Updates(that was long due)

Jelly’s world out here is a total contrast to her life out in good old Bangalore. There she had loads of people to run all round her….fulfilling all her wishes even before they were expressed. She could throw any amount of tantrums and nobody could or would stop her or correct (or rather allow us to correct) her. I’m really sure she must be missing out on all that pampering….Well at least I’m missing all those lovely moments she used to spend with her grandparents , uncles, aunts and cousins…

Here it’s basically just the three of us day in day out. If she could, she would have screamed her lungs out and told us she need a break from this lonely life out here. When we initially moved in here, she did not know to play on her own or even be in a room alone for even a moment. But the past four months have taught her a lot. Now she has started to play on her own, she has started playing imaginary games and most of all reduced following me everywhere (including the loo).

As I said in my earlier post she has become cute yet naughty- Well cute as in she tries to talk like us adults, using exactly the same phrases and in some cases even the exact tune in which we would say a particular sentence. And yes she talks in full sentences now. 99% of her talk is in Malayalam, but at the same time has started adding a few English words to it. Everyday after chatting with her grandparents, her grandpa tells her “Bye Mole!”(as in bye little one). Now she has made it a point to tell my FIL “Bye Mole!!!”

Naughty - that’s her for sure. She walks into the kitchen, takes a couple of spoons or vessels to the front to room to play and once she is done, she either walks off without putting it back or calls out and asks me to come and take it and put it back !!!!She climbs on her tricycle and orders us to push it around the room. She would never try to put her tiny feet to use and pedal it around…..If we tell her to ride it she would ask us to help her off it and then would start using some spoon to repair her “Saicle”(as she calls it).

She is a total foddie (just like her dad I must say). She loves to eat just anything as long as it is tasty. We are used to spicy food, but once she started sharing our food I’ve reduced the spices. But for certain food which needs to be spicy I don’t go to reduce the spice. She eats that too with tears steaming down her chubby cheeks and a runny nose :D. Welcome to the family which lives on spices!!!

There is one thing that just happened yesterday, I have to share it with you. She watches a couple of CD’s meant for kid’s when she is in the mood for it. It’s in Malayalam and has loads of cartoons of animal characters telling a little puppy about what they do. For example there is an explanation of how larvae turns into a pupae and then into a butterfly or about how a cat can see in the dark or falls on it’s legs in spite of the height it jumps from. In this CD there is an episode of how hens lay eggs and how they hatch into little chicks. She has been watching this CD off and on for about a week now. Yesterday SM was sleeping (or rather pretending to be asleep) and Jelly was playing by his side with a water bottle, while I was in the kitchen. I heard her making some weird noise and asked her a couple of times what she was doing…but she just smiled at me when I peeped into the room. It was later that SM told me that she was sitting on top of the bottle and making that noise enacting out how the chicken had laid eggs!!!! Oh! We had a hearty laugh and I was feeling bad for missing on the scene. Later in the evening while she was playing on her own, I heard her making a similar noise and just had a look at her and there….She was squatting on one of her toys and again pretending to be laying an egg!!! The moment she saw me, she gave a sheepish smile and started blushing all over……How fast kids pick up things from the visual media! Need to be careful from now on about what she watches…..

Oh my god!! My little one is growing up a little too fast. That just brings me to the fact that in less than a week’s time she is going to be 2 years old!!

I'm Alive!!!

Oh my good Lord!!! It’s been ages since I’ve got a hold of the system to type a blog. Life has been extremely busy with catering to loads of guests. Guests for whom I had to cook, clean and wait around. So I guess I’ve been forgiven for this long absence from here.

The first visitor was a very silent one. Very beautiful I must admit…..felt a little jealous that I could not look half that charming even on the best of my Good Hair days…..This one just came in the morn stayed on for a while looking around and just chilling out. Don’t believe??? Well have a look out here

The second visitor or I should say visitors were quite different, cause they would come in close to lunch hour and they would be mighty hungry…hungry as in they would pick and eat for hours together….and well they did look on the healthier side I should say. And the worst part being they did not pay any attention to the host!!! Yes they hardly lifted their heads from the long meal that they were enjoying. And in the end without even thanking me for being such an “adorable host” they would just go away…Just look at them feasting on the lunch I had arranged for them

Ok guys, please don’t pick up your brooms or sticks to give me a whack……please…I’ve been really really lazy to write a blog. The other excuse being that it’s really difficult to get the system free to type anything when Jelly is awake. Not that she is using the system; just that madam needs some music to be playing in the background all the while - awake or sleeping. When she is awake, she would not allow me to sit in front of the system to type a single word. And when she is sleeping I have cooking, cleaning and other jobs to be done. I have been typing this blogs in bits and pieces from God knows when!!

So here I am making a promise to myself that from now on I will be more regular with my posts. It’s truly crazy that I’m not updating on how Jelly is turning out to be a very cute yet naughty, lovable yet violent, cuddly yet someone who bites me like a little pup….Oh so much more to add into that list but that’s for the next post.

And hey I want to change the looks of my blog…I have a picture with me, which I would love to put as my blog header but I’m really lost on how to make the whole layout look a bit more lively……could any of you guide me?????

Latest Updates....

It’s been a very long time since I have penned down my thoughts. I guess by now people might have got a feeling that I have walked out of this beautiful blog world. Well I had taken a short and unannounced break but never out of this world. How can I walk out of this beautiful world which gave me such adorable friends?

Well to begin with I had to go through a very painful break up from one of my oldest relationships………Hey did I give you some wrong ideas…………by break up I meant quitting my Job….. Something I treasured for a very long time. Been there for 7 long years….. it was more like a second home to me, a place where I got to meet such lovely people that they were more than colleagues to me. We built up our gang of 4 girls in less that 6 months and to this day we remain very close. None of us work together in the same place anymore since all have since moved to different jobs/places. Scattered across the globe would be the precise word to use. As I sit and type this out I’m truly missing them like crazy…… :-(

Once I quit the job I was back at home for more than a month making the necessary arrangements for what I quit my job. Then there was the usual running behind Jelly and getting her used to the fact that her mom is going to be with her day and night……Yes you heard me right…..I have taken over handling only the home front for some time….not sure though how long.

After all these up’s and down’s came a long flight journey and managing the baby all alone…away from the comforts of having doting in-laws and parents at our disposal at any said time. Settling into an alien place, a new home and that too with an extremely naughty toddler is truly something I had never really dreamt of doing. But here I am doing all this and more.

Well, we have moved continents and have set up home for the time being in UK.

From the ever noisy, crowded and homely Bangalore City here we are in London…The county where we are settling into is a very quite and beautiful one. Even though London is quite close by, we are far away from the hustle and bustle of city life. When I say this area is “Quite” I mean it in every single sense because you can literally here the sound of each one of us breathing too. The first few days gave us an impression that we are the only living souls out here. Not a sound of people talking or kids shouting or no music ……..in short no noise at all coming from any of the houses around. If not for the cars parked outside the houses we would have thought we have come to some uninhabited island.

When back at home in dear old Bangalore we hardly realized how loud Jelly was crying or talking or laughing…….But out here we have to keep a close watch on her so as to not get thrown out of our house by our neighbours …..all thanks to a loud little kid ;-) When I speak about neighbours believe me I have not got to see a single so called neighbour in the past few weeks……Still trying to blend into this kind of life…….More updates on our life and Jelly’s pranks soon……..

18 Months Update

It’s been ages since I’ve made an update on Jelly. Been very preoccupied with a lot of things. I never seem to be finding the time when at work or back at home to pen down a few lines……….

Coming to updates, Jelly is turning out to be one hell of a naughty toddler. Thanks to her restless behavior her grandpa has just managed to lose that extra weight, which his doctor had been advising him to loose for ages now. You can find my in-laws in a better shape than ever now ;-). On a serious note I think it’s high time I give them a much needed break.

If I were to tell you about her day to day habits I would have to copy every single bit of what Shruthi has written here. She is turning out to be one noisy kid. She is not so keen on playing with toys, but the moment she spots any kid, who is visiting our house moving towards her toys, she manages to reach there before them and starts playing with the toy they wanted to play with. She will see to it that the said kid does not get a single toy in his or her hands for more than a minute. Its not that she does not like playing with other kids, it’s just that she is not ready to hand over her toys to anyone (grrr!!!). We try our best to make her share her toys but no, she would not listen to us one bit. If the kids do not bother about her toys then she has a total blast playing with them. She loves kids who are of her age or slightly bigger than her. Smaller kids are looked upon as though they were mere dolls. And in such cases I would have to keep a close watch, so that she does not land up hurting them.

At last my little kiddo is turning out to be a little girl!! She has started loving her soft toys. Initially soft toys were meant to be chewed upon or used as a mop to clean the floors. The poor souls are getting a better treatment now; she hugs and kisses them when in a good mood. But when she gets a good round of scolding from me for her naughty behavior, she takes a pen or spoon or a stick and waves it threateningly at them and says “Addi- as in I’m going to hit you” after that would come a whole lot of verbal assault which only she would understand.

After dinner when she is ready to hit the bed, we sit with her toys and books for some time. She makes me read her alphabet or fruits & vegetables book to her. On one such day I thought of making it a bit more interesting for her and placed her Teddy in my lap and used the hands of the teddy to point out to the objects I was reading for her. She looked at the teddy in awe and from then on whenever she wanted me to read a book to her she would take the teddy, place it in my lap and tell “Teddy…book ….book”. Now it is graduated on to Winnie book ………

You would know if Jelly is at home from the moment you step into our house. The front room would be all strewn with her toys, oh yes this needs a special mention. As I said earlier she is not crazy about playing with toys, I will tell you what her interest are later in the blog. We have put all her toys in a couple of bags and placed it in a corner of the room, the moment she enters the rooms, she marches up to the bags takes it , carries it to the center of the room and places it there. Once it is placed there she would hold the bottom corner of the bag and empty its contents in a flash. Once this is done she would either use her hands or legs and see it to that the toys would reach every nook and corner of the room. With this also accomplished, she would happily march out of this room to the next room to create a havoc out there (sigh!!!!). No amount of pleading or scolding or threatening seem to stop her from doing this….. Can anyone tell me how to tame this wild little girl????????

Now about how she passes her time in the other rooms, well nothing different, its just that in the dining area it would be spoons or tiny plates and in the kitchen it would be onions or garlic or potatoes who face the same fate as the toys. At any time of the day our house looks like it’s just had a date with a hurricane or tornado.

She is the new found parrot of our house. We just cannot speak anything; the moment we speak she picks up words and repeats them in a flash. Not that she just repeats it; she also knows what we mean when we tell something. I and SM at times have to use code languages to make sure she does not follow what we are talking. She calls her granny (my mom) by her name and when mom makes a straight face you should see what this little imp does. She goes to mom, sits on her lap, keeps her face close to moms face, gives her sweetest smile and calls her “Ammumma” (granny). And as soon as she sees that mom has fallen for her bait, she gives a wide grin and calls her by her name again!!!!!!!

In a couple of days time Jelly is going to be 18 months old that is a year and a half!!!!!! Now I need some help from you experienced moms out there. Jelly still needs her night feeds and I’m just going crazy with it. She wails her life out if I do not feed her. She sleeps with a full tummy of Cerlac but in a matter of about 2-3 hours she is hungry and manages emptying a whole bottle!!! It’s been so long since I have got a full night’s sleep. Please do tell me what worked out for you………..I’m eagerly waiting out here for some true help.

Taking up the Verb-y Tag

Feeling a little low today, so just thought of taking up this tag from Shruthi just to give my idle mind a good and much needed exercise.......

I am: a fun loving person.
I think: I’m a little crazy.
I know: that the earth is round.
I want: to visit all the continents.
I have: very curly hair.
I wish: to get back to my pre-pregnancy day shape(sigh!!!!).
I hate: curds.
I miss: my college days.
I fear: being alone.
I feel: recharged just looking at Jelly.
I hear: Jelly’s cute laughter even when I’m at work.
I smell: the stale smell from my office AC.
I crave: to be with SM( he is off on a week long trip).
I search: for my old friends on Orkut almost everyday.
I wonder: why there is so much of hatred all around us.
I regret: not becoming SM’s friend earlier in life.
I love: anything that is chocolate flavored (edible of course) :D.
I ache: at the thought of not being able to spend quality time with my old friends.
I care: for people close to my heart.
I am not: an alien.
I believe: in God.
I dance: when I’m all alone.
I sing: when I’m happy.
I cry : when I’m frustrated.
I don’t always : give my best.
I fight : only when I know for sure that I’m right(and that too only to SM).
I write: because my memory is bad.
I win: almost all the Solitaire games I play.
I lose: my patience very soon.
I never: drink and drive ;-).
I always: keep chatting when at work.
I confuse: SM with some crazy logics.
I listen: to music when I drive.
I can usually be found: doing multiple jobs(online chatting, speaking on the phone and doing my work).
I am scared: of Jelly becoming a spoilt brat.
I need: food and oxygen to survive.
I am happy about: the number of friends I’ve made in the blog world.

Hey this was fun, it kind of recharged me for the day. Here I tag Aryan's mom , Mira's mom and anybody ready to take it up.

Travel Diary - Part 2

By the first half of the first year of our marriage we wanted to take a break from the normal routine and go on a vacation. Both of us enjoy visiting new places and preferably new countries. As we looked at travel options our eyes traveled on the eastern part of the globe. We would not have to travel for long and yet it would be a land we have always wanted to travel to. Air tickets booked, hotels confirmed we were all set to explore 2 beautiful countries at a time……….. Singapore & Malaysia here we come.

We took a flight out of Bangalore to Singapore. We were misled by some folks in Blr that there were frequent train connections from Sin to Kul (Kualalumpur) and the travel time would be about 2-3 hours. On landing into the beautiful Changi Airport we took a metro to the nearest station for continuing our journey to Kul. We reached the station and got to know that the train would be leaving in less than 5 minutes; we quickly purchased the tickets and literally ran towards the train. We reached there just in time and managed to jump into the train which was about to move. We were in for a shock when we came to know that the train journey would take us about 7 hours!!!!!!!! We had the major part of the day wasted in the journey. Not that the journey was bad, but we were disappointed that we would get so much less time in Kul. We could see the landscape changing from the hi-tech city of Sin to the lush green country side of Kul.

We always make it a point when we travel outside India to travel by the mass transport system. Traveling by local busses or trains just helps us to blend with the locals and have a peek into a normal day in their lives. It’s very rare that we take up a taxi ride. On arrival into KL Sentral Station we walked over to the mono-rail station which was a few minutes walk away. We purchased out tickets and took the first elevated train ride of our lives. As we smoothly sailed through the ride we got to see the city. A beautiful city, growing closer by the minute to modernity but still firmly attached to their roots. The city was all decked up, all around we could see offices and shops all beautifully decorated. It was Chinese New Year time!!

By the time we reached the hotel it was nearly 4 pm in the evening. We quickly checked in, rushed to our room and freshened up. Our room was on the 13th floor and from our room we could see the Petrona Towers. Our stomach was growling loudly……did I tell you….. through the whole train journey we could not get anything to eat as there were no stations and we could not find a pantry area in the train. We hit the hotel restaurant for a very late lunch or should I say a heavy snack round :D. Once our tummy’s growling reduced we saw it was too late to go anywhere far. So we went to the travel desk and arranged for our city tour the next morning and went out to explore the near by places on foot.

View of Petrona Towers from our Hotel room.

I was a little disappointed to find the walkways a little dirty with bits of garbage and a huge amount of rotten oranges strewn around. We got to see most of the shops decorated and another thing that we got to see was next to most of the displays there were a couple of oranges arranged. It’s later that we found out that they were auspicious for the Chinese and this being the new year time they had placed it like an offering to the God. After a relishing meal we wound up to our room. With the lights of the room switched off we admired the brilliantly lit up Petrona Towers and the sky line of Kul. Down below we could see the Monorail zooming by silently.

The next morning we were off on our city tour. The tour was on a seat-in-coach basis, so we had a group ranging from kids to people so old that we were in awe on how they manage taking out vacations on their own at this age………….The tour started of at Jalan Tugu - The War Memorial of Malaysia. The main attraction being a huge Bronze statue comprising of 7 men which is dedicated to the men who lost their life for the sake of the country’s freedom. It was a beautiful place, with a very peaceful surrounding. Just the right atmosphere for a War Memorial.


The War Memorial

The next place we were shown was the Menara tower on the way to Merdeka Square. Here we got to see the Sultan Abdul Samad building that houses the present day Court of Law. It’s a beautiful architectural monument constructed during the British rule. Opposite to the building proudly stood a 100 meter flag pole, the one on which the Malaysian flag was hoisted when the country got their freedom from British rule.


Merdeka Square

From there we moved on to see the Royal Palace. Not really cause visitors are not allowed beyond the main entrance, so we could only get a distant view of the palace. We got to click a couple of pictures of the guards, who by the way looked really stately and grand in those uniforms.

Our next stop was at the famous Batik factory. Here we were given a tour of the factory; we got to see how beautifully the prints were made in no time. The creative hands worked wonders on the simple cotton and synthetic materials. We visited the showroom that displayed the different clothing made at the factory. From here our next stop was at the Royal Selangor Pewter factory. On the way we were shown the famous Batu Caves(famous Murugan temple), but unfortunately they did not stop there so we could only view the place from outside. Once at the Pewter factory we were given a full tour of the factory and also the whole process of turning that ordinary looking metal into beautiful show pieces. We were totally new to this metal, but for sure we fell head over heels in love with it. How quickly it set into the shape required from a watery form. As good as it looks; it was a very pricy metal too. The Souvenirs were very inviting but the price tag burnt our tender eyes :D.


Pewter Factory

Our last stop for the day was the main attraction or rather the landmark of Kul- The Petrona Twin Towers. What looked like a beautiful landmark from the cozy comforts of our room was an overpowering building. As we walked closer to it we were in awe. Both of us hurt our neck by trying to look at the tower from its base. The group was given an option of either returning to the hotel in the same coach or we could break journey out there. SM and I decided to break journey and do a little bit of window shopping and of course put some fuel into our empty stomach.


The Petrona - Twin Towers

Chinese Musicians playing some lovely music within the Mall for the Chinese New Year Celebration (It was truly Heavenly.........)


This was our first time in a full fledged mall (this was prior to the Mall boom in Bangalore), we had a good time doing some window shopping. Then we hit the food court, where we got to see stalls with cuisines from all around the world. We were in no mood for experimentation, so landed up eating some delicious Indian food.After a tiring day we returned to out hotel room. We got freshened up and got ready to catch up with some relatives who were settled out in Kul for many decades. They wanted us over for dinner, so we were picked up from our hotel by them and taken to their home which was on the other end of the city.

A very warm family, whom we had never met before made us feel total at home. They wanted to treat us to some local cuisine, so off we went to a local Malay restaurant. The ambience was good, with more than 90% of the crowd being young guys and girls. There were tables where some birthday celebrations were going on; some folks just chilling out and the rest of the crowd were families out for a relaxing dinner. We had a good time minus the fact that the food was not one bit our kind of choice. But the lovely people that they were, we had a perfect ending to a perfect day.

The next day we bid farewell to this beautiful land, a little sad that we should have planned it a little better and stayed on for longer duration. But with a promise that we would come back here on a well planned and longer holiday for sure…………..

She should have been a Goan….

This weekend saw us attending a wedding of an old friend of mine. As usual the thought of going out with Jelly brought a lot of panic into my ever over stressed brains. I kind of always try to foresee all that is going to happen (negative or positive……….well to be frank more negatives for sure) on any said occasion. So as usual when I remembered that we were supposed to go for the said function, my mind started racing at possible outcomes. What if Jelly is not in a mood to go out? And if ever she is in a mood, will she be fine in the midst of a huge gathering. And if yes will she keep running around the place and make me look like a nerd, all dressed up, swearing and running behind a toddler. If all this goes on well, will the little terror allow me to enjoy the good Manglorean food………. And so on.

Well to get to the details, this friend of mine is a Manglorean Christian (for the sake of this blog let's call him R). We got to know each other some 13-14 years back. We got to know each other through my another friend (P - who again is again a Manglorean). We soon got along well, the 4 of us, the 4th addition being a cute little guy K. We were a gang of notorious foursome. Always up to pranks, never attentive in the class, all thanks to our great friend R.

So back to the details of the evening - we were out to attend the reception dressed in our best, well not in our best…. I have stopped dreaming of being neatly dressed and remain the same way all through the function from the day Jelly was born. I have as a matter of fact nearly stopped wearing “Sarees” when going out with Jelly. I truly adore this Indian attire and love wearing them, but if I dare to wear it when taking her along with us, then even before reaching the venue I would look like I have just finished my job as a part time maid and rushed to attend the function. Ok I’m exaggerating a bit, but she makes it a point to crumple my clothes beyond recognition.

Something seems to be seriously wrong with me today; I’m just going away from the main topic - So when we reached the venue we realised that the reception had just begun after the wedding which was held earlier in the evening in the church. The lively Goan music literally dragged us into the hall. Jelly was quite excited to see the flower decoration at the entrance of the reception hall - not because she likes flowers, but because she likes to tear apart flowers and leaves to tiny shreds.

But hey for a change she was not too keen on pulling those beautiful flowers part. She was more keen on peeping into the hall. I was getting a little excited seeing my daughter behaving in a very good way. I just said a silent prayer in my mind, just hoping that she would allow me to have a good time ahead. And for once my prayers were answered. The moment we entered the hall, we got to see the bride and the bride groom along with family and close friends already playing the wedding games which is a ritual with the Manglorean Christians. They start it with the bride and the bride groom standing face to face holding hands and trying to block the way of relatives or friends ( again a couple) who want to move ahead of them. Once they give way for them, the said couple stand next to the first couple in the same fashion. This continues till the whole crowd of relatives and friends form a huge human chain. At the end of this the bride and the groom have to make their way and reach the stage. Well no function of theirs is complete without the usual loud and peppy Goan music. All along a live band was playing some awesome foot tapping music.

Now the little music lover that Jelly is, she could not restrain herself from it. We made her sit on a counter at the entrance of the hall. The little one started giving a broad smile and was trying to shake her tiny butt while sitting there. She was totally enjoying herself - She clapped her hands in merry, laughed loudly and now wanted to stand on top of the counter. We quickly pulled her off the counter and went into the hall and got seated. Once we were seated she slipped of my lap and went on the floor and then there was no stopping her. Far away from the dancing crowd she clapped her hands and danced away to glory. She would look around at the guests and if she got to see that someone was observing her dance, the performer that she is she would shake her butt a little more. The evening was a truly beautiful one.

About an hour of dancing did not tire this little devil. While leaving from there I said to SM “Looks like she was to be born as a Goan or a Manglorean……by mistake she landed up in our family” That’s when SM added - “Looks like she will find herself a Goan or a Manglorean boyfriend once she grows up..” I was just starting to laugh at it when he added “I will fix her up if she does anything like that………” I told him that its double standards, “You got married to the girl of your choice then why not your daughter?” I did not hear what his reply was because I went deep into my thoughts. She is only 16 months old and we are already thinking about something that will happen 20 and odd years later. Are all parents this way ???????