Jagamum naan Ahamum naan

Mom.. why are you working like this? Me (with all happiness) : To make sure I provide you with everything you need Dewy : You think so much when i ask for toy. Why work since you wont buy me.toys anyway Ahem..... *************************** Dinner is not that great mom (I became "mom" from "Amma") I have work Dewy. This by itself is a stretch. I dont seen you saying that to Ashish uncle ( My manager) Ufffo... I cant say like that.... work is important. I thought I am too.. ( sigh) *************************** Communication at our home in the last month as per Dewy. 6 AM : GET UP FOR GODS SAKE YOU ARE LATE 7 AM : BATH PROPERLY 8 AM: CHEW THE FOOD. YOU JUST DONT EAT ANYTHING 4 PM: WALK HOME FAST. I HAVE CALLS 6 PM :  DO YOUR HOMEWORK 8 PM : EAT DINNER FAST. TOMORROW IS SCHOOL DAY 9 PM: GOOD NIGHT She thinks this is the only conversation I had with her in last 2 months. Now if you are wondering if this is true. I leave for you to speculate.

Don't we always hear from people to "Stay Grounded". I am a true follower of that. No joking!! There is a certain additional gravity that brings me now and then closer ( I mean really closer) to earth. I always feel that I have to keep touching Mother Earth to believe that nothing has changed and I am still the same person. And yesterday I did have this one of my moments with Mother Earth. And now there is laceration ( I am not demented) Now .. Now.. This isn't one of my "I-am-so-perfect" sessions. Let me get there. Have you seen people who just keep tipping and falling down. (ahhhhhhh!!!!) I am one of those. I am clumsy klutz. I can fall down on a flat area. Mind you it will not be even a slippery floor. So yesterday I marked my entry into Certified Kultz of America. I just had to get off bus. But I don't know how I did get off and land on my knees. Dewy was dumbstruck to me so closer to her height. She was looking down on me embarrasse...

There is no rhyme and reason for this post.  A weird thing happened today.  Me and Dewy were coming back from Summer camp and we were in metro. A black lady suddenly started shouting at us. We were few seats away from her and we had literally no connection to her.  We just didnt know why she was shouting. We got down at our stop and the lady got down as well. And I walked to the bus stop to board our bus home.  And she left once I  started walking. I didn't understand a single thing she said which left me wondering why was she shouting.🤔🤔 I couldn't ask her back why she is shouting at us, I didnt have guts to stand and ask her back 👊 which is what I would have done if I am in my motherland. Sometimes being away from your ones gives you a sense of insecurity and all I could think at that time was Dewy's safety. Probably when I look back this post after a year or two I might think that I chickened out from a fight. Its an experience a...

It is really funny as you see it. This is us, just us Indians waiting in the bus stand in US on a working day morning. Can you imagine the same in any of our Indian bus stops. 🤔🤔

No one else .. literally no one else can speak about Friends other than me... ohh wait.  I am not certainly talking about that long series ( that's a completely different topic though) I think Bible says "The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.". This came up when I was talking to one of my colleagues here in US. He said, we need to be good to friends to survive here. That sounded kinda altruistic. Not being judgmental.  Don't we always have to be good to friends.???? Or else why are you even tagging them as friends. But then since being new comer, I kept my comments to myself. One thing I notice here is the same people who wouldn't even bother to see people's faces back in India, here the moment they sees an Indian, a smile lit up on face and even if the person knows you only by face they will volunteer if you need help(will they help in the moment of need ??? 😏I am not planning to comment agai...

*** Supposed to be my first post*** I had waited 2 long weeks to do my first post from LaLa land . I thought I would do about festival. This was a first festival I did without family and friends around me and not eating mom's food. My memory of festivals has been   big gatherings at Granny's place where we all cousins meet, eat and have fun. And since I am the kiddo in the whole group (erstwhile time) I used to get highest kai nettam amount all together. Yeah I am talking about vishu .  This year it has been a very lonely one with just Dewy and me and I gave her kainettam and we went to temple (I know that reaction!!!😛😛😛😛😛😛 You got to do, when you are far away from your people) But still festival  gives me time to rewind and remember the good times we have as a family and as a group. For the GOOD times we had!! Happy Vishu!!!

You would  think I am mad to assume that life is bed of Roses. I know it is not.Trust me I have my fair share of thorns. Somehow seeing Dewy seeing not happy after I made this life changing decision seems to prick me more than any other thorns. God give me patience to deal with it.

A vague memory!! When you announce to world that you are pregnant, random people will ask you with wide grin and big eyes " Aren't you excited?" and I always meticulously grin back and say "yeah". Excited? Here I am wondering about sleepless nights and cranky baby. By the way, I have never tagged myself to be a "ohhh I looove  kids" person. Those excited people fall into any of these categories A) Already one kid person - welcome to the world of obsessed parents. Now I will see how you fare better than me. B) Happy Bachelorette - Now she will certainly spend less time for career. I am better than her now. Will ask my manager to consider me for promotion C) Team member - She will go off and we can probably get a saner manager who will be less torturous D) Rarely found genuine always-happy-for-others people. My motto as usual was to tackle things when the devil is out. And this is how my life pans out. Dewy : Amma, nee (you)... I intervene.. D...

When we feel too low, don’t we all revisit the incidents to just see where things started going wrong. I am a  phase like that. I am not feeling low, but I am confused. I have got something that I was really rooting for. I have been extremely happy and hoped that things will change for better. I wanted the freedom, the decision to choose what I want and fly like a bird free of any concern. But do we really get to do that ever in our short span of life?  Naahhh.. I don’t think so. Now with me nearing that tip point, I am like anybody, hesitating to leave my comfort zone. I look back, like a projector , see happy moments, sun shining through and all happy faces, then it turns gloomy, dark clouds looming large and wonder if this is what triggered me to be so confident on “THIS” thing. Recently I was rummaging my papers and I see some notes that I have made. Considering how I like to be thorough and think through decisions , I have listed Pros and Cons o...

Ever planned a travel abroad? And have you done the mistake of telling it aunts/uncles and some good willing people. That’s where problem starts. Lively discussion follows and with no support from yours truly and  supposed to be for my benefit Aunt 1- Ohh.. that’s nice. But it is so cold there. Carry sweaters Aunt 2- Sweaters you can buy there... Our Indian food stuff is what you need to carry. And that too in Zip locked packet. Once my friend’s kid almost……( tuned out ) Good Willing friend-  ( When I tell about food items story ) These days there are lot of restrictions in food items. My friend saw someone paying 200$ fine for carrying rice.( Scary…. blimey… ) Uncle 1- How are you going to stay? I heard houses are will quickly get bed bugs due to rugs ( That entertaining… Now every single itch will look like bed bug driven ) Uncle 2 – No… why are you scaring her. It won’t be so much. Only some places ( Ho...

Have you ever wondered, sometimes (in my case most of the times) there are things that we desperately want and life has it's own way of throwing surprises at us when that "want" is concerned. This is one such thing that I wanted. I have been wanting this for quite sometime. I have checked with my seniors many times and returned with negative answer. Once I went ahead myself to get it, spending obscene amount and Goddess of luck got me half way through and she dropped me down royally. So now, one fine morning, I am marching ahead to conquer the people who has what I want. I march ahead as a sole person, but with a confidence of one army. As Napoleon says "  You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of War ". This enemy , I have fought many times for me to know the strategy. I went ahead well prepared to negate every blow that I will receive. But then my enemy was tired, subdued. He only says " You can have it...

Dewy and I are out for walking!!!  I call it a Double Trouble!! Wondering why.... It a big neighborhood mall. There is a beautiful book shop in that mall. That is one among the reasons I love that mall. And there is a obscenely big toy shop which is ONLY reason why Dewy loves that mall. We had a deal. We go to toy shop, buy anything she wants but the cost should be within 500 Rs. I started doing this recently so that my daughter understands and appreciates the luxury she is having. We go on a mission. She walks around that toy shop twice and she is disappointed. She couldn't find any toy within the price I had set. The mother in me is now little worried. In a big toy shop , my daughter couldn't still find a toy which she was eagerly waiting for. She comes to me with a dejected face and get 2 toys for which she couldn't find a price. I see one was Rs 700 (a unicorn from "my little pony") and another one Rs 450, though I could see she really loved the p...

Ahaa.... Another complaint post. If that is what is running in your mind, then you are going on a different ride. In a country this big, this wide it is always a engineering wonder to have train connectivity to all the places and;  to run it almost to near perfection is humongous task. I think we should be proud of it It was just another day to me until this happened. We had a CII audit in the company for which I was supposed to talk on Gender diversity in our company. And that was in Chennai. Spent some time on getting a deck done Packed the bags Convinced Dewy that it is just a day's seminar Handled all client calls on Friday night juggling with the OLA driver. (that's a separate story to be told) I get to the station. Sit there to watch people ( it is a nice past time to see different facets of people and watch reactions) If any of you had experience of sitting in Indian Railway platforms and the number of announcements, you would when I say that I didn'...

Have you ever noticed all these mommies who work? Heard them talk. It would mostly revolve around their kid. Long ago, I used to wonder why they don't find any other topics to talk about. Now I realize it is not the lack of topic that is driving this discussion. A normal day @ home. - Wake up grudgingly (especially if you are not a morning person) - Start cooking - Wake up the kid - Rush to bathroom and scold them to fasten up process - Dress them up - Push as much as breakfast possible - Scold them for not eating properly - Get out of house in a mad rush to catch school bus - Sigh of relief!! - Ohh Hoo.. Not over.... Finish Cooking - Bath and get ready to beat the traffic and reach office - Deal mails, escalations, management and people (not specifically in this order) - Come back home, get the books out. Face it ( A ton of homework) - Fix dinner and gobble it - Check the gadgets and back to bed. This is typically a day I have and I am...

Dewy arrived to my life in May 2012. She was small and fresh like a dew drop on the grass in a December morning and little dark that I had doubts if she was mine. I don't remember who suggested  to use Saffron in milk, I certainly did gain color not Dewy. In my anesthesia induced brain, I remembered asking my doctor, if this was my daughter. She nodded her head as if the anesthesia has clogged my ears and not my brain. Anyway that said and done!!! I decided to go ahead with my doctor's answer and assured myself that she is my daughter and bring her home!!! Ohhh my god!!! Every single step forward till date, she has shown so many characteristics (annoying ones at times) that reminds me of me. - She looks like me, people say so :-) - She loves books. My friends would claim that it is result of the torture that I did when was 6 months(i.e reading stories from books) and now at 5 1/2 she manages to read small books - She loves to dance and she loves to roam around - She...

Last post in 2008 and now again bringing it up at 2017. Does it makes sense? Do you have the time? Sometimes random ranting helps!!! So I think this is gonna help me search who I am in reality. Welcome back Janani!!!

A New Year, a new start and a new life… Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!!! I am just peeping in here months later… Hope this New Year gives me enough time to start my bugging here. Thought will collect few sweet memories of 2007. Year started with a bash, probably the best New Year Eve I have celebrated. A huge cake and half wasted on faces. Loads of silly games… And hours and hours of talking…. All happened in my training period Got posting to Chennai and my parents were happy about it. Was assigned to an amazing team and the work was so enjoyable. And so on and on…. Finally now at the end of the year with a change in my status from Single to Committed, 2008 has dawned with fun and happiness. Hope 2008 would bring luck and all the happiness we wish for!!!!

Living in a flat…. Does the space constraint irritate you….All bored and bugged… I had the same thoughts, when the job necessitated me to shift to a flat from a spacious independent home with copious water. I always used to say (Or complain) neither the land is ours; or the sky. But the real fun in flats, I just came to know today. In a community of 298 flats, today I visited the Golu, they had arranged in the common hall. And also it was day for dhandiya today. All the kids over here girls dressed in ghaghara and guys dressed in kurta, it was amazing and cute. The first round of dance was by kids and a second round by all elders (All oldies and the newbies). It was cool to see people dancing without any inhibition. When India won against Pakistan, they made it a point to celebrate with all pomp with drums and fireworks. Even our cricketers wouldn’t have celebrated their victory that way. Probably, this is where the real fun in flats lies. The spirit of oneness and the enthusiasm reall...

Signed in to net after a month's gap.!!!!! (Just a month's gap???? It looked to me like a millennium). Saw the Blogger dashboard blinking at me and accusing “You updated me July 29th. Do I still mean the same to you???” Conscious stricken I patted on its shoulder and said the devil is back again. Without net at home and almost 14 hour schedule in office I felt totally disconnected from the outside world for the past 2 months. Now with the usual josh I am hoping to be back again with my non-sense posts. Hope I still have my friends out there to read my posts and comment.

With Harini’s help; here I am to write 5 weird things about me, again !!!! Lemme think how much I could cook up. 1) When I eat spicy food and eyes are red, tears running down, I end up drinking hot water. I somehow feel quite comfortable with that. 2) I can stay without food and water a whole day but can’t keep my mouth shut for long time. I love to talk, talk and talk. Many times it turns out to be non- sense too.. Ahem… 3) My mom hates when I get wet in rain. I really love to see those popping eyes of hers when I get back home wet from head to toe. Though getting wet in rain is something I really love; many a times I have wondered whether I did that just to see my mom getting irritated. Harini; “5” is too huge a count. :-) And to just add up, this is my 100th post. Thanks to all the wonderful friends out there who read and pooled in their comments that encouraged me to keep writing.