Sister...

Imagine this. A little girl. The princess of her family. Apple of her parents’ eyes. Not a worry in the world. THEN….one day it all ended. There was a new princess in the kingdom, who kicked the little princess off her throne and hogged the limelight instead. 

Now comes the part that is going to make you cry – That little princess was me. Okay....the picture is exaggerated, neither was my hair brown nor was I that pretty. But you get the idea, don't you? And the new princess? Obviously, my little sister.

When our parents told my brother and me that we were going to have another sibling, I hoped for a sister….which girl doesn’t? Couple of years later, I wished that we had a little brother instead. At least then, the kid would have tailed my brother instead of me.

We started sharing a room when we moved to India and when dear brother broke his leg, he used the opportunity to escape from the “kids’ room” and claim his own, citing that he couldn’t climb stairs. I’m sure he could have if he tried….but maybe he had some kind of foresight on the kind of life he’d have sharing a room with two sisters.

If I had to use one word to describe my sister as she was growing up? I’d choose “pesky”.

She was always there. Trying to find out what I was doing and trying to get me into trouble. And hey, don’t think for a second that I don’t know that you tried finding my diary to get me into more trouble!

When I'd look forward to enjoying a night listening to the sound of heavy rain and thunder, she’d disturb me from her side of the room “I’m scared….can I sleep with you?” and there ends my night.

When I left home to attend college, she took over our room and made me (and still does) feel like a visitor to MY room when I come home. Over the years she became a teenager and I was a “been there, done that” know-it-all elder sister. This led to constant fights between us. I felt that my parents were too lenient with her and that she got away with everything she did.

And then, as if magically, it all changed. She got married and moved out of country. Our talks became more of sharing and discussions. Being there for one another. When I found myself in need to cry the other day, I didn’t have to think twice about talking to her. Somehow I knew that she’d be the right one to open up to. Maybe I accepted her as an equal (well, technically she has to become the mother of two to become my equal)….but still… I feel nice about the relation we have today. We tease each other; we share our joys and troubles….

Do I wish we had developed this relationship years ago? Actually….no, I don’t.

I am happy remembering the pesky little sister days and moments.

And I am sure that the past, the way we came, will help enforce the bond we have now.

A short story before I stop:

Once I was called by our school principle because li’l sis had signed her own test paper and tried passing it off as our uncle’s signature. When I asked her why she used that particular name instead of using the name of an actual uncle, she replied “But this was the only name I could spell!!”

:) Love you li’l sis!

My elusive friend...

Sleep – A wonderful pleasure that most of us cherish. Many a times there is nothing that brings more joy than the very thought of being asleep soon, or waking up at night and finding out that there are couple of more hours before the alarm rings.

Quick flashback….. There used to be a time when I abhorred the idea of sleeping. Weekend or holiday afternoons during our childhood in Germany used to be preceded by a stern warning from Dad that if we do not sleep, then there would be no TV for us in the evening.

 I even remember this particular occasion that bro and I had been looking forward to watching this movie (Valhalla). As usual, Dad told us that in the event that we do not sleep, he’d not show us the movie. Being the obedient son that he is, Bro went ahead and slept, while I spent couple of hours tearing off the wallpaper on my side of the room, counting minutes as they went by. When I heard Dad approach our room, I quickly climbed under the covers and pretended to sleep. I waited patiently, listened to my Dad bending over Bro and then over me to check if we were sleeping and then I heard the door shut. I immediately jumped up to find my Dad standing inside the room – He noticed that I wasn’t asleep. And guess what? I didn’t get to watch the movie. Part of his parenting style, there were no empty threats. However, he recorded the movie (unbeknownst to me), and surprised me with it after 2 days and after he made me promise never to try and cheat again.

Since Bro and I shared a room, we also had the habit of telling each other made up bedtime stories. He would tell me stories of wars, machine gun sounds and bombs and everything to which I had to audibly nod every 5 seconds. The next day, I would narrate my story of fairies and princesses and unicorns. If asked to acknowledge that he’s listening, he’d assure me that he was….only for me to find him snoring by the time I finish my story.

Fast forward. We reached India and I discovered the joy of sleeping. Afternoon siestas on weekends and holidays and sleeping in really late during holidays (and I mean really late). Bro had a tough time waking me up every morning at 5 o’clock during my 10^th standard to ensure that I study (only to find me asleep on my books, or in the midst of a suspiciously long personal prayer half an hour later J).

Hostel life was a wonderful time. I used to get up at 5 on weekdays, but on weekends, I would get up only to eat and to attend calls from my parents.

I’ll cut short a long story, but I am sure you get my drift. I love to sleep and even having kids changed nothing about that. If the boys try to wake me up on weekends, I pull them into bed and scratch their backs and encourage them to sleep with me for a while.

Coming to Germany, I was really concerned about my sleep. What if I overslept? There’s no one to wake me up here…. And sleep, is one thing that I have not done after coming here. I go to sleep early (by 9 pm – so that I definitely get enough sleep) and I started off by waking up to the alarm at 5:45. Slowly, I started waking up earlier and now, I wake up at 5 or 5:15 even on holidays!

Now the reason I am writing all this? The time now is 23:20 and I actually went to sleep an hour and half ago….but was (obviously) unsuccessful. So I thought I’d put my thoughts down and that I’ll hopefully be yawning by the end of this (not a yawn so far). Maybe I will be like those grandmas who love telling their visitors that they just can’t sleep because they are so old. Well, I think I will head back to bed now and will myself to sleep….maybe I should try counting sheep….or ask Morpheus or the sandman to visit me…

Touch-me-not

Huggy came into our lives on Tim’s 1^st birthday. He was a gift from our dear friends and that evening we wondered what to do with him.

Huggy is a heart-shaped soft toy, with a pair of legs and 2 outstretched arms and a big smile on his face. What else do you call someone like that, if not Huggy?

During his good years, Huggy has been there for all of us to hug. Tim and Nathan spent a lot of time hugging him and even I have occasionally sat down somewhere hugging him. Through the years he developed some tears here and there and I tried my best to patch him up every time.

Now that the boys are “big boys”, Huggy has been kept in storage. He comes out for air at times, gets hugged and goes back in. We’ve not had the heart to gift him away… after all, he’s OUR Huggy J

What made me write an ode to Huggy? The fact that I really understand what Huggy feels like in the cupboard.

Some of you might know that I am currently not at home and will not be for a while. Hugs are so abundant at home. Tim and Nathan like to come by every now and then, hug me and say “I love you, Mama!” and I really miss all that. I told Lindo to keep on hugging the boys every now and then so that when I come back, they won’t feel that I am suffocating them. They are growing so quickly…what if they outgrow their huggable years by the time I am back?

This time has also made me realize that we are very touching people (for the lack of a better term). We hug friends when we meet them; we hug them when we leave. I walk arm in arm with my cousin….. And I miss all that.

Please don’t get me wrong. This is NOT an invitation for random people to come and hug me! I am just thinking out loud….

Well, anyway, I’m going to be optimistic and know that the boys will hug me tight when we get back together. And I vow to take out Huggy from his hiding and give him a big hug when I am back home!

 

 

 

A new experience

A long, long time ago….

Well....around 1 month or so, Lindo and I found ourselves with an unexpected long weekend since his parents had to go out of town and the boys had holidays from school….  While we were wondering about ways to make the day off worth its while, we hit upon a great idea. 

“Why don’t we paint the boys’ room?”

Yes, why indeed, any other person would ask him / herself…but then, we are not those sane people who do everything for a very good reason, or sometimes just because we haven’t tried our hand at it yet.

So out came the paints and out went the toy boxes and mattresses and everything movable except for the beds. The boys had their hair covered with old T-shirts and Tim became the official paint stirrer and Nathan was in-charge for the food…mainly eating it :)

 

The previous paint was 3 walls of light yellow and one dark blue wall…we covered all the walls with fresh yellow. It was rather easy on the previously yellow walls, but the blue wall took quite some time. By end of day 1, we were done with the base coats and were wondering about how we could transform this yellow room into something that the boys would love.

Those who know our boys well know that they love vehicles, planes…any mode of transport, so that was what it would be…next came the green paint and we painted hills and some more hills. Lindo took the bigger wall while I was assigned the one with the window (maybe because he knows that I can’t draw???) We bought a sponge (Asian paint royale, none the less) and somehow managed a semi-decent sponge finish on one wall. 

2 days later we completed the project and I have to say, the nursery kid in me is pretty pleased with my effort. I agree that the sheep that I drew look kind of sinister (they kind of remind me of Bane from Batman…with the neck muscles and all), but the boys didn’t notice any flaws and just loved the whole room. 

My art (i know, i draw like my kids do...sometimes even worse)

 Lindo's side

  My side (there's an aeroplane too....i couldn't squeeze it into the picture)

 

So here we are with a room that looks as good as new while we had a lot of fun experiencing something new :)

How time flies…

Its 11 PM…I am about to bid good-bye the day that I still look forward to every year…..My birthday (who doesn’t? – not mine, but for their own)

But today, I spent some time thinking about how things change with time. Birthdays, for example, have changed a lot in the past 25 years… (No, I am not 25, but the birthdays before that hardly count :))

When I was in school (primary), birthdays were mostly about the number of children coming for your birthday party. My family wasn’t big on having parties with many children around; our birthdays were celebrated low-key surrounded by siblings and parents. But I remember going for my classmates’ parties and I think that the motto was “The more, the merrier”.

Going on to birthdays in high school (after we moved to India), it was mostly about the excitement of collecting the daily post to see how many of my friends have sent me cards. The cards would start coming in a week before the birthday and would continue to come till almost a week after the birthday. I remember keeping count to see whether I had made more friends than last year based on the number of cards. A phone call to the home landline on the birthday would be the icing of the cake.

Birthdays in college were again about cards and maybe even some small gifts from friends. Being in hostel and living on a meager pocket money which included TA, we couldn’t afford any big gifts, so a bookmark or a small gift item would be the special something to get from and give to special friends. Letters and cards from classmates, hostel mates, friends who weren’t in this college…that was the time of abundance. 

It was towards the end of college that we got ourselves email IDs and promised to mail each other long after we left college. So the first year or two after college, birthdays were less about postal cards but more about emails from friends and especially e-cards. Hallmark, Bluemountain…you name it, we’ve been there sending e-cards on birthdays and sending “thank you” cards as a response to e-cards received. 

Then we got jobs…life started revolving around new people, new friends. With salaries, we could now afford to buy better gifts and we were back to sending postal cards, only this time they cost more than 10 bucks and we didn’t feel bad buying them. Along with the job came the mobile phone, and birthday wishes started coming in the form of SMS and mobile calls. 

This trend continues, only now, we check social networking sites to get our birthday wishes. I spent a good time on Facebook today, checking messages from friends and family and replying to them. The feeling of being remembered is definitely nice, but I do have to say that I miss the old times. I mean, I am not going to log in to FB after 10 years to check the messages that I got today…but even now, I can open my cupboard and take out my collection of cards that I have collected since school days and see what my friends and dear ones wrote to me years ago. 

I think we should all try and make it a point and send cards (actual cards) at least to our dearest friends and family. We all know how it feels to get a card and open it and read everything in that card…the admiring of the pictures and the colors used for writing, the stickers used (we girls do that :))… No e-card, e-message or SMS is ever going to come close to that feeling. And as usual…I really do hope and pray that our children will once know this nice feeling.

I stand before you...

So I have completed 8 years in my company. We have a great training program and a department dedicated towards tracking the trainings that you attend. I am not a great fan of trainings, mainly because I prefer doing my work in whatever time I am in office. And since we’re not a technical team, the trainings that we have to attend are mainly soft skill trainings.

To cut a long blog short, let me just say that I have been successful in dodging one training in particular for all these years. Presentation skills. Now you might think, “What’s the big deal about a Presentation skills training?” Those who know me well, also know that I am not comfortable addressing a crowd. And when I say ‘not comfortable’, I mean that my fingers go numb, my voice starts shivering and all I want is for the world to swallow me when it comes to having to stand up and do something as simple as introducing myself in a crowd (I know, when I say crowd you must be thinking 100’s of people – well sadly that’s not the case; a crowd for me is as much as 2 people that are not my best friends).

Fortunately or unfortunately, the “training gap” finally caught up with me and I was forced to attend this training earlier this week. I even woke up and told Lindo that I was going to call in sick. But he made a very compelling argument (If you don’t go this time, you’ll have to go the next time. Might as well get over with it.)….now that made sense.

So I reached the training room, met the co-participants and needless to say as you might have already guessed (or otherwise what’s the big deal blogging about it?) I managed to talk in front of people I didn’t know. In the beginning I was shivering and worried but by the end of the 2^nd day, I was pretty confident.

Well, it might not be the same as when I will have to make a formal presentation and I am still in awe of people who seem to be able to do this effortlessly, but it was a huge leap for me. Yesterday I had to conduct a training for a few people from my team and I have to give credit to the training (the trainer and the other participants) for playing a big role in making this happen.

Coming around to what made me think so much about this and wanting to write about it is the fact that I hope that my boys will not face this kind of aversion towards performing / speaking in public. Children nowadays have the opportunity to do these things at a very tender age and this will definitely take away that huge monster that’s hiding in my closet – Stage fright. I hope they all make use of these facilities and implement them well in their lives.

The card maker in me....

I have been making cards in my free time. It's a hobby and one that I really enjoy.

For my birthday Lindo and a few friends from office gifted me a printer to help me digital stamps thereby taking the card making to the next level.

Just sharing a few cards I made recently.









This one was for my colleague's birthday.












This one was for a friend's wedding.


















My friend's birthday.

















And one last one:
I made this one for my cousin's wedding.





All the digital stamp used in these cards are Sliekje and MelonHeadz freebies.