In numbers

101 drafts of blog posts,
more than 101 thoughts
lost count of days of not blogging, i felt a pull almost everyday to write but i....
this is the worst and the best season i love to blog about....

I'll randomly start with the day i was writing T's b'day card late night on the kitchen table, your handwriting, your affectionate words and the cards you have given me over the years, which i have saved it like precious jewels, were spread out in my heart like a cool shadow under a tree on  hot day.

Instead of saying this and that, i kept it simple and wrote the card like you do, with love, with my affection and the words best describe it. Everyone says time heals the worst of wounds, it's been 3 years, and i'm not a day away from that fateful day.

This morning, i read on bbc that Dev anand is no more, and i cried in silence on hearing you calling me from living room while watching "chitrahaar", "Linku, dev anand ka gana aa raha hai, jaldi aao" i cant fathom why i use to love dev anand....Madhu gave me the "guide" dvd few years ago and i for some reason understood the complexity of thier emotions much better than the first time i saw it.

I love you abba jaan, my darling baba! 

B. Face

Does this ever happen to you, my dolls! Happened quite a few times with me. 

I cant remember the source of this picture, drop a note if anyone else does.

Sometimes how we feel inside is not how we look outside and the balance is so lost in translation that it's futile to explain to ourselves, let alone the strangers who think we are curdling their background of a lovely day. Get over it, and remember if you see us girls like that, just remember, this is just how my face looks too, on a good day. 

Judge yourself

“ You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. J. Miles


Next time, when you are in a situation like that, think of which way you leaned. 


I'm a big fan of quotes, thanks to my dad. He use to love quotes, we use to have books and books just on quotes. When my childhood classmate best friend Madhavi was leaving town, i was wondering what to give her and on my dad's suggestion, i gave her a book of quotes. We are still friends and in touch. So my affinity to quotes leads me to post some of my fave ones here, do you have any fave quotes to share.

My backyard

Just after Hurricane Irene visited us, one quite evening i had the pleasure to see this wonderful art of god in my backyard last week of August!

Reminds me of Gone with the Wind cover picture of Rhett butler holding  Scarlett  O'Hara.

Aien..wyein

Iss tarah aapko yaad kiya karthein hain

Ke ghairon ko aapke naam se pukara karthin hain....

Sent from my iPhone


On a sleepless early morning, at 4.30am, in my cloud of thoughts, i composed this....
with the fear that i'll forget by the time i'll actually get up, i emailed myself these lines.
Sometimes i surprise myself for the extents i go to not forget something, stupid me!
I want to build on this...hopefully something else will come to me on another sleepless morning. Until then my lovelies kick off your morning with this oldie song, that guys groovy dance moves is quite adorable!

Tale of a road trip

West Chester -> Washington, DC -> Cary, NC and in reverse.

Mom, taran, I, a rented car and the mapquest App on my phone as roadies for 4 days.

After starting late on Friday, reached Union station, DC in peace by 1.30ish. After a sumptuous lunch of pizza's, Taran chased some birds at the freedom bell, as mom clicked away pics. At 3pm took the duck tour around town, i had such a blast with mom and taran.

412 miles, over 7 hrs :)

After early supper in Union station at 6.15ish we started the trip to NC driving for 40 miles an hour for quite sometime, made a quick pit stop for gas, its interesting how rest areas in south don't have gas stations and food courts like in NE. They have separate exits for that. Between my car and the SUV we were overtaking each other at 85 mph on 85S. Somewhere inbetween, T woke up and said, "mamma, you should let somebody else win, you cant win all the time".

After getting lost as we got closer to my destination, we reached Dinnu's home at 11.45ish pm, she opened doors with whiffs of warm food on the dining table. It's adorable how family and friends always wait for you no matter how late it is, to eat with you :) Squished between a 3 and a half and a 5 and a half, i alertly slept next to sleeping kids, it reminded me last thanksgiving in nj, between T and D.

A good bit of saturday was spent swapping stories, listening to kids, thinking about our other cousins and aunts and enjoying every bit of my niece calling me "Linku khalajaan", we headed to Lake Crab tree just before closing time at sunset, evening stroll in the mall, shopped for kids and went back home to some more reminiscing. I assumed the role of my munni khala when we were kids, and fed these little cousins, telling them tall stories of spider man, the moon and about recycling !!

Sunday was spent Museum hopping from NC Museum of Art to  Museum of Life+Science. Since the kids were being such handful at museum of art and we were being subjected to heavy eye rolling by the guards inside the museum, i decided to let them play at the fountain.

By 10am on Monday, we bid adieus with hugs, tears and wails from the kiddos, packed lunches, we headed on our way back. We took such frequent long breaks for lunch at McD's, coffee breaks, T had his first Starbucks, drove in rain and reached home by 5.30ish.

I had such adorable pleasant time with my darlings, all i want now is something like this pic below to fall asleep while reading.....instead i did 3 loads of laundry, vacuum cleaned the home, fixed my camera.

Ammi and Taran are getting closer by each day, i can tell, she is the bamboo when Taran is a panda, and Taran is a dog looking for a biscuit that my mom wants to eat : ) the plastic hangers are the shooting guns while they play hide nad seek and I change linens....lol! I thought of all my loved ones, and missed few a lot during my trip.

Courtesy Indian Summer. All i want is this now!

Quick pals

At Snip-its in Exton, T befriended someone much older than him, the wait time was ezy breezy! Apparently the well spoken language is the world of car racing games. I love it, how he approaches people, he has no inhibitions, he just flat out tells them how he feels about stuff they are doing, and the strangers always answer back in such sweet way that its endearing to watch this social dialogue in such dramatic tones.

In emergency

how do you prep?

I stepped up with prepping for irene hurricane as i was the only taking it serious, v was off to play his league cricket right in the middle of storm on Sat. On P's advice, packed some stuff, on ammi's advice, cooked extra meals, based on my common sense, charged phones, kept T's buzz lightyear flash light handy, extra water, removed the paintings of the wall close to the windows, my potted plants i brought them indoors, stacked the chairs and left them in the garage. If i had extra time, maybe i had filled up tank in my truck. With all the commotion, Taran thought i was baking a cake to celebrate, he even wondered if his birthday was here. ha ha ha....he made the most of us being busy and atched his fave movie and had lots of tv time.

With quite an interesting Sat, I slept like a baby with mom, as we weathered heavy rains, gusty winds and all, it got quite calmer around late noon Sunday. Just then Marcus & daisy texts to see if we could have the kids play together. ha ha....i almost cracked up laughing, but then i invited them home. It's very humbling when you open your doors and your life open to people, wonderful experiences, unknown stories, and good food happens. They brought this rich choclate cake, i made elaichi wali chai and next thing i know more kids from neighborhood were in my basement playing and plotting to explore t's bedroom upstairs to ramble it up : ) fortunately they all instead decided to head to the play area in front of my home.

Later as i was unpacking my suitcase - i made a mental note of how little "stuff" i really needed, apart from pair of clothes, i packed my dad's eye glasses, his books, my kindle and waterproofed passports. I thank god that nothing severe happened. But in retrospective, i had an aha zen moment, now everything else looks like stuff, if these are things i could survive without, then why do i even waste my energy and efforts keeping up with them. Food for thought....

My homies, how did you prep for this hurricane?? 

Have a happy.....day

Celebrate each moment the way you'd feel if there was a surprise at your window!

Courtesy: Joie de vivre

With hurricane Irene around the corner, and few earthquake tremors last week, there was quite some commotion around this part of the world. Natural calamities are all the more reason to count your blessings, rejoice the good people and things in our lives. 

Which way would you lean

hEART vs Head

Rocky aya ghar!

Guess who got towed from home! My bubba is troubling me so much these days, when i start it makes this sound you cant forget, it then feels like its coughing before it starts. Few days ago, one am, it refused to even cough, i called my fave mechanic home, he scraped his head while taking a lookie and decided we needed to get it towed to his garage. The only good thing that happened was my neighbor showed off, her young boys the whole towing process, and the kids got a kick as if they were at a fair!

Thankfully, it's only a fried battery, so i dont have to change my car, and i dont want to change, i have too many memories settled in this car. 

Tear the walls!

Do you ever imagine people walking with walls?

Courtesy: Joie de vivre

 I, do! Infact, there are times when i'm talking to someone i feel the walls, i sense them, i try to penetrate through them. These are the ones you cant touch, they are just there. But the million dollar question is who do you care enough to knock the walls down.

Kabbadi

in the living room with cars

T and i were getting ready to play kabbadi in the living room and we used his cars as a divider between his side and mine. 

Kabbadi kabbadi kabbadi! it's so much fun that i always win!

Haath jaltha hai tho jalne do!

When you have four burners going on the stove, it's better to clean the stove after the cooking is done, but ithni akal kahan, saaf karne ki bohuth bhooth jo sawaar tha. 

I'd rather get burnt and see the scars than see sticky and oil splutters around the stove. Even while it's cooking i have to constantly keep my surfaces clean, so an accident happened that's going to last few months before i forget it.

So, my dear bubba, please pay attention if you are ever at it. I'm sure you'll try to impress your girlfriend by cooking, but beware of these accidents....ok, doll.

Mo

A dear friend of dad's Mohan prasad uncle is no more, a severe loss for the literary world. A well known, highly acknowledged poet. I remember visiting uncles home on my way back from my drawing class in summer holidays when dad was stationed there. Uncle always in white, with cigarette in his hand and their open home next to a rocky mountain in vijayawada. He use to say "paininchi okka rai kuda padindante, mana kuteeram sangatulu inka anthay"..... he'd have a small garden in that patch where the possibility of any rock falling was eminent. I'd look up and wonder...

His daughter, mamta akka went on to win debates at national level and was sent to Germany. Sujata anuty is quite a simpleton. I'll always remember you fondly uncle, i promise to visit aunty the next time i'm there.