On turning 30


So 30..yeah.

I have never thought 30 is a big deal and I won’t let marketing and media get to me. I never had a 30 by 30 list (but then I found myself nodding my head vigorously at this list) and I am not going to the store to buy my first anti wrinkle cream.

The last five years have been pretty exciting. This is my 5th birthday after marriage and out of these 5 I have spent 4 outside India (1 in Singapore and 3 here in Edinburgh).

So 30…yeah!

I know I am supposed to feel older and mature and wise (!) But in my head I still feel about 15. Who doesn’t?

Kiddo has made the largest impact on my maturity levels, if any. After you have a child your priorities are forced to change. Quite ironically, he has brought out the child like qualities inside me yet has managed to turn me into a responsible adult. Life has literally changed after him. The fact that I can cook a decent meal says a lot about my change and those who know me well will agree. I have also in fact, developed quite a liking for eating food and trying out new dishes. The credit for this goes to the Saint and it is going to be his fault if I turn fat. Now can you see how I tend to digress to the topic of food?? 🙂

Anyway, so yeah…30!

The Saint and kiddo have baked me a cake! No help from me. They even searched for this recipe on the net and didn’t use any of mine.

 

No big surprises and no extraordinary celebration to mark this supposedly important landmark. I believe that is good. 🙂

Why my husband is a saint


Early morning conversations:
Me: God! I can’t believe I will turn 30 by this weekend! 😦 : *almost about to sob* I feel so old already. 😦

Saint: Don’t worry dear. Old is gold.

Me: What gold?! I feel like an old hag.

Saint: More like old wine dear…or whiskey, best when aged!

Me, books and makeup


It was almost four years ago that my husband skilfully managed to make me watch another of Meryl Streep‘s movie to convince me of her great acting talents and this time he tricked me into it saying that there’s a character in it that’s just like me.

I was hooked.

The film was Devil Wears Prada and the character he was referring to was Andrea Sachs played by Anne Hathaway! I was very excited to watch this cute and hard-working girl until I found out that she was the target of much ridicule for her dressing sense and style. So that’s how my husband saw me – a girl with no sense of style.

I found a sad little corner of the house and secretly licked my wounds. Instead of frantically getting a makeover and taking a crash course in make-up, I adamantly stuck to my style – whatever that was.

Then we travelled to Edinburgh with a one year old in tow. Dressing and makeup were replaced with diapers and baby food. Having my hair in one place and no drool on my face was the best makeup. Living in perhaps the most beautiful city in UK and being surrounded by beautiful women did no good to my ego. Even the old ladies wore pearl necklaces for a walk in the gardens!!

Wait, I have a point and I will come to it. Perhaps!

Summer’s here or it is supposed to be here and am eagerly waiting for the Edinburgh International Book festival to start next month. I am attending a couple of events and I don’t want to be Andrea Sachs with the blue sweater.

Beauty tips anyone?

Unofficial emergency – the Cold war


We have a dire situation at home. Hubby has got common cold. In such situations, I am a witness to gory sights which I have never witnessed before.

When hubby catches common cold, the situation is alarming and it usually results in undertaking extreme and desperate measures to control the awful (!) illness.

The mucus turns into solidified rocks which blocks the two openings of the volcanic mucus mountain. Frantic measure are then undertaken to make this mountain erupt.

I try to take a deep breath and will myself to be calm. Perhaps I am being insensitive and I do not understand the gravity of the situation. I just think he has got cold. In situations when he catches the cold, the otherwise calm, resilient and macho Buddha turns into a touchy, vulnerable, noisy stranger.

Every few hours or is it minutes? the stranger sniffs, growls, uses swear words and cries mummy. Literally. He has long given up on tissues and handkerchiefs and is now using the fleece baby blankets that I had got 2 years back for my son.

This is a disaster of epic proportions, mind you. The invincible macho-man, Saint, as I usually prefer calling him has turned into a giant-cry-baby.

And this is not the worst part of the situation. The worst part is I am not supposed to laugh at the comical drama that is unfolding.

Alternatively, medicines, Ayurvedic and antibiotics, home-made soups, steam, vicks, sleep and phone calls to mumma dearest will help him traverse the rocky lava journey.

PS: On reading this post I am not sure who will fire me the most…hubby or FIL. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help posting it.

The Cinema Experience


The Yogi Bear Show
Image via Wikipedia

We took Shantanu, who by the way is turning more into a brat by the day, to watch a movie last weekend. The multiplexes here air kiddie movies every Saturday morning. We decided it was time to introduce the little punk to the theatre. Movie listings were checked, the brat was shown a couple of movie trailers just to check his liking.  We finally decides on Yogi Bear after Cars and Kung Fu Panda. He seemed excited enough although it was me and hubby who were more eager to go and watch a movie, any movie in a theatre after more than a year. The excitement of going for a movie doesn’t end na? I have always felt eager and excited to watch a movie in theatre – the tickets, popcorn, pepsi-coke  – it is so reviving.

All set, the next day saw us at the theatre half an hour before the movie time. He watched the ads before the movie with deep concentration and I was starting to feel relaxed that he might sit still during the movie ahead.

But…

He was all attention when the Bear was on the screen and started crying as soon as it was out of scene. After a lot of cajoling and coaxing, hubby took him out and got a big cone of popcorn 🙂

Alas the movie was one smooth ride after that. We even waited till the closing credits rolled out!! Pizzas and chocolate drinks followed and he was one happy kid by afternoon.

Shantanu and I also had our very first Bowling experience. With all our travelling, he is turning out to be a very outgoing person.

No wonder hubby wants to send him in to Travel and Living! 🙂

 

All is well


This blog is not dead and I am alive and kicking. The lack of posting is due to a bad attach of virus, on me, not the computer silly. But I am up again now and will be posting up more delightful details about my christmas and new year’s trip. The house is in a mess given my ill-health and now am nursing hubby and son back to health. Yea, they caught the flu too.

So pray for us. Many thanks.

PS: Happy new year to you all!

Am running out of titles here!


Shantanu has another trick up his sleeve lately. Every time he kicks me or his dadda, or knocks us down with his head or slaps us, he will very sweetly come up to us while we are moaning in pain and kiss us. Then he makes those dove like eyes and smiles coyly just to add a touching effect. Seriously, from where do kids learn all these tactics is completely beyond me.

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Me and hubby were watching this programme “16 and Pregnant” last night. It follows the stories of pregnant teenage girls in high school dealing with the hardships of teenage pregnancy. Most of the episodes end with the girl realising that it was wrong decision to get pregnant and that she should have waited until she was independent and mature. In one of the episodes we watches yesterday, the teen mother said something to this effect, “Sigh, I don’t think I am ready for any of this.” Taking cue, me and hubby also said collectively, “Neither were we, sigh!” I went ahead and said that I don’t think I was even ready to get married, I wish I had waited or I wish I hadn’t got married at all. Hubby said, “me neither.” Then we sighed some more. I said to no one in particular that it would have been great to just have a job and go out with friends and he said, yea and then maybe we could have just lived together, no strings attached! It would have been better yet! 🙂

…and I said, “O”

Such is the deeply intellectual conversation we have!

One hell of a weekend


So much has happened over the weekend. The mind is exhausted and me needs some serious sleep though I have slept through the night for 10, no 11 hours straight. Anyway, in my last post, when I was typing away to glory and patting my back in between sentences, I forgot to mention that hubby had informed me that the guest won’t be having dinner on Friday since he would come late at night and would have had food on the way.

Wrong! so so wrong! Late Friday evening, hubby announced that the guest would be having a full meal. The next 10 minutes were spent in arguing of course. Hubby was adamant that he had said so specifically last night and I was sure he hadn’t mentioned it. As I rushed to the kitchen and started banging opening shelves to check if there’s any leftover food that I can cook, hubby sheepishly admitted that he had forgotten this small little detail. Now I know why MIL asks him the same questions 101 times to make sure his answers are the same. Anyway, hubby was pinned down with angry sideways glances the whole time I cooked. Luckily, for me, when the guest arrived, he was quite famished and gulped down whatever I had cooked.

On Saturday, they both went out – boys day out I guess to roam the all of Edinburgh and feel the autumn. Another day for me with Shantanu, laptop and the toys. And it was sunny for most part of the day! Yay! Funny how seeing the sun shine brings a smile on my face. Anyhow, all was well and me had lots of time to cook and clean.

Wonder how you do some things instinctively? Or is it the sixth sense. I prepared some huge quantities of food all that I cooked, most certain that it wont be consumed in one meal.

Sunday started with a very cranky Shantanu. He usually isn’t cranky except when he is hungry or sleepy. That’s it. He had his morning feed quite reluctantly, which is surprising. And then for the next hour he kept crying and crying and crying. He just won’t stop. This was very weird and the last time he did this was when he was four months old and had his vaccination. He didn’t cry much during the later vaccinations. After crying for this long, he got exhausted I think and went to sleep for another couple of hours, which is again weird. Then when he woke up, he refused to have his feed. Very Very weird. And then the fever got him. Before rushing him to the doctor, sometime in between, I prepared breakfast from the left over food last night. Remember, the sixth instinct?

Till the time we made an appointment with the doc, both hubby and I were on the phone, almost all the time. He with the hospital doc and me with the ghar ka doc. Not that I really needed any moral support, it’s just that in situations like these, common sense takes off and you don’t think of simple things. Aunt, grandma and mom suggested a couple of things, and yes, I need to call all three and when they suggested the same things and gave the same advice I decided to follow it.

The doc assured us that it was only viral and we shouldn’t be worried, just had to keep him on paracetamol and let them know if the fever doesn’t subside. He slept till evening and wouldn’t take any feeds. Only at night when he felt a bit better did he have some food. He slept through the night without any temperature and is back to his normal self since morning now.

Did I not ask you god, not to jinx it since I mentioned what a wonderful child he is? Anyway, we shall deal with that later. As Shantanu slept for most of the day yesterday, the drawers in the kitchen stayed shut, the toys weren’t punched, the wires and switches lay still, the papers were not torn to pieces and the house was quiet, very quiet. It was then that the dullness of it all hit us with force.

I keep wishing that Shantanu grows up fast so that all this mess would stop. Not anymore. All this mess is what my life is all about now. And from today morning, the order in the chaos is restored.

Happy Birthday Hubby


Dear Hubby — I know you feel that I haven’t mentioned you much in this blog. It is not that I don’t have anything to write about you. It is just that I feel our relationship is too personal to be mentioned here. But today I have decided to write down all the qualities about you that I like. So here goes:

  1. Loving
  2. Patient when I rant
  3. Listening
  4. Caring
  5. Humorous
  6. Peaceful
  7. Honest
  8. Humble
  9. Joyful
  10. Faith in something that you truly believe
  11. Trustworthy
  12. Hard worker
  13. Loyal
  14. Accepting me as I am
  15. Believing in me
  16. Not giving up on me
  17. Forgiving my mistakes
  18. Giving unconditionally
  19. Helping me
  20. Keeping me close at heart
  21. Saying nice things about me
  22. Loving me for who I am
  23. Making a difference in my life
  24. Not Judging me
  25. Supporting me in everything
  26. Quieting my fears
  27. Raising my spirits
  28. Telling me the truth when I need hear it
  29. Understanding me
  30. Valuing you
  31. And zapping me back to reality

And you know why I listed 31 qualities right?

Happy Birthday!