Scene 1:
Me driving the car while Hubby is in the passenger seat, for once, because he needs to get off first. He gives the word 'backseat driving' a whole new dimension. He is grimly hanging on to the seat and muttering 'Easy, let him pass' or 'Go slow!!' or 'Don't press the clutch ALL the time' totally oblivious to glares from me.
Scene 2:
Me driving and kuttan in the passenger seat. We are getting back from office and daycare respectively. I honk at an irritating auto guy who is driving bang on the middle of the road and refusing to let me pass. 'Amma, DRIVE SLOW!!' shouts kuttan...'Otherwise you'll hit the auto guy, ok?'
WTF????? Out of the mouth of babes.....
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The T Monster!
The last few days have witnessed the slow but sure strangulation of something that is very close to me. Something which I jealously guard and hug very closely to my heart. Something that I gloat to the hubby about. And that is the easy camaraderie and the effortless flow of conversation that I have always been able to maintain with my parents for as far back as I can imagine.
The one thing that I missed most when I married and moved away from my parents was the long gossip/conversation sessions that I used to have with them. I still see myself perched next to the stove as amma cooked, and appa sat on the floor of the kitchen. Just talking. Talking endlessly, about everything and everyone under the sun.
I always believed that my parents had such a rock-solid, strong marriage because they talked to each other. My earliest memories are of waking up from bed and following my parents voices to the kitchen where I would find amma and appa talking and working in happy harmony. There would be nights when there would be HUGE fights and I would cower in fright. But I would always wake up to find them sorting out their issues by really talking..and listening to each other.
When I went to my husband's house for the first time, the one thing that stuck me as most odd was how NOBODY would just sit around and talk at the end of the day. Or at the beginning of it. Or at any other time. People would come in and go out and talk in passing. The place seemed to me to be always in a state of flux and it drove me mad to see people not sitting and having a conversation. When I complained to Hubby about this he always seemed to be mildly amused and tried dismissing it as another quirk of mine. 'Your family discusses things till my ears are literally ringing with all the voices', he'd laugh!!
This time when amma and appa said they were coming and staying with us in Bangalore for a WHOLE month and a half, I knew I had died and gone to heaven in sheer ecstasy. I'll take a couple of days off from work and just laze around the house doing nothing, I told myself, rubbing my hands gleefully.
And so the D-Day arrived and my parents came. I went to work and tore back home early, eager to be held in that warm, comfortable coccoon of good conversation. And saw them watching the television. ALL evening. Its been 2 weeks since they came and so far there has not been a single evening that the television has not blared out those mindless soaps into my living room.
If it's not soaps, its the blasted IPL that appa sits glued on to. Now Hubby and I quietly retire to our rooms in order to be able to have a conversation without shouting above the din made by TV. A habit that I learned from my parents and brought into our marriage has become so important that both of us feel unsettled without those few minutes of quiet conversation. And the tragedy is that I have barely seen my parents have that in this trip. I am heartbroken. The Television monster has struck again. And the darned BCCI has SO much to answer for!!
The one thing that I missed most when I married and moved away from my parents was the long gossip/conversation sessions that I used to have with them. I still see myself perched next to the stove as amma cooked, and appa sat on the floor of the kitchen. Just talking. Talking endlessly, about everything and everyone under the sun.
I always believed that my parents had such a rock-solid, strong marriage because they talked to each other. My earliest memories are of waking up from bed and following my parents voices to the kitchen where I would find amma and appa talking and working in happy harmony. There would be nights when there would be HUGE fights and I would cower in fright. But I would always wake up to find them sorting out their issues by really talking..and listening to each other.
When I went to my husband's house for the first time, the one thing that stuck me as most odd was how NOBODY would just sit around and talk at the end of the day. Or at the beginning of it. Or at any other time. People would come in and go out and talk in passing. The place seemed to me to be always in a state of flux and it drove me mad to see people not sitting and having a conversation. When I complained to Hubby about this he always seemed to be mildly amused and tried dismissing it as another quirk of mine. 'Your family discusses things till my ears are literally ringing with all the voices', he'd laugh!!
This time when amma and appa said they were coming and staying with us in Bangalore for a WHOLE month and a half, I knew I had died and gone to heaven in sheer ecstasy. I'll take a couple of days off from work and just laze around the house doing nothing, I told myself, rubbing my hands gleefully.
And so the D-Day arrived and my parents came. I went to work and tore back home early, eager to be held in that warm, comfortable coccoon of good conversation. And saw them watching the television. ALL evening. Its been 2 weeks since they came and so far there has not been a single evening that the television has not blared out those mindless soaps into my living room.
If it's not soaps, its the blasted IPL that appa sits glued on to. Now Hubby and I quietly retire to our rooms in order to be able to have a conversation without shouting above the din made by TV. A habit that I learned from my parents and brought into our marriage has become so important that both of us feel unsettled without those few minutes of quiet conversation. And the tragedy is that I have barely seen my parents have that in this trip. I am heartbroken. The Television monster has struck again. And the darned BCCI has SO much to answer for!!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
An explanation and an apology....
As to why I have been away for more than a month..and what has transpired in the meantime. It has been an interesting month. Asha left as I had already written before and we got used to life without her. It was not easy at first. My fledgling attempts to get back in shape by joining a Yoga class went down the drain as I had to ditch classes in order to cook breakfast and lunch before heading out the door. Life became an endless cycle of home-office-home kind of drudgery which was particularly soul wearying.
Just when hubby, kuttan and I were all seriously in need of a change of scene, my parents came to our rescue. They are now in Bangalore for a month. A month of carefree enjoyment for kuttan, well-cooked, planned, favorite meals for the hubby (with a lil bit of stock market advice thrown in the side by my dad) and that beautiful, comfortable feeling of having the 4 people I love the most under the same roof for me.
Last month also saw kuttan growing up and maturing in so many ways that I wonder at each new development. Despair at some and marvel at others. He was a little slow at speech but has picked up SO well after he started going to this new school of his. And the best part is that he has become completely bilingual, switching effortlessly between Tamil and English as the conversation flows.
Scene at home:
His Majesty his holding court and amma, appa, Sachumma and Gopa thatha(as he calls my parents) are humbly at his service.
Kuttan(Looking at me): What your name?
Me: BM
Kuttan(Looking at Hubby): What your name?
Hubby: Hubby
Kuttan(Looking at my dad): What your name?
Dad: thatha
Kuttan(Looking at my mom): What your name?
(Pauses and shakes his head)
onnodu peru enna?
How does he know my mom doesnt speak English? My mom was most chagrined that her grandson thought she didnt know even THAT much English and answered almost entirely in English. :) And so the summer evenings pass with playful banter and lively chatter with kuttan holding court at the BM household...and that's what we have been upto. What's up with all of you?
Just when hubby, kuttan and I were all seriously in need of a change of scene, my parents came to our rescue. They are now in Bangalore for a month. A month of carefree enjoyment for kuttan, well-cooked, planned, favorite meals for the hubby (with a lil bit of stock market advice thrown in the side by my dad) and that beautiful, comfortable feeling of having the 4 people I love the most under the same roof for me.
Last month also saw kuttan growing up and maturing in so many ways that I wonder at each new development. Despair at some and marvel at others. He was a little slow at speech but has picked up SO well after he started going to this new school of his. And the best part is that he has become completely bilingual, switching effortlessly between Tamil and English as the conversation flows.
Scene at home:
His Majesty his holding court and amma, appa, Sachumma and Gopa thatha(as he calls my parents) are humbly at his service.
Kuttan(Looking at me): What your name?
Me: BM
Kuttan(Looking at Hubby): What your name?
Hubby: Hubby
Kuttan(Looking at my dad): What your name?
Dad: thatha
Kuttan(Looking at my mom): What your name?
(Pauses and shakes his head)
onnodu peru enna?
How does he know my mom doesnt speak English? My mom was most chagrined that her grandson thought she didnt know even THAT much English and answered almost entirely in English. :) And so the summer evenings pass with playful banter and lively chatter with kuttan holding court at the BM household...and that's what we have been upto. What's up with all of you?
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