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April 27, 2020

27.04.2020

Dearest Ashu,

Yet another year gone by and you turn 15 today amidst interesting times. The last 6 weeks of being cooped up together in our house with the four of us with just a break here and there and we both have nt attempted to murder each other. As yet. I am so proud of both of us. Not just for these past weeks but the whole last year where I finally feel we have grown up in our tumultuous relationship. You are showing much maturity and I think Im inching towards being patient. A big phew and all that! That does nt mean you are nice or anything. You are the reputed snark queen in the house and sarcasm could be the lowest form of wit but its your choice of weapon to wield! Oh and how you wield it! I used to get so annoyed with your utter lack of respect and my oft repeated mantra "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything!" fell to deaf ears. But later I realized that a snarky, sarcastic Teen who is at least talking is better than one who keeps to herself and never shares anything! So bring it on, Girl! After all, you learnt from the best and I can give it back as good as I get it!  Challenge accepted! 


You are very creative and have such clever hands. Be it playing the violin or plaiting your hair or your sisters. Playing Table tennis and winning medals in school tournaments or baking and decorating delicious and stunning cakes. Solving rubic cubes or drawing and sketching. Setting up elaborate projects on domino effect or making and editing ultra cool videos. You are a true star! Your talent astounds me and the amount of hard work and dedication and creativity you show at this age makes me feel like I was a total Buffoon when I was your age. And if my ego would allow me to say it, I still feel like one! You still have nt met a book you did nt like and listen to music all the time! Billie Eilish is your current Queen and your devotion to her is up there with JK Rowling and that's saying something! Keep reading and keep yourself surrounded with music and do something creative every day of your life!


My second best moment of the past year would be our girls trip to Berlin back in October.  I had always wanted to go on a trip with just us three girls and decided it was high time for me to adult and we flew to Berlin for 4 days. To put it mildly, I was terrified! But we had such fun and you were so responsible and were so happy and had such a good time that we were planning another trip even before we landed back in Basel. Which has nt happened yet and seeing how the world is going right now, it might not happen again in a long, long time but we will always have Berlin, won't we? And in December, we 4 went to the Andalusian region of Spain and we had a fantastic 8 days in Seville, Malaga, Granada and Cordoba. You were in love with the choice of food there especially the churros and chocolate combo and wanted so badly to extend the trip. We walked close to 100 kms in those 8 days and had an amazing time sight seeing. Even if we are quarantined for eternity, I could look back at all our family vacations and be content knowing how we have such a wonderful travel history. Especially you at this young age.  Always remember that you have been gifted with this privilege and please pay it forward in any way you can.


Now onto my most favorite heart melting moment of you at Age 14! A little history first. So its a known fact that I love Harry Potter. And I have a love/hate relationship with a certain Mr. Snape. Both you and Antu cannot for the lives of you understand why I adore him one moment and call him a selfish B@$T@&D, the next second. And having watched the movies like 17 times with Alan Rickman portraying Snape as if he was born to do the role does not help my case one bit. And I am ALWAYS, ALWAYS (Get it?) attracted to these kind of grey roles. Good is boring. Bad is terrible. But the ones in between are just right and delicious to devour in fiction. I love to analzyse these characters to death. And there's one scene in the 7th movie which is my favorite scene in the entire HP franchise: the back profile of Snape against a huge window. I love that scene and the framing and keep telling you all that I would love to own a poster of this frame whenever we watch the movie.(which is a lot!) Its just such a melancholic and breathtaking scene even without a single dialogue. So what do I see when I open my birthday present from you this year? A handmade notebook with a cover of the above said scene. WHICH YOU HAND PAINTED! I cried. I ugly cried. I cannot begin to describe the emotions I went through when I saw your thoughtful gift. All I will say is, I love you Pattu. Have a wonderful 15th Birthday. Stay blessed. Always.

Love,
அம்மா. 
The gift.

April 13, 2020

Life in times of Corona aka Life goes on...

Exactly one month ago, on my birthday, the lockdown began in Swiss. Hd had a dinner date planned for me and we were wondering whether to go or not. Ashu who loves any chance to get the adults of the house insisted that we go. "Could be the last time", the ever morbid teen prophesied. And I am glad we did! At least I ll remember fondly my last romantic meal in an Italian restaurant when I am dying on a overdose of Rasam and Rice with a side of kids whining and not to mention Hds annoying zoom calls!

The first week was a breeze. The kids were happy with no school. Hd was working from home and relaxed. I was cooking and cleaning and generally grateful for life. The second week was a bit crazy. The kids got school work and were stressed. Hd was putting out too many fires at the same time at work and I was cooking and cleaning and slightly grateful for life. The third week was painful. The kids were spending too much time on screen and fighting like dogs! Hd was using too many coffee mugs to my annoyance and I was cooking and cleaning and cursing my life. I planned to set up a hunger games sort of thing for the fourth week to see who would come out of it alive but I did nt want the prophecy of the resident teen to come true because obviously she would come out on top because she has been  planning our murders for far too long! So I resigned to my fate and cooked and cleaned and screamed and yelled and all was back to normal. Amazing how we get used to things given enough time, huh? 

Hd and I go out for a walk almost every day. One of us go out to do groceries twice a week. We get almost everything. We are safe and healthy and relatively happy and still it feels like we are in a limbo. I stopped reading news except once a day. Not reading or clicking on any forwards unless and until a certain stubborn sibling calls up and yells at me to see it because I will like it! (I did nt!) I am reading like crazy. (Questionable content though! Don't ask!) I finished a 12 week coursera course I began in Jan as a new year resolution and am very proud of it. Began another short course three weeks back. I am so thankful for technology and all my privilege but still it does nt stop me from yelling at Hd when he comes back with Avocados from the grocery store. Current gen dudes are useless in the face of apocalypse or what? In his defense, it was on sale it seems! Like I said, we are doomed!

Jokes aside, I hope you and your loved ones are safe. I hope the totem stops spinning soon! (The kids are nt the only ones with too much screen time!)


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