might as well do some tag to break the block!

Kiran tagged me some time ago to tell the world some honest stuff about me! last time i had to do a tag about 10 things you don't know about me, I had struggled to reach 10 points! Lets see how I fare this time! ;)


I am a quick reader, but not the most attentive one. You ask me tomorrow what I read yesterday, chances are I won't remember. I just want to move on to the next page!


I cannot wear heels. After the first few times when they killed my back, I never went near them. I keep looking for nice flats. And yes, i trip over wearing them too! :p


I tend to start things with a bang but then end up losing interest pretty quickly!


I LOVE going to these home expos and exhibitions and shopping there. I realised this when my I answered "Exhibition" to almost all questions relating to "where did you buy this from?" about things in my house!


I have never been proposed! Not even M! Sigh! Ofcourse I have told at least 3 guys that I have a crush on them and the only way I can get over it is by telling them!


I save and reuse wrapping wrappers that I like. And yes, they go under the gaddas on the bed for safe keeping! ;)


I hate washing clothes! Give me a sink load of bartans, I can manage them, but even two clothes and I totally whine!


I am a very average cook which I think stems from that the fact that I am not an enthusiastic one.


I eat wonly dark chocolates. I might have a small piece of milk chocolate on rare occasions but that would mostly be only out of sheer desperation for one. Otherwise anything below 60% dark is not even called Chocolate! Ha!


I am not very good at accepting even constructive criticism. Ask M.


Phew that was tough! I tag Suma, Swati, JLT and WIAN to do this tag! Bring it on ladies!


And now here's some photos of the Jodhpur chapter of our Rajasthan trip! The Mehrangarh fort is absolutely awesome and MUST visit. The autos there are very kitschy and touristy and very very comfortable. The hotel we stayed at was beyoootiful! :)




Happy to be in a big bed after sharing a berth with me on the train! :)



Just to show you guys who tall the bed was! :)




I so totally fell in love with the autos! each one was unique!

The Mehrangarh Fort is stunning! Must see, folks!

The room where the king enjoyed his entertainemnt! it's s rich and the work so intricate! They really knew how to live it up! :)

The Blue city. They claim it NOT in comeptition to the Pink City! I was not convinced!



The "palkhis" for the Royal kids. our kids just get the royal "godi" :p



The men and the arms they use! ;)




The gorgeous silk stoles. I indulged in just one!



Candlelight dinner at ratan Vilas. It is a gorgeous property!



Stairway to the beautiful terrace!



View from the top!

The ma-beta in rare moment of lauuu! :p

I told ya i loved the autos. Guess what? they love me back! :) written in the auto!

The Vintage cars at palace now converted in to VERY expensive heritage hotel!

There were a lot more pictures. But i just got tired. And this post has been drafts since 9th Feb! gah!! Hope to be l'il more regular now.

Thank you for all your good wishes for the new home. We have settled down and have just few more boxes to go! ;) Next post I hope to give you a small tour! If i can get a carpenter to come and do some fixing that is! :p

happy gudi padva to all of you. may this new year bring everything good, beautiful and kind in your life and may you add the same in other people's lives!

Cheers!

new beginnings!

and No, I am not pregnant considering that would be an "expected" announcement by now! hehe!


THIS is what we have been busy with.


We have lived in the current house for over 4 years and it has been good to us. It took us forever to finally get off our behinds and do something about making the move. And now that we are ready to take the plunge and move to the next rented accomodation, it is but obvious that it feels odd. All the memories made in the current house we of course take with us. The first time we tried to turn the house into Home with things we liked. From bare walls and floor to its current state where we have collected enough stuff to last us a lifetime. The paintings on the wall compete with Cub's scribbling and the furniture takes much lesser space on the floor than Cub's toys which seem to like getting their share of fresh air!


There are kiddie stickers on the bathroom tiles and our photos pasted on used paper on random walls (we so need to spend money on frames!;). There are notes and messages written on gift cards found here and there.

We threw our first lunch do here by cooking for 20 people when cooking for 2 used to take us more than 2hrs everyday! We had lot of friends and family coming over and making us feel good by choosing to spend time with us rather than anywhere else. And all of then always told us how much they loved the place and the vibes it has reaffirming what we always believed. There was no lift even forget any other fancy amenities and yet the sunshine and fresh breeze aplenty always made it a great place to live in.

Ofcourse how can I forget Cubby got made in this house! ;) He grew up here too and has been the happiest thing to happen to us.

We now need a lift for our parents who arent getting any younger and space for the Cub to play and a chance hopefully to make friends. We move this weekend to the new house and cannot wait to make it a home. I really hope this house will prove equally lucky and we will get a chance to make many more happy memories.


There is a lot of miscellaneous work we need to get done. The woodwork isnt all that great and we need to get some chips and dislocations mended. Gte the kitchen in a bit of better shape than it is. But all that should not be difficult as long as the positive vibes continue! :)


There is the actual moving too. The amount of crap we have collected over the years is just too much. We are trying to be as ruthless as we can. Lots of clothes given away to Amma and also kept aside for charity if anyone thinks they can be used. Sundry wedding gifts which weren't opened in 5 years, old paperwork which means nothing today etc. I am sure when the packers come and pull the other stuff down from lofts there will be a bigger pile of give away stuff. The thumb rule of if you haven't used something for 2 years you never will so totally applies. Except for greeting cards, letters and books.


Wish us luck folks! :)


Here's some photos from our Rajasthan trip! This is the Jailsalmer bit. I don't think I will be doing full fledged posts on this trip. I just had too many expectations (i don't even know what). Plus Cub due to lack of sleep sometimes and mostly thanks to refusing to eat was a quite a pain throughout the trip almost. Add to that I almost always over reacted to his misbehaviour making it worse for all of us. He was happiest the day we finally went for the camel Safari. He started crying the moment he saw camels but within no time was a happy camper sitting with his papa and waving to me off and on. That night post safari Cubby slept for like 15hours straight I think. It was as if he finally got what he wanted out of his Rajasthan trip on the very last day and then could sleep in peace! :)


Yet the place is so worth a visit. The hitsory, sights and colours just blow you away and I look forward to making another trip and see the places I havent this time.

at some random early hour in a make shift room till we got ours! :)

The gorgeous terrace restaurant at Shahi Palace with a biew of a fort. Thanks Preethi for the recco! :)

This is how the restaurant looks! :)

The room! :)

The cenotaphs at Bada Bagh.

Local kid acting as a guide to subsidise his studies. And he did an awesome job of it! :)

Its actually kinda sad how there are no guides at this place to tell you the story behind it which is quite interesting! Thank god for this kid who wove fascinating tales. I really hope he gtes a better future!

There is one figure on horse on 3 smaller figures next to it. The rider is the king and the fgiures next to him are the number of queens he had and who went sati with him.

Indians can go in free! Ofcos only after we put off our shoes! :)

I obviously went during my monthly course period and ruined the sanotity of the temples! :p

And that's why he can afford to sell his crap a double the mrp! Gee!

Cub on his camel "Morya" with his Papa.

Shadow Play - Thats Morya and Pappu taking us for a ride! :)

The caravan!

Freshly made Chai paani in the desert! Awesome! :)

The Phamily Photu! :)

The view of the lit up fort!

When the seating is so comfy, you can even lie down! ;)

The covered area of roof top resto when the sun gets too harsh!

The shopping ofcourse! Tho i still regret not being able to buy any silver jewelry! :(

a dry month! almost!

Good friend WIAN commented on the last post and reminded me that I haven't written a single post! I might have gone slow on posts in the past months, but a complete dry run does not seem like a good idea. Especially at the end of the year when everyone seems to be taking a stock of the year gone and how life changed for them.


I don't really have any earth shattering discoveries - self or the other kind. If i were to look back on the last year, I can say it was a year filled with friends, family and travel. From April when best bud G dropped in from Goa we have had a total of maybe coupla weekends when we were not meeting people, either in our home or theirs! And I am thankful for that! :) I always wanted Cubby to know a house full of people is a good thing... that there is life beyond his parents and amma.


By travel, i don't really mean exotic travel to strange lands. But small trips that kept happening every now then. Starting with Masinagudi trip in Jan, to lucknow in April for Ooi Bua's shaadi, then to Pune for Cubby's 2nd in July. A whole lot of family came to Bangalore and we made weekend trips to Yercaud and Chikmagalur. There were day trips to Nandi Hills and Innovative Film City thrown in every now and then! And how can I forget the last trip of the year to Rajasthan and Delhi which I am yet to write an update on! Next year defi! ;)


Cubby started his play school and is having a good time. Ofcos thanks to missing his school for over three weeks in December he was crying again to go there, but I am hoping when the school reopens in Jan he will get used to it again in a few days! :)

Thre's Cub 2nd from left. A part of the Dragon! :D

Lost, but still standing tall! :)

He also had his first stage appearance for his annual day in Dec. Considering he had only 3 days practice, I was happy to see him not start crying on the stage. He was lost ofcos, but then he stayed there. And then he saw his crazy parents waving to him and a brilliant smile lit up his face! He clapped for himself and waved to us and then the curtains came down. We were maha proud of him! So what if he didn't dance a single step! ;)

That said I have to say that he has an innate rhythm in his dance and we love watching him shake it every now and then. Last time he did that for "Move it, Move it" while watching Madagascar and we were so thrilled that we forgot to take a video! bah!

While everything else is good I have been thinking about renaming Cub as "His Whiness". The child really can whine. There are tears for anything and everything and each request comes with its corresponding whine. Knowing my non-existent patience level it is really annoying me to no end and we spend most of our time fighting with each other! Experienced mothers, pls help! There is rebellion for just about anything. If we say Yes, he HAS to say NO and vice versa. I mean tell him to change wet pajama he will say No just because he has to do it. He is pushing my buttons ALL the time and I am at my wit's end about what I should be doing / not doing! :( I hate myself for hollering so much, but the amount of misbehaviour we are subjected to every single day for every little thing, I am just not able to make any sense of it! gah!


Thank God for his maha cute smile and funny talk othawise I would have died and gone to Mommy Hell!


He also has gone into the K phase! Thankfully not Ekta kapoor variety, but equally annoying! Kaunsa, Kiska, Kahan, Kisne are the questions asked constantly and for everything. Tell him "Mumy ko chahiye" the answer is "Kiski Mummy?" Huh??!!


Tell him "Cubby Moonh yahan karo" the answer is "Kiska Moonh?!" I will say Tumhaara. He will say "kaunsa moonh". I will say "Kitne moonh hai tumhaare?" he will follow it with "Kiske kitne hai... Moonh?!" Gah!!!!


You can imagine the madness, innit? It's so bad that yesterday M said "Remote de do." and I asked him "kaunsa" in Cubby's tone!! :P


He also makes a whole lotta nonsensical rhymes through out the day. Sometimes is superman is fighting sang in ABCD tune (actually everything is sung in the alphabet song tune!) at others its something completely random almost none of which we understand!

Have to make a note of Cubby's new creation in Hindi "Tumka" said instead of Tumhaara! Yeh tumkaa purse hai ka types! We keep telling him it is Aapka or Tumhaara, but he is happy with Tumka! :p


Other than this hotch potch of stuff I have mentioned, life has been good and I really cannot complain!

WE have no plans for the new years eve, and hopefully the new year itself will be full of fun things, lots of love, unending supply of hope, some stability, some new things, a little giving back to the society in some form and overall sense of well being and peace!


And yes, I wish the same for all of you too! :)


happy 2010 Folks!


cheers!

ps: here's some Cute Cub moments!! :D

At S Buas shaadi! before!

At S Bua's shaadi after! Thanks Starry for the Kurta! :D

At Umaid Bhavan Palace, Jodhpur.

The sukhi Jain parivaar! :)

he IS a dude! :)

Cubby has this series of what kind of a boy he is. So if we say Cubby is a.... it is followed by

Good Boy
Strong Boy (stong Boy)
Smart Boy
Big Boy
Brave Boy (bave boy)
and sometimes SootyPie (sweety pie) or Sooty Papaya!

And he is really not wrong on all these counts. Ofcos, when in a foul mood, he does terrible things and says "Cubby bad boy hai" and that is not untrue either. But just acceptance really doesn't help, does it?! We have all been inflicters and sufferers of "I am like that only" attitude.


But this post is talk about all the nice stuff that makes people want to have babies and it's only when they have had them they realize they have REALLY been Had! ;)


Here's the adjective post that's obviously subjective and defi not objective considering it's written by a biased mother! :)

Some memories and BIDWF moments!


The Good Boy!


Cubby by nature is a quiet child. By that I don't mean he sits in a corner quietly. He makes enough noise for a whole class full of kids put together. But he is someone who listens and obeys. If you tell him something 95 / 100 times he will do as told. How bad the other 5 times are, we shall not discuss it here! It takes the sheen away from the other 95times you see! I have been told sarcastically "You have such a good boy!" as if its a bad thing to be. I mean most can talk very proudly about how well their child bullies, but a quiet child is considered to be a boring one! Bah!


He is helpful at home. He brings us our phones, takes things inside after khaana, puts his own glass in the sink once he is done drinking the milk, picks up his toys when requested and generally wants to be a part of everything you do.


The other day I was making egg curry and so peeling some boiled eggs. Cubby was in one of those destructive (attention hungry) modes where he was trying to mix the peel with already peeled eggs and generally creating a mess. I made him sit on the platform and asked him to help me instead. The kid sat propahly for like 10mins and peeled next 4 eggs for me! :)


The Strong Boy


He helps us carry heavy groceries from the door to the kitchen. Brings the plastic stool wherever needed, can pull bean bag and wooden stools wherever needed.


And hear this! We went to Chikmagalur couple of weeks ago. WE went to ShravanBelgola on our way back. Now the climb there is not maha difficult but it's still considerable with 600 plus steps till you actually get the darshan of the huge Baahubaali idol. Cubby climbed all the way up without being asked to be carried even once!! What more? He came down on his own steam too. Had a whole coconut water and then says "Phinse jaayenge bhagwaanji dekhne!" Phew. I had been similarly zapped when walked 3kms plus at mysore zoo!


So now when someone else tells me he has become so skinny, he looks weak, I tell em about his stamina! :p


The Smart Boy!


Oh well! I really don't know if he is exceptionally smart kid. But he is fairly quick on take. Remembers things pretty quickly and can place things quite correctly. Just yesterday when we were sifting through the paper there was a picture of Taj Hotel. He asked me "Yeh kaa hai?!" I said "Taj Hotel." Aapko yaad hai aapne kahan dekha tha?" I asked this question just like that not expecting him to say anything. He floored me by saying "Boat mein baithe the wahan dekha tha!"


He actually remembered it from his trip to Gateway of India few months ago! :)


He can now solve small jigsaw puzzles of upto 6 pieces. He needs a l'il help to start out with, but then gets the hang of it pretty quickly. The credit for this goes to Aaji Ajoba who sat with him everyday they were here and taught him how to work it. He remembers more than enough rhymes and his favourite is the ABCD song. He sings everything in that tune and he keeps adding his own Cubby speak lyrics to it which more often than not don't make much sense!


The Big Boy


Being a big boy essentially means his wish to do everything on his own! He can now take off his own shoes / floaters etc and he picks it up maha cutely the way grown ups do and keeps them in place. He is trying to learn to wear them on his own. He can ofcos for ages now take off his own shorts / pajama and go to the loo. He is trying to learn how to work the tees and vests now! He wants a say in what should be on the TV for his viewing pleasure. Most wanted is Jungle Book, Tarzan, Horton Hears a Who, Finding Nemo and those terribly animated Buzzers type of CDs. He also randomly tells us what colour clothes he wants to wear but is not insistent about that stuff as yet.


The other day he did a genuinely "Big Boy" cute thing. Our friend S & G had come with their almost a year old son V to our place. Before leaving they were changing his diaper laying him on the mat. S put a sheet under his head for softness. Cubby went running inside and came out with His pillow and trying to keep it under V's head! :D I was very impressed seeing his understanding and touched by the sweetness of his gesture! :)


The Brave Boy


Brave is used with Cubby to try and see that he doesn't get scared or intimidated easily. He is not brazenly bindaas kinda kid and anything new flusters him initially. I hope he will get over these kinda fears eventually in a few years.


That said he is not scared of doing all kinda acrobatics over the furniture and his parents! :)


The SootyPie / SootyPapaya

Are the terms of endearment used with him. So he calls himself that! :D

But then how can you not call him that? Imagine you showing him some shopping "Dekho Cubby ka naya undies!" He will then try to wear it over his pajamas and I ask him if he is superman to wear his undies like this.

He then takes it and puts it on his head and says " Main Dokerman (jokerman) hoon!


*rolling eyes*


Or the kid who sits on the pot and makes his own rhyme by looking at the stickers in front of him and says,


Mickey ne bola
Donald ne bola
Tiger ne bola
Winnie the pooh ne bola
Cubby papa ka Gumpy Gola!


I will be off the blogosphere for a few days from next coupla days! Hope to catch up once I am back!! :)


I will share the photos in next posts 'coz I just dont seem to find the right ones now!


Cheers!

is it normal?? a BIDWF moment!

to start feeling teary eyed when you see your 2yr3mo walk in post an outing with his AAji-Ajoba AFTER you have come back from work and tells you "main aunty ke ghar jaake aaya" and then proceed to take off his "lace" shoes by expertly untying the laces and then picking them up and keeping them back in their own place?!


I kept telling M "He untied his own laces! When the heck did he learn that? When the hell did he grow up so quick?" And all the while i could feel tears pricking at my eyes ready to fall.


I mean WHAT?! WHEN? HOW?!

This was the first time I felt it because generally its M who keeps whining about how he is growing up! :)


You mean to say before I know it;

he will perhaps be a vet?!

or even a doc?!

or a cool RJ perhaps?!

What? He is only 2 years you say?! bah!

Have a great weekend you folks!!!! :)

we are same same but different!

was a terrible song from what I hear was a terrible film made by Nagesh Kukunoor of all people! But nopes, this post isn't about bad songs or bad movies or even the NK mentioned above whose previous movies I have loved!

G(a)R(l)AND welcome! The view and space just outside the balcony!

So we celebrated our 5th anniversary over last weekend and went to this gorgeous resort called Our Native Village which is pretty close to Nrityagram in an area called Hessarghatta. WE fell in love with the place the moment we saw smiling faces, were offered yummiest jal jeera I have had and stepped into our pretty sunlit room.

The Room! You can see how happy Cubby is! So were we! :D

The low bed on high stone block had Cubby happily jumping all over the place. The wall behind had a beautiful painting and the orange "curtains" made outta mats just added to the feel. The Balcony opened to vast amounts of green and the stone structure that was our room was naturally cool and didn't need AC which they anyway don't have. TV and AC are two modern amenities that this "eco resort" doesn't offer and you don't miss it at all.

The bookshelf in the dining hall! Cubby was fascinated with a lion and the Ferris wheel!

The airy dining hall has a book shelf full of well thumbed books and some broken wooden toys that kept Cubby occupied every time we were having a meal. And yes, the food was delicious enough for us to spend long time at our table! :) What followed such a hearty meal was what you see below;

a much needed siesta! :)

So that we wake up fresh to see, do and enjoy all that there is!



Gawking at the turkey! It was huge and strutted around making weird sounds!

There were turkeys, roosters and hens to run after or just gawk at because I for one had never seen an asli turkey! There were the owners' dogs and their absolutely adorable puppies! So totally cute that even Cubby who is usually guarded when around anything new was OK having them sniff at him and jump on him! :)

The gorgeous pond / pool! :)

They have a beautiful natural pool in form of a pond with lotus flowers and occasional toads to keep you company! Cubby had fun in the pool with his papa. Ofcos his ego kept coming up every now and then when he realized he isn't supposed to enjoy all this after having said "nahi jaana hai" pretty vehemently. So rona dhona in between laughter kept happening! :)

Getting our hands dirty! The guy Umesh did most of the work but we did get two pots back! :)

You can indulge in all that rustic life entails. Starting from milking a cow (we were quite content just watching, thank you!) to getting your hands dirty as you try your hand at pottery! They also offer kite flying and gilli danda if thats what fancies you! We did the bullock cart ride and though it was nice to know what it feels like by end of it it just didn't seem fair to use it as a joyride.

Mom and son by the small pond while Father got his massage!

There is a spa as well and though not as fancy or spic n span as some of the newer ones (this one has oil on its floor etc), the person offering the massage was awesome. M got a full body massage and came out maha refreshed! Since they didn't have a female masseuse that day, I had to make do with a foot massage the next day which was quite nice too!

The view that greeted us next day morning! A flock of cranes! :)



I dunno why but i LOVE this picture! :)

The room rents are a tad steep but it is totally worth it. Only slight discomfort is the number of flies flitting around because they dont use any chemicals etc, but somehow you dont notice it much! Almost not at all! :)

Anyhoo, we casually mentioned it to the owner that we have come to celebrate our anniversary. Imagine our surprise when we were told that they have arranged a candle light dinner for us by the pool side! When we went back to the room post dinner is when the post with this title started happening in my head! Have a look and tell me what you think! ;)

Our bed decorated with flowers at ONV! we giggled like l'il kids!

This is why! The bed on our honeymoon in Himachal Pradesh! :D

sitting on the khatiya around the bonfire with tired Cub!

The Bonfire!

Us in front of the fireplace in our room during honeymoon! :p

Us at the bonfire at a lovely hotel in Thanedar!

Us holding hands at restaurant in Parwanoo in Himachal!

Holding hands over a romantic candle light dinner at ONV! :p

Me, the new bride at the hotel table during honeymoon!

Me, 5 years later, with Cubby next to us as we are about to start the dinner! :)

Yup that's him on the khatiya in the passage! :D We were meant to have a peaceful dinner! We just made a request to the hotel guys and within minutes a comfy bed for the sleeping Cub was ready! :)

Me making funny faces at mall road in Shimla because M kept insisting on some pose!

Me making funny faces at Nrityagram because M kept insisting on some pose!

Us taking random picture in Shimla!

Us, getting a random picture taken at Taj Kuteeram!

Isn't it all too similar? That's why the title!

So does this qualify as second honeymoon?! hehe!