Sweet Innocent Childhood

My daughter at 2 : Loved sweeping, mopping, washing utensils
"I want to grow up and become a HOUSEMAID"

My daughter at 3 : Just when she started her school
"I want togrow up and become a TEACHER"

My daughter at 4: After a visit to the supermarket
"I want to grow up and become a SALESGIRL"

My daughter at 5: After a ride in the bus.
"I want to grow up and become a CONDUCTOR"

My daughter at 6: Just after getting off from the lift.
"I want to grow up and become a LIFTMAN"

My daughter at 7: After seeing a documentary on astronauts.
"I want to grow up and become a SPACE TRAVELLER"

My daughter at 8: Seeing the models walking the ramp.
"I want to grow up and become MISS INDIA"

My daughter at 9: After draping me with dupatta.
"I want to grow up and become a FASHION DESIGNER"

My daughter at 10 now: Sees Indian Idol.
"I want to grow up and become an INDIAN IDOL"

God, just let her be happy with whatever she chooses to be in life.

Read more...

Issues of Shoes!

Hubby took my FIL to Doctors yesterday. When it took him longer than normal to return, I called up and this is the conversation that followed.

Hubby: Hullo
Me: Hi, where are you? Isnt the check up done?
Hubby: Yeah, it is.
Me: Oh, then are you driving back? Listen I need 1 kg potato.
Hubby: No, I haven’t started yet.
Me: Then? Buying medicines?
Hubby: No, I am in the shoe shop!
Me: Shoe Shop?
Hubby: Yeah, someone stole my shoe!
Me: STOLE YOUR SHOE? How?
Hubby: I had left it outside the clinic. (This is an eye clinic and the doc insists that people take off their shoes before entering his sanitized domain) I don’t know HOW but when I came out, I saw them missing and instead someone had left his old pair of shoes behind. So, I trotted down to the nearest shoe shop and just bought another pair.
Me (laughing): Why did you keep the shoes there?
Hubby (irritated): Arre, did I have a choice or what?
Me: Why does this happen to YOU only? You bought the shoe only last month, remember?
Hubby: OK OK, I am driving now (which I doubt.. he just wanted me to shut up..:)
Me: OK!

BTW, the last pair of shoes he lost was at a temple. He had gone to attend a function of a family friend . Trying to be extra smart, he chose a well hidden spot behind a shrub to keep his shoes. The shoe-thief was no less. He must be having good olfactory modality. He smelt the shoes, yes he did. If the thief is reading it, I must advise him that we need more like him on our police force. Maybe he should apply there.
Anyway, so the thief neatly put his own shoes there and took my hubbys away!

Then there was that incident when someone had an identity crisis recognizing her slippers and took away my MILs, outside a house where we went for haldi kumkum!

So, whats the moral of the story?
Ring in the new but don’t ring out the old. Keep an old pair of shoes for some SPECIAL occasions!

Read more...

Of Hindi and the verbs

I have never been a good student of any language, as is evident from my posts. I am a tamilian by birth, but can carry a conversation, thats it. I am brought up in Delhi and had so many Punjabi friends but never ever tried to learn Punjabi. Now in Mumbai, and I am still struggling with Marathi. I have scored decent marks in English, Hindi and Sanskrit (my third optional language), but never have I seen those brilliant numbers. I have been more inclined towards maths and sciences.

Recently, while going over Hindi with my daughter, I was back to that nagging question for which I never tried to find any answer and never got any.
I tried to compare the 4 languages I know (including sanskrit).
I have observed that in English, we do not associate gender to the verb. So, he is coming, she is coming, bus is coming, rain is coming. Thank God for that!
In Tamil and Sanskrit, we have genders with verbs, but then there are 3 genders - masculine, feminine and neutral. So, "avan varan" (he is coming), "aval varaal" (she is coming), "bus varudu" (bus is coming). In case of inanimate objects, we have the third option.
I get stuck when it comes to Hindi. There is gender in verbs but there is no third gender. Is Bus masculine or feminine? What about Chair? "Bus aa raha hai" or "Bus aa rahi hai" (Bus is coming)? If "Baarish ho rahi hai" (its raining but with feminine verb) then why is it "Paani baras raha hai" (again its raining but with the usage of the word water and masculine verb). “Mobile baja” or “mobile baji” (Mobile rang)?
Reminds me of the hilarious issue raked up in the movie Chupke Chupke… on the difference in pronunciation of “cut”, “but” and “put” even though they all are spelt the same way!

Any Hindi teacher around? How do I correct my kids when I don’t have my basics right?

Read more...

Photo-phobic

I love seeing photographs. They have very good effect on our mind by refreshing it. Infact, they help in increasing the memory power as you try to recollect what had happened then. They are good for eyes too and help them sparkle and shine up. They help in blood circulation by making the adrenalin pump. They give an exercise to the facial muscle since you are bound to smile and smiling is very good for your face. They also help you realize the content of fat in your body, so you get motivation to take appropriate action.
I do not know the statistics but I distinctly remember reading somewhere that in any snap, majority of the people concentrate on their own picture. I certainly belong to that category. Try as I might, I end up judging myself in the snap. If I look good (which is rare), suddenly the whole world looks beautiful to me – the sun, the sky, the sofa, the walls everything!!! If I don’t look nice (as in most of the cases), I decide that the camera is awful and lights were bad. If the fat is showing everywhere, it is obvious that the angle of the shot was wrong. If I am looking dark (Fair and Lovely does not work!), the colour of the dress I am wearing is the culprit. All in all, after looking at myself in any snap, I come out enlightened.
I think I am not abnormal. I think most of us are the same. But does that mean I have to thrust my photo album in the hands of a poor guest the moment he enters my house? Would he really be interested in what I did on 24th of May 1997 in my cousins house-warming ceremony? Unless I know him closely, would he like to see my marriage album and give a comment on my aunt’s sister-in-law's father-in-law's friend?

Oh yes, there are such people around. Ushas this post reminded me of one of our old neighbours!
She is a nice dame, generally. Her hubby is nice, smiling, courteous person and they have two naughty children. They have been good neighbours whenever we wanted the kind of help we expect from a neighbour. After staying in the same locality for some years, we shifted apart.
But alas, whenever I happen to go to her house, she decides that her photos are the worlds best entertainment. Like last time when I went there, all was well for some half an hour till she decided to show me the photos of her brothers sons first birthday! Her eyes shined up and she was literally transported to some other plain. Her mother-in-law has the same interest I think. Both of them pounced upon me and my hubby and made us look and appreciate each and every pixel of the album. By the end of it, I had memorised the names of all her cousins, their sons and daughters, their mother in laws names too!
How do I tell her I AM NOT INTERESTED without sounding impolite! After all, we dont meet too often. Or, maybe I will just be sweet!!!

Read more...

Crazy Collections!

Well, Swati, sorry for being late. You tagged me and asked me what I have a fetish for and so here I go :)


To tell you the truth, my interests keep varying with time and yet these are the few things I love collecting!

1. Perfumes! Yes, I have a mediocre collection but would not mind an endless one. So, now you know what to gift me for my birthday!
2. Sarees and dresses! I love buying new dresses and sarees. I often wonder why is it that I have nothing good to wear almost everyday.
3. Chocolates. I dont collect chocolates but I have a weakness for them. Hope my kids are not reading this.
4. Plants. Yes, I love gardening. I have 2 small balconies and I love to expand my garden more and more. How I love the greens!
5. Dolls : Now, people might think this crazy but the dolls I am talking of here are not the usual barbies. I am talking of the dolls that adorn the odd-number of steps during navratris in some of south indian homes. The occassion is called golu. I would probably write a detailed post on it sometime but yes, this festival is my most cherished one.

Talking of fetishes, I remember my childhood days when I used to collect matchboxes. Yes, I did that and had more than some 100 of them before I lost interest. Stamp collection was a craze for sometime too.
During my school college days, I had a huge card collection and I still carry some of them with me. Usha had done a wonderful post on the pain that grips you when you empty your cupboards to throw the old memories away. I have managed to keep them with me so far!

These days my latest passion is buying books. I hope I dont outgrow this one.

OK as for passing on the tag, I would call upon JLT, Usha, HHG, Dame, and all who read this to share their little weaknesses and I promise I wont tell anyone!

Read more...