I'm feeling so proud of myself!

If you are thinking "Look..she is blowing her own trumpet now!", yes I AM! :)

Before you start shaking your heads and reach for the close button wait! First listen to me! I know after you are done reading, you will pat my back too! That's something I can guarantee 100%. Ab stamp paper par likh kar doon kya? :)

So the thing is I've been teaching my maid, who does our utensils, to read and write in English as well as do basic numbers work. Its been about 2 months now. Probably a little more than that. I manage to teach her about 3 times a week on an average. And now I can proudly say that she can easily read and pronounce correctly the 3 letter words! Yippee!!!

She can also read numbers in hundreds! Yippee!!

I think she has done a great job in learning and grasping things. Especially looking at my teaching methods. It was a first time for me too when it comes to teaching. I had to do a refresher in the phonetics myself when teaching her. And but of course we had Anirudh who would always give his 2 cents whenever she would pronounce a letter wrong or write it wrong :)

So how did I start about teaching her? She herself came forward one evening and asked me "Didi, aap mujhe English likhna aur padhna sikhayoge? Mera bhi seekhne ka mann hai." I said "Haan bilkul. Par mann laga kar karna padega. Yeh nahi ki 6 din mein bore ho kar chhod diya." She nodded her head with so much conviction, that I agreed. I agreed despite the fact that I reach home only around 6:45 - 7 pm.

A little bit about her. Her name is Arti. She is actually the daughter of my maid. She is the eldest amongst her sisters. They are 4 sisters. She studied only for a year. Her parents took her out of school when their financial condition was bad. My maid's husband was jobless. He is a very decent guy. Doesn't smoke or drink and neither is of the types who beat their wife and children. He tried to get jobs here and there but to no avail. Finally he got a job as a rickshaw puller. But he would sometimes not even make 200-250 in a month coz he would drive the rickshaw on rent and would have to give major chunk of the earnings as rent. So she asked us if we can give him the work of cleaning our car. We agreed and gave both our cars to him. That way at least his fixed income would be 300 per month besides the money he would make from the odd jobs. Slowly he got more such car cleaning jobs and now just by cleaning cars he makes more than 2000 a month. So as a family they manage to make about 5000 per month. And over the time instead of my maid, her girl, this girl 'Arti' that I'm talking about, took over the job at my place. Its been almost a year since she has been coming to our house. I've always been fond of her and she knows it. Probably that is why she could get herself to request me for teaching her. She probably knew I won't say no.

Before starting to teach her I asked her why she wants to learn reading and writing. She replied, "Meri chhoti bahno ko bhi aata hai. Mujhe bhi seekhna hai." She went on to tell me that her sisters go to school but she cannot as she has to help out her mother in earning. I felt a bit sad but then this is reality. I decided that I will even sponsor stationery for her. So slowly and slowly we started from alphabet, to numbers to pronunciations and now to 3 letter words. And how she has progressed in these 2.5 - 3 months, I'm really happy about it.

It actually gives me dual happiness. One, she is on the path of being a literate. Second, I feel a little satisfied that I've been able to help in making someone literate. I do not feel wasted doing just our own things. I know we still have a long way to go but being able to read and write 3 letter words as well as the numbers is a milestone in itself.

Now I've to think of something to award her for her efforts. Probably I will ask her only what she wants :)

You know its time to...

...to loose those extra kilos when your child starts using your bums as punching bags to practice boxing.

And you don't feel any pain even when those punches can knock out anyone if they land on any other part of the body!

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Let's do a math puzzle!

If you are driving a car and it takes you 2 hours to travel the distance of 6 kms, what was your speed in mm\min?

Although I don't care a damn what the answer is coz my patience was definitely at the point of bursting yesterday. Why? Because the puzzle above is not a hypothetical one but what I experienced while driving back from work to home. Yes! It took me goddamn 2 hours to cover the measly 6 kms to home from work!

And while I was trying to calm myself down stuck in the jams, I was coming up with some innovative ideas. Wanna hear them? No? Please...just listen to at least one? Ok? Ok :)

I think they should have the option of providing pedals in the cars when you are moving at not more than an inch a minute. It will benefit us in 2 ways. One, it will help us save some fuel. And second, we will manage some excercise which we do not do as such in our super busy routines. Kyun? Kaisa laga mera idea? Achha hai na? :)

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~
Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Its been raining awards!

Literally! After receiving the "Briallante" award from in 2 lots from 5 different people I was flying high when another 3 dropped in my bag (or blog?) from 3 more bloggers - PG, Monika & Monika,Ansh. Thank you all of you!

But I must say this to all..."Itna bhi mat chadhayo ki main neeche hi nahi aa payoon!" :D

And while I had not gathered myself up from beaneath the heap of this "Briallante" award that another one came from 2B's Mommy - The "Blogging Friends Forever" award! To quote her "~nm: A wonderful blogging friend who is always encouraging and supportive. I love visiting her blog too, specially for that element of surprise - you never know what her next post is going to be about. Just love her creativity and her sweet posts inspired from everyday life."


Thanks 2BsMommy - You are such a wonderful person yourself that I'm so glad I came to know you, whatever little may it be.

Frankly all these awards have left me pondering about self and my posts. Are they really looked forward by others? Do they really interest and impact others so much that I've been constantly receiving these awards? Not that I don't like being appreciated but I've always been the kind who feels only deserving should get such awards and appreciations! Never thought that a sundry blogger like me would get it too! And that too from so many people!

And now its my turn to pass on this award to 3 other bloggers. It was really difficult to choose just 3. Here are them:

1. Swati

2. How do we know

3. Lost on the street

Be my friends. Forever!

Edited to add:
Got this award from K3 Rocks once again!Thanks girl!

Breaking news?

Just saw it on Aaj Tak news channel under "Breaking News" - "Aatankwadi ko le kar 10 janpath mein huyee baithak" (आतंकवादीयों को ले कर 10 जनपथ में हुयी बैठक)

At first I shook my head thinking what level have the news channels have stooped down to. But then I smiled and thought that this sure is breaking news. Why? Because our politicians actually made effort and sat down to discuss something of importance :D

Again

It was not even a month ago when I wrote about the impact the bomb blasts that rocked Bangalore and Ahmadabad had on my son, and here they again happened in New Delhi, the national capital of the country.

We were on our way to Lajpat Nagar market which is quite crowded on weekends when my in-laws frantically called us to ask us about our whereabouts, informed us about the blasts happening all over Delhi that they had seen on TV and told us to not go anywhere when we told them we were going to the market.

We took a U-turn from the next junction to go back home. Hubby was mighty tensed but somehow I felt totally indifferent towards it. I really don't know why. Probably these incidents happening so frequently has made me so? But is this OK? Should any of us get indifferent towards it? I frankly don't have the answer.

Soon Anirudh realised that we were on our way back home and angrily asked "Yeh aap kahan ja rahe ho?". I just told him that there is big traffic jam and some problem in the market so we can't go because obviously I didn't want him to know about bomb blasts. He doesn't know what are bomb blasts and I don't even want him to know about it yet. I have no words to describe how mighty upset he was and I just didn't know what to tell him to calm him down.

Sunday newspapers were again filled with gory pictures. TOI, on the front page, had this picture of a small boy about 5-6 year old (not injured thankfully), sitting on a stretcher along with his injured father, who had major injuries on his leg, being taken to the the hospital by the paramedics. Anirudh saw that and asked me "Kya hua inko?" and I simply replied "Unko chot lag gayee isliye hospital le ja rahein hain". He prodded me further "Unko chot kaise lag gayee?" Again I didn't know what to answer and I distracted him with something.

Lot of posts have already been written on these blasts and I've nothing new to add. But every time Betu asks me such questions that I fumble and feel so helpless.

I can only pray "Inko sadbuddhi do bhagwan!"

Clouds

This post is to submit my photograph for the monthly photography contest on Point & Shoot. Have This month's theme is "Clouds". And the picture I would like to submit is -

Title: There are rays of hope even beneath the 'clouds' of gray!

Public etiquettes

What do you do when you see someone throwing trash out of their car windows on the roads?

There are times when I do nothing and there are times when I tell them upfront.

Yesterday while I was waiting at a traffic signal, the lady in the car next to me threw the wrapper for biscuits on the road. I waited for her to look in my direction and when she did I pointed at the trash she had thrown and then shook my head showing my disagreement with her action. She looked at me and then I could see a sense of embarrassment on her face. I felt my part was done in making her aware that she did something wrong. And then I looked away. Didn't want to lose on the impact you see :)

But while I drove on I was wondering if she would remember this and not do such things again or would she pass it off as just any incident. I wonder...

"Brilliante" once again!

While I was still reeling in euphoria on receiving the 'Brilliante" award from 3 people, pop came in 2 more people bestowing me the same award - again! God, What good did I do in my previous birth to receive such honors?

And I just observed this thing - that all of you who gave me this 'Brilliante' award, all of you mentioned my cooking and the recipes. So is that a sign that I'm a well known for the foodies that I'm or do I take it as that there are other food lovers like me too! :D

roopscoop said "~nm: madly admire her for her creativity and the freshness she brings to everything that she writes. someone who i’d like to live next door to so I can go over and eat everything she cooks *evil laugh*."

>> Trust me roop, I don't cook so often and rarely such niceties that I display on my blog to hog for raves from you all :D I know I can cook a decent meal. And you are more than welcome to eat at my place as long as you only mouth good things about them :D

And pujathakur added "~nm: For her simple and creative posts and of course, the yummy recipes"

Thanks once again everyone! For not only those who gave me this award but to those as well who thought that I was truly worthy of this award. You people just rock! After all who doesn't like to hear good things about self from others :D

And before I go on the 10th cloud again feeling good about self, let me complete this 'Brilliante' award tradition and pass it on to 7 more bloggers.

"The Brilliant Weblog Award- a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is topromote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere. Here are the rules to follow:

1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, togetherwith the name of who has given it to you, and link back to them.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing them that they have been awarded with the ‘Brilliant Weblog’ award.
3. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional) to.

And the award goes to:

1. For a wonderful Hindi blog : Mathura Kalauny - I just love the blog. His sense of humour, his poems. Just everything about his writings.
   
   
2. For socially helpful efforts: The entire team of Unchaahi - For such consistent efforts on the eradication and awareness about female foeticide.
   
   
3. For humour: Tys on Ice - I just love not only his sense of humour but how he entwines that humour in words with such perfection!
   
   
4. For food: Meeta - For such wonderful food pictures more than the recipes. Its impossible to not drool once you are at her blog.
   
   
5. For cakes: Swati's Sugarcraft & Anamika of Sugarcraft - They both amaze me with the cakes they make. Trust me I will never be able to cut a cake made by them. I would love to preserve them - INTACT!
   
   
6. For creative stuff: Opal Scraps - She makes such wonderful designs.
   

The list can go on and on but for a change I shall stick to the rules, which I usually love to break *wink*.

I would love to have such shoes thrown at me :)

And I doubt who wouldn't? :D

swedish illustrator/ designer olle hemmendorff was commissioned, together with 7 other creatives (patrik söderstam, hanna wieslander, marguerite seger, jonas wiehager and fredrik skogkvistby) by nike to interpret a nike sportswear icon. hemmendorff created a burger sculpture of nike's 'air max 90'.

'in the tradition of material innovation of AM 90, I constructed a running shoe using the most powerful, must durable and most delicious material known to man: hamburger.' OH

Read about it here.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I finished reading the book "A Thousand Splendid Sun" by Khaled Hosseini this weekend.

I had heard such rave reviews about the book but somehow I never expected such intensity which I felt when reading the book. It was so engrossing, so captivating that putting it down for sleeping at night was so difficult.

And once I finished the book, hubby asked me how was it. And I didn't know whether to call it awesome or to say that I felt so sad inside after reading it.

And I thought how can someone be so inhuman towards the women. I know this is not something new that I was reading or hearing about but the way the author had described scenes and situations, I could feel my blood boiling at those moments. As if I was there and seeing all this happen in front of my eyes.

This was the first book I read by the author. And am definitely going to read his other one, "The Kite Runner", as well.

This is 'Brilliante'

What can be more 'Brilliante' than being awarded the "Brilliante Weblog Award" by 3 people! First by Inexplicably, then by Mama-Mia and again by Neera!
They all have said such good things about my blog and about me too that I'm totally overwhelmed!

Inexplicably gave me the award saying "Firstly for being 'there' always. Also for the simple honesty of her sweet blog."

Mama-Mia said "whose creativity keeps giving me serious complex ALL the time! She even made my blog header!"

And Neera went on to shower a basket full of compliments on me "She writes on such a variety of topics and the simplicity in her posts is refreshing. A darling of a son she is raising as well, not to mention the culinary experiments she conducts with appetizing results and pictures."

Thanks so much girls! You are the bestest!!

I'm still trying to absorb all the good things they have said about me and then I shall pass on this award to 7 other bloggers as the rule book says!