If...

If only you were here today...

You’d have seen all the things
That you had always longed to;
You’d have had all those things,
And done all those things
That you’d wanted, and beyond.

You could have seen
All your hard work pay off.
You’d be so proud of
Your own self and your dearest ones

If only you were here today,
You’d be turning another year older
And we’d be celebrating it
With you in great joy

Though you are not here with us
I’m sure in every step of ours,
You’re watching and guiding us.....
Whatever be it, the fact is that
It’s not the same as you being here....

If only you were here today...
Our life would have been
So different and pleasant

A flashback into 2009

It’s another New Year, and strangely this time, I’m not feeing anything new, with the New Year!
Still, would like to come up with a high level report of the year, to look back after a few years!

January was not so good, with Dee meeting with a small accident and having an ankle sprain. Then came some unexpected, shocking uncertainties at his work place. That was followed by some more, shocking uncertainties at my workplace! The economic slowdown had kind of hit our company too.

In spite of these, or rater due to these, we just wanted to take a break, and early February, headed for a trip to the beautiful backwaters of Kerala – Alleppey and Ashtamudi. Had a wonderful break from all the tensions.

March was mostly uneventful, except for Dee confirming his booking for Sarpass trek and me cribbing about it!

April started with some disappointments and continued to be not so great, with hardly any peace of mind. Dee left to Sarpass, and I went to Ooty with mom and sis and had a good time.
Spent early May waiting for his return, and then the rest of the month just flew off, happily.

Went on a driving trip with 2 more cousins to historical places – Belur, Halebidu, Dwarasamudra, Doddagaddavalli – admiring the monuments of Hoysala dynasty.

July was pretty much occupied with some medical treatments, and some poojas – the typical Shravana maasa!

Another short and tiring trip to Dee’s grandma’s place in August, followed by more festivals!

September was quite eventful, with our Dasara preparations, and an unexpected 15 km leechy trek in Bedaguli forest range with Dee’s team. I was so glad that I could trek as I had not been on a single proper trek with Dee so far, due to my repeated ligament injuries.

October was a super busy month, starting with a trip to Wayanad, Dee’s trip to North Karnataka for flood relief work, my preparations for wedding anniversary gifts for him, followed by the trip of the year – a beach resort in Pondicherry to end the month.

November also had another disappointment and a trip with inlaws to Coorg :)

And December too had an unexpected trip in store – a one day visit to Shimoga to attend a wedding. Followed by year end vacation, during which 4 days was spent at mom’s place and another trip to end the year at Agumbe.

Whew! That’s quite a number of trips last year!!! Anyways.... Enjoy life to the fullest, travel as much as possible was the mantra of 2009 :)

Let’s see what’s in store in 2010......

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010.

A smart reply

Dee’s friend had come home and he got Hima into a conversation. She started showing off her “ABC” knowledge to him, and beamed when he said “Good girl”. He asked her a couple of questions and then he asked her,

“Hima, do you like atte or do you like maava?”

She did not answer that question. This was apparently the first time she was faced with that question.

He again pressed her, “Hima, whom do you like more – atte or maava?”

“Hmmmmmm......” she replied, “Maa-tte”, and started grinning!!

We all had a hearty laugh!

P.S.: There was no threat or promise of reward to her from either of us :D

Come home sometime....

There was this aunty who lived in our locality, a little away from our home. Her son was my school mate and Ma and she had met a couple of times at school and had got befriended. In the evenings when I and Ma used to go for a walk, we’d pass by their home. If she’s out at that time, she’d stop us for a chat. The talkative lady that she was, she would not let us leave for a long time, talking this and that. But strangely, she would not welcome us inside so that we could sit and talk.

After a few attempts of trying to end the conversation, finally when we set out to leave from there, she always had this comment, “Please do come home sometime, when you pass by this side”. We’d say “Sure!” and walk off from there and have a hearty laugh! This used to be a regular scene, and I used to make fun with mom, and remind her that “We should go to her house sometime, when we’re passing that way”! And it never happened. Every time we’re there, she’ll never invite us in, and at the end she’d say her usual dialogue. After a few years, she had shifted from that place and heard nothing of her.

I was pleasantly surprised a few days back when I was returning from office, and I see that same aunty, of course a little older now, in front of a house. I stopped by and talked to her, and learnt that she lived here now, very near my new home. And again she never asked me in, and when I set out from there after talking for a while, it was her usual dialogue that made me smile – “Do come home sometime, when you’re passing by this side”!!!

How I wanted to tell her that I do pass by the same road everyday, and yet I do not want to go to her house!!!

Food Tag

Anu tagged me again, and this time it’s a food tag! Being a foodie that I am, I was glad to take up the tag. The tag is about “listing down five memorable meals that you’ve had - the food, the place, the place you were in your life when you ate, the company, the weather, the ambiance – heck, the guy who served the food!”.

1. The poori-sagu that I had with dad after my CET seat selection got over.
It was my CET seat selection process. After a long time of anxiety, and finger-crossing, I had got a seat in my favorite college. That was the college we had zeroed upon after dad had taken me to some prospective colleges around some days before to get to know more about them. And I was not ready to go out of Bangalore either.
We just wanted to give mom, who was at home, a shock and called her up and said, we did not have any other option but to choose a college in another city. Mom evidently felt bad, but then asked me if Dad was okay, and I just pretended so well, that he too was upset, while dad was standing right next to me and enjoying the prank. Then we went to this hotel called ‘Kalkura’ and ordered for my favorite then – Pooris. And what pooris they were! So crisp, lite and just melting in the mouth. I felt that was the best pooris I had ever had in my life. And seeing dad so proud of his daughter made me so happy......
Well, the next time I wanted to have the same pooris at the same place, I never felt the same joy again.... some joys cannot be re-created!

2. Every meal cooked and served by mom
Yeah, I remember so many wonderful meals that mom has served! All four of us used to sit down and talk and eat, back then. We had fixed places where I would sit in between mom and dad and my sis would sit on the other side of mom. And every item would be so tasty and the meal, accompanied by some talk or some small game would be so interesting. Nowadays, meals are more like filling your stomach while being glued on to the idiot box :(

3. Candle light dinner with piping hot magi prepared by hubby dear
After getting bored of eating out everyday during our rather long honeymoon, we felt we should cook something ourselves in the little kitchenette we had in our room. And that evening Dee offered to cook the dinner while I had a shower. By the time I was done with a shower, the table was all set, with a bunch of flowers that he had picked up himself from the neighborhood, a few candles lit up, a drink and plates with yummy maggi, just out of the microwave..... Wow! That was so impressive.... and BTW, I bet no one can make magi better than Dee J

4. Fried-rice and gravy from my aunt that we cousins could not stop eating
It was summer holidays and we had camped at our aunt’s place. And everyday would be a feast for us kids, with my aunt, a great cook’s preparation. And that day she had prepared an Indianized version of fried rice with onion gravy. It was the first time I had tasted it, and well, it was just superb! All four of us cousins went on hogging and hogging, while my aunt kept on serving us happily. She was smart enough to cook it in a HUGE quantity, to fill our tummies! And we had the same for dinner too that day! What an amazing lunch and dinner it was.....

5. My first birthday after wedding
On my first birthday after wedding, by the time I got home from work, in-laws had cooked a great meal of my favorite Peas Pulav, Badam Puris and more. There was also a cake waiting for me to cut, and I had happily eaten to my heart’s content.

6. Those first eating-out ventures in college days
Where we would freak out from college and have Dutch treats. One particular instance was when we had gone to a North Indian restaurant, and we wanted to try out many side dishes. Since we were a group of 10+ that day, we could afford to, and we got to taste a wide variety of dishes! And another instance was of ‘Jolada rotti oota’ at Kamat. And the unlimited meals there, was a boon for us! We kept hogging and hogging those smooth jowar rotis with ennegai and other side dishes. My friend had commented that day, that it was the first time she had seen me eat so much!!

Well, I now realize that I can go on listing a least a hundred memorable meals!!! I am such a foodie!!!

Ok.. i tag everyone who's interested in taking it up....

Spell a BALL

Now that my 3 year old niece Hima had learnt all the letters in the English alphabet, and tries to read upper case letters one by one in newspapers and magazines, I thought I should start teaching her spellings of small words that she knows already.

I started with 3 letter words starting from A, B, C... On a sheet of paper, I wrote
A N T
B A T
C A T
D O G
and went on making her read, and telling the pronunciation.
A-N-T – ant, I would say, Ant means ‘iruve’ (kannada synonym)
B-A-T – bat, Bat means? Her response was to show Sachin Tendulkar’s’s bat on TV, where he was playing a match with Aussies.
C-A-T – cat, and she would say ‘meaow meaow’, excitedly
And similarly ‘bow wow’ for dog.

Then suddenly she wanted to write BALL. She wanted me to spell out the word so that she would write.
Okay, I dictated to her, B, A, L, L.
And she had written BAL.
I told her to write another L
But she showed me the already written single L.
Hmm... I thought and told her ‘You should write 2 L’s for BALL’

Immediately she wrote something and showed it to me, gleaming in joy that she could write a word. I couldn’t stop from cuddling her seeing what she had written.....

Navarathri - A festival of dolls

In school days, apart from 2-3 weeks of mid-term holidays, Dasara was a special season - full of celebration, decoration, nice things to eat, lot of visitors at home....

Dad, mom and we would all arrange the steps, decorate walls and ceilings with color papers, hang silk curtains out of mom’s sarees, get down the big carton of dolls, stored in the attic, arrange them all, put serial lights, help mom with making many varieties of snacks and sweets for guests.....

And this was one time of the year when I would take my friends home, mom and dad would invite their friends, our teachers, relatives, people in the neighborhood, and the house will be full of visitors.....

It had been missing it all from the last few years. This time, I made up my mind to do it all, albeit in a smaller scale, in my house and relive those moments again. I convinced Dee and in-laws on this, got home a part of the packed dolls from mom’s place and started out the venture. Dee, who was reluctant in the beginning, had his creativity coming out of from some hidden corner and got so fully involved and made such good arrangements.

Top view of our park

We started out making a park first time, not sure how much of sand and mud should go in for some ragi to grow, and look green!!! With a lot of phone calls to mom, and suggestions from in-laws, we got it to a decent looking form.

We got little niece Hima on our side, by involving her, and giving her a role to watch out for anyone touching the dolls, and complaining about them to me! This made her feel responsible and engaged, and she never disturbed the set up. She in fact was so delighted that she kept on hugging me and telling me, “Atte, gombe super!!” Ahh... what a moment it was!
And she called this doll in the park, with a dog as "Hima and Bruno"...
Ok, so we arranged everything, in whatever little time we got. I realized how difficult it is to take out time for all these, after a tiring day at work....... We invited some friends, but couldn’t invite many more And managing so many visitors was also a challenge! But after all the efforts, it was rewarding. I felt great pride in saying these are my parents’ collection, most of them over two decades old, when someone asked about them. Overall, it was a good start, and hope we continue with it.....

Note:
Navarathri or Dasara is a festival of dolls in South India. Most of the households have a tradition of decorating and arranging a collection of dolls, during this festival for 10 days. A pair of wooden dolls of bride and groom, which is passed on to the girl during her wedding, is the most important one. In households having constraints of making a full fledged arrangement, at least these two dolls will be kept along with kalasa (kalash) and goddesses are prayed. During this period, friends and relatives, especially kids will be invited and sweets and snacks distributed to them.

A long pending tag

Anu Russell had tagged me a couple of months back, and I was just procrastinating it till I got ready with my list of annoyances! I was happy I got a chance to articulate the annoyances ;)

Okie.... Here is my list of annoyances...

• TV on high volume, especially those stupid saas bahu mega, giga, tera serials - I HATE it; I just hate it.
• Borrowing things and messing up with it - I am particularly possessive about my belongings. If I lend something to someone, I expect it back in the same way, and get real annoyed if people don’t respect
• When someone gets extra-sensitive and either gets offended for petty things or say ‘sorry’ for a petty
• When aunties show extra curiosity about family planning, and start asking embarrassing questions; it gets more annoying when younger aunties do it
• When someone dumps their responsibility on you. Also, lazy people who just want to relax when someone else is forced to be working for them
• When someone talks age old rules, without thinking rationally for themselves about how apt it is....
• Hypocrites
• When people try to be extra good by going out of their way to do things beyond their capacity, and end up irritating others around, or expecting them to help in their ‘noble cause’
• MCPs or anyone who generalize and talk as if the women folk are incapable of everything and men are
• People with lack of personal hygiene - I don’t think I should elaborate this ;)

And the next part, I love people

• who have a happy disposition, are cheerful and try to bring smiles to everyone around
• who try to uplift my spirits when I’m feeling low, and support me through tough time
• when people acknowledge some good thing that I’ve done - be it even a little thing
• when they trust
• with a good sense of humor
• who find solutions, than cribbing about little things

Now i tag the following blog-pals

- Anantha, Preeti, Ricky, Chandu, Kaush, Deep and anyone else interested to take it up.

Cheers,

Sum.

Humane Award!

Received this award from Anu Russell...... Thanks Anu...... I'm honored....

Googled and found out what it means:

“The Humane Award honours certain bloggers who express kindness, mercy, caring and compassion for others, marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis."

Rules:

1. Accept and post the award on your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received it.
3. Pass the award to 5 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.
4. Let them know they’ve been chosen for this award.

Ok... so now that i'v got this award, i'm tempted to share another story.... Will try to compose and post it soon.....

Now I award it to the following co-bloggers:

1. Preeti
2. Deep
3. Chandu
4. Ricky
5. Madhava
6. Pradeep (Ok, i'm passing it to 6 instead of 5, but i guess that's ok!)

I'd like to add another rule, enocuraging you guys to write a post on humanity of some kind.....

Cheers!

Indian Robin inside the room

Ok, so after these Indian robins flew off their nest, they are still seen around home, often. Though they do no even visit their old nest, they hang around on the same electric wire, on bushes in the neighboring vacant plots, on the terrace, etc. And they didnt seem to be too scared of humans, like some other birds.

One evening when i got back home after office, I started closing the window curtains. Our windows are covered by mesh from the inside and the glass pane mostly remains open. The curtains are kept open through the day, and i close them in the evenings. Now while closing the curtains, i saw some small black thing on the window grill. Looked into it closely and realised that it is the same little bird - Indian robin. Couldn't make out much since it was dark outside. Whew! I was wondering if the bird was asleep there, and it did seem it was.

I didnt want to disturb it, so put off the lights, kept silence and started watching it. No, it didnt seem to move at all. And putting on light again, making noise, moving the curtains too didnt have any effect. I went out, to have a look at it from the other, open side of the window, the place there is quite small and i was prety close infront of it. The bird didnt budge from the grill inspite of all these, and spent the night there. And it was gone by morning, by the time i woke up - er.... i wake up pretty late after the birds.

I was careful the next evening, and slowly watched it, and the same thing repeated. But it wasn't found there every night. Analysing the pattern, I guessed the bird spent the night there on rainy nights or when it seemed it might rain. This went on through out the rainy season - the little bird would sleep the rainy nights on my bedroom window, and wake up and fly off in the mornings. Switching ON the lights, pulling the curtains, talking inside the room did not matter to the bird in deep slumber.

The rains stopped, and so did the bird's sleep on the window. It didnt seem to visit its bedroom too. And it kinda faded off my mind too. After a month or so, we took off the mesh for a routine washing and cleaning process, completely oblivion of the bird. The windows were open too, for the whole evening. Late in the evening, i realized that i need to close the windows, lest there be hundreds of mosquitos inside the house. Came in to the room and pulled the windows one by one slowly. Before i pulled this particular window, there was a sudden fluttering and in a second a little bird was inside the room. And it was a female indian robin!

Oops..... I slowly went out of the room, trying not to scare the little one, got in Dee and inlaws to see what can be done to send it out. The bird was apparently confused, trying to search the way out of this unfamiliar interiors of the room. Hmmmmm... we first opened all the windows carefully, tied the curtains up, making the windows more visible and evident. It couldn't make out the way out since it was bright inside due to the lights, and dark outside.

We then thought putting off the lights linside, and turning on the lights outside would help, but it didn't. Once the lights were off inside, the bird became totally inactive, not even attempting to find the way out in the direction of whatever little light was present out of the window.

Hmmm... it became a huge task for us, not to hurt or further scare the already perplexed bird, and yet send it to its comfort zone. It would just fly from one corner to the other - on the ceiling fan, on the tubelight, on the attic, on my dressing table, and on the window pelmet - just above its window, yet not discover the way out. We tried making sounds from opposite direction, leaving it alone in the room, switching the lights on and off for sometime, all in vain.

Finally we gave up, and decided to let the bird spend the night in our room, with the windows open, and probably it would leave at dawn. And luckily after sometime of leaving it alone in the room with the lights on, it had somehow found its way out, and was again back to its deep slumber!!! And we had no choice but to sleep with the windows open, and without even the mesh on, but we were glad that the little avion was peacefully asleep just a few feet away from us :)

And the next morning, it was amazing to see the bird wake up to it's peers' chirping outside, just at dawn. The little bird saw this side and that, and then decided it should fly out... Jumped off a few inches and then off it flew into the open air into a new day.....