Kuku attended a wedding ceremony yesterday, at Bangalore. Every body was beautifully dressed, and all the arrangements were lavish. All the guests had to queue up and go on to the stage to get their picture taken with the newly weds. Everyone wore wide smiles, all through the picture taking ceremony on the stage. And in order to capture the moments, there were endless cameras ……hot shots camera, digital cameras, and video cameras and photographers everywhere..……!
At the end of all this event, Nona asked Kuku, “Hum kahan gaye the…?”
A very happy Kuku replied, “Party…!”
Nona asked, “wahan kya dekha….?”
Pat comes the reply, “ Smiles and photo….!”
How uncomplicated is the child’s mind. He sees and conveys what he understands……!
Kuku’s perception of his surroundings is so clear and so is his memory…..he met an old friend after 7 months , at the wedding. He recognized him and gave him a hug too……..!
Inspite of being a small fellow (people at home even call him the small man of the house)….he seems to have grown fast in his brain…! Yooo…..Kuku….!

Kuku feels shy……..Oh ! sounds strange…..!
Kuku it seems these days is rolling on cloud 9 for some reason. Nona told me that he was walking around with both his hands in his pockets, with a lot of style and his nose in the air.
Nona exclaimed, “Oh, ooooo…….!”
Hearing this, he suddenly started feeling very shy, (aaj kal kuch jyada sharam anne lagi hai….!). Then he promptly tells his mom, “main googles pehen raha hoon,..... …ab oooooh......and aye hai………mat bolna”.
Its crazy but less than 3 years old’s can also feel shy. I would love to see him with goggles perched up his nose, and hands in pockets, rolling along happily with a “duniya meri jeb mein” wala expression.

Swati was in the hostel. One weekend when she came home, she asked for coconut oil. As it was over we decided to get it in the evening from the market.
Now, during evening time, specially, at the weekends getting in and out of A - Block market at Anand Vihar, is a real project. Both sides of the road gets blocked by haphazardly parked cars and there is no room for traffic to move in both directions. There is a permanent chaos. While coming back from the Sports complex we wanted to stop to get the oil.
As, was expected, I did not get any place to park my car. I stopped somewhere to let Swati get out. I told her to get the oil as fast as possible, as I was parked almost in the middle of the road. She went.
Five minutes passed……no sign of Swati coming back. I told myself that the shop must be crowded, so she is taking time. Another 10 minutes went by,……and I was having a problem with vehicles coming from all directions, as I had to keep moving my car, in order to accommodate others.
After, another 5 minutes was up, and I still could not see Swati anywhere….. I inched my car in a small place. I got off………and went towards the shop. I saw her coming out……….and the first thing that I ended up blurting out was….. “What were you up to….growing coconuts…!”
This was another day in our lives……maddening at that time, but hilarious for us now…..!

Ah....Suji toasts.........what memories they evoke....!

As it is the toasts are so damn good that the very thought of them makes my mouth water...!

and the same feeling is shared by Googi.

This incident happened when she was in class 8th.

After lunch,I did some work and was tired...........I lay down on the bed to rest for a while. Very quietly, googi crept upto the bed to ask whether I would like to have a suji toast..........as she was hungry and was making one for herself.

Suji toast was something I could never say no to. So, she happily walked off. By the time the toast was ready, I had dozed off.Googi came in quietly.....with a wonderfully, crisp toast, smelling like heaven.....! Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....ma will be so happy, its looking n smelling great..!

God know's why....but she somehow at that moment, felt a great rush of love for me......and she remembered heroes on TV screens, mesmerizing their heroines with lovely smells n flowers....!

So, copying them to the best of her ability, she rotated the plate with the toast on it, very near to my face. That did nothing.........! Then she crept closer to my nose and tilted the plate, so that the lovely smell could reach my nostrils....(hoping that would wake me up.....)but to her horror...........the HOT toast slipped from the plate and fell on my face.......!

And here, I was sleeping so comfortably, suddenly felt the hot toast on my face...........!

I screamed like anything and shouted at her.

" tawe pe se uttar ke seedhe muh mein dalegi kya"..........!

At that time I lost my temper, but now, whenever we look back, we laugh our heads off.

Now its always..." googi.....suji toast bana de"......!

Shyam and I were invited to attend this musical concert at Colombo. The lady who had organized this concert is a very renowned and a polished lady.We were her husband's guests, and were made to sit in the front row. Mr. Shahbandhu very nicely showed us the list of events, for that evening.

Then he informed us that the concert was to be conducted in spanish language............!

The lights dimmed and the show started.The lady played a beautiful composition on the piano near the stage. The performance of actors was excellent. The Suprano and Alto effects of the songs were (to our ears......it was just like some highly shrill sounding lyrics, punctuated by deep sonorous words,....the meaning was beyond our capabilities....!) really amazing....! Even the dresses they wore were simply perfect.

In the midst of the lovely performance I could see my husbands head rolling from side to side.I nudged him gently. He sat up alert once again. Thankfully, our host sitting next to him,was apparently unaware of what was happening.

After about ten minutes or so.....to my horror....I heard him snoring........!

There was total darkness, except for the spot light on the stage.....and the parting of lovers, depicted by a highly emotional scene was going on.. ..! The actors were really working hard to sing from the pits of their stomach.....! I could barely make out Mr. Shahbandhu shifting uncomfortably in his seat. I again nudged Shyam , a little forcefully this time....but atleast he woke up. I thanked God....!

He tried to keep his eyes open for a while. But then,after some time....I saw his head falling off towards Mr. Shahbandhu. And that really gave me the creeps.....What if, his head falls on his shoulders....!

With a lot of difficulty, i managed to keep him awake...on and off, through all those 2.5 hours of dedicated performance. But in the future, I made it a point to go to only those programmes where Shyam promised that he would be awake and be pleasant all through.....!

Suhani and kuku's visit to Srilanka (24.122011 -1.1.12)

The two adorable children of our house. Each day was so much of fun with them.

Kuku had started identifying some things........like every time he was on the road, he used to get very excited seeing the .....

lead auto.......( the red auto),

gleen auto.....( the green auto)....

And now I find the roads full of colourful autos.......they are in all colours that you can think of.....

Red,

Green,

Blue,

Black,

Cream,

And even a purple coloured one !

Now,whenever we are on the road, Shyam and I start screaming with joy, lead auto, gleen auto.....

On one of these days, while we were trying to exit our building....an American guy was telling Shyam to press the green button, to open the doors. After the fellow passed the doors...Shyam turns around and happily tells me that that man was saying.....

press the gleen button...., press the gleen button....!

The maid at home and the driver of the car , have positively made up their minds that both of us have gone mad...!

Some other memorable one liners of kuku were......

• Bola tha na maine..........tells the whole world....!
• Suhani, meli hai..............tells me....!
• Suhani ko godi le lo..........tells my dad.....!
• Bale nana chai....bana do.......said to my maid...!
• Bala wala paani jana hai.........refers to the sea......!

Suhani is quite a shy and a quiet child. But it was a real pleasure to see her playing and enjoying with the night kites at Galle Face Park.She was able to fly a kite very high....and very well. And in this trip I discovered that she has an uncanny knack of taking excellent pictures through my mobile phone. From a moving car, to be able to focus on distant objects is difficult. But this girl, took some amazing pictures. I was so awed by this, I had to ask Swati to get a camera for her........!

Suhani is 7 years old, and kuku is 2 years of age. In a few years time they will be all grown up.

But these moments of joy will always be with us............!

22nd Feb. 2008

"Hey !, I got an invite for Google woman in Engineering, award ceremony."
"Great, ......Where, Bangalore!"
"of course, where else! It will be an extended weekend for me. No classes on Friday to Sunday.
So, going is no problem. I'll send them my confirmation."
Swati's excitement was making all the words run into each other.

Eveyday, after that I started asking her, if she had received her travel information. On 27th night, a fed up Swati told me to check my mail account.
On opening it, I saw her travel plans n tentative tickets for her summer intern.
when I informed her of the wrong mail, a tired voice told me....
"Ma, I'm overloaded with work. Have not slept for even 4 hours, in the last 2 days. Busy with deadlines. Can you please come n help me pack."
I decided to go.

28th Feb.

• sms on my mobile....8.00 am

"Can u come a little later.....like 3.30......becoz i still have some project work before that....."
When I reached her room, it looked as if a tornado had just hit it. Nothing was in its place, n I ended up asking her, if I had landed up in a pigs sty, accidentally.
We started packing......both of us, getting irritated in turns.....as I felt a lot of things would be required, n kept them in the case, while she promptly kept throwing them out. All of this circus was being watched by her roomy, Abha. I am sure by the end, she must have placed all moms on the horrors list.
"Whew, a big job done. But oh, Swati do you have any locks."

Another search started for them. A lock was found in some corner......with keys missing. Her mobile rang, n news was that her laptop, was still in the lab.
We both ran.....she to collect her lappy, n me for the lock from the market across the road.(SDA).

After handing her over to Sakshi's father.....they both were supposed to go together to airport, I got back.

• sms recd.
• 
  

''love you lots ma.......:) :) :), thanks for coming......:) :) :) :) :)

After, a couple of hours, I told Googi to ask her if she had got on her flight.We got to know that fight was delayed by an hour.

• sms recd.

"m abt to fly......."

Late at night her mobile could be reached, to confirm her safe landing.
At 10.30pm, a sleepy Swati told me that she was still in plane.......about to get off.

My next worry was how will she locate the hotel in an unknown place....
"Let me check outside n I'll let you know. "

• sms recd.
• "there are innovas to collect us."

We at home were so impressed. Then after sometime another quick call......"room mil gaya".......

• sms recd.
• "amazing room.....bath with a big tub n a hair dryer.....etc....etc..."

I again called her....."tum sab raat ko wahan bhuke pyase pahoonch gaye, ab kuch kha lo, order kar lena."

• sms recd., 10 min later.

"can order anything for dinner......everything is for free......yay!!!
will have lunch at google office tom."

Next morning, at 9am, Shyam called her, with me screaming in the background.......ki bachon ko kabhi rest bhi karne diya kar.
But we came to know that she was already in google office enjoying a great breakfast n all ready to face her day.
In the afternoon when I did not get a call or sms from her....I sent her an sms, asking what she was up to.Promptly, got an sms back, saying busy with games.

• sms recd. 10pm.

"I didnt get any award.but I am so proud to be a woman.......:) :):)"

The shortlisted candidates were about 50. All from 2nd year students to p.hd. levels. Swati did not get any award but came back with the rich feel of being there, of being proud to be a woman.(Ready to fight her own battles within self and with others.)
The women speakers according to her were very dynamic n their speech equally eloquent.
And, ofcourse not to forget the overwhelming experience of Google office.

Google Office.......
Amazing office. chairs were out of this world. Ambience just great.All cuisines were spread out for breakfast.Chinese, Indian , Continental.......u could have anything.....Cafe Coffee day was there....free for invitees...A glass fridge full of all soft drinks. Could open n have any n as many.
A similar one was full of chocolates, could help yourself to any amount.
No wonder they have +15 rule......which means whoever joins Google gains 15 kgs. in the first month.

Swati's's eyes almost popped out when she talked of her experience.
So, its Thanks to Google that gave her a short n a sweet break from her very tight schedule of deadlines, and assignment submissions.


And yes, how can I forget the one day she got to spend with Nona didi, Jiju, n dear Suhani.
All four of them had a restful, but enjoyable Sunday.She n Suhani played like mad, watched a kiddie movie.There was this packet of roller tipped colours for Suha....according to Nona, "charon ne sarre ghis dale......".In th evening, they all went to some Mall, where Nona didi got Swati a smashing pair of boots.

Now, she puts them on n feels so good n confident.And her morale flies high.......


Ah! what a lovely trip out of the blue,
makes me feel so happy for you......

• sms recd

Infants can be very intelligent. They are capable of perceiving situations like adults. My little grand daughter barely three years old proves this theory.

Suhani and I were playing a boisterous ball game on the carpet. Our aim was anything to everything in that room.We were generally, yelling n screaming our heads off at all the shots and missed shots.Her father, Sachin came and sat down very gently, and quitely in one corner of the room.The moment he caught her eye, she jumped up, gave the ball a vicious hit and screamed....."Papa don't sit go take mummy doctor".

22nd, Feb, 2008.

"Ma, I want to send in a painting entry for a competition, tonight."
"With only an incomplete drawing and no paint whatsoever, how will you do it?"
"I just have to send in a mosaic entry of the actual painting on line."

Next morning I hear a cheerful Swati telling me......."Hi, Ma I got he first prize for my painting, and a cash award of Rs. 1500 from IIT.
The whole thing sounded absolutely crazy.
"How many entries were there Swati?"
I received a very dry reply, "Ma mine was the only entry......."

Eventually, the dead line for the entries was extended, but even then Swati's painting was adjudged as the best.It was an original idea that did come out very well.Each stroke of the brush highlighted a detail to be admired, ( atleast that is what I thought!).

Such was her "Lady in thought."

Memories have a time span........some stay in your mind for a few fleeting moments....some may be there for seconds, minutes. On the other hand, some may still be there for months, or even years. But all of them do fade with passage of time. The minute details start missing from recollection.Gradually, the pleasure derived from each instance is lost forever.
This anxiety of mine gave me a reason to create this book of happiness. All that I hold dear to my heart should always be with me, to make me smile once again, when I find that I have nothing to smile anymore about.