Yohaan ‘isms’ – 2014

Owing to my selective (read - poor) memory (it’s really weird what I can and can’t remember, so I don’t trust my memory one bit),  by mid-year, I realised that some of the laughs we have had this year will be soon forgotten. They were all due to the cuteness and innocence of Yohaan’s 5 year old brain and really had to be recorded in some way. So here we are!

Now, I don’t need to worry about my failing memory and we can all enjoy a few simple giggles even years later.

Firstly, At 5 years old- he believes he wants to be fireman or a soldier!

August 2014

Yohaan: Mama, Manish is my best friend.
Me: oh really, why do you think so?
Yohaan in utter disbelief at my stupid question: “he knows my name!!”
Wow! Welcome to a world of simple expectations and pure innocence.

31 August 2014

Yohaan’s football club had friendly matches at another venue. He had recently joined so he was not a part of the team. I took him to the match so he could observe and understand. His club wears red and they were playing against the blue team. I asked him to observe how his team plays and asked him to cheer when they pass or kick or make a goal.

He decided that he likes the blue team better so I explained to him that he belongs to the red team so he should cheer his team, not the other team!

Uh-uh, no way that was happening today! 

I was so amazed to see this behaviour in him. But I realised how much he has to still learn about life. Team spirit and a sense of belonging can be achieved only over time. He won’t belong, just because he is told to belong. He has to spend time and sweat over something before he begins to love it.

This reminded me of the message from the fox to the prince from ‘Le petit prince’.

 "It is the time you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important."  …. You are responsible for your rose..."

7^th Sept 2014

3rd football class (Sundays only), the club organised a prize distribution ceremony for good performances over the last year for all age groups. Yohaan is lead to the 4-5 age group seats and he seats himself on the front bench and attends the whole ceremony with his group. After the prizes and the speeches, we were dismissed and I saw him shoot a terribly hurt look back at me. (I was sitting at the back with the parents) I braced myself for what was to come next. He came to me and seemed genuinely upset that he didn’t get a prize! So far he has only been to parties or occasions where every child gets something to take back home, so this award ceremony was very new to him! On our way home, we had a long chat about the awards being a reward for coming for football practice and trying our best. I reassured him that if he keeps going for practice regularly and trying his best to learn and improve then he too will get such an award and I will be so proud of him. Well, he tried to understand it, but it still didn’t go down very well.

However, he recovered from the intense grief, as soon as I told him we have noodles for breakfast when we get back home.

15 Sept 2014

Yohaan is 5 years and 4 months old. Speaks clearly and like to make up stories and plays along.

On the phone, “hello mama one second, baba has come early, he wants to talk to you.”
Changes his voice : “hello (gruff impersonation), how are you? I came home early.
Me playing along: “ oh hi baba, wow you are lucky, so did you finish all your work?”
Yohaan : YES
Me: “Good,  what time is your Yoga class?”
Yohaan as himself: “Mama, its only ME, Yohaan.” (SO proud he could trick me)
Me: “ oh! really! I thought it was baba on the phone”
Yohaan: Wicked laugh! Hahhahehe
LOL

From the ages 4 to 5 yohaan loved to tease with these fav words:

Mr. Mama! Mr. Baba! Mr. chicken loppi! Mr Chicken hoppi! chiki pakalu!
Mr. potato head! (pronouncing head with a loud Hhh eeaaaa ddd)
You have a durian face!
You are a banana man. or you are a banana head.
Oh you stinky shoe! Khi khi khi he has the most amazing laugh.

He loves to crack jokes too. They aren’t real jokes but totally funny nevertheless. (a fav joke is the "Knock, knock, whose there, its poo-poo (so similar)")

Words mix-up

He’s been doing that since he started speaking and to most new words, these are ones I can remember...
Fosa – sofa
Hostipal  - hospital
Shinish – finish
A Papartment – apartment
gantapi - ganpati

8^th October 2014
Yohaan and I were playing in his room after dinner. Yohaan had taken his Thomas and friends blocks and had hidden Spiderman inside one of those. The plan was to show me a magic trick and make Spiderman appear.

When he was ready he said, “mama I have a cunning plan, it will blow your mind!”

Well, the trick didn’t, but his sentence did!! LOL J Amazing how he picks up these phrases!

22^rd October 2014 – Diwali season.
General lazy time on the bed. Yohaan was rolling around and I asked him, “Yoyo, how much do you love mama?” So he made a tiny pinch with his fingers and said, “ this much” to which I made a grumpy face. To please me, he then changed it and said with wide arms, “ no thissss much!” We hugged and cuddled.

Observing our little drama, baba decided to try his luck at the same game. “Yoyo, how much do you love baba?” Baba asked. Once again Yoyo makes a pinch and says, “this much”. Baba followed the cue and made a grumpy face. Then Yohaan widened his arms ever so slightly and says, “ok this much”. To which Baba said, “why only this much for baba and so much for mama?”

Then with a very matter of fact expression on his face, Yohaan said, “because mama has chubby cheeks!”

We all burst out laughing! He has the most amazing logic in the world. Works well for me! :)

20 November 2014

School holidays have begun and Mr Yoyo is enjoying himself. I call him around lunch time on most days. I have the typical routine mom-questions on, what he ate, where he played and what he studied etc.  So I spoke to him today as normal and was about the hang up. Then he stopped me.

“Wait, wait! Mama, so tell me, what you are doing in office today?” (followed by who, why and when)

HAHA it was sudden and totally unexpected, but I managed to scrape thru the interrogation. :) He is growing to be very smart and observant.

30 November 2014

We went out for dinner to little India as we were craving Biryani. Google showed the first review of Juggies as the best biryani in Singapore. (well, if that was the best I cannot hope for much in Singapore as accordingly to us, what we ate, was NOT biryani at all! and it’s miles away from being the best! )

Well that aside, on the way back we drove past a mosque and Yohaan asked, “mama, what is this with the moon and star?” so I said, that is a “masjid” where we go to pray “Allah, Allah”… so he mimicked, “azza azza” and did his “laugh at one’s own joke thing” (which no doubt he has got from me ;))

Then, we passed a temple (south Indian) with a few big statues of Hanuman and Ram in bold colours. So he asked, what is that? So I said, that is a temple where we pray to Gods like Ganapati and explained that that particular statue he was looking at, was of Hanuman. He knows ‘Ganatapi’(as he calls it) but he had not heard of Hanuman from us before and wanted to know more. I tried to explain,  “it’s a very powerful god. He can lift a whole mountain. He has the body of a man and the face and tail like a monkey”.

To this Yohaan exclaimed “ whoa!! what!” a mixed sound of wonder, amazement and disbelief in those elf eyes.

We all burst out laughing at his truthful and obvious expression. A truthfulness which only a child can show. It shows how conditioned we have become. We have learned to believe without questioning. (even things that obviously don’t make sense to a pure and innocent mind of a child)

So here were some of the memories, stories, laughs of 2014.

Birthday special - GOA

So, this year we decided to go to Pune in December for the first time ever in 8-9 years. We both also wanted a nice relaxing time together, which we never manage to achieve whilst in Pune. So we chose to take time out from our Pune holidays and go to Goa. This has been on our agenda for many years and we wanted to make it happen this time. Hence, we did our bookings months in advance! Our friends confirmed they would join us too and we were set.

The road trip to Goa was so refreshing. It brought me back in touch with nature, our villages and farms. These are the things we miss in our ultra-modern and sanitised lives in Singapore. As we crossed many fields, bullock carts, roadside temples and vendors, sheep, cows and monkeys, on my mind’s checklist I ticked off several boxes and smiled. The cool breeze from the rolled down windows touched my face and I soaked up the earthy smells of the Indian countryside.

The kids were asleep in the car so the drive was very peaceful. We reached our destination, Miramar Residency, by mid-day. After a short break and a change of clothes we headed back out in search of some 'amazing beach-time'. We landed up at Baga beach and toasted to our arrival into Goa. For the next few hours we danced around in the water, had some delicious prawns and fish preparations. Finally, we went back to the hotel for our well-deserved sleep.

The next morning, to humour my request, D found out a church which was on the way to Martin’s corner (known for its amazing food). The church was closed for preparations for the midnight mass as it was 24^th Dec but the sister allowed us into the church via a back door. We sat down and said a few quiet prayers. Then, back on the road, we made it to Martin’s Corner by 11am. Having had a heavy breakfast less than a couple of hours back, none of us felt we could eat at that time and as a result, we drove around and reached Majorda beach. This was a very beautiful beach! We could walk/wade a long way in, there were some big waves and it was not very crowded either. The kids had plenty of fun - They loved the waves and played in the sand and looked for shells, hermit crabs, small crabs and starfish. The food was also pretty good and so were the cocktails.  Finally, by the time we felt satiated enough to leave the beach, Martin’s corner was closed (post-lunch), and we didn’t end up eating there at all.

That night, we decided to go to Terry’s for dinner. After we reached there, we were surprised when Satya’s friend Mohit and his family showed up (they had initially cancelled their plans to come with us). The evening mood was then even more elevated and we had a good dinner together, catching up on old times and the events of our day.

The next day, 25^th Dec, we decided to go to another beach called Bogmalo. However, on reaching there and looking at the crowds on that small beach, we changed course and headed straight to none other than? Majorda beach, of course. We took sunbeds and spent another most AWESOME day there at the beach. We had lunch from the shack and took turns napping and swimming and playing with the kids. All day long! 

Being Satya’s birthday dinner, we decided to try our luck again at Martin’s corner. We reached only a few minutes before the crowds started pouring in and luckily secured a table just in time. I ‘managed’ a cake from the pastry counter they had, and we sang for Satya as he cut the cake and blew the candles out for the 35^th time in his life. We ordered our first and only round of drinks during that dinner as what followed was so truly awesome that we had no inches or even cms of space left inside our tummies to accommodate anything else. That ‘seafood platter’(which is one of their signature dishes) will be one that I will remember for a long time to come. From the time that platter arrived at our table, there wasn’t much said or heard except the occasional “hmms” and “ahhhs”. The crab was lovely and my favourite was the most orgasmically delicious lobster with herbs and white baked vegetable sauce. Fish, (mega) jumbo prawns (as they were bigger than any I’ve eaten before) and everything else was also really yummy and to die for indeed!

Thus was the end of an amazing and relaxing holiday, food adventure, crazy time with friends and the 35^th birthday of the most special man in my world!

Run for fun!

Today, Satya and I ran and completed a 10km run! Did we think we could do it? Well honestly we had no clue, until we crossed that line.

We participated in the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 10k on the 7^th December 2014.

We have being meaning to do this for over 3 years and finally Satya took the step forward and booked us in. We had exactly 6 weeks to train which is quite less for first timers but due to our last minute decision, this is what we were left with to train and prepare. Thanks to the internet I quickly secured a schedule for us to follow and we tried to stick to it. At times we had to work late so had to swap a few days around on the schedule.

About 10 days before the run I fell sick and had to skip important training days, to the verge that we thought I would not be able to make it. Satya also developed an ankle pain which he was very nervous about. Finally the day arrived and we woke up early and prepared ourselves. Took an early bus and reached the venue well in time. The atmosphere was so energetic and vibrant. Thousands had gathered and we were all united in our aim to challenge ourselves. The organisers had arranged for cheering squads/bands for us all through the run. There was also a Punjabi bangra band dishing out great uplifting beats. Satya and I jogged at a conversational pace all thru and were amazed at how much we had to catch up on and chat about! The energy from the other participants charged us further and hardly felt we were working out. We took a walk break at about the 7k mark and then picked up the pace again. Closer to the finish line the sign boards were larger displaying how close we were getting and the cheering from the crowds was getting louder! (much needed too) We felt somewhat like a mini celebrity to be out there doing our best and being cheered for. We posed for a few pictures on the way and crossed the line, hand in hand!

What an amazing experience, what a victory! Are we going to do it again? Hell, yeah!

At NOX - Celebrating eight years of trust!

After the amazing experience last year on our anniversary dinner, I had secretly concluded that nothing could beat that spectacular experience for a long time to come. Well, I was clearly very wrong as I am blown away by our anniversary dinner experience this year!

I could sense that Satya has something up his sleeve but I couldn't put my finger on it. We had a great anniversay morning and the day was pretty calm with just phone calls from family and friends. Satya had booked a table for us for dinner but refused to tell me where or which cuisine. I had been passing subtle hints for the past week or so before our anniversay, that mexican food is so delicious :) so all my hopes were in that direction.

So that evening we got ready, donning our special looks to kill, and we left home to go on our 8th anniversary dinner date like two love-struck teenagers! Yoyo was fed and safely asleep at home. We hung around at Arab street at one of our favourite places called 'Beirut Grill' where we had a drink each and watch the belly dancer and her incredible moves along with other shish smoking folks. All was going smooth until Satya suddenly called for the bill and said we've got to go somewhere else for our dinner.

We got up and walked round the corner of the same building, less than 50 metres, and came to a restaurant called "Nox". There was a waiting lobby on the ground floor with several people sitting around with members of the restaurant staff in some deep discussions under dimmed white/blue lights. There was a long bar cum reception out in front and to the right was a locker space like the ones we have in a gym which I felt was pretty wierd thing in the decor of a restaurant and there was no food in sight. That is when it stuck me that he has booked us in at a 'dine in the dark' restaurant!!

I feel pretty handicapped without my glasses and hate dim lights in general. I also appreciate looking at my food, so I was not sure what I was getting into! I had recurring thoughts of dashing out the door or trying to persuade Satya out of his madness but I played along just trusting him completely. A part of me was willing to try something new and crazy!

We hung around at the lobby with our drinks while they prepped us on the process. We handed over our watches and phones (things that can produce light) which we then stored in one of those lockers I had seen earlier. And with bated breath we entered the door to the staircase that took us to the restaurant in the dark, upstairs. Our guide came to receive us and I was even more shocked to know that all the staff on the other side of that door whom we would meet, including the ushers and the waiters, would be blind!

We were guided along the way and shown our seats with the clockwise orientation of things on the table. It felt so strange. It was absolutely pitch dark. I had never experienced this kind of darkness before where I couldn’t even see my own hand! The food was served in 4 bowls in each course and it was a three course modern French cuisine menu with nuances of other cuisines. The experience of eating without being able to see is really indescribable! Of course we didn’t select our food so we had no clue what it would be and had to rely totally on our sense of smell and feel of textures and shapes to know what we were eating. It was no mean feat as the chefs had some pretty clever techniques going on there to create the suspense in each dish. Later on they showed us pictures of what we ate and I must say we missed the mark, on many dishes, by miles! But we did manage to guess some perfectly too. J

It was such an enriching experience to be really in touch with our senses, our food and ourselves like never before. We had no distractions. None! No other people (especially good looking ones), no phones, no lights, no décor disasters to comment on,  no attractive  or terrible designer clothes to look at, no food photography maniacs, and not even each other’s faces or expressions! It was a pure feeling of listening to your inner mind and blocking all external forces out.

We spent over 2 hours in darkness, hand in hand, and we communicated more than what we had done in the last two months! We guessed the various food bowls while enjoying the experience. Helped each other along the way and waited for each other to finish the dish before going on to the next. Our past years flashed in front of our eyes from our teenage days to parenthood. We realised how grateful we are to be together, to achieve what we have achieved together and extremely grateful for all the future plans we have to go back and work on. We were grateful for the senses we possess and became acutely aware of how others without those sense survive. We were truly humbled!

Satya succeeded once again in making this date as memorable as the last and we look forward to many more to come. Happy anniversary hubby!

Living in the present!

I spent most of my days in 2013 brooding over a variety of things. Life, age, existence, time, money, stability, love, relations and never ending responsibilities to name a few. If I had nothing else to occupy my mind, I always had Yohaan; do I spend enough time with him? do I teach him the right the right things? Am I being a good parent? Bottom line was, that I always felt worried due to our changed circumstances.

However, looking back, the year 2013 was one of the most amazing years of my life!

Satya was finally with me in Singapore and happily employed! Yohaan started liking going to school. The year was packed with fantastic events. We visited Bangkok and spent a couple of days exploring that amazing history and culture and tasting delicious Thai food. We holidayed at Bintan (Indonesia) at a resort with my colleagues. Visited India for my cousin's wedding which was a super fun time with family. I went to Bangalore to meet my friends and we had an amazing time together reliving our college days. We visited Bali which was the best beach location I have ever been to in the world and we vowed to go there again. We watched live Formula 1 racing in Singapore, where the event also had performances of Rihana and Dhol foundation. We visited Phuket in Thailand with my parents, which was a fairly fun adventure trip. To top all this, my hubby treated me to a fancy anniversary dinner at ‘Jaan’ and all this fun had started right on the first day of 2013 with an unforgettable new year’s eve at an awesome beach party!

To add to it, 2013 saw us surrounded with visitors at our home. We spent time with Aai-baba, Shekhar dada, Monita and Jinky, Tracy and Oliver who visited our home. My parents and sister and family also visited us and we had an awesome time in December. We were invited to and we hosted some interesting festival-time lunches and dinners, including those where Yohaan was the main invitee J and we were the baggage that went with him!

On the work front, I received praise, an amazing number of hires, and overall satisfaction at work and met great colleagues! My office arranged some amazing activities like movie night, dragon boating session, game of lazer tag, session of wine tasting, company dinners, farewell lunches, MM 40th anniversary celebration, and TRULY every day could count as “an event” in this action packed year!

Today when I look back, I think, wow! what an amazing year it was! But last year, I had the time and urge to brood at the drop of a hat! Why? Something deep inside me was sending distress signals. And although he may not voice it out loud, I believe hubby dear was also sailing the same troughs and crests with me. What goes on in our brains can be very difficult to decipher at the time when things are happening...

Everything suddenly appeared crystal clear in Feb 2014 after I came back from my visit to the UAE. I became a changed person! This refreshing visit to the desert and reliving the memories of superb times spent with our friends helped me come to terms with myself and my life. I understood that it was the longing of my life in the UAE buried deep in my heart that was causing this unhappiness and I had to let go! Thankfully, today I feel at peace with myself and my surroundings! This peace has come to me by accepting my present and wanting to make it better and I give the credit of this revelation entirely to our trip to the UAE in Feb 2014.

Today, I no longer live in the past! Only brooding does!