Langkawi July 2016 and 10th wedding anniversary

Meritus Pelangi resort is a five star beach resort and spa in the Pantai Cenang area of Langkawi. This is a popular tourist destination in Malaysia. Although it’s a small island, when we landed there we were amazed to see how clean and well maintained it was. At the resort, the first day we rested while it rained. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits, instead, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book in our little patio on our private beach facing room while yoyo played in the sand and Satya enjoyed reading, watching TV and trying his hand at the dart board! We walked by the beach in the evening when it cleared up a bit and planned our activities for the next two days. 


The next day when we took a full day trip to see the island and also went up to the cable car and sky bridge (the one made famous by the Hindi movie, Don), we were lucky that it was hot and sunny. Due to that we could get a clear view of the adjoining mountains and the valley down below from the sky bridge and cable car and the surrounding sea. The day after that, we tried the jet ski bike and that was one crazy experience! I may give it a try once again if we get the chance!

10^th wedding anniversary!

The real reason why we had booked this trip was to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary in a unique and memorable way and spend some quality time together as a family. Our marriage is a hard earned fruit and we treasure and guard with all our care. Of course at times we are reckless and we take each other for granted, we quarrel for the stupidest reasons (and some important reasons), but we try our best not to drop the ball and we are there for each other.  Satya is an amazing partner and I am lucky to have him in my life, by my side, sharing the good and the bad, forever! We have known each other for 18 years and have been married for 10 of those years. By the sheer number of years we have spent together, one would imagine we know each other well. But on the contrary, I think that the two of us, who got married that day in July 2006 were two very different people, different personalities than who we are today. We have changed and evolved. Our love for each other too has changed and so have our dreams and ambitions and expectations from life and from each other. But I can proudly say that we love and respect each other even more than we did before.

We are not a perfect couple (and don’t want to be) but we hope to keep going on this journey and live up to the promises we made to each other so many years ago as teenagers. We celebrated this 10^th anniversary with our Yoyo by our side at a peaceful and lovely dinner by the sea. We had an amazing time together; we relaxed and soaked ourselves in the joyful bliss of the celebration of our love and recalled events of the years that have gone by. With tears in our eyes we called our dearest friends and family and thanked them with all our hearts for their unconditional love and support thru all these years! We could not have made it this far without each one of them.


Family of course, but we give special thanks to our friends – Tracy, Mohit, Mihir, Devdatta, Anila and Najma for never leaving our side. To Cynthia aunty, Timothy Uncle and whole Crasto and Monterio families and Anagha tai - Deepak, Shreyas-Nivedita, Natasha-KK and Aditi-Nachiket for being our family in Dubai and helping us thru tough times and sharing our joys. 

We love you tons because you stood by us and our love! 

Teddy bear on a date

My boy has turned 7 this year and time is flying. Luckily, the questions of birds and bees have not been asked yet but I can see that time is not too far away now.

Yoyo is a really innovative boy but also with a funny bone. He loves to make things, and try out new ways of using the same toys. One late afternoon, at our apartment condo in Bukit Batok, Yoyo walked up to Satya and asked him to help him find his tie. Intrigued, Satya asked him why he wanted it and was tickled to hear that he was getting ready for his teddy's date!

And so the make over began. They decked up the teddy with a tie, yoyo's shark shorts from when he was 3 years old, mickeymouse sunglasses and batman perfume!

At 5 pm sharp, he said he had to go down for the date and left home. My hubby called me immediately to share the whole episode. I was smiling ear to ear and amazed with his creativity...I had heard of Doll's marriages and Barbie parties but a teddy bear on a date, that's new!

Such events not only remind me how fast time is flying by but also warn me how the day, when my little puppy will walk out that door on a real date, is imminent!

7th Birthday bash!

4 June 2016

This was a special day as it was the 7^th birthday of my dear little Yohaan. This party was a special one, not any typical birthday parties with a magician or face painters. Yohaan’s 7^th birthday party was just unique, where the children got a taste of the simple fun games of yesteryears.

We booked the multi-purpose ground in out condo in Bukit Batok and about 15-20 of yoyo’s friends were invited. We decided to play the games from Satya and my childhood days. Today kids are more advanced, they have the latest gagets and fancy toys and we were delighted to see that they loved the funfilled active games of yesteryears! 

We played dog and the bone, chain cook, vish-amrud and some other games that the kids suggested too. Amma was there and she had got the zebra sweets for all of them. That’s also such a sweet memory from our childhood days. Zebra sweets are pepper-minty so some of the children found them spicy but gobbled them down all the same! 

We went back home after the games, to cool down in the air conditioning after all the running around, had some cold juice and the kids danced on tunes like Gangnam style (J adorable). We had pizza, by popular demand, and chips and cake (Angry Birds theme). Yoyo wanted to wear a formal shirt and tie with a jacket for his birthday and he looked so smart and cute. We even found a full sleeve shirt with an angry bird logo for him! Inaya was with Yoyo,  enjoying herself and trying to boss the kids into playing her games as usual. Seher tried to join in later and played with balloons. Later all the children and the three cousins kindly posed (i.e stood still for micro seconds) for a few pictures.

The party ended by 7:30 pm and all the kids at home were so tired, they went straight to bed! Then Salman, Shaheen, Satya and I went for a nice, peaceful dinner to Muthu’s curry in Little India and drove back home.


A special day celebrated in a special way.

Oblivious

Oil prices have reached an all-time low,

Donald trump’s votes are beginning to grow,

Panama papers have made a huge row,

Damn! Where did my other sock go?!

Zika virus is on a killing spree,

Hunger crisis in central Africa is on the increase,

Ozzie coastal water temperatures rise by several degrees,

N.Korea’s nuclear test distributed radiation for free,

I’m running late for my meeting, I better hurry!

Jihadists and ISIS are making the world flare,

Beef ban in India turned into a big affair,
Whole planes go missing while we stare,

Girls have still no right to education, how’s that even fair!

Gee, last day to buy tickets to the funfair!

Syrian refugees denied entry at ports,

Gang rapists don’t even reach the courts,

Greece's credit crunch is no child’s play to sort,

Oh dear! I’m down to my last bottle of port!

Yoga and me

The mental and physical benefits of Yoga are known to most of us and one can certainly find tons of written material on this topic, in magazines, newspapers and online. However, on my personal blog, yoga deserves a special mention. So here it is...

Going back to 2014 (over a year and a half after we had moved from Dubai in 2012), I was still suffering with a lot of the stress-related back-ache that a hectic job, a sedentary life and miles and miles of driving per day had done to my system while living in Dubai. Also trying to settle down in Singapore while continuing at a desk job and a seat on an hour-long journey on the bus each day, had not helped to improve my situation much.

It was then that my company, Mott MacDonald Singapore (which also deserves a special thanks) initiated a health program for all staff. The program which aimed at bringing awareness back to our health, nutrition and mental wellness included a lot of team building sessions with active entertaining games (like dragon boating, lazer tag, bubble football to name a few) which are both fun and get us to move about, a lot! We also had (and still have) weekly sports bookings for all staff for badminton, football, basketball courts and for those less sporty ones, the committee managing these tasks came up with a plan to host weekly yoga session at a nearby fitness center.

The sessions were conducted by different trainers of this center and each had a unique style of teaching us to connect with our body and mind. The sessions helped me tremendously to get my body out of the state of neglect that I had left it in, for a long time. Earlier, on constant urging from my parents, every few months I would do the occasional sets of 'Surya Namaskars'(sun salutations), only to abandon that routine in a few days and go back to being my lazy, exhausted self on the couch. I believed that my earlier years of exercise, running, and cycling had kept me relatively fit, but when I started attending yoga classes I realized how grossly unfit I really was!

At the beginning of 2014, I had numbness in my left shoulder with a tingling sensation and also had an excruciating pain in my tailbone which I felt was a borderline case of Sciatica in the making (at least the pain felt that strong!). Thinking back, how glad I am that I did not resort to doctors, tests and physiotherapy before trying yoga! Because within 3-4 months of starting yoga, I felt a drastic improvement in my body movement, felt an alleviated level of pain and experienced an overall improved level of fitness.

Besides, the peace, serenity and feeling of contentedness one experiences after a session of yoga (any kind) cannot be expressed in words and must be tried. Although one can argue that one can experience the same serenity after a long run or any other work out too. And I wont contest it, as my parents who have been life-long athletes, surely have experienced a kind of bliss that people associate with prayers or the pursuit of religion and in their sport I believe that they have indeed found god!

After each yoga sessions I felt stronger, more energetic, more relaxed and more confident.  2014 was one of my best years at work and I was happier at home too. My hubby and I even completed a 10k Standard Chartered race in Dec 2014, which was something I never imagined was possible for us to even attempt.

In 2015, my company continued yoga classes and as a bonus they added Pilates sessions too, introducing me to yet another amazing training technique that aims at strengthening our core. The core is the powerhouse of our body which houses all our vital organs. I also did some reading on nutritional do's and don't's and made basic diet changes for a wholesome wellness of my family. To add to all these changes, my division also participated in GCC which stands for 'Global corporate challenge' where a team of 7 staff members have to wear pedometers everyday and complete a minimum of 10,000 steps per day as they progress on a virtual tour across different destinations of the world with the steps the take. The competition between different teams and units and personal goals kept us on our toes for 4 months and such were the benefits of using the pedometer that many of us still wear our pedometers long after the challenge is completed.

This year in 2016, Mott MacDonald introduced us to Zumba which brought exercise to us in the form of fun and dance. We focus on body and mind coordination and learn some cool steps to groove on the dance floor! For yoga, I've signed up for lessons with a personal trainer closer to home and I'm loving it!

My resolution for 2016 , in fact, not just for 2016 but my whole life from now on, is to stay fit. And with the variety of methods available out there, I know I'm going to have a lot of fun while keeping to my word! I don't have a shape or number in mind as that would make my pursuit limited to achieving just that. I aim for persistence and regularity which I know will take me where I want to go.

A special thanks my mom, dad and both siblings who always showed me how one's whole life can be dedicated to our physical health and well-being. I will try to live by their example. And finally, thank you YOGA and all the yoga-gurus in my life for giving my mind, body and soul a complete makeover! I'm rocking this new look! ;)

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!

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!