Gyaan - Just like that

Foolishness and innate evilness is a deadly combination. Its lethal. I have realized there isn't anything anyone can say or do about it because when you are advising/proposing solutions, the evilness beats you and when you are preaching goodness, the foolishness kills you. Since all it does is sap out positivity and fun, you might just as well stay away and let it self-destruct. It wouldn't have been a problem if one didn't care & love enough to watch it in progress.

Diwali Vacation - 2009

So the Diwali vacation has begun with a bang this year. The peapod's school closed for Diwali vacations starting this week and so did the jellybean's. So jellybean & sis arrived home on Saturday. The peapod & jellybean, 2 chatterboxes talking to each other makes an amusing sight. In an hour they had hugged, kissed, yapped, fought and made up as well. They danced the garba in the lovely ghaghra my sis got them. Jellybean speaks a little bit of Gujarati as well, can you imagine. The peapod knows her way around her granny, she knows the rules of the house, she knows what is a no-no and she also knows how she can work her way around those but the jellybean is new having quite forgotten what is it that works and what doesn't and ofcourse the rules have changed too. So while the peapod knows she cannot jump on the couch like on a trampoline but can jump on the bean bag, the jellybean clearly has forgotten. Playing with the 2-way light & fan switch have be was their game, but is no more entertained - its a waste of electricity. Likewise playing with the taps on was something they enjoyed as 2 year olds, its again off the list now with lectures on wastage of water. Plucking tulsi leaves off granny's garden after watering the plants and chewing them was an another stuff that was ok, but not anymore ever since the plant leaves almost shriveled up and mom is figuring out how to sort that out. So peapod has an advantage that she uses very well. If she is not getting her way, she will immediately go and get granny and embarrass the poor jellybean who like ever before is the drama queen, ready to shed a bucket at the drop of a hat. Its been just a day but they are back to their games, cooking, jumping, dancing, hiding and all sorts. It also helps when you have crazy entertaining aunts, one who joins their games with equal gusto and seriousness. It doesn't matter she is the mother of an almost 1 yr old. You tell me, who hides under the bed for a good 5 mins when playing hide and seek with two 3 yr olds? Who tries to come up with colors that are hard to find when playing "find the color" around the dinning table? The other aunt dances with them, teaches them to shake their bums and then throws them above her head just to get them laughing uncontrollably. Baby Neil at 10 months crawls around and stands with support and is still wondering what is the chaos all about? The girls love offering their food to him in tiny bits which he very eagerly sucks off their fingers. In short the kids are having super fun and its just been a day.

The Vacation Bible school(VBS) is a 6 day sing-song-story-color & dance thing for 5 days for 3 hours in the church. Its usually conducted during vacations, summer or diwali. Ours began today. Both the girls had been to VBS last year and enjoyed it immensely and they are back to it this year. Its basically full of music, new hymns, action songs, stories and many random activities based on different age groups. As kids, every time we went to Kerala we made sure we could attend VBS at my mom's place. We were a bunch of cousins who would go togather & have the time of our lives. The tempo & mood is high-beat during this week and 5 days pass by just like that. I am here sitting in office, just got off a conference call and have my tasks listed out in front of me but all I am thinking is..oh my, the kids must be having fun and I am missing it. Yeah, sometimes I am still the little girl who loves the loud music, songs/hymns and all the silly-kiddy fun.

And my little monkey, at week 29 is busy kicking. Sometimes I do not realize I am making faces when the kicks set in and makes me uncomfortable. Put on a little music and he/she then settles in well. I am off reading, can almost say "completely". I just don't feel like reading anymore. I am carrying "Devil wears Prada" in my bag and I haven't even opened it. I actually haven't read a book in a month. An another side effect of pregnancy, you think?

Hope you guys have a rocking Diwali as well!! Happy Diwali to my dear dear lovely readers. Yeah ok to the 3 of you who read me.

How can this happen in India????

That was my reaction when I saw the news about how a man locked up his wife and 2 daughters in a house for 7 years in a place like Vasai. Typical Indians and the indian way of living is often accused of NOT minding their own business and always poking around in another's affairs. We pride ourselves in knowing our neighbourhood. We know our neighbours, where they hail from, we know where their parents & in-laws live, we know what is the current biggest crises in their household, we know their festivals, we know where they work, we know their friends and relatives who visit them, we know their typical daily routine, we actually know pretty much everything that we are required to know and mostly the other gory details too.

I am totally lost how did people not know or care for 3 people who were locked up in a house for 7 years. As Indians we are accused of having acute interest in the neighbour's life and mostly providing it for the gossip mills around as well. If this unwarranted attention & behaviour was of any use to anybody anytime, it was probably at times like this.

Crimes like this in the western suburbs of Bombay, its very very difficult to imagine.