The Three Musketeers in my house

Im skipping the usual no time to blog stuff – By now you get to realize that the time you get to deck up your own house is limited – leave alone blogging! And yes – comparitively the former hits the priority list or I’ll be thrown out of the members list back home! Whats more?! Im not cribbing as I should normally do (considering my dampened pessimism that keeps poking at odd hours). Im relishing the treat “The Three Musketeers” welcome me with – back home!

Should I bring in Athos, Porthos and Aramis and confuse you even more! Naahhh! Im just plain bored and out of wit and time for the whole effort 😀 Im sure you can relate much better if i just called them H-boy, Eby, and dad! 🙂 Disclaimer: The order in which I have mentioned them has nothing to do with alphabets, priorities or their respective roles in treating my momentibuds! It only has to do with plain, thoughtless hurried typing 😀 😀 :D.

And again, instead of going the clock-wise route let me start from evening – the minute i step in after a whole tiring day and a loooong and STUPID ride home(again nothing to do with my riding ma scooty as much as it has to do with the roads, the traffic and the prejudism against female drivers) – ok, no more deviations!!!

So as soon as I open the door ( my maid as a rule doesnt latch it-burglars kindly ignore!) H-boy( the first musketeer) from wherever he is will come running to look at my face – flash a mighty BIG smile and say “hhhaaiiiii” as if hes seen a box of chocolates (read- as if I saw a box of chocolates)! And? he runs in circles infront of me, probably to show the different styles in which he can – i seriously have no clue, but i realize its a ritual every single day now – 4 circles! Guess I’ll ask him when he grows up – as to what he intended! Perhaps hes imagining ramp walking (or ramp running?) in his head :D! Okay – after exactly 4 rounds – and no he hasnt learnt counting, hed stops where he is and then rushes to take his ‘football’. I would not yet have kept my Bags down, mesmerised by his ramp show, when he would hold my finger with one hand, his football on the other and say “ba, ba” and demand a game of football! If you arent all that new to this place you would by now understood the hilarity of me involving in games – No i dint mean Id be mistaken for a football..its my sense in games I was hinting at! If that wasnt all – quite sad at my height I had planned that Id teach ma kid – Basketball. Well he found this more interesting and I have no choice, but curse my genes or sympathize with his girlfriends if he doesnt touch 6 or atleast 5’10 :(.

So I set my bags on the Sofa, coz im not allowed to enter any further without kicking the ball around! (please!!! read with a straight mind! :D) and as I run around the house, “verbbbyyyyyyyy” My dad (the next musketeer :D) calls me from his room. 😀 Thats not what my Dad calls me – but im helping you to relate better you see 😀 😀 :D!. So inorder to avoid a scream, screetch and any other possible drama/violance I dont walk to my Dads room! I take the football game to the next level so that in a couple of minutes I reach Dads room!

Ball is in Dads court now! If i manage to step into my house before 9(which has become a rarity), my dad without any said rules or words insists on a small routine of sitting and chatting for 10-15 minutes. And man!!! Though I have admitted before everywhere that it was my dad who introduced me to reading, i havent till date realized his story telling capabilities. Back home, college days – few days when you get back from hostel all you concentrate on is food, food, food-period. Now, when I sit with him, the conversations often drifts to the olden days, or golden days. Little montages of our childhood, the stories of the so called famous neighbor (whose face Id have forgotten), little snippets of news from home – he has this talent of weaving dark humour into most of the not so harmful information he shares. Probably its his age, can be read as mine too – these lill chit chats – often leave me with a smile. Dot at 9, though he doesnt have a clock in that room of his, it would be time for him to sleep and I’d tuck him under the heavy blanket which he cant manage on his own at this age. And I continue the football back from his room to the hall. By now, H-boy has granted the 10 mins break and when I reach the hall, after another few rounds, Id get tad selfish and play some video songs on the laptop which will let him focus in that and I can do some stuffs of my own!

BUT if i thought I can rush to the bathroom for a quick shower, or even to wash my face?! NO! He will just not allow me to shut any sort of a door once i enter the house in the evening. Morning he is okay to part with me when I step out, but evening once I come back – im under his supervision every single second. you got doubts? go figure! or go give birth to a prankster! 😀

So all i can do even after deviating his attention from me, is to grab a bite/prepare chappathi. This break again spans not more than 1o-15 minutes, by then he’ll get bored of watching the songs alone! (After all it is the same set of video songs which is played for him day in day out!!!) So then ill start waltzing around the hall preparing for the arrival of my next and most important (kidakkatte oru soap) musketeer – Eby. So why do I waltz in the hall for his arrival? Well to clean up the mess my first musketeer would have managed to do by then. The morning news paper or rather every single page of the newspaper, the stuffs from the kitchen, water, his toys AND whatever he managed to reach out by climbing the stool and stretching his hands, H-boy inevitably displays all of them in the hall! Its his achievement for the day – not to forget the scribblings with crayons on the walls (NOW i understand house owners’ logic of not lending to families with kids!!!). If i clear up the mess in a normal way, H-boy will again get pissed! So – I pretend Im enjoying the same mallu songs BIG time day in day out, waltz according to the tunes (if uve heard – karthave ni kalppichappol, ente adukke vannadukkum pemparannole etc, u can guess! 😀 😀 :D). That eby tried making me listen to Beethoven while I was pregnant and downloaded these for the delivered kid is a completely different topic to debate on!. H-boy in his own fashion joins me in the waltz, often helping to add more to the mess I try to clear!

This little musketeer is one of the best things that could have ever happened to me! I wish it could be possible to capture every single moment for keeps! But it is not practically possible. The minute he sees camera/mobile he grabs and tries to click your snap! Bless Ebys genes for that! 🙂 The photographer son of the photographer dad – its quite natural I turn a model 😉 (of what is not a question to be raised here!). His style of running around the house, joy when hes naked! (NO – has nothing to do with either of our genes! 😀 😀 its the age they say 😉 ) his style of raising his eyebrows after a prank, his acting!! (covers his face with his hands and pretends to cry when I raise my voice and then looks between his fingers:D) his way of carrying the stool around the house, coz he has realized with that added height he can accomplish muchcchhh more! and so on and so forth. It is PURE entertainment the entire time I rollick with him, every single evening!!!

Then after the food and shower, hes lulled to sleep, when enters the third musketeer! Or sometimes lill before that. When he does come before that, our immediate mission in hand, would be lulling him to sleep! Again – leaving no chances to be secular or stereo typed – If its me who sings the lullaby it will ALWAYS be – “neela karmukil varnan” (Vimmuuu – no your guesses on my singing ability are not welcome here! The kid doesnt knw nethng yet :D) and at times when Im too tired and eby gets the chance it will be “kaaval maalagha maare” – For the non-malayalees who lost me there – one is a typical hindu song and another a xtian one! 😛 😀 :P…

Though I never miss a chance to put up a sulky face if Eby gets late, I must/ am forced to admit – he has shown extreme patience and tolerance towards the work pressure I handled in the last few days! Being the semi-feminist I am, I hate to admit that the ability to understand and fully co-operate and patiently helping your partner out of your office tensions is something endowed only to men! If he comes late – Id sulk – hes not gettng enuf time with me. If he attends to office calls/messages – even after cming home – he doesnt have time for me!!!! Id choke the poor thing out of his breath! For many days – I reached home around 9, then at times will have calls, then mostly Ill have to rush the next day. He never complained and when he saw I was breaking down, just sat with me and reasoned with me as to how I can handle this better! Over coffee and conversations sort the tensions out! AND he makes the coffee a lill tooo strong to the verge of bitterness, so im grabbing the credit away 😉 claiming to create better coffees! But the conversations – Im not claiming even a single drop of it – the credit is all his!!

So the three musketteers together are filling this momentivore’s plate with nostalgic cream, fun-filled crackers and brewing ethopian coffee. Not mentioning the punch dialogues, sour faces, sulking, screaming, blah blah blahs…it cant be real world otherwise i guess! They do treat me and thats all that matters!!!

Melting Desserts

After a very late dinner we walked up to an ice cream parlor. An odd place to visit in the middle of the night, had it not been for sleepless Mumbai! And mind you we did have company there whenever you feel you’re doing something odd there is nothing when compared to the pleasure of finding a company. But I should say our pleasure was topped with a greater degree of surprise when we saw who our company in the lonely shop at the middle of the night was..

 

 

There were three of them the eldest being not a tad more than 12 years and the youngest just 5 or lesser than that and I should say the age would be of lesser concern. The major concern was that they were one among the number of beggars that flood the streets in India. They had begged in the morning for a piece of bread to sustain their lives and here they were in the middle of the night to have a sumptous dessert. Do we not throw them coins of charity? be it coz of the prick of conscience they so efficiently evoke by a dirt soaked body and tear soaked cheek or be it just the haste to drive them away whilst you can romance uninterrupted. Well I know not whether they had their share of a meal that day, but I knew they had come for their share of a dessert. We had settled down for just a single scoop each not without commenting how we ought to cut down our unwanted expenses. However the tiny tots did not seem so wary and I half expected them to be. They had chosen 2 different scoops each and were picking other packed choco bars. And as I fumbled through my bag for the fifty bucks our scoops had cost us I heard her “chutta hoga 5 sou ke liye?” not sure whether I heard it right I looked at her palms outstretched with a real 500 Rs note!. Well why do I want anyone to pinch me to make sure I’m not dreaming? It could’ve been their earning (through begging) for the day, not forgetting that it ought to be 50% more than the average workers salary, or it could’ve been that they just stole it!! Whichever the course – it could not have been a promising one for the growing buds of the nation!

I would have smiled or even been happy for them for the whale of time these tots were having at the ice cream shop if only the picture of their future melting faster than any ice-creams was so vivid. The picture is clear – professional beggars or lambs for the greater professionals who would amputee their arms or legs and place them in the middle of any crowd. Yeah they no doubt would achieve immense expertise in tickling a pain in our hearts and make us throw a coin. I had a friend of mine from Poland visit India last year, India he agreed was one of the best places he had visited. He was an avid traveler who can boast of having covered almost 100 countries by now. I asked him why he didn’t bring his wife along and the answer really shocked me. She had fallen ill last time she visited India seeing the beggars and their plights on the street that she resolved never to visit India ever again. . I could say nothing but hope with all my heart that never in their lightest jokes would they have ever given India a sobriquet of – the land of beggars,,,or for that matter never do so. Not that I pretend to be queen Elizabeth and ask “not even a piece of cake?” I wish begging only would no longer be considered as an art in our country and the growing buds not be crushed and denied of a spring wherein they deserve to bloom.

I reminisce the dream of a beautiful India that was instilled in me as each morning I was to pledge that I’m proud of It’s rich and cultural heritage. Now I’m puzzled, if today becomes tomorrow’s heritage will there be anything left to be proud of? Since the laws the state has made against begging are only pieces to adorn the law books, will there be any innocent hearts to take pride whilst a large chunk will be flocking in the streets for alms.!!!! If we can realize that child labor is a crime.. it’s high time we realized that child begging is a greater shame.!!

Snow White & The Dwarfs

It’s probably in lower primary Ive read this story! Never touched the book again nor seen a movie on it! But somehow the story remains intact, its beauty uscathed. Whilst all the credits go to the author I would credit the beauty of the character! I still remember snow white’s mom sitting by the window sill and knitting while the needle pricks her and when she sees tha blood in her finger she wishes that her baby would be as white as the snow, her lips as red as this drop of blood and what not!

Perhaps Nikhat’s mother wished those too and which mothers dont! For her face reminded me of some fairy tale beauties when i first saw Nikhat at the reception of my office. And with dimples adorning both her cheeks! (dimples werent referred in fairy tales! its more of a modern concept of beauty i believe!) Meticulous nd systematic as she is it is hard to determine from her speedy deliverance of her duties that her one hand and one leg is slightly diabled~

Talk of her plans for marriage and there she goes! Stories of people who came and couldnt accept marrying a disabled! People who came, were ok with the “problem” if they were given a lakh rupees! The dwarfs! But apparently it was more than just 7 who belittled themselves asking money as a means to compensate for a difficulty their future spouse would be dealing her throughout her life!

                                                                                                                  

 

I probably can understand if a person is not comfortable with her state, but it goes beyond comprehension the state of mind of a person who thinks a lakh rupees would help him forget the physical state of his spouse for a lifetime!

What is that emotion that he claims to hold for the one entering his life which blooms at the sight of few notes and fades at the lack of it! Will he kiss her less if the fortune she brought doesnt fit his desire? will he lean on her less should he fall ill?

What is the emotion that the parents claim to hold which seeks compensation for upbringing a boy at the time of his stepping into a wedlock! Will they feed him less if some prediction assured he wouldnt bring a wife with great fortune?

The heroism in the yesteryear fables that maks the man say – come with me and il take care of ye, seems to have been forgotten. Now I hear it as – Come with money and u take care of me!

I remember our wedding vows to be something like this..I,,

 take thee, to my wedded wife/husband,

to have and to hold from this day forward,

for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer;

in sickness and in health;

to love and to cherish,

till death us do part,

according to God’s holy law;

and thereto I give thee my troth.

 Think now these wedding vows need to be altered –

 

 ♥In health richness and prosperity I shall be with thee..

In sickness or poverty, be assured I shall flee!!♥

Like dew drops they filled her eyes, tears that .traumatize her for a lifetime, for a fault that isnt hers! She rattled on..my friend from the fairy tales, of the guys who liked her face but spurned her physical state, who accepted her shortcomings but scorned her financial state! I feel they all are dwarfs, who have belittled themselves before my snowhite, but they will help her to learn the world & live her life till one day her real prince arrives!

On your marks, Get set, Go!

Ive been pregnant (with thoughts) and been feeling the pain lately. A sense of dejection (god knows for what), a sense of hating idleness as i indulge in it, a sense of despising the hectic routine as im forced to it!

Lemme rush to the world of words..and guttle to my hearts content!! pray it will help me move out of this uneasiness…

So here you get to see the verbivore going verbose.  Im all set and ready to go!