Meditative Process

One day, when I dropped into my neighbor's home, they were having mangoes. She being a mom mom, offered me the mango she had 'prepared' for herself & took a fresh one out of the bunch.

I say prepared, because she patiently squeezes the mango before peeling it. If you cut this prepared mango, you will get a pure bliss in the form of thick pulpy mango.... Aaah! Slurrrp! She patiently did that for every single person in the room. I was unusually quiet during my visit. Where does she get the patience to do this for all in the room? That too before she had one for herself? Later, when I was thinking this out loud a friend said....

"It might be a meditative process for her."

I could feel myself stare at Him.... lost at 'meditative process'. How true!! It is never a task for her. Well, that knowledge did change my outlook on cooking. Now, I cook only when I feel the meditative need. Even when I prepared a very basic Sadhya for Onam at home, I was at peace with myself. Of course, I had all the support from my house elves ;)

Picture Courtesy : leenaeats.com

a "mounam" filled day

Today, I have been hooked to songs which speaks about "mounam". The closest I know of that word's meaning would be silence. My personal explanation would be... Its the term conjured by people who doesn't understand the phenomenon of communicating without any communication ... :D These songs topped the list today....

The day started with this song penned by a friend. Hmmm... maybe I should ask him to come up the English translation for this song. Dearie... if you are reading this... Start working on the translation ... ;)

As the day progressed, I was bragging about the above song to another friend & he suggested this one. This was not the first time I am listening to this song. I was introduced to this song by Kiddo's dad a long time ago.

And finally this song which my music player randomly picked ... :-)

Wish everyone mounam filled days ... :-)

Picture Courtesy : classyblackgirl.com

Where is the Thank You?

One lazy morning in Goa, we had been to a place for breakfast. This place seemed to be a family run place. The person who served us the breakfast was speaking in the local language(Konkani). Being served with simple & yummy food, I was in a good mood & wanted to Thank them in their local language. One of my friend spoke this language. So, I ask her, "How do you say Thank You in Kokani?"

She gives me a blank expression. I could see her searching each & every brain cells of her's to find an appropriate word for the situation. She comes up with nothing & says, "No there is no such word in Konkani". To confirm her assertion, she rings up her mom. Mom too goes silent for a moment & returns nil.

All of us... from different parts of India started thinking in this direction & was trying to find out an appropriate word in any of the local languages. We all had a formal word in our respective languages. Words that is used only in official letters or conversations. But none to express our gratitude for all those little things people do for us.

That was when one of us said, "We take everything for granted. We carry the attitude that, It is his/her duty, what is there to thank so much about?"

Sadly... that is the truth........

Picture Courtesy : dadditudes.com

Preachers

He : Ayyooooo! I have to fix my wifi. I have a lot of small small tasks to finish.
Me : Finish it dear.... Once you take care of these clutter, you will be able focus on bigger things.

After 2 seconds of silence we both look at each other & burst out laughing & rolling on the floor. And repeat in chorus...

"Its easier to preach!"

He had mentioned the exact same thing to me a few minutes back. Well, looks like we are going nowhere. And, while we are stationed here, we are planning to start a motivating center because both of us can preach very well... :-)

Picture Courtesy : favim.com

unniappams

Nothing sells like a batch of freshly made unniappams. As a child, I was more fascinated with the batter than the unniappams. Sometime during the growing up stage, I fell out of love with these small round cakes. This was later introduced to me by 'tpr amma' (kiddo's dad's mom). My command over language is not strong enough to express what I feel when she makes unniappams for me... :)

I have always considered these small yummy round cakes as something extremely complicated to make.... Something that was exclusively reserved... which only the earlier generations of mommies could make... that I was not meant to attempt due to my lack of patience.... Until I read this blog of my friend. She made unniappam sound sooo simple that even I could dare to think about attempting.

Well..... after 3yrs of trial & error.... Kiddo tells me, "Ammaaa, you make yummy unniappams. Just like achamma's & ammamma's(her grans from both the sides)"

Yipppeeeeee!

Picture Courtesy : adukalavishesham.blogspot.in

think like a....

Got this from an article a friend had suggested to me...


Think like a judge. Don't accept information for which you have no solid evidence.
Think like a scientist. Seek out answers yourself.
Think like a mathematician. Use logic.

But what about that strong gut feeling??

There was an interesting talk at TED on wearable communications. The speaker had come up with an interesting device to listen to your gut. Maybe we all need that ... :)

Picture Courtesy : nolawellnessandhealthyliving.com

leftie

This week marked the International Lefthanders Day. Someone had shared this pic in the web. This is so true.

No, I am not a leftie. But Kiddo is. And the first thing anyone asks is, "Is she a leftie?"

Being an Indian, this question has many undercurrents. Any good deed should be performed by the right hand. Be it as simple as handing over something to someone, it has to be done using the right hand. You can imagine how shocked the person at the receiving end would be while accepting something from Kiddo.... :-)

A more annoying series of questions starts the moment someone watches kiddo having food with her left hand. As everyone knows, we eat with our hands & we clean with our hands too. The hand used for latter is never used for the former ... :D Honestly, I think people are programmed accordingly. I didn't have to take extra effort in separating Kiddo's eating hand from the cleaning hand. She herself did that without being told.

The real problem I feel is how the small things are configured. For example, the alignment of the door knob, the orientation of the tap etc. These are the places where I see Kiddo struggle as her hands go criss cross to get things done. These are the places where she has to struggle. The rest is all in our mind.... we just have to let them be the way they are.... :)

Kiddo.... mmmmmmmmuah!

Picture Courtesy : Borrowed the g+ post

Magical Eyes

"How did you know????"
Asks a wide eyed Kiddo. Flabbergasted at the precision with which I narrated the sequence of events in her day after she reached home. That too as soon as I stepped in from office. Which means, I did not get time to be updated on the events by the baby sitter.

Me {all smug now} : I know. I have Magical Eyes! It tells me exactly what you do.
Kiddo : Who all has magical eyes?
Me : Every mom & dad has magical eyes.
Kiddo {after pondering on this terrifying news} : I think achan(dad) has lost his magical eyes. He keeps asking me "What are you doing? What are you doing?".

I was reminded of this post when she made this statement ..... :)

Picture Courtesy : phagunbaya.blogspot.in

responding to compliments

He : You really don't know how to handle a compliment, isn't it?

That was the response I get from a friend who paid an indirect compliment to me. What do I do when I get one? Well I pick up the serious notes from that indirect compliment & start with my theories & formulae.

So next time I start talking nonsense when you give me a direct or indirect compliment, remember ..... I do not know to respond to one. The blabbering is because like an ostrich, I am looking for that place to hide so that I don't have to respond to it and not because I did not appreciate the gesture ... O:-)

Picture Courtesy : greathealthmag.com

catching up with friends ... :)

A heartfelt laughter can energize you like anything. And watching a fully pregnant lady having one.......

Last weekend, I happened to meet a bunch of friends from my college. I was not part of their close group. But that didn't stop them from having fun(read pulling each others legs). As the evening progressed, ROFL turned out to be an understatement. What I loved that evening was the image of my pregnant friend... laughing uncontrollably.... with tears flowing out of her eyes.... amidst her close friends.

What more can I ask for on the eve of friendship day ... :)

Picture Courtesy : www.fbc-lowell.com

aaah! that rain!

Kiddo : "I think I will get BIG fever when I get back. I will not be able to goto school then. I will get lots of homework!"

This statement had a mix of all emotions. Even I had to smile when she said this ... :-)

Kiddo & I always get excited the moment the word rain hits our senses ... :) Three days on road ensured that we had ample opportunity to enjoy this phenomenon. The option of waiting along the kerb until the rain recedes was shot down by kiddo herself. I could feel her being torn between her desire & reality while she was making this comment.

PS.
The side effect of being a parent is, by the time your child is 3yrs old, you are 1/3rd a doctor. So, was able to make early detection of her system beginning to conk off. This enabled us to administer the appropriate medicines on time. After a good nights sleep, Kiddo was as active as ever ... :-)

Picture Courtesy : srikrishnadas.wordpress.com

stages in life

.... makes and interesting categorization of them(different stages a man passes through in his lifetime) as athelete stage, warrior stage, statesperson stage and spirit stage.

This is an excerpt from 'Ignited Minds'. I liked the description of the warrior stage & the statesperson stage. I am just noting the gist of the it here.

Warrior stage ... proud of its achievements, it finds ways to demonstrate its superiority over others. Ego is the driving force.

Statesperson/BigBrother stage ... the Ego has been tamed somewhat and with its new found maturity awareness shifts to what is important. The idea is to help others become better.

I exercise my rite to the mile long expression here ... ;)

Picture Courtesy : awakenyourinnertruth.wordpress.com

follow the white ....

Neo was asked to follow the white rabbit. But we explorers at Goa followed the white line.

The place where we were staying at Goa was situated in a sleepy little village. There were hardly anybody on the road to ask for directions, if the electronic gadgets we were carrying failed. Thats when we noticed... the road connecting our resort to the city is well laid & visibly marked. We just had to follow the roads with white border lines and it took us to the city & back ... :)

Yes, this logic worked well for us. We got lost once & we noticed that it was because we took a turn without the while border lines ... :)

Picture Courtesy : This was a pic we had taken during our stay in Goa. 

Oh My Sleeping Child

One good thing that came out of our Goa trip was .... All of us learned to handle a sleeping child on the bike .... :)

Had heard this in a gathering at a friend's place.... "Children live in the moment. Everything else doesn't matter to them". Yea ... we learned it the hard way ... ;) It was a little scary for the rider as they could actually feel Kiddo slipping sideways on their back. And, we had to keep asking the pillion rider, "Is she okay? Are you holding her?"

PS.
We are all responsible people & we took care off Kiddo very well. It was a true team work. And, Kiddo zimbly(simply) enjoyed the ride & the sleep on the bike.

Picture Courtesy : www.blissweb.com

honest comment

Kiddo was watching me get out of my 'wrap' before taking a dip in the pool. She takes one nice look at me & says ...
"Ammaaa .... you are fat"

Yea ... rite!!! Thank God I cannot burn webpages. Otherwise I would have had to burn this one. Who needs enemies when you have critics like kiddo, mom & bro!!!

Aaaargh!

Picture Courtesy : herfitnesshut.com