Kulli Speaks

Kulli had not been well on Saturday. And now shes doing fine.She had some stomach infection, due to which she was throwing up even water.

Me: what do you want for breakfast?
Kulli: Saffola oats, its good for health.
Me:OK
We went to the grocery store,
Kulli: Amma buy Saffola oil
Me:No kulli we don't get that brand.
Kulli: But Amma its healthy, don't you see T.V, and they give popcorn also free.
If Saffola, guys hear my kulli speak, they can make her their Brand ambassador.

Me: Kulli you need to eat well.Finish your Lunch.
Kulli: Its ok Amma, You give Complan, I will grow taller and stronger.

Just a Note: She watches hardly half an hour of T.V, and she has mugged the brands with their punchline. If I had allowed more T.V time, then what would have been the state!


Me: Kulli you need to puke in bathroom, run when it comes.
Kulli: OK, but it doesn't tell me before it comes, only after it comes out I will know.

I want to be my GrandMom

When my grand mom was young, she did not go to school, did housework all day, looked after her siblings and was married by the age of 12.She married my granddad who had a very strict mother, who actually taught my grand mom her way of doing things, assisted her in all her childbirth and her recovery from it and also looked after her kids.Now I am not saying my Grand mom's mother in law was a goddess from heaven, she obliviously had her own way of hurting my grand mom, but at least she supported my grand mom in every hardship she faced.My grandmom did not have to bother about working, since women did not go to work.She need not bother about money, coz she had very limited desires due to very limited exposure.In general, she led a very contented life, since she stuck to   cooking, cleaning, washing and trying to keep the ""Pati Parmeshwar" happy.This was the story of my paternal grandmom.But my maternal grandmom though she did all the above, she filled her daughters with desire to study and go to work.She made sure that they studied hard got good marks and got a job, so that they neednt ask their husband money as she did.
My mom studied hard, got a post graduate degree, got a job and married.She and my dad had dreams to give their children much more than what they had as children.Grandmom thankfully looked after me and my sis when we were small and supported my mom in her career.My parents worked hard built a house, bought a car by the time I was 6, put us to best schools, and gave us vacation twice a year.During my childhood I fondly remember the vacations which my dad had meticulously planned , though there was no internet.The hotel rooms which were booked much in advance still makes me feel grateful to the vacations my parents took us to.Of course we did not wear branded clothes, did not have hi fi toys, but we made sure that we have just enuff of what all was needed, not too much, nor too little.My parents never pushed us for anything, they gave us freedom to study what we wanted and thus I caught up the Engineering bus and became an engineer.
I finished my Engineering, got a job in a MNC and like most of the Bangalore ans,became a software engineer and got married to a boy my parents chose for me.I  changed companies, worked late, got pay hikes, just like my husband who also worked late.I traveled on site on work, made money and then realizing that my biological clock is ticking had a baby.Now having no support system as my mother had, nor the heart to leave a small baby to that day care I am at home.
Again back to square one, I am doing what my grand mom was doing during her days.I am at home, doing what she was doing.But the difference is, I have worked so ,I know the value of money.I am stressed out, coz probably at the back of my mind, I am jealous of my friends who have excellent support system to fall back.I cannot be content like Grand mom, since very week there is a new sale , new car, new jewelery shop being launched.I am worried that other women who work might judge me as some one who was not serious about my job.I am worried that my husband S might feel that he works all day while I am at home.I feel insecure if my house is not clean coz people might remark that I am at home all day and still manage not to find time to do house work.I am scared that my daughter someday might feel that, if I worked like other moms probably she could have had a better life.I feel bad that my parents gave me education, and here I am not putting it to any use.  But deep down , I know that probably I am doing what has to be done.Probably I am being wise for being there for my daughter when she is small rather than retiring early when she is in her teenage and dosent want  me around.
But still I wish I was in my Grand mom's generation, when I dint have to be worried or apologetic for choosing  not to work for  being just a wife and mother.

Once upon a time, I lived in a city called Bangalore, which is now renamed as Bengaluru.I was born and brought up in this city of Bangalore.People used to call it by different names, Garden city, pensioners paradise etc. As kids, we played on roads with our friends till it was so dark, that we could not see each other and then come home.The roads were just roads, no underpass, no magic box, no flyovers just plain old fashioned roads.Most of the roads were lined with huge Rain trees which provided shade to the entire road sometimes.Sparrows were  common and would visit us in our courtyards everyday.
By the way, we dint have a single mall in our city back then.We shopped at our neighborhood grocery shop.The shop keeper knew our family as well.So when we want to the shop and asked for coffee powder, he would give us our brand.Every month on the 1st we would make a huge list of groceries and give it to the shop keeper to be delivered at our door step by the day end.We knew almost everybody in the neighborhood.We knew their families, their aunts, uncles practically entire history of the families in our neighborhood.
We had very few theaters and movie watching was probably once or twice in a year affair.In the morning, some of us would go and stand in the queue at about 9am, ticket window would be open by 10.30am, we would buy the tickets and come back home and then go to the movie at 4pm, with entire family in the evening.The movie  would be implanted in our memories for so long, bcoz of all the troubles we took to watch a movie.Now with the age of Internet, multiplexes, tele booking, the fun in watching a movie is gone.We had only DD1 in our T.V, and would wait with baited breath for Superman series, Laurel and Hardy, Vikram Aur Baitaal.I can still sing Vikram Aur Baitaal title song.
Our schools were close by and we would walk to school with our friends.Our teachers knew us personally and going to school was so much fun when fees was nominal, homework minimal, and cultural activities maximal :) .(Just wanted to rhyme).We went to flour mills with our grandparents to help them,get wheat, rice flour.Stood in long queues in Ration shop, to get ration with our parents.Played with maids children, without being scolded by parents.Our parents, dint know, what were traffic jams, stress, tension and had 9 to 5 jobs.
Those were the days my friend.......
I wish,somehow all that comes back again.My daughter and son  get to experience my long last good old city again.

Which role does a woman play better

Contest

When  I  saw this contest about a perspective as which  role is important . I did not get an answer for a very long time. I personally feel a woman plays many roles and each role is equally important and she plays every role  to her best. Women are genetically made as givers and nurtures.It is scientifically proved that a woman forgives and forgets more easily than a man does.
  So coming back to the point , which role does the woman play better. She is born as a daughter. As a daughter she is adorable, vulnerable and lovable. The feelings which are evoked when you hold a newborn daughter is very different  from the feeling you have when you hold a son. She gives life to your forgotten dreams and aspirations. As a sister , she is protective, friend  and  a giver,  and no matter whether she is younger or elder she will look after and stand be her siblings. As a wife she gives everything she has to make the marriage work. She  embraces a man's home and family as it has been ingrained in her from her birth. She makes his life worth living , just by being there for him.As a mother she is the primary care giver to her child. She makes a decision to put her child first the moment she conceives and stands by it through her lifetime.And as a grandmother  she enjoys and revels in the bliss of her grand kid's childhood which as a  mother she missed it out. And last but not the least, as a friend she is the listener, the advisory and the philosopher.

And which role does she play  better.I guess a woman plays all roles to her best. And any role she puts   a teaspoon of common sense, a pinch of love, and  cup of wisdom and her soul in it. The universe exists because there is women who plays many roles.
As the  sanskrit shloka goes,
Karyeshu Mantri, Karaneshu Dasi,Rupeshu Lakshmi, Kshyama Dharitri, Sneheshu Mata
                                              

And I tag ,
 Sangitha 
Sum
Ally
                  

Lesson Learnt

 Every evening at around 7pm, after my husband comes home, settles down , I leave my monsters with him and go for a brisk walk around my complex. It usually takes around 30 mins to complete 6 rounds. These  30 minutes, are very sacred to me, coz i switch on my i pod and sweat it out in the cool breeze.
Yesterday, a lady who looked 9 months pregnant smiled at me. Now I see this lady from my utility window every morning and evening  going for walks. She walks little slow and appears to be totally pissed of with something. So  I assumed , she must be in the last stage of pregnancy, and I totally sympathized with her, coz  during the last few weeks of pregnancy, I was so tired and cranky and in general wanted to get over with it as fast as I can.

Now, coming to the  main part, So I smiled back at her, she asked me, shall I join you. Not wanting to be rude, I told her, see I walk really fast. I don't think you should be walking that fast. It not safe for you at this stage. Yesterday must have been my lucky day, she got super offended, but still she managed to smile and say she is not pregnant. She has a 9 year old son and a 2 year daughter. Though I apologized I felt stupid , to have passed a judgment on somebody. As it turns out that lady was real sweet and  I went for 3 more rounds with her, even though it slowed me down, just to make up for my error.

Moral of the story: Never I say Never , assume a lady is pregnant until you see a baby coming out of her.