Lunch

Date : 31.1.2004

A girl and a boy met on this day at Our Place to have lunch together for the first time of their lives, to decide for themselves if they can have lunch together for the rest of their lives.

Date : 31.1.2016

The girl and the boy , accompanied by their little one, have lunch on this day at Bikanerwala, wondering where so many years have gone by !!!

As expected, I do not have any photos of our first lunch, but I do have for today’s !!

  
  
  
p.s. Here I end the Blogathon, feeling highly satisfied. It was fun, getting to read so many posts, challenging, having to coming up with something every day, stressing, having to post before the clicked 12. There was a time when I was busily drafting and trying to post, while V was waiting for me to leave for the second show movie. Thank God, all the running race is done. Whatever, either I will be getting a treat from the family or I’ll be giving them a treat, on the successful completion 😉

20 second rule and activation energy

Recently, I came across these interesting concepts through here.

As I understand, the concept is quite simple. All it takes is just 20 seconds to make a habit or stop a habit . You just have to decrease or increase  the activation energy needed in this 20 second interval. 

As the author in that referred article quotes, if you want to make playing guitar a habit, keep it out of the closet instead of inside. This job hardly takes 20 seconds, and is going to decrease the activation energy needed and you are most likely to make it a habit . And if you want to stop watching TV after reaching home, take the batteries out of the remote before leaving for work and keep them somewhere far, this job will take you 20 seconds, and this action will increase the activation energy needed and you are most likely to avoid watching TV.

So, now I wanted to try this out and see the results for myself. Couple of months ago, I enjoyed quilling ear rings a lot and bought lots of stuff for the same. But it has been months that I touched that stuff and I really wanted to change it. I knew that my first barrier in quilling is to decide on what’s to be done. So I decided to decrease  the activation energy needed using the 20 second rule. I asked V to browse stuff and select something so that I could make them. He chose one and within no time, I made this and put them on and showed V:

 
With the renewed inspiration, I asked V to select one more and then made this too :

  

And then I gave a pause to this 20 second concept so as not to fail the  blogathon 🙂

More experiments on this can be tried from tomorrow 🙂 

Visvesvaraya Museum

Visvesvaraya Museum is one place, which I feel should be definitely visited, given a chance. I visited this place long long ago, as a kid. But I didn’t  remember much of the place. On our recent trip to Bangalore, we wanted to take A to this place and hoped she would like it. We did take her and as we hoped, we all loved the place. The standards of the museum are quite high, and I was awestruck looking at that stuff. A definitely enjoyed the place, but I don’t think she understood a lot of them. Kids little elder, 10-12 year old ones, would have made the most of it. All those concepts of Physics, which look very vague in terms of definition, looked very simple when explained in practical with things that are used in everyday life. And the best part was that you can try everything hands on…

Some pics from there…

The air craft model  

  
Lock and pen

 
Gears, clock and lots more

 
There were models to explain simple items like lever, fulcrum to complex ones like turbines

Animal power and Windmills

 
There were lot more things which we couldn’t capture in the photographs, we were just lost in the enormity and beauty of that museum.

And then there’s the classic butterfly concept !

  
And we are going to definitely go there once again when A gets little bigger, so that I don’t have to explain all that complex stuff 😉 Why bother ourselves when Visvesvaraya is there ??

I proposed, God disposed :(

Today, I had planned to start for home from work by 5:30, so that I could reach home by 6. Every thing went in accordance till 5:30, which was when I started for home too. Only I didn’t know then that God had other plans for me !

When I reached midway and fiddled with my hand bag to retrieve the phone and make a call, I realised what those other plans were ! For the first time I forgot my phone at work place, and I couldn’t curse myself more. I hurried back to the work place, hoping that I wouldn’t get too late in reaching home and the phone would stay intact. The saving grace was that the phone stayed in tact and I reached home , not too late, by 6:25, as against the planned 6 !!

Now I know why it’s said, “Man proposes, God disposes ” !

It so happened that

On a holiday, that is yesterdayV wanted to cook pulao with Basmati rice…

And so he made this…

  
And it so happened that the quantity of chopped potatoes became too much for the pulao…

So he used the excess ones and made this curry as a side for the pulao…

  
And it so happened that after discarding lots of spinach , there was just little left, too little to make a curry of it, so he made this spinach raita as another side for the pulao…

  
 And it so happened that I got to gorge upon this scrumptious meal for a holiday lunch !

  

Phone Appo-Ippo

15 months ago :

The tasks I used to manage with my phone are :

• Make or receive calls
• Send or receive messages

Now, the tasks I manage with my phone in addition to the previous tasks are :

• Capture photos / videos without depending upon anyone 
• Blog whenever I feel like
• Read and comment on all the wonderful blogs I follow 
• Google up so many questions that A asks for which I have no answers
• Whatsapp with mothers of A’s classmates for homework and other school updates 
• Whatsapp with friends, cousins and relatives 
• Find out what’s going on in the world through FB
• Measure the performance of some tasks at office 
• Make lots of lists, books to read, movies to watch, tasks to be done on weekends, recipes to be tried, websites to be explored 
• Play songs that A asks for 
• Have reminders set up
• Book cabs
• Make and edit photo collages
• Take print outs from the wireless printer 
• Use front camera to put the bindi at office 

There could be some more too, but I can’t recollect more now.

I changed my previous phone into a smart phone, iPhone 5s, with lot of reluctance, and with lot of push from V , around 15 months back, but am glad that I did 🙂

BM’s Tag !

On a Monday evening, am absolutely out of ideas to blog and have been fiddling with the phone for the longest continuous time I ever remember and to add to it, V had been asking every couple of minutes if I had blogged for the day. And then,  I remembered BM’s tag, which looked like my saviour 🙂 

So here are my answers !

What are you wearing? 

Salwar Kameez

How tall are you? 

5′ 4″ (when rounded off )

How much do you weigh? 

Near 60 when I checked last time and it has been a while that I checked

Any tattoos? 

No, am not a fan of them, although I enjoy having those temporary ones . V’s sis keeps sending them from Itsy Bitsy and A enjoys applying them on everyone!

Any piercings? 

Just the ones for ear-rings and I love them a loooooooot

Favourite show?

Friends, all time favourite show, which I can watch for hours together

Something you miss?

Carefree days when I don’t have to think about anyone and plan about anything

Favourite song?

Hmmmm… Hard to point one, most of AR Rahman’s and Ilayaraja ‘s songs are my favourites 

Zodiac sign?

Virgo

Quality you look for in a partner?

Loving, caring, understanding, dependable, now let me stop before V raises his eyebrows looking at the length of the list

Favourite actor?

Aamir Khan

Favourite colour?

Green

Loud music or soft?

Soft

Where do you go when you’re sad?

To sleep

How long does it take you to shower?

Min – 20 min, Max – an hour

How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

Min – an hour, Max – let’s not count that

Ever been in a physical fight?

Not serious ones, but yes, some physical fights with friends at hostel

Turn on?

Good Comedy / Feel Good movies

Turn off?

Arrogance 

Fears?

Lots, very small to very big

Last thing that made you cry?

Cant remember!!!!!

Last time you said you loved someone?

Couple of hours ago, when I wished A good night

Last book you read?

The House that BJ Built, but I was disappointed with this one 😦

The book you’re currently reading?

Wings of Fire

Last person you talked to?

V, he had left a Bounty chocolate near me and asked me to eat a piece and give him another piece, before he went into a conference call. I heard just the first half and finished the whole thing by the time he was back. Can’t help, that’s how I am !!!

The relationship between you and the person you last texted?

Cousin on Whatsapp 

Place you want to visit?

It should have been places, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Jaipur, Pondicherry and so on and on

Do you have a crush? 

They keep changing as I watch movies !

Favourite piece of jewellery?

Ear rings

Last song you sang?

Something in the car on the weekend, now I don’t remember the song 😦 A was quite angry that both V and me were singing and not letting her listen !

Then…Now…

Then :

I never knew what a library looked like, except for the small little one my school had.

Now :

A visited library couple of times and keeps getting books delivered to door step regularly.

Then :

I never knew about authors. All I read apart from the academic books were Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha series, Chandamama etc

Now :

A reads books by different authors, Indian and foreign, and she knows some of the names too.

Then :

I didn’t read a novel until I entered my graduation college, and if I remember correctly, Seventh Secret by Irving Wallace was the first novel I read in my first year.

Now :

A finished couple of novels, by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Jeronimo Stilton and more are on the way.

Then :

I didn’t enter a thing called Book Exhibition until I became an adult.

Now :

A’s school conducts these book exhibitions every year and what’s more, the kids get to walk around, choose their books, and buy them.

Then :

I didn’t know that there exists something called Book Review until I grew quite big. And writing a book review, is something I attempted, only after starting blogging, which started just a couple of years ago.

Now :

A got home a school library book last week, and over the weekend, she attempted a book review with my help, for the Book Review Competition at school.

Times have changed a lot over these years, with respect to books, and they are definitely for the better. I wish the change remains so and the love for books increases more…

Money

There used to be a couple in our apartments, just opposite our flat, and were quite aged, around 70 and 80 I guess. They had 3 sons , all married and had kids and all, but the couple stayed alone here, just the two of them. One son’s family stayed in an apartment nearby, one in Bangalore and one somewhere else. I don’t know the circumstances or reasons behind the arrangement, but the fact was that the couple, where the husband could hardly hear a thing and manage himself, where the wife has to cook, take care of the husband, were all by themselves. There was an instance where the husband slipped and fell down in the balcony and couldn’t get up to go back into home, and where the wife couldn’t lift him up either. We noticed this when we casually entered our balcony and helped them to get back into the home. The sons used to visit them, but occasionally and the visits used to be very brief.

Couple of months ago, the husband passed away and the entire family  came here, stayed for around 2-3 days and went back to their places. They reappeared for the 11th day formalities and went back again. After some days, the wife left too and I came to know that the new arrangement was, the wife would be staying as a tenant in one of the son’s home, she would have to stay alone in the first floor of an independent bungalow. The son’s family would be on the ground floor, the lady on the first floor, and she would have to pay rent every month. I don’t remember what the arrangement was about cooking.

Am a complete outsider and have no right to comment. But I can’t prevent myself thinking how that wife must be feeling, staying alone at this age and paying rent for her own son’s home, after having giving birth to three sons, taking every little care of them and dedicating all her life to them. Had she known the future, would she have given birth to three sons ? Is money more powerful than the human emotions ?

Nandi Hills

Is one of the places that’s talked about by everyone, who lives in or near Bangalore.

So we made use of the chance, on our Bangalore visit, to explore this place. We deviated a little on our return journey and headed to this place and we were glad that we did it. The route was simple and not too steep. We couldn’t make out for the sun rise, but we reached there around half past seven. It was horribly cold and we didn’t let go of our dear jackets even for a second and basked in the little sun wherever it shone.

  
The zig zag map to the destination 

  
The entrance !

  
The place was quite scenic and worth a quick visit for a couple of hours.

  
We had a look at the Tipu Sultan’s summer lodge too, which is not in a great shape though.

  
The temple there was very old, some hundreds of years, but the place had its own tranquility and charm

   
The nursery and the waters…

  Some snaps that I liked most !