There is something about Friday

Its like poori kayanat comes to celebrate this awesome day! 

Today the temperatures were hitting all time lows. It was raining like crazy. URGHHHH!!!! But then still it was Friday. Things tend to go ok on a Friday.

Somehow Chiyaa decided to take an elongated nap. Something like 2 hours. Maybe because of the cold climate, she felt all warm and snuggled up in her blanket. That gave me time to catch up with 2 dear friends. Wow! It was so fantastic!!! Words cannot describe how good I felt. One is my proper alter ego, with whom I can share almost everything. She understands me totally and being of the same wavelength as me, its like seeing a mirror. But she also gives her words of honesty and caution which is amazing. I can't be more grateful to God for having given such an amazing friend. The other is my pillar of strength who has seen me through some real tough times. My contact with her is few and far between given her numerous responsibilities at home and work. But when we do catch up, its like a breath of fresh air. It was thoroughly enriching talking to both of them.

In spite of time having rolled on, there was no sign of the Munchkin waking up. I thought might as well utilise this time to get my wish fulfilled. Yep of making daal baati which I mentioned in my last post. I was planning to follow this recipe. Now if you see the recipe is a pretty elaborate one like performing a science experiment. But anyways I decided to follow it. Started in the morning itself and had hopes that would somehow be able to manage it for dinner. Thankfully I was. Here's the result. Must have done something prettttttttttty wrong for it looks nothing like the image in the recipe ;) Though it was edible. Ashu you are not to be blamed :) 

Midway K came for tea cos he never had a proper lunch. Chiyaa slept a bit more and I read some pages of a book.Hmmm.... there is something about Fridays, even the rain soaked ones.

An idea can change your 28th post

As the days keep rolling by to reach the 30th day mark, I was seriously going dry in the grey matter area. 

But then there are some real cool idea people likeN who have made my job a little bit easier. Here's the Alphabet tag :) Seriously what an idea Madamjee.

Cherrie's blogs have already reached the all time high of having 51 posts this year itself. Seriously half century in a year. All thanks to this Blog-athon!

Days are getting way shorter and it is somehow the most irritating aspect of winters for me. Apart from getting dressed up like astronauts, heating drinking water, melting coconut oil and a million plus one additional tasks.

Every day we think of hitting the bed early. Early to bed and early to rise right? But then either our madamjee is up playing or just not sleepy and when she sleeps off, our sleep is gone :(

For quite some time I have been toying with the idea of making daal baati. A Rajasthani delicacy. I would love to make it. Hopefully someday soon.

Good in a way that I do not have work to attend to. I keep getting asked this question, that it might be way easier to have no hustle bustle of work, but then, taking full time care of a baby is a physically asking task. 

Helium filled balloons look so cute don't they? Here's my lil one playing with one - well sorta.

Idlis are what I have been planning to make since the past 2 weeks. Never able to manage the time to soak the dals :(

Jostling for space constantly - that's the kitchen scene. There is fresh clashes between Chiyaa and the parent's dishes now a days. Constant competition between the little vessels and big ones, the small quantity dishes and the normal, the water sippers and the water bottles. Gosh! Its such a mess.

King Khan's latest movie came and went, and my heart never got the time to go aflutter :( 

Looking forward to Life of Pi though. It is releasing 2 weeks later here - no idea why!? Not even sure if we would be able to watch it in the theatre.

Moong daal sprouts with banana and milk is what I have been having for breakfast. It's a bit boring but its supposed to be good to counter hair loss. Take note Nance :P 

Nando's chicken is the only chicken K is still in love with. He has fallen out  of love with all. :( Too bad, its only been recently I was getting the hang of cooking chicken.

Oh by the way, K started a vegetarian. Turned egg-etarian. Then proper chicken-etarian. His love for chicken increased by leaps and bounds, till recently hes on the decline now :(

PS3 is something he never gets the time with. Poor thing, no matter how conducive the time, the lil one sniffs out hes going to kill some bad people and tries to join forces with him ;) K does'nt appreciate it :P

Quite strangely Chiyaa does not put much stuff in her mouth. She peels onions and garlic, makes a rattle of slippers, bangs vessels like crazy, but does not put things in her mouth. Diapers - yes that she tries to!!

Recently did a lot of online shopping. I think I am finally getting the hang of it :) 

Scrubbed the whole house with my bare hands. Felt good and all sanitised :D 

Try to shape up is what K told me yesterday :( Weightloss is fine, but you have to get into shape now :( Huh! I told this to roomie dear this morn and she said which shape? 'V' ? Friends like these who needs enemies 
x-(

Until summer K has given up his fitness regime. Hmpf. 

Virtually every place is resplendent with Christmas lights. Sales, shops open later than usual hours and crowds braving the winter - there is something in the air during Christmas time.

Washing machine is the most used appliance in our home these days, thanks to lots of baby bibs, muslin clothes and the like.

x-( is a smiley I am getting a hang of now a days :) I somehow love writing up the smileys, as in rather than using the ones that come up in messengers, I like writing them. 

Yahoo messenger has the best smileys I feel. I simply love the rotfl one =)) 

Z? I have reached zzzzzzzz??

Whatta day

Well, 12.12.12 came to and end. Fancy date.

And I got calls from lot of people telling me this :) Also asking what's special? Arre birthday hai jee mera.  :) I love my birthday (I love all birthdays, love the birthdays of everybody I love) But again in Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met style Main apni favourite hoon ;) 

Day started off with checking messages. Thanks to the advent of smart phones and everyone having installed Whatsapp or Viber or any one of the zillion things that makes instant communication possible (imagine my mom and mom in law are also hooked onto them) I got quite a few messages this time. Unlike the totally dry year of 2010. Facebook had lots of messages and unlike the super duper busy very important people who give global responses like 'thank you very much my sweet friends for your wishes you guys made my day' (many a times I would not have wished the person but would end up getting included in the message ;) and I seriously wonder who started this idea? Anddddd if you do not have the courtesy to thank people why put up your birthday in the first place? I think its so that people can wish you) Anyways there I gooooooo rambling like a person gone cuckoo :S

So after thanking my fb friends got on with Skype call with mil. She distributed sweets and cake on our behalf to nearby slum dwellers. The day then went in a whirl wind . I somehow ended up having quite a bit of cooking to do. Semolina kheer for chiyaa, rice and brinjal fry for lunch and then I realised the pineapple was getting over ripe so had to use it up in some chutney. I managed making all that in the nick of time .

Roomie dear, my friend B and Ashu made the day extra special by calling up. Evening was the usual call with mom and finally Sam had the spare time to call up- busy busy manager :) but the best was yet to come. I was getting ready to whip up some good dinner given K's highly erratic schedule when came his lovely message 'all set? We can start by 6:30' yayyyyyyyyyyy. Got ready and headed to an Italian place.

The food was awesome! But best was just being there with K inspite of the chaos of feeding Chiyaa, keeping her entertained and eating your own food. She got sleepy and cranky in the middle of it and I was willing her to somehow stay awake till the end of dinner. Food done we walked back through the deserted cold streets made so vibrant by the Christmas lights. There seriously is something in this time of the year. It's weirdly amazing how K and I barely have time thanks to the munchkin and still the little chit chats which last milli seconds are so priceless .

Chiyaa took a lil nap. It's 23:07 and she's active as a bird. And now I am willing her to sleep! Such are the ironies of life :)

Throwing thoughts about throwing a party

Life always comes to bite me in the back - big time. Like what ever I make fun of others, comes back to haunt me like the images of lizards ( I know weird, but images of lizards can give me the worst of creeps). As in there was a time in school I used to keep singing about Jaane jigar jaane man sattar kilo ka wazan (in the tune of that famous song from the movie Aashiqui) I have no idea why on earth I used to find it funny and sing it. And sattar kilo I did hit and was I sad. :(

When my sis and cousins were into the iPhone frenzy, I used to possess an old radio for a phone. I was like, ok whatever, let my lil one come over, the baby is gonna use your phones like toy cars. Guess what. My baby turns 2 months old and K gifts me a - you guessed it - Iphone! You will not believe it, but when we had gone to India, she would just go for my phone and try to ravage it. Huh! 

That makes me very jittery of the Karma  bug. It is quite a relentless one. That is why I try to be fair and just (fail miserably mannnnnny times ) Anyways I can save my two pints on karma for some later day. Look how much I can talk without hitting the point. Well, whenever I used to see birthday pics of kids, I  used to think aww.. poor dears, they are not even aware of what's happening. And they are being thrown into the centre of all this. All the decoration, many a times uncomfortable clothes, crowd. Urggghh! Being an adult I would'nt appreciate that. Imagine kids as young as 12 months old made to undergo all of it.

But, but, but - the buggie is back to bite me. Here I am more than 2 months away but already planning the lil ones big party *hides face shame faced*. Yes like a proper cheesy mom (I wanted to be the uber cool one like they show in movies. Come to think of it, why do they show dads as being uber cool?! ) I want a biiiiiiiig party for my daughter. I want a hall booked, people called over, an elaborate menu and yes a glittery (and maybe uncomfotable :(  ) dress for Chiyaa. K took the stand of having a small get together at home cos being the pessimistic Cancerian he anticipates many people would not turn up, venue might not be so good and etc etc. 

As of now, the jury is still out. Still, do you see how life comes full circle for me? *shivers in dread*

Kal kya hua

Well Sunday re-cap time again :) K had to get to work and that too real early. I think by 0800 he was up at his desk some implementation stuff *ARGH*. But well we got to look at the positives,so here goes :) 

• K was 'nt there by the time I woke up, but I was able to finish my morning chores in stealth mode before the lil one was up. *Hurrayyyyyyyyy*
• Made papad kadhi after a long time, and it turned out fine
• Was able to complete Barfi *phew* 
• I was being tempted to order some food for dinner, but somehow the site from which I wished to do the same was kaput. After some time my craving was gone :) Was I glad or what at having saved some calories!

Finallllllllly.................

.............. phinised vatching Baarfee. Phew! 

I thought I would never able to get done with it. Boy it took 1.5 weeks gosh! This kiddo never lets me get done with a movie in one sitting. I somehow watched  1 hour 12 minutes of the movie in one sitting. After that it was just unbelievable. I get on with the movie and the kid screams for attention. I even put it up one time when she was too engrossed in her games to even notice her dad! But then I put on the VLC player and shes beside me all huffing and panting. Now I am strictly against babies watching tv - STRICTLY AGAINST. So I would grudgingly turn it off. 

I would get itsy bitsy opportunities but then I just would not be in the mood to watch - somehow :( At one point I was on the verge of giving up. I anyways knew the ending and other details. (Why was I watching it? Maybe just to form my opinion :P ) I digress. So there I was sometime snatching 3 minutes, other times 5 and not able to get to the end. So much so I watched this song close to 4 times. (Not that I mind, I somehow let the song grow over me and started liking it by 3.5th hearing :D ) 

Finally today afternoon Chiyaa slept off and I was able to sneak in the last bits of the movie. And boy did I feel waves of accomplishment gush over. :) It felt good :) 

Impressions of the movie? Well, it could have been tad better paced. Otherwise my overrunning thought was -sab kuch kitna sundar hai! Ileana is too pretty! Boy she was such a pretty sight to behold in the modern 70s getup as well as sarees! Darjeeling was ravishing. I loved the bit where Barfi takes Jhilmil to her old nanny. The sights are so breath taking, I felt like running through those fields then and there (I am not a person who likes greenery much :) ) The shots with the Howrah Bridge were also superb. Priyanka Chopra was the epitome of innocent beauty. Everything was beautiful. As the saying goes - a thing of beauty is a joy forever :) 

Serious ramblings?

I dunno somehow everyone every where is stressing the fact that the year seemed to have just zapped through. It is understandable for me, cos come on I had a baby - an earth shattering, nerve wracking event which has changed my life like for ever. But then for everyone else it seems so!!?? Even the photographer with whom we did a family shoot said, for him too the year seemed to have just passed. 

What a year it has been and what a wow of a year.But all that in the year end wala post. 

My mom while watching Chiyaa over Skype mentioned today, "I feel as if I never held her". I said "You were so busy doing the chores, getting the baby fed, cleaned, burped and so on, you did't actually get time to just be with the baby." While I have seen my dad and K, just hold and carry Chiyaa around - blissful, unburdened. 

Is'nt that the same attitude of women for everything? Always trying to multi task. Getting more than one thing accomplished at a time. Entertainment and 'me time' taking  a back seat and the ones enjoyed being closely followed by guilt trips. There is this urge in most women to summon that extra bit of energy and get that one more thing also done. Back from a trip, going uncomplaining into the kitchen to get the cups of tea ready to get all refreshed. Setting the groceries right immediately after getting home. Getting back from work and making the all important calls to home before they complain 'Why so late today?' I used to see it in my mom's generation but now I see my friends also striving for the same - I feel amazed!  Women folk rock!

PS. I have no idea what I have posted. :P And why. Just utterly random ramblings. I think to survive this blog-athon I should complete atleast one of the two books I am reading and finish watching Barfi which I have been trying for the past 1.5 weeks and get some good points from the documentaries I watch. Else this space will look increasingly zombie-ish with each passing day *shudders*