Orange peel

The season of oranges is here and it brings back many memories revolving around oranges as kids.

Remember how we used to squeeze the orange peel in the eyes of our friends taking them by surprise and making them squint because of the prickling sensation?

Remember how we used to make threads from the juice of the orange peels by rotating it around the plastic rulers? It would leave the scale all melted/shrivelled and basically useless. God!!! How many rulers we ruined in this process!! :D

And it also reminds me of an incident from school. I must have been in 7th or 8th standard. And I was eating an orange while waiting for our English teacher to come. The teacher came and I shoved the orange inside my desk. We were then asked to read a story from the book quietly. And I in total absent mindedness started eating the orange again while reading the story totally forgetting that the teacher was in the class.

And as well all know we can smell anyone eating an orange from 20 yards. So obviously teacher smelled the fragrance of orange and started looking for the culprit. And then she saw me chewing and asked me to stand up. It was only then that I realized what I had done. I quickly swallowed the orange inside my mouth seeds et al. When asked about it, I tried to lie that I wasn't eating. I was so damn scared I still remember.

The teacher than asked another student to check my desk and of course that student confirmed seeing an orange there. Thankfully since I was in the good books of the teacher as I was one of the few students who were good in the subject, I got away with just a good shout from her. And boy did I feel glad about it then?

May 12, Thursday

You remember my earlier post about the importance of this date and how it is still etched in my mind?

I just realised that this year we have the May 12 falling on a Thursday. (I do not know how many other May 12 have fallen on a Thursday since 1983 till date. Do you?). And when I realised this I had a big smile on my face. I was taken back to this day in the year 1983. And the rest you have already read about :)

This whole date and day together are etched on my mind so hard and am sure even if I, god forbid, have Alzheimer's in my old age, I will never forget this :)

Moms

Earlier whenever someone would say that Moms have 4 eyes and 4 ears I wouldn't really understand the true meaning. But yes, I would be taken by surprise many a times when Ma would know what we have been up to without being there. I also sprouted extra pair of eyes and ears when I became a Mom myself and then I truly understood the meaning of the above saying.

This post by Noodlehead reminded me of such an incident that happened way back in 1992 or 1993 when we were staying in Kolkata (known as Calcutta in those days). It was a Sunday. Ma had gone to her bedroom to take her afternoon nap after we all were done with lunch.

Suddenly it struck me and my sister to give a surprise to Mom by doing all the dishes since the maid was on leave that day. So we quietly closed the kitchen door. And were doing the dishes with utter carefulness lest we make any noise. We were talking in the lowest possible whispering sounds. We were almost done with them and had started to really feel proud when we heard Ma's voice behind us "Tum dono kya kar rahe ho?" taking us by surprise. We froze at our places for few seconds and then started to laugh. Ma being Ma, gave us a good lecture as to we needn't be doing all this and that she can manage but we knew she was happy inside. We could just feel it. At the same time we were wondering how did she know we were up to something? And we asked her so. She simply said when there is pin drop silence in the house, it means there's something fishy and then she also joined us in the laughter :D

We had tried to help her one more time, when the washing machine conked off and Appa-Ma had gone out of the house, by washing the clothes. Instead we ended up splashing and playing with water more than we did the laundry :D They returned at the most inappropriate moment with the water flowing out of the washroom and me and my sister totally drenched from head to toe. We got a really good dose that time! Now I can say it was well deserved. :D

Now that I'm a Mom myself I know I would have reacted in exactly the same ways in both the incidents as Ma did. And it makes me wonder. Is this a "mom' thing or is it because I'm her daughter?

Jugnu

How many of you have seen a jugnu (firefly) recently? A week? A month? A year? Or was that many years ago?

I am sure most of us would have not seen one in many years. I am one of them too.

I was mesmerised by the program Betu was watching today morning where they showed fireflies flitting and glowing in the night in a jungle. Although it was an animated cartoon but it brought around my last memory of seeing the fireflies in person. It must have been about 12 years ago. And that memory is still etched in my mind. It was in Bhuvaneshwar and time would have been around 7 pm. It was already pitch dark because sun sets early on the east and I was strolling in front of our guest house. And then I saw a thuja(morpankhi) plant twinkling from too to bottom. It seemed as every inch of the plant had been decorated with electric lights. The entire plant was glimmering because of these fireflies. It was such a magical and mesmerising view that the whole moment is crystal clear still in my mind.

Now that I have been reminded of that memory, I so want to see those fireflies again! With Betu. I so want to see that amazed and awed look on his face. I want to see that gleam in his eyes which I had when I saw that plant full of fireflies!


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Memories from the grandparents house...

About 4-5 years ago, one of the "maali" who roam around on cycles selling plants and little saplings, sold me a pot of lily saying bright red lilies with bloom from the plant. Since it was for Rs. 20.00 I didn't think much and bought it. And all these years it just bloomed leaves, leaves and some more leaves. There was no sight of a flower or even a bud but I still liked the lush green leaves of the plant and didn't exchange it with the maali even though I bought many more plants from him over the years. I could have, saying it is not blooming as he had promised, like I did with some other plants but somehow I just didn't want to.

Since this week it has started blooming. Blooming white lilies. The day I saw them I was so ecstatic. As my memory of these lilies is from my Nana-Nani's house. That's where I saw them first and that was the last too. I never saw these lilies again till this week. And I'm so happy that they are blooming right in my house!!

It feels like that something that had gotten lost has come back! Is it a sign? I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking too much into it. Anyhow, that is the picture of it which I just couldn't resist sharing it with you all!

May 12, Thursday

And the year was 1983.

I remembered this date while talking about something with a friend today morning. I'm sure anyone can guess that this date must be so special to me and that's why I still remember it. Yup. It sure was special. There were 2 reasons. One, I was going to be meeting Appa after more than 6 months. Second, it was to be my first airplane ride.

I was not even 8 years old then. So you can understand my glee and the fact that I had started to memorise this date the day I came to know about it. The day, when we were going to fly to go to my Appa! To Iraq. And the date was May 12, Thursday. I would keep repeating this in my head n number of times during the day.

Ma had gotten new shoes for me and I wore them right from the morning after I got ready after my bath. They were nice maroon ballerina kind of shoes. Yes I remember them too! And I also vividly remember that I had loved them so much that after every few steps, I would wipe the soles lest they get ruined. Yeah I was that enthralled with my new shoes!

I don't remember much after from the time we got into the flight. I just remember when the food came and I saw a nice big black grape in the salad bowl. I quickly undid the poly wrap and ate it quickly. It tasted awful! Not at all like a grape. And I thought what kind of a grape that was. Only now I can guess that it might have been a black olive and not a grape. :D

My next memory is after we got down from the flight, I started to scan through the glass walls to spot Appa. And suddenly I saw my younger sister rushing towards one point and then started to jump up and down. And then I saw Appa. But obviously she was so excited that she wanted to go right through those glass walls in Appa's arms! She was just 4.5 years young that time. Almost the age that Anirudh is currently.

And then the next memory is that I was looking so awed at all those men in while cloaks with black & white chequered scarf on their heads held on with a black ring. I was quite amused with their greeting style. it seemed they were exchanging air kisses once on the right, then on the left, again on the right and then on the left. It went on for at least 6-7 times. I really found that funny.

I don't remember much after that until the next afternoon when me, Appa and Ma were lazing in the bedroom. Appa and Ma asked me to go and look for my younger sis as she had been missing for a while and we couldn't hear her. So up I went around looking for her and when I reached the room where the fridge was kept I almost shrieked. I saw her sitting on the bed with one chocolate in her hand, the fridge door was open and bits and pieces of chocolate all over the floor. I still have a crystal clear memory of that scene. I ran to the bedroom to tell Appa & Ma about it. They came and took her away. But I was quite devastated. Since she had almost eaten away or thrown away all the chocolates that Appa had gotten for us.

When I think of these memories now, I just can't help but laugh and smile remembering them.

Creativity in food!

When I made the star shaped parantha for Anriudh, everyone was raving about it. Well, the inspiration behind was 'Ma'. She used to make all these different shaped paranthas and rotis for us when we were kids. I still remember how excited we would be when we would get these shaped paranthas/rotis in our plates at dinner time. And then I think of her and realise how she thought of doing such little little things that used to make us so happy. She had no helping hand at home and she had to feed a bunch of hungry hoards comprising of 8 people! Cooking, cleaning, laundry in those washing machine-less days, teaching us and yet she felt the desire to do something extra for us.

I know I can't match up to her even one bit, but yes I try to do whatever little things she used to do, that made us so happy, with Anirudh too. And this was one little effort towards that.

I've made an 'A' alphabet roti for him once, a sun and a simple round roti with a smiley face on it. And he has loved it each time! And I love to see that twinkle in his eyes when he finds them in his dinner plate...just like us when we used to get them too!

Its so true that we re-live our childhood with our kids!

My engagement story?

Hmm... MNAmma, I really need to dig long way back on the road to get it out! Its just about two months less than 8 years since this major event happened in my life.

Ours was a typical newspaper matrimonial marriage. With us replying to the various ads in the matrimonial columns of HT and TOI and then proceeding further after the screenings of the grooms by first the Bio's, then by phone calls and finally by meeting them in person.

Going by this same process I met DH after such initial screenings and after each of our parents met each of us, we met at a restaurant, Essex Farms in New Delhi, one fine Sunday evening. By the end of the meeting, which lasted about an hour and a half, we both felt pro for this bonding and told our respective parents about our sentiments. I was floored by his smile and he told me later that he had gone head over heels in love with my twinkling happy eyes.

Soon the engagement date were finalised - January 3, 2000. I guess God had plans to make it memorable in some way or the other despite it being a a traditional arranged marriage. :D

The day before the engagement, when all the out of town guests were supposed to arrive, by afternoon a cloud of thick fog started to form. By 7 PM it had become so thick that one couldn't see anything beyond 5 meters and by 9 PM so much so that if you would put your hand 1 feet away from your face you, there was no way you could see it. I still remember so much tension surfaced because of this as lot of people were driving down from Jaipur, Agra, Gwalior and more such nearby places. Hubby's parents were driving down from Jaipur and they took record 9 hours to reach Delhi. The longest time ever taken by anyone I guess :) My BIL can surely give a more detailed and amusing account of how he drive all the way to Delhi and what an experience it was for him. :D

But luckily by the morning next day, the fog cleared up 97% as if miraculously. A miracle that we all hoped for :)

So that's that about my engagement story!

And now I pass on the tag to Bhuwan, Stone and Guruprasad to tell us about their engagement stories!

Sticky notes..20 years ago..

Tharini's mention of putting sticky notes in tiffin of her son in a post that I read today morning reminded me of something that I used to do as kid. I was probably about 11-12 year then. Which dates this memory to the year 1986-1987...almost 20 years ago.

Anyhow not to deviate from the memory I'm talking about, I used to put such notes in my Dad's lunch box. But the idea behind putting notes by Tharini and those of mine were totally different. I used to put notes in Appa's (my papa) lunch box to remind him to bring our comics/magazines such as 'Nandan' or 'Chandamama' or 'Tinkle' or 'Archies' or 'Tintin' or 'Phantom' or 'Mandrake' etc. He used to get us one comic every week. And the day he would bring them, would be a day of rejoicing for us as well as for fights. Fights because me and my younger sister would fight as to who will get to read it first. :D

I clearly remember why I first started this putting-a-note-in-lunch box. It had happened so that Appa forgot to bring the comic in a particular week for 2 consecutive days. And when I would prod him as to why he didn't get he would say he forgot. And I would be so glum and sad the entire evening as I had been waiting for it with such anticipation.

So one fine day this idea of putting a note on his lunch box struck me and it worked like magic! And I remember when Appa came back home that evening and handed over the comic to me he had a big grin on his face as he was quite amused of the way I thought of reminding him to bring it.

This became a ritual soon but then the usage was diversified from just using it as a reminder for bringing comics.

So when I read Tharini's mention of putting notes in tiffin I had this big big smile on my face and it made me walk down the memory lane when I was a kid myself. Don't we all feel so happy reminscing about such simple yet sweet memories from the past? :D

Independence Day Celebrations!

Today we had Independence Day celebrations at work with everyone coming dressed in either or all of the tri-colors from the flag! Most of the guys came in Kurtas to keep with the traditional theme. There were just about 3 women folk in sarees. One had even adorned the churis (bangles) in the tricolor combination. The rest of the females came in suits.

The whole atmosphere had a happy feeling to it. Everyone was smiling and enjoying looking at others dressed as per the theme. So it felt nice to have such things taking place in the day to day monotonous office life.

Somehow when, the office boy came around offering mithai in tri-color I was reminded of our school days when we would so anxiously await for the box of laddoos that was distributed in the school during the assembly. There would be always 4 laddoos in that box and how I used to just eat little bit save them to take home. To me it seemed no less than a prize received. So it was guarded like a prized possession to ensure no other classmate steal away any bits of it.

And I wondered if Anirudh would also get a box of laddoos in his school where they are celebrating Independence Day too? He went dressed in white crisp new Kurta Pyajama which I bought for him this Sunday. I was wanting to buy a orange or a bandhani one with orange, green combo but couldn't find any so had to go with the plain white one. I did try to wrap around my yellow dupatta but he just didn't want it so I let him be just like that.

As I'm writing this I am excited thinking about how he would have celebrated the day at school, what all would he have done...which of course I will get to know partially when I go to pick him up in the evening. Partially because he just talks about the things which enthused him..but naturally..right? :D

My Great Grandmothers (contd...)

Ammaji - My Maternal Grandmother
In my last post I talked about my paternal great grand mother. I've spent similar great times with my maternal great grandmother - 'parnani' as we call them in Hindi.

My first memories of Ammaji are from the year 1985. I must have met her before but somehow there are no memories of periods prior to 1985. I was almost 10 years then. She was of a nice cuddly plumpish built with silky White hair but with a few strands of gray in between. It was much later when her hair turned pure silky white. She must have been in late 70s or early 80s then.

She had such faith in children and in the words they would say. She used to say "Bachhe jo bolte hain, woh zaroor hota hai!" I remember whenever she would get cold or fever or anything related to her health, she would ask us "main jaldi theek ho jayungee na?" And we like good children would say "Yes!" and she would be very happy to hear that! She used to say that "Bhagwan bachhon ki baat sunte hain!" I guess at the age we were in, we used to feel more proud of the fact that our opinion was sought after! :D

Summer vacations were great fun for all of us cousins. We would spend few days at Nani-Nana's house and Ammaji used to stay with them itself. So in those summer vacations, after lunch time was eagerly awaited by all of us because that would mean "Hajmola time"! After all of us and Ammaji would have eaten lunch, we would all gather around her and her famous wooden almirah from which she would take out that hajmola bottle and give to us one by one. Sometimes we used to try and take advantage by trying to take twice but then she would remember even in the crowd of 10 of us cousins who has taken and who hasn't. So we could never get her to give Hajmola twice to any of us. :D

Ammaji had one of those watches which you wave in the air to charge the battery. We all would be so amused with it and whenever she needed to charge it we would ask her to let us do that, as for us it was kind of a game. Again it would be turn by turn for all the cousins who were present that time in the house. Twice in a day that watch needed to be charged and we all had turns chalked out for each of us :D

Playing cards with her was so much fun too as sometimes we were able to cheat without her getting to know it. And when she would get to know that we were cheating she would get angry just like us kids. And we would cuddle with her, apologise and and get her to play with us again :D I can still hear those words resonate in my mind when she would say "Tum cheating karte ho!" Our favourite card games with her were "Rummy" and "Coat Piece".

Combing her silky hair was always something that I loved and probably something she must be enjoying too. I still feel her hair were much softer than even silk! So nice, shiny and soft. And who can forget her Nycil powder. In summers, everyday at least once, sometimes twice, she would ask one of us to put that famous Nycil powder on her back.

There was a word that I learnt from her - "Husht!" (pronounce it as Hoo - sht). It surely sound funny when I write it but it used to amuse us quite a lot then. Whenever we would tease her or play with her and she would want us to go away she would say "Husht!" :D I liked it so much that I started to use it too.

She used to tell us about the stories from Rangoon which was part of India when they used to stay there. And how they had a flourishing gold shop but it all was ruined and ransacked and looted during the world war when they were travelling to Delhi. Whenever she would talk about those days, one could see how hurt she used to feel from inside thinking about the loss.

Every evening around 5:30 or 6:00 PM, she would go with any of us who was available at that time to take a round of the parks. The will to be active was quite strong even at the age she was. We at young ages sit with scooped up backs and she would always sit without support and with the back straight.

Whenever we would say "Ammaji, bore ho rahein hain!" She would say "Seedi par chado aur neeche koodo!" (Climb up the stairs and jump down) and we would tell her that you are making fun of us and she would say that she's simply giving us an idea to keep us busy :D

This was my "Ammaji" - our Ammaji whom we all will always cherish!

My Great Grandmothers!

I feel I'm one of those lucky ones who have not only seen their great grandmothers, paternal and maternal both, but also spent good amount of time with them. So its not just one of those picture memories for me but those REAL precious and fond memories.

Maiyyo - My Paternal Grandmother
She was my father's grandmother. We used to call her "Maiyyo". In fact, everyone used to call her with that name only. She was real fun to be with. With all the folk lore's that she used to sing and the way she used to be amused with certain things, it still brings a big smile on my face when I think of her. My earliest memories of her are when I was around 10-11 yrs. She was in mid 80s then I guess. With all the wrinkled skin hanging from anywhere and everywhere which we used to love touching and making it jiggle. And she used to give that beautiful toothless smile looking at us having fun of all the things with her wrinkled skin. When I think of it now, her smile seems no less than a small babies smile...the same toothless, innocent and beautiful smile.

1983 : In this picture, Maiyyo is laughing as someone had picked her up!

1983 : Maiyyo doing a prayer!

In summers, she used to love sitting in front of the coolers (ACs were a rarity those days). With the strong air blowing from the cooler would whisk away the pallu off her head which she would keep pulling it back on. Her silky white hair flying around while she would sit right in front of the cooler - real close, with her eyes closed and such calmness, serenity and satisfaction on her face. I still smile when I remember her words "Hooler (Cooler) chal lo hai?" in her brij lingo which in English meant "Cooler is running?". Whenever she would be thirsty, she would say "Moye ek katori thando paani de de!" (Give me one bowl of cold water).

I do not remember how and why but she used to call my father, her grandson as "Judge" whereas my father is a Civil Engineer by profession. So in the evenings she would enquire "Judge aa gayo?" (Judge is back from work?). Also, Appa(as I fondly call my father and we are not south Indians) was quite thin by physique and Maiyyo would take out her pointer finger and wave it saying "Kausala to.." trying to convey he's so skinny. And Appa would tell her "Sher ki bhi haddiyan dikhti hain" (you can see the bones of lions too!) and Maiyyo would have a little laugh and hug Appa.

How I wish I could have remembered the songs she used to sing. Some of the used to be about fights between Saas-Bahu (Mother in law and daughter in law). I still remember the naughty smiles on her face when she used to sing such saas bahu songs. And she used to simply enjoy singing them to us!

Maiyyo and her little aluminium baksa (box) with her minimal set of clothes which comprised mainly of white Saree's and petticoats. During the recent white washing at home, I came across the special Re 1 coin that she had given me once. This is how I earned that special coin -

Maiyyo had just come out of her bath and I saw her trying to wear her Saree but was fumbling with it. So I went and put it on her. Once I finished, she gave me a peck on my forehead and asked me to sit with her. She then opened her baksa and took out one small box. She opened it out came a smaller box. From the smaller box, out came a small cloth satchel, from there she took out a small handkerchief tied into a knot. After she opened the knot, I saw it had few coins and a few Rs 2 notes. So she took out one Re 1 coin and out it in my palm and closed my hands and gave me a big smile.

I was not more than 12 years or so then but still I remember how thrilled I was to get that prize! I could have easily spent that in buying some toffee or chocolate but I didn't. I kept it safely. So when recently I saw that coin again (I had put a note with it long back as a record of the memory) all the memories kept flowing in. Here is the picture of that coin and the note that I've kept with it. (I've blurred my signature on the note though)