A Celebration called Life

Nonsense

2012-01-23T09:00:00.000+05:30

Most of the times, we watch the same movies again and again. They are more entertaining than nonsense programs on live TV. We pass comments and speak out dialogues along with the characters. Its more fun that way. Repeated viewing brings out certain scenes into our focus; back ground actors expressions, unrealistic settings and actions get vivid. They provide some unexpected fun.

Take this song for example-Jugni from the movie Tanu weds Manu. Deepak Dobriyal plays Pappi(Madhavan’s friend) in this movie.He enters this song at 2.17.He dances completely different from all others dancing around him. This is what called as dancing like no one cares. I am guessing that the choreographer let him use his own steps:) Watching him in this song always cracks me up. Do not miss how he exits.

(I liked this movie, specially the way they handled the climax. I watch this movie only for Kangana’s clothes. I had already written about it here.)

Santosh subramanian is another movie which we are watching currently every day. Again, for Genelia’s acting and her clothes.Her jokes crack me up so much. She should have won many awards for this movie. IMHO, its easy to act dark shades of a character but very difficult to make others laugh.Tough luck Genelia. There are two scenes in this movie, both involving automobiles. See the preview below.

Where in Chennai do they have trains like these? Another scene involves a double decker bus with top open. Even if a child makes a toy bus, it would look better than what they had shown in the movie.

Have you seen the below song? Obviously, you would have. Now watch it again but concentrate only on actors Jayaram and Yugisedu. I am sure you will ROFL.

Why am i posting this? I was reminded of the tamil movie “Snegithiye” starring Jyotika and Sharbani. During one of the post sunday lunch ‘vetti’ discussions many years back in college hostel, we ripped this movie apart scene by scene. One scene shows how actress Lakshmi meets this character called Ramesh. Her books falls down and he rushes to help her. Ramesh’s face is not shown and camera pans down to show just his legs. If you catch that scene on TV, watch it carefully and you’ll know how funnily it has been shot. Enjoy!

Finger Sucking & weaning

2012-01-16T09:00:00.000+05:30

It has been more than a year and a half since LB weaned off his finger sucking habit. It is about time I wrote about this major milestone achievement.

LB’s first 6 months were very tough on us. He constantly cried, never slept well, feeding was a struggle every single time. As new parents, we were overwhelmed at not finding a solution for his incessant cries. Doctor ruled out colicky nature and each visitor gave his/her own advice which added to our confusion. My father tried inserting the thumb into LB’s mouth the moment he started crying but in vain. Pacifiers never worked too. One fine day, LB learnt the magic of sucking his middle and ring fingers. His cries eventually came down. He started sleeping better and we heaved a sigh of relief.

After one year, a new problem cropped up. How to remove those fingers from his mouth? When you bring the spoon to feed him, the fingers are there. You give him something to play, he uses only his left hand or does not play at all because his fingers are busy getting sucked away to glory. As a concerned mother, i put my doubts to pediatrician and he warned us to not force him to quit. Digression: Have you noticed how Paeds always ask you to toilet train your kid at an early age but delay quitting any sucking habit? Me and the Paed differed only on these two topics:)

Good thing which resulted out of this habit was that LB learnt to sleep by himself. I used to put him in bed and lie next to him and he would be asleep in 5-10 minutes. No rocking/singing songs/reading stories. Afternoon naps and bed time at nights were a breeze. Even if he gets up in the middle of the night, he would suck his fingers and go back to sleep in no time. I finally started getting my 8 hour sleep quota.

I was confident that by 2 yrs,LB will stop sucking. I started getting worried when he did not stop. We tried being stern, saying no constantly, removing the fingers without any reaction. Nothing worked.His middle and ring fingers started showing signs of teeth marks. My mom suggested the age old therapy of applying neem oil. I think we must have tried it for 3-4 days. It was a deterrent but LB started hiding from us to start sucking. Then he fell ill. That’s when the doctor told us the fact that neem oil is known to cause epileptic fits in kids and should not be used. We stopped our efforts there.

I searched blog world for solution and only Poppy had written about them. And the posts on Indus ladies site terrorized me. I wrote to Poppy and she gave me the invaluable suggestion of using “Femite”. It is a bitter transparent liquid which does not have any side effects. It is easily available in medical stores and has a long shelf life!One fine day, I applied a little bit of it in LB’s fingers when he was fast asleep. I did not want him to know that I was applying something. When he woke up, he started putting his fingers in his mouth. The bitter taste made him vomit. I told him that God has decided that he must stop sucking fingers as he has become a big boy now. He was restless and cranky for 2 days. His food intake also lessened but I was forewarned by Poppy, hence no worries. The first application of femite itself was enough for those two days. A bit of solution had touched my fingers when I had applied it on LB and that itself made me sick at mouth.Poor guy had to endure the full taste-my heart tore into pieces. But that’s the thing with motherhood, you got to suffer for your kid to excel/succeed. And we cannot even display our feeling/thoughts openly.

Day 3,4,5 were relatively easy. I applied tiniest of femite and kept reminding him about bitter taste whenever he took his fingers near his mouth. By one week, 99% of the habit was cured. On some occasions, he needed reminding but no further application was required. By 2 weeks, he was completely off the habit and eating was back to normal. I retained that bottle for 6 months incase there was a recurrence but nothing of that sort happened. His sleeping pattern did not vary except he started hugging me or holding my hands to fall asleep.

Hope this post helps all those who are seeking answer to this habit.

PS: My son was cured of this habit before he was 2 and half years old. Any time later than that would make it difficult for parents as the child becomes more aware of his surroundings.The earlier the better. Good luck.

New Year Resolutions 2012

2012-01-12T17:41:00.001+05:30

I have always been a person who never makes any resolution. Never felt the need for them. So why am I starting this year? I felt that something interesting should be done to make my journey into 30s fruitful. One thing which I have learnt about goals or resolutions is that they should be achievable within a reasonable time frame. It should have a fun factor too. Here are my NY resolutions for 2012.

Eat at all places listed here (1/2/3/4/5/6)I think I will finish Madras darshan if I finish visiting all these places listed:)
Visit Cotton street and buy from there. I have been a madrasi all my life yet have not visited this landmark area. Must correct it this year.
Visit Boutiques and try out new pattern/styled dresses. I am utterly bored with my dressing style. Some shops which I have shortlisted will get featured soon in my blog.
Take good care of my hair. I had neglected it completely last year. If possible, must try out a new hair style but of course if the current hair fall trend does not stop, a prominent style will emerge eventually. Bald!
In cooking, must venture into oven cooking and sweets. Oven cooking is need based thanks to my finicky eater son. Sweets-looks easy but actually that’s where the challenge lies in cooking. Certain dishes call for precise timing and methodology. Target is 6 sweet dishes. Easy peasy, right?If ICC challenges are done, my goal would be achieved.
Learn a skill or two.Driving and swimming are on my mind.
As a mom, my target is to make my son eat his own food. Toughest goal of all. Hope luck favours me.
Do craft work with son. Enough ideas are listed here and here.
Get Mehendi done at Panagal Park, T Nagar. Long time wish. Must do it this year:)

Will do a mid year review to see how it goes. And yes reduce weight. Doesn’t this feature in everyone’s resolution list?

Benny Dayal is the new

2012-01-04T20:41:00.001+05:30

Mohit Chauhan in my life. Earlier, all my favourite songs were sung by Mohit and now all my favourites are by Benny. In the silence of the night, when you wear headphones or listen to Benny’s songs with your ears open and your mind devoid of unwanted thoughts, you would hear him touching your soul with his voice. Here are my favourite Benny numbers and what a way to start posts for this new year.

1. Tarkeebein from Band Baaja Baarat

2. Pocket main Rocket hain from Rocket Singh-Sales man of the year

3. Love Love Love from Love Breakups Zindagi

4.Adat se Majboor from Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

5.Ek main aur ek tu from Ek main aur Ek tu

6. Choomantar from Mere brother ki dulhan

PS: Vishal Dadlani’s songs for other music directors also feature in my current play list. This music director/cameo actor/singer has powerful vocals which can bring its own unique feel to a film song. Enjoy them too.

1. Thug le from Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl Music by Salim Sulaiman

2. Zaara dil ko tham lo from Don2 Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy

3. Kar Chalna shuru from Ek main aur ek tu Music by Amit Trivedi (Video yet to be released)

4. Raftaarein from Ra.one Music Vishal Sekhar

Black Tongue

2011-12-18T18:48:00.001+05:30

In tamil, the phrase “Kari naku karan” (a person with black tongue) denotes a person whose utterances more often come true. I have a big spot of black patch in my tongue and most of my innocuous observations have come true. My mom forbids me from speaking anything after some good event is confirmed. She fears my tongue so much!!

Proof: I said here that I do not know how long LB gets to be with his best friend. Dang, his BFF leaves for America tomorrow. No farewells coz I will not be able to control LB once he meets his BFF. Why does this happen to me?

School craft of LB

2011-12-09T18:38:00.001+05:30

LB at 3yrs 6 months

2011-12-08T12:21:00.001+05:30

He sings really well, can remember most of the nuances of a film song. His all time favourite songs are Dum Dum from Band Baaja Baraat and Ennamo from Ko. He also has this rule that only girls can sing female portions of a song and vice versa. I irritate him a lot by singing all the male lines:)
Like most of the kids of his age, he talks a lot in his sleep. They mostly pertain to his school friends and on weekends talking is less. Though he understands dreams, he cannot distinguish it from real life(like most kids of his age). One fine school day morning, he woke up with a cry saying that I left him alone and went away for shopping!!We struggled for more than 30 minutes to calm him. Even today, he thinks it is real and not a figment of his imagination.(This happens when I drag him along wherever i go).
His main activity after reaching home from school is to drive his ‘auto’ aka tricycle around the house.He has a unique sound for it -“Tho Tho”. He does not pedal and pushes the tricycle with his feet. He can beautifully negotiate curves and objects. I already know how he is going to drive when he grows up.
LB worships his BFF Av. If Av tells him to go hit somebody, he would do it without a second thought. They have become mini goons at his school. Av’s father is my hubby’s colleague hence we often meet at his house. It is very difficult to separate the boys then. Once LB cried when Av left him alone and went for a leak. To pacify LB, we took them both once again. Such is their love. Av's father calls them “sholay pair”. I fear the day when Av moves into a different school/city, do not know how I will handle LB’s emotions then.
On days when my maid is on leave, LB watches me sweep and mop the house. During that time, he addresses me by my maid’s name. Strangely, when I wash vessels, he does not say anything.
Seeing my wedding reception snaps, many people have commented how my hubby looks Chinese, thanks to small eyelids. LB inherited this gene. When he closes them tightly, I cannot stop giggling (for some strange reason). He uses this to his advantage and whenever I get angry, he tightly shuts his eyes and waits for me to start giggling!!
There are days when he gives me random hugs, squeezes and shower of kisses. And there are days, when he gets totally pissed off by my ‘no’s. I can safely say that we have reached a stage where I absolutely love being his mother. Touch wood.
He loves cars and can recognize a car by its make and model most of the time(make that 99%). During our car outings, I get nonstop commentary about various cars that fall in his sight.
Anything and everything is “mine” nowadays. When my mom plays with him and refers me as “my daughter”, LB immediately jumps up and says “she is my daughter” (referring to me). The same logic is repeated for all people in our household.
Earlier, if we ask him who is the bad boy in this house, he would proudly declare that it is him. Now he has understood the game and answers with all names other than his.
He is still frightened by front loading washing machine at my mom’s place. We have a top loading machine and he is not frightened even when the machine goes into spin mode. May be, seeing Mr.Bean stuck in the washing machine in one of the episodes, have had a deep impact on him.
His memory power is quite visible these days. Incidents which happened 3-4 months back are recalled with maximum clarity and at appropriate times.It is becoming exceedingly difficult to fool him!
LB used to be this ever helping guy in the house. Sadly, this quality is vanishing. Now for everything that needs to be done from his end requires rewards in the form of chocolate and gems.
One day, during our car journey to drop LB at his school, a car came too close to our vehicle. Hubby pulled down his window glass and called the other driver “Joker”. From then on, if any car/vehicle comes too close our vehicle, LB screams joker(loudly and clearly). There have been times when I have yelled at him in the middle of the road to calm him down.Even at home, when he is playing ‘auto’, if we come too close to him, he yells ‘joker at us. I do not know how to make him unlearn this part. Thankfully, he has not picked up any more of such words. That reminds me to start practicing “shoot” instead of sh^t.
LB is “5mins” guy. Sample this-Me: LB, lets have lunch. LB: in 5 mins mom. Me: LB, put your shorts LB: in 5 mins mom. You get the drift, right?
LB is also known as “idea mani” at home. Suddenly he will scream “idea” and talk some nonsense. I ask him to chew his food, he screams “idea”. It is obvious that he does not know the word’s meaning. But it is extremely funny when he does loads of silly things and associate them with this word.

Celebrations Galore

2011-11-27T02:19:00.001+05:30

My blog turned 5 years old this November.

I won the giveaway at Colours Dekor and got these items free from Shopo. I am in love with Kala Koyree products. Though the bangle bag looks extremely small in real life, its a steal nevertheless.

Finally I met Poppin’s mom in person. I planned a trip to meet her and Artnavy in Bangalore. Artnavy’s post about this is here. More about this trip in another post.

We attended a Tulika book launch and met the famous Sandhya Rao and Craig Jenkins. More than LB, I enjoyed the event:)

We saw Ra.one in theatre along with LB. It was LB’s first theatre experience. We were watching a movie in theatre for the first time since LB was born. The last movie that we saw was Taare Zameen Par in Dec 2007. This is a new milestone in our lives. Hope LB warms up to movie watching from now on. (PS: LB behaved so well that I am tempted to take him pretty often, of course, for movies appropriate for his age) At home, LB calls himself G.one, hubby is Ra.one and I am Lavan. Want more PJs from LB?

We took LB to visit his BFF at his home and what a blast the two kids had. They even wanted to pee together!! Ended the party at Pizza hut. I am sure that we would be banned next time around for all the noise that 2 kids and 3 adults made.

Seahorse colouring done by LB at Art’s place in Bangalore. Finished it ahead of all kids. Star hanging is stuff which he made in school while learning about shapes.

Wish list from Shopo Diwali Fever

2011-10-30T20:39:00.001+05:30

I chanced upon this site-Shopo and from then on, I have been hooked. In fact, I have already done a few purchases with Shopo but I am not revealing those details now because person(s) for whom the presents were bought might be reading this post!!

Nevertheless, my wish list from shopo are as follows. This is part of giveaway at Colours Dekor, a blog, which I open to just feast my eyes!

1.Silk-Cotton, Hand-Embroidred, Multi-Purpose Sling from ARTESANIA - INDIA

2.Night Sky Tri-Fold Fabric Wallet/ Clutch from Kala Koyree

3.Drawstring red munna bag from DEJAINER

Its good that Colors Dekor and Shopo have asked us to list just 3 items. Had they not specified this number, I would have listed every single item available in shopo in my wish list!

PS: Having used their service, I can vouch for their transparent system of billing and safe delivery of fragile items.

Passport to a Healthy Pregnancy

2011-10-24T18:11:00.001+05:30

When Women’s web announced this contest, I had to think twice before penning down my thoughts. My pregnancy seemed eons away. Thankfully, I blogged often then so I just need to re-read old posts, brush up my memory and sum it up with my experience.

Passport to a healthy pregnancy starts so much before the word ‘pregnancy’ shows up in our lives. It in fact starts before marriage- Deciding with your partner how you are going to lead your lives and when you are willing to take this relationship one step further by nurturing a child. Once, a couple decides to start a family, the first thing i would advise is to visit a gyneac. Get some basic screening tests done-Haemoglobin count, Thyroid levels etc. Now many people know that folic acid is essential during the first trimester. It is better to get the dosage right by meeting a doctor.

Second piece of advice is to read pregnancy related books. When I was pregnant, I read ‘What to Expect’ everyday. Thankfully, today’s Indian women can easily refer to Dr. Gita Arjun’s book. All silly and important doubts can be cleared by keeping oneself knowledgeable. It is also important to raise questions and clear doubts with your gyneac during periodic checkups. I found that writing down doubts/queries as and when they come up in a handy notebook was useful coz I lost my memory then. Though initially my gyneac was annoyed at my little-list-of-questions, she learnt that as first time parents we were very anxious and it is her duty to alleviate any fears.

Which brings me to my third piece of advice-Have a good rapport with your gyneac. Clear doubts, know what is an emergency and what is not an emergency situation.It helped me when I had a small incident during my 8th month. Though my gyneac was not around, I could get all the necessary tests done. I would advise that once you know where you would be delivering, have a word with the Pediatrician too. This helped me when LB fell ill on the 3rd day.

Other advices which are oft repeated/popular are

Eat sensibly but well.
Exercise but always keep in mind your doctor’s advice.
Trust your instincts. They always turn out right.
Be prepared, you may decide to deliver in the 9th month but your baby might have different plans!
When in doubt, always cross check with your doctor. no self medication/self decisions about situations like spotting, cramping!

And finally stay happy and healthy. A happy disposition means half the battle is won.

CROCUS 2011

2011-10-18T11:46:00.001+05:30

Its back. Hope I get all the time in the world to read each and every post done during that week. Are you joining me?

Pickpockets + Travel abroad

2011-09-13T11:50:00.001+05:30

First I urge you to read this article published in The Hindu. My only grouch is that had this article been published one year back, my dad would have been more careful while traveling to Barcelona.

My dad travels a lot. Considering his age and heart operation done a year back, we pack stuff in such a way that it is easy for him to retrieve items when he is on his own. He has seen many parts of Europe, America and South east Asia and he never faced any problem like the one in Barcelona. He was moving down the ramp while exiting from airport when a pickpocket guy pushed him down violently. He has an unhealed ligament tear hence he fell down hard. People around created a group to help my father up and utilizing that moment, pickpocket ran away with the bag my father had around his shoulder. It was his hand baggage containing handy cam, point and shoot camera, liquid cash, credit cards, debit cards and his daily medicine. Thankfully, he had kept his passport and return tickets in his jacket pocket just before disembarking from the plane.

By the time my father could realize that one of his baggage was missing, the thief had long disappeared. He called us up and we initiated the process of blocking all the cards. But in our sleepy state, we had forgotten about debit cards and blocked only the credit cards. Thankfully, no money was withdrawn and the loss was minimized to the ones inside that bag. The biggest challenge was to get his medicine without prescription of a doctor in Spain. After plenty of phone calls my father bought an alternative tablet for his condition. That particular day had a huge emotional drain on all of us.

Lessons learnt:

1.Always keep copies of passport, tickets, hotel reservations in all baggages.

2.Liquid cash should be kept minimum.

3.Do not carry excessive credit/debit cards in your wallet.

4.Carry medicines in all baggages.

Please also read the tips mentioned in the article. After this incident, we heard about so many people losing their valuables in Barcelona. If there is one city in the world which I do not have any intention to visit, then it is this.

Just for laughs

2011-09-12T19:04:00.001+05:30

Yeppadi irunda naan

Eppadi ayeten

Movie dresses-Part 2

2011-09-12T11:40:00.001+05:30

After I published the previous post, I realised that I had missed quite a few entries. So here is part 2.

1.Kajol’s yellow dress in DDLJ [See video below].

I have been hunting for the perfect yellow dress since I saw Nadia wear one in Poove Poo Chuda Va. There is another yellow dress which i like though it is quite blingy. I guess the way the person on screen wears it influenced me a lot -Madhuri in HAHK, Mayini maye song.

There is one brown chudidhar which Kajol wears in DDLJ, in one of the terrace scenes. I like it for it simple design. Similarly, Madhuri wears an olive green flared chudidhar in HAHK when her family gets stopped from boarding the train just before the above mentioned song and passing the parcel game. That green still stays in my eyes. I have a chudidhar in that colour.So you can see how i get influenced:)

2. Anushka in Band Baaja Baarat. My favourite is yellow chudidhar –see below picture,top right corner. The famed blue patiala salwar[ainvayi ainvayi song] is good but does not suit my skin colour.

3. Deepika in Love Aaj Kal and Aarakshan

In the first row snaps, black chudidhar in the right most corner and Fuchsia pink are my favourites.

4. Kangana in Tanu weds Manu

In the bottom right square, you can see the face off between Anushka’s patiala and Kangana’s salwar.

Picture credits: WWW and HHC.

While we are at dresses, one hair style which I am planning to sport for my brother’s wedding(when it happens) is shown below.

PS: I read Pretty Woman’s post which resulted in above thought process of picking out my favourite movie dresses.

Movie dresses

2011-09-11T17:53:00.001+05:30

I have always been unconsciously liking certain dresses which actress wear on screen. Not the flashy-unfit for daily use- kinds but comfortable and one which can wear for our normal activities.I think it all started with Gitanjali movie. Remember how those ghagras became a rage post the movie release? Listing out my likes here for remembrance sakes.

Revathy’s crisp cotton sarees in Anjali
Revathy’s shirt and skirt pieces in Pudhiya Mugam song.
Genelia’s dresses in Santosh Subramaniam
Kareena’s kurtis in Jab we met
Kareena’s salwars in Bodyguard
Rani’s sarees and jewellery in Paheli
Trisha’s chudidhars in VV (not the sarees though)
Vidya’s sarees in Paa (sabayachi-double yes)

One saree which bowled me over completely was this one. Suddenly black seem so lovely:)

Any favourites you got?

The other LB

2011-08-29T09:00:00.000+05:30

LB builds a structure like this often and calls it by his other name. He tries to make it walk and gets very angry if we dismantle it post play session.

LB’s first homework

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000+05:30

It was displayed in his classroom-dated March 11.

Stolen Inspiration Version 2.0

2011-08-24T11:58:00.001+05:30

Via Flamingo Dancer and LG.

Sing along dance video

2011-08-20T09:00:00.000+05:30

PS: My first attempt in uploading videos from mobile to internet.

LB at 3yrs 2 months

2011-08-17T09:00:00.000+05:30

If i happen to exclaim ‘Appadi’ (Tamil slang for showing tiredness), LB would immediately say Amma-di, Thatha-di, Patti-di, Mama-di and finally LB-di. Wah!
Thanks to numerous Alphenlibe ads in Nick channel, LB goes around saying ‘Bublu loves pinky’ in two tones imitating that ad.Yikes:)
His latest fascination is Audi cars. He spots them correctly in many places. Bipasha’s V-John cream ad features an Audi, Switty tera pyaar song from Delhi belly features an Audi. In fact the other night, he pointed to the petrol bunk near our house and said Audi car. I was amused thinking it was his imagination. The next day morning when i crossed that bunk, i saw an ad there for an insurance company which featured a car and as you guessed it right, it was an Audi.
LB has a specific dance move-I call it the ‘Hrithik’ move. Most of the times, his dances start with that particular move.
There was a phase when he used to play often with his imaginary friends-all cartoon characters-Jim and Jam, Dora & Boots, Handy Manny. One night he asked me to move aside and sleep so that Jim can sleep next to him. Its interesting to see my son do imaginary play. I learn a lot about what all he has understood in life.
Every time one of us use perfume, he wants it too. I oblige and spray it in an imaginary manner. But he never asks when we use deodorant.
He has a good sense of smell. All masala mixed foods are smelt while they are being cooked. These days, we wait for him to come running into the kitchen whenever some delicious smell arises from our cooking. His face and sniffing action is a delight to watch:)
Thanks to Uncle of Jackie Chan fame and Magician Mandy-he performs some magic tricks for us. Ob, we can see how he does it(mainly hiding the coin) and nevertheless our pretend astonishment brings squeals of laughter from him.
LB is good in recognizing symbols, his favourite being his school emblem.
LB has specific descriptions for all his dresses, some based on colour, some based on where/when he gets to wear it etc. There are days when i am asked specifically by him to bring out a particular dress.
As soon as the power fails, he picks up an imaginary phone and calls up Suresh(our flat electrician) and asks him to repair.He also has two tones of speech when he does the imaginary phone calls-one for him and one for the person at the other end:)
His tricycle is his auto-morning play consists of asking me whether i want to drop my son to school and come back home.Thankfully, me getting into the auto and moving around is all imaginary else i would have a tough time running behind him.
One evening, i told LB to get ready fast so that we can all go out. hubby was in the loo and LB wanted to know where his father was. I asked him not to worry and explained that without hubby we will not be in a position to go out as only he can drive. LB walks near the door of the bathroom and shouts “ driver appa, pls come out fast”.
His favourite kind of music is dhapankuthu-street music. Any song of that category gets LB on his feet. His dancing near Durgai sannidhi at Thriuverkadu temple was watched by a crowd!!
His current favorite songs are Va va nilavai and Thuli Thuli. After watching so many episodes of Super Singer, he performs these songs with a mike(imaginary, of course) and dance moves.
One day while getting ready to go out, I was dressing up when LB came and hugged my leg and said “amma, you are looking cute”. Awwww!
Finally, LB was completely toilet trained one month before his 3rd birthday. More about that in a separate post:)

Interesting things-Part 1

2011-08-14T18:38:00.001+05:30

Whenever I read about some blogger’s interesting activities, I used to turn green with envy. Why don’t these ‘interesting stuff’ happen in my life, I wondered.Later, I realised that they were happening in my life. Just that I was not recording them here.Silly of me, why not correct that mistake now?

We attended the opening ceremony of Art, Arattai, Arpattam 2011. Though I had seen the advertisements last year, I felt LB was too little to enjoy it. This year, I planned ahead as soon as the ads were out. The opening ceremony was free for all and the opening performance was by Anil Srinivasan, Unnikrishnan, Navin Iyer and Naresh Iyer.Most of the programs were held in Egmore Museum Theatre and it was close by for us(last year we stayed outside the city limits hence commuting was a pain).My mistake here was in assuming that opening ceremony for a kid’s festival would be kid friendly. Boy, I was wrong! The opening ceremony was as ‘adultish’ as it could get with speeches and long drawn out performances which a 3yr old cannot appreciate. Hence we could not sit for the entire program thanks to LB’s fidgeting. A group of kids dressed in band uniform started the event and that was the only part which LB enjoyed. Then there were videos about their sponsers-IJM and Pothys. IJM’s clip brought tears to my eyes-it was the story of a boy who was rescued from being a bonded labourer. How often we all take our lives and its luxuries for granted!!

Welcome address was delivered by Sriram Ayer, the founder of Nalandaway. Hubby was pricked that Sriram did not invite kids/nor welcome them in his address. Then the performances began. Anil srinivasan and Unni performed the first 3-4 songs then they were joined by Navin Iyer on flute. Then Unni came back to sit among the audience. Hubby was edging me to talk to him but LB was ready to leave hence I missed the chance. The theme was Bharathiyaar songs and what can I say about the performances? They were mesmerizing and simply took you out of this world. Anil’s fingers danced on the piano and brought out notes that touched my soul. Piano has always been my favourite instrument.Something about it always fascinates me.May be I can learn it along with LB:)

Next event that we attended was Sing Along with Jeeva and Krishna Iyer.Now Jeeva and I have some past karma connection, because she always schedules her programs whenever I am out of town. Twice I missed her and third time I got lucky by a whisker. Uma was present along with her little one + her friends. Pattu introduced herself as Roshini;I do not think i will forget this,Uma:) What fun the girls had. I could see them constantly jumping up and down and dancing to the songs. Phew, here i thought my son was energetic. After the performance, when Uma called me from her car, I could still hear the girls screaming aloud some songs.

Krishna kept introducing some songs as popular sing along numbers- i always assumed that they would provide a cd so that kids can get introduced to the tune and song at home and they can ‘sing along’ with Krishna during the event. Some of the words were difficult to hear hence LB lost interest half the way. There was one dance performance which I recorded later. Now it is LB’s favourite pass time video. There was one chicken song+ dance and I enjoyed it a lot. LB was sadly done with this program by then hence he stood silently watching his parents do crazy dance moves. The program was a full paisa vassol for me. Hopefully, LB will enjoy it next time around.

Bloggers met till date

2011-08-05T11:51:00.001+05:30

In near future-Lavs D, Poppins mom.

Though it appears that I have met quite a number of people,to be honest it was possible only because of one person-ArtNavy. She organized most of the meets at her home and was generous to invite me time and again. In my mind, I consider her my elder sister and wish hard that she moves back to Chennai.

Though meeting people and connecting with them in real life was not part of the plan when I started blogging, it is indeed a delicious addition. I have run to many of them listed above with my problems and they have smilingly comforted me. The bonds of sisterhood have saved me from going insane while bringing up LB during the first year. Thank you God for showing me love in unexpected ways.

Mr.Amma

2011-07-08T00:20:00.001+05:30

It all started with Mr.Muthu, I guess.Navy of artnavy fame started calling LB as Mr.LB, we continued it and now the child calls me Mr.Amma and dad as Mr.Appa.

Nice!

Elle Britney and Me

2011-06-02T18:42:00.001+05:30

My first acquaintance with a dog was with Timmy aka Timothy of The Famous Five.Tim was so adorable that during childhood days, I always wanted a dog as my pet. As expected, I did not long for other pets like cats, parrots and fish because i did not read about them. The thought flew out of the window sometime during my 5th std when we moved into our new flat and I was chased by two black dogs belonging to another flat member. Later I learnt about two things one should not do with a dog; first, to run and second to stare into their eyes. Though I was not scared of them, I kept my distance from them.

During college internship days in Bombay, me and my friend used to spend lots of time sitting on the Marine drive because my office was just stone throw from that place. Evening breeze + roasted channa in cone papers + watching traffic + discussing random stuff or meaning about life was blissful. My friend used to point out to various breeds of dogs when they pass us during their evening walk.It was all Greek and Latin to me but nevertheless it was good to see them from a distance.After marriage, we used to visit one of hubby’s aunts who owned two dogs at that time. I used to stand frozen every time they came to sniff and greet me in their style. I hate to have my legs licked by them.

Enter E&B in my life and everything changed slowly but surely. E&B are Elizabeth and Britney, two female Labrador dogs belonging by hubby’s cousin P. We were due to visit them when LB was 1 1/4 yrs old. Needless to say, I was apprehensive. It was going to be my first experience living with not one but two dogs in the same house for more than 10 minutes. Plus, as a first time mother, I was worried about LB’s reaction to dogs not just physically but also in terms of what if he turned allergic to them? I had lengthy discussions with hubby and my parents about possible reactions, outcome and corrective actions if needed. We gave preventive rabies shots(3 shots at regular intervals) to LB scaring him further of needles. I told him umpteen times not to touch or play with them.My parents kept reminding me to take special care of LB at cousin P’s place.

Introduction part with E&B was ok. We were crushed by their weight on our feet, they just sniffed me and I was ok with it. They ran LB down nearly and I was ok with it. LB thought two of his cuddly toys had come to life. He kept touching them and standing behind their wagging tails. He tried to hug them but they were huge for him. He tried to run behind them catching their tails and got whacked by me for it. Day 2 and 3 were relatively better.LB would intentionally run and perk them up. They kept sniffing his diaper and licking his feet. LB wanted to dip his hand into their water bowl. He wanted to eat like them, from a bowl with his tongue. In fact one evening, when cousin P came home from office, LB gave him the same treatment what E&B gave him:licked his face completely:) LB would lie down near their tummies and encourage them to lick him top to bottom. I kept yelling at LB but he was least bothered about my screams and was having the best time of his life.They were warned by cousin P not to enter our room during the entire period of stay and they obediently abided by it.The visit was a short one and I was relieved that nothing untoward happened.

I could barely differentiate them during our first trip. The following year, we went back for a longer duration. E&B remembered us. They were patient and did not get fooled by LB’s fake running to perk them up. They allowed LB to lie on their tummies and jump around. E was the motherly kind. B would play with balls. If LB tried snuggling up to B, she would slowly move away. E would allow him to play around for a longer time. I could now start differentiating them. During our many late night chats, E would come and lie near my feet and I started liking her warmth. I guess, they knew i did not like licking hence never did that with me. Hubby used to pet them a lot hence they used to play energetically with him.E &B would patiently stand next to our table with sorry faces hoping to get some delicious food items from us.On the day we went to Khandala for a drive, we forgot to feed them and they were not angry when we returned.

LB, by then, had become naughtier by age. He started pinching them, opening their eyelids if they were sleeping, tried to put his hand in their mouth to feed them. They patiently moved away from him whenever he caused pain. 2 days before we were leaving, LB did the unspeakable act. He was as usual playing with E and licking her on and off when we were not looking and at one point took E’s leg and bit her hard. I whacked him well and gave him an earful. Next day, he repeated the same with B. Both E&B never reacted to his biting. They calmly moved away. Never in my life have I seen such beautiful souls. They not only had to bear my son’s playful bites but also ensure nothing happened to him in the process. I apologized to them from the bottom of my heart. I know that they understood me.

When I was biding them goodbye, my eyes were filled with tears. They never growled, they were always good around LB and they kept their distance from me waiting for me to reach out to them. Truly, E&B are the best dogs in the whole wide world.

PS: We saw the movie Marley & Me and cried buckets over the dog Marley. Wonder why Indian movie makers never make films like Marley & Me?

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2011-05-28T06:58:00.001+05:30

I read this article and made all the necessary changes. Insightful!