Much Ado About Nothing

All the mad frenzy,extreme precautions,peek-a-boo games and the hype..surrounding Beti B's publicity stunts Tanu finally decided enough is enough.Here are some master plans designed by our little genius to help,a slightly junior Aaradhya Bachchan,stay away from media glare.

Plan 1
Wear an oversized jacket and lift your hand up
exactly when you hear a click

Plan 2
Run and quickly hide behind some blinds,considering you have outgrown files and jackets now.

Plan 3
Just grab the lens.. as simple as that..

Plan 4
Pretend you are busy and walk away hastily















Plan 5
Contort your face in all possible directions,so nobody can dare take a guess

Plan 6
Pretend you have just seen a monster and run for your life

Plan 7
Wear some oversized glasses

Plan 8
Stick your face to the nearest window/door/wall.Ensure no paparazzi is hanging out on the other side

And the last one...Get back to your Mama.

Pop comes a post

So what do I do in facebook everyday? Like this,like that,comment on friend posts,acquaintance posts,read some random gyan shared by some bored soul and ofcourse,earn some money.Sshh,lets just keep that one as a secret.

My life pretty much revolves around Tanya,you know and I got nothing more to share other than giving the world a glimpse of my baby's growth chart.I know quite a few babies,infact younger than Tanya who hold their own facebook accounts.A pat on your back - all you Mamma(s)/Pappa(s) for you have decided to give individuality to your baby at such young an age.Talking of which,reminds me that sometimes I do oscillate between the idea of creating Tanu's own FB profile instead of letting her dominate mine.But then I also fear ..erm,what if she disowns me for doing that eh?
 - What if she has inherited that chromosomal strand from her father,which might make her consider facebook as a major waste of time?
- What if she turns out to be a private person and gets embarrased seeing her baby pictures shared to random acquaintances by you-know-who?
- What if she screams at me someday as a teenager,'Momma,you embarass me,don't let my friends know that you held a facebook account?' and storms outta the house. Like we are embarrased these days for holding orkut account? Yes,yes..I did say ORKUT,something that was in vogue,when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
- What if she bashes the nose of people in a fit of anger,reading those unsolicited provocative comments,no matter how well they were sugar-coated.
- What if facebook gets so outdated when she is grown up and she will not even give a damn about the facebook account I might have painstakingly launched and maintained on her behalf.

...so on and so forth.Better to update one's playlist of nursery rhymes in the slot alloted for facebook liking/sharing,atleast the former will help me put the baby to sleep early,and erm, then I can get back to check facebook.Ah! Blame the addiction ;)

Wait I should

"If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse"

So here Iam with an excuse - "Lack of Time".Okay.Now that the baby is asleep and the work is a bit sorted,I have found sometime to rant in here.Been a silent spectator of the new found freedom my blog readers had for the last few months and merrily did they hop to other cosy spaces in the blogosphere.I do appreciate it.Save yourself from the misery.I ain't going to be a regular blogger until the baby turns a toddler and the toddler turns a teenager.Many posts that are drafted in my mind will never see the day of light.Sigh!

Blogging is something I love,but pressed for time.Forget about blogging,one doesn't have the time to pick up the comb until those birds threaten to apply for a permanent residence.There are folks who might tell you that the moment your baby hits the first year mark,life might just settle down magically and you can jolly well begin your bindaas lifestyle all over again.Nayyyy!... How I wish.Once you are a mommy life changes forever.You become a juggler of tasks.You are either doing this or that..thinking this or that.Getting a decent 8 hour sleep has become a thing of the past.Even if the baby sleeps through the night (which in itself is a rare event) you are so accustomed waking up day in and day out,that you eventually wake up to check if everything is indeed alright.

So life moves on..not that Iam complaining,just wish if there was little time to atleast put up a few posts about her..for her..when fresh in the memory.May be she will enjoy reading them when she is all grown up.An online diary sorts.Hmm,I gotta try and fit that in somewhere in the 'To-Do' List.I do enjoy watching every bit of my daughter growing up.Iam the first one to witness many of her firsts.Like the other day when she woke up,and daring all the pillows blocking her way,came crawling straight to a busy me in the other room blabbering 'MA...MA..MAMA'.It scares the hell outta me to imagine her sitting in some daycare and crying to be put to sleep.Just few moments back,as I rocked,patted and sshhed she wouldn't settle down and went crawling to her little bed to sleep.The maternal heart was sure proud and a bit sad, for she is slowly sprouting wings to fly.. & guess what..exactly five minutes later,she crawls right back into my arms,settles herself happily and falls asleep again on my bosom :) As my Dad rightly said "You must be blessed to watch her grow".Indeed Iam.'Being me' has to wait a little longer.I remind myself there are gonna be days when both of us are gonna giggle together sharing a joke about her Pappa,cook together,watch a movie together,shop together and freak out like best buddies.Yes,looking at the bigger picture..I can wait :)

So the first b'day is here..

I have made quite a few mistakes as a parent,but you loved me anyway,

I knew nothing about being a mother,but it didn't matter to you,

To many of your 'firsts',some I handled well and others not so well,

When my heart ached for whatever reason, you taught me that your Love would see me through..

So today my baby girl, I CELEBRATE YOU.

I celebrate your birth and all that you have brought into my life,

I celebrate the many lessons you have taught me..far too many to list here,

I celebrate the joy you have given to me and Sharat,in the last year

I wish you to -- love life and never stop dreaming,

May beauty and happiness surround you today and always!

Happy Birthday Tanu.I love you :)

______________________________________________________________

Heartfelt thanks to my dear bro & comrades of the momma-clan who have helped me sail through the most toughest year of my baby's life.

You have loved my daughter as your own.Iam sure she will look upto you someday and adore you all like I do.

Suresh Kumar,Saritha Adireddy,Neema Patil,Prathiba Kalirengan,Keerthana Parthasarathy,Archana Jagadish,Angela Kirtiazad,Kavita Sinha - You rock! :)

T & B ~ Episode I

Tanya & Bummoo(her teddy) were great pals

until one day...

..a quick post

The week has been real crazy with the baby teething,the hubby having back to back audits and my freelancing.Yes,yes..Iam back at it again.You should have felt this coming,for the word 'testing' has been repeatedly in use in the recent posts.Ah! the feeling of earning of those first few dollars... on a new high.One could only manage to do this quick post for fear of getting lost into oblivion.

Did you know ?

1. People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.
2. People with blue eyes see better in dark.
3. Money isn ’ t made out of paper, it is made out of cotton.
4. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it go mad instantly and sting itself to death.
5. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you away from crying.
6. A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
7. The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
8. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear By 700 times.
9. The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
10. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
11. We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile.
12. Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.
13. Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells.
14. When a person dies, hearing is usually the first sense to go.
15. There is a great mushroom in Oregon that is 2,400 years old. It Covers 3.4 square miles of land and is still growing.
16. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
17. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing
18. Men's shirts have the buttons on the right, but women's shirts have the buttons on the left.
19. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it's already been digested by a bee.
20. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.
21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.
22. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

I was amazed at the 3rd one.Now I know how those notes survived the washing machine.

What about ya?

Are you a happy mommy?

"... I also want to be the best possible mother, but I know that my job as a mother includes bringing my children up so actually they can live without me.”

Catch more here:

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/cherie-blair-criticises-slams-full-time-stay-at-home-mums.html

Mothers with jobs tend to be healthier and happier than stay-at-home mothers during their children’s infancy and pre-school years, according to a study from the American Psychological Association.

Catch more here:

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/working-mothers-happier-staying-home-140000946.html

Do you agree? I do.

a sweet torture..this!

So the little one has started crawling.Crawling has made her very curios of the environment.She seems to be in a constant need to explore.and explore she does..everything that's potentially dangerous.Luckily we don't stock explosives in our house,else our darling would have made headlines for starting a World War IV.

Pollu now holds another job in testing,Expert Electric Socket Tester.Dear Mr.Owner,we are forever grateful to you,for you have been very child friendly to place 90% of the sockets in the household,within the reach of her little pinky.She doesn't waste a second and inserts a finger straight into the damn holes,the moment mamma catches a blink.

The other day,Mamma walked into the room with a feeding bowl in hand and got a massive heart attack to find the baby missing..poof! just like that.The worried Mamma went paranoid for a minute if the baby was air-lifted by aliens to make their life interesting in outer space.Thankfully,Pollu still remains with us and was found later busy behind the door,in a mission to crack an entry to a room of requirement,hidden in that dusty corner.

Pollu pulls the medicine drawer often to inspect the tablet strips and throws them out joyfully.(Yes,yes I did check those aren't outdated yet).Yesterday,she was reading through a NizerD strip and suddenly started chewing on it.The Pappa asked Mamma to relax and commented..that the poor little baby might have just had an headache.

Pollu has testing in her genes,of that we are aware.She is also gonna be a tech savvy babe in future...sample this,she goes bang bang with her palm on the iPad drums App,while she does tickling actions when the iPad menu screen comes on.Nothing excites her like the very sight of the laptop.She comes crawling in full swing,seeing the laptop and tries to type ..the first letter she typed was an A.Yay!! She even managed to play the coco-jumbo video on the iPad doing some random search.How cool is that ?!

Like her name,Pollu has been sleeping like a Princess stretching her extended tiny self to the max horizontally...forcing us her humble captives to sleep on our sides to fit ourselves giants in the teeny space.Why are Europeans content with the queen size beds?! Oh dear Lord.Mamma goes like a jam between a sandwich slice..waking up with body aches in weird places.Pappa layer never dares to turn an inch in sleep for fear of falling down the bed,with a loud thud and waking any old soul in this apartment..considering this was built during the world war I.

Here is a comic strip the hubby forwarded this morning.

Looks absolutely crazy and blown out.But hey,you innocent expecting couples do take our word.. when you will have your hyperactive uber cute baby, these scenes will hold very true.The day, dear Hubby is gonna be chucked out of the bed into a sofa seems very near.Yeah, cosleeping with baby n hubby is sure to make you decide in favour of the baby.Invest in a dark-circle-erasing-under-eye-cream or a sofa-cum-bed.Choice is yours!!

A Mother's diary.. the WOW moments!

..I teach you to say 'Ma-Ma' and you look into my eyes and say 'Pa-Pa' slowly
..trimming your tiny nail in that little pinky
..feeding you a bowl without a morsel to trash
..seeing that diaper rash cream unused for so long
..you stop crying the very instant you see your teddy
..you reach out for Mamma after playing with Pappa
..you pull Pappa's chain like he is your pet puppy
..you lift your sipper and feed your diaper
..you smile while you are dreaming
..you pedal your invisible cycle in full speed
..you paint your face with the baby powder
..you take the biggest bite and spit it right out
..you gape with mouth wide open seeing that bridge
..you bite your gums with clenched fists when angry
..you scream when the villain in that movie screamed
..you are asleep holding mamma tight,chaining her with your legs
..you take positions as if in a race..on the mark..get set and then sit
..you are up in the air laughing with delight as Pappa tosses you high
..you laugh and clap while watching your favourite video as if you understand
..you create a big mess and smile innocently as if Mamma is to be blamed
..

The Little One

We sat on the tables up so high,

And cry for the sock,the shoe & the tie,
Dressing up was a race,in that naughty phase,

Rushing a school bus we would chase.

"Take care of the little one",mom would say,
As we bid her goodbye on our way.

Together we fought for food and toy,
Childhood memoirs has so much joy.
The world we faced with a smile in our face,

School then college then jobs were next phase.

You worked bit far and toiled so hard,

Life was a race or so we thought.
You cherished those gifts that I bought,
Until a day you trashed a lot,
Indeed I said,you had grown up a lot.

Marriage I sat,smiling with my groom,

While you ran around like a sleepless racoon,

Last minute plans,had but no chance,
You went all the way,to others dismay,

Did all you could,as a grown up man should.

Your heart so loyal and your love so true,
You cared for so real,for your soul was so pure.

You are the first one to rush,if I ever am in a mess.

I kept counting my penny,for bills were so many,
You didn't like it honey,but I had not much money.

Life moved on..and my baby came on.

Ask you I must, for you are the one I trust,
Guide her like I did,if I ever get rid.

Side by side or miles away,my love for you would just stay,
You are my pillar and my super power,
Born again if ever,in galaxies apart,
I will still find a way,through the milky way!

From the Eve's Garden

..a clever way this,to lure us women folk.wat say?

Pic clicked while window-shopping on the streets of Berlin,Germany.

Miss you my friends

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance;
they make the latitudes and longitudes"
~Henry David Thoreau

The morning newspaper headlines glanced in a hurry,
the 'only-to-office' wears resting in the cupboard,
the crazy auto-rickshaw challenges,
the rush-hour moments to attend meetings,
the forward mails sent & received from good friends,
the makeup touch-ups in the washroom,
the first coffee break,
the gossip breaks,
the lunch breaks,
the month-end birthday parties
&
the laughing Gandhian notes
..all these dont create a void in my heart
but your status messages do.

buddy SA - Offline

buddy V - Do not disturb

buddy P - Invisible

buddy N - Busy

buddy S - Away

buddy SM - In a meeting & ...

Do all these status-es imply - " We gotta job to do..unlike you " ?
How I wish your smiling thumbnails could talk to me now like the potter era.
Sob.Sob.
I miss you folks.I really do.

Oh,wait a sec..

"uuuaaaaahhh...ammeeahhh...uuuaaaaahhh"".
Alright now.My no-pay-high-demand boss has woken up.
I gotta report back to duty.
Sign-out.

About the Euro 2012..

1) The UEFA European Football Championship for this year, commonly referred to as Euro 2012 is a football championship for national teams within Europe.

2) Poland and Ukraine are hosting the final matches this year.

3) The matches scheduled in Warsaw,Poland are being played pretty close to home in the National stadium which has a capacity of 58,500 people

4) The matches will last almost a month long from 8th of June,2012 to the 1st of July 2012

5) The price of tickets range from 30 to 600 Euros.

Here is a picture of the swarms of people leaving the stadium after the first match between Poland and Greece which resulted in a draw.Picture was clicked from our balcony.

Drama of the Duo

February 14,2005 ..Valentine's bug had bit us real hard, the very first time.Me with my then boyfriend,now husband were in this hot-shot coffee joint celebrating our new found friendship with sparkling eyes which could have jolly-well inspired Salman Khan's Dabanng'ed glasses.Just like the rest of the clan,we were glued to the chairs for longer than required to sip a cuppa...and the BF decides to pop the million-dollar question with a child like innocence,"Sho,wanna ask you something..been in my mind since long".My heart skips a beat and taken by his charm.. directs the head to give a nod."can I ?hmm..can I touch...the mole,the one above the upper lip?" .Phew! One had to grab the beating heart before it took a plunge straight into the cappuchino cup.Well..I just obliged with a smile,as you guessed right.
Fast forward to the present,his spawn equally fascinated by the said mole in the wee hours of morning as Iam snoring to glory decides to relieve Mamma of the handicapped housefly who wudn't budge and pulls it out with all her might..Ouch! One can do nothing..but blame the genes!

..here are the many such gene-blaming-moments Mamma has endured oflate btw the Pappa and Pollu,the spawn.
~ Iam no Garnier fructis ad girl - Adding to the mole,both are equally crazy about Mamma's hair.Pappa likes it long and strong.Pollu is the self-appointed-testing-officer.
~ Hate food,Trash food - The veggie/fruit from their hate-list will only end up trashed into Mamma's elastic tummy if attempts to mask it were being made.
~ Hogwarts time-keepers - They doze off quickly on the dot, that Mamma wonders if all the worries of the household were leased to her on perma-contract.
~ The Jim Carrey effect - Avocado is a big NO-NO for the duo.So Mamma being the "never give up trying" types,purchases them very often.But the forbidden ends up trashed as a face pack  and one is left wandering doing the chores as a fatter version of Jim Carrey with the MASK.
~ Alien on the hide?-Both Pollu and Pappa sit with their torso's leaning forward most of the times as if an invisible alien is sitting behind and admiring their backs,while Mamma reclines till her knees hits the chin with a bang.
~ The love of Drums - A pain in the Mamma's ..eardrums! Pappa and Pollu enjoy their drumming sessions in the R-Tap app on the iPad.Pollu though..is a bit more hard-working and continues the drumming sessions by banging on the walls with her round head.Hope she doesn't end up with an iron-board head..worried Mamma hopes!
~ Video fetish - Both can watch a said video for Zillion times looping and re-looping until the vaayu bhagwan himself denies to carry the repeated decibels in disgust.No wonder Mamma ends up hearing the very same background scores even in her dreams.
~ Warm water sucks - The father daughter duo hate warm water while Mamma drowns piping hot litres like a thirsty camel, in an attempt to melt away the fat deposits.

& if you ..are wondering with raised eyebrows as to how an 8-month old can show so much attitude..well , be my guest!

Life after the baby

How the little dahling changed my life..Just a recap!

Jobless.Yes, I quit to be a SAHM after 7 years of corporate life.Never imagined in the remotest of my dreams,I will be the stay at home type.Anyways,here Iam.Relieved from the world of weekly meetings,triages and bugs.Completely absorbed into the world of diapers,breast-feeding and baby talk.Trust me I would have traded for the former happily,atleast one's target was set and deadlines were met.

Well,this one should top the list..never knew I had it in me to take care of a baby all by myself.Yes! you read it right..I TOOK CARE OF MY BABY ALL BY MYSELF AFTER A C-SECTION ..not that one had much choice when the hubby went abroad and one's mom went crazy.The first few months were terrible.I used to keep my hand to the baby's chest every few hours in the night to check if the little ball of flesh is indeed breathing right.Went paranoid reading about SID syndromes and what not! Anyways,I did it.yay!...here is my darling daughter naughty and thriving at 9 months and the darling self has gained enough gyan to author a book on baby-care.

Have honed my multi-tasking skill to the next level.Do the dishes,prepare a variety of meals for the picky brat,dry the adult-clothes from the washing m/c,dump the baby clothes into the said m/c,make sure to use baby detergent for this cycle,listen to the latest chartbuster on the FM,peep into the instructions on the recipe-blog,work on a new meal for the hard-working hubby.. amidst all this keep one's eye on the baby whose motto oflate seems to pull out the wool outta the Zakopane sheep doll.Hm,should I start her on meats?Looks like she is gearing up to tread on the footsteps of her carnivorous parents.Mmuuahh! Kudos to self.Now you know why a 9-5 job is way much easy-peasy.

I now officially qualify to compete the 'minute to win it' events being well trained on changing the diaper in the 'swish of a wand'  and do many other tasks in the blink of an eye.One gets to master the tactics and the speed comes naturally after a few mishaps,you see.

Well,the songs you have painstakingly collected and treasured will come to no use to soothe your unsettling  baby.The age-old lullabies,soul soothing bamboo music,melodies of the flute,meditation music,the week's chartbusters,heart-breaking melodies all trashed by the child.Well .. a mere stroke of luck this..BABYTV.'Charlie & the numbers' video is the magic potion to hook the baby.Even the said video's audio seems to calm the baby instantly.We have caught her laughing when charlie gets kissed by princess 2.The little brat! Bow to thee..Charlie.

Patience for the little dahling is on an all-time high while hell hath no fury like a mommy whose sleepy baby is awaken by a newly-settling-down-polish neighbour doing all the drilling and filling in the common wall.Ggrrrhh!

Gone are the days..when the hubby asked those "..ah.. there she goes! again,why is she crying?" questions with a helpless fury and search for answers in the momma's eyes while the novice momma was self-confused and would shout back "How will I know? Iam still in the same planet as you are".Now that Iam a trained ped rather close,I can differentiate the various forms of wails from the little girl and answer confidently "She doesn't like that Fisher price rattle anymore,give her that Body Lotion Hotel Sample to playwith.That's her new favourite".Yes, babies will not necessarily love the fancy high pricey ones you have picked.

Many of them-the good rellies seeing our little dahling inherit her father's looks,told us that a baby girl looking like her daddy would bring lots of good luck to the said daddy.I ask why not? The father still holds his job,gets a decent share of sleep everynight and also keeps his attendance to the weekend cricket matches.Indeed,the father has been extremely lucky post the baby.I stand by this myth.

Outta my hibernation

Okay.Guilty as charged!... took a long break from giving words to my ocean of thoughts.Here Iam ..back to the blogosphere.Look forward to reading more baby related stuffs,new recipes,new places explored and the like.Hope the madness continues!