Patience

pays off, sometimes soon, sometimes little late and sometimes very late. But it happens for sure.

My patience levels definitely have been changing for the better over time, a little with parenting A and a little with the experiences and the people that I encounter. One thing I have learnt all along is, the way things can be solved or tackled with patience can never ever be done with frustration or giving up.

I have met quite a few people with loads of patience and MIL being one of them, I patiently aspire to acquire so much of patience, atleast in the years to come, if not immediately. Among the lot more motivating / the formula-enforcing experiences, some are :

The experience of a college senior, who is one of the brightest of the batch, has remained unselected in all the campus interviews till the end, until she was flown by air just for the interview (which was not very common some 14 years back ), and was given an awesome offer 🙂

The experience of a friend who has won laurels with a fat pay check, until all of a sudden had to lose everything and remain even jobless for sometime, waited patiently only to clear the big civil services exam and become the IPS, his dream come true 🙂

The experience of a friend who has patiently waited for her big day of getting married,  got engaged today. Am so happy for her and wish loads of wonderful memories to come along her way 🙂

So all my near and dear ones, patience is one big thing which can take you miles and miles further, though the destination might not be visible at the moment. Just don’t lose hope and keep trying 🙂

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Conglomeration…

When Baguette, Croissant and more come from France
When Garlic bread, Eggplant Parmesan and more come from Italy,
When Roasted vegetables, Pita bread with hummus and more come from Mediterranean,
When Dimsum, Chowmein and more come from China,
When Sushi and more come from Japan,
When Enchiladas, Quesadillas and more come from Mexico
When Biryani, Naan, Pindi Chole, Paneer, Dum Aloo, Dal and more come from India,
When Breads, Cheese, Fruits, and Desserts come from all over the world,
Together at a point with grandeur surroundings,
Complemented by a fine view,
Ready to serve people of different cultures and tastes,
Then it becomes the buffet at Westin….

This is my second visit to this place in a span of 2 months, both the times an official visit. Putting aside the fact that it is priced exorbitantly, the buffet covers a vast variety of dishes with authenticity.

A good place to splurge at, provided you don’t have to pay the bills out of your pocket 🙂

Feelings…

Love

A’s usual routine (around 60 – 70 % of the time ) is to go out and play in the evening for sometime. So, I remind her to go out to play yesterday evening and she says that she doesn’t want to. I leave her for sometime and try agian, but her answer remains the same. She adds to it, “I do not want to go out when Amma is at home. I will go out only when Amma is not at home or is working in the kitchen”

Though I know that it was a very casual statement with no meaning in depth, I kind of love the feeling of love she has expressed. Let’s express the love at every opportunity we can 🙂

Happiness

Over a casual family chit-chat, A realized that the Telugu guninthalu (she is yet to be taught this) had a pattern with the atchulu and applying the simple  pattern is all what is needed to produce them. She slowly applied the technique for each alphabet and with each one, the happiness that glowed on her face and the jumping that she has done with the discovery, was beyond words.
She was very happy that the vast language has suddenly transformed into a small thing that she is getting so close to.

Happiness is in each and every little thing, and each of us came into this world with the awesome quality of smiling and laughing at every small wonder. Let’s revive this magical wand if gone to the bottom 🙂

Power

When putting A to sleep,

A : Amma, we are a little like Gods, right?
Me : No, we are not Gods…
A : I said we are “little” like Gods
Me : No, but why do you think so?
A : Because we too have got some powers like him
Me : What powers do we have, we don’t have any?
A : Yes, anyone who can do things has got power and we can do lots of things, walk, run, do various kinds of stuff
Me : Hmmm, yes 🙂

I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the little one and wonder how powerful each one of is but how little of the enormous power inside us is being realized. Let’s rediscover the power in us 🙂

Boredom

Watched Madras Cafe over the weekend, felt some part of the movie was more like a documentary and could have been better. Didn’t feel the movie was great or sort of thing, except for the gain of some general knowledge.

Leisure

Also read Grandmother’s Tale by R.K.Narayan, the book was more of a narration of the past. Takes the reader back to the olden days depicting the lifestyle and customs and practices followed then. Simple writing that describes lucidly how his great grandmother searches for her lost husband and how their lives change there after. Perfect for a leisure read.

Recharged

Went with the whole family to my parents’ place, was meeting them after a pretty long time and came back recharged.

Here I am, all ready welcoming the new week!

Hope everyone is embracing the new week with loads of positive feelings 🙂

Grrrrr!

A’s school gates are closed at 7:55 A.M. And I have to be at office by 9:30 A.M.

A gets ready almost an hour late and a panicking me and V  take her to the school, plead with the teacher for more than  15 min to let her in,  and finally succeed in doing so. We get out of the school to reach office in time, reminding myself that my Product Director from UK is here and I need to be at work on time to save any embarassment. V usually drops me near my workplace before he proceeds to his own, but we go to the shop near school to get some things which we wanted to get earlier. And then I realize that we had forgotten some things at home and head back to collect them. After some time, V changes his mind to stay back at home and asks me to carry on. I get out to catch an auto  and see that it’s already 10 and my mind is now filled with thougts about the meeting to be attended at 11, the Product Director to be faced, the huge traffic that’s going to make me reach office not before 11:30. V comes out of home and hands me a cover full of soda bottles to take to office. I do an act which is little more than walking and a little less than running, wondering when I would reach office and how am going to face the Product Director…

This was how I got up from sleep yesterday morning after a dream full of running and rushing. Wonder what those odd things mean, like the untimely shopping, the soda stuff and all 😉

But Thank God, none of this happened and dear V is managing to drop me on time 🙂

Blessing…

Having a family that takes care of you is a blessing…
Having near and dear ones to shower your love upon is a blessing…
Having friends to share a laugh, grief, to rely upon is a blessing…
Having good health, an education, a shelter, freedom to walk around without any fear are blessings…

These along with many more things, which we take for granted are blessings that go unappreciated. Dear God, I thank you for all the blessings bestowed and give me the wisdom to appreciate all the wonderful things around me.

Realizations that dawned upon me after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, a wonderful book depicting the lives before, during and after war in Afghanistan.

You know it’s a Monday morning …

-when we get up little late than the usual week days and still feel that we haven’t slept enough
– when A declares that she doesn’t like Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursday and Fridays and likes only Saturdays and Sundays
– when I question myself if pursuing a career is really mandatory
– when V makes calculations of when the next holiday is going to be

Ah,  this was how today’s morning was after 4 days of lazing around at home. We took the Friday off and this gave us 4 full days to sit back and relax!

Day 1 – After a quick but awesome dinner at Papa John’s with V, we watched Chennai Express. The comedy part was too good and Deepika was at her usual best

Day 2 – A brief visit to my cousin’s place where A had a big gala time with all the kids there!

Day 3 – A chota sa visit to the library and simple sa dinner at Vasudeva dhaba

Day 4 – Rest rest and more rest  !

How else is a Monday morning going to be after so much of rest 🙂

Idhar udhar ka updates…

Rocket propulsion
Dentistry and  surgery
Anaesthetic
Synthesized by
And the list goes on….
These are the words that flowed out of A’s mouth at random intervals during the last week 🙂 This was the outcome of preparation at school for A to talk at the school assembly about Laughing gas…

Sangeetham nuvvaithe sahityam nenoutha..
Darling ee osi naa darling ee…
Seethamma vakitlo sirimalle chettu…
Chal akela chal akela…
Songs that are constantly hummed by A these days:-)

At the main temple at Srisailam,
A : Why are the boys not wearing clothes?
Me : The pundit has asked the boys to remove shirts before entering..
A : So what should the girls remove?
Me : Nothing 🙂

Today, A came along with us to the library and selected a curious george book to take home. She wanted to select more books but since the plan was a limited one, I suggested her to read some other books while we select the books for adults. I picked up Eric Carle’s “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” for her to read there. She was done with the book in less than 10 min, and on the way back home I asked her how the book was. She said it was good and asked if I wanted to hear. She quickly repeated a good number of lines from it and I was pleasantly surprised. Though the book is of simple, catchy lines, the mother’s heart swelled with pride at that moment 🙂

Five on Three!

The travel that took the five of us (In-laws, V, me and A) on a 3-day trip to Srisailam over the long weekend goes as :

The Road
from Hyderabad to Srisailam is quite good and the greenery must have been on a high just after the monsoons. The drive takes you through Nallamala forests which is quite scenic. The forest stretch is not open for travel between 9 PM and 6 AM. V and FIL took turns in driving and the ladies relaxed at the back. It took us around 5 hrs to reach there with a break for the breakfast that we carried along, and a break for view of the dam. The only drawback I felt was there are not much eateries enroute which forces you to carry your own food.

The Accommodation
at Haritha is a decent one. The reviews over the Internet made me go there with very low expectations but on the contrary, I felt them good enough though not great. The place is totally packed at times like the long weekend and an advance booking is always helpful.

Places we visited
are the Sri Mallikharjuna Swamy and Bramarambha Devi temple, Shikaram point, Pala dhara and Pancha dhara, Sakshi Ganapathi temple and the rope way cum boating. All these are pretty close to each other.

All in all, a wonderful trip for the weekend 🙂

How it all happened was….

Mix veg salad, lemon and onion went into a corner,
Papad and beet root came next and followed suit,
Dhokla came along with red chutney, green chutney and mirchi and took up another corner,
Veg rolls were followed by bhati and hara moong pakodi chaat,
Kadi, sweet dal, palak paneer, alu mutter, kashmiri karela and mix vegetable lined up neatly,
Jalebi topped by rabdi and kesar kurmani sat aside,
Pulka, thepla, jowar roti topped with ghee and complimented by gud took the centre place,
Pudina buttermilk took another quiet corner,
Moong kichdi came atlast,
Pulao and Curd rice were not given a chance as it had already reached full occupancy, maybe some other time…

That was how our thalis overflowed with authentic Rajasthani dishes yesterday afternoon at De Thali. The visit to this place was the outcome of an impromptu leave by V and me 🙂

A little of everything !

Go with the tide

Every nook and corner of the city has been buzzing with a single word from last couple of weeks, SALE!  Every store I pass by, I have been seeing people coming out loaded with shopping bags.  Sensing that there must be atleast something that we can take advantage of, we decided to give it a try this weekend.
Hooray, there was really some good stuff and A found a loot at Chermas and I found a loot at ShoppersStop, at which I usually find nothing for myself at the price range I find acceptable. But this time, got some nice kurtis, leggings and a dress material. Poor V could not find much for himself except for a T-shirt.
Totally totally satisfied with the shopping done this weekend 🙂

Repeat Repeat

Same time, 10+ yrs ago :

Bands, treats, greetings, exchanges and such formed our Friendship Day at college. It was so much fun running around hostel rooms, bands in hand to tie and with tied bands on wrist. And then this was followed by a movie and a dinner outside. I really treasure these memories and the friends I made over all these years are a big big strength for me, you all mean so much to me!

Now, this Sunday :

The apartment where we stay was coloured up with kids carrying bags filled with bands and rings. A too had her share in this with a bag of bands. Loved watching her run around and counting the bands 🙂 Dear A, I wish you to have loads and loads of friends to make your world more and more beautiful.

Happy Friendship Day to all my wonderful friends!

The Bond :

V and me take A out, move around couple of shops, struggle a bit with the heavy traffic, try lots of dresses, get some tops, leggings, frock, goggles, clips and all for A and then come back home. Quite exhausted, but satisfied that we could get some decent stuff for lil A.

Couple of hours later, FIL finishes off some work outside and comes home with bangles and a ring for A.
A’s instant reaction on looking at them was “Thatha is very good”.
While am wondering where all my effort has vanished, she tries to soothe me saying, “If you all had been like Thatha, even you will be good ”

Now you can imagine how small my face would have become on hearing this and how big Thatha’s face would have become?

Gyaan for me :

MIL was narrating for me the conversation she had with A couple of days back,

A : I ate half egg at school today ( with a kind of worried face)
MIL : So?
A : Does that mean the chicken that is supposed to come out of it has gone into my stomach?
MIL : No, there are different kinds of eggs, some which do not have anything inside it and some that can turn into chicken. We eat the first type.
A : So, how do we know of what type the egg is?
MIL : We cannot tell that but the shopkeeper has got more knowledge on this and he knows the details.

A satisfied A goes back to her work.

Upon listening to this, I ask MIL if this was a story to calm down her questions and only then, I was bestowed upon with the gyan that this is actually a reality. Till date, I have been under the false impression that all eggs can turn into chicken. Geesh, thank God, A doesn’t know that I am so ignorant 😛

This is the gist of my weekend 🙂