Lost in Translation

The first mail that I saw today -

 

"Hi madam,

I am writing to inform you that today I am not coming to office because, I am suffering from cold and fewer, so please consider this mail as my leave request and apologize me to take sudden leave."

Home Again!

Painting is all over and it finally feels like home again. All the days that the work was going on it was like the house belonged to all the things rather than us - furniture, utensils, books, clothes, beds...we've managed to order them better this time. And last but not the least, a big box for most of our books!

And the best part, the sun is shining too!

Forewarned!

On Friday morning, I was hurrying as usual to catch the backgate open when I saw my neighbour D in the corridor, talking to her friend. I had just said Hi to her and continued when all of a sudden I just slipped and fell. It wasn't much of a fall thankfully, with only my left palm bearing the brunt of it. But D would hear none of it; she was very concerned and said I couldn't proceed without sitting and sipping some water. She said it was a bad omen and it was a must to go back home and sit for a while. I protested as much as I could and the only concession she could make was to take me to her friend's home instead. I sat there and admitted wholeheartedly that it was my fault that I walked so fast; I never started in time. It was all agreed that it was a sign of something worse that would've happened on the road. So by the time I thanked them and got out, I knew the backgate was out of my reach and I finally reached office half an hour late, walking precariously on the mini-precipice that once was a footpath on BEML road and cursing all the omens.

Evolution

In the past -

Rishi : Anu, what do you want to do when you grow up?
Anu  : I want to become an apple!
          I want to become a biscuit!
          I want to become a butterfly!
          I want to fly to the sky and sit on the clouds! But will there be toilets there??

Now :

Rishi : Ani, what do you want to become when you grow up?
Anu  : I want to become a princess!
Rishi : No, you can't, because Baba is not a king.
Anu  : Okay! Baba, can you become a king soon?
Baba : But Ani, I thought you wanted to become a bird!
Anu : (Laughing) Baba, how can I become a bird! You know who becomes a bird? A chick! Don't you know?
Baba : Alright, but I doubt if I can become a king.
Anu : Alright, I want to become a horse then!

Gloomy

I don't know why there is no pressure on Saudi Arabia to take in the refugees. For that matter, Saudi doesn't seem to be pressurized to do anything.

Rain is just not letting up. It's been a week since the sun shone brightly and what with our painting and everything, we are just about managing to be sane. I'm going to discard a lot of things that I discovered while shifting things. But so much of our possessions is books and it's very hard to come to any decision about them. 

Small Expectations

Daughter  : Aayi, smell my cheeks!
Mother    :  Mm, it smells delicious! What did you apply? Let me guess...soap?
Daughter :  No! Guess again!( Gleeful laughter)
Mother    :  Powder!
Daughter  :  Yes! (Claps and skips away)


Daughter :  Baba, smell my cheeks!
Father     :  Hmm (tearing himself away from his cellphone)
Daughter :  Baba, smell my cheeks!
Father     :  Hmm, yes!
Daughter :  But Baba, don't they smell good? (Frowning)
Father     :  Yes, wonderful!
Daughter :  Alright! (skips away)

Sweet-shy

We have had so many sweets and chocolates in the last two months that I hate the sight of them now. But unfortunately the festive season is just getting over and we invariably feed the guests with sweets and they return the 'favour'! On top of that, my mother has learnt from somewhere that sugar causes Alzheimer's and one somehow swallows the ghee-laden sweets just out of a sense of charity. I'm done with them for another year, surely.

Rishi has made us all very happy by learning to make the pizza all by himself. Of course I do all the dirty work later!

Feeling Light

It's a wet DeepavaLi this time and celebrations are mute by comparison. But it's still feeling good inside, coming after the Bihar results. It is one thing to brush it aside when people who don't matter protest - people like directors, writers, scientists etc - but quite another when the electorate says it, right?I think it's a good breakpoint and we should all come back to the things that matter.

We are growing quite a few things in our balcony these days - mostly by accident. We changed the mud in the pots sometime early this year and it's been quite a boom after that. It all started with two mini-watermelons and then came the Mangalore cucumbers, bitter gourds, capsicums, cherry tomatoes and the regular ones. Not to mention the flowerpots and kaake haNNu.

Glimpses

South Africa and India play the first Test match, I'm on leave and yet cannot watch the match! The innumerable cracks at home are finally being filled and the house is in a big mess. No question of stepping in front of the TV. Thanks to StarSports.com, I do catch some action and now find that SA are all out just when I was planning in my mind that they would have a lead of 40. Disappointing, because at this rate the match will be over tomorrow.

                                                    

Turning Things Around

I've been given a new task by my senior(my boss's boss) but I have a feeling that my boss is just waiting for me to do it badly. He's not given me a single person who can do things independently and I've already had arguments over the timelines. The coming days will again look to spoil my life domestically and I should be careful to have a balanced approach.

Sounds so much like a weekly forecast or something?

Walking in the Rain

It rained like punishment yesterday. When I had lunch on the terrace, it was like sitting inside a waterfall with light and sound show around. In the evening it subsided, but not enough to get any auto to go home. Then I did the inevitable - walked home, feeling lucky to be at a walking distance. I had a good time actually. But I will carry a raincoat today.

Dive and Save

I came to know this phrase only recently. When my boss told me that there was going to be a "Dive and Save" for one of our colleagues who had sent resignation, I was like, "you mean saving the team, right?". We don't need to pretend otherwise, not at the moment.

I keep getting dreams of going abroad these days. Sometimes all of us, sometimes alone. And I'm all anxious and excited. I don't think it's anything to do with the fact that I am actually getting more travel offers than ever before but their sudden appearance is baffling. It must be just the near-impossibility of the whole thing. I mean, while P says he would take up more onsite stints - short, of course - willingly now onwards, the moment I mention anything remotely like a travel, he becomes all stiff and hot as if I've packed my bags already without telling him. I know my limitations and I've refused enough requests already, even the interviews outside Bangalore, just so that I don't trouble anyone. But can't for once someone say it's alright and if the push comes to shove they would take care of the kids in my absence? No, I'm to feel guilty that my boss even mentioned such a thing in the first place.

I wish I had travelled a lot when I was single. Now it's become a near luxury to travel anywhere without feeling the burden of it.