What comes after Sunday?

What comes after Sunday?

A boring, unexciting Monday? Adhya says it is 'Moonday' after Sunday!

A day for the sun and a day for the moon...seems fair to me...what do you think? Maybe it will take the edge out of Monday mornings :)

If you are in Chennai and want to visit a different kind of place before Monday or Moonday starts, you should try Dakshin Chitra. It is one of our favorite places in Chennai. It has model houses of ancient South Indian habitats, covering all the 4 southern states. The simple lifestyle, the appliances, the clothing etc. transport you to the lives of your great-great-great grandparents. And you will really appreciate the effort put in by the artists and the management to keep this place running. You can read more about it in their official website.

They regularly teach arts and crafts too. And there are stalls put up with decorative handmade products too. Needless to say, that is where I need Shankar to bring me back to the real world :D

amazing craftsmanship in a door

a simple kitchen

handloom sarees

a model house from Kerela

toys of Karnataka

It is an amazing place to take pictures, enjoy the state of 'how things were' and spend time with your family and friends. Give it a try someday!

Being a kid!

A little bit of routine,
A familiar corner, person or toy.
A small push into the unfamiliar,
A new game, place or song.

To go high up in the swings,
To be brave in the slides,
To try the monkey bars, maybe!

Crayons and markers to color the pages walls.
Papers to tear and squirrels to watch.

Tantrums and dramas have their place
Righ beside hugs, cuddles and sweet babbles
Friends to fight, share and learn new tricks
Mobiles and laptop to punch away!

A little solitary and a little company,
Colroful books filled with butterflies and dora.
A dose of compliments and 'great jobs'
Undesired but a sure shot of reprimands too.

Half eaten apples, half finished cookies
Self made lyrics and complementing music

An over conscious mom, a doting dad!
A little nap
And even more little food.

It does seem to be tough to be a kid these days, no? :)

The world through her eyes

Weirdly, the first letter that Adhya identified was W and it remained ‘bubble you’ for her for a long time. We are slowly into identifying other letters too. The other day, when I showed her A and asked her what it was, she promptly replied ‘Triangle’. Though, by impulse I wanted to correct her, I held myself back. On second thought, A does look like a triangle that has been extrapolated. With time, I know she will differentiate between a triangle and a capital ‘A’. But till then, let me learn something too J I’m sure every parent will have had such moments when they just had to sit back, smile and bask in the bliss of ignorance.

Kids see things so different from us. For them everything is new, adventurous and exciting. They have an inherent urge to explore. Maybe that is why routine activities like eating and sleeping are boring to them and they get rebellious. J

The incident just reminded me that just because people see things differently, it doesn’t mean that the other person is always wrong. People’s views are based on how they have lived their life so far, their inspirations, experiences etc. We have a choice to agree, disagree or disagree and change their point of view. All three are valid but the last one needs a lot of compassion and responsibility.

Two days ago, the little one sat on my lap and gazed intently into my eyes for quite some time. Then she quipped, ‘amma, see Adhya in your eyes’. It just kept me smiling the whole day :) Yes, things that we take for granted are so different in the eyes of a little one!

Share your little Einstien’s discoveries too J Would love to hear them!

Make Peace

There are a few things that are not worth(read ‘possible’) fighting for. The sooner one accepts that, the better it will be for that person and everyone around him or her ;). I’ve made my peace with a few things. In fact, I kind of expect them to happen. And when they don’t (rarely), I never forget to celebrate the moment. World peace makes its humble beginnings at home J

src: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=angel&ctt=1#ai:MC900438351|mt:0|

1. No matter how much ever I try, there will be toys all around the house like in the kitchen shelves and below your pillows waiting to poke you.
2. The other pair of Socks will always go missing.
3. Your house can be speck and span most of the time but when you have sudden visitors, it will definitely be a mess.
4. No matter how many days before I plan or how many lists I make, I’ll definitely forget one thing from the groceries. More often, I’ll forget to take the list J
5. I can’t eat healthy food 24 x 7.
6. I always hit ‘memory full’ on my camera whenever I decide to have an unplanned photo session (?).
7. I can never be regular at blogging ;)
8. Whenever my kid falls sick, I am going to find something or the other to blame myself for.
9. I will send across my share (ok, big share) of ‘Belated Happy Birthday’(s) even if I try hard not to.
10. I cannot make everyone happy and that is perfectly fine too J

These were the top 10 that popped into my mind and I’m sure there will be many more to add if I think harder. Do you have your peace list? If yes, do our lists have anything in common? J 

Happy 2012 :)

Yay! Its time for a brand new year :)

Its something about the dawn of a new year that brings a festive mood, makes us  more positive and energetic. How else can I explain the train of resolutions that I make when practically I know some of them won't even last till the end of January ;) But that's the charm of a new year ..... it makes us realize what our aspirations and dreams are. Maybe because it is at this time of the year that we sit and retrospect. So yes a lot of thinking has been happening and I'm sure this year's going to be very eventful :)

2011 has been great and very eventful - lots of memories to cherish. Two 60th marriages, a vacation, a retirement, lots of packing, our 5th marriage anniversary, heightened naughtiness and conversation (read 'convincing' ) skills of Adhya, a new job, a small setback in health, getting together with friends, and settling down in a new place are the highlights of our 2011. Its just that 2011 made us more responsible :) Hope 2012 turns great too......

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year. Hope you get to learn a lot, relearn and unlearn too in the process. May all your dreams - small or big, resolutions- however hard to keep up, plans and ideas take form. :)

P. S. And this year my little one will be starting school.... lots of tears are being stocked up already :)

a glimpse of the Christmas decorations at downtown..

Happy 2012 :)

Where it all begins.....

Where it all begins….

This is dedicated to all the girls born in the 70s, 80s or even 90s and had a set of grand parents in a smaller town/village that you visited during summer holidays. And if their home was surrounded with grooves of mango trees, abundant greenery, the lingering smell of neem trees, plenty of sunlight and a group of girls, you will know what I’m talking about J Even otherwise, you can relate to this post J

Those were the summer holidays when we literally did nothing except sleeping well, eating well and playing till the sun set. Even a simple dish made by my grand mother filled up the whole room with aroma. And everyday there would be a fresh string of flowers to adorn our plaits and most of the time it will be from our own garden. Those terrace floors full of sheets of pappads drying in the sun must have been a great aerial sight. The sun dried pappads would then travel through the country to all those uncles and aunts and would last them till next summer. Ho, and the honorable (?) job of taking care of the pappads from those hungry crows always was bestowed upon us kids. And what fun it was? Sometimes, the entire family would get dressed in minutes to go and catch an afternoon movie. I don’t remember the movies but I can’t forget all the hungama  around getting dressed up, packing snacks, filling up the water bottle and catching an auto. It was fun. The Friday evening temple visits, listening to my grand parent’s stories that began with ‘in those days’ and the lack of television all made it better.

The best part of my summer holidays were when I and my aunt (she was like a big sister to me) would join other girls who were there for holidays. We would have our own kitchen in the garden. And it wasn’t entirely a make believe kitchen because we actually made rasam, payasam, pongal, rice etc. in those small earthen pots. And believe me it turned out absolutely tasty. And the onus of stealing rice, dal, jaggery, tamarind etc. from my grand mother’s kitchen was always on me. The reason being even if I got caught, since I was small and my grand mother’s pet :D, I could get away easily. The toy kitchenware was amazing. They were earthen, wooden, steel and plastic mostly. The more variety you had, the more popular you were in your group :D. We were all passionate about cooking. Though being small, I had to only do those cleaning and cutting jobs but it somehow seemed very important then. And that I believe is when the interest for cooking was sown inside all the young girls. I love cooking today and trying out new things. Even though I don’t guarantee the outcome every time :D

Why this nostalgic post? The memories were dusted and brought to front because of a gourmet kitchen set that we bought for Adhya recently. It is pink and girly. It is very beautiful with all those modern equipments. And she literally loves it. I’m not going to compare the two kitchens here because I believe that both are awesome in their own way. They fulfill the job of making a little girl happy and make her believe that she is a chef, and that’s all that matters. J

But as I watched my sous-chef prepare me ‘hot’ tea and see how happy she was, I couldn’t help but travel down the memory lane J I sincerely hope she gathers more beautiful memories as she grows up J

Till then, Breakfast, anyone?

What's hidden?

Have you tried cleaning your home in the recent past? Ho, you should! You will be surprised at what all you will find..... :) Cleaning is therapeutic :) And by cleaning, I'm not just talking about dusting your living room and throwing away your old newspapers to the used paper mart. I'm talking about thorough cleaning that leaves your neighbors wondering if you are vacating  your home!

In the last 3 months, I've done a lot of cleaning, packing, unpacking and setting up things. It leaves you tiresome but at the same time it kind of makes you feel good to see those clean and tidy rooms. At the end you will be surprised how many things which you will never need or use share your home with you. Here goes the top 5 (in no particular order) that I found out hidden in my home and sometimes just in plain sight but I've never used.....

Wallets/Purses/Handbags

They are always in surplus. Yes they are empty, drenched in dust and fungus and are in funny colors. The zips probably don't work. They make you feel bad that you should have probably parted with them sooner when they were good enough so that someone who could have actually used it had had it.

Old dresses

Dresses that you stored at the back of your wardrobe in hope that it would probably fit...err... you will probably use it someday! Dresses in colors and fits that are really not you and you would only wear them before your mirror. I understand it is hard to give them away. So as a cheat sheet just pick up two-three of such dresses and give the rest away. It will actually make you feel good. And hey, now there is an other excuse for shopping. And now when you shop for new dresses, only buy those that you are comfortable in today. Don't buy anything for 'after I loose 5 kilos' how much ever you like it.

Pens/pencils/sketch pens

The most invisible ones in many homes.... I never find them when I need them to jot down an important number. But now I'm surprised at how many I  found. Most of them don't have caps and don't have ink. After all, a pen stand doesn't seem like a bad idea now. Just have to make sure that the stand is actually put into use :)

Pictures of gods

I believe in God and have a small pooja shelf(I live in an apartment :) ) for all my favorite Gods. Its one of my favorite places in my home. But when I cleaned the home I found small pictures of Gods with Calendar at the back of them in almost all the rooms. They were too many. Any small or big shop that you go during festival time in Chennai will give you loads of these calendars. You are taught not to say no to them. But them lying around in a corner of the home just makes me very sad. I honestly didn't know what to do with so many of them. Better ideas?

Cosmetics

There were many bottles of half used or almost full shampoos, moisturizers and oils. Check the expiry date and give them a try. You will most probably be saying, 'this is so good.... why did I stop using this?' And if not, why is it still crowding your shelves?

I know the list will vary according to each person. For eg., some people might consider giving away old books but I can always find a place for an old copy of Reader's Digest in my home. The thing is to make your own list of what you don't need in surplus and make sure that you stick to it. And then, probably you wouldn't have to clean your home so often like me ;) A very preachy post, isn't it? Would love to your ideas and experiences too....what's hidden in your shelves?