Tongue twister

Satisfaction is....starting a small scale service station to supply the subtle snack to the siblings, at six on a sprinkly saturday evening!!

The Holy Dip!!

The once-in-12-year and the special 144th year ritual is done!! Sounds huge, dramatic......the 'been there, done that' feeling, the high given by 'achievement unplugged'.......confused as to what I am experiencing now, given the mindset with which I went there!!
I resisted hard not to add my share to the water pollution at the pushkara ghats, but had to abide by the duties of a common Indian woman......satisficed myself and justified my stance by just sprinkling the holy water from Godavari on the head!!
Nothing to boast of after observing the hygiene and sanitary conditions at the banks.....yet nothing to feel less proud after watching people trying hard to keep the age-old traditions intact by offering prayers to the ancestors as well as the river Goddess on this special occasion!!

Kaka's Birthday

Eight years after I turned a parent, I know I have a pillar of strength as my elder son to fall back and seek support..(though he takes me to my wit's end before doing that.....:))... My boy is eight and that shows up this way.....

The Unsolicited Help

We wish God always looks at(after) us, hears our concerns and solves our problems. However, the moment we realize that a fellow being is staring at us, following us or is concerned too much about our details or problems, we are irritated, lose our peace of mind and feel insecure!! He might be genuinely trying to help us, but suspicion, common sense and practical thinking seize the lifeline and blind us from recognizing the messenger of God in such person!!

It has been my observation....our elders and ancestors were not like this!! Even today, they never hesitate to share their concerns. A slight twinge of tiredness, an intertwine of eyebrows, a fold on the forehead are enough for them to read the other person's mind,.....be it stranger, friend, neighbour, family member or acquaintance.......the relationship or distance don't matter at all. They quickly offer help by engaging in conversation with the person, providing him the necessary warmth and confidence to speak out their minds, understanding the concerns and proposing ways to ease them. 'It is their problem, their concern, let them solve it by themselves' has never been their forte!! Malgudi Days clearly illustrates such close-knit mindsets of the days. Just speaking to such elders would help us release a part of our baggage and lighten our minds by few grams!!
To sum up, God has purposefully created species rather than a single specimen of each living being!!

Baahubali

'Eureka' moment......So, couldn't stop myself from posting!!!
This is the first time I enquired so much before actually watching the movie (thanks to Vignesh, Sweta, Sharat, Sai and Sriram mavayya for the wonderful reviews)..... these were all my attempts to gauge the magnanimity of the actual movie against the aura, talk and craze it has accumulated over the looooong period of its conception.
Finally, bought the tickets and sat through the first half and also most part of the latter one too. The entire puzzle of Baahubali unfolded in front of me as Kattappa built the defense strategy and prepared to fight with minimum army against that of the enormous enemy troops. I already know this..... I can draw the similarities clearly.....'Shiva'...here is the hero......I got it!! Hah......my quota of excitement started here.....relating the movie to the story I already know!! These were all the scenes that I imagined while reading those books!!
But no, I will not play the spoilsport and reveal the source of Baahubali because the movie is really good, well-conceived, a thriller and an entertainment package in itself (No Zandu Balm film)!!
Now, I can't agree that the movie is related to any period, fantasy or war-related English movie because the source is very much Indian!!

Learning through Parenting

Yesterday, it was the turn of honey bees. Watchman came and warned us about the hive on the tree in front of our gate and asked us to keep the windows and doors closed since they would be extracting honey. That cue was interesting and inspiring enough to spark the questions that popped immediately in the kids' minds....what? when? where? how? The entire day revolved around answering about the bees.... queen bee, worker bees, why not a king bee, hexagons in the comb, bee stings, bee wax, making honey, the process of extraction, the dance, the color n shape of the hive, who in the family would be the Queen and who are the workers??!!!! I had no option but to recall my age-old zoology onto the tracks!!

No day is monotonous or unexciting. Everyday, it is a new topic, new story.....new learning....new ideas..... children give us a chance to refresh the knowledge. It is more of a memory exercise for parents than to them.... They push us to memorize the textbooks from school and college, put the knowledge that we have gathered through the years to test, point out the grey areas in our cognizance, drive us to retrieve the information or run an upgrade if necessary!! Parenting is not an easy exam to pass, but definitely not as insipid as the academic assessments!!

Today, they have an assignment on Bheem.... So, bracing myself to clarify all their queries and face them well-equipped with Bheem facts (I already know the topic today, so googling and preparing hard to act a Pro!!)!!