Yohaan ‘isms’ – 2015

Early 2015

We watched the animated movie Planes with Yohaan. He liked it and we had the DVD at home so he was asks a competitorable to watch it a few more times. In one of the scenes when Dusty arrives into New York he asks a British plane about his racing techniques. Of course he drives him away, not willing to reveal his tricks to a newbie competitor and angrily says, “of course not, I’m British”. A few days after watching the movie Yohaan was upset with me and said, “I’m British!”. Satya and I giggled and asked him what it means to him when he says “I’m British”. Due to the tone used in the dialogue in that movie, Yohaan thought it meant angry or furious. After a few more chuckles, I explained what it means and gave him the correct words to express anger. But a few days later, at a pound party at Nayana’s house he said it again! Much to our amusement… J

If Yohaan wants Milo he says “ could I have Milo-milk and plain milk?”, and for rose milk, he has coined the term, “rose milkshake and purple milkshake”.

June 2015

His 6^th birthday theme was Transformers - Optimus Prime. We had a nice party for the kids by the poolside. Games, dance and pizza. Yohaan felt so important and really enjoyed all the attention he got. Big boy! And such a loving one too.

Yohaan and Inaya were having a discussion in the car on the way to their hindi class on Saturday morning 25^th July. Yohaan said you know one night the moon was following me where ever I went! Inaya said, “oh the moon follows everyone” Both wondered how and why the moon follows people so Yohaan wanted to come up with his own explanation. With serious consideration he finally said, “ you know I think the wind blows it so it follows us!”. It was a very cute conversation to hear the bro-sis duo chat away. It was amazing to notice how their little minds work and how they are noticing the nature and curious to find answers. With them growing up, God has given me a great chance to relive my childhood with my brother.

The whole of July 2015, Yohaan has been totally absorbed in learning to make shapes with this fingers. Cobras, planes, fighter planes with missiles. He has also assumed his identity as a Jaguar and has a special jump called Jaguar jump (makes a huge leap from a crouching position).

August 2015

Yohaan plays with Parth, an Indian boy who goes to a British school and has an odd whiny English accent. They also go for Hindi classes and skating classes together. For the 68^th Indian Independence day, we took Yoyo to the Embassy on 15^th August 2015 for flag hoisting so he could experience some Indian patriotic feelings. He came home and was inspired to make a couple of Indian flags which made us proud of our decision to take him along for the ceremony. Later that evening he went down to show those hand-made flags to his friends. When he was back, at dinner time, I asked him what they discussed about India, our country, and the flags he had made.

To that came the most unexpected reply, “Parth says he is Japanese, but his mother wants him to go for Hindi class.”  Recovering from the weirdness of that statement, we had a good laugh! He of course couldn’t understand why it was funny at all!

Sept 2015

Amma  Baba came to visit us in Singapore. They got a monster truck for both Yoyo and Inaya. Big mistake! Inaya was not impressed but clung to her gift nonetheless and Yohaan assumed that both the trucks were his. (coz he knows that his Didi doesn’t like cars) Finally after a lot of pleading, fighting and then scolding, he finally agreed to give one truck back to Inaya. Before he did that, he did a quick test to see which one was faster and of course his truck turned out to be faster! Surprise, surprise! He returned the other one to Inaya teasing that his truck was faster! All in all, it was resolved without bloodshed, three cheers to that!

Oct-Nov 2015 Yoyo the negotiator!

Yes, everything is about negotiation these days. He tries to push the boundaries about everything under the sun. From what time he will do his Kumon maths worksheet to how much time he can watch TV. Which channels, to how many laddoos he wants to eat in one sitting. At times its enervating at other times it’s just “liharious” as he says it. Hilarious!! J

Favourite words of 2015 –

Liharious

Awkwardsss – he has no clue what it means and uses it with an ‘s’ at the end…haha

and Reallyyyyy!! (trying to convince that imaginary things did happen!)

My 'kini' woes!

In 2015, at the age of 35 years, I decided I wanted to wear a bikini and I bravely made a resolution to that effect. No, it was not some strange expression of my mid-life crisis. (35 years is mid-life I suppose?!) I wanted to do this many times in the past but I either had no opportunity or I lacked the confidence to carry it off or my figure was not flattering enough and of course I had no intention of looking like a blob of wobbly gloppy-glue in a bikini, so I didn’t dare. Until now.

At this time, I had the opportunity with open beaches in South east Asia where a bikini does not draw any attention and importantly, with the efforts I had put in with GCC steps, yoga, dance and Pilates, I felt I had arrived at figure that I was more comfortable showing off. A couple of my Indian girlfriends were amazed at my courageous plan. Perhaps they secretly thought I'd lost the plot! On the contrary, my western girlfriends were amazed to hear that I didn’t have one yet! How did I get to this age without one? Duh! But thankfully neither my friends nor my husband tried to discourage me or change my mind. In fact, they gave me the reassurance that I was seeking from them. Relieved to hear that my plan did not sound completely ridiculous to anyone, I was ready to execute it.

For the first few months of the year I talked about my idea, mostly to my husband. (He may want to describe that as chewing his brains!) April arrived and I had done nothing about it but talk so he finally asked me to go out shopping so I could bring my plan to action. In April, we also made our bookings for a trip to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and the travel dates were set for August, to coincide with the SG50 national day celebration holiday. We had booked ourselves at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria which looked awesome and we starting looking forward to our trip.

With this new date in mind, I moved my shopping plans for later. I visited a couple of malls closer to home but could not find anything that made me happy. In July, with my deadline fast approaching I chickened out slightly by deciding to buy a mono-kini instead and restarted my hunt. The pressure intensified when I was a week away from my trip and still had no “kini” of any kind, in my closet! Finally, I saw one at an Aimer outlet in Jurong Point mall. It fit me like a glove and made me look awesome too so I bought it! I cost me a whooping SGD 175 which I know was too much but it made me happy and that is all that matters, right! (yeah, I say that console myself) I proudly wore this mono-kini at Kota Kinabalu and was super impressed with my guts. (the mental kind, just to be clear). After this mini victory, we got back to Singapore and got busy with our routine. However, I still had a good four months of 2015 left and my resolution felt incomplete but I didn’t give it any further thought. My friends and I had planned a get-together at Goa in December that year. When I met them, I shared my story of my failed attempt at buying a bikini and we laughed it off. That same afternoon on our way back from an exciting day full of shopping, we chanced upon a local bikini store and my friends egged me on in for a ‘look around’. We picked a few pieces for me to try and they gave me the thumbs up after a peek in the trial room. Of course as always, my size was not available in the patterns I liked and finally those that fit well and had good designs were not on discount. They never are!

Finally, I found one that I loved, it fit amazingly well, had a lovely mix of light and dark shades and was affordable despite not being on a discount. I bought it! I did a victory dance and smiled ear to ear all the way back to our hotel. We took a dip in the freezing pool within the next couple of hours as the sun began to set and we celebrated that night with seafood, cocktails and a live band. 

In this way, before the end of the year, I completed my resolution and felt totally liberated and awesome! (so what if it took me 12 full months to do it! ;- ))

Touched by fireflies

Aboard a tiny boat

under a cloudless sky

twinkling stars

looked down at us

and we smiled.

Excitement and joy

fluttered in our hearts

like the rippling water

that gushed past in the

narrowing river path

Soon darkness engulfed us

as the mangroves thickened

broken only by

a glowing dot here and

a glowing dot there.

With abated breath

we waited

and watched

the darkness growing thicker

and the magic that began!

Fireflies so delicate yet bright,

signaled to each other

in quiet rhythms and

greeted us with

kisses on our palms.

then fireflies rained down on us

a million all at once!

Touching us ever so lightly

fluttering by, soundlessly

existing with beauty

We tried to net

just those magical moments

forever in our hearts

when we were

touched

in a thousand ways

by those glittering

fireflies under the stars.

Yes, that’s a hat-trick!

On our last two anniversaries Satya transported me to an ultimate zone of preciousness. He made me feel on top of the world and I still think dearly of those amazing celebration dinners. This year on our 9^th anniversary, we agreed to go to P.S. Café on Dempsey Hill which is well known for its amazing food and ambience. I’d heard him making the reservations myself so of course there was no reason to think any different. On the 6^th of July 2015, we both came home a couple of hours early from work so we could dress up and leave for our ‘date’:). I wanted to wear a sari so he dressed in Indian style too, to give me company. I was conscious that we’d probably be the only ones in Indian wear at Dempsey Hill but it was my special day and nothing can make me feel more special than a lovely sari, so I went for it nonetheless! We drove off and at first I asked a few question about the route but then with my non-stop chatter I stopped paying attention to where we were heading. We reached a place called Duxton Hill instead of Dempsey Hill and that’s when he told me that a change in venue and menu was part of his surprise!

He had booked us at Saha, which is a signature Indian restaurant in Singapore, run by an award-winning chef Abhijit Saha. We entered an elegantly decorated restaurant with dimmed yellow lighting and an array of paintings representing India. The hues of dark red, brown and yellow in the décor were earthy and so typically representative of India, yet in a modern way. The ambiance was idyllic and romantic. By the reserved corner table near the window, we tried to absorb the various innovative (geeky) food options on the menu, while I, delicately, sipped at my Sauvignon Blanc. Our extremely courteous waiter explained the menu and served us a welcome drink and an amuse-bouche to tickle our taste buds! We ordered a starter which was a fusion of Indian chole and bhelpuri with Mexican topping of sour cream and avocado salsa! Yes, who would have thought that went together, but it did! My favourite dish was another delicious starter, ‘textures of lamb” which showcased Indian flavours, styles of cooking and was presented with utmost grace! We also ordered a couple of mains from the seafood menu and they were extremely delicious. And of course, we both loved the highlight of our dinner, Gulab-Jamun cheesecake! (Chef’s compliments on our anniversary)

Satya managed to sweep me off my feet, once again! I was blown away by the surprise and we celebrated our 9 years of togetherness with elegance and style. It’s superfluous to say how much I love him and how much our love has grown over these years! Three cheers to our 9 years! The big TEN, here we come!