Wake up Call

"Mammaa, pancin daa" (mom give me a pencil) says the little one scarcely five minutes after getting up, the moment I reach for the pencil it is followed by-"Mammaa, kagozs daa" (mom give me paper), sometimes qualified with "Mammaa bolo kagozs daa", at which time my alarm bells start ringing and I know what I am in for. For the good part of the next hour I will have to draw vehicles and the lord and master i.e. my 1 and half year old will recite "truck..." and before I finish drawing that he will say "bus..." then "caal..(car)..Mo.....(motor bike)....auto....scutal....boat....aalopen(aeroplane)....halacoptal........engin....." and so on and finally "ghola..(horse)...booon....(ball)....dam...(egg)....dukku...(dog)..."by this time I will be panting with exhaustion, the moment I have finished the last request he will say-"bhaat dal tukkulu daaa" (give me rice pulses and vegetables). "look here my dear," I want to say, "breakfast constitutes stuff like bread, butter, milk, fruits and not bhaat dal tu..whatever" but I have no strength left from drawing so I scurry off to bring the breakfast. The next half hour of the day will be spent in following the mite around and putting the food in the moment he opens his mouth. He will be busy playing with his toys.
The elder one has a different routine, I have to kiss her awake and carry her to the loo, then I say stuff like "pleasae brush your teeth" "splash water in the eyes" " comb your hair"etc. On holidays I have to attend to both of them at the same time "Mammaa makhoon (butter) daa" , "Mamma where is the fevicol?", "Mammaa shaam (jam) daa', " Where did you put the two side empty paper for my drawing Mamma", " Mammaa shol (water) daaa", " Mamma please sharpen the pencil", "Mammaa bolo boonun (big balloon) daa", "Which colours should I use for the drawing, oil pastels or felt pens?", " Mammaa balata" (corruption of Bengali barate i.e. going out , the sentence is "i want to go out to play") ," Mamma see how nicely I have written these lines", "Mammaaaaa sssusssu" and I find that the baby has relieved himself all over the floor. At this juncture I feel like giving in my resignation- " Dear God, I hereby tender my resignation from the post of mother of two children. I am afraid that I am totally incapable of handling the job. I would be better at being almost anything else, please accept this resignation and asign some easy task like scrubbing floors and washing dishes. "
Then I sit back and think when both the children are busy playing with each other, how quickly these babies grow, here I was the only playmate for my daughter, and now I can relax while she entertains her brother. Soon very soon they will not need me, what will I do then?Anyhow I am happy for now, tired but happy. The pleasure of watching my two babies play together, sleeping side by side, hugging each other,colouring furiously together and just generally being. I thank God for all that She has given me, please don't let anything happen to them, please.

The Ironic Situation Arising From Putting Religious Identity Before the National

While saying the two words that the losing captain is allowed to say at the presentation ceremony, the captain of Pakistan said something strange " I assure my countrymen and all Muslims all over the world that the team is going to do well in the coming series." or something to that effect. The line immediately rang a bell in my mind, hello, why should the Muslims of the world, other than Pakistanis, care about whether the Pakistani cricket team wins or looses? After reading Amrita's blog ( indiequill.wordpress.com) where there is a poignant snippet about how a Pakistani girl sold to the idea of an Islamic state reacted to the information that Pakistan was infact created as a refuge of Muslims and not envisaged as an Islamic State. I have also read about how the Pakistani team has become extremely Islamacised, I do not remember Imran Khan ever beginning his comments with the religious phrase praising Allah, it sounds good and who is not praying during the cliff hanger matches. But this is no innocent declaration of faith it is a political statement, this time I observed even Irfan Pathan begin with the prayer, maybe he felt the need because it has come to be established that you are not Muslim enough if you do not punctuate your statement with these proclaimations.
Today there was a scathing comment on the Pakistani captain's statement in the Times of India by a very respected and eminent jurist and teacher on p17 'Nation Mailbox' colomn, truely the Indian Muslim has always been suspected of secretly or overtly supporting Pakistan and it is funny how no one protested when such statements are made. Sir rightly points out that the only interest the Indian Muslim has in the Pakistani team is to see it being demolished by the Indian attack! The incongruity of the statement is also apparent if one applies it to nations other than India, would Nasir Husain the one time English captain ever hope for a Pakistani victory just because he is a Muslim. Will the Bangladesh team feel happy to see Pakistan win? All I can say is "muh dhoke aao bhaiya aur apne dimag ka istamaal karo jab public seaking kar rahe ho".

Aha! Did That First

Yesterday's Delhi Times p8 carries photos of Michael J and SRK side by side to show how the former has begun to resemble the latter. The Mr had pointed it out on the day itself, I just wasn't as tech savy to pick out pictures of the two and post them on the blog. So dear folks who visit my blog or chance upon it, the Mr and I rest our case. But the thrust of the article written is diametrically opposite to our view. The journalist, undoubtedly an SRK fan, infact compares the two while endorsing the new look of SRK. Look here, my dear, I have no intention of watching SRK doing the moonwalk, that would be disgusting, what is Michael Jackson there in the world for? There are enough MJ clones in the world why should anyone be happy to see our Badshah resemble him?This is crazy, one should not become such a blind fan of anyone to the extent that one endorses the most serious blunder of the guy. I am a die hard fan of Amitabh Bachhan but could not sit through Mard or Coolie and did not shy away from saying so. I don't think that ANYONE would like to see SRK look like MJ so very few of these die hard fans must be around( and I am crossing my fingers tightly behind my back).

Still no Mr on the Horizon

I had read somewhere that the unhappiest of women are not those without children but those who are single mothers with no spouse. Well I am temporarily in that condition. The Mr had to extend his stay so the life is without drama and excitement. We just manage some hurried smses before I zonk off at night so no scope for a juicy argument either!The kids are ok, the younger one tries to call his father up a few times everyday. "hao, Baba?" he says putting the toy mobile phone to his ear. But he is used to not having his Baba around for the entire day with only a short encounter at night. The older one ofcourse asks when Baba is going to be back and calculates the number of days that are left. Thanks to the grandparents the absence of their Baba is not as disorienting.
I really envy the guys who can murmur sweet nothings on the phone, the Mr and I start off on an argument barely three minutes into the call which can lead anywhere- in the realm of threats - including me moving out the next day or us filing for divorce!The parents in law save the dayby calling up my parents or sending counter threats our way. In any case we have spent ten years in this now on now off marriage and I am happy to see that we have done pretty well for ourselves if nothing else we can show off our bright and intelligent children each of whom has more brains and talent than the two of us put together. There is also the other side of our relationship when we kiss and make up within a few hours after deciding to get a divorce!No one can understand the vagaries of the human relationship, not even the people who are in it!

Missing the Mr

One year into my marriage my husband recounting a conversation at office said-"I told Mr so and so that my Mrs is down with fever.."I was quite taken aback to hear myself being addressed as 'the Mrs' and all my militant feminist instincts started tingling. I had no intention of getting married and if I did marry I had decided that I would marry as far away from my caste and clan as possible- a Zulu warrior was a definite possibility at one point of time. I would be an exotic partner who the Zulu would take good care of. Anyhow such is the quirk of fate that I ended up in my own community, and even my own caste and the only thing revolutionary about my marriage is that we are even of the same gotra (ancient grouping meaning people of the same cow shed or some such stuff), a fact for which many couples are killied in the parts of this country that have not evolved from the dark ages. Since that was the first year of my marriage I did not scream in protest and mildly said 'Mrs?' The husband said "yeah, Mrs , whatelse?" completely missing the point. Well I still hate to be referred to as 'the Mrs' but nowadays I just wince slightly because the hubby means no harm and I love him so.
In my blog therefore I think I will address him as the Mr. Well, the Mr is in Bangalore again and I am missing his presence around the place, which includes finding trademark Mr stuff all over the house-his specs under the bed, his slippers under the table, his gold chain on the commode cistern, etc I will leave out some other gory stuff as the poor soul says he will be completely 'exposed' by the time I am done with him in this blog! Lets just say I am missing him every moment of the day although when he was leaving I let him believe that I was glad to have the laptop to myself for the whole week!I admit that I shamelessly plagarise his ideas to feed my blog- it was he who pointed out that SRK has begun to resemble Michael Jackson, I knew he looked familiar but could not put my finger on who he had started resembling. So dear Mr pining for you now hoping to see you soon my blog is not what it can be without your smart comments.