One look at her and you would know she was up to something!
The impish grin, twinkle in her eyes.
With no one watching, the little girl popped the lollipop into her mouth and continued her hopscotch.
She jumped, turned around and faced her mother standing there.
She was caught and her face reddened!!
This fiction post is part of the Drabble Week in the group Marathon Bloggers Day 4.
They were watching the season finale of their favourite TV series.
He brought a bag of chips; he was hungry.
She was glued to the climax scene on screen, deathly silence in the room.
Then suddenly CRUNCHHH!! CRUNCH!! CRUNCH!!
UGGGHHH!! How she hated this sound.
She flung the bag of chips far away from him.
This fiction post is part of the Drabble Week in the group Marathon Bloggers Day 3.
Ravi woke up to have a glass of water; heard the tinkle of breaking glass!
He froze.
With his heart thudding, he ran towards Ayesha’s room.
The intruder was standing at the top of the staircase. The bullet caught Ravi straight in the heart.
He wished he had said I love you, one last time!
This fiction post is part of the Drabble Week in the group Marathon Bloggers.
Then: He said “I will love you today, tomorrow and always.”
Now: he says “If you talk to me like THAT, I can’t stand it. I feel angry.”
What happened to all the promises of loving and caring?
When did the ego creep in? And why? Love ain’t enough?
Left with broken promises, she cried.
This fiction post is part of the Drabble Week in the group Marathon Bloggers.
He said: Do you know how to make chappatis?
She said: Do you know how to fix a punctured tyre?
He said: There are mechanics for that!
She said: And there are cooks for THAT!
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He said: Do you know how to make chappatis?
She said: Do you?
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And they lived happily ever after!
The summer vacations have begun. Period. [I so felt like ending the post here as if that would say it all]
Yes! The much dreaded, by me, and much appreciated, by the brat, necessary part of life. Don’t ask me why I dread them because I don’t know. Maybe, because, for one, I am not very adept at what is called “keeping a kid occupied and busy”. I agree to the logic that it is not necessary to always do something. But like a friend said “After the 29th what-are-we-going-to-do-next OR I-am-getting-bored” I do feel the obligation and responsibility to do something for him, with him. Reason two might be that I suck at doing things together. It could be anything, painting, art and craft, pretend play, hide and seek, board games. I rely on external support to keep the kid off my head, like sending him to school, play dates, playing around in the play area, electronic media (yes we have fixed hours) amongst a few. So when school – the biggest contributor, is out of the game, I find it a challenge to keep the kid occupied. I am not saying it has to be a learning experience all the time. No. I just want the brat to do stuff on his own and use very little of the electronic media as possible. Those are my wishes.
I know I have self analyzed the situation towards the path that says “I need to be more active and involved as a parent aka change myself, if needed, and look for fun and happiness in doing things together!” Ughhh!
On a related but slightly different aspect, picture this. I wake up from an emotionally intense, vivid dream at 4:15 am this morning. Toss and turn and try to sleep some more. Unsuccessfully! And then decide to get up around 5:30 am. I am in the let-me-conquer-my-task-list-before-the-sun-rises kind of mood. I manage to just about make my to-do list and I hear the door to the home office open. The brat is up!
I look at my watch. 6:16 am. Seriously???
I am motivated enough to finance the research for “Why do kids wake up early during holidays and are not so eager to wake up on school days?”
I still manage to check off 3 items off my to do list, which is awesome, considering the situation. Then I decide to go with the flow. The brat and I go down for a walk. He takes his scooter along. During our conversations we decide to research about scientists this summer and make a scrapbook related to it. Now that is something I can do with the kid. I can also read – read with him, to him. Back to scientists – Not my suggestion or influence at all. The brat came up with that one. I tried to probe and check if that is something he really wanted to do and he sounds sure. Scientists it is!
Inspired by fellow blogger Shailaja’s summer project 73Â (she has also collated and listed an impressive list of activities to do with your kids this summer), I have started putting pictures on Pinterest. We are going to try to do one new activity every day and journal the summer holidays via pictures.
On another side note, this is how I feel on other days. 🙂
Happy Holidays and Happy Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Cheti Chand and Navratras! Festival bonanza today 🙂
You can’t do everything in life, coz there are so many things to do, see, read, go, try.
So. Narrow your focus. Narrow your focus. Narrow your focus!! 8 out of 10 internet articles suggest getting out there and doing something. But first. Narrow your focus!
I can only see the bed right now. Is that narrow enough??
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I promise not to read any more articles, in print or on the device(s). Oh wait, before I keep the phone away, this one sounds interesting. Lemme just skim through this. Oh, here is a link to another one that is SO relevant to me. Lemme just finish this.
2.5 hrs later. Dang where did the day go!!
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Day N-1 – I want to eat healthy, I want to stay fit, I want to look good, I want to do more, I want to make some money, I want to explore the world, I want to fly to the moon. So starting tomorrow I shall change my life and do all things new!
Day N – Who is going to go out and buy oats now? and from where? Lemme see what leftovers are there in the fridge for lunch.
Oops I forgot to run today. Maybe in the evening?Â
If I can do only one thing to take care of myself, can I tend to my dry feet and cracked soles?Â
Money money money, how do I get more of it honey? Don’t want to do what I studied for. Don’t know how to go about following my “passion”Â
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Wake up with commitment, not with your feelings says a motivational poster. Yes!!
If I listen to my feelings every morning I would be eating, reading, watching TV, sleeping. Repeat. On most days!!
That won’t really do much for me will it?
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Â
Just another day, not today. But a sample of what happens on many days.
6:45 am: Got up, awake yet slow. Brushed my teeth, looked at myself in the mirror. Need to get my hair coloured. It looks weird, unkept and dry. Note to myself – Call my hair guy and set an appointment. It is Diwali this weekend. Yay!! Party!!
7:15 am: The kid’s tiffin packed. Breakfast, lunch and dinner planned out. Stuff for breakfast laid out. Time to go wake the kid. Oh, it rained last night and there is water on the terrace coz the f$%^&& idiots made the slope wrong. Need to get that cleaned when the maid comes in. Put in the laundry? Sky looks cloudy. What does that have to do with it? You can put it on full dry mode. Naaah! Just forget it today. Don’t feel like it.
7:25: The kid and his dad are still snoozing. Yank the blankets off! Mean me. The dad takes one look at his smart phone and has something urgent from work. I swear I could throw all phones into the Dead Sea. So he is unavailable from now on till whatever he needs to do gets done. Note to self – Pretend he is out of town.
7:55 am: The kid is ready for school. Finally!! After very “patiently” talking, role playing, subtle cajoling and just short of pleading. It took 25 minutes of cuddles, PDA, sweet talk, playing silly games and 5 minutes to actually get into the uniform. We march down the stairs for breakfast.
Expected time of Departure from home to catch the school bus is:
Easy breezy walk – 8:00 am
Power walk – 8:05 am
Run – 8:10 am
Run for your life – 8:15 am
We manage to make it 8:00 am on most days, but today doesn’t seem like that day.
8:00 am: The breakfast is toasted slices of bread with butter and jam and a glass of milk. Easy simple, what’s so difficult about that. Trust toddlers to come up with the most innovative ways to delay, refuse or whine about things. The young one wants to “cook” his breakfast. He wants to make something at 8:00 am when he is supposed to leave for school. Aaarrrghhhh! I want to scream out loud. But I don’t. I have house guests. I am trying to be nice and well behaved. I tell him we will cook together for lunch or dinner.
8:03 am: Looking at the calendar on the kitchen wall. Oh sh%^^ [don’t worry, I did not say that out loud]! I need to submit an article by tomorrow, an article that I haven’t started writing yet!!! Note to self – Finish it today. Tomorrow will be too late.
8:05 am: Back to reality. I am still pushing and gently prodding the little one to finish his glass of milk. 3/4th of the glass is gone. He refuses to drink the remaining. I am thisclose, yes THISCLOSE to screaming again. Pause. Think Simran what can you do now. I ask him why don’t you want to drink. He says it is cold. I do the finger test and it is frigging warm-on-the-side-of-hot. Before I can say anything he repeats “It is cold mama!” I take a sip and it dawns on me. I say “You mean there is less sugar?” His eyes become big and round and he nods. “Then you need to say it is not sweet enough. We don’t call it COLD!!”
I say it out loud, to myself “How irritating!” I hear the husband’s voice saying “How funny, right?” I get it! He is trying to make me see it in another light. I don’t want to see it from any other angle. Hmmphh!
I add sugar and give it to him. He is still not budging. I take away the glass and say ok no milk. He stares at me with the I-can’t-believe-this look. And I continue “No watching that movie-that-we-recorded-to-see-on-movie-day”. Totally mean me! I know, this is against all the rules of perfect parenting. But I DON’T WANT TO BE A PERFECT PARENT right now!!!! All I want to do is YELL – LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER. But I don’t.
Bingo! It works. He gulps down the last bit of milk and is off to school. One down.
8:10 am: The good byes and I-love-yous are done. My cousins who are visiting are gone too. I warm up my milk and toast my bread and sit down for breakfast. Ding dong! There goes the bell. The maid is here. Back to a cold toast after giving her directions. Who cares!
8:20 am: The contractor calls in saying he will be here with his army of 5 men to finish off pending tasks. Okay 😦 Whatever!
8:55 am: The bell rings. The contractor walks in and 5 men with him. The maid looks at me and says “Phir se kaam shuru karange yeh log? [Will these people start work again?]….
… Such is life, it isn’t always what it seems like!! Yet we live it, love it and it is beautiful the way it is.
Have a lovely week ahead. May you have the slow moments that you crave for and the fast, hectic, crazy ones too. May you have the best of both worlds.
Happy Monday!!
N and I read and talk before he goes to bed. Tonight’s conversation, was a wee bit inspired by this post from Mindful Dad.  We sat opposite each other and I told him why I loved him – all the reasons I could think of and more 🙂 I did not expect him to say anything back, after all he did not understand why or what I was doing; he hadn’t read the article. Or so I thought.
Turns out, he does understand the language of love, of emotions, of feelings. So he told me, what he loved about me. He loved that I took care of him – whether he got hurt or not, that I read to him every night, that I brought things for him or not sometimes, that I took him running with me, that I gave him kisses and hugs, that he could talk to me about anything (including his crush on a girl in his class – yep his first), that he wouldn’t ever go away leaving me or wouldn’t want to change me for any other mommy in the world!! Yay!! Oh boy it was one of the best feelings in the world, the way he said it in a very matter of fact tone, as if this was the simplest, truest, fact. Even better than S telling me why he loves me. Sorry S! Your li’l guy just took over 😉
Oh and before sleeping, N thanked god tonight for “Giving me 15 days of holidays so that I can be with my friends in Malpe!”
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Me to N:Please roll up and button up your shirt sleeves. That will look nicer.
N: I don’t like rolling up the sleeves. That makes me uncomfortable around the elbow.
Me: The last time you wore it you had sleeves down. Can’t you do it just this once, for me?
N: I don’t feel like mamma.
Me: Okay! (Pouty face – coz I seriously felt that the shirt and N would look better with rolled up sleeves)
N [calmly]: My life, my choice. Your life, your choice.
Me [Thinking is this kid seriously just a 5-year-old??]: N there are some things you can choose for yourself but there are other things that you will have to leave for mom and dad to decide till you are a li’l older.
N: Ok Mamma – I will listen to you for all the important things. But this is not an important thing no? Just my shirt sleeves.
Me [As if the light just went on inside a dark room]: Yes, N. you are right, this ain’t important. Keep your sleeves whichever way you want them [Smiling to myself on the inside, the kid has his fundas clear,  reinforcement works and choose your battles Sim – it is the important stuff that matters!] 🙂
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Read this yesterday –Â http://butterflywriterblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/17-things-boys-need-from-their-moms/ and like it! Very thoughtful, sweet and emotional article.
Happy Holidays or Happy There-will-be-holidays-very-soon 🙂
Was browsing through something, looking for another thing, when I came across this ad on Youtube.
Loved the lyrics! Sang them along and loved them even more.
“I guess my life is an open book
anyone can take a look.
No secrets here to hide, this is just me.
Holidays they come and go.
Feelings change, People grow.
And all I know is I like being free,
Da Da Da… I will be fine.
This is me now,
But I could change anytime.”
Being happy is what matters, right? Leaving aside the whys, why nots, hows and whens… happiness is what we all strive for. I do.
#Introspection, #Innerpeace, #Happiness
ChipsnChutzpah 