YES!

At last! After what seems like an eternity, though "only" quarter of an year, the passport stamped with my precious Swiss visa arrived today. I did nt even have a minute to relish the moment or breathe a sigh of relief. A million things to do and my brain is cramped with a billion details. I remembered to cancel the phone and internet. So it will be gone tomorrow. I am leaving for Zurich the day after. My next post will be from Zurich, folks! Dont know when though. I ll be singing all the Bollywood and Kollywood hero-heroine reunion songs and if I get time in between them, will keep you posted! ;)

All I can think about is how the father-daughter reunion is going to be! :)

ps.
Wish me luck for a smooth flight. Im having nightmares thinking about it.

Tolet.

For the past 5 years, whenever we went abroad we never had the time to look for a tenant for our flat. There were lots of issues too. It will be partly furnished, one bedroom will be locked with our stuff, we ll never know when we ll be coming back, etc... But this time we made up our minds to let it out and Hd gave an ad in his office. This was in Oct. No one approached. I was happy that I don't have to clean the house and arrange things. Then my visa got delayed, so we forgot about the ad. But this sneaky hubby of mine re posted the ad 2 weeks back. An what do you know? I got 18 calls the first day and 5 visitors too! The first guy who came home liked the place and was ready to pay a token advance. I told him No problem, I ll confirm by evening. The second guy who came to see the flat is the reason for this post. He really really liked the flat and this would be a convenient location for him as well. But I told him that a person has already seen it and I have told him that he can take the place. But he would nt let it go. He started giving me a lengthy speech on why I should let my flat to him. I told him that I ve almost taken an advance from the prev guy and if that guy backs out, I ll consider him. But he started waving his wallet at me and asking how much was the token advance. I told him that my husband is still sleeping since its early morning for him in Swiss and will give him a call later. He left the house after 25 mins. And an hour later, Hd calls up and tells me that this guy has sent a long mail to Hd asking him to let the flat to him! I got really annoyed. Then I was taking more calls and telling people that the flat is not available any more. This annoying guy calls me thrice more to ask me if I have decided. I tell him that I cant say No to the first guy as I have no reason to. He tells me that Im the decision maker and I should choose him! Oh My God! Get a life, dude!

By evening, first guy comes home again and we seal the deal. 3 more people come to see the flat and go back disappointed. None stayed more then 5 mins, for your kind information! Then at 9 pm, I call the annoying guy and say that the first guy came home and we sealed the deal.( Because I told him I ll call him back and not to call me anymore in the evening.) Again, he gives a long lecture on why I should have chosen him. I say Im sorry but I had told the first guy that he was the first guy and I had no reason to refuse him. Again he reminds me that Im the decision maker and I could ve decided on himself. I tell him that I gave the first guy my word and I had to keep it. For this, my dear readers, he has the gall to tell me, "But no one is going to give you an award for that madam!" I said, “But it means a lot to me” and hung up. I am so glad that this fella did nt come home first. Some people!

ps.
And if you did nt know it already from this blog, I hate to say No and get really uncomfortable and all panicky in situations where I have to disappoint people! But hurting people I love, that I can do with a flourish!Yeah, thats me! ;)

????

Today is marked in history, as the questions have begun! Only after the incident, I realized the absence of it. Later in her life when Ashu is asked by someone, "So when did you start asking so many questions", she scan promptly say January 23rd, 2007 and she will be absolutely right! Thats right! My baby girl asked me a question today for the first time.

She has repeated Qs before, like when I say "This is a Doggy", she ll ask me "Doggy ya?" (Is this a Doggie?)
This is a Cat with Cat aa?
Thats a Moon with Moon aa?
This is an Apple with Apple aa?
This is your Daddy with Are you sure? Ok just kidding! But you get the point. Today madam climbs on the chair, then on to the dining table and picks up a water bottle and asks me "Juice aa Ma?" (Is this juice, my beloved mother?) And I said "No, thats water". And she asks "Water aa?" And I was like "Oh God! Did you just ask me an original question? Wow!" And she echos "Wow!" You can say that again, Princess! Wow indeed!

ps.
For those of you who expected some question like that cute boy asks in the KBC Ad, go watch commercials in the Pogo TV channel and stop reading silly mommy blogs.

Five point me!

There are a million things I have not written about myself in this blog or anywhere else for that matter. They are either very personal or very embarassing or involves someone else. Some stuff, I planned to write in my later posts. A little at a time, you see! Anyway, now I have to think about five of them and list them here thanks to our friendly Witch. Any reason to talk about oneself. Here I go...

1. I have the mother of all inferiority complex.
--> Oh! She writes so beautifully! I am nothing compared to her.

--> Oh God! She has taught her one year old the alphabets? I am a bad mother.

--> Wow! She has kept such a beautiful home! I am a horrible house keeper!.

2. I am L.A.Z.Y.
--> I dont step out of the house for days together.

--> I have NEVER cooked anything for myself. I eat toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and toasted sandwich for dinner when I am alone.

--> I call up the corner store and order bread to be home delivered.

3. I hate it when I know I am right and the other person is wrong but I cant do anything to prove it. I absolutely hate such situations. I come home and shout at HD, call my sister and complain and even write about it in my blog. I just cant let go. Logics like "You know you are right! Why do you want acceptance from near strangers?" dont make sense to me.
For the record,

--> Alex Haley won a PULITZER award for Roots. Not a Nobel prize for literature. If HD's Ex Boss's Wife is reading this, please be a bigger person and accept that you were wrong and I was right. FYI, this happened 5 years ago in Lake District, UK when we went on a trip together.

--> Big Five means Lion, elephant, Leopard, Rhino and... BUFFALO. Not Giraffe. Dont argue with a person who had spent a fortune on an African safari and had just returned. Especially to a friends friend. Especially when we are never going to meet again. It kills me!

--> Tiramisu has alcohol in it. Yes, even if YOU carefully selected the best from the store and served it for dessert. Even if it has nt got any, when a pregnant woman says she does nt want it, let it go.

4. One blog related thing about me. I take loads of time to write a post. Then I save it as a draft. Few hours or even few days later, I read it again and decide if I want to click publish or not. But I have only 2 posts in draft right now. I wrote them almost 8 months back. So chances are that they ll never see day light! Also, I take too much time for my own good to leave comments as well. Should I or should nt I? I hate myself! * Took me 2 weeks to click publish for this post. *

5. Ihadanimaginaryboyfriendwheniwas17andIledallmyclosefriendsbelievethathewasreal. Heevenwroteletterstomeandsentcards!

There! I am done.

ps.
If you have decoded the fifth point, keep it to yourself. And the comments too.

Bigger, better & older Boo.

I don't think Big Boo wants to remember this birthday. I mean I would nt want to too if I were that old! ;) But luckily, I ll always be younger than her. Oh, come on Sis. You are moping anyway. One mean post is nt going to hurt you any more!

But in case you were expecting something special, how about this? You have one more girl looking up to you now. Happy Birthday, Sis! You are loved by everyone but loved the most a lot (Happy now, Jeeju?!) by me. And our little girl.

பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்!

Here's to more comments.

It came to our attention at Boo's through a source that this week is National Delurking Week. We are not able to confirm the same though. Might be a rumour. But we like the general idea. So if you are a reader who does nt leave comments, its time we introduce you to someone. Lurker, meet Key Board! Move that hand from the Mouse for a teeny-weeny while and t.y.p.e. a comment. Thanks in advance.

Off I go to delurk. It would take me all night since I lurk around umpteen food blogs regularly though I have nt cooked in months. Tonnes of Mommy blogs that I tend to forget my own childs name sometimes. Dozens of crappy blogs I hate and can't keep away from. Loads of popular blogs where I am too shy to leave a comment. Come to think of it, I should probably link them all in my blog and leave it at that. On National linking day, perhaps! ;)

ps. If you did nt know it already, Im a sucker for comments. So people who do leave comments on my blog can join in the fun too! :)

Playing in the park.

Yesterday my father-in-law came to visit. As soon as he entered the door, Ashu ran up to him and showed her right hand and said "Uvva". She had a mosquito bite in one of her fingers. Such a diva, this one! In the evening we went to a park and Ashu had fun with her grandpa. There should be a ban on Balloon salesmen entering parks. All the children went crazy as soon as they heard that squeaking sound he does with the balloons. Ashu needs no pied piper, she followed the balloon-wala all through the park. The suckers that the grandpas are, FIL decided to buy a balloon for Ashu. I did nt want him to. Firstly, they were those HUGE pillar like 5 feet balloons. We cant even take it in the car back home. Secondly, all the other kids would feel bad and the parents would curse me! Just like that time when I was 20 and was traveling alone in a train and opened up a can of coke. The 3 year old boy sitting next to me started crying his lungs out and demanded a coke from his mother. What am I to do? I had only one can. The train was moving, so could nt buy another one even if I wanted to. I drank each sip with guilt and thats the last time I did something like that. Anyway, back to the park. But of course FIL did nt listen to me and bought Ashu the balloon. And guess what? Ashu would nt even take it, said nahnah and kept following the balloon-wala. HA! Now try to buy the balloon-wala Appa, I told my FIL. He would have if he was my father! (That story for a later post!) Thankfully, Ashu got distracted after a while and started playing with the balloon. For a few minutes. Then I had to carry that stupid balloon rest of the time. We went to a temple later and Ashu would nt leave the sannadhis. Each time, we had to drag her to the next. She was fascinated by the huge idols. Since they were hardly a few people in the temple, we had our hearts content looking at the Swami. The Alankaram(decoration) was awesome. (Whats the right word for "Lakshanam"?) FIL had to leave the same night. Ashu did nt like that one bit. And yes, the big balloon burst even before we came home.

As if I don't have enough pressure to potty train...

Lot of people seem to land in my blog while searching for "pampers imported diapers in india" in Google. The thing is for the past 3 months we are nt getting the imported Pampers diapers in Bangalore. Or in a few places in Chennai where I checked when I was there in November. Even Life Style in Bangalore stopped stocking. All the pharmacies which had loads of stock in October ran out in November. After visiting 10 shops and calling up lots of places, I gathered that theres some ban on imported Pampers and no one has stock. So I bought the locally made Huggies. It will be an understatement if I tell you that its bad. The quality is bad, the packing is bad, it does nt fit right, leaks all the time, bigger sizes are nt available and they are absolutely useless for overnight use. So I guarded the one pack of Pampers I had and used them only in the nights. Used Huggies or the locally made Pampers in the day. Then I was able to buy one more pack of Pampers 2 weeks back. Got hold of some Imported Huggies which are very good but I did nt get the correct size. Thankfully Ashu was ok with all these changes and did nt develop rashes like the last time she did when I used Huggies briefly.

Anyway, I think the reason for the unavailablity of Pampers is that they are promoting the locally made Pampers in a big way and since the price is almost the same, no sensible parent is going to buy the local pampers if the imported ones are available. And thats why the mysterious ban. My question to Pampers is "Then why the appalling quality?" Do we look stupid to you? Either sell the local Pampers dirt cheap and make the imported ones available too for people who can afford it. Or match the quality. Its time manufacturers understand that there is a new category of consumer mothers now who dont care about the money when it comes to providing good quality products for their children. Do you see me complaining about the non availablity of good quality panty liners in my blog? Or that I would really love to get some imported Always sanitary napkins? So for poop sake, please sell us the diapers we want.

Party Girl.

We went to a party today. My neighbors daughters first birthday party. I had not invited them for Ashus birthday though! Me bad! Since we were bored anyway, bought quite an expensive gift because of the guilt and went to the Venue. The invite said 6.30 and we were there at 6.45 pm. The hosts came 5 minutes after us! Ashu had loads of fun running around the hall decorated with balloons. Then the guests started arriving and there were lots of kids so Ashu mingled! My mom and I were getting really hungry and impatient as we thought we can be home at least by 8.30 pm, the time Ashu goes to sleep usually. But the cake was cut only at 8.15 and dinner was served at 8.30. My mom and I took turns and ate and then another neighbor of mine said she ll give us a lift home. But there was an unexpected delay - Ashu would nt leave. She did nt want to come home. She said NO when I asked her to come with me. This was new. She stood on the stage and was picking those colorful thermocol balls from the floor and arranging them on a table with another little girl. I gave her a few minutes but madam was nt budging. I pleaded her(I beg you Ashu!), demander her(Ashu! NOW!), bribed her(I ll read you the ABC book how many ever times you want after we go home!), lied to her(We ll go home, drink milk and come back here.) but nothing worked. So I picked her up and walked out. She was crying the whole time. Then while we were standing on the sidewalk waiting for the car, she climbed the stairs and went back inside the hotel and was trying to open the door of the party hall. I picked her up again, sang some songs to soothe her and bundled her inside the car. Thankfully she was alright in a few minutes as there was another little girl with us in the car. But she had a long face when we entered home. She drank her milk and went to sleep even before I finished saying Good night. May be it was the sleep + hunger which made her cranky. I don't know. While changing her diaper, I told her I ll take her to a party everyday or throw one for her everyday if I can help it. She gave me a look. I don't know what it meant. I sure wish I can give her everything she wants but there will always be occasions when I will make her unhappy. I just hope there are nt too many of them. For this reason, I wish she grows up fast. At least to understand that when we leave some place, it is to go home. However boring it is, its still our home.

Sappy me!

Whenever HD is away from me, I discover some new song and repeat it to death. Much to my Mom's annoyance. I don't know if the songs are more touching because I miss HD or the other way around. 5 1/2 years back it was Vaseegara from Minnale. We were in our first year of marriage and it was our first separation. Understandable. After hearing the song around 300 times a week, I quit my job and joined HD in London. Then 3 years back when HD left for Swiss, I had my German lessons left for another month. So stayed in Bangalore alone most of the time. It was Uyirin Uyirae from Kaakha Kaakha this time. And sometimes Kalaaba Kaadhalaa too from the same movie. But Uyirin Uyirae had the pain(!) I identified with. And this time, though this is the longest separation yet, I did nt really miss him as much as I did the previous times. Because of Ashu. I just did nt have the time. That is until I heard this song. Urugudhae from Veyil. Oh. My. God. What lyrics! What singing! From this moment, Shankar Mahadevan is going to be my most favorite singer. Without a doubt. He has been my favorite for a few years now but I used to waver when I heard some fantastic singing by Hariharan, Kaykay, Sonu Nigam, etc... But not any more. Just Wow!

I miss you, R. I cant wait to hear this song with you. Holding hands together, closing our eyes and lying on the bed and wishing that special moment never ended. Just promise me you won't fall asleep in the middle of the song like you did last time! And we both know how that moment ended, dont we?! ;)

ps. I have the lyrics of the song here in my Tamil Blog.