Phoney Tales!!

Have you heard of anyone whose phone dies because it got dropped in a glass of milk? And then two subsequent phones got dunked in water and died a pretty much instantaneous death? Of cos a couple in between got lost too!


You haven't? Well Here I Am!! *bowing as gracefully as I can* (which isn't much, the grace that is! Come to think of it even bowing is difficult when your tummy refuses to fold under pressure! Sigh!)

I am wondering if they will give me place in Ripley's Believe it or Not.

Being said in that weird baritone used for such shows;

"This woman seemed like a normal woman. But who knew she had a very special form of OCD. Her house could be filthy and her kid running around muddy. Yet, she obsessed over cleanliness of her phone. When the condition got out of control, she went and tried to wash her phone in water and making it squeaky clean, only to realise after the moment had passed that ANOTHER of her phones was gone! Just like that! Just like the previous one actually!

Keep your phones AWAY from her!"

But seriously! Its been 6 phones in past 4 years. That's the reason I refuse to buy expensive phones with camera shamera! I have decided and now M has totally agreed that I do not deserve a phone that costs more than 2500bucks.

Yet, its not just about the money(That hurts too!)! What I really HATE the most is losing all the numbers I have collected over a period of time. I can't even remember the days when we used to have phone diaries where we noted down all the numbers in alphabetical order! My parents still have one of those and they meticulously note down numbers in that apart from the phone even today. Smart move I must say.

This time was the worst. I didn't have a single number saved on my SIM card. Imagine my horror when I put the sim in my new phone, the phone book was blank! :( I wonder how long will it take me to get the numbers back. Will I this time at least take some kind of back up?

How did we survive before cell phones, I wonder sometimes.

When I was kid, even landlines weren't so common. Only a couple of houses in our building had them. Only closest people got that number, so that they could call for any emergency. If a call came, some one from that house would call us and we would go running wondering what happened. If on rare occasions we had to make calls, we would pay 1 buck for the phone call which wasn't meant to last more than a couple of mins.

I still remember the time when cell phones had just arrived in India. People paid 16bucks even for an incoming call! It was SUCH a status symbol to own one. The phones themselves were so BIG compared to ones we use today. I remember my dad had a black Motorola phone that by today's standard weighed in tons! Then his second Motorola was a flip phone. I though it was coolest thing in the world. I remember some guy was making crank calls to me on our landline. There was no caller ID on the landline and getting info from the exchange would take ages. My dad diverted the landline to cell phone. Next time the guy called the number flashed. My dad called back the number and gave him sounding of his life! :)

I gifted M a Nokia 3310 I think which was the only phone I could afford at 5000 bucks considering my salary was 4500! He was SO shocked. I was rather disappointed to not see him super happy and excited. But then those were the days of commitment phobia and all that jazz! An expensive gift like that meant serious commitment is expected! :p

A couple of years down the line he bought me my first cell phone (I used my dad's for a bit! The Motorola flip!). So instead of exchanging rings, we gifted each other cell phones! ;)

Today the mobile phone has become indispensable in our lives. We are a button away from being in touch with people who matter. We text every breaking and mundane news in our life to our friends! We send out mass wishes on festivals and make sure we get in touch with just about everyone at least couple of times a year. We exchange sweet nothings with that special one. We make up after fights on sms sometimes. We capture some precious memories with the cameras in the phone. We get nervous if we don't have our phone with us for some reason, or when we cant get in touch with someone right away.

Yes, it is a pain too. Especially when you get calls just when you are having that niiice dream during your afternoon siesta! Or when you are watching a flick thats keeping you glued to the seat. Or taking a vacation and you see office number flashing. Or when you have to tell a back Nth time, you don't need their credit card/loan/insurance etc politely because they too are doing their job.

It has also made it easier to lie through our teeth! Boss calls say I am on my way for a meeting. Client calls say I am stuck in traffic even if you are still snoozing at home. Parents call tell them I am stuck in office while you are canoodling with your sweetheart they don't know about!

It is of course a source of entertainment too! Either playing your favourite FM station or if you have a high end phone, you can play the favourites in your own song list! It's used to distract your baby while you feed him/her taking help of even ring tones to get some food down the gullet!

I think cell phones have been the biggest entrants in our homes after the idiot-box and now we can't even imagine living without it.

The status symbol bit remains even today, but now its not about owning one (considering everyone from your VP to bai owns one), its about WHICH one do you own?! People ask me why don't I at least buy a cell phone with camera and blue tooth?!

And then I remember one of our cousin's dialogue when asked the same question.

The day a phone starts washing clothes also, I will buy that. Till then a phone that lets me call and sms is more than enough!

I won't be surprised if someday even that happens!

The Big O -- N -- E!

I am a hopelessly optimistic person, if one can say something so paradoxical! :)

So, when I came to know that it could be difficult for me to get pregnant et all thanx to PCOs, after initial rona dhona, I gave myself one year to get pregnant with the help of treatment and M ofcos! If not within a year we will start adoption process we said!

First round of dawaai and I saw the second line on my Home Pregnancy Test (on which I had spend lotsa money before dawaai. It's heartbreaking, the 2min wait!). I went and jumped on the bed where M was just relaxing, waving the stick in my hand and singing "Samjho ho hi gaya!"

My very cool tee that says Baby Under Construction!

The doctor confirmed it! The pregnancy was as smooth as it can get. No morning sickness, no chakkars, not too much fatigue. I travelled, worked, ate everything i wanted and enjoyed my pregnancy thoroughly! :)

One day I got admitted to get labour induced. I sent everyone back home because I hadn't got a special room and it was too uncomfy in the general ward like thing. Labour kicked in lot sooner than expected and by 5am I was hollering at M screaming "WTF is taking you guys so long to get here!" Hehe!

I was wheeled into the OT. I did the pushing thing for 15mins when the doc said the baby's heart rate is dropping and we need to do a C sec. Fair enough! As if you have a choice!

And within next 20mins I saw the pink ball of flesh wailing which they said was my son! :)

Quite an anti-climax one must say! I was not allowed to sit for two days so i didn't even get to SEE Cubby properly till I could sit up! When I did, I couldn't help but weep... i don't know what tears they were... joy, relief... a mix of both perhaps.

me holding Cubby two days afta his birth

First 3 months went in a blur with unending breastfeeding troubles where I seriously kept thinking I am a horrid mother and is this how the whole motherhood thing is going to be?! There were moments of fun, but I really don't remember them much.

Clinging to his papa at 3am. And M still managing the smiles!

We came back home to Bangalore and the fun started. By now Cubby had started reacting to things around him and more importantly to us. We were learning to take care of him ourselves without any support and it was nice to work out our own routines and simplify things the way we wanted to!

kabir's first message tee that says I only LOOK sweet and innocent

From month six, CubbyR has been a constant source of joy and delight for us! :) So this one is for you for reaching the Big ONE sweets! :)



You have been pretty much a painless child! :) You slept through nights from almost month one. You rarely wake up for feeding or any such thing! Apparently, its quite unheard of, being this good! :)

eating daal and beetroot mixied to red pulp!

You smoothly moved on to solids from just milk and dal ka paani and to regular cow's milk from formula milk. No fuss, no upset tummy. Touchwood!

making music with Papa's bachpan ke Bongo!

You LOVE music. Be it sound from one of your toys or your mommy's besuura singing, your hands start moving, you clap in glee and move up and down in your sitting position. If you are standing you bend your knees a little and do a bum shake too! Its amazing the way you start dancing the moment i say Muscular! Popular! "Pappu can't dance saala" has quickly displaced Lakdi ki kaathi which was the hot favourite last month!

I love seeing how fast you are trying to be independent. You are standing without support for longer and longer time. Earlier we could count till 5 and you would fall on your cute l'il butt or on us, as you tried to learn how to balance. Now we can count upto 30 and sometimes even more till you do the crash landing! :) You give us a knowing smile when we clap for you and its good to see you try harder next time!

You cruise around effortlessly holding on to furniture and people in the house. I am sure it a matter of few months before you are running all over the place! :)

You are also trying hard to climb on to things now. The bean bag is the easiest target which has been conquered few days ago. Bed thankfully is still little tall for you. But I know it's a matter of time before you get on that and threaten jumping off all the time! :)




You LOVE kids! Even when you were a baby all kids in aaji's building would come to play with you and you were most active then! Seeing you with other kids is so much fun. You just go ballistic and have a ball! :)

Oh yes! You LOVE playing with balls. Big and small. Anything round in shape and can be thrown, you like it. You have learnt the game of to throw the ball to one of us and you just sit there waiting for us to throw it back to you.

You have still resolutely refused to LEARN anything useful! If we try to show you any book you just run away. You might take it yourself, hold it ulta and pretend to read! But if one of us comes and tried to give gyaan, you throw the book and run away! Why?! :(

How can I forget?! You are trying SO hard to talk. You babble constantly! We still can't make head or tail of what you are saying, but it's just so adorable to listen to it and imagine the number of questions that lie ahead of us! :)

I love the way you are so cool about most things. Be it me cutting your nails or your hair, you just sit patiently and observe what is being done to you. You have let us watch movies peacefully in theatre barring a couple of times which hardly even counts!

You have started troubling a wee bit in eating these days. But nothing that Pappu song can't remedy. As of now at least! :)

I cannot thank you enough for taking me going to work so well. You have almost never cried. I say a cheerful bye and you stand in the balcony and do it too. You crane your neck, wave and smile till I am out of your sight or till a noisy vehicle passes by in which case I am given a royal ignore and all the craning happens for that gaadi! :p

You can be awfully clingy at times, but at the same time when there are new people around, you are more than happy to forget your parents and keep being the friendly dude you are!

All in all you are just becoming more and more fun by the day.
Now when I look back I can't even imagine a life of which you aren't a part of!

Kabir's naamkaran

Thank you for making our everyday special.

We look forward to new mornings to see you smile to our good morning.

The day Kabir rolled over first time

We wait to see you do something new and feel kicked about it!

Kabir's first picnic to Nandi Hills

We wait for outings so that we can take you out and just have a great time.

do i look like my papa?

We keep the camera out at all times so that we catch those special moments that become precious memories.

We feel oddly emotional just looking at you sometimes.

or like my mommy?

We dream of a happy life for you. We pray for your good health.


We hope that we can do enough for you to grow up to be a kind, generous and successful human being.

Now if only you show some inclination to learn the ABCs, that would be great too! Hehe! Just kidding sweetheart! There is a lot of time to do all the padhaai shadhaai. We know that everyday you are learning so many new things.



Sometimes I wonder, how overwhelming it must be to have so many new and wondrous things around you to soak in and understand. Just enjoy this wonder for as long as you can...


God bless you Kabir!

On the eve of his birthday at yelagiri hills

Happy Birthday once more!! :)


Love ya lotsest most! Big hugs and kisses!

P.s. It was quite a trip going through your old photos after so long and to see how much you have changed! :)

baal baal NAHI bache, bacche ke! :(

Kabir turned ONE yesterday, 20th of July 2008! A long and meandering post about his 12 months of existence is to be done. But right now I am too tired from the hatke celebrations we had and too sleepy to do justice to this miracle in our life! :)

Belated Happy Birthday you l'il big boy! Just seeing you grow the way you are makes life so totally worth it! Rock On!

Every kid has his/her Cute Factor! For Cubby apart from his 440watts smile, it has been his very unruly and curly mop of hair! :) I love them too, his soft brown curls! They make him look adorable and baby like!



But his hair that looked liked Albert Einstein who is on permanent diet of Center Shock was really getting wilder by the day. Add to that the fact that he feels really hot, a head full of hair that gets all sweaty and wet really doesn't help.


There was a mundan in the offing, but somehow it never happened. I had no intention of making Cubby wear a pony tail 'coz the mundan if not before he turns one, can happen only after he completes two! Sigh!

So his daadi mentioned that Thursday was a good day and that we should at least snip off bit of his hair and keep it in front of god and then she will offer at Balaji temple in Pune later. Whatever the logic! :)

Wondering if we should take him to a salon since I really don't trust ourselves with scissors. Plus Cubby is so much more wriggly now and the chances they we might hurt him made it even more difficult.


Nonetheless, we decided to give it a shot! M wet his hair totally. We made him sit on the newspaper and started on the mission. I combed his hair trying to match the actions of apna regular hairdresser! :p But then i had to give Cubby the comb to keep him distarcted with something he hadn't played with before.


I "expertly" took some of his hair between by fingers and went Snip! Snip! Snip! Cubby was bit surprised to see me putting his hair on the newspaper, but he thankfully didn't worry too much about it and let me go on and about the job while playing with the comb. I am sure he was wondering "My crazy parents doing one more stupid thing. Let them be!"

Then Daddy dearest got bored of being the assistant who was distracting the child when kangha failed! "Even I want to cut!" demanded M. Roles reversed till he got to cut a few locks 'coz Mommy dearest isn't well versed in the art of distraction the way papa is!


Snip! Snip! Snip! A little from here and a little from there M kept instructing and I followed the instructions.

Final trimming done and one look at Cubby and we were shocked!!!!!


My l'il baby was replaced with a l'il boy!! The wild, curly mop that made him look like a baby was just gone. He looked so grown up, that we couldn't recognise him as the l'il CubbyR with his mane!

We were quite proud of a job well done, at the same time very sad to see the babyness lost with just a haircut! :( Both of us are wondering even now, if he will regrow curly hair, but I doubt that will happen!


He has even been acting all grown up! I wonder if he understands that he has indeed become a bada baccha and needs to act his age which is now spoken about in years!

So here's presenting the all NEW Kabir! :)













Love ya lots and pots my darling One Year Old! :) With or without those curly locks!


But please to not grow up so quick, OK?!


mmmuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Boy! AM i glad am blogging!

I never knew that just watching 10 kids run all over the place can make you feel all tired!

I never knew that meeting people whom you know just through their blogs or at times not even that can be so much fun!

I never knew that Cubby would actually love his first taste of mitti (mud)!

I never knew that someone's home apart from being wonderfully warm can have so many toys to keep kids occupied forever with one thing or the other!

I never knew you can go back from a party knowing you have found some new friends for keeps!

I am really bad at doing this minutes of meetings things, which is why I didn't even do a post about the last meet that happened. I am more than happy reading other people talk about it and just leaving a comment! :)

But just like last one this one left me with a big grin on my face and a lovely feeling of having found like minded people at an age where making new friends doesn't come easy! :)

Swati's blog post says it all and much better than I ever could. Except Swati, CoS, Aargee and Poppin's Mom whom I had met last time, everyone was a new place. I was obviously a bit apprehensive since I am fairly new entrant to this lot and not a part of any other online groups that these wonderful women have where they must have to come to know each other so much better.

As M dropped me to PM's place at around 3 o'clock and I entered a room with women who had warm smiles and guess who am I to offer, I felt at ease immediately. There was Tharini, Sue, D and PM already there with their kids having a blast already! Tharini's Winkie and D's l'il girl were getting along famously, while Sue's adorable Babhlet was running around the house. Poppin is so cute with her shy smile that it HAS to be love at first sight! From great bums to lenses to college and wedding stories the conversation flowed pretty easily!

Then akamonica walked in with her 9 month old bundle of masti N! N instantly reminded me of Cubby just three months ago and I was amazed yet again how much kids change every single day, week and month! :)

PM said we will now move the party up to the community hall on the 15th floor. We loaded all the food, toys and ofcos kids and took the elevator up. The community hall which till then looked all clean and serene was suddenly filled with sounds of excited kids and crazy mothers and smelling of yummy food to be had!

I called M saying come as soon as can because Cubby was missing all the fun. COS walked in with her daughter KT who was ready with her smiles and polite hello for one and all! :) Soon, M arrived with Cubby and Swati, her hubby A and Aryan (who is Swati's xerox copy and liked ME! yay!) 'coz they reached around the same time! M did give me a dirty look saying "Why am I in the minority?" I had conveniently forgotten to tell him that not everyone is getting their husband's along! But hey there was A and PM's hubby. And they gave him great company! :D

Cubby as soon as he saw huge open space with coloured balls strewn all over the place and loads of toys and KIDS, he just went crazy! From then on, he didn't even remember he had parents or could feel hungry etc. He was constantly on the move. Throwing a ball and crawling behind it to get it, using the chair as a walker and creating an almost unbearable racket and trying to observe what the older kids were doing! :) Ofcos this didn't stop him from his routine stinky potty and puke programme, but that didn't seem to register with all the fun happening! :)

D gave all the kids bubble maker. I still love making those bubbles. (I know it was for the kids, but Cuby is too small!:p)I did take it home, filled fresh soap water and been bubbling since as Cubby tries to catch the bubbles! :) And I am keeping those crayon's away at the moment! :p

Noodlehead came sans her Bonbon, but with yummy samosas and was sent back to get Bonbon along! God! She is just too darn cute! I LOVED her shoes, Noodle and you can be assured someday they shall get stolen! :D

Food and drinks were served. The chocolate cake was absolutely yummylicious as was everything else!

PM inspite of being almost 35 weeks pregnant was still running around and making sure everyone is comfortable. hats off to you woman! :)

The party moved to the play area where slides and swings kept older kids occupied, while the sand-pit offered unlimited opportunities to dirty themselves to the younger ones! Cubby even managed to eat some and thankfully I managed to pull the bigger pebble out! :p

What was really refreshing was none of the mothers were the overtly fussy kinds who kept following their kids saying don't do this or that or get your hands dirty! :)

M made a game out of Cubby trying to follow D's daughter(who is really pretty and smart), and they had quite a lot of fun doing that as Cubby tried following her and Winkie (a bundle of energy) with his crawl and they ran away from him screaming and laughing! :) Well sadly for M, instead of a regular chick magnet, he is a kid magnet! I have not seen a single child NOT responding to him when he works his magic! Thanx M for being such a good sport!

CoS got l'il return gifts for all the kids and Cubby loved his squeeze me Penguin!

The party then moved back to PM's ghar. She was brave enough to let all the kids run around her gorgeous home! I LOVED Poppin's room, PM!

Good byes were being said as PM, Tharini and Aargee (who came sans her l'il A, we missed him!) efficiently made small bags with extra food to take home. I didn't have to cook that night! Another advantage of the party! :D

As I said bye, I wished I could stay just a l'il bit longer, but I knew that it would never be enough!

Are there really enough of good times?! :)

As we went home, Cubby was constantly babbling and chattering with excitement and refused to sleep even, paying no heed to his pooped parents' heartrending requests!

Can't blame him though, can I? He just had too much fun!

So thanx all you wonderful ladies and the entire baccha company for making it such a special evening for Cubby and ME! :)

sapne mein dekha ek sapna...

M managed to photoshop or whatever this photo and give it this really nice dreamy look. When he posted this picture on our online album he titled it as "Khwaab ho tum, ya koi haqueeqat" and I hope he means me also and not just Cubby :p

I call it "Dreams do come true"

Some day all of us dream of a future we want to have. I keep thanking God for having actually been generous enough to have given it all. Touchwood!

Just one of those days when I tried to count my blessings and just gave up! :)

ps: I also think M fogged it all up so that my non-exsistant housekeeping skills don't show up l'il too obviously! :p

walkte walkte...

yunhi koi mil gaya tha... walkte walkte

or walkte walkte, mere yeh geet yaad rakhna, kabhi alvida naa kehna...

well! no such romantic things happen to me when I finally not just decide, but also set an alarm, wake up at the said time and go to the park and well WALK!

Being sick of not finding those nice clothes in size required (which at this point can be called VERY BIG) and not having brains to get them tailored, the only way out is to lose some weight and hope to fit in at least old clothes and not having to wear maternity jeans even now! Apparently even Lycra can stretch only as much. Sigh! People are talking about Size 0 and I am in double digits of very unhealthy kinds!

I don't remember the last time I tried to push myself out of the bed at 630am. It's even more difficult when Bangalore has this rainy and gorgeously cuddly weather. Of course thanks to Cubby who sleeps between us, not much cuddling happens, so one can get up and get out!

I find a pair of capris and a tee which isn't worn otherwise, comb my hair, wear my mostly ignored sports shoes, get on the bike and reach the park! It's cold enough to keep the jacket on even when you walk. Off the mark. I am walking quite fast and thinking "Girl! You are doing good!"By the time I am starting my second round I realise I am huffing and puffing! 60 year old aunty wearing saree with a pretty shawl has already overtaken me! The potbellied uncle is actually jogging past me and my legs are killing me.

I push myself and manage one more round and then scoot off to do some stretching. I actually cannot touch my toes and my back is stiff like a wooden stick! I almost cried out aloud that I could touch my toes without bending my knees even in my 7th month of pregnancy much to surprise of my Doctor Evil!

In few tries at least the middle finger is brushing against the ground and I think I am exercising for hours. I look at the watch and its been 6mins36secs! WTF!

Anyway, humbled I go back home. Of course that didn't stop me from showing off to M saying "See! See! I went for walk! I will become thin and you will stay fat!"

It's been 5 days now, excluding Saturday and Sunday which are no walk days! Yeah Yeah! I decided on the holiday list even before starting work. I seriously hope I can keep at it consistently this time around!

I have been doing this on and off walking thing for quite some time now. In Mumbai, Five Gardens was closest to home. I was always amazed as to how so many people come for years together. Be it rain or sunshine you always see those people walking or jogging at a brisk pace and looking fitter than ever. There have been times, I went back an year later and still some of those faces were still there.

There is an easy camaraderie between people who walk regularly. A wave to say hello or doing their stretching together or just talking shop. Inadvertently groups form and it becomes almost a social activity rather than just a fitness regimen. many a deals are struck and friendships made. One of my friends was pleasantly surprised to find that her father-in-law to be was a fellow walker with whom she often exchanged smiles! :)

You get to see so many kinds of people. Saree clad aunties wearing their beloved Bata, uncles with bellies really testing the quality of the T Shirt, young girls with perfect bods wearing Lycra and making heads turn, young guys wearing tracks and vests trying to show off their existent / non-existent rippling muscles and old uncles wearing tracks and Nike shoes gifted to them by their US returned bacchas.

These places also have thriving businesses too. At FGs there would be guys coming on cycle and selling juice in their different coloured plastic jars. Another enterprising fellow would be trying to sell some ayurvedic powders and the nariyal paani guy would do brisk business too. The park I am going to here has couple of subzi wallahs who almost always end up selling their entire lot by the time the walkers finish their day of exercise!

All in all I am loving it! Of course I am a tad more grumpy as M insists on pointing out verrry often due to lack of sleep. I think it's only till my body gets adjusted to this routine!

Then I will be slightly patla too and if not, I will sue the park! :p

Just hope I too, like Johnie, can Keep Walking!