Adjusting around..one rented home at a time!

Wow! I cannot believe I am writing this post out almost one year after moving into my new home! It is annoying to think that there still are rough edges to be smoothened over all around, things to be fixed and yet many more things that are still waiting for their own 'space' in what is fast becoming their old home. Welcome to my world of a Mumbai 2 BHK - 2 bedroom-hall-kitchen i.e.
This home of ours, which comes at a rent so high that one has to whisper and look apologetic while mentioning the sum. Apologetic, simply because it sounds (and feels) like a criminal (bleeding, bleeding!) waste of money. Granted there are so called amenities - club house, pool, etc. etc. but travel up just a few kilometers and the monies for something similar would be significantly lesser - and not to mention less polluted! Anyhow, that rant is for another day.
For the time being my bone of (dis)contention is the fact that I am still 'adjusting' us into our new home. By that I mean, our needs, our belongings and our differences in height. Do not consider the last bit jest. Consider this - tables. To begin with the dining table. Since the spouse had cleverly allocated furniture purchases to yours truly(within a certain budget of course), I had shopped according to my tastes and abilities. I brought home a fairly simple glass topped dining table with a cute under pane of glass - you know like a display rack? When the table was delivered, what do we have but the husband going ahead and knocking himself on wood. No, seriously - he of the 8 extra inches than me length has his knees knocking into the aforementioned 'under-pane' wood, every single time he sits down at the table! And since given the size of the house, we do not have a separate work area for him (as yet - more on that later!) he has to sit at the dining table to work. And needless to say I don't have the heart - or the moral right indeed - to stop him from eating dinner, sitting on the sofas.
Without going into what happens to be very many such instances - big/small, equally niggling - all I can say is that things can get pretty uncomfortable. This happens to be the 5th house that we've moved into in the last 7 years. And this is discounting some short term rentals! And obviously, over the years we have collected some furniture - depending on that particular life stage and - woe- shape and size of the house! And I have come to believe that my wood is just like me - too bloody stubborn and with a mind of its own - in most cases it doesn't fit in and sticks out like a sore thumb! There I've said it now.
I know it is quirky yet to be expected in lives such as ours - lived as it is in homes we do not own. I neither have the heart or the money to throw out all that is old and keep getting new things every time we move. In a way it gives us semblance of continuity in our married story - like all good home furniture should. There are broken bits and scratches that shout out an anecdote every time we pass by. And since I'm not much of a photograph chronicler - these are more permanent markers, however hotch potch! Now only if I didn't get a backache every time I sat at my 'desk' - a chair I bought as a newly wed snuggled next to a builder built console - in a drastically different colour too. Sigh!

Stay at home holiday for a stay at home Mom!

This has been a long weekend. A six day long one to be precise. Thats a perfect holiday length and the time of the year is good too. So, what stopped us from packing our bags, upping and going off to someplace nice(r)? In the land of aplenty, ennui has set in, unfortunately.

For the last couple of years, after having been housebound for a short while with a young kidlet, we have been intrepid travelers - like many others of our socio economic milieu. Like my corporate slave spouse will vouch - getting away from it all has become a necessity more than a luxury. The pace of our lives, generally sky high stress levels and lesser and lesser 'family-time' as such has ensured that a 'holiday' is the best thing that the good doctor could prescribe for people like us. We have willingly joined the generation of weekend travellers - looking forward to 'long' weekends with the impatience of milk starved puppies - or some such!
This weekend was a much anticipated one to begin with - 6 days yaar! Thats enough time to go to Bangkok for a combined spa/retail therapy holiday. We also have half a dozen nations which await us with visa on arrival only. Woe be to us - last year - this is exactly what we did. Hopped on the next available flight to a south east asian country - only to be greeted by half of Mumbai there! Trust me I like a familiar face or two - but entire batches of people you know? Anyways, that also is beside the point. Like a frequent flyer will tell you - after a while airports all merge into one and traveling is hardly unique - and much less -de stressing. And traveling with kids honestly - is - for want of a better word - a pain! Young kids can be annoying and demanding - and travel can bring out the worst in them. I have done enough holidays by now to really really dread trips that involve me travelling alone with the kidlet. However many electronic gizmos you may have at your disposal - there are ear aches, tantrums, spills and managing gazillion tit-bits of hand baggage and kid while making a visit to dirty loos in airports, petrol stations, burger joints etc. etc. etc..! Needless to say, over the years I have become one unhappy camper. I dread holidays. Especially since the days and opportunities for solo holidays are long gone.
Enough complaining now, no? Today is the 6th day of the aforementioned 6 day holiday. One has survived living at one's own address for the said time period. More importantly the kidlet does not look very deprived of the 'lost' opportunity of travel and widening her worldview (or any other such lofty aspirations we sometimes try to ascribe to our wanderings!). We have entertained ourselves with swimming, mundane other classes and vapid visits to Hamleys - not to mention going down to celebrate Independence day instead of being outbound from the homeland! I have not gone out of the way to do anything remotely educational or crafty - or inspired. I've just let things be. The plumber and electrician and other sundry workers have been around to fill in the hours. Its been life as usual. Television has been used as a baby sitter and Mommy has been taking long afternoon siestas. And its ok. We have survived!
I dont really know why it feels like such a big deal. But it is. Over the last few years, I've been almost scared to spend a 'unplanned' holiday. It has become a big deal - to DO something. Anything. How can one waste a holiday? How will one entertain the kid? Yes - how? Like sitting around, doing nothing, is the absolute worst crime in the entire world! Well, now that I've done it and feel no worse for wear - I can highly recommend it. Didn't Seinfeld do 'nothing' make millions and retire in comfort to do much the same? Even though that fails as an analogy (far-fetched - my middle name) I tell you on - nothing beats - siestas on your own bed, and pigging out on pocorn in your own living room. Try it - its a different kind of home stay!!

Are you ready to give your kid a 'Tablet' ?

A week ago kidlet's school had a meeting where parents were told that iPads were bad for young minds and arms. Expectedly so, there were murmurings all around at the debatable decree. Though the teachers went on to state that they were not saying 'not-ever' but rather 'not-now'.
Brought me back to ponder our own decision to not get an iPad - for us, the home or indeed the kidlet. It was not a well thought out, all pro and cons weighed decision to be very honest. Actually the decision was hardly one to be made at all since we are a very techno-ambivalent family who are likely to be unexcited about anything gadgety. However, there were social pointers all along (at least since the last two years) kids around us were raving about this new 'toy'. Conversations were about the latest apps. Local newspapers started running features on best educational apps. And the killer - playground mothers claiming sharp jumps in vocabulary and math skills- all thanks to fantastic apps!
I was tempted to think about it for a wee bit of time. But one feel of the iPad and my tiny kidlet's wrists and the decision was easy to make. And there we let it rest. Thats until - I went and got myself an iPhone! On our trip to the US this year - the only time we got unlimited access to super-fast WiFi - I downloaded a few 'educational' apps. None the wiser about popularity of these things I just trusted the star system to choose. Kidlet was predictably very happy and it took her almost no time to figure it out. At first I was very impressed at how fast she picked up the game (it involved addition and subtraction - concepts still new to her). Also, come on - what a fantastic baby sitter! I could suspend imagination in my book and she could be soundless for stretches of time en-gripped by her game. I can see why its so easy to get hooked.
Back in India with the lousy net connection on my phone and the aforementioned gadget unfriendliness, the addiction to the games fortunately died a slow and natural death. But to be very honest it did make me wonder- what's the harm in learning a few new things through technology? After all that IS the way forward - if not already the way. And there are so many things out there that kids pick up that you and I, on an ordinary day would not even fathom acquainting them with?
The meeting the other day in kidlet's school made me start thinking again. How early is too early? How much is too much? And are our inhibitions based on evaluations of benefits/dangers or are they just schema based on our own childhood experiences and what we have been taught to believe? Wish there was an easy answer to that.

Networking down :)

Been a while, been a while! Have been off social networking sites and blogging for a little while now. There was no specific reason for it. I just felt suddenly 'off' being on the information treadmill constantly - whether self or other generated! I must say I was not entirely successful- I found myself sneaking onto twitter (which I hadn't deactivated) or craving FB (which I had). Wrote numerous 'potential blog notes' on my iphone. But then I left it at that. It has pretty much been a time on catching up on real life without any digital incursions. And like various others have noted before me, once you get used to it, you don't really miss it!
This once in a while detachment makes me feel good actually. Like a wee bit of meditation -don't laugh! It may sound crazy but in retrospect for all the (relatively little) online interactions that I had - my brain used to feel like a cauldron of tiny spark plugs not knowing what to do with the incessant activity. And I just do not mean just excess information - there were these emotional responses going all over the place. Needless turmoil happening over pointless incidents. I mean really - feeling slighted when some rank stranger does not reply to a twitter comment? What is that? Losing sleep over few or no comments on basically narcissistic pictures uploaded on facebook. And errm, losing hair over low blog readership!! As if there were not enough real problems to deal with - I was adding to them a legion of imagined slights.
So, now why am I back? Who can I kid. I need to be in the know, it feels odd getting the news from the papers the next day, and not breaking by the second on twitter. I miss the easy repartee which one can share with total strangers - and not feel obliged to be anything further. I do definitely like catching up on people I would have otherwise relegated to memory had it not been for facebook. And why would I call myself a TypeWriterMom if I did not have an updated blog for all to see :)

Am I too much about Me?

The incredible lightness of being had taken over. Not in physical terms of course (more about that later)! I just had really bad tech karma last month - involving a titanic promise Mac machine-which sank..a telephone sim card which wiped itself out and other some such. We also had the annual Mummy show - the Project day at kidlet's school that is. I turned a year older - yeah that happened too.
But not too much about me this time. I mean I realised there is too much about me on this blog - am I supposed to be feeling guilty about it in the first place? Is it politically correct to say that you have a blog with 'Mommy' in its title but not really write too much about being one? Is it stupid to feel guilty - or am I just being feminist about a non-issue? Who knows!
Anyhow, ever since I got back to blogging and acquainted myself with twitter, I've gotten myself surrounded by people who seem to not only be amazing mothers but also very intuitive and expressive ones at that. I read about other people describing their children in intimate detail and fondness. I feel close to their experience - because even if their realities may be starkly different from my day to day existence, there is something very universal and touching about their experiences. Most of the time I find myself paraphrasing that 'this happened to me too..my kidlet does that too..'. An then of course the thought comes to me - why did I not think of that to pick up, dust up and frame for posterity. Am I going about my days being a non-observant mother, or am I just too caught up in the minutes and the to-dos that I miss the daily wonder of living with a growing child? Am I just being too self-indulgent in thinking that all mothers have the ability to even pick up the 'wonder' quotient from their daily lives? Well, I do not think so, really. For I know for a fact that there a several occasions in a day when I am paused by something incredible (in my eyes ) that my child has done or said, but then the moment passes and we move on to the next. I have never been a journaling sort - pictorially, verbally or otherwise. It is a deficit that I have lived with. But now, I wonder if it is time to remedy it.
I would like to really try. So be forewarned, a lot of kidlet to be coming up in the following blog posts. If she doesn't turn up and there is to much of 'Me' around kindly give me a slight nudge ;)

The month that weighs in ;)

It is April already? It is already April! Is it?

This is the special-est month for me in the year, because of course, my birthday falls in this month and not to mention it is summer holiday time! Call me childish, but give me some credit for still getting excited about a birthday. Most people on the wrong side of thirty nowadays would rather mope around the birthday month - that it lasts just till their fortieth comes around, is another matter.

I am telling you, the only time I really dreaded my birthday was when I was about to turn 30. Sort of momentous, isn't it? The big 3-0 ;) Anyways, now that the milestone has been crossed I don't worry too much about the age than as much about the size. My size, that is. The bitter weight gain-weight loss yo-yo that I have been on since getting pregnant has left me at a size I would rather not mention. But here is the big damning revelation - I am currently the exact same weight as I was when I was 9 months (+ a few days) pregnant! How I reached here is a really looooooong story, whittled down for your perusal below :

Chapter 1. Pregnancy, Childbirth and first year of baby : We went to Zurich when I was 7 months pregnant as I have mentioned before. So I happily gained a few extra kilos(extra to the ones I should have ideally put on) in the last few months of pregnancy because of the extra (yummy) food that I suddenly had access to - read- cheese, bread, baked goodies and err..chocolate!! When baby was born I did lose some weight and went on a spree of weird diets to help me lose the extra tyres. Here may I thank Dr.Atkin, Grapefruit and boiled egg, Beyonce Knowles aka Master Cleanse and a host of weight loss supplements readily available at the friendly neighbourhood Pharmacy.

Chapter 2. Baby's second and third year: This period was a stressful period due to various reasons that I will not get into here. But will suffice to say, that emotional eater had by now become my middle name, so much so that it had come and 'round'ly sat on my mid-section! During this time I made my acquaintance with Messrs.Fat Loss for Idiots (Google it up), Beyond Calories, Raw food chicas, The VLCC institute of whip-thin rude nutritionists and sweaty hot pulse weight loss machines, Personal trainers, Bolly-robics, Plain Vanilla Bollywood dancing, Altitude Chambers (Reduced oxygen and all that jazz), and my favourite thus far Dr.Dukan (I even bought the special oat bran from Paris!). This was also the time when things like Acai Berry, flaxseed oil, Sibutramine and other such exotics entered my medical cabinet. And also a thing called Eltroxin - for the lil mister Thyroid gland who had apparently gone stuporous during my pregnancy. Long story, short : If you showed me a new 'sure-fire' method of weight loss, I would be sure to give it a go! Sigh! Weight gained during this period cancelled out any weight loss I had had after delivery!

Chapter 3. Year Four and running : Well I am not the one running. Weight loss efforts have been pared down after a very real and very painful 'gym' injury (Yes, one of the few times that I was there!). I tried to learn swimming, but - cough, cough - after a near drowning experience, have well - given up on that for the time being.

Now that leaves me fair and round at round one! Zero Points :(

What should I do now? This year, as in the last few years, as my birthday huffs and puffs its way around I am again lost for answers while the adipose cells are possibly settling down with the popcorn or whatever it is that makes them stick to me like fevicol ka mazboot jod!

So I have set myself a small challenge - only for the month of April. What it is I am not going to say here. If I meet it -swell. If I don't then well, there is another not so funny blog post coming your way! Wish me luck - and, oh - a Happy-go-lightly Birthday!

The week that was!

What a strange week it has been. I've been ill (with a clogged ear, nose, throat, head...will spare you the details) - and have not really had time to realize it. The beauty of having a child is that once the motions of the week start, you really have not much time to dwell on ailments and other derailments ;) Unless of course you are unbearably ill or something. Anyhow, I managed somehow with Paracetamols and Sinarests of the world, till I realized on Saturday that the uneasiness that had begun the week before with fever had not yet subsided, so I had to finally finally resolve to antibiotics! Am still not completely A-ok, but hopefully should be better this week with the antibiotics etc.

This week is of course going to be shorter, what with the long Easter weekend coming up. We have nothing planned other than going to church all four days! After a winter of discontent the heat is catching up with Mumbai now. I am getting all worked up thinking about how to entertain the kidlet this summer, once her vacation starts! We have planned a short trip in May but for about 3 weeks before that there is nothing planned as yet. The last two years I had sent her to a Summer camp ( 3 hrs of craft, activities, singing games etc. ) at the Toddler Activity Centre at Worli. But this year I don't want to do that again. For one, the idea of shunting ourselves about town during holidays is a royal pain! Holidays are meant for laziness (Ok, a bit!) and relaxation no? I'm actively looking for options near home - but the sad part is the few that are there are really not that great (alright you can judge me, but I would expect a certain standard for any activity. If its not worth it then kidlet could rather watch TV at home than go out and do something totally wasteful!). Have heard a lot about Raell Padamsee's acting workshop - so I may be enrolling her for that given her penchant for full on dramebaazi!

Lets see!

Sorry about this totally random rant. I had some mind-boggling(!!) topics lined up to blog about, but this illness has really slowed me down :(

Hope you have a great time this summer, wherever in the world you are. Cheerios :-)