Am pleased

To have got four holidays in a row for Diwali last week

That we have chosen the movie ‘Happy New Year’ to take A along with us, the entire family, to get her little acquainted to the filmy duniya outside, as it was such a dumb movie and I didn’t mind answering all her doubts about the movie without focussing much on it !

To have participated in the Diwali Rangoli Contest by IMC

To have received a gift hamper by Borosil for participating in their food blogging contest

To have opted for home delivery option at JustBooks

To have picked up and finished reading The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sunderesan

To be back at reading and writing blog posts after a week long absence from the blogging world !

p.s. The Rangoli we had sent for the contest

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The bar of expectancy is raised

For us with respect to integrity aka social responsibility, not that it has been any low before but just that we tend to relax the rule sometimes, by little A. So here go the two incidents :

Incident # 1

We had been to Ramoji Film City during the Dasara holiday time and as part of my regular habit, researched a lot over the net, printed out some material, inferred that proper planning is essential to cover everything offered and finally used all my so called planning skills to decide that all show timings are to be given priority and watch the shows at every chance you get and fit everything else in between . So there was this show at Fundustan, the kids’ world, scheduled at 11:15, and we were close to the place at that time and as I hurried with A to get into the auditorium or whatever you call, the security lady just closed the barricade, signalling no entry, and went aside. Without giving much thought, I just opened it, entered with A and closed it, which was when the security lady gave an expression of “what are you doing”, but then ignored our act and let us in. We watched the show and saw people entering inside even after 15 minutes of us coming in. The day ended and while I was putting A to sleep was when she questioned me “Amma, why did you open the barricade, we should not be doing it, right ? ” And I felt a moment of pride about her thinking, guilt about my act and assured her that it would not happen again.

Incident # 2

Swachh Bharat campaign has been going on at the apartment and A is very well aware of what it means. V, who was going to drop me and A at a place close by and come back, picked up a lone paper from his sparklingly clean car which had been serviced just the previous day, and dropped it down in the cellar. “Nana, Swachh Bharat” was what we heard immediately from A. V told A that he would pick it up on his return and drop it in the dust bin at home. A agreed and then we went to our destination and till the time we reached home in the afternoon , A asked me couple of times if her father would have picked up the paper and I said yes. We came home, she forgot to check it, and then when she went out in the evening to play and was coming back home, she remembered it, went and checked it, found the paper still lying there, and so picked it up, came home and shouted at her dear father, dropped it in the dust bin and made her father assure that it would not happen again.

So dear V, let’s be more watchful of what we do lest we get a good thrashing from A !

Man proposes, God disposes !

This came true yesterday night when V, the man of my life , proposed for a dinner at Vasudeva Dhaba, a very nice place for authentic north-Indian dishes with no much hype, and I promptly agreed and we headed off. But as the title says, the Supreme had different plans in store, which only were much sweeter as usual !

We went till the restaurant, in front of which we usually park the car at almost all the times and as it seemed too full this time leaving us no place to park, we decided to park it in the lane adjacent to this and we had to go almost till the end of the lane to find a place. We started walking back and mid-way, we spotted a bandi, around which was a lot of buzz with so many people. Curiosity got the better of us and we got to know so much that it was some tiffin centre, only that it’s not a regular one but with some variety. We pondered for less than a minute and decided to give it a try. And we were so so so impressed with this that we want to go back again with the whole family and try each of their dishes !

The entire cooking is done on a small bandi and it offers covered seating at the back with around 6-8 tables, with around 4 seats at each table.

I tried to remember to take a photo of each one before we eat, but the temptation overtook everything and we only took the snaps after a while we dug into them !

We had this cheese dosa which was super yummy !

And then we had Pav Bhaji dosa, which was equally good !

Then came our Butter Fry Masala Idly, which opened up the palate for all the spices !

And then we had Butter Idly, which just melted in the mouth !
.

The Dosas in the making….

Hot Idlis out from the steamer at around 10:15 P.M.

Butter, Cheese, Veggies, my heart goes out for you !

And the menu !

And we saw people being served custom-made dishes , plain dosa / idly, with just cheese, cheese and tomato, chutney dosa , people taking away the parcels, people dropping in even after 10:30 !

If you are in Hyderabad and are anywhere near to this PG road, do give it a try and I bet you won’t be disappointed

Tag Time !

Vidhya tagged me for this interesting challenge and here I go !

The rules are quite simple

1. List your 12 favorite books and
2. 7 wonders about yourself and your reading.
3. Tag other 8 bloggers.

So here is my list :

1. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
2. Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
3. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
4. Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
5. Seventh Secret by Irving Wallace
6. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
8. Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi
9. Monsoon Diary by Shoba Narayan
10. Trojan War
11. Hound of Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
12. Tinkle

The last three are from my childhood and the memories about them are still fresh with me !

7 things ( I don’t think I have got any wonders ) about my reading

1. I tried laying my hands on PG Wodehouse , say something like 10 yrs back, but couldn’t get the hang of it and wish to give another attempt at it sometime soon

2. I tend to pick up books only after I have got a review about it or the author is a known one

3. I like the way the characters stay with me for a long time even after finishing the book, the scenes visualised while reading the book keep playing sporadically in the mind

4. I love reading most sorts, comics, fiction with serious plots, non-fiction as long as it’s not something covering politics, economics et al

5. Am more inclined towards paper-backs rather than e-books, not that am against them. While the latter provides ease and convenience, the former has got a special warmth

6. I get hooked to a book only after completing something around 40-50 pages of it, can’t help it !

7. I rarely read a book for the second time, specially if it’s a fiction one, don’t know why !

Now tagging other bloggers, but most have already been tagged I guess, so if you guys have not done this before, can you please do it now

http://sentisandmentals.wordpress.com

http://zackandme.wordpress.com

http://editionsofgreenboochi.wordpress.com

http://thegalnxtdoor.wordpress.com

http://anisnest.wordpress.com/author/anisnest/

http://memoriesandmirages.wordpress.com

http://summerscript.wordpress.com

https://kismitoffeebar.wordpress.com

Last four days

Have been packed with total action !

Thursday started with SIL getting admitted at the hospital for the arrival of their baby and as my parents, who were planning to take care of my niece during the time she stays in the hospital , were in Bangalore because of the surgery undergone by my father, which is altogether a big different story, I went to the hospital to get my niece to stay with me at my place till the time SIL stays in the hospital. Everyone naturally was very skeptical about how she would be doing without the presence of her mother around. Me, MIL and FIL were on our toes for the two days taking every precaution to let the little one not get reminded of her mother. Fortunately, when we doubted if she would even come with us from the hospital leaving her mother, she came home fine, played well, slept well and returned to the hospital with my brother on Friday afternoon to greet her little sister and go home with my SIL 🙂

Saturday which started calmly with the Report cards day at A’s school turned up a lot spicy within couple of hours. We got A’s ears pierced last week after a long long wait of 6.5 years and as luck would have it, one of the ear rings came off within 3 days when A was at school. With the fear that it might get closed if unattended , MIL used a neem twig for temporary purposes. And as it didn’t sound good to delay any longer, we went to get her gold ear rings on Saturday morning. We did the process of changing the ear rings at the shop and A’s cries reverberated the entire shop. With her cries and resistance and blood trickling out from the tiny holes, V and FIL were grinding their teeth with utmost anger at me and MIL. Finally we got the job done and A calmed down and the gents calmed down. And then we had lunch outside and ended the day with a visit to the new born baby .

Sunday was a routine day finishing off home work , cleaning up stuff and getting geared up for the week ahead.

So how was your weekend ?

Milly Molly Mandy

I can’t recollect how I came across this book but I totally totally loved reading it. I ordered it from the library after reading couple of reviews hoping A would like it and it turned out that both of us enjoyed reading it. There were around 21 stories in the book that I got and each and every one of them was good. Every day I used to look forward to the end of the day when I could read a story to A from the book. The stories revolve around a little girl called Milly Molly Mandy, her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, her friends in the small town they live in, neighbours and all. Little things that excite kids, fun activities, emotions, relations etc have been covered very beautifully. We made sailor girls after reading a story, tried making lid potatoes, talked about loads of things that happened around Milly Molly Mandy and how it would be to try all those things. All in all, I found the book a perfect read for a 5+ year old kid ! And I would be soon reading more books of her 🙂

The thing which took us 6.5 years to do

Was this

Yes, you saw it right and read it right.

We took 6.5 years to get A’s ears pierced and got them done only this Saturday ! We were supposed to be done with this job when she was 9 months old, but missed it as she was unwell with chicken pox. And once we missed the schedule, we tried to let go off every opportunity as we were scared. Yes, you read it right again. We were literally scared of her crying, of the wound it may leave, of the after-effects, of everything. Sometimes I was scared and sometimes it was V. We even took a poll sometimes at the household about who was for it and who was against it and then dropped the job as majority was against it. She grew up, changed schools, relatives kept asking, neighbours kept asking and even A started asking for them ! For the family occasions, we somehow managed with artificial ear rings that can stay put by pressing . And when the pressure mounted, more from A’s side, we finally took the step and got them done by a gun shot at a parlour close to home and it was done in less than 6.5 minutes . Whoa, it was so easy and simple and here we were, who waited so long 🙂

I have become smart now

Not that am any dumb before 😀 Its just that V got me a iPhone 5s, my first smart phone, this weekend, putting away my Nokia c2 01 to rest, and here I enter into the smart world, may be quite late, and here comes my first post from the smart phone.

Thanks V for bringing me into the new world against my reluctance and I hope I like it 🙂 Fingers crossed !