsewhere and I could have a clearer mindset. Thanks Dhanya, Kakoli, Nirali, Runa, Manali, not to forget the Husband who's at his supportive best these days.

Along with all these special friends i'd like to especially mention another friend of mine....Shruti. Now Shruti is more than just a blog friend...and she's the one with monthly crafty challenges on her superb blog. Recently she did a post about Diwali celebrations and she put up a photo from my last year's Diwali album, the one about the Shivaji-fort. She did all the link up and all to my blog....and I was like....'goshhhhhhhh Shruti...do you really want to link up an almost dead blog onto you your thriving blog?' I was really ashamed and embarrassed...and it was that day that I made a promise to everyone of my friends who were edging me on... that I would write again.

So here I am.

Very creative and superbly co-ordinated video

2010-05-18T18:10:00.004+08:00

These are members of a cheering squad at a soccer game in South Korea.

I found this video at: Damn Cool Pics

What drove me mad and nuts @#$#@

2010-05-17T14:17:00.003+08:00

It's me .... and yes I am alive...and yes I survived all these days without a maid...a total of 75 days without a maid !!! It is an accomplishment for me :)

A few incidents happened in the last 3 weeks that made me cringe...drove me nuts and had me wonder 'how could she do this?'

Incident 1: A friend is in KL with her family and 6 month daughter, who is very sick with a bad nose/chest congestion. She messages me on fb and asks for details of a pediatrician. I called her on the number that she had mentioned....and gave details of my son's Doc. She said she had looked up a Doc at a hospital closer to her. I asked her how her kid was...and what was wrong with her.

She answered that they had driven down here, and the kid has not had anything to drink in the last 36 hours !!!....I was about to faint before she finished her sentence.....I managed to give her some short term relief home remedies.

This is not all....

One week later the same girl's FB status says that she was in another country !!! I inquired about her kid and she said.......'OK but not fully recovered'

I was horrified...at the callousness ...not only was she putting her kid at risk by travelling all that much....she was putting fellow travelers also at risk and that too in times of H1N1 .

Incident 2: A family we got to know about a year back, I spoke regularly to the wife, she calls me...we met at our place, we went over to her place.....we're sharing some very personal information etc. News comes that her husband's contract here is not being extended so they have to move, and they transferred the guy to India. I invite her over to my place, see a great gift for her. Tell her she has to just come over any time convenient to her ....this lady calls me 2 days back and tells me she is leaving for the airport shortly !!!!

She did not bother to tell me the date of travel when they booked tickets...I was quite saddened by the fact that she chose to call me just before leaving for the airport....

How Tech Savvy are you?

2010-03-09T18:33:00.002+08:00

I took this quiz on Oprah.com and the result is posted below......but am stumped at not knowing that the Internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing !!! (refer question 10)

Your scored: 8 out of 10 correctly.

Über–Geeky...you have an intellectual curiosity about technology. You pay attention to new developments and trends. Also, you think being called "über–geeky" is a compliment.

1. Have you Googled yourself?
You answered correctly. The answer is: Yes.

2. What is a tweet?
You answered correctly. The answer is: A post on Twitter.

3. If you wanted to create an "avatar" to meet and interact with others in a completely virtual world, which of the following social networks would you join?
Sorry, you answered incorrectly. The answer is: Second Life.

4. What does the acronym ROFL stand for?
You answered correctly. The answer is: Rolling on the Floor Laughing.

5. If you intend to stream large video files from the Internet, would you want a computer with more or less RAM?
You answered correctly. The answer is: More.

6. Which of the following could be installed on your computer with malicious intent?
You answered correctly. The answer is: A Trojan horse.

7. Who is credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web?
You answered correctly. The answer is: Timothy Berners-Lee.

8. Which major technology company was recently granted the right to sell power like a utility provider?
You answered correctly. The answer is: Google.

9. What means of high-tech transportation did famous billionaire Richard Branson recently unveil?
You answered correctly. The answer is: Deep-sea submarine.

10. True or false: The World Wide Web is the same thing as the Internet.
Sorry, you answered incorrectly. The answer is: False.

Quick updates

2010-03-05T10:56:00.004+08:00

Day-4 Minus Maid: was somewhat smooth; with sweeping; etc....it's the laundry that made me mad this time !! I mean laundry is something that the maid never did....and now I feel so caught up in other chores that my beloved laundry baskets overflow !! Anyways....belt tightened and off I was to the verandah where all the washing is done. I am sure my washing machine must sympathise with me...or should I sympathise with her???? Lunch was Egg bhurji with chapatis ...nice and simple and easy and yet nutritious. There was also lots of milk that had to be made into yogurt; so I set some and made a mental note to make 'kadhi-with pakodas' the next day or so.

With doing so much laundry on one day there is always a mountain of clothes to be folded in the evening....so there I was folding and folding...and yes the Internet guy came and set up his own modem to prove that the fault is not in their line but it's our modem that's at fault !! But since that the net is really working un-interrupted like before .... so that means we'll have to shell off some cash to buy a new modem :( hmmmm life and it's unpredictable nature....

Dinner was ordered on the phone...we had some voucher for Pizza Hut through our telephone company. This was the first time we were ordering in something from PH; and we were in for a shock when the guy told us that we can't choose any of the regular menu items as the TM (Telephone Malaysia) promotion has specific pizzas only !! how sick was that !!!!

As though that was not enough....when we opened the boxes we were shocked to see pathetic looking pizzas......the chicken one had chicken sausages circles on it and that too so few that I can count them on two hands !!! The Veg one was atleast fuller looking because there are more vegetables that are generally put on a pizza....the amount of cheese on both was absolutely poor. I did not expect this from PH !! They should have used this promotion tie-up with the sole distributor of telephone lines across the country to showcase their best and entice customers with their fare. Wonder who is handling their marketing & branding portfolios.

The other wort-noting event of the day was my conversation with my aunt who by-mistake divulged a would-be surprise to me !! Looks like my brother will be coming this weekend....but she quickly covered up with other stuff....but this piece of information is sticking out like a needle and I need to investigate further. Mom and Papa have not said anything....Dada has not said a word either !! Hmmmmmmmm tomorrow i'll call Mom !!

Day-3

2010-03-05T10:44:00.004+08:00

Moring was rushed……dropped off the little one and scampered home to have breakfast and make lunch and bathe, look good and then leave for Y’s house to see he little baby girl.
Lunch-I decided to make a one-dish lunch….so that I save on time. I made Veg-pulao with carrots, French beans and green peas. It’s an all time favorite in our home. I left the boondi-raita and papads for later; anyways they don’t take more than 5 minutes to put together.
Rushed in to check what I was going to wear and realized that it needed ironing…..grrrrrrrrrrrrr…..I ironed the dress with some extra energy thanks to the anger brewing inside my head for not doing enough preparations earlier.

Off to Y's home...and the baby is ohhhhhhhhh soooooooo cute and after I saw her I realised how much my own baby had grown !! When I got to speak to Amol; he said the said that 'good atleast now you will feel that you have done enough with Aadu' !!
As though that is going to stop me from being the fussy mom !!

After lunching and playing and generally talking .... put Aadu to sleep and then relaxed a bit; then evening there was sweeping plus there were a mountain of clothes to be folded. Still have not started the ironing routine....I think I'll just offload that part to the laundry downstairs....but he charges 1 RM or so for each piece !! But will soon have to think of something coz the to-be-ironed shelf is overflowing !!

Son had some homework so did that....
vessels were waiting to be washed....but i just left them there...will see tomorrow morning.

Day-2 Minus Maid

2010-03-03T20:04:00.004+08:00

Day 2 began with a relaxed feel as most of the hard work was finished on previous day...or so I thought...

I paid some bills - made good use of the Internet while it was working !! These days the net is giving me a lot of grief...it is a broadband connection but it works like a net-with-tortoise-pace !!

Just managed to clear out the clothes, toys in the rooms and sweep the house. Put Aadu's clothes in the machine; washed 3 t-shirts by hand; and realised how long it had been since the last time I did that!!

Went to pick up son and then did the usual stuff with him....basically lunching and listening to some school related banter...and then put him to sleep.

Evening was relaxed with just a few vessels to clean. Dinner was also an easy affair.
Ended the day with 'Princess Diary 2' ....not the full movie but just the first 30 minutes.

Lets see how day-3 goes..am a little worked up about tomorrow as I have to go to a friends house in the morning (she had a baby daughter & I was going to see the little baby). Should finish lunch making etc before 10 AM !!

Update Holi-Celebrations

2010-03-02T17:23:00.004+08:00

This is an update to yesterday that was 'Day-1 Minus Maid'.

In the evening the beautiful ladies of the condo got together for a superb talk-over-tea meet; and the food was aaa-haaa !! Mouthwatering and pure yummmmmm.
What's a Holi-party without any colors right??? So yessssssss there was plenty of color and we had such fun smearing color on one another !! The children also joined in and had their share of fun and running around.
It was Aadu's first time with colors on Holi; prior to this I would just use the haldi-kumkum as colors to let him the know the significance of color in the celebration of Holi.

Mid way through the play I asked him 'Aadu are you having fun?' He answered in affirmative; but when he saw more color on his friends faces he asked me to take him home for a bath !!! Remember this is the kid who can't stand a speck of dust on him or around him.

Went home gave him a shower; all the color came running down....then was my turn but I remembered there were door-mats to be rinsed and put to dry. So brush in hand; shower full on; I scrubbed the mats as clean as I could and as much as my strain-challenged arm muscles would allow. Quick shower and then slomppppppppp onto bed !!! Gosh I was tired........

Did not make dinner....Aadu wanted to eat Idli; so Papa was going to pack dinner for all. What a savior that was....I was really too tired to make anything.
Even then...could not finish dinner in good cheer; went to sleep zzzzzzzzzz

New Beginnings

2010-03-01T15:10:00.003+08:00

Today I feel very pleased with myself....I put in a lot of effort into something that is very dear to me....my home. I went about cleaning it to the best possible way.
Reason being - the maid will no longer come for a month. She's taken medical leave !!

It feels good to see the result of your toil and the best part was that my son upon returning from school said that the house looked clean and asked me 'Mumma who clean it?' I proudly said 'Mumma did it' and he came and gave me a hug.
My heart was the size of a watermelon ...full of pride and full of love for my little boy.

I plan to keep the home maid-free till I go back to my home town. This arrangement will in all likelihood help me lose some weight which has been a cause for concern to all family members.

The husband will have to help me out; which i'm sure he will. He's one of the rare guys who do more than their share but still have a smile to share....love him to bits.

Now that I am relaxing the hard work endured in the morning hours seem only fruitful; but believe me when it was morning; I was rushing around and trying to do as much as I could before I went to pick up the son from school. I thought of myself as a mad-woman !! dashing in and out of rooms, broom, mop, duster in hand !!

Maybe because it was the first day and that too after a long weekend there was too much to be cleaned....and hopefully tomorrow won't be so mad.
And perhaps I can make that much awaited phone call to my friend down south.....tring tring....Malina...it's me....

Day-1 without maid.

Time to move on

2010-02-27T18:51:00.003+08:00

Many of you are aware of my other blog 'Fruit of my labour' which is about Aadu's Heart Surgery and the entire journey to date.

This blog as you know is not complete; it remains stuck on the day of the surgery. While I was writing this part I was crying bucket full of tears; and I had thought I had healed and gotten over the entire episode....but Noooooooooooo.....The memories are still very raw, the emotions are gushing out, and I am not able to go on and do justice to the blog that I had started with the hope that some day it will help some mother like me who is looking for answers, looking for someone else's experience to tide over her own troubled times....

I think I have been quite selfish in just paying attention to my feelings; I strayed away from the goal that I had set for the blog and for myself.

But all this is about to change; and all thanks to the email that came to me out of the blue.

The email came from a grandfather who wanted to know more about the hospital where Aadu was operated coz his grand-daughter was diagnosed with the same thing as Aadu.

He had stumbled upon my blog 'Fruit of my labour' while searching the Internet for information on the Hospital.

How lucky I am that this man decided to drop me an email !! I felt as though the purpose why the blog was put up in the first place was being met....and in that I got my inspiration to go on.

So people wish me luck as I once again begin my journey to complete the blog.

There will be tears, but they will not stop me this time; there will be emotions but I will have friends around to get me over them.

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For my Valentine - straight from my heart !!

2010-02-14T07:00:00.002+08:00

ye ishq nibha dena tum
guzarish ye karte hai

jaaneman jaaneman
jaaneman jaaneman
ek naam tumhara le kar
hum jeete hain marte hain
ye ishq nibha dena tum
guzarish ye karte hai

jaaneman jaaneman

tum khush ho to
hum bhi yoon khush rehte hain
tum rootho to
hum khud se roothe rehte hain
ye jaan lo bus tum se hi
hum apni khabar rakhte hain
tum bhool na jaana is ko
guzarish ye karte hain

jaaneman jaaneman

jitna bhi hum
tum ko chaahe kam lagta hai
ye ishq isliye hi to
pal pal badhta hai
tum se he is jeevan ka
hum saara bharam rakhte hain
tum tod na dena is ko
guzarish ye karte hain

jaaneman jaaneman
jaaneman jaaneman

Wish you a very happy love filled Valentine's Day !! So glad, happy, thankful to have you in my life to love and cherish.

Love you more n more with each passing day !!

-Your Neel

Magic of outdoors

2010-02-11T21:44:00.004+08:00

A few days back Neelum and I were having a conversation about how our children and children of this generation have very little contact with nature. They don't touch natural materials and don't do any messy play. Neither do they play outdoors for long periods of time.

Their playgrounds are on a level surface and made up of artificial material. This prevents serious injuries when they fall but it also,Neelum very rightly pointed out, prevents them from experiencing the slopes of natural landforms and the joy of walking on grass barefoot. Neelum recommended a book called "Toxic Childhood" which describes the nature deprived childhoods of our children. I also read a similar book called "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv and I am really glad that I read it. The author here gives a very appropriate name for this phenomenon and he calls it the "nature deficit disorder". He says that children learn many things from nature and outdoor play. They learn about seasons,day and night,pond life,plants etc. and they also refine their gross motor skills by running and hopping and fine motor skills through activities such as picking up stones.

Indoor entertainment cannot match or substitute for outdoor fun for children!I discovered it yesterday when I made a totally unplanned visit to the East Coast beach with the kids.I went even though my daughter came back from school at four in the afternoon and even though I had a lot of housework to do. After going there,Ibnat started playing immediately while Nayaz took a while to warm up to the sand and the sun. What happened next ....well,you all can guess....was sheer fun. The kids had a rollicking good time!

I can't help compare this to their indoor playground experience last Saturday.The playground was beautiful with ball pools and everything but the fun they had there was nothing compared to what they were experiencing in the beach. For Nayaz,the sand play molds became cars which were travelling in a hot desert.Ibnat drew a mermaid on the sand and collected shells and stones.Outdoor play stimulates the senses and encourages imaginative play.

Even though the afternoon was hot & sunny,I am glad that I took them outdoors.Usually it is just the condo playground that they experience. While it is better than staying indoors and watching TV, I think once in a while the kids need to be in big open spaces under the sky.

Why my son has no toy guns....

2010-02-05T09:41:00.003+08:00

My maid (bless her) has to clear up my son's toy room after the hurricane has passed over it, toppling over everything possible, toys strewn all over, paints, papers, clay, books....everything is on the floor !!

Why I told you this is because this will prove to you that she has the access and thus knows all that Aadu has in there.

So, a few days back she asked me.

Maid: Madam, why Aaditya has no toy guns?

Me: Taking a deep-deep breath in preparation of the long-ish explanation that was going to come out of my mouth !!

Mangala (her name) today the world has more guns than we possibly can handle, small children who should be in school and safe in their homes are given guns to kill other people and in most cases it is their own country people.

You remember when you and I were growing up (she is the same age as me)....did we ever hear of terrorists? Did we hear of people being killed without reason or for no fault?

We did hear of wars, but it is brave soldiers that fight a war; and a soldier holds great responsibility when he is holding a gun in his hands for he has to keep up his country's honor and name. Whereas these days a terrorist can come and shoot you and me right where we are.

Imagine when we did not grow up knowing what a terrorist is...Aadu's generation is facing it right ahead of them. Our generation is battling the Gun with more guns...to find peace and to make the world a better place for our children.

Why then should I place a gun in my son's hand? I don't want to show him how easy it is to hurt someone else. One son kills another mother's son. In the end it is mothers who are left behind crying their hearts out for having to bury their sons....

I want my son to think of other things right now, I know he has to face the reality of a gun yielding world as he grows up, but till then I hope to have taught my son what it is to solve a conflict with peaceful dialogue, and that it is OK to disagree, and that we can still be friends even if we disagree over certain issue....

Maid: Good answer Madam, I will call my son and ask him to not play with guns anymore. (She is Srilankan, so the reasoning resonated with her; she herself having seen plenty of mindless killing).

So there you go Mother's if we want to make a difference in the world, start with your own home. Remember that old saying 'The hands that rock the cradle rule the world' .....we really do have the power to make a difference as mothers.

Think about it, before giving in to your son's demands of games, toys that encourage killing and hurting someone. They really don't need those kind of games & toys. My experience tells me that if we look deep into their eyes and explain to them your reason of not buying 'that' game or toy, they do understand. If we start with a small 'No' in our home, slowly the peer pressure will also decrease. We have to teach our kids contentment with the stuff they have. As it is this is the generation that has unlimited toys due to a lot of socio-economic reasons.

This should also apply to what the child watches on TV. Please monitor what they watch, and choose what they can watch, do not give them the power over the remote control, if that happens it means there is only trouble ahead.

So Wake Up Mothers....and do your bit.

Some introductions....

2010-02-03T15:51:00.002+08:00

A couple of friends have started blogging. I have to...have to...just have to share one blog with you....so...hence...ladies and the reclusive gentleman....some introductions need to be made.

Let me begin with a lady who I love to bits, she is also the co-author on this blog. Put your hands together for Malina !!

Malina and I have been friends since our MBA days and we have spent many hours in the canteen (and in class) and talked about all things under the Sun over cups of tea. Malina has started a wonderful new blog, This Adventure Called Motherhood where her basic principle is that 'It takes a village to raise a child' so she wishes to use her blog as a platform for Moms to exchange, debate, mull over ideas all related to bringing up kids !! Now is that not a great idea?? Do show your encouragement by visiting her blog and posting comments.

Second in line is a swimmer par excellence, a school buddy of mine.....put your hands together for Pramilla !!

She is the person with the most real, authentic one liners on her FB 'status' or 'what are you doing now' space. She is a mom to a very beautiful (takes after the mom) daughter Mira who is a preschooler. Prams feels she can write down her thoughts better than saying them....thus the blog. I love her Blog title Mother India !! That in itself showcases the oodles of creativity this gal possesses !!

Do encourage her people...

Lastly, this is one lady blogger who has moved me to tears, tears of sorrow at her pain and suffering, and tears of joy for her well being, and all the happy moments she shares with us. She is a beautiful, gorgeous lady with a even more beautiful soul...Ladies join me in clapping for Stephanie Aurora Clark Nielson.

Stephanie is the survivor of an almost fatal plane crash. She blogs about her life and I have to tell you she has THE BEST husband in the whole world...read her blog...and soon you will agree with me. Stephanie blogs at Nienie Dialogues.

This is a must visit and a must add-to-reader blog.

The story of stuff - from raw material to trash

2010-02-02T10:10:00.005+08:00

We are bombarded by a lot of go-green jargon these days. Some of us know what to make of it, some of us let it pass for there is little we understand of it or maybe there is little we think we can do about it.

I am one of those people who take the Environment, our Earth our Eco-systems our plant and animal like very seriously, and I believe that we are all connected. So if the Polar bears are facing a tough time, fighting for their existence...the same stuff that bothers him will bother us sooner or later.

How many of us think about things like 'raw material sourcing', 'point of origin', 'transportation costs', 'toxicity', 'carbon foot-print', 'recyclability', 'impact on environment', 'disposal' - when buying a new product?

I too did not, and still don't think about a few things when purchasing a new item. Why all these points are important and necessary for a cleaner greener Earth are very nicely demonstrated in the following clip. It is very informative and thought provoking. Show it to all members of your household, your maid included, share it with your co-workers.

From this clip I have gained immense knowledge and am going to be an 'awakened-informed-buyer' and not just a shopping-junkie driven by consumerism.

Here is what I have decided to do:

Buy local goods - the thing may be made by a local company, but just check for the 'Made In..' tag. If that says the name of the country you reside in. That is buying local goods.
Buying locally grown fruits, vegetables - I see the divide between local produce and foreign, procured produce very clearly in our super markets especially Village Grocer in Bangsar. There a locally produced pack of Strawberries costs around 6 RM whereas the same quantity of imported Strawberries costs more than twice !! Buying locally grown produce reduces the travel-transport costs of the goods, thus reducing the amount of fuel that was used up.
Support local industry - buying clothes, shoes, handbags, school bags, books, handicrafts etc from the local community or city. This ensures employment of the local communities and stops a large number of them from migrating to the cities to get employed in large corporations and living in pitiful conditions.
Point of purchase decision - when picking up an item think very carefully - is this item a NEED or a WANT. A 'Need' is something that satisfies your basic requirements of living like food, clothing etc; whereas a 'Want' is something that feels good to have, and is something that you can like without.
Recyclability of the item - when buying cutlery for a picnic, buy paper plates rather than plastic ones, buy re-usable items like cloth-made shopping bags. Never get your food packed in a restaurant in Styrofoam items, carry your own metal-containers or then ask the hotel to pack in paper-based container.

This is what I can think of now....I will share more as and when I have light-bulb moments.

Do write in to share your green-ideas.

Standing up for your child

2010-01-30T11:52:00.003+08:00

This happened some days back at our local fresh market. Aadu loves to pay the vendors and asks his Dad to pass the money to him so that he can pass them on to the vendor.

At one vendor he gave the money with his left hand....which is his right hand I mean he is a left handed guy so for us his left hand is his right hand ..did I just confuse you??

So the vendor tells him 'give with your right hand...must never give with left hand'

This confused Aadu and he looked up to Daddy dear.

Daddy dear says to the vendor:'this is his right hand...he is left handed; you should take it from him from the same hand. Don't ask him to change'

Vendor then proceeds to take the cash from Aadu from the left hand.

During all this I was not around...I was busy yapping with my favorite vendor who had just returned from a trip to India !!

I was told all this much later when we were back home. I felt very proud of Amol for having stood up for Aadu.

In other places which we regularly visit, the people know that Aadu is left handed and so they never bother to say anything.

This served as an important lesson for Aadu also, he will know that it's OK to be different and that we have to stand up for ourselves...

Searching for Schindler

2010-01-29T09:27:00.004+08:00

Searching for Schindler is a memoir written by Thomas Keneally.

This is one of the books that I had picked up from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in November. I had bought it thinking that I will enhance my minuscule knowledge of the legendary gentleman Oskar Schindler. The very first time that I knew something more than just his name was when I watched the movie Schindler's List early last year. The movie shook me to my core would be an understatement. It ripped me apart, my emotions were raw at the humiliation, torture, barbaric treatment that the Jews received during that shameful time in our human history.

The movie also filled me with awe for this man who helped so many Jews. It only made my belief stronger that 'there is good in this world'. I tried looking up more info on the net and was flooded with it. I read and read.

This book, actually told me that much before the movie was made, the Author Thomas Keneally had written a book by the same name, and then it got made into a movie by the awesome Steven Spielberg.

The journey of the book and the movie is what is opened up in this memoir.

Thomas Keneally is an Australian, who was in Lon Angeles met the real star Leopold "Poldek" Pfefferberg who ran a boutique of Handbags etc. The author had gone in to purchase a briefcase.

Poldek and his wife were holocaust survivors. In his possession were numerous photographs, paper cuttings, documents related to the holocaust and about Oskar Schindler. He had tried on many occasions to get someone to write a book or make a movie or a TV series out of all the real and amazing data that he had, but had no success.

Keneally took up the assignment and after a lot of hard work, travelling, meeting more holocaust survivors the book Schindler's Ark/ Schindler's List was published. The book won him the Booker Prize.

The book and movie was possible only because it had the relentless support of Poldek who traveled and interviewed people along with Keneally. It was his mission to see it being made into a movie. He would often say 'An Oscar for Oskar' !! And his dream did come true when The movie actually won 7 Oscar Awards.

The book is great, informative, has many photographs of the actual Schindler, and many more of the camps in which people were held. The book for me showed that if we really want to accomplish something - it is possible.

The recent spat between Chetan Bhagat and the makers of 3 idiots looked very stupid to me at first. ( I was/am on CB's side).

But when I recalled reading that the author Keneally was actually invited by Spielberg to the shooting of the entire movie and that he was given first class air fare wherever he was flown to, he was always put up where Spielberg himself stayed shows what kind of treatment an author ought to deserve for the original idea, story etc. Keneally was also asked to be present at all press conferences related to the movie, he was invited to all the glittering premiers that the film had. He was paid his dues when Spielberg (or was it Universal) bought the rights of the book from him; but the points to be noted is the treatment and respect he received for his effort and knowledge of the subject. I firmly believe that Intellectual property needs to be respected and treated as a commodity abiding by the laws of the industry as such.

Overall I say: go read this book

Our Art n Craft

2010-01-18T20:23:00.008+08:00

Number 1: Fruit and Vegetable Basket

This needs a paper bowl or deep plate, newspapers, paint and a stapler.

Using the news paper, mould them into different shapes like a sphere, oblong, etc then simply color them as per the fruits you like. Here you see a tomato and a banana. Once the paper fruits are made and the paint is dry, place them into the paper bowl and using some more paper make the handle by simply twisting it. Staple the ends of the handle onto the bowl.

Number 2: Mumma and baby hen.

This needs: 2 paper cups, some color paper, paints, crayons, glue and scissors.

Method: Cut one of the cups halfway to it's height. This is for the baby chick. Now paint them, while the paint dries, using the color paper cut out beaks and feathers. Stick these onto the mumma and baby chick. Next draw the eyes with crayons. Finish off by gluing together the duo of cute baby chica and mommy hen.

Number 3: Slithering snake.

You need: Green paper, glue, red paper or white paper, scissors and red and black sketch pens.

Method: Cut out a long stripe of green paper, taper it towards it's tail end. The other end (head part) should be rounded off. Trace out the portion of the eyes and the matching rounded part just like the head part. Also cut out the tongue. Now take the snake body and fold like a paper fan making big folds. Draw out the eyes and nose, and stick this part onto the head portion of the snake, make sure you place the tongue in between before pasting. Your slithering snake is ready.

Number 4: Butterflies in the park

You need: Play dough, and butterfly shape pasta.

Method: Make small portions of the play dough, roll out into cylindrical shapes, tapering them at the ends. Now simply press the pasta onto this body. Note: Press lightly.

If you are in a mood to paint, then one can paint the butterfly wings as well.

This one is great to do on a lazy afternoon when the kids are full of energy and you are not ;)

Number 5: Slow and steady Mr. snail.

You need: Play dough and shell shaped pasta.

Method: Roll out the dough into oblong shapes to make the body of the snail, make the back portion stick onto the paper the head part is to be made standing out. Take the shell shaped pasta and press on to the mid section.

Another easy peasy craft that is a sure hit with kids.

For more adventure, color leaves, or collect some from the garden and place them around the snails and enjoy the sight of amazed kids busy for a couple of hours with Mr. snail and his house.

You can make multiple snails and play family !!

Finally...NRIs may soon get to vote

2010-01-08T18:17:00.002+08:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said that Non-Resident Indians may soon vote in the elections and that the process may start as early as the next general elections.

Inaugurating the eighth edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, Dr Singh said: "I recognise the legitimate desire of Indians living abroad to exercise their franchise and to have a say in who governs India. We are working on this issue and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time of the next regular general elections."

"In fact, I would go a step further and ask why more overseas Indians should not return home to join politics and public life as they are increasingly doing in business and academia," he added

"It gives me very great pleasure to join you at the inauguration of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2010. Every year, on this day we celebrate and honour the contribution of the overseas Indians is making for the development of their spiritual and ancestral home. We are immensely proud of the achievements of our Diaspora."

"Your achievements have made a great contribution in changing the image of India to the world at large. Let me therefore join Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Chief Minister of Delhi to welcome you to New Delhi and wish you a very happy New Year," he added.

Article Courtesy: Rediff.com

Leonardo Da Vinci in Kuala Lumpur

2009-12-23T10:48:00.002+08:00

The National Science Center in KL is hosting the world acclaimed 'Da Vinci - the genius' exhibition.

We went there this past weekend. It is a must-go to all those who wish to know more about Da Vinci, his life, his inventions, paintings etc.

The exhibits have been brought all the way from Italy from the Il Genio de Leonardo da Vinci Museo. The exhibits help to bring to life the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci - an inventor, artist, scientist, anatomist, engineer & architect.

There are numerous exhibits (life scale) that we can actually admire and handle, right from simple mechanical stuff to the 'vertical flying machine'. The exhibits are a treat for sure.

The highlight is of course the 'Mona Lisa'. One entire hall is dedicated to this mysterious lady. There is loads of information about the painting, facts, trivia. There are many photographs that are part of a assignment by the famous photographer Pascal Cotte; these photographs help us to uncover many unknown facts about the Mona Lisa. One gets to see what the original painting looked like.

There is also a small TV hall, which plays a documentary about the life of the genius, I think it's a BBC documentary. Very informative and worth sitting through.

We enjoyed the exhibition immensely, Aadu held on for quite a long time, but soon lost it when we were watching the documentary, he went off to sleep. He had a great time handling the exhibits, working models etc.

Overall a great way to spend an afternoon.

Details:

Venue: National Science Centre, Bukit Kiara.

Time: 9 am - 6 pm.

Infoline: 03-20921150 / 03-74933010

Tickets: Children upto 7 years - FREE !!

Children 7-17 - RM 20

Adult - RM 25

Senior Citizen - RM 13 (free admission with pension card)

Family(2 adults & 2 Children) - RM 70

(Waiver of ticket fee for 1 person if you carry any one of the following:

Astro Bill

TM Bill

Malaysia Airlines - Enrich Card member)

Fire-flies at Kuala Selangor, Kampung Kuantan

2009-12-22T12:32:00.011+08:00

Our quest for something new and different around Kuala Lumpur, led us to Kuala Selangor, which has the largest fire fly colonies in the world.

The drive there was good, the route was full of plantations, and we drove through some small pretty towns, and thus got to see the real Malaysia. It was indeed very refreshing to see normal people do things other than mall hopping and shopping. We saw children run along their gardens, big boys enjoy a game of football, kids on bicycles, and people driving around slowly, talking & waving to friends go by.

We left KL around 4 PM, and we took around 1.5 hours to reach Kampung Kuantan. I had read on the net that there are about 4-5 places from where you can take boat trips down the river to see the fireflies; we chose to go to the Fire Fly Park Resort.

Once there we freshened up & smothered ourselves with insect repellents. All of us wore full sleeved clothes. We then bought the tickets & went in.

The Sun was just setting as we went in near the boat station, so we had to wait for around 20 minutes before the guys announced the first number. There were life jackets for all to wear.

The most un-cool part of this place was that while we were waiting for darkness to engulf us, the boat guys were watching a documentary on 'Snakes' !! I was totally grossed out, and much too scared...coz we were going to enter water in the dark !!

Anyways, the number was announced & we threw the life jackets on and each one checked the other's straps, we headed to the boat, sat down, and the sound-free boat started down the river. Sound free coz they were electric boats, and it served the purpose of maintaining silence. We also spoke in whispers...Aadu had some questions, and I am super impressed with him for keeping his voice down for the entire boat ride.

The sight that was waiting for us was simply superb !! It was as though we were looking at trees decorated with tiny twinkling lights, thousands and thousands of blink-blink lights. It was very soothing, as nature was at her best, and these marvelous creatures were giving us so much joy.

They really looked like the largest colony of fire flies...we rode downstream for about 12 minutes, and then turned upstream and went on for another 15 minutes.

Each and every moment of the boat ride was lovely, and we loved it. This time also was strange as we were in complete silence, and after living in a bustling city one tends to forget what total silence is.

No photography was allowed during the boat ride, so we have no pictures of the best part of the trip. The graphics are engraved on our minds though.

I would recommend this trip to everyone. Except maybe people with real tiny babies. One has to remember to wear full clothes, cover yourself well, use insect repellents.

My son wants to be a Doctor

2009-12-17T13:17:00.004+08:00

Yes !!! Yes !! Yes !!

That's what he said to me last night !!

And it is the first time that he said anything like that to me I mean about what he will be when he grows up, profession wise etc.

Well the background is like this:

We were watching Patch Adams, the autobiographical film about Dr. Hunter (Patch) Adams.

In this movie, Patch is a person who has a great passion for life, and for connecting with other humans, add to this the fact that he wants to help as many people as possible; so he decides to enroll in Medical School.

While at the school, he brings joy and laughter to all around him, by sometimes being a clown, on another occasion by filling his room with balloons and inviting a friend in for a surprise birthday party !!

All these incidents in the film made Aadu jump up in laughter and that is when he said 'Mumma I want to be a Doctor'.

And Mumma being the emotional mom that she is, hugged the child, and plastered some kisses on his cute face, and said 'Yes my baby, you can be a Doctor, and I know you will be a good one, and will help everyone'.

But seriously, after his surgery, I really felt the need of a Doctor in the family, leaving the parents aside, all of us my brother, myself, my husband, my bro-in-law, all of us a Engineering graduates. My mom did want my brother to be a doctor, but he was adamant on being an Engineer; also it is worth noting that I drew all the frogs, Earthworms, etc in his Biology journals, so by no way he would have gone to a life-science field !!

If Aadu chooses to be a Doctor, believe me I will be very happy. But then again...we have decided not to put our wishes and dreams onto him, he will have the complete freedom to choose his profession. Actually we'd rather see him as an Artist/Musician/Painter etc. ..... than see him slogging off in hard core science faculties ...

I think from now on I will try to show him the real life examples of professions. Now that he has seen a film about a Doctor, maybe some more about different fields of work....All suggestions are welcome !!

Indian Army - Lakshya

Fireman - Ladder 49

Artist/Painter -

Musician -

Singer -

etc

The book sale...where I went mad

2009-12-03T19:47:00.000+08:00

The Big Bad wolf Book sale was on, and I had the calendars marked, actually 3 of them marked so that I don't miss the sale under any circumstances.

The first day was last Thursday, and I wanted to go in early in the morning, but since it was a school day, I decided to go in at 4 PM after the kid was well fed and had dozed off for a couple of hours.

I had told another mommy blogger about the sale, and we had made a pinky-promise to exchange notes depending on who went first. Well she went first and I had my first review and reaction wherein she told me that it's amazing and the prices are to die for, and the collection of books was superb. Now these are the only things that a book lover like me needs. She also warned me about the crowd and asked me to be careful with Aadi around. OK points noted, and I got about packing my bags, one with food and drinks for the Son, the others were huge IKEA bags to carry the books and yes a grocery trolley to dump books as I life them off the shelves.

All preparations done, I was awaiting the clock to strike 3:30 when the husband had volunteered to come & pick us up. I love you for this dear Hubby !!

As we approached the place (Amcorp Mall), I saw people with bag full of books, and I felt that I should have come in the morning to pick up all the hot stuff. But never mind lah .... I was sure to find good ones still waiting for me. I firmly believe in the adage 'daane daane per hota hai khaanewale ka naam' just tweek it a bit and it reads 'kitaab kitaab per hota hai padhnewale ka naam' (wow i'm good at this).

All said & done I was after all going with a well researched & thought-out strategy. I was going to attack the large books, your typical coffee table type books, about flowers, grasses, animals etc. These are usually priced very high & it's a great buy if you can get them at a bargain price. I'm talking fresh books people, not second hand ones.

We entered the place, there was no line to get inside as opposed to the morning rush where people had waited in line for upto 30 minutes just to enter !!

We went on picking books, the coffee table types, the cook books, the parenting ones, some management ones, some biographies, and yes books for the young reader at home.

We walked out with 40 books that cost us 340 RM, and I can give it in writing that we got a great deal.

After this round, I deposited the son with the Dad who took him to his workplace nearby....this was strategy # 2. So that I had some my-time at a place that I like. Again I went in and came out with 9 books, this time, some light non-fiction, and more management books.

I was/am so overjoyed to see all those books in my house. I have yet to find shelf space for all, but they are my reading material for as long as they last......

I get my love of reading from both my parents, and I am happy to see my boy turning into one too.

I finished reading the first book- Many lives Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss; finished it in 2 days and then started with a light non-fiction called 'Waiter Rants'.

Will keep an reading update on this blog.

So any of you who went to the book sale...do share your story and what all you bought.

I will put up the list in the next post.

Adios....the waiter waits to be read

of najar...evil eye....etc..etc

2009-12-02T18:07:00.000+08:00

oh my days have been plagued by some bad 'najar' ...so who ever it is please quit .... it's caused enough turmoil and trouble to me....now ur happy???

now please quit.

I am from hence forth going to mark my posts with a 'kala-teeka' (black dot) to ward off any evil eyes that any of you are casting my way....It is not one of my readers I am sure of that......but I just want to be safe (than sorry like I have been for a long time since Diwali)

There was my back muscle pull during Diwali, that was followed by a long fight with cough, and the green mucous that I was throwing up with every cough........Goshhhhhhhhhhh....I'm so glad all that is over....

Funny thing is that the medicine that was given to me to relax my back muscles, kept me awake all night....and needless to say the following day was like the day when I was at the height at my nastiest self, much like a lady with a bad case of PMS !!

Then the antibiotics for the cough left me more time in the loo than on the bed......once the capsules were over I was so relieved I wanted to party !!

And actually the cough went off after the meds were totally stopped...no throat soothing liquids, no cough concoctions, no tablets....that was my way of healing.

Oh yes that was not the end of the evil-eye effect....there is more....

My phone....my darling phone....my nokia 6210 ....my red phone....the phone that was given to me by my brother as a rakhi gift....

it broke down :(

It all happened in 5 minutes....we were heading to Gardens Mall, and in a hurry I put Aadu's water bottle (the leaky filthy piece of plastic) into my purse along with my precious phone...and until we reached the destination my phone had stopped showing any activity on it's screen. Thankfully there is a Nokia store in Gardens, and we went there only to be told that we must rush the phone to the service center ASAP !!

Did all the running around, but to this day my dear phone is not working :(

OK enough of my rants and negativity.....

Hey just one more.....Oprah is saying bye to her talk show...

This piece of news had me lost for words and in a daze; I looked up the news channels, I dived into the world wide web to confirm....re-confirm.....re-re-re-confirm

And boy it's true.....What will I do now? What about my dream to go on the show?

Ok that's about all that I have to cry about.

My brother is here, so I have lots of cheer around.

Oh and BTW: Buri nazar wale tera mooh kala !!!

Now I just had to say that !!

I made them ....funny faces

2009-11-17T19:01:00.002+08:00

I made two of them this morning as a surprise for Aadu. He loved it when he saw it and called it 'Happy Face'.

I would like to tell you that all together it took me about 7 minutes to put it all together.

I think I added a bit too much Jam in the cake crumble...next time I'll add a bit less so that the ball turns out sort of loose yet bound together....get what I mean??

Sadly my pack of Smarties did not have any bright colors :( so I had to make do with these rather dull ones...

Do make your Funny Faces and send me the snaps...

Funny Faces - it's a sure hit with kids

2009-11-11T17:28:00.005+08:00

This one is for you Malina...especially for Nazu's upcoming birthday....

Funny faces is a goody snack that you can serve at a birthday party or any gathering where you know there are going to be little bubbly kids.

It's a very simple dish to make, actually involves hardly any cooking and it gets done very fast and the best part is that you can prepare it well in advance !!

You will need:

Sponge cake - vanilla and or chocolate
Dark Chocolate - grated
Milk,
Jam - your choice of flavor
Round, colorful chocolate...."Nestle Smarties" is the brand available in SG
Almonds, Cashew - you could replace these with other shapes of candy if you wish to avoid any kind of nuts.
Ice cream cones
Plain biscuits like Marie

Procedure:

Crumble the cake into a fine mixture
Add some jam to this, so that you can roll it into a ball shape
Melt the dark chocolate (use double boil method), and add some milk to it so as to form a thick-ish paste.
Roll the cake-jam balls in this chocolate-milk syrup/paste
Now you have the main face of the item
Next put on the ice-cream cone (wafer cone) over the ball like a pointy hat
Stick the colored round candy for eyes, the almond forms the nose and use the cashew to make a happy or a sad or a funny face...
Finally place this on the biscuit so that you can move these 'funny faces' around easily.
I personally would prefer to place the cake-jam ball covered with chocolate over the biscuit before the decoration.....I think it will be easier and less messier.

Here is a video (in marathi) of this recipe.....just have a look to understand the flow of events....it is very simple to understand...and in case of difficulty ...I am right here to handle all your queries....

Funny Faces Recipe Link Courtesy of ZeeMarathi on Youtube

Our favourite place to eat in Bandar Kinrara

2009-11-04T09:37:00.002+08:00

We found this place, on the ground floor of the Giant Hypermart @ Bandar Kinrara. Don't ask me the name of the place...it's long and I refuse to memorise it !! But it is bang opposite Bata; so this should help anyone of you who wishes to explore this place.

The concept of this place is health. You will see a weight & height measuring instrument at the entrance. Each table has a special table-top-calendar-like menu. Now this is not the main menu; but this one is only to describe & detail all the food-nutrition-calorie information of each dish served there. Even the juices and other drinks have this kind of information drawn out.

The lovely hostess Linda (you can see her in one of the pictures) told me that the place is actually a Government initiative to get people to think about food with their health in perspective. The effort is worth an applaud. I just wish that they open up some branches near the city center so that it becomes more popular.

The food is the best part of course!! why else would I talk about the place !!

My favorite so far is the nasi goreng-chili-padi which is a fried rice with green chilly (lots of them for me) and has a generous amount of vegetables and chicken in it.....it's just yummmmm !!

The husband has liked the nasi goreng paprik which is fried rice dish with a gravy; and the gravy is the best part of this dish. The second time we went there, he ate nasi goreng - kampung, that is kampung (village) style fried rice, this one had loads n loads of vegetables in it, and was also great to taste.

I have eaten my favorite one when ever we've gone there. I also like her teh-tarik (tea).

Some pictures....

Linda the beautiful, chirpy, cheerful, friendly manager of the place.

A close up of the nasi goreng kampung

Nasi goreng kampung - the full dish

My Nasi goreng chili padi

Another shot of my favorite thing

Diwali 2009

2009-10-30T21:24:00.001+08:00

Diwali this year was celebrated on a grand scale at the Sawaikar residence. The wife made the 'faral' the sweets and namkeens that are served as snacks during this festive season. The items on the 'faral' list included:

1. Patal pohyacha chivda - a namkeen made of thin 'poha'. This has a tempering of curry leaves, green chilly, groundnuts, and puffed chana daal.

2. Sweet Shankarpale - these are diamond shaped fried snack made out of semolina & maida, sugar milk etc

3. Namakpare - thin, long strips of fried maida which has ajwain & salt.

4. Shev - again a fried snack made up of besan, and a few spices

5. A long-ish flat shev - a snack I found to be loved by local Indians, ingredients are same as the shev, only difference is the disk pattern used while frying.

6. Chakli - this is an all time favourite at our home, but this time I did not make it with the usual 'bhajani'; I just used the locally available ready mix and added some sesame seeds, a bit of black pepper & red chilly powder to it.

7. Besan laddoo - this one is coming to be a favorite with me & Aadu ; this is not your usual besan laddoo; in this method the besan is kneaded into a dough, then rolled into thick pooris, and fried, once this is cooled down it is processed in the mixie to make a thick powder; then a sugar syrup is made in proportion to this fried besan powder; once the syrup is ready, the powder along with huge amount of desi-ghee is added & this mixture is cooked till it becomes thick & a spoon can stand in it (that thick). Dry fruits are added along with elaichi powder & then this is rolled into laddoos....they turn out very delicious.

8. Olya-naralachya-karanjya (karanji made of fresh coconut) - this one I made for the first time, and they turned out quite a hit with the crowd.

This is the 'rangoli' I made outside our home during Laxmi-puja, it shows how inept I am at the art, I am very poor at doing the traditional 'dot-dot' wala rangoli patterns, that others find sooooooo easy to make....well I have my own ways...

This is the rangoli that Amol drew freehand with a chalk, and then we sat together and filled in the colors; it is actually a dot-dot wala design, but he being a better artist than me, he just flashed his arms around and voila the rangoli was drawn !!

Thus Diwali of 2009 was celebrated at our home in KL !!

Most educational TV shows for children

2009-10-30T01:22:00.004+08:00

According to David Dutwin, a social science researcher and the authour of "Unplug your kids:A Parent's Guide to Raising Happy,Active & Well-adjusted Kids in the Digital Age", the following are among the best educational shows for preschoolers:

Reading Rainbow
Oobi
Mister Roger’s Neighbourhood
Wordworld
Super WHY!
Play with me Seasame
Pinky Dinky Doo
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Jack’s Big Music Show
Barney & Friends
Dragon Tales
Between the Lions
Sesame Street
Mama Mirabelle’s Home movies
Franny’s Feet
Backyard habitat (For age 4 and up)
Wilbur
Hip Hop Harry

Out of all these shows,I am familiar with "Worldworld","Play with me Seasame","Mickey Mouse Clubhouse",Barney & Friends","Between the Lions" ,"Sesame Street" and of course "Barney & Friends".

The two seasame street shows are undoubtedly good and maybe I am biased because I watched Seasame Street as a child. "Wordworld" is also very educational for children above three and so is "Between the Lions"."Between the Lions",however,is probably not aired in any of the children's channel in Singapore but I have bought some of the DVDs.

We have recently started watching Mama Mirabelle's Home movies in CBeebies and I would say that it is an excellent show.It gets kids interested in the animal kingdom and presents lots of information in a lively way. Barney,though educational,is no longer liked by my four and a half year old girl...my younger one still likes it. The other shows,which we have never watched,I am trying to trace in Nick Jr.,Disney and Playhouse Disney.Other mummies...please help me out in tracing these shows and let me know when and where they are aired.

Mister Maker

2009-10-29T18:07:00.004+08:00

All mummies & kids who love art and craft,please don't miss Mister Maker in CBeebies.The guy (Mister Maker) is absolutely fantastic and he makes such beautiful crafts in a matter of minutes!In Singapore it is aired at 9:00 a.m. in the mornings in CBeebies.

Craft Idea - Building made of toothpaste box

2009-10-29T09:21:00.000+08:00

Few weeks back (or was it months???) while Aadi was staying at home due to the H1N1 fear in his school, we used to do art and craft projects.

This one here is a building that we created using a toothpaste box/cover.

What you need: One toothpaste box/cover, some colored paper, glue, pencil, color pens (shiny), scissors, and plenty of patience.

How to get it done:

Cut out a sheet of paper making it the exact size of the box so as to cover all sides. Also cut out 2 squares to fit the top and bottom.
Stick this paper to the box
Using other color papers cut out doors and windows. Stick them on as well.
Now with the shiny pens shade out or outline the doors and windows. Here I have shaded the windows so as to get the light-shining effect. The black window means that the office is shut and the orange is where people are still working. My building is a night-view version !!
My son loved to stick the windows onto the building, and then announced it as Papa's office. Later in the day it became our residential tower !!
Enjoy making this oh-so-simple craft, you could make multiple buildings and then the kids can play 'city'.

This was the 'Building' that I made with Aadi some time back.

Taking care of silk sarees

2009-10-28T02:17:00.001+08:00

My silk sarees have just been occupying the top shelf in my wardrobe. The last time I wore a saree was during the Diwali of 2008. All the expensive wedding silks just stay put up without much care and attention.

My mom always tells me to keep changing their folds, so that they last longer and so that the 'zari' does not wear off or tear along the folds. I used to do as told, but for the past year I have ignored them completely. It's not that I buy sarees all the time, I have not bought a single one since 3 years. I know I am not going to wear it so what's the point in investing in one.

Last night, out of nowhere I thought of them, and decided to do something about them ASAP.

So as soon as I woke up this morning, I pulled all of them out, and spread them out on the bed, and switched ON the fan, and tied up the curtains to allow some morning Sun to warm up the room.

But I kept thinking of other things I should do to preserve my sarees and I must confess right here right now that I love each one of them....and one day would love to see my daughter/bahu/niece wearing them.

Hmm so I must do something to make them last that long......here are a few things/steps that I found through the Internet.

1. Store silks away from sunlight & heat.

2. When you buy a silk saree, do not keep it in the plastic bag for more than 3 days, the plastic traps moisture, and this can cause yellowing and mildew & ultimately damage the saree.

3. If your saree has a 'zari' border, it is best to attach a 'fall' to it. Here I would like to tell you one more thing regarding the fall. Use the same breadth of fall fabric as much as your saree border. Anything more than the border will cause the delicate fabric to bear all the weight and you will notice tiny holes there; besides it looks really ugly if your saree fall and border are of different breadths.

4. For the first 3 washes, use only plain cold water. In case of stains, use cleaning product only on the affected spot. (more on stain removal follows). Many people suggest adding salt to cold water for the first wash. And yes hand wash the silks please.

5. We can use soap-nut or 'reetha' and also 'shikakai' for washing of silks.

6. Wash the border, pallu and main body separately.

7. Never wash saree with other clothes, and keep it in water for minimum time possible.

8. Never beat the saree or wash roughly.

9. Dry the saree by rolling it in a towel and then hanging it on a padded hanger.

10. Iron on medium heat only. I have seen people iron their silks by placing them under another saree in order to avoid direct heat.

11. My dry cleaner in Mumbai once told me that we should dry-clean our silks just before it is time to wear them. Like just before Diwali or any wedding etc. He said, dry-cleaning after a function and then storing the saree without use only damages it. I follow this rule strictly.

12. Store the sarees in a dry and cool place and dust with Neem leaves. Moths love to live where natural fibers like silk are stored, so make sure the place is cleaned properly frequently. One can use cedar chips or balls to keep moths at bay.

13. Some silks like Raw silk, China silk, India silk, Crepe de Chine, Dupion and Jacquard silk are safe to be washed at home.

14. Covering silks in a cotton cloth/bag/lungee/dhoti allows the natural fiber to breath.

15.

Stain removal for Silk sarees:

1. The moment you get a stain wash with cold water.

2. If the stain is of oil/ghee then sub some talcum powder over it. The powder will soak up all the oily stuff. Then wash with mild soap/shampoo and warm water.

3. Protein stains: these include stains caused by blood, deodorants, eggs, meat juices and sweating. For removing these stains, apply a mild detergent like a shampoo (Amway has some amazing products for delicate fabrics), wash off with cold water. If the stain is stubborn then try using a mixture of a few drops of NH2 with Hydrogen Peroxide.

4. Lipstick stains: use dry-cleaning fluids like petrol and then follow up with mild soap/shampoo and cold water.

5. Nail polish: rub the affected are with acetone on a ear bud.

6. Other stains: These include chocolate, gravy, ice-cream, milk etc. Use dry-cleaning products like petrol, then let it dry. Then use mild soap/shampoo/liquid soap and rinse with cold water. Later use a pre-wash stain remover and wash in warm water.

Homeschooling moms

2009-10-27T22:17:00.000+08:00

I am in awe of homeschooling mothers because they have taken the schooling of their children entirely in their own hands and doing so requires a lot of guts.

I find the concept of homeschooling quite appealing because the mother has a lot of freedom in designing the curriculum according to the interest of her child. Also,she can devote her attention fully to him and give him a lot of one-to-one attention.Recently,I have started giving some individual attention to Nayaz in the mornings when Zunairah is in school and I have already noticed improvement in the area of vocabulary and language.We do nursery rhymes,coloring or go for interesting outings nearby.Our time is cut short by his schedule as he has to set off for school around 10:15 am.

I was actually thinking of withdrawing my younger one out of school and homeschooling him.He is going to turn three and so he doesn't have much to lose even if I turn out to be a not-so-effective teacher-mum. But then I thought of the socializing part and I kind of backed out.He loves going to school these days.Also,what about the Mandarin part?I can't understand a thing that is in his mandarin report card but I believe that the early exposure that he is getting now in the mandarin classes will serve him well if we stay on in Singapore and even if we leave the country.

These reasons have kind of dampened my enthusiasm for homeschooling.But I keep reading about homeschooling as it fascinates me.

A beautiful story - God's Wings

2009-10-26T15:08:00.001+08:00

God’s Wings -

A little something to put things in perspective…

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park , forest rangers
began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage.

One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched
statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat
sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick.
When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under
their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of
impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the
tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing

that the toxic smoke would rise.

She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her
babies. Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her
small body, the mother had remained steadfast ..because she had
been willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.

‘He will cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you will find refuge.’
(Psalm 91:4)

Being loved this much should make a difference in your life.
Remember the One who loves you, and then be different because of it.

Window shopping - our theme for the weekend

2009-10-25T17:35:00.004+08:00

Window shopping in a place where everyone seems to be shopping for something and where every (almost) store has some too-good-to-resist promotion going on...how and why on earth did I decide to just window-shop?.....answer lies in the time of the month...where the bank account has been set on high speed spin dry by paying off all those bills, and trying to maintain a good diet at home....it's the month-end and like me many of you also may face this situation at this time of the month.

It's not that we go into a spending frenzy but given that we just turned the page on Diwali makes up for all the loss of cash in the bank. We did buy some clothes for the son and father from Isetan, and then my footwear had to be replaced because every step that I took was accompanied by a 'charrr-charr' noise which finally got to me. There was an occasion of impulse buying at the Bangsar Village where I spotted a lady with a good collection of Indian wear. We also bought some surprise stuff for our brothers. Most expensive turned out to be the son's clothes, as we were replacing all of his cute cartoon featuring clothes for some grown-up (in kids category) stuff.

Yesterday we just went to the Curve (Aadi kept calling it 'urve') and strolled into some stores, where we had not been before like the Padini Concept Store, where I absolutely fell in love with most of the accessories on display. The chains, the earrings, the large cocktail rings, the sunglasses, the bags (one particular one has caught my fancy, but it's going to have to wait at the store for me). The accessories were very nicely displayed and separated as per the color tone, yellow, oranges, black, white....green-blue etc...very well done and a very well thought out collection too I must say. None of it was OTT, they were all wearable pieces and price was also good, a nice pair of danglers was 29.00 RM etc.

We spent quite a lot of time at Padini.

Next we walked into a home store called IDEKO, located on the 1st floor. They had a good collection of lanterns, and the display was very nice, with lanterns of different designs were all hung in one cluster at various heights. The cushion covers were nice too. Best of all I liked their dinner sets, they were from Italy, and they looked very tempting. Priced at around 140 RM (after discount) for a 16 piece set. Again very subtle & minimum details. Amol liked some lamps there, and also some bathroom sets. Aadi had to be warned time and again about not touching any of the items.

After a quick bite at the Thai Express where we ate some seriously spicy yellow chicken curry, we strolled over to the Ikano Power Center, across the street. Here we walked through the Ace Hardware store (don't as me why we entered it in the first place); but we walked out with a coir door mat, a nylon string to dry clothes and a steering wheel cover.

Something interesting about this cover: Aadi & I were in the car accessories aisle, Amol was somewhere very far off. Aadi spots this tiger striped steering wheel cover and insists that we buy it for our car, and he said it was Tigger's tail !! I tried to dissuade him and lastly told him that that thing was outright dirty !! Much later when I was at the check out with my door mat in hand, Amol walks up with the same cover and insists that he wants it !!! (Talk of father son bonding) . At this point I was down 2 to 1 so I had to concede and pay for it.

Next stop was a very impressive store called AuthenTeak, which sells Teak furniture. Not only was the collection good, the prices were sky high as one would expect; but some of their stuff was made out of re-claimed wood which in these times of climate change and global warming is very nice to see and one should encourage such companies.

Macy was next in line, and I was instantaneously in love with the numerous curtain fabrics on display, the sofa fabrics were also very nice. They make sofa slip covers, so I made a note of it, and will pass on the details to my house owner as we are in dire need of replacing the current covers which are beige in color and have weathered after all the use and abuse they have been through with us around !!

With no more time in store, we hit the road again to attend Aadi's art class at Bandar Kinrara. Amol also did some canvas painting there, and we will go again next week to finish off his work.

Our Killa (fort)

2009-10-21T15:26:00.003+08:00

These are two (not so good) shots of our Diwali Killa (fort) that we made for Aadu.

The base is a blue plastic tray that we usually use to keep Aadu's drawing papers. The outer wall is made up of Pizza boxes cut up and painted. Inside it the maid body of the fort has a base of soil and we used a toy bucket (up side down) to create to height variations.

The blue/purple cup that you see is supposed to be our water well. The trees were made by moi, just used some sticks as the trunk then the leafy part was cut out from thick paper painted in hues of green. the cut up paper was stuck to the truck with cello-tape and also some stapler pins.

We sowed some mustard seeds - that resulted in the green growth all over the Killa.

The idols of Shivaji, his Mavla (soldier) and the Gavlan (village milk lady) were made using white clay that we bought from Aadu's art class shop. They use this clay to make various articles. This is not play-dough clay but more like pre-kneaded plaster or paris. Very soft to use and finish was also good.

I may have some better photos of the killa, I promise to upload later...that is if I find them.

Which colours to teach my preschooler after she has mastered the basic colours?

2009-10-19T11:37:00.004+08:00

Today, while my daughter & son were painting, I was wondering which colours to teach my preschooler,now that she already knows the basic colours.

In her Lapbooking class (more about this later),Zunairah is working on different activities related to the book "Harold and the Purple Crayon". In her Lapbook the teacher has mentioned about the different shades of purple such as lavender,lilac,plum,lilac,puce,eggplant,mauve,magenta,royal etc. I realized that I only know purple,violet,lavender & magenta out of all the colours.

Apart from the different shades of colours,I am also confused with burgundy and maroon and with hot pink,fuchsia and magenta. The list of colours in the wikipedia is quite useful in reminding us between the differences between the different shades of colours. However,I wish there was something more....maybe a website on colours which accurately names the different shades of red,yellow,blue,green,pink and yellow.

After the basic colours I have decided to teach Zunairah the following colours:

navy blue
peacock blue
cyan
tangerine
maroon
beige
lavender

Along the way I'll try to clear my own confusion about the different shades of colours.

Never put all your eggs in one basket

2009-10-12T18:21:00.006+08:00

Never put all your eggs in one basket or never plan ahead of time or always consider 'off-days' when you are planning ahead. These are some of the lessons I have learnt during the last 24 hours. Ask me why....

Well, all of you know that Diwali is just around the corner and for me (I am from Maharashtra) it begins on Thursday with 'Dhanatrayodashi'; which also means that my house has to be clean before that and my kitchen has to produce some sweets and namkeen goodies in time to welcome the 1st day of Diwali.

My plan was perfect: Call in the maid every day starting Monday i.e. today; start preparing the goodies or 'Diwali-faral' (faral loosely translates as snacks) today. and do 2 or 3 items every day so by Thursday I would have a good variety and stock of the 'faral'.

But no.......... things have not happened quite in the same order.

Yesterday we were making the fort for Aaditya to play. Those of you who are not aware of the 'Diwali and fort-connection' here is the background.

As children growing up in Pune, we the parents each had our share of building fortresses (killa), so this year we thought we could introduce the concept to our son. One the fortress is built we place clay statuettes of Shivaji, his army, some villagers etc and basically create a scene for children to enjoy.

So for this fortress we bought 5 Kg of soil, which was insufficient as we started working on the fortress, and we were too tired to go out and buy another bagful of soil. So we went down with a bag and spade and started digging !! and once Amol had done his share, I offered to show him the 'authentic' way of doing it. I bent over and dug out quite a lot, and as I was getting up....my back revolted and started aching like it had never done before...everrrrr...

So last evening and night had become nightmares for me and my poor back :(

Every movement was painful and with great discomfort, finally only some strong ointment helped ease the pain and I also gulped down a Panadol Activefast....

Today morning we rushed to the doctor who prescribed some pain killer and a muscle relaxant...since one dose has gone down into my system I am much better, but I have really learnt a lesson about taking care of my back and the biggest lesson is about exercising and including some stretching into it.

A website for prereaders & early readers

2009-10-10T19:00:00.002+08:00

While teaching my daughter at home,I sometimes use the computer (or the internet,to be more precise).One website that I would recommend for kids in the age group 3-6 is this website called www.starfall.com.

Younger kids can learn their alphabet and older kids can practice their phonetics in this site.There are fun games which help kids with their phonetic skills and reading. When my daughter was doing the short "a" CVC words such as "bat","cat","bag" etc. I used this website to keep her interest level up.

Our First Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM)

2009-10-08T14:36:00.006+08:00

Our first PTM took place on the 26th of September. My confidence was at an all time low thanks to the chums and then I was nervous about what I was supposed to be doing at an PTM !!

What would the teacher say to me? What will she ask me? Will she have nice things to say to me about my son? Will she have loads of complaints? Will she say that I need to be more focused on my son?...the works man...I was a nervous wreak to say the least.

To quell my nervousness and to be "prepared" for all eventualities I decided to go through my son's previous report cards from previous pre-schools. I mugged up all the points they had mentioned, I said them over and over again in my head. OK now I know lines that would make me appear 'intelligent' like.....'how goes he score on social-skills?'; 'does he interact with all his classmates?'; 'does he take instructions from teachers well?' ....'what are his favourite activities or subjects?'....and some more pointers....now I was all set to be able to open my mouth and expect that pearls of wisdom flow from within !!

Next on my mind was....I had nothing 'suitable' to wear !!! What should a mom wear to a school? A saree? a salwar-suit..or a jeans? (skirts are out coz I don't wear them).

When Aadi was still a baby I had bought 2 cotton printed sarees, the ones that are stiff when you wear them....all the way from Nalli's in Mumbai......and when I was buying them I told my mom 'these are for Aadu's school functions' !! I was so stupid to do that....no...no...not stupid for buying the sarees, stupid for stitching the saree-blouse at that time expecting to remain the same size when it was time to actually wear them !!! Needless to say I have doubled in size since I got them :(

So sarees were definitely ruled out for this PTM....

Next in line were some salwar-suits....and I finally chose to wear a white one, and I got out my brand new white sandals that I had purchased in Singapore from Clark's in Thomson Plaza. I had worn them only once on one of our wedding anniversaries, and since then they were neatly put away, in the wait of another 'suitable' day to wear them.

So dress chosen, shoes chosen, what else is needed? Nothing right? I was all set to take on the day.................but hey wait my toe nails look as though a cat had scratched off all the nail polish on them, they looked yuck !!

So I got out my nail-enhancing tools and got to work, and ended up with toe nails that looked neat, clean and nicely painted :)

This was just my account of how I prepared for the D-day....to read the actual proceedings of that day do visit Aadityas' Dossier. There I have put a more serious account of what actually transpired that day.

Art class for my son

2009-10-07T16:18:00.005+08:00

Yes...we did it...we enrolled our son at an Art class. We did not go looking for one, but it just so happened that we were at a mall and chanced upon this art class called Art Safari. They had a trial session of one hour, and then we could decide if we wanted to enroll or not.

So we sent Aadi for the trial session, while we roamed around in the mall, exploring one furniture store and eating lunch. Amol has written about this place where we lunched, you can read it at his blog. It was a Thai joint.

So after an hour of time pass we went to collect the bachha, and we were shown 2 sheets of paper, on one of them was drawn a small green apple, and on the other was a big, red apple with a nice vibrant color job, background all covered in color etc. So it was basically a 'Before' and 'After' situation. We saw what difference the instructions had made to my 4 year old son's creativity.

I was super impressed with the instructor as well, she was a sweet, bubbly girl who had a genuine affection for kids.

The Art Class is run at various locations in KL, and has been around for 10 years. The studio cum shop is very well equipped with colors of every category, shade, and texture. Other art and craft supplies are also in plenty stock.

They offer various classes, and for beginners and Aadi's age group they suggested we take the one-month class. This basically contains one-session per week, with a total of 4 sessions. Each session is of 2 hours. They will do 3 art sessions and one craft one.

This weekend was Aadi's 1st class, in which he drew a crocodile, and he did a good job, he honestly tells us what part was done by the teacher and what part he did, so I know what he is actually doing and what he is learning.

I am pretty impressed with the class and also I can see that Aadi is enjoying it totally.

So lets see what he does this Saturday for his 2nd art-class.

BTW the classes are run by the tomato creative art studio company.

I also found some photographs of the actual studio...so click here if you wish to see them.

Yes I know photographs are needed, but I have to only locate that cable that connects my phone to the PC and then I'm all set to upload them....

Now where did I keep that cable ??

Toy Library in KL

2009-10-06T10:08:00.002+08:00

Children love toys and there are just so many to choose from these days. From Barney plush toys, to train sets, to the latest Shrek figures, kids can never get enough. But new toys hit the stores every single day and parents sometimes find it hard to keep up. What do you do when your little one gets bored of the toy? Chuck it away and buy new ones? Seems like such a waste, but she is your little princess!

Now in Kuala Lumpur there’s an answer: two toy libraries run by Total Genius Sdn Bhd, where children can visit and play in a toy heaven! There are teddy bears, lego blocks, wooden toys…. plenty to choose from! The children can play with which ever toy they choose and they can even take them home for a small fee. (Broken toys have to be replaced of course.)

The first toy library in KL is in Tropics Shopping Centre at Damansara Perdana, and the next one is opening in Chow Kit very soon. Parents are charged a very small fee to help maintain the libraries and to let the poorer children enjoy the facilities for free. For RM 12 you can sponsor a child to let him or her borrow toys from the library, a small price to pay to bring a smile to their faces.

Great start to a great idea I must say !! I am definitely going to check out the place.

Who am I meant to be?

2009-10-06T09:47:00.026+08:00

This quiz is available on Oprah.com, and I found it to be really very useful and insightful.

I took this quiz with a hope to pin point in which direction my interests (as of now) lie, what areas I should concentrate on. And after reading the results I am pretty happy with them and know what I should be doing....well sort of...we're never too sure are we?

My Results:

YOU ARE STRIVING TO BE CREATIVE

You are an artist: You came out of the womb with a paintbrush in your hand. Or maybe it was a flute or a castanet or a fountain pen to go with your poet's imagination. The point is, you're an original, and you know it. Even if you don't have a singular gift, you're drawn to the arts—anything creative, for that matter—and you have a unique way of looking at the world. Your need for depth and authenticity in relationships can lead to both great joy and profound sorrow, depending on whether others reciprocate. You don't care so much about adapting to group or societal expectations; your independence and sharp intuition propel you on your own path.

What to watch out for: When fear of conformity overrides your creativity, you can assume the role of "outsider" or "orphan" and end up feeling alienated. You may even go so far as refusing to vote or pay taxes. This lone-wolf stance might be a defense against feeling vulnerable. Try to be aware that blaming others for your banishment, or pushing away those who want to get close, only makes things worse. Also, dramatizing your emotions can interfere with your creativity.

Looking ahead: As long as you genuinely express yourself, you feel like the person you were meant to be. How you do it is irrelevant. A chef or architect can be as much of an artist as a painter or sculptor. Many advertising and public relations executives are also highly imaginative. Beyond work, there are opportunities everywhere you look to coax out your inner artist: Design your own jewelry line, create an innovative blog, dream up a comic strip. Relationships are another avenue for self-expression.

My overall scores

Many people have two or three strong striving styles, and they can all be important in leading you to the person you are meant to be. If you have a few "highest" scores, read each matching description, and see what rings most true.

Striving to help: 16

Striving to be recognized: 11
Striving to be creative: 18
Striving to be spontaneous: 15
Striving to be knowledgeable: 15
Striving to be secure: 17
Striving to be in control: 17

You too can take this quiz and if like me you are in a place which you know is not constant, for example I am a stay at mom-full time and I know that soon I will be pursuing a career; but since motherhood happened to me my definition and parameters for a career have changed drastically, I look for something that will let me have flexible work hours, flexi holiday patterns where in I can take holidays when my son has his school holidays or during that time I can work from home...something that allows my son to be the center of my attention at all times. These are the years of his life in which he needs me the most, as time flies by he will be independent, will have a full time school and co-curricular activities to keep him busy.

If you wish to take this quiz, please click here.

Behaviour issues

2009-10-05T16:32:00.006+08:00

The incident that I want to tell you all about took place this past Thursday. But before I go there I will have to build the suitable background to it.

There's this lady S in my condo and her son R is a year older than Aadi. They go to the same school. R takes the school van.

Since Monday the school van is coming in early and almost at the same time that Aadi and I get home. So from Monday I am offering to take R in through the lobby door since his mom is not around and does not know about the early arrival of the van. I of course call her in front of the 'responsible' van driver and tell S that her son is with me and that we're coming up. By the time the lift came down to the lobby level, S was down and we went up together. This happened daily and I happily took R inside with me, always making sure I let S know that her son is back from school.

On Thursday as we got down at our lobby after uncle dropped us home after school. I saw that the school van was also there (like all the previous days of the week) so this time I took R with me and did not call S, I thought I will go to her home to drop him off before heading off to my home. As I let R know of my plan, he yelled at me saying that 'I know my house, and I know my mother...you don't come to my house OK?' and this statement he said in a very rude tone, and which left me numb and dumbfounded not knowing how to react at this child's outburst at my good offer to leave him till his door !!

When the lift stopped at his floor, I was thankful to see S (the mom) standing there, so I just said a quick bye to R and headed home.

I was utterly shocked at the behaviour and I could not understand how a 5 year old could muster up so much rudeness in his speech to one aunty who has known for 2 years and who has been taking care of him by not letting him stand down in the lobby until his mother comes to fetch him !!

I don't know if I said anything to warrant for this behaviour, but I think what ever the case the child was very rude and that cannot be overlooked.

I blurted out the incident to my husband who asked me to stay away from the thankless brat.

This kid R has other issues as well (according to me), he touches and gropes his mother all over her tummy, her chest etc. and this goes on in full public view !! She does look embarrassed but I don't think she has taken any stern steps to stop this behavior. She always complains that R (her son) does not listen to her, and that she has to keep screaming at her. Once the kid gave me a tap on my hand and when he saw that I did not mind it, he went on hitting me until I said 'stop hitting me' in a stern voice. Goshhhhhh I was so horrified...

Getting back to the Thursday incident; believe me if my son would have spoken to anyone in that tone he would get a tight rap from me and a reprimand of not doing it again to anyone.

I though if telling the mother S about it, but then decided not to.

Did I do the right thing?

How come we haven't said anything about Facebook yet?

2009-09-22T02:24:00.000+08:00

I can't remember when exactly I joined Facebook but it must be around three years back.When my sister suggested that I join Facebook I was very skeptical and thought that it was an application only for teenagers or people in their early twenties.

However,after joining & reconnecting with old friends I am totally hooked!It is extremely useful for keeping in touch with people in this day and age when everyone is so busy .I am not suggesting that Facebooking can replace actual meeting with people but it is a great way to connect with friends & relatives who are living in different countries.Best thing is there are many options of staying in touch :you can play Scrabble with an old friend or send him a virtual gift or comment on his photos.Apart from keeping in touch with your friends and other people,in Facebook you can also join a cause,become a fan of a renowned personality or political figure or invite and get invited to events.I have seen people use Facebook for launching a book and promoting their products(including blogs)

Friends I haven't meet for years I have found in Facebook and I now know what they look like currently,how many kids they have & what they have been upto all these years.There is comfort in connecting with old friends who were a part of your childhood.

Facebook also has many applications such as Scrabulous (basically online scrabble) and other word games, books & movies application (where you can view reviews and write reviews).However, some of the applications such as "Friend of the Day","Enemy of the day" or "When will you die?" are silly & unrealistic.However, preteens and teenagers would probably like these applications.

Then there are the privacy issues.Even if you don't give photo access to all your "Friends" ,they will still be able to view them if a "common friend" comments on your photos. A recent rumour suggested that Facebook could use any of your photos for commercial purposes but later I heard that it was not true.

Another downside of Facebook is probably that it can be quite addictive! Many a mornings,after the kids have gone to their preschool,I would be Facebooking instead of doing the household chores and later would curse myself for wasting the precious time.

Inspite of the downsides,Facebook is loved by its users and nowadays older generations are also creating FB accounts to keep in touch with their children who are living abroad or to keep in touch with relatives. I haven't tried the other social networking sites yet but would love to hear from people who have used them.I have opened Tag and Orkut accounts but haven't been checking my account for a long long time.

Eid Mubarak!

2009-09-20T23:36:00.005+08:00

Today is Eid-ul-Fitr,or Hari Raya Aidalfitre, the biggest festival for Muslims all over the world. It comes after Ramadan which is a month of abstinence when devoted muslims observe fast from dawn to dusk.

Yesterday I did my Eid shopping from Mustafa and bought packets of of vermicilli,Rasgollahs,mustard,ghee,chicken & spices (mace & nutmeg) .I did all the shopping during daytime so that I could concentrate on the cooking part in the evening. Shopping in Mustafa while fasting was tough and yesterday Mustafa was really really crowded.

From around seven o'clock in the evening my maid started cooking.I made "phirni" and my maid prepared everything else except "pulao" and vegetables which taste better when they are freshly prepared.We were expecting some of my hubby's colleagues for dinner on Eid night.

On Eid day we woke up early for all the preparations.Faisal wore a new punjabi set and went to say Eid prayers in Ang mo Kio mosque. But he was late and when he reached there the Eid prayers were over!

After he came back we sat together for a while and then had our breakfast.Breakfast was bread,fried eggs and tea-what I usually have everyday.After a while we had "shemai" which has been prepared especially for Eid.It is roasted vermicilli cooked in milk and is a delicious dessert.

We were invited for lunch at a friend's place and so we set off for their place in the afternoon along with the kids.It was a big Eid party with lots of guests.We had a great time and it came close to Eid,as we celebrate it in Bangladesh, with lots of hustle and bustle and delicious food.

We came back home and my daughter had a great time watching shows like "Tinkerbell" & "Little Mermaid" which Disney Channel was telecasting for Hari Raya.

Even with guests the evening was quiet.The dinner menu consisted of "pulao",chicken roast, mixed vegetable & mutton curry. The guests left early as they were all were newcomers in Singapore.

Facial Hair

2009-09-19T00:28:00.002+08:00

I am very troubled with facial hair and not just upperlip but also chin,cheeks and jaws. I don't want to bleach because it is not really advisable for women living in sunny countries.I had threaded recently but threading also doesn't seem like a viable option as it is very painful (upperlip I can bear with because it is a small area). And also though my face was looking fresh and clear after the threading,in light I could see the thread marks on my face.

And about "shaving" I don't know.I have never tried it but I hear some women do it with excellent results. But my concern is what if it produces a stubble on my face and make the hair coarser?

Ten foods to lift your mood

2009-09-18T15:06:00.005+08:00

Below is an article from rediff.com

I read it and knew that I must share it with you all, because most of us who are mothers feel very tired and exhausted towards the end of the day and this in turn leads to feeling sad, and overwhelmed....so read on girls and rush to your kitchen for one of the food items listed below....milk, walnuts, dark chocolate...sounds good to me for now !!

Let's face it, sometimes life can be tough. And managing your work and your personal life can be tough, and managing your weight and fitness, well, even tougher. No one can live a long and healthy life without the will to go on; sometimes mood swings can make us feel that life is too much to handle. But did you know, a bad mood not only gives you a gloomy outlook, it also lowers your immune function, leading the way to illness.

As it turns out though, what we eat is not only important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle; it can really make a difference on your outlook as well. The food you eat affects your physical as well as your mental well-being. This means a bad diet can be one of the causes of depression. On the other hand, a healthy diet may be enough to lift your spirits without the need for medication and counseling.

So, if it is true that food fuels your body and also fuels your mood then which are the foods that you should search for when you hit the blues? Well, here is a list of foods for your mood:

Oatmeal
The carbs in oatmeal trigger the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that boosts mood and can even help you sleep better. Recent studies have shown that after consumption of high carbohydrate food, the hormone insulin is secreted, which lowers the blood levels of most amino acids, with the exception of tryptophan, which is a precursor to serotonin. When there are high blood levels of tryptophan in relation to other amino acids, it enters the brain at a higher rate, thus synthesising more serotonin. While all carbs will give you this kick, stick to whole-grains (complex carbs) as they are digested more slowly and will thus keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. Examples of whole grains include brown rice, daliya and oatmeal. So if you want to have a good day, start the day with a bowl of oatmeal.

Milk
Well, as it turns out there a reason why you should add milk to your cereal. Milk is also a good source of tryptophan as so are other dairy products. Thus adding milk to your cereal or just having plain milk will have a happy and calming effect. Whey proteins have also been shown to decrease anxiety and frustration.

Coffee
Your morning Java contains caffeine which is the world's most popular psychoactive drug. It boosts metabolism and energy levels, making you feel more alert. It also manipulates the channels in the brains, thus activating the brain's pleasure centers. However, too much caffeine can make you dependent and make you nervous, irritable, or bring on headaches. If you have trouble sleeping, avoid coffee and other caffeinated foods and beverages before bedtime.

Banana
According to a recent survey, many people suffering from depression felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan (although it's not one of the major sources, a medium banana still contains about 10.6 mg of tryptophan). Moreover, it also regulates your blood glucose levels with the Vitamin B6 and smooth your mood naturally. Vitamin B6 is needed to convert the phenylalanine to mood-enhancing dopamine. If you don't get enough vitamin B6, you'll probably feel low, and stress depletes your levels further.

Avocado
The monosaturated fats in avocados help your brain be sensitive to serotonin levels. And there is more, these same fats will help lower blood pressure over time. So that's two kills with one stone. Moreover, avacados have one of the highest contents of Vitamin B6.

Turkey
It's no secret that turkey contains tryptophan, but it also contains a chemical phenylalanine that the brain converts to dopamine. Dopamine is a neuro chemical that elevates mood and motivation.

Fish
When you're feeling down, cook up some fish. Their high levels of omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to fight depression, moodiness and impulsiveness. They boost serotonin levels and the zinc present in fish enhances your brain's receptiveness to the neurotransmitter. The best fish are fatty fish such as salmon, herring and sardines. Salmon is also a natural source of Vitamin D which according to recent researches may increase the level of serotonin.

Walnuts
Walnuts have long been thought of as a "brain food" because of their wrinkled, bi-lobed (brainlike) appearance. Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3 essential fatty acids for vegetarians. They are also enriched with tryptophan, which is a precursor to serotonin -- mood enhancing chemicals.

Alcohol
This is one thing we all know that works! According to a recent study, moderate drinkers (two drinks a day for men, one for women) had fewer depressive symptoms, but alcohol in large quantities can be a devastating depressant.

Dark chocolate
So the best things always come the last. This sweet treat has a mild, temporary effect on your mood. In part, it's an emotional response. However, chocolate contains some caffeine, which acts as a stimulant, and the food's sugars and other compounds trigger the release of serotonin and endorphin. Moreover, cocoa and dark chocolate contain significant amounts of antioxidant flavanols, which improve blood flow in the brain.

There is one more thing that will help you lift your mood almost instantly. It's not a food, it's exercise. Research suggests that exercise may provide an immediate mood boost for people suffering from depression.

You deserve the best that this life has to offer for your body, mind and spirit. It all starts with how you treat yourself.

Let the good feelings flow!

Look what I found..an online free make-over site

2009-09-17T04:21:00.003+08:00

Today as I glanced through my new issue of the Oprah Magazine, I saw a very interesting thing. It was a huge advertisement by Estee Lauder, and there was a small leaflet about this amazing thing that they created. It is a widget/tool/software program that allows you to make-over yourself by using all the products in their makeup range. You get to choose your photo, then you start with your basic foundation, concealer etc. Then you go on to choose the blush on, the bronzer (did not know what this was !! till now). Next you get to work on your lips, choosing various kinds of lipsticks, glosses in various finishes. You finish off with a lip liner. Next are the eyes, you choose your eye shadow, your liner and mascara.

You get to do all this after the tool has helped you to carefully measure your facial points.

The outcome is truly amazing, and one can spend hours n hours doing this....I am doing this since morning and have not stopped yet !!

Below are pictures of the three looks that I have tried so far...Have a look and go get yourself a make over too !!

The tool can be downloaded from: http://omagonline.com/esteelauder/

Have fun girls !! and send me ur pictures...

Before

After

Personal Message:

my first trial with the Estee Lauder widget

Before

After

Personal Message:

double wear lipstick one click look

Before

After

Personal Message:

look-3

A few of my favourite things...

2009-09-16T03:36:00.002+08:00

What I want to do under this title, is to enlist my favourite things such as cosmetics, perfumes, handbags, shoes etc etc...all girly stuff basically.

So today I begin with my top-rated favourite things...and it is a Vitamin Enriched Face Base by Bobbi Brown.

I bought this thinking it to be a cream...a moisturising cream...and it turned out to be much more.

I love it for it's fragrance, it's super fresh and energising. The texture is as smooth as silk, it gets absorbed very easily into the skin, and most importantly it does not leave me looking oily.

The skin kind of just drinks up or soaks up all the goodness offered by this cream.

It has a host of great things for the skin like Shea butter, carrot extract, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, E etc.

It is a great way to start make up, and even if it's just a dab of powdered foundation or a loose tinted powder, all stays put on this base, and the finish is all smooth.

My current pot of goodness is almost coming to near finish....which reminds me I had better put this goody thing on my to-buy list ASAP !!

Julia Donaldson's books

2009-09-15T10:20:00.003+08:00

Recently we read some picture books of Julia Donaldson's to my kids which they really liked.These include books like "The Gruffalo's Child" ,"The Snail and the Whale" and "Hippo has a Hat".

The first Julia Donaldson book that I read to my kids was "The Gruffalo" and they just fell in love with the book ( so did I). It is truly a modern classic and those mothers who haven't already read the book to their children,please do so....you will have great fun!This was a year back and then I bought "The Gruffalo" because it is worth having it in the house when I am reading a book that frequently because otherwise it is just renew,renew & renew from the library. I knew that "The Gruffalo" had a sequel but I could never find it in the library.I kept searching with the first letter of her first name,which is "J", instead of searching by the first letter of her surname!!!I don't know how I didn't realize it!

Then I went to "Kinokuniya" again last month and bought two books of Julia Donaldson called "The Gruffalo's Child" & "A Squash and a Squeeze". Both my kids became extremely fond of these books and I had to read the sequel of the Gruffalo to them almost everday!Then,fortunately,I found Julia's books in the library as well,after realizing that I should search under "D" and from there I borrowed "Hippo has a Hat" and "The Snail and the Whale".My daughter loved both the books and my son likes "Hippo has a Hat".I think that "The Snail and the Whale" might just be a little wordy and complicated for him.

Julia Donaldson's books are very enjoyable and most of them rhymes (probably because of her songwriting background). My kids can recite parts of her books because of the rhyming pattern.Books like "The Snail and the Whale" & "A Squash and a Squeeze" also has a lot of wisdom in them. For example, the "Squash and a Squeeze" tell us that we are never grateful for what we have and we only realize how lucky we were only when we lose privileges.

The book that I least liked of all the Julia Donaldson's books is probably the "Postman Bear" but my son likes it because it is a "lift the flap" book and he gets very excited about lifting the flap and seeing what's inside.

Now I am planning to borrow or buy other Julia Donaldson's books which we haven't read yet.Her picture books are great for "read aloud" sessions with young children.

Dressing for the occasion

2009-09-15T09:30:00.009+08:00

I was watching the new reality/talk show hosted by Farah Khan, called Tere Mere Beech Mein. I liked the format of the show, I hate the set, and hate the entire over-the-top drama.

What I also did not like the way some lady guests on the show dressed up. As watched them, I kept wondering if they had never heard of the term 'dressing for the occasions'..

The ladies were tugging up their neck lines, as they struggled to sit down and have a decent conversation. They were pulling down their hem lines....trying to look decent as they sat legs crosses (knee over the other)...they were constantly pulling up and or pulling down....

I felt they were too distracted with what they were wearing. They should have just worn clothes with a more forgiving neck line, and a hemline that stayed at a decent length even when one sat down....I am not asking them to be fully covered in a salwar suit etc; but a little dress sense goes a long way. Point in case Genelia ....who I love a lot...Shilpa and Bipasha also turned out in short dresses but I liked their classy dress sense. Kareena was super in a animal print shirt and blue jeans.

I also know that such shows are times when they wish to show off their wonderful figures and look like million dollars...but I ask...all this at what expense?

You can't complete one line without your hand wandering either up or down...what does that say about you? It shows you're not comfortable with what your wearing.

I am an ardent fan of the Oprah show, and have seen ample number of celebrities on her show, but I always found them to be very decently dressed (save a minute number of them who turned up in their kids clothes !!).

Why even go that far.....check the men on the same show, they turned out fully covered, decent, and yes looking good. I did not like Salman's shirt though :(

Shahrukh, John Abraham, Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Karan Johar, Shreesanth, Irfaan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan...all looked good in full clothes.

Ladies please, you can still look 'wow' minus all those skimpy clothes....save them for some party please.......

Artist in my house

2009-09-11T04:47:00.003+08:00

Aaditya got the above star from his Mamaji for the following work.

The first one is a drawing depicting where we currently live, the boy is Aaditya who is looking out of the window, and he's looking at his friend "no-no" (moon). He used to call the moon as "no-no" when he was little.

This is his first attempt at writing number without the tracing sheets. He wrote them independently without help. His 7 and 9 are typical of a left handed person, so have to still work on them.
This picture shows Aadu's Mamaji's house, the building is tall, it has spiral or rounded finishes along some parts of its exterior, there is a hill to the right, the sun shines over the mountain.

On the other side of the building is a tall tree ..

Chicken Biryani - my style

2009-09-10T15:27:00.007+08:00

I love making this Biryani, not only is it yummy, it is gratifying and satisfying to see friends and family enjoy it. The process to some may seem tedious and long, but believe me the outcome is absolutely fantastic.

What you need:

Chicken 1 Kg

Basmati Rice 1 Kg

Onions 7 medium ones or 5 large ones

Ginger - Garlic paste 2 tablespoons each

Green chilli - 4-5

Tomato - 3

Yogurt - 1 cup

Lemon juice - juice of one lemon

Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoons

Chicken Masala - 3 teaspoons

Turmeric powder

Tej Patta - 2-3

Cardamom - 4-5

Black pepper - 1 teaspoon

Cloves - 4-5

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Mint leaves

Fresh Coriander

Salt (obviously !!)

Marinade:

Mix together the curds, the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of ginger paste, 1 teaspoon of garlic paste, turmeric 1/2 teaspoon, chicken masala, red chilli powder, salt.

Meanwhile wash and drain the chicken pieces; poke them with a fork.

Dip each piece in the marinade and place in a bowl; after completing all pieces, pour the remaining marinade over the chicken.

Leave this in the fridge over night for best results or atleast for a couple of hours.

The next day, you will need to do the following...

The Rice:

Soak the rice in water for 20-30 mins, then in a deep and thick bottom pan pour some oil or ghee, and add the Tej Patta, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper - let this fry till the spices release their aroma. Be careful not to burn them. Then add in the rice (after draining the water); saute the rice for a couple of minutes, coating the rice with the oil/ghee and spices.

Add salt to taste; then add water (I usually add twice the number of cups as that of the rice, so for every 1 cup of rice I add 2 cups of water) in this case we have to cook the rice till 3/4th done, and also drain the excess water; so use all reasoning to add as per ur 'Andaaz'.

Other things that you will need:

Fried Onions:

Cut about 4 of the large onions into thin slices; add a bit of salt to them and leave aside for 1/2 an hour. After that drain off all the water, and sprinkle the onions with corn-flour. In a pan/kadhai heat oil, and deep fry the coated onions, trying not to form clumps. Fry till golden brown. Drain them on some kitchen paper.

Mint & Coriander:

Wash and cut mint leaves and fresh coriander. Leave aside. This should be done at the last minute just before you actually assemble the biryani.

The Chicken:

Heat oil in a large pan, add in the chicken pieces and fry them till they turn golden.

Once they leave the side of the pan (they are not sticking any more), put on the lid and let the chicken cook in it's own juices. Remember you will have some excess marinade left in your bowl; do not throw it, we are going to use it up.

The Gravy:

In a pan heat some oil, add onion; once onions are golden add ginger garlic paste, then add tomatoes (coarsely shopped), green chilli, then add in the excess marinade from the chicken cooking step. Cook this till the tomatoes are soft and the marinade is cooked down. Add fresh coriander.

Let this cool, then using a hand mixer make it into a medium coarse gravy.

Assembly time:

Take a deep and thick bottom pan, cut a piece of butter paper of the size of the pan's bottom. Put this paper in the pan, this is a self discovered trick which avoids the biryani from sticking to the bottom of the pan !!

You can totally avoid this step if butter paper is not in the house. BTW butter paper is available where you get your baking supplies or even near the aluminum foil racks.

The first layer is a thick layer of rice, top it up with fried onion, the gravy, and then chicken pieces, on top of this add the mint-coriander leaves, then add some ghee along the edges of the pan and also in the center.

Repeat this layering process till you are finished with all your chicken & Rice.

The topmost layer should be rice - gravy.

Let this sit on the stove for a good 30 minutes or more, on a low flame, shut the lid tightly over this layered biryani. If you are worried of some steam leakages, make a dough of simple wheat flour and seal the lid along the outer edges. If you want to keep it warm, just place a 'tava' below the pan, and leave the gas on low flame.

Serve the Biryani with:

Boondi Raita

Onion Salad

Cucumber slices that have been chilled in the fridge.

My way of making Onion Salad:

Thinly slice 2-3 medium onions, sprinkle salt, red chilli powder, a bit of black pepper and juice of one lemon. Mix well and keep in fridge.

When it's time to serve this, the onions will have turned soft, sweet and the entire combination works very well with any non-veg dish.

Do try.

Of this and that...

2009-09-08T16:47:00.004+08:00

I have done numerous things in the past days that I was not blogging....there was this...and there was that ....

Ha ha ha...

Anyways...I would like to share the little snippets of 'gyan' that I gained during those days.

I read many new blogs, found a few very good ones pertaining to Interior Decoration, Photography, and everything colorful in general. Want to see for yourself? Please visit Rang Decor

Another thing on my mind of late is silver jewellery and traditional Indian patters....I feasted my eyes on Maya Bazaar and Sukra Jewellery

There was another one... Amrapali

I spent an entire afternoon on these sites, figuring one which one I liked most...and it turned out that I loved the traditional patterns by a huge margin over the modern designs....

So I am a traditional girl by choice.

I made some Gajar Ka Halwa, there was even the humble but superbly turned out double-layered sponge cake, then there was the star of the Sunday lunch: Chicken Biryani; that turned out the best it has ever...I did do a few things differently this time...so I am going to stick to the new-found modifications.

I will put up the entire preparation of the Chicken Biryani in the next post...so just hang on

Giving up milk tea & Diet Coke

2009-08-20T11:32:00.004+08:00

I have been wanting to give up milk tea ever since I learnt that adding milk to tea negates most of its health benefits .I am a great fan of milk tea and I just couldn't do without my morning "doodh cha".

Since yesterday I haven't been drinking milk tea....yes, it is too early to say that I have given up milk tea completely...I might just change my mind. Yesterday I replaced my morning "dudh cha" with black tea, ginger & a dash of lemon.It, in fact,tasted quite good but I still missed it in the afternoon while I was facebooking. Another benefit for me when I drink black or green tea is that when I don't add milk,I skip the sugar as well.

Another thing that both of us are trying to quit are diet drinks.We often drink Coke Zero when we go out to eat and even at home when we decide to snack during night. The last three days I have been free of diet drinks or any kinds of artificial drinks.Just a while ago I drank fresh coconut water and oh it had such a refreshing taste!

Giving up diet drinks is easier because it is a habit that I had developed recently whereas milk tea has been a staple in my diet since many years.

I loved this ...

2009-08-17T15:21:00.003+08:00

For all those people out there who love Indian Hand Printed stuff in Indian colours and combinations...this is the site for you.

http://www.saffronmarigold.com

They have everything from bed covers, pillow covers, duvet covers, tablecloths, table runners, curtains etc.

I loved each and every product and every print that they have. Loved the colours....

I want to buy it all !!!

God give me some money !!!

What is your work-out time?

2009-08-13T17:37:00.002+08:00

When do you work-out? Do you have a fixed time? Do you stick to it like an ant to a candy?

Do you change and shuffle your work-out time? Do you work out as-and-when you get the time? Do you exercise according to your energy levels?

Do you exercise daily or alternate days?

Too many questions...but they all are valid; and most importantly they all have very interesting answers. Just try asnwering all of these questions...and you'll know what I am saying !!

Well let me share my answers...

1) I don't

2) No

3) No

4) No

5) No

6) No

!!!!!!!!!

Now some of you may accuse me of being lazy, of not giving my health the importance it demands...

Say what you want girls...I know what I am doing......I am doing......Nothing !!!

I face the difficult task of changing or for starts chalking out my work-out time based on certain events and their out comes.

1) has my son gone to school?

2) have I done enough preparation for hubby's tiffin so that I can rush off to the gym and still get back and pack off those garama-garam phoolkaas?

3) is it the maid's day of coming over?

4) is it the milkman's day of delivering milk?

5) did I sleep well last night, so that I am able to keep myself from hollering at every word that ano one says to me?

These and more events are to be taken care of before I even chart out my work-out time.

I wonder how some ladies (and some of you) manage to stick to one time throughout?

I want to work-out......honestly I want to.....

some one please help !!!!

Off to school or not...

2009-08-12T17:47:00.003+08:00

I have been keeping my son at home since this Monday. There are ever increasing number of people being diagnosed with H1N1, then there were some frantic calls from friends telling me not to send Aadi to school as there were some un-confirmed cases of students being affected.

I am worried about the situation.

My son fell ill on 30th of July after coming back from school, he had a mild fever and a cough, a runny nose. We took him to the doctor etc and the medication was started. Surprisingly he was not given any antibiotics as the fever was low grade and the runny nose and cough would eventually go off on it's own with the help of some medication.

He was completely well since last Wednesday, but the cough was still there, so I thought it would be wiser to keep him home rather than to send him off to school and put other kids at risk.

So all in all it's become a long break for Aadi who is enjoying it fully !!

We're also doing some letter-tracing and other activities to keep him in tough with school stuff.

Each evening we discuss about our plan for the next day....

Off to school...or not....

Back to blogging

2009-07-25T21:12:00.004+08:00

Pardon my absenteeism. I was away in homeland for over a month.

I am so happy to get all those emails, asking me to start blogging and that they are really looking forward to reading something here.....I love you all !!!

Well I had a good trip, I got to meet some long lost friends, and as usual it was super duper fun to meet up with everyone I met, Shibani, Neeta, Amolika, Mrinal, Manali. Love you girls !!

I also met my little cousin sister Aarya, she is a happy-go-lucky 9 month bundle of amazement !!

The best part was that my son loved her instantaneously and was by her side through out. He loved the concept of 'a baby'. He even fed her with a bottle !! (this gave way to everyone around me to gently suggest that I must plan for another baby soon!!...well easier said than done ;) !! )

Another thing that happened was that I missed my home...just being in my home, with my stuff around, doing things and chores at my pace etc. And I did miss hubby darling dearly !!

Aadi also missed 2 weeks of school, which was nothing major as a KG1 guy can always catch up fast with all the missed stuff.

A great coincidence occurred....

Shibani and I are friends since our MBA days, we meet almost every time I'm home. Now this time around Shibani was in Pune at her parents home, and so we met in Pune, and I had this major urge to meet Neeta, a friend of mine since Junior College, but some how we were out of touch ever since she went to study Dentistry and I went off to Engineering College. I had taken her number from her sister, and so made the call and we spoke as though we spoke just yesterday !! BTW: Her son's name is Aaditya too !! (that can be counted as coincidence # 1)

We decided to meet soon, and the conversation was ended.

After some time Shibani called to say that she was on her way to pick me up to go to the Jewellers (now don't get ideas that I was majorly jewellery shopping in times of this recession..) I was to only go with her and maybe...just maybe buy a pendant for Aadi to wear around his neck with a rope of black thread!! I was not ready and lots of things needed to be done so I told her I would not be able to accompany her...and I mentioned to her about Neeta and how we were friends and now again were back in touch and wanted to meet etc. etc. etc.

Surprise...surprise !! Shibani knew Neeta, and not just knew her...they were friends since their school days !!!

So we three decided to meet and what a meeting it was......

Shibani and Neeta meeting after school ...that is roughly 16 years....and Neeta and I met after 13 years !!!

We had so much to talk...so much to ask, so much to tell......WOW.....it was just amazing.

I felt that even though we were grown up, had our own professions, our kids, our very different lives, we were connected in more ways than less. Friendship is that bond where everything else just dwindles in importance. We are on the same level in a friendship, and that's what makes it so special and wonderful. It's just great to have non-judgemental friends.

I would go on and on writing, but it would be all over the place. So I end for today and promise to keep writing now on, regularly.

P.S. We forogt to take snaps !!!

Role Play

2009-06-02T10:11:00.006+08:00

These days, the son is into role-plays and loves being the 'Papa'; I have to tag along as the Mom (his mom) !!

In his role-play he has a son, and then he pampers his son, sits him on his own chair, puts on the song 'Meri dunia tu hi rey..' from 'Heyy Baby'. While this song goes on, Aadi is feeding the baby with a spoon, cleaning his face, changing his diaper, and then they set off for a walk, the baby is in a stroller now (The chair on which the baby sat, turns into a stroller...now that is an idea one can take forward...who would not want multi-function kid furniture!!)
This song and dance and walking all over the house with baby is not limited to one-time play of the song, but it goes on and on and on for half and hour or even more...I am of course reminding him how his baby will get bored of the same song for o long !!
Aadi enjoys this routine, and we're doing this almost every other day.
I am the doting grand-ma to his son, and then in between his play, if his baby cries I have to pacify him after Aadi instructs me with 'tyala pyar kar' (make him happy/cajole him/baby talk him)!!
I enjoy this role-play time, and it helps me see what Aadi absorbs from us as his parents and how he uses all those inputs to treat his baby...I must say from what I see he is going to make a very good Papa someday; but I am not sure of the diaper change though, coz he hates to get his hands dirty be it food or paint or anything else.....gosh I can't wait for the time when he will learn to wash himself after potty time !!! ha ha ha

That is my son's son!! Yes Mater (from the famous 'Cars' movie) is my grandson !!! The little yellow car is my grandson's toy car !! The proud Papa (my son) is pointing to his baby !!!
I know all of you were imagining a baby doll or something, but my son is using a tow truck to be his imaginary baby....that sure speaks volumes of his vivid and wild imagination and of course full marks to him for being so resourceful. It also shows how kids don't lay emphasis on good-looks....they just want unconditional pure love.
And yes that is the chair that transforms itself into a stroller when they go for a stroll!!

Another cute picture of my grandson !! I think I need to take him to the dentist ;)

How To Deal With Separation Anxiety In Preschoolers

2009-05-28T10:02:00.003+08:00

Separation Anxiety: 15 Ways to Ease Your Child's Fears

It took months before I was able to leave five-year-old Madison, my fourth child, at school without having to peel her fingers off of me one-by-one and endure her tears and tantrums. The curious thing was that she'd gone to nursery school the previous year without making a fuss. Although Madison's teachers reassured me that she settled down and seemed worry-free within minutes after I left, I didn't know how heart-broken I would feel leaving her in such a state.

Separation anxiety is a little one's way of saying how much they really don't want to say good-bye. Most preschoolers and grade-schoolers experience it at some point in their early lives. Sometimes it occurs out of the blue after a change in the environment. Other times separation anxiety occurs because children are worried about life at home

-- perhaps because parents are fighting or someone is sick -- and they feel a sense of uncertainty about leaving home. Most often, however, separation anxiety is purely a "missing mom" issue. Madison fussed for months on end until I had my eldest daughter drop her off. Almost immediately, the tears and tantrums disappeared. Follow these 15 strategies and you may be able to minimize the problem too.

DO: Keep your good-byes short and sweet. In doing so, you convey the message that you have confidence in your child's ability to cope.

DON'T: Hover around. Your child will sense your anxiety, and this will make it more difficult for her to calm down.

DO: Tuck a family picture or a loving reminder away in your child's backpack for her to look at later in the day.

DON'T: Sneak out. You want your child to know unequivocally that she can trust you.

DO: Develop loving good-bye routines. Madison and I invented a kiss-hug-nose-rub routine that we both enjoy.

DON'T: Bargain or bribe your child to behave. Your little one should be allowed her feelings.

DO: Send clear messages. Your child needs to know that you expect him to go to school no matter how much he fusses, cries or stamps his feet.

DON'T: Take your school-aged child home. If you do, you send the message that if your child cries enough he won't have to stay.

DO: Invite children from the class over, so your child can forge friendships that will make the transition easier.

DON'T: Get upset. By keeping an upbeat and positive attitude about your child's school, teacher and friends, you'll help your child feel safe and enjoy his time at school.

DO: Ask your spouse or another family member to take a turn dropping your child off, or pick up one of your child's classmates on the way to school, and your problems may disappear with lightning speed.

DON'T: Discuss problems with the teacher in the morning. Save conversations and questions for the end of the day.

DO: Involve the teacher. You need someone on the other end who will greet your child and ease the transition.

DON'T: Be surprised if you solve the problem and it reoccurs after holidays and sick days.

DO: Believe in your child's ability to make positive changes.

Remember: Separation anxiety means that a strong and loving bond exists between you and your child.

source:http://parenting.ivillage.com/tp/tpbehavior/0,,n8sx,00.html

hooked onto youtube

2009-05-27T16:58:00.008+08:00

These past days, YouTube has me hooked onto it...and I am loving every moment of it. I log in every single day to see what I can see !! Well I did have a throat infection, and the medication made me week and I had to rest etc etc etc. and that meant that I did rest well and watch some amazing movies.
I watched some serious ones like 'Gulal' - a story of a simple studious boy who goes to a city in Rajasthan to pursue law, but gets caught up in the local politics and ends his life. It is a simple story with some very well written characters and the casting was good too. Loved one song in it...'Rana Ji'; it has amazing lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ATqmHseME
That's the link for you.

I watched 'Titli' - a film that has Konkona Sen Sharma, and her mother Aparna Sen, both superb actors. Their equation as mother and daughter came out so beautifully...the chemistry was amazing. The movie is about the daughter 'Titli' who hero worships a film actor called Rohit Kumar...she dreams of marrying this actor. One day, as they are going to pick up her dad from the airport, they meet this Rohit Kumar on the way and as his vehicle has conked off, the ladies offer him a lift ..and then there are conversations of a girl who has a crush on this actor and between a woman (the mother) and the actor. The girl comes to know a huge secret about her mother and this actor. The second part of the movie shows us the completely changed Titli....
A beautiful movie to watch..I typed out the secret, but then it would have spoiled the fun for you all...so go ahead and watch.

'15 Park Avenue' - an amazing amazing movie.. Again the super brilliant Konkona Sen Sharma, this time as a mentally ill girl 'Meethi/Mitali'. The entire story revolves around Meethi and her family, their struggles to keep Meethi at home, her treatments, her thoughts, her life before the illness etc. Shabana Azmi as her elder sister is a superb professor of Physics, and so convincing as a strong, opinionated, confident lady with a short temper.
This is a must watch for all.

'Amu' - Yes...this one has Konkana in it too !! Here she plays an Indian girl who was adopted by a lady and they go and live in LA. She is amazing with the accent, never over the top, but just right. OK..and her name is very cute in it...'Kaaju'.
OK, so Kaaju comes to Delhi to meet her relatives and also to know more about her roots. Little does she know that she would find out about her real parents who died terrible deaths during the riots of 1984.

'AntarMahal' - A Bengali film about the time when British ruled India, and the Viceroy had declared that who ever puts the face of the queen onto Ma Durga during Durga Puja would be awarded the title of 'Rai Bahadur'. This story shows Jackie Shroff as the eccentric childless Jameendar, who decides to get the 'Rai Bahadur' title, and engages a young artisan Abhishekh Bachhan to do the job. The story unfolds the life of this Jameendar household, the level to which this man goes to get his wife pregnant, the way he treats his wives. The anguish that his wives face, the dynamics between them is beautifully portrayed.

I think those are all that I saw, currently watching another Bengali movie 'Bariwali' which has Kirron Kher as the owner of the house.

The non resident

2009-05-19T07:04:00.001+08:00

One morning, as I went to the kitchen to make my son's school snack-box, I was horrified to see a really huge cockroach ....those of you who know me, know what I would do in this situation....RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Yes ran I did ...as fast as a half-sleepy person can run...and screamed to the husband who was getting the son into his uniform....'there's a huge...really huge cockroach in the kitchen...do something fasssssst'
The husband went to the kitchen, and came back to the room...where I was standing on the bed....the son wondering what happened to his mom..
Husband said 'I killed it, he was not our resident..so it was easy!!'
I ask: 'how did u know he was not a resident'
He said: 'he did not know where to hide' !!!!

ha ha ha ha ha

children of mixed parentage

2009-05-18T11:25:00.004+08:00

Our weekend mornings are spent lurking around Bangsar while the son has fun at Gymboree. It is here that I get to see a lot of mixed breed kids...I don't think that is a nice enough term to use but it gets the point across quickly. I am talking about kids born to a white man-Malaysian Chinese or Malay lady; or white lady married to a local guy.
These kids have a mix of facial features, making them look really confusing. I am in no way looking down on them, but more in terms of amazement and curiosity.
These kids look confused to me, they cannot identify themselves with the local scene coz they have only little local genes in them and the rest of the, which is white gets more confused in the local scene where the whites are not in majority....
This makes me think about my son too, although there are lots of Indians around us, will he be confused as a Marathi-speaking boy, that he cannnot hold a conversation with everyone in his mother tongue? That he can speak in Marathi to only his family and a handful more....will he face an identity crisis in future? or is he going through it every day even now?
During the early part of my childhood we were in the northern part of India, and our Marathi was not that good, we spoke only at home...outside it was pure Hindi or English in school.
When we moved to Pune, I was in the 2nd standard, and me & my brother were made fun of by our building kids for our famously funny Marathi !!!
We did not know our Marathi number...I still get confused after about 50 ..
I picked up the language, but my brother was not good at it, to the extent that in the 7th standard his Marathi teacher called mom to school to show his essay on 'majhi aai' (my mother) in which he had gone overboard with his use of non-sensical Marathi words !! and she even pleaded with my mom to shift him to German language from 8th standard !!

For all or little that I understand, I think we should let kids develop as per the local scene, and not try to force their original culture on them. Having said that I myself would shudder to think that my son would know more about Chinese New Year than Diwali or Gudhi Padwa....
I would even hate if he picked up the local accent !!
So I guess a fine balance needs to be made between the original culture and the culture that the child is growing up in.
I know a lot of people who lived in the USA, had kids and once the kids were of 5-6 years they came back to India or atleast moved to Asia for the fear of alienating their kids from Asian/Indian culture. I don't consider that the right thing to do, but I cannot judge them as they lived through the issues and problems themselves, I am a mere observer.
Even my next door neighbor is leaving for India next month, and says that if they don't go now, their kids will never like India. The kids are now 7 and 6 years old. Again I do not know if that is a reason good enough to make you go back home....I do not know...

some deep thoughts...

2009-05-16T19:13:00.006+08:00

These days when one surfs any news channel, newspaper etc there are stories after stories of torture, suffering, some man-made some nature inflicted...one sees people, children crying their heart out and hoping really hoping for someone to have a little mercy on them and free them from their sorry state. They seem to be vying for the kind attention of the Almighty by all means possible...
Hinduism believes in the 'Atma' or the soul; and also there is the principle of re-birth and re-incarnation. And they way all these are linked is by the thought or belief that what wrong deeds we did in our past life, we pay for it in our present life, and the wrongs we do in this lifetime we will pay for them in our next life or re-birth.
It makes me think and makes me very sad to see all the suffering around us now, and then to think of it this way that all those who are suffering now are only bearing the brunt of having done something wrong in their past lives...
When a child suffers, through an illness, through the loss of one or both parents, or faces abuse in any form...is the child repaying for his bad 'karma' during a past life? How can a child be allowed to bear such pain when elders who we all know are doing wrong deeds are roaming around scout free....when will they repay? why should they get the chance to enjoy in this life and then not worry until the re-birth? Why can't they suffer for their bad karma in this lifetime?

Some say that we pay for our bad karma in this lifetime itself, I'd like to believe this more..at least it makes one feel confident of seeing bad people being put to test or suffer for all the evil they inflicted on someone else...

A great book for parents !

2009-05-13T00:09:00.005+08:00

I highly recommend the book "How to raise a Brighter Child" by Joan Beck to all parents who have children under five.The author advocates early learning and stimulation for babies,toddlers and preschoolers without pressure ,ofcourse.The author says that early childhood (0-6 years) is a time of tremendous development and parents should take advantage of these precious years to provide children with the mental stimulation to boost their intelligence.

While reading the book I got the feeling that the late author was a believer of the Montessori method of education.But she doesn't focus fully on Montessori and shows parents how they can help their children learn in everyday situations.She doesn't give an outline of lessons but shows how to play games with children and how to interact with them so that they learn. There are examples of how to take advantage of children's natural curiosity to stimulate their minds.

Some useful suggestions in this book are:

Giving the child a good language model to copy.

Using "Bingo" and dice games (such as snakes & ladders) to teach the child about numbers

Making nature intriguing to the child by giving her a magnifying glass.Leaves,insects...everything looks more magical when enlarged.

Encouraging children to make collections of seeds,insects,leaves etc.

Inspiring creative art beyond crayons and paper:how paper plates,peanut shells and toothbrush can be used in painting.

Some montessori activities such as cutting matching pieces of cloth of several different textures-velvet,silk etc and asking the child to match them by sight and touch.

The only drawback of the book is its unimaginative layout devoid of any illustrations. This book was not updated after 1999.

Art work by children in Aadu's school

2009-05-12T22:01:00.003+08:00

These were some of the drawings that were put up on the notice board at Aadu's school. I am amazed at the use of colors, the cover-the-paper concept, and the shadings, and more amazed at the overall concepts of these pieces.
I did not notice the standard of study of these students, but they are from the primary section for sure...and for primary section these art-pieces are simply stunning !!!

Chicken Chettinad Style - a must try

2009-05-11T14:11:00.006+08:00

My plate

His Plate

************************************************************************************
Yesterday we made Chicken Chettinad style, the recipe came from a dear friend Shaimanti...who had put up photos of the same recipe on her Orkut page. It looked soooooo tempting that I had to ask her send it to me..
Now initially (before the recipe arrived) I thought Chettinad would be a difficult and tedious recipe to follow...but boy how wrong was I !!
Without much delay...I present to you all the easy-peasy recipe ...do try it, it is really fast to cook and too good to eat !!
Ingredients:

1 kg chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces

1 cup small onions, shallots (sambar onions)

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1/2 tsp turmeric pwd

10-12 curry leaves

1 cup coconut milk (extract from 1/2 coconut)

fresh coriander leaves for garnish

salt to taste

1 tbsp oil

Make a paste:

2 green chillis

8 garlic flakes

1″ ginger

1 tsp poppy seeds (soak in warm water for 10 mts)

Roast and make a powder:

1/2 tsp pepper corns

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

3/4 tsp fennel seeds

1 1/2 tbsps coriander seeds

6-8 dry red chillies

2 cardamoms

1″ cinnamon

6-7 curry leaves

1/2 tsp oil

1. Drizzle a vessel with oil and roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, red chillis, cardamoms, cinnamon and curry leaves on medium heat stirring constantly for 2 mts. Remove from fire, cool and grind to a powder.
2. Make a paste of the ginger, garlic, green chillies and poppy seeds. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the small onions and curry leaves and saute till transparent.
4. Add the ground paste and cook for a minute before adding the chicken and cook on high heat for approx 4 mts and do stir the chicken once in a while.
5. Reduce to medium heat, add salt, turmeric pwd and tomatoes and combine well. Let the chicken cook in this for 4-5 mts, uncovered.
6. Now add the coconut milk and transfer the contents to a pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 4 mts or until one whistle. Open lid and combine well.
7. Finally add the ground masala pwd and cook for 3 mts. Turn off heat and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Ouch....threading!

2009-05-11T01:49:00.004+08:00

Ever since I came to Singapore,threading my eyebrows and upper lip has been a real problem for the simple reason that very few beauty parlours here actually practise threading.Mostly for facial hair removals, they use waxing and for eyebrows they use tweezers.

But I somehow prefer threading because it has fewer side effects than the other methods of removing facial hair. Waxing is perfect for arms and legs but it seems so harsh for face due to all that tugging and pulling.Using hair removing cream also doesn't seem right for face because I read somewhere that it may lead to darkening of the skin in the long run.

Previously,I used to go to Little India for threading but fortunately I found an Indian beautician in a nearby beauty parlour a few months ago. I threaded my eyebrows and upper lips from her a few months ago but after that I did not do any threading due to lack of opportunity and ofcourse my own laziness.Yesterday,when we went to Bishan and while my daughter was doing "rubber art" in the Junction 8 mall, I saw that beauty parlour. Usually I am alone there with the kids and never get to go to the beauty parlour.I went to the parlour and asked whether the Indian beautician was available and the girl at the reception said yes.And so I went back to the area where my daughter was doing artwork to request Faisal to babysit both the kids so that I could be in the parlour for half an hour. He agreed to it (or rather had to because I was so insistent) and so I rushed in the parlour to do full facial threading. My skin is tanned due to the strong Singapore sun and so I thought a full threading would take away some of its effects.

The beautician was very skilled in threading and so it hurt less but the pain was still formidable.However,at the end of the process I was quite pleased with the results! My skin looked brighter and smoother. Somehow waxing doesn't give the smooth lines that I get from threading!

Boggle

2009-05-10T01:41:00.003+08:00

Boggle is a great game for children as it is entertaining as well as educational! I bought the preschoolers (ages 3-6) version a few weeks ago for Zunairah and she loves playing it.

The game has picture cards,word cubes and a rack for displaying the cards.When two people are playing they take turns and one person would pick up a picture card and display it.The opponent would then build the word by choosing the appropriate letteres from the word cubes. Suppose if "Frog" is displayed the card would display the picture of the frog as well as the spelling and the child will build "f-r-o-g" by choosing the letters.The spelling can even be kept hidden when your child is beginning to read so that he attempts to build the word by putting sounds together and guessing the spelling. So this game can be played on two skill levels.

Apart from being enjoyable,this game can teach preschoolers:

letter recognition
word recognition

reading

And they can learn all this under the disguise of play.In a game situation a child is so desperate to win that he absorbs concepts quickly even without realizing that he is learning.

I loved these

2009-05-09T09:10:00.001+08:00

I chanced upon these amazing candles at:
http://design-milk.com/tag/candles/

These are Lego-candles, and are super cute...

This is a fruit-friendly lunch box for kids. Notice how they have 2 circular-elevations, just right for storing an apple/orange/pear etc. With 2 fruit compartments, there is still enough place for a sandwich, a small drink and even a banana !!
This company is called Concentrate, it is a london based company that designs products to help children concentrate more in school.
All their products are amazing. Do check their website !!
http://www.concentrate.org.uk/index.php

Stop your sugar cravings ...

2009-05-08T08:53:00.001+08:00

Knowing what's causing your sugar cravings can help you put a cap on them long before they force you into bigger clothes. Which of the three main types of cravings do you have?

You say: Feed me now, or I'll kill you.
This usually reflects low blood sugar. Eating sugar helps in the first few minutes but makes things worse in the long term.
Break it:
Sucking on a Tic Tac or two can be enough to stop the attack. After that, eat more protein and fewer sweets to keep your blood sugar stable. And eat those foods often: Multiple small meals instead of three big ones decrease cravings.
You say: I'd really like a Twinkie.
You generally feel okay but find yourself going through your cabinets looking for sweets.
Break it:
Holistic docs say—without great evidence, yet there have been some successful treatments—this could reflect yeast overgrowth in the gut and that treating it with probiotics (healthy bacteria) can help. We like probiotics made from bacillus coagulans, such as Digestive Aide or Sustenex.
You say: It's my period, and I'm depressed.
Low levels of serotonin—the "happiness molecule"—around your period can cause you to crave carbs.
Break it:
Eating dark chocolate (not a whole storeful; try an ounce or so) will supply a natural antidepressant called PEA, plus the carbs you crave. And any other time you think you might eat something when you're not really hungry, go for a walk or have some water. Much of the "I want to eat" feeling stems from lack of sleep (walking can help wake you up), lack of sex or lack of water.

Source: http://www.oprah.com/article/health/wellnessandprevention/pkgyourhealth/20090113_sas_yourhealth_youdocs/4

Vist to Kinokuniya

2009-05-06T23:36:00.003+08:00

I went to Kinokuniya bookstore today afternoon because I wanted to find out about the price and availability of the Oxford Reading Tree series . After picking up one set for my daughter, I browsed the children's section and I went crazy over their collection. It has an extensive collection of children's books which includes great read aloud books as well as board books and picture books.And I think it has the whole collection of Eric Carle's books...I never knew he wrote so many books until I visited Kinokuniya. The children's collection is so rich that I wanted to buy loads of books.But I stopped by reminding myself that the library is a source of great books and that I should first make a list of the books that I want to purchase.

I finally bought two letterland books,one set of phonics cards and one set of Oxford Reading Tree books. There was no time to look into the other sections of the bookstore as I knew that my kids would be up from their afternoon nap in a short while.

After going home and opening the Oxford Reading Tree set,I discovered that they were wordless picture books . I was quite disappointed as I wanted simple stories but the sets were all packed and there were no lose sets for checking what is actually inside. However,after going through the books,I saw that they were quite interesting and a teaching guide is there to guide the parents.

This week 6 years back

2009-05-06T19:43:00.004+08:00

This week six years ago I met Amol, in a very traditional meeting, typical girl-meets-boy, in front of family and they talk and then decide if they like each other....as life partners !!
We both were just talking about the events and recalled every small detail as though it all happened just yesterday!!
There were lots of funny moments...lots of things seem so funny or outrageous now that we can't stop laughing about them...
Amol used to live in KL that time, and had come down for a week to see all the girls his parents had shortlisted (so typical NRI na...), well I was one of them and his parents had met us all some months back.
So as the days to Amol's arrival got near, his parents called and we decided to meet them in Pune (we used to live in Mumbai then), now why Pune and not Mumbai where it would have been easier?
Well at that time SARS was at it's height and we did not want to take chances with Amol !!! ha ha ha, and we even had a family joke going that 'if Amol sneezes just run away...' !!!!
OK, so he came, went to Pune and we went to our home there, and then on 4th they all came to our home, we all spoke, then our brothers..(my Dada and Amol's younger brother Parag) decided that we (youngsters) should sit separately from the elders..so they arranged chairs in the balcony and we spoke some more...then slowly the brothers excused themselves to go inside leaving us both alone !!! ha ha ha I remember we laughed at that moment even then.
When we were alone, we chatted generally...and he asked me 'our education is same...our professions are at the same level..would it lead to conflicts?' I first burst out laughing.....and then told him 'conflicts will happen anyway...not necessarily due to same education etc' and then laughed some more....
They went back then...
Evening we were to go to their home, and tell our decision...oh yes before that we went to lunch some where ..Shreyas I think it was...no sure though..
There we met my MBA pals Ajit and his lovely wife Harshala....and Ajit understood what was going on, then in his own way struck up a conversation with Amol, then as he was leaving he signalled to me 'he is good..go ahead' !!! So much for friendly advice !!
Evening we went to their home and we were asked by my now FIL if we like each other...we very coyly said yes...and then we decided the engagement date and wedding date.
As simple as that .... no Pundit only our ever faithful & trusted 'Kalnirnay' to guide us.
So engagement was set for the 10th of May in Mumbai, wedding November 2nd.
That week while I was in Pune, we even did our shopping for the Engagement, my saree at Shagun, his clothes at Shoppers' Stop, our rings at my favourite Tanishq.
The next day we went to COEP boatclub for a date !! Did a lot of talking, had some chai etc...and he sang a song for me.....boy I was floored !!
Now after all these years with him through some rough weather and mostly bright fun and laughter filled days....I am only glad that I chose him as my life partner.....
Love you A!!

Books that we have enjoyed recently

2009-05-05T01:20:00.009+08:00

I keep borrowing books from the library for my kids as I love reading to them and they love being read to. Some books that we have enjoyed recently are:

Curious George: This is a series on a mischievous monkey who is very active and is always getting into trouble. His adventures usually starts because of his inquisitive nature and at the end he usually is able to sort out the problems and even save the day!The only recurring character in the book,apart from George, is the man with the yellow hat, who is his master and who had brought him from the jungle.Curious George was brought to life by the writing of Margret Rey and the illustrations of her husband, H. A. Rey in the 1940s.Since then it has been translated into many languages and remains very popular among children. My four year old is very fond of curious George but I think the books are a bit too "wordy" for my two year old son. We have just read a few books of the series.

I'll teach my dogs a 100 words by Dr.Seuss: Both my kids loved this book and it is a great book for reading aloud because of the rhyming words. Unlike some other Dr.Seuss books,it is not very lengthy.

There is an Alligator under my bed by Mercer Mayer: My daughter was fascinated by this story (I think more so because I read it at bedtime!) and I also quite like the book. It is about a boy who is sure that there is an alligator under his bed. Getting no sympathy from his parents who "never saw it'', he forms a plan of attack. He leaves a trail of food from his bed through the house to the garage door. He then follows behind secretly as the alligator gobbles up the goodies, fresh vegetables and fruit making its way to the garage. The boy then locks the door and thereby traps the alligator in the garage. The last page shows the note he leaves for his father, telling him that there's an alligator in the garage and to wake him up if he needs help.Kids will relate to this young hero's triumph over normal childhood fears and the clever solution that he comes up with.

I am looking forward to borrowing some more books next week and one of the books is "The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson. I have borrowed this book several times and it is well-loved at our home...more about this later....

I am doing it now at 32 !!

2009-05-04T11:02:00.002+08:00

On my 22nd birthday, my dad had given me a beautiful card and had written a very nice poem inside...it was in Hindi...not a poem-poem...but just his thoughts in verses ...
Apart from that he had mentioned in the other written matter about "catch-22". Back then I did not know what it meant...and I asked him what it was and he told me about this book called 'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller. He also mentioned to me that it was a best seller and a very enjoyable book.

My father has a massive collection of books, and I remember in our summer vacations he would select books from his collection for us to read. I get my love for reading from him :)

When we were smaller (i mean before we could digest novels or anything other than comics) our summer vacation would one chore that we loved...and it was to re-cover all of Papa's books, with brown paper (just like our school books), then writing the Title and author's name in our scrawly handwriting...(my Papa's handwriting used to be very very nice...now it is bad...he says all blame to computers and type writers coz they take away the joy and opportunity of writing with hand).

OK, back to 'Catch 22'
2 or 3 years back, when I was home on holiday, I looked through the book collection and found 'Catch 22' and immediately put it in my bag to bring to KL to read later. Well later really proved to be late..coz I got it out from my book shelf only this weekend and have started reading it.

So something that I wanted to do at 22...I am finally doing it...reading it at 32 !!!

phewwwwwww

2009-05-02T18:40:00.002+08:00

phewwwwwww what a month that was....April !!

The month marked my son's start of proper school (i mean pre-school). My brother was here, we watch the Formula 1 race in Sepang and had a blast. Wait..........I have written all this before have I not?

Well on a personal note, it was a month where I began going to the gym ...no ... no...not any hi-fi one in some fancy mall....I just go to the gym that was there all these days in my own condo. It is a well equipped gym and has 2 treadmills., 2 cross-trainers, weight stations for all muscle groups, stationary bikes, some yoga/floor exercise mats and crunch-bench, push-up bench and weights.

I want to get fit and then climb aboard those cross-trainers...to me now they look snooty and snobish as though to say that "you're not ready to come to us yet" ...so for now it is just me and the trusty old (err it is not old....it is quiet new) treadmill. I walk for 25 minutes, well why 25 because I increased my time by 5 minutes every 4 odd days at a time..and had started with 15 minutes.

I tried increasing the incline, but my back ache came back...so it was back to zero-incline and a speed of 5.5

I know 5.5 is not a great speed but please yaar...consider the fact that my bones and muscles have not done much in the last 2 odd years. Only if walking in malls was considered exercise I would be a marathon athlete by now ;)

I feel good after the walk and the sweat...

I go and sit by the pool in the sun for 15minutes after the walk....why? aarre bhai Vitamin D khane ke liye. In 15 minutes our body makes over 10,000 IU of Vitamin D.

On one such sitting session I met an Aunty in the pool who was teaching a kiddo, I started talking to her and minutes later I had a swimming coach ready to make a fish out of me every thursday !!!! (have I told u this before?...even if I have...just bear with me)

The gym and all takes a good 50 minutes off from my limited 'alone-time'. After that it is a rush rush to the kitchen to finish off Aadu's lunch and mine and also to eat some great wheat-flakes with some cold non-fat milk. This really puts energy in my system minus the calories.

I am still trying to figure out short-cuts or rather faster ways to ensure all of us are well fed and by that I mean the quality. My bath is then a very rushed affair and I barely have time to relax in front of the TV to catch up with Rachael Ray or Martha Stewart for 10 odd minutes...then off I run to fetch my darling bachha.

In all this I am looking for work-from-home options and have sent in my rusty old CV to a few places....I just hope something comes by soon !! I really need it.

Ok for this month, I hope that I can write daily...maybe shorter ones...I am going to really make an effort.

Chalo then...me is off to buy some velcro white school shoes for Aadu as per instructions of his teacher. They have a problem with the laced-up ones !!!!!!!! Gosh....and then next term or so they will teach the kids to tie shoe-laces (minus the laced-shoes) and then the kids can't do it....so it is a vicious circle....

For now, I will buy the velcro ones but I will get Aadu only the laced ones so that he learns to tie them, more importantly the soles on the laced up ones are thin and very good to the still-forming feet of this age-group; the velcro ones are very stiff soled !!

OK OK...the husband and the kid has finished their game of Wii and I must go now...

Amazing.....

2009-04-29T10:23:00.000+08:00

More than 200 dancers were performing their version of "Do Re Mi", in the Central Station of Antwerp. with just 2 rehearsals they created this amazing stunt!

Baking with kids-chaotic but fun!

2009-04-27T16:01:00.004+08:00

We bought an oven around a month back but never baked anything (did not even unpack it properly) until day before yesterday when I finally decided that we should bake once to check whether the oven is running properly. Fortunately,I had bought cake baking ingredients and accessories when I bought the oven and so I did not have to run to the shop to get anything. I downloaded a simple cake recipe from the net,printed it and all of us started the process of baking,much to the delight of our kids. My daughter was more excited than my son because she has done baking in school and so she could relate to it. My son, at two,is maybe too young to understand the fun of baking.

This is the recipe that we followed:

Recipe for Simple White Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

My daughter,with my guidance,measured out the dry ingredients (with measuring cups) and I must say I was quite disorganized about assembling the ingredients on our dinner table which is where we set out to do the preparations. After creaming the butter and sugar and mixing in the eggs I discovered that I hadn't brought the vanilla essence and the baking powder and ran to get them. Faisal was preparing the batter in the mixer (which is also newly bought) and he got quite worked up when our inquisitive toddler kept trying to get very close to the equipment and even tried to put his hands inside the batter while the mixer was on!

We had switched the oven on and finally the batter was ready.I put the batter inside a square mould and put it in the oven for baking hoping that everything will turn out well. However, after fifteen minutes my maid said that she could smell something burning and I rushed inside the kitchen to check what was wrong.I discovered that Faisal has mistakenly chosen the "grill mode" and heat was only coming from the top.So I changed it to "baking mode". After thirty minutes I took the cake out and inserted a knife inside to check whether it was done but though the outside looked brown,inside the cake was still uncooked.And so it went inside again.

After 10 minutes it was done and I took it out.Faisal and the kids came rushing to see the end product and to taste it (even though it was too hot). I quickly poured tha cake on a plate and sliced it. We each took a slice and to our surprise it tasted just fine.It was a bit dry and a bit burnt on the top but it still tasted good!And even though the recipe says that it's a white cake,it was not white at all!

I think baking is a fun activity to do with kids...they can learn about teamwork and also about the "science behind cooking". It also teaches them about mathematics through measurements and additions. Following a recipe is a step-by-step process which gives them a good practice in following instructions.

I think next its going to be a gingerbread man,if the recipe is not too complicated, because my daughter still holds a grudge against me for eating up the gingerbread man that she baked in school last year!

Result of yesterday's letter

2009-04-22T11:25:00.005+08:00

I went to drop off Aadu and there his teacher said she wanted to talk to me. I said I will wait outside so that she can come and talk when she is free. She came out in a couple of minutes and told me that she read my email and was really shocked to know about the surgery etc. She also said that the eating time is a good 45 minutes and that yesterday she had sat down with Aadi and made him finish his bread and cheese. She said all these facts about Aadi should have been told to her much earlier.
I was wondering when I should have done that...as each morning the teachers are busy greeting the kids and one does not want to interfere with routines (especially now that the kids are getting used to a certain way). I feel a better and formal way of doing this would be to have a parent-teacher meeting one week before school starts. The parents can tell/inform the teacher about their child's previous schools, eating habits, what he/she enjoys doing etc and most importantly any health related issues. Better still would be to hand over a questionnaire to the parents to fill in, and these go directly to the teacher.
We did fill up a length and detailed admission form and also a 5-6 pager Medical Form. But looks like the school office has not shared this information with the class teacher.
I am going to prepare a brief write up about Aadi for all his future schools or classes within the same school; and hand it over to his class teacher on the 1st day of school.

I told her about not giving Aadi any 'special' attention, and that he should be treated as any other child in the class. Only thing is to make him feel welcome and safe in the class.

Chalo one thing has been taken care of and I feel like a burden has come off my head.

Did I do the right thing? An email to Aaditya's Class Teacher

2009-04-21T15:36:00.003+08:00

Reference : Aaditya Sawaikar KG-1 Daisy

Dear Teacher,

I am writing to you regarding my son Aaditya in your 'Daisy' class.

I am concerned about him crying when I/his dad come to drop him off to his class. I know it is too early and that eventually he will settle in and not cry; but I wish to draw your attention to some facts about him that will enable you to handle him better in a way that he will also love going to school.

1. Aaditya has attended 2 schools previously, one in Singapore and the second one is KL, Bangsar. Both followed the Montessori method. We chose GIIS only because it follows the same method.

2. In both previous schools, Aaditya was used to being greeted by his teachers who took him into class, welcomed him with a warm hug and assured him that he is going to have a great time while mommy was gone. He loved all his previous teachers and schools.

3. Aaditya has undergone an open heart surgery in August 2008. He is medically fit to attend school and carry on activities like any child his age. Why I am telling you this is because he has not been away from us (parents) since his surgery days. He has spent 5 days in the ICU, which were very horrifying for him as there were no family members allowed there. He may be seeing the current separation at his school in the same light as his experience at the hospital. That is why he needs more attention and love from his teachers, and they need to constantly make him feel safe and loved.

4. Aaditya needs to be told to eat his 'solid' snack before the drink is given to him. He by nature loves drinks, and then refuses the solids. I request the teacher to not hand him his drink until he has finished his solid food. He is a slow eater, so I also request the teacher to let him take his time in eating. Why I am stressing his eating is because of his surgery and we don't want him to lose weight, on which front he is already lower than average children his age.

5. Aaditya loves books, drawing, painting, dancing, singing. He is a very social boy, and makes friends very easily. He loves to entertain people around him. He is very loving and a joy to be around with. He listens to everyone who talks to him in a calm and soft voice. Due to his previous schools he is used to being treated with respect, where we have to talk to him by going down to his level and make eye contact with him.

In writing this email, my only concern is my son. I want him to enjoy his school days just like we have. Having studied in the best educational institutions in India I know what good schools and good teachers are, and having enrolled Aaditya in GIIS I am sure I have made the correct decision for him.

I would appreciate if the teacher gives me feedback about Aaditya, what I should do at home to make this school-going easier for him. After all you all are professionals in the education field. I welcome feedback, suggestions in all form.

Thanking you with warm regards,
Neelum Amol Sawaikar

Finger Puppets

2009-04-20T11:39:00.004+08:00

I picked up a number of animal finger puppets from IKEA a few weeks back and both my kids just love them.I use them when I tell them animal stories and I think they make the story come alive.They also take the finger puppets and try them on their fingers and carry on imaginary conversations!

I think finger puppets are more handy during story-telling than hand puppets because a number of characters can be used simultaneously. Try using them in storytelling and give us the feedback!

Again I have so much to tell....

2009-04-20T10:03:00.006+08:00

Hey folks, I know I had again done the disappearing act....I might just turn into a magician very soon !!
But you know what...I had an amazing time these past days...firstly my brother was here from 3rd...and we had a great time with him....we went to watch the F1 at Sepang, and this was our first time...so we were little prepared for the noise there...it was very very very very very very noisy and very very very very very very LOUD...thankfully there were these beautiful babes with headphones, we bought one for Aadi, coz he was was most troubled by the noise and also coz the headphones cost a whopping 100 RM!!
We had tickets to the Mall Area which is supposed to be with a good view and is covered (read expensive..each ticket cost 500 RM)...no no no we did not pay that much....we found someone who gave us some amazing discounts on the tickets ;)
We went for the qualifying as well as the race day....more details and photos will follow in an exclusive F1 post !!

Around that same time a long lost friend of mine appeared on Orkut !! we were friends since Junior College, and it was so good to be back in touch....and actually I had been looking high and low for her, and then had given up thinking that if only she gets on to Orkut or Facebook do we have a chance of meeting up...and there she was....love u Veda !!

Another major thing that happened in the past days is that Aaditya's school started and we had a super time getting him ready for school, I think we were more excited than him !!
We had some trouble with the school van: what happened was that on the 3rd day of school, the van was late and the driver (lady) dropped the kids only at the school gate and went off to drop the secondary school kids which is located away from the primary section. Now since they were already late, the otherwise good kids of my condo did not bother to send Aadi to his class and he was wandering around in the school campus...luckily Amol's co-worker saw him and sent him to his class. We got calls from him and another lady telling us about our wandering son....we were horrified, we immediately got ready and went off to the school to sound our disgust at this hopeless and careless service being given to us. We spoke to the Director Manojh Nair, and he placed a call to the contractor who said he would check and let him know. He too was surprised how a driver could leave a KG-1 child at the gate !!
Anyways the next day was also same, so we decided to drop him to school ourselves...and maybe next term or even in a couple of months he can start the school van.
But the downside of this exercise is that Aadi is crying when it is time to say bye at the class door...and it is heartbreaking to watch him cry :(
Another downside is that I hardly get any 'me-time' in the morning, as we get home by 8 then I go to the gym and return in half an hour, make Amol's lunch and then he's gone by 9 and then I have to make mine and Aadu's lunch...and then do the odd house-work and again be ready by 11:30 to go and pick him up !!
So all the people who told me that 'now that Aadi is in school you will have plenty of time for yourself' .............it's not true !!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this is the way it is going to be for some time now and I really have to plan my day as best as possible to make way for my writing...coz writing is also my escape and a totally 'me time'.