Wordless Wednesday

I Do!!!

If You Cook ...........

If you cook Aloo Gobhi  for dinner,
                           the family will probably want Paranthas to go with it
If you give them Paranthas,
                          they might ask for Boondi Raita with it,
If you give them Boondi Raita,
                         you will have too many bowls, along with the pan, plates and spoons, to put in the dishwasher.
If you put all the dishes in the dishwasher,
                         you will have to clean the sink and the counter and then unload that dishwasher.
If you unload the dishwasher,
                        you will have empty dishes.
Along with those empty dishes, people who ate that Aloo Gobhi with Paranthas and Boondi Raita,
                        will be back for more Subzi Roti.
And chances are if you give them more food,
                        they will ask for more things to go with it.
If you give them more things to eat
                          There will be more dirty bowls and plates,
If there are more dirty dishes,
                           It will lead you to the dishwasher again.
                          
              So I decided not to cook and let these people eat cereal for dinner.

Inspired by children's book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

Shopping For A Mama?

Last Week I was out an about, hopping from store to another finishing my errands. In one of the stores, a duo of a mother and a son were shopping. The little guy was about 5 or 6 years old, sitting in the front of the shopping cart and like any other normal child, bombarding his mother with questions about whatever he could lay his eyes on!
         Mom, why are you looking at that shoe? Mom, would you buy me that? Mom, how long will we stay here? Mom, why did you try on that hat? Mom, what's in that box?The mother was doing a great job of going about her business while answering his questions with words requiring the least effort like Yes, No, Unhun and an occasional "Don't do that". I am guessing the little boy wanted more than that as a response, maybe that's the reason he asked his next question.
                            "Mom, are you really my mom?"          !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was well within an earshot and along with many others customers in the store, just couldn't help smiling at this question. But surprisingly the mother in question answered this too very peacefully with a simple Yes in the very same tone she was answering his other questions! The little guy, maybe hoping for more fodder for communication, went a step further and asked  
                                                          "Are you sure?"
!!!!!! Whoa, or so  I thought!! This woman has patience of iron it seems, she again said Yes and went about her business of looking at pretty jewelery in the store. But the little guy took a big leap this time, his finger straight pointing at me, yes me (!!!!!) and asked
                                "Why isn't that pretty lady my mom?"
  Ahem....Gulp!!    
Everyone around just couldn't keep their laughs under their breath anymore and one very old woman, grinning from ear to ear, asked the mother "Did he really ask that?!!"
The mother was now agitated (finally) and while mouthing a 'sorry' to me, she said to him "Because I gave birth to you and not that pretty lady"

What did the little guy say upon hearing his mothers response 

                             
                            "Damn Mom!!!"

 I am not sure if that woman or me, are going back to that store anytime soon!!

Answer This!!

Mother and daughter as in Myself and Saumya, were sharing a delicate bonding moment together with her head on my shoulders while I was gently rubbing my hand on her back, swaying from side to side and just when I was about to close to my eyes, get absorbed in that beautiful moment, the little girl picked her head up from my shoulder, looked me in the eye and asked :

                                           "Mama, how come you decided that you are not going to make any more babies?"

  

Wordless Wednesday

 Saumya Goes Shopping!!

Life's Like That

Dear Saumya,

Summer vacation is just about to begin, to be exact its only two more days of school. You must be so happy!! No alarm clocks putting an instant stop on your dreams, no hurry up calls from me in the mornings. Yay! Just lazy summer days of doing whatever you want! Yoohoo!! Yeah, Not so fast honey. With me hovering around you for 24 hours a day, don't expect too much of lazying around. It's not my vacation, I still have all the jobs that I do everyday and then in addition there will be your sweet self to entertain. So just when you think of taking out those water paints and spread yourself on the family room floor, you will hear me calling you for a bath. Just when you think we can go out for a walk, you will see me chopping and stirring in the kitchen. Right when you take that board game out, you will see me lugging that laundry basket down the stairs. And just when you get bored of me bossing you around and decide to lay low and lie down on your bed, I will request you to take out your most complicated puzzle. Make it. I will be like this, for the first few weeks I guess. Many a times I will not answer your questions not because I won't know the answers but to tell you the truth I become very bitter when I am under your radar all the time. Its like you are doing that Police song on me

Every breath you take and every move you make 

Every bond you break 

Every step you take, I'll be watching you 

Every single day and every word you say 

Every game you play 

Every night you stay, I'll be watching you 

You not only watch but also ask the "why" of every move and step I take. 

Why did you cu that strawberry like that? Why did you wash those rice two times, why did you put the ketchup bottle here, why did you stir that pot so fast, why why why!!

And when I am bitter, I like to keep my mouth shut. Sorry sweetheart, people must be  looking forward to their kid's vacation and they must be making such merry making plans of the things they are going to do together. All I am hoping to do, at least in the first few weeks, is to preserve our sanity, your and mine, both! We love each other like no one can but we are so not used to spend every waking moment together and expecting us to smooth sail through this, without hitting any bumps, would be asking for just too much. Totally unrealistic !! Right? Right.

                                    My summer vacations, yes I had those too (!!!) , used to start in my Mausi's home. That's right!!  When I would come back home on the last day of school, I would find Promila Mausi waiting for me with my clothes already packed to go. Mother would call from her office and tell me that I can go with her. And without seeing my mom, I would give my hand to Mausi and hop on the DTC bus, thinking about all the fun I would have at mausi's home, with my cousins. We would go back and forth from mausi's home back to our's, all the while the cousins helping finish each other's holiday's homework, making charts, painting posters, writing essays, collecting pictures for scrapbooks, building models. None of our parents knew what homework we got but they did know that whatever it is, the kids will make sure it's done.

     But sweetheart, here its just you and me. No mausi, mama or bua can come to pick you up. We are so far away from them that no matter how much they yearn for you, none of your cousins can be with us during your vacations. We will not have anyone with whom you can partner in the mischiefs, no sisters to play hopscotch with, no peers to giggle with. I am sorry honey,  Its just me you got. Your dad, as usual, will brighten our evenings, his arrival from work will give both of us a breather. He will salvage us from the weariness we impound each other with. God bless his soul for putting up with us!!

                                I know we will be doing lots of fun stuff together too but who are we kidding, right? Having fun with your mother will always pale in comparison to what you little girls manage to have. Oh well!  In times like these, I am  just left to ask myself this question, where's our family and why are we so far away from them.

               But since life's like that for us, we got to make the most of what we got. And you got me!! So  I wish you a fun filled happy summer vacation, yes we will try!

Lot's of love

Mamma

Think Global !!

I was doing our usual night time ritual of reading a good night story to Saumya and the book was 

                         Time For Bed  
Its a very simple cute little book featuring different animals on each page where the parent animal is trying to settle its kids for bed, helping it sleep. Beautiful illustrations depicting dusky scenes and loving sleepy expressions. It's one of favorite night time books. But there is one page which, instead of bringing sleep to our daughter's eyes, sparks a debate with the author! 
              It's time for bed, little sheep, little sheep, the whole wide world is going to sleep
She says, "Hey that's not true!! The whole wide world doesn't go to sleep at the same time! When I sleep my nani ma and dadi ma wake up in India, my mom's friend in Australia is in office, another in New Zealand is awake too! Haven't you seen the world map? I will have to tell this person who wrote this book that earth goes around the sun and when part if facing the sun, its day time there and night time on the other side. So no whole wide world together bedtime!!"
When I was 5 years old I would have not questioned this because my whole wide world was limited to not my country but only to my city!!!
Citizens of the world :-))

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I have been long contemplating picking this book because my last read was this amazing  novel and I could not bring myself to terms with the fact that there can be anything better out there. I got Kindle as mother's day gift but was unable to use it for the same reason. I didn't know a single book that would meet my new set of expectations, unrealistic, as I thought then! And then I, hesitatingly, ordered The Help and after reading 10 pages, I was kicking myself for not picking it up earlier!! Better late than never! The story is based in 1960 in Jackson, Mississippi. . Its a story of a white woman Skeeter Phelan, who is fresh out of college and wants to be a writer but is completely oblivious to the what's going on around her. A time of civil rights movement in America. She has been asked by a publishing house to write about what disturbs her. And currently she is intrigued by the absence of a black woman who used to be a servant in their home while she was growing up, with whom she developed a special bond and who used to write her letters when she was at college but when she came back home, that woman was gone and no one was ready to tell her the reason. When her best friend makes a political issue about the black women using toilets in their employer's homes while working as maids, as help to whites,  raising their kids, cooking their food, polishing their silver, Skeeter got determined to write a book comprising of experiences, with names changed, of these maids, The Help. Aibileen, who has raised 17 white children in different white homes and her friend Minny, who is big mouthed and has lost more jobs than we can count on our fingers for being so, they both sign up with Skeeter to tell about their experiences. 
              The author has written the book in narrative style where it goes back and forth between Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Though the book is not a thriller or a mystery it sure is a page turner. I was taken in by the author and while reading I felt to be physically there in Jackson, Mississippi. Kathryn's writing skills succeeded in conquering the physical distance and took me in those homes of white women who would indulge in pretentious extravagant galas and fundraisers for starving poor children in Africa while the blacks in their homes were not allowed to even use their toilets and be seen bare legs with no stockings even if its burning hot summer. I felt like being a catch 22 situation while reading this book, I wanted to know more and more but I didn't want the book to finish, ever. The Help is an  important novel that tackles major issues in a dark period of American history yet still manages to be entertaining, lively, affecting as well as moving.
                             Though the book is set in 1960s America, it did feel like talking about current times in India! The way we treat our help. I don't know if we would even call our maid as "help". Just like in the book, we don't like our help to make any eye contact with our guests, we cringe if they use our toilet when they come to work in our homes, we don't associate the word respect with them as if own a copyright on it, if something goes missing from our home, we reprimand them or we simply fire them and just like in the book, then we bad mouth them so they don't get any other job. We feel our kids should be our maid's first priority and we get upset when she is home taking care of her child, just like in the book. We expect them to be obligated to be working for us. Though we pay them for their work we expect them to be enslaved to our homes. While reading the book my mind kept on wandering in Jackson but somewhere it was lingering in the homes of India, the India of today.
I would highly recommend The Help and would not be surprised if it becomes a required reading for English literature courses. Also, I would love to see it becoming a movie!!