Can I/ Can I not/ Dinosaur Phase of Karthik!!

Karthik is seriously going through a major Dinosaur phase. He is obsessed with it and anything and everything is dinosaurs for him. I am mummy dinosaur, he is karthik dinosaur. Sometimes when I say I love you karthik, he says, its I love you karthik dinosaur mom. He is also going through a serious Can I phase? Can I do wee wee mom? Can I do it in the toilet mom? Can I not do it in the toilet mom? Can I get into the shower mom? Can I not shower mom? Can I eat it mom? Can I run mom? Can I walk mom? Can I not walk mom? Can you please huggie me mom? And the list goes on.. Its endless…and its almost like a rhyme. I am patient most of the time, really most of the time, but sometimes, it is exhausting. I hope I realise that moment that it wouldn’t last forever and start enjoying it again…

Cooking is an art!

Lately I realise that the best time spent in the mornings is when I am cooking something. I am a decent cook, but I cook more out of love, than being compelled. The kids and Uday have taken a very special liking to my cooking and do not eat much (the kids I mean) when we eat out. Want to collect some of the receipes I like the most and save it here. In hope of being used by me, in the later years or for Maya and Karthik as mom's cooking book reference:)

Maya’s note

Last Friday, I took off to be with Maya during her school holidays. Inspite of trying to be the best behaviour mom, I got angry on her when she refused to wear a pant saying she needs to put that for so many times. For a middle class family, she does have lots and lots of clothes. I buy for every small occasion here and we do the bulk buying in India trip as well. I asked her how many times do you think you have worn them and she replied about 4 times. I got very upset and started lecturing her as usual about how there are kids without food, water and how she should be grateful for what she has. Etc. She screamed back at me and I got upset and went for shower. After five minutes, she came in and asked me to tell her when I would be free to read her note. I didn’t know what it was and said casually to show it to me, she gave it to me and ran to her room. It was written, sorry for whatever I did wrong amma, will you love me still – to my best amma, from naughty maya. It took me back to my childhood years where I would always leave a note to my mom when I make her upset. I savoured that moment and wrote her back saying, It is not possible for me to stop loving you, I just want you to be happy with what you have etc. We exchanged a couple of notes back and forth and I saved it in my maya treasure box. I always thought of maya like her father, not very expressive and she has many of her behaviour similar to her dads’. But I was really honestly so happy and surprised to see that she does have some of my behaviour too. Whether it is like me or not, I really was happy about the fact that she understood it is wrong and knows how to apologise

All snuggled up Karthi !!!

I always sleep with maya on one side and Karthi on the other. Karthi recent days started saying, he wants to sleep with daddy, but that lasts only for a minute. He goes with his favourite pillow, cuddles his dad and within a minute, in the dark, he is stomping over maya to come to me. Last night was extra special. He wanted to sleep with me and he kept saying mummy mummy in low whisphers. I prefer him calling me Amma, but his day care impact is a bit too much at this moment, so sticking on to mummy. The whisphers went on for a while and I quietly looked at him in the dim moonlight, he was actually asleep, and whisphering mummy. Felt so happy that moment. He truly is a precious miracle!!

Long Drive with Periyappa!

My periyappa is one of the people I admire and look upto. And I had the opportunity that many of our family members didn’t have to spend about three months with them in the US. I was going onsite and by luck it was to Chicago where Periyappa was working in a University. I remember the first day of reaching there and periyamma had made fish fry for me. Until then, from childhood, I religiously followed my mom to not eat Non-vegetarian on Saturdays. I couldn’t resist and I had and there started the never ending habit I loved, loved and loved spending time with them. It was just like back home, I would work through the week and spend the weekend with them. Out of many days, the thing I loved the most was a long drive from Chicago to Madison. We were supposed to go to an Indian event, but as usual periyappa turned up late at my hotel and inspite of periyamma repeatedly telling us to take the high way, we took the country road. Periyamma is all high fashioned, get it done quickly type of person. But I and thankfully periyappa also preferred driving through the country roads, apart from all the traffic. We drove through every possible small road and honestly the best drive I ever had. I was and am still surprised that periyappa shared so many of his stories with me. There, he was a great professor, having done lectures for so long and meeting so many important people. And I am a 25 year old girl, who had no clue about many things in life. But I could see he enjoyed talking to me. On the way back to Chicago, we did the same, taking the country road. We stopped over at Mcdonalds (that’s one of the things they both did, whenever we went out, even for a small drive, they took me to Mcdonalds because I enjoyed it very much). We lost our way and the GPS didn’t work as I thought it would. For some reason, I managed to find the office I was working in, and reached our hotel from there. He started calling me human GPS and would share that story to whomever he spoke to. There was a eat out we went in the middle of our way and periyappa was talking to me that he would sponsor me to take a H1 and come to US. They had never said that to anyone in our family, but he went on for a long trying to persuade me to do it. But I had a good life in Bangalore and I didn’t want to do anything of that sort. And I didn’t think I could stay away from my parents for years together. What life had in plan for me is a different story, but I was very adamant that I would never go abroad. Even now, periyappa always says that when he sees that place where we sat down for a long and spoke, he always thinks of me. They still talk about my visit there, periyappa more than periyamma actually. I am not a very special person, but I could see that they saw me as a special person from that trip onwards.

Madhumita Muthukrishnan

I am not a regular blogger, not a person who keeps journals. But I realised when I read through my old blogs, how little things (which I thought at that moment that I will not forget it forever), are lost in my memory. A sudden death of a person I didn’t know at all, made me realise, that I need to capture as much as I can and hoping someday, my kids will read through it(if it exists) I follow a group in FB and I remember browsing Madhumitas profile many times. Once I looked up seeing her reply to some post, but later, sometimes I used to look up, just because I liked her looks and her kids. Sadly saw a post yesterday that she is no more. I cannot being to express how shocked I was, because I was one of those people who look up on others FB pictures and think their life is perfect and mine is not. I was shattered thinking what her kids and entire family is going through. It is true that we never know that tomorrow holds. No one can predict a future and I realised the meaning of live today as it is your last. I don’t know how much of it I will follow, but honestly I am going to give it my best shot. And I am going to try writing as much as possible (not that I am always busy at office or home), I do have some spare time. It is not for anyone else, just for myself or my kids (if they are interested).