{this moment} Getting drenched :)

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember" - SouleMama

The water fountains and sprinklers have been turned ON in the parks for summer. And our kiddo wants to camp out there until they turn it OFF for winter :). Even though the water was cold and the weather was chilly, she thoroughly enjoyed getting drenched - oh, the simple pleasures of life!

Some tidbits

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Recent conversation with the kiddo:

Me: Where is Ruhi's hair? {she shows me her hair}
Her: Where is mumma's hair? (she shows me my hair}
Me: Look Mumma's hair is long. Does Ruhi want long hair or short hair?
She says: "Short hair".

This was the first time I asked her this question, and I don't think she understands the difference between short and long yet (although she understands small vs big), but her response was quick and emphatic :).


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One of our neighbors' daughter's name is Lindsay. Ruhi calls her "Sindhi" - I find it so cute :).


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A friend who needs a kidney transplant found a donor through Facebook. I was thrilled to hear the news. This happened so quickly - and he took me out for lunch today coz he felt if I had not pushed him to create a FB page and spread the word, he would not have found this donor :)!


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Administrative Professionals Day was last month. Our group lacks in the recognition department, at all levels. I know no one even wished our admin, forget bringing something for her or taking her out for lunch. I felt very bad that none of the 7 managers she supports stepped up, so I took her out for an authentic Indian meal last week. I ordered chaat for her as an appetizer, a full thali meal followed by dessert. She was wowed. She has come over to our house for meals, and really loves Indian food. I took her out this time around (vs cooking at home) so that she could visit this restaurant again and would know what to order.


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The daughter was very cranky over the weekend. Crying during meals. Crying during naps. Crying after waking up. Kept asking to be taken to bounce house - jumping and bouncing is her new favorite thing. We did take her to the spring carnival at work on Saturday where they had a bounce house, but I guess it was not enough for her. Last night was rough too - she woke up few times and kept crying. I was dreading Monday morning's wake-up, as I would be the only one at home to take care of her. To my sweet surprise and delight, she woke up very peaceful, rested and happy. We cuddled, chatted, brushed our teeth, changed clothes, and she happily played by herself in the kitchen while I got things ready. I love such mornings :)!


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I bought an iPad for my parents. They received it last week and we did FaceTime with them over the weekend. It was FANTASTIC! I showed them the garden, the peaches and cherries on the trees and few of the new toys in the house. They had fun watching their grand-daughter goof-balling around the house. Video conferencing is now just a tap away....isn't it sooper cool?


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I found a really good pedicure lady via a Groupon deal I had bought. She is a young mom of two, and not only does her job well, but is very pleasing to be around. The Aveda spa where she works is sooper chic too. More often than not, I give business to people who treat their customers well (and with a smile), and atleast appear  genuine. I am definitely going back to her.


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I had bought another Groupon for Juice It Up - it's a bit like Jamba Juice but they have fresh-squeezed veggie juices. I tried the "Rejuvenator" - it's a blend of apples, carrots, beets, cucumber, ginger and lemon. Oh my, it was heavenly! I got one for hubby too, but kiddo tried it and decided to gobble half of his 20oz juice herself. I am so tempted to buy a high-end juicer so that we can make these regularly at home. Here is a link to the Juice It Up Menu: http://www.juiceitup.com/our-menu/products#fresh-squeezed-juices. You can customize as well - for example, I asked for lemon to be added to my juice.


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I found my favorite hindi music radio station online. Radio Mirchi is available 24x7 and I am hooked. http://www.radiomirchi.com/


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A neighbor of mine who is a fashion designer organized a girls' mixer/evening-out last Friday. We had a baker, mural artist, fitness trainer, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, CPA, and engineers/geeks among the crowd. I went in not knowing how it will go, but I really enjoyed my outing. I met new moms and we played a sooper fun game which had all of us laughing out loud.

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I stayed indoors during the entire duration of the eclipse. How about you?

{this moment} Giving company :)

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember" - SouleMama

My cheesy-puffs giving me the big-belly company :)

Happy Friday, and have a good weekend!

Mothers Day 2012 - a photo post

After having my mom with me for the last couple years on Mother's Day, I missed her presence by my side this year. We had decided to keep it low key - we have been traveling quite a bit and have another trip coming up, so we stayed home....I spent the day being a mom to both my daughter and my hubby, as well as to a couple who is close friends of ours. They were in much need of TLC, and we tried to provide just that.

We took the kiddo to the park in the evening - hubby has been to this park with her many times, but it was my first time with her....and I asked him to take lots of pictures of us :).

Aren't we both lovely :)?

Spring is here so it's all green and flowers are in full bloom.....

The kiddo is showing off some dance moves to her mumma :).....

Check out this stylish babe....

I took these close-up shots of hers....her laughter is electrifying.....

Around the slides and play structures....

She sat on one of the structures and posed for a smiley photo....

And then daddy found some balloons near the water tap....he filled them with water, and started bursting them. The kiddo along with a gang of 4 other Indian kids surrounded him for the next 30-45 mins....and all of them had a blast bursting the water balloons that hubby was filling n tying up for them.

Balloon POP :)

And with a teeny bit of help, a lot of interruption but lots of fun with the daughter, I completed this small craft as a gift for myself :)

That was our Mother's Day this year....

{this moment} Garden 2012 - 2 (a photo post)

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember" - SouleMama

A couple of months ago, I did a photo post of our garden. Read it here. Spring has arrived. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the weather is gorgeous - it's the best time of the year! Here are a few recent pictures from our garden....it's all colorful and lovely!

Roses are blooming....

And we have pink flowers, which the kiddo loves....

Our FIRST peaches  - we planted this tree as bare-root, and this is the first year it's bearing fruit. I see 20+ peaches on the small tree.....it's lovely!

A close-up of the English Rose.....

This flower is from a weed which we forgot to remove.....it's so pretty....

Signs of new life.....

And I am patiently waiting for bulbs to bloom in these two pots......

These buds are from another rose plant in our front yard...we planted it only a couple of months ago and it's ready to bloom - the color of the flower is going to be purple!

After a crappy week, I've had a sooper happy and fun Friday morning so far. And the entire credit goes to this angel of mine, who I cannot live without :)!

Have a good weekend!

Random Musings....Again!

Today I am having a very rough day. So some of these musings might be rants, but I know I'll feel better once I let them out....so here goes the list....

- People have no email or phone call etiquette these days. I don't send any forwards. I only send emails about very select events that I am keen to go to, but more than 50% of the people never respond to my emails. Sometimes even 1:1 emails are ignored. Does it bother you or is it only me? Same with phone calls - we don't do missed calls in US, why would you call me and not leave a voicemail? I still call back, at my earliest convenience. Or if its someone I talk to routinely, I ping them or communicate back in some way as soon as possible. And I rarely make calls and leave a voicemail....when I do, people still don't call back. Ugh!

- These days, I am miserably failing at understanding men. Husband included. Things they say annoy me greatly. Some men who call me and tell me things....I can't relate to anything they are saying. I also find myself emotion-less during such conversations - it's the hormones I blame.

- Some people only keep a relationship with me because they need me for something or the other. I try to run away from them as fast as I can, but they still keep chasing me. I am tired of these drains around me.

- Sometimes, unavoidable circumstances come up. I handle them well, but husband miserably fails to do so. It makes my stress rise exponentially. I wish no such circumstances come again in the near future. I need a break.

- When you have been very close to someone in the past (but are not close anymore), you still expect them to remember important stuff from the past, right? When a person behaves as if all that happened has been forgotten, I get bugged.

- My belly is at a very curious stage right now - not too big, but making its statement out in public :). I find it very amusing that many people want to ask me that dreaded question, but refrain from doing so.

- Couples get very lonely once their kids leave home and go to college. It's like starting life all over again. I am seeing that with a couple people I am close with and I am dreading that stage of my life already!

- I cooked a lot over the last few days - handvo, shrikhand, paneer bhurji, raita, roasted sweet potatoes, etc - but there is so much leftover now in the fridge - I hate throwing food away so I shared some with friends and will finish the rest tonight. I am looking forward to cleaning out my refrigerator this weekend!

- It's a lot of fun to take guests from India shopping. They get delighted when we use coupons and get good deals. The oldies also get tired from walking all day, but the feeling of content on their faces after a full day of shopping is priceless!

- My daughter wakes up in the middle of the night - smiles at me - and within seconds goes back to sleep. This happens atleast once every night, if not more. THAT smile of hers is the one that I treasure the MOST!

- Check out this very short video of the kiddo (and her mummy) enjoying the weekend WIND in our backyard. Yes I gobble her up a zillion times each day like this. She is irresistible!

Well, I feel better already, and the yoga class tonite is going to calm my nerves and help me let go of all these crazy things going on in my mind right now. Coupled with a good night sleep today, I will be a happier person tomorrow morning :)!

Daughters are Precious!

The much-hyped Aamir show "Satyamev Jayate" made its debut yesterday in India. I had heard about it from various sources, but I don't watch any TV, so I never made any plans of watching it. Also, we don't get any Hindi channels at home (we have no cable TV, only few local US channels mainly for news) so I was not sure if I would have access to it anytime soon.

However, today morning, I read this status message from my cousin on FB: "Satyamev Jayate - making money of others miseries?". I respect Aamir, and this negative message (along with the responses to it) made me curious. I found a link to the entire episode on YouTube and decided to watch it when hubby n kiddo were happily taking their afternoon nap :).

Well - I loved the show. It touched on a subject (female feticide and infanticide) that I feel very strongly about. I have blogged about it here earlier. I loved the three women that were chosen to share their story with the country. The statistics, the sting operation in Rajasthan, the input from the lawyer, the other issues that crop up years later because of this core issue - the whole case, I feel, was presented in a very beautiful way.

My mom has seven sisters - they are a total of 8 sisters. No brothers. My mom's mom passed away soon after giving birth to her 8th (and last daughter). I'm sure my mom's dad had a hell of a time raising 8 daughters. But he took care of all of them very well. The younger ones even went to college (the older ones were pushed to study but dropped out of school at various points). I see the bond between my mom and her siblings, and its so amazing. They are always there for each other, no matter what. Recently, when my mom met with an accident, her sisters came and took care of her even before she asked for help. Had these been 8 brothers, there would be many more fights in the family and much more disharmony.

My dad's mom - my grandma - loved daughters too. My sister and I were always favored over our cousins who were boys. Females in my family are respected, and treasured. My sister and I were raised no less than boys - we played sports, we did extra-curricular activities, we excelled in studies. Our parents invested everything they had into our nurturing and education. I remember many relatives raising eyebrows when my parents (especially my mom) agreed to let me come to the US to pursue higher education.

Having grown up in such an environment, I never realized for the longest time how bad things can be for girls or their parents. My first-hand experience happened when I got pregnant with my daughter and found out that I was having a girl. I was over-the-moon, but the responses of certain Indian people were disgusting, to say the least. Aborting a fetus just because it's a girl is the biggest crime you can commit. You are not only killing a life, you are damaging that woman for life. And you have no idea of the extent of damage that has been done. Repercussions last a lifetime.

I could go on for hours on this subject, but readers of this blog don't need my lecture. However, about the show, I feel Aamir is doing the right thing. I don't care how much money he makes from the show, or how his wife was treated by her ex (there are messages floating around attacking his personal life too). I applaud him for bringing such crucial issues to the nation's attention, and raising much-needed awareness about them. I am sure actions will be taken, and things will improve - slowly, steadily, and surely. I will support him in whatever way I can - the first thing I did was sent my support to the letter he is writing for a fast-track court to adjudicate all the crime cases in Rajasthan.

Even if one doctor is put behind the bars for illegally aborting female fetuses, even if one woman who watches the show finds the courage to prevent an unwilling abortion, even if one girl child who is not treated equally and fairly in her family starts receiving equal love, then this show has succeeded in its mission.

Another very important point that one of the ladies on the show made was: "Atyachaar karna hi nahi, sehna bhi paap hai"! I cannot stress enough on this point - we are always 50% responsible if something untoward happens to us. But for women to find the courage to speak up, to run away from abusers, to stop getting pregnant again and again - they need to start being self-sufficient, and stop being dependent. My mom always told me - Never be dependent on your spouse financially. She quit her job once she got married, and even though my dad is not one of those men who treated her poorly (it was quite the opposite and I vouch for that), she feels she should have continued working at least part time, or gone back to work after we were older. She drilled it into our heads to always work hard, and not only be independent, but also contribute financially towards running a household, and be equal in all respects. My sister and I took her advice to heart and followed it.

I treasure my daughter. Look at her smile - so so adorable! And the sparkle in her eyes - so precious!

Did you watch the show? What are your thoughts? Do share.