Simply Me
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Snippets...
Lost...
We were in Mangalore and had gone to a festival and dinner to the temple. All of us on my mom's side... When the ladies and children were ready to leave, no sign of Vijendra... The men were busy serving... An extensive search revealed no signs of Vijendra... Asking both maamus to keep an eye out for him, we decided to go home to see if he was there... And halfway there, was Vijendra, his fair face and eyes red with tears... He thought we had forgotten him... Walking all the way home and a lock... the distressed child lost his way and thats how we found him where he was... he couldn't find anyone he said...
Forgotten...
Before I was born and Sohan anna was a child, mhanthu and his family had come to Pune. Asking Soniakka to sit with ajju and bapama in the car, mhanthu and annu went to the doctors' Sohan anna with them... They asked him to sit outside and sit on the compounder's stool... After a while, the boy got worried... he came out of the dispensary thinking both his Pappa and Bappa had forgotten about him... He was quite good with cars and asked someone on the road to take him across the road... Crying out for Papa and Bappa, he reached the car... At the dispensary, the two men, busy talking came out totally forgetting that his son/his nephew had come with them... At the car, everyone asked... Where's Sohan? Then they remembered... Thankfully Sohan anna was with the people in the car and they were pulling the men's leg...
House Arrest...
Three year old Ashwini and her parents were leaving for Dombivili early in the evening... About a couple of hours to leave, Ashwini goes to ajju and bapama's room and turns the key to lock herself in... Cajoling and confusing by the grandparents and her mother didn't help and Ganesh mamu's anger didn't simplify matters either... Ashwini was close to tears... All the shouting of breaking down the door woke up amma... First things first... she asked everyone to calm down... she'd see what to do... Everyone had already taken the handle apart... No way to try anything from this side of the door.. All upto Ashwini... Ashwini do you see the key? Put it in the lock... Now... Do you know left? yes... Turn the key left... Ok now turn the key right... Left again and real hard... The door comes open with a push...
The human doll...
At Chavathi (Ganesh festival), our entire family came together... Sohan anna, Ashwini and I were partners in crime... Sohan anna and Ashwini an year apart in age... Me the youngest 2 years younger than Ashwini... Finding that we were very silent, our families came searching for us... The older two had put on make-up on te youngest and a beautiful doll... a make-up of kajal made for the vaina pooja... the doll went into the dustbin... and half the day went to make me look presentable enough... Don't forget mhanthu's cream on the walls either...
A hard day's work...
Shifting to a new house is always a pain, especially when you are unwell and there's furniture being made and you have a 4 year old daughter to take care of... The carpenters had asked amma to take all the clothes left for drying into the room so that none of them got wood dust on them... Amma put them in ajju's room... that was the only room with no furnishing to be done... the bed had a pile of matresses on them since we always had guests coming to our place... Ajju and bapama at mhanthu's, tired amma went to sleep as soon as the carpenters left... Left to my own devices, little Tejaswini picked up a litre bottle of oil and decided to pour it on the freshly dried clothes... At the 'Devva kooda' water went into the bowl containing kumkum... An angry, exhausted amma sees this and goes to the bathroom to get everything cleaned and her feet can't stay on the ground... she is slipping... a litre bottle of shampoo is poured in the bathroom...
We were in Mangalore and had gone to a festival and dinner to the temple. All of us on my mom's side... When the ladies and children were ready to leave, no sign of Vijendra... The men were busy serving... An extensive search revealed no signs of Vijendra... Asking both maamus to keep an eye out for him, we decided to go home to see if he was there... And halfway there, was Vijendra, his fair face and eyes red with tears... He thought we had forgotten him... Walking all the way home and a lock... the distressed child lost his way and thats how we found him where he was... he couldn't find anyone he said...
Forgotten...
Before I was born and Sohan anna was a child, mhanthu and his family had come to Pune. Asking Soniakka to sit with ajju and bapama in the car, mhanthu and annu went to the doctors' Sohan anna with them... They asked him to sit outside and sit on the compounder's stool... After a while, the boy got worried... he came out of the dispensary thinking both his Pappa and Bappa had forgotten about him... He was quite good with cars and asked someone on the road to take him across the road... Crying out for Papa and Bappa, he reached the car... At the dispensary, the two men, busy talking came out totally forgetting that his son/his nephew had come with them... At the car, everyone asked... Where's Sohan? Then they remembered... Thankfully Sohan anna was with the people in the car and they were pulling the men's leg...
House Arrest...
Three year old Ashwini and her parents were leaving for Dombivili early in the evening... About a couple of hours to leave, Ashwini goes to ajju and bapama's room and turns the key to lock herself in... Cajoling and confusing by the grandparents and her mother didn't help and Ganesh mamu's anger didn't simplify matters either... Ashwini was close to tears... All the shouting of breaking down the door woke up amma... First things first... she asked everyone to calm down... she'd see what to do... Everyone had already taken the handle apart... No way to try anything from this side of the door.. All upto Ashwini... Ashwini do you see the key? Put it in the lock... Now... Do you know left? yes... Turn the key left... Ok now turn the key right... Left again and real hard... The door comes open with a push...
The human doll...
At Chavathi (Ganesh festival), our entire family came together... Sohan anna, Ashwini and I were partners in crime... Sohan anna and Ashwini an year apart in age... Me the youngest 2 years younger than Ashwini... Finding that we were very silent, our families came searching for us... The older two had put on make-up on te youngest and a beautiful doll... a make-up of kajal made for the vaina pooja... the doll went into the dustbin... and half the day went to make me look presentable enough... Don't forget mhanthu's cream on the walls either...
A hard day's work...
Shifting to a new house is always a pain, especially when you are unwell and there's furniture being made and you have a 4 year old daughter to take care of... The carpenters had asked amma to take all the clothes left for drying into the room so that none of them got wood dust on them... Amma put them in ajju's room... that was the only room with no furnishing to be done... the bed had a pile of matresses on them since we always had guests coming to our place... Ajju and bapama at mhanthu's, tired amma went to sleep as soon as the carpenters left... Left to my own devices, little Tejaswini picked up a litre bottle of oil and decided to pour it on the freshly dried clothes... At the 'Devva kooda' water went into the bowl containing kumkum... An angry, exhausted amma sees this and goes to the bathroom to get everything cleaned and her feet can't stay on the ground... she is slipping... a litre bottle of shampoo is poured in the bathroom...
Labels: Hum bhi agar bacche hote..., If only I could turn back time
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Masti...
I called up Rashi today morning to wish her on her birthday... actually to find out whether she had a fast today or not... I had planned to take her a cake today... kisi ka to birthday birthday ke din celebrate ho... Got her a yummy looking chocolate cake from Monginis (I swear by the chocolate cake of monginis...)
As soon as I reached (Rashi wasn't in yet), I informed everyone it was Rashi's birthday... Vaibhav came up with the 'brilliant' idea not to wish her at all until everyone gathered to celebrate her party... The poor girl waited expectantly for atleast one of her colleagues to wish her or for me to tell everyone else... sorry no can do... Finally at 4:30 she could bear it no longer... she pretty much announced to everyone in the team that it was her birthday and asked them to wish her... the poor thing was really offended I guess... Now, our team is nothing if not sneaky... everyone pretended not to believe her... Even our 'ek bhi baat pet mein nahi rehti types' manager, Dada, pretended to look up her birthday on Intra before wishing her.
Off we went for our break at 5:15. I had already tipped off the rest of the team to join us at 5:30. Anjali, Rashi and I always take our break together. But when Pallavi and Poonam also joined us upstairs, the penny finally began to drop... And when everyone came upstairs... everything started to fall in place...
Ofcourse, when a girl ANNOUNCES her birthday, she deserves to have her cake and eat it too... she had more chocolate on her face today than she had color on Holi when Vaibhav had smuggled colors to our office...
Well gotta say.. kabhi kabhi surprise party dene mein mazaa aata hai...
Happy Birthday Rashi... May all your wishes and dreams come true... keep smiling...
As soon as I reached (Rashi wasn't in yet), I informed everyone it was Rashi's birthday... Vaibhav came up with the 'brilliant' idea not to wish her at all until everyone gathered to celebrate her party... The poor girl waited expectantly for atleast one of her colleagues to wish her or for me to tell everyone else... sorry no can do... Finally at 4:30 she could bear it no longer... she pretty much announced to everyone in the team that it was her birthday and asked them to wish her... the poor thing was really offended I guess... Now, our team is nothing if not sneaky... everyone pretended not to believe her... Even our 'ek bhi baat pet mein nahi rehti types' manager, Dada, pretended to look up her birthday on Intra before wishing her.
Off we went for our break at 5:15. I had already tipped off the rest of the team to join us at 5:30. Anjali, Rashi and I always take our break together. But when Pallavi and Poonam also joined us upstairs, the penny finally began to drop... And when everyone came upstairs... everything started to fall in place...
Ofcourse, when a girl ANNOUNCES her birthday, she deserves to have her cake and eat it too... she had more chocolate on her face today than she had color on Holi when Vaibhav had smuggled colors to our office...
Well gotta say.. kabhi kabhi surprise party dene mein mazaa aata hai...
Happy Birthday Rashi... May all your wishes and dreams come true... keep smiling...
Labels: Aayi re aayi hai khushi..., Hum bhi agar bacche hote..., Its a hap hap happy birthday...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Kids do the darndest things
A few years ago, most of my family had come to Pune. Ajju, Bapama, Mhantu, mhava, Sohan Anna, Vatsalakka, Soniakka, Shivram Bhavaji, Meghana and Mehul, and Ganesh maamu, Nalini akka and Ashwini from my Dad's side and Narsimha maamu, Shreelakshmi maayi and Krishna from my mom's side. The occasion? Nothing really. Maamu and mayi were thinking of visiting us and so were everyone from mhanthus' so thought if everyone came together it would be all the more fun. And what's more my grandparents were in their 70th year of marriage, so we thought we could have a small Satyanarayan Puja at that time.
Maamu, mayi and Krishna came first. Now lets introduce our neighbour's grand daughter... The little princess who lives in the flat above us.. Ishika... Ishika and Krishna were born on the very same day a few hours apart... When she was a baby it was just amazing to listen to her... She would start crying, so her dad or grandad would start to sing... aisa waisa nahi... a proper aalap... And this little kid would wail exactly like that!!! That babe had a gifted voice... Sooo coming back to our little hero Krishna... Now the first day he came here, we were standing in the balcony. Ishika comes to the window... (Their living room window overlooks our balcony) Her mom says to her... 'To bagh dada' (Dada=Older brother)... Now from then on, she used to keep calling out to him off and on 'Dada.. Dada...' and our little Gopal would come running out when he heard little Radha call out to him... and he would stand there looking up at her and calling out to her 'Didi.'
The next day, in the morning, my grandparents arrived by flight and were followed the next day by the rest of the family... Now lets just point out that Krishna was 2 years old then... When he met Meghana and Mehul, 4 years old, he was absolutely delighted... and so were they to see the little one. Now the little brat is soooooo haughty I tell you, whenever poor little Ishika would call out, our little high-and-mighty definitely was NOT ready to go out. He would pretend not to hear.. neither her calls nor our, 'Paley.. appaitaasa paley tukka' (Look, she's calling out to you...) No siree he definitely gave our damsel a cold shoulder.
Somehow these kids developed such a good bond... They say twins don't allow a third kid to come between them. But with Krishna they were absolutely generous and sweet. They would play with him and hug him and kiss him and pamper him... One of the cutest things they would do is Krishna would sit on Mehul's back and Meghana would pretend to sit on Krishna's back.. We were worried the first time they did this but we immediately realised that she was just pretending to sit on his back.
Laying down the matresses at night though was a huuuuuge headache... The moment the matresses were laid out, these kids would come running out of nowhere rolling on them and making the beds was a terrible task for all of us. Of course once they had their fun, Meghana and Mehul would actually help us lay out the beds.
It was an absolute joy having those kids around... Three years since then and I can still recollect the naughtiness and cute little pranks they played.
Maamu, mayi and Krishna came first. Now lets introduce our neighbour's grand daughter... The little princess who lives in the flat above us.. Ishika... Ishika and Krishna were born on the very same day a few hours apart... When she was a baby it was just amazing to listen to her... She would start crying, so her dad or grandad would start to sing... aisa waisa nahi... a proper aalap... And this little kid would wail exactly like that!!! That babe had a gifted voice... Sooo coming back to our little hero Krishna... Now the first day he came here, we were standing in the balcony. Ishika comes to the window... (Their living room window overlooks our balcony) Her mom says to her... 'To bagh dada' (Dada=Older brother)... Now from then on, she used to keep calling out to him off and on 'Dada.. Dada...' and our little Gopal would come running out when he heard little Radha call out to him... and he would stand there looking up at her and calling out to her 'Didi.'
The next day, in the morning, my grandparents arrived by flight and were followed the next day by the rest of the family... Now lets just point out that Krishna was 2 years old then... When he met Meghana and Mehul, 4 years old, he was absolutely delighted... and so were they to see the little one. Now the little brat is soooooo haughty I tell you, whenever poor little Ishika would call out, our little high-and-mighty definitely was NOT ready to go out. He would pretend not to hear.. neither her calls nor our, 'Paley.. appaitaasa paley tukka' (Look, she's calling out to you...) No siree he definitely gave our damsel a cold shoulder.
Somehow these kids developed such a good bond... They say twins don't allow a third kid to come between them. But with Krishna they were absolutely generous and sweet. They would play with him and hug him and kiss him and pamper him... One of the cutest things they would do is Krishna would sit on Mehul's back and Meghana would pretend to sit on Krishna's back.. We were worried the first time they did this but we immediately realised that she was just pretending to sit on his back.
Laying down the matresses at night though was a huuuuuge headache... The moment the matresses were laid out, these kids would come running out of nowhere rolling on them and making the beds was a terrible task for all of us. Of course once they had their fun, Meghana and Mehul would actually help us lay out the beds.
It was an absolute joy having those kids around... Three years since then and I can still recollect the naughtiness and cute little pranks they played.
Labels: Hum bhi agar bacche hote..., If only I could turn back time
