Little mouse!

An usual Tuesday evening and I was trying hard to teach S to learn his spellings. Suddenly S jumps up and screams pointing at the shrine room.
I look up, great that the reflexes are still in working order although I am pretty much exhausted these days. There is a tiny mouse by the shrine room and he runs in.

By then both the kids are on top of their chairs not sitting but standing on them. So rush up with the maid who is even more scared than me. The Mouse is inside the shrine room, seriously he picked the wrong time to go in for a prayer.

S starts screaming " mummy don't hit him he is Ganesha's ( the lord Ganesha) friend" and now there is some major crying involved.

The Hindu god Ganesha has a mouse who is with him. You can see it in the picture.

The strange thing is I was at the entrance and I could see the little mouse under the statue of Ganesha. He was looking at me. Well I was looking right back at him. Lets face it we were both very scared. So here I was with a smart idea i knocked at the door. He quickly ran out and ran into the TV room. There was a load of screaming again from the kids, me and the maid. I am sure the mouse was even more terrified.

I locked up the room to come up with an idea. Seriously the rat and my TV, and computer all in the same room is not a good idea. Who else to call but mum, and explaining briefly.

Mum: Well does it have a face like your mother in laws

Me : Mum what kind of a question is that (well i had to sound offended although secretly mum seemed to be spot on)

Mum : its Ganesha's rat we have to let him be its good luck

So i hang up to listen to more raving about Ganesha's friend and we cant kill him or hit him from the kids. But of course they were terrified to sleep now.

I called DH and as useful as he is going to be, he was at a meeting and just said OH NOO.
I called my neighbour, and a friend, but nobody could come up with a solution except sympathetic murmurs.

Time to get into action I decided to get a ARS rat glue trap. After much discussion about keeping a cheese and a piece of coconut. Mum called back to give her insight into this dilemma and told us that the mouse has not come from Europe and probably wont have a liking to cheese.

anyways the rat was caught in the glue trap and disposed by mum, who was called in for the special operation. He was alive when he was rushing off into the streets of our neighbourhood.

Travel Friend!

I always wanted to get into a train and meet this travel passenger who will become a great friend. Such a dreamer. So there I was in Chennai flight yet again. As i was the last passenger and the ground staff were least friendly I heard a voice. Hemm is that the voice in my head? No actually someones calling my name.

To cut a long boring story short mums friend this aunty was off with a buddy and they had one first class seat between them. So they wanted to switch seats with me. There I was in the first class with this bear of a man next to me. The snooty air hostess was being herself. I felt the bear sorry the Man next to me struggle a bit. U know how the snooty air hostess was not going to help him. I helped him to put the Seat belt. He smiled this big relief and off he was on his story.

This was a fisherman from dickwella going to save his boat which was taken away by the Indians. He was on first class cause he could not get a seat. After ten minutes I was filling out his Indian immigration forms and listening to how the boat was taken away by the Indians the full version. This guy who cant speak English on his way to Vizag to save his boat. If he was scared of getting lost in Tamil nadu. Dear lord Andra is a maze. As a gesture of thanking he wanted me to visit his family that this and the other and wanted my number. Seriously I must be some organised person travelling I did not have my card as usual.

Later alarm bells were ringing, nope not in the flight but in my head. This guy says his boat went into Indian waters by mistake but what if he was a great big smuggler. Now the imagination was doing a overdrive just out of drinking some crappy apple juice servevd on flight. So here I was with the smuggler who looked friendly enough but remember how sometimes mum is right dont give your number to strangers

I was uhm and ahming a bit and ran off when we landed. I dont know is it my nature to be suspicious or should we be safe than sorry...

Days that have been...

So my blogging days seems to have huge intervals between posts. I sometimes feel like there is nothing left to write and then there is so much where u dont know where to begin and end.

Recently, I have been having this feeling of wanting to ask god to make three of me. I seem unable to cope with work, house, kids, my parents and what not. If there were three of me I might be able to finish things up. Specially that earthquake eruption in my wardrobe six months back. Then the lose weight programme which seemed to have got lost in my Indian trips and new year kokis.

To add to the lovely things happening work cropped up with loads of issues which make me feel like i am sinking in the dark blue sea. The fact that I cannot swim does not help at all.

My parents well somethings never change. My dad hears me discussing about " Second Chance" the florist in colombo.
He calls me later to tell me that I should get First Chance. I was like uh? He was like i dont want second chance can u talk to first chance. Uhm dad there is no first chance florist. He goes i dont like this second chance name change it. Its moments like this that keep my sanity in check.

Hope all of u are well.

P.S Second chance flowers is a florist in Colombo. there is no First chance florist Yet.

Bride Found!

Such an anticlimax after all the drama of the past year. So there I was with mum and she waves a photo to me. I look at it without the contacts and say yes nice. I mean after seing so very many photos it was time they all looked the same. Later with the contacts on I looked to find a pleasant smiling girl. So again it was off to see her. This time we took DH along.

There was a very friendly grandma who was chatting with me nonstop. B comes out and says yes I am ok with her. Dad jumps and tells me to ask if the girl likes B. So i ask her and she smiles. There is a loud " I like him I like him". No it was not the bride but her grandma. B looked bit scared. Grandma rushes to him and shakes hand and wishes him well.

Its all fixed and I am so excited and busy with the plans and so on. Shall keep updated about wedding tamasha which has started. Mum calls me and says that her uncle is sending an email list of ten addresses. I say yes and tell D to print it out and leave. Come back to find 100 pages with 1000 addresses of people not known. Now obviously the ink is all done up and i am so very mad.

Questioned!

It was another hurried trip to chennai on work. After passing immigration I was slowly walking towards the escalator. When I heard a voice saying excuse me. I turned around to find a disheveled looking guy walk up to me. I turned and kept walking he kept shouting excuse me excuse me.

so i turned around and did the next best thing. I shouted " go away"

By then the guy was close he said " stop or i will call security"

Hemm wait a minute arent the lines all wrong here. Shouldnt it be me saying these lines.

Guy " Why did u not stop when I told u to stop"

Me : " Who are u? Go away"

Guy : " I AM FROM THE CID" ( a few passengers turned and looked at me)

Me : " What CID I thought u are a baggage carrier asking me to carry stuff"

Cid was looking quite angry at this he turned red ( u know how brown skinned people turn kind of wierd brown )

Me : Show me your id

CID : Show me your passport and tickets or u are going to be in trouble.

Really i could relate to shah rukh khan i wanted to get up and scream " I am Santhoshi and I am not a terrorist"

I was so angry but with trembling hands gave my passport, I nicely asked him to show me his id and he did not. He looked at me as if I was mad. Although I was putting a brave face I wanted to burst out crying and I was very embarassed and scared.

He gave back the travel docs and was like " u have some nerve not to stop when we ask u to anyways can i have your visiting card"

Me : i dont carry a visiting card

Him : Whats your mobile number

Me : I Dont carry a mobile

( you know how like in the movies the mobile starts ringing.I really wish the ground would open up and swallow me. U know it must be one of those emergency calls where the nanny wants to know whether to give the kids milo or milk?)

I was thinking Why me?

He burst out laughing and said go we'll keep in touch. (what kind of nonsense is that)

I ran up the escalator quickly and looked down to check where this guy was and there he was looking straight up at me.

Rushed into coffeebean at the upper level and ordered a sandwich and the guy in the counter said No bread. asked for a croissant there was no croissant. This was more like how my life usually is.

Baggage carriers : Everyday travellers who carry stuff to and from india. They trouble any single passenger asking if they would like to carry stuff for about ten dollars.

Before / After - Kids

Before

1.why do people talk about babies and kids, when I have them (haha probably wont have them) i shall never mention them in a conversation

2. Saturdays are for shopping to buy stuff u dont require. Having coffee and going just to shops cause u can do it.

3. Weekends are for partying non stop. You can be spontaneous about it too

4. You are proud of the fact that you can climb any high wall to jump over if necessary

5. Movies have a rating really?

6. If I have kids i ll let them be free souls they can do whatever they want

7. Rules are to broken is the motto

8. Your parents dont visit you that much

9. the cousins talk about childbirth will make u want to run out and never talk to her again

10. u will roll your eyes when u hear the cousin ask baby tips from others

After
1. You have conversations with strangers, colleagues and your boss about them. They even creep into your blog posts

2. Saturdays are still for shopping but you have a company who would want that toy gun which you wont buy. S wants accessories which she does not really need. Then you think u are really clever and go to the supermarket and they want all the junk which you should not buy. By mid Saturday you are one of those moms who says the word No, no no too many times

3. You go out partying and you are worried to see the teeny boppers who are about seven years older than your eldest ( ya u start talking by the years). then you wonder how the parents let the kids out dressed like that ( u forget you were like them and how u sneaked out). No spontaneous partying there u have to sort out a baby sitter first.

4. You ask the landlord can i Make that wall higher than it is already

5. For the zillionth time you explain your cousin that yes I check movie ratings if i am taking the kids i look at it about five times to make sure.

6. You try hard to teach them religion, beliefs, right and wrong and sympathise your parents

7. we have some rules we will try and follow is the new motto

8. You parents visit you most weekends to see their precious grandkids

9. the joy of child birth is something u will try hard to explain to your younger cousin who questions

10 you will have random calls in a week asking you about baby stuff and kids stuff


Little D came back home excited that the royalists tried to jump into the school compound. How the girls ran out to the fourth floor and was told to go inside. Its the royal thomian match mummy she explained excitedly. My ten year old is growing up. I want to hold her tight in my arms and never let her go.

The six year old wants to enter the movie world he asks if he can meet some of our tamil heroes. I have told him he can ask me three questions a day. I am scared that he will become a moody teenager who wont ask me a single questions a week.

kids they just come turn your life upside down twirl u in their little fingers and make u dance to their tunes. while you are dancing they slip away as they grow..

Coco Verandah - Ward Place

Coco Verandah in ward place. The coffee is pretty good. Good service.

The interior is classy. Not sure about how the food is.