Nine months route to Rapture

After a self imposed hiatus for the past few months, am back to the blog world. And it’s exactly in these months that I went through a very new experience and a very special one at that…the divine experience of becoming a mother…

I remember it was a windy Friday evening when my husband and I were waiting anxiously for the test results in the hospital. The laboratory assistant entered the room and very coolly just said “it’s positive”. Those two words rang in my ears loudly as Arjun, my husband, and I hugged with happiness! And that’s how the journey began.

The first few months were very tough, both emotionally and physically. I contracted some infection and grew ill, my husband traveled extensively on a project abroad and I had to decide to resign from my cushy job! Some days were spent cursing Mother Nature for being so difficult on women and yet some more went by thanking god for this gift. I stayed at my parents, when Arjun was traveling and thoroughly exploited their pampering :)!

With the second trimester setting in, the kicking in the womb started getting very prominent and that I consider the highlight of pregnancy. To feel those cute little movements is truly heavenly! This being the easier of three trimesters, Arjun & I decided to go on a vacation. It was one of the best decisions we’d made, because the vacation in Goa turned out to be heaven. We stayed in a beautiful resort, lazed in the beaches, ate sumptuous food and spent lazy afternoons reading up on the ‘What to expect when you are expecting’ book! J

The third trimester proved to be more of a ‘weighty’ period, with me finally gaining some weight and looking positively pregnant. Everywhere I went I was bestowed with the ‘preferential’ treatment with motorists stopping for me to cross the road and fellow shoppers allowing me to go ahead in the billing line :). I was by now growing anxious about child birth and spent time doing relaxing yoga and meditation. The customary special pooja happened (Seemantham- for the tamilians), to pray for safe delivery and the well being of the child. As I got closer to the D-day, I read up extensively on almost everything available about pregnancy, childbirth and new-born care. And thankful I was to have read up well in time, because as it turned out, my little one was on its way out well before a month, turning out to be a premature baby.


I was blessed with a baby girl and she looked beautiful. Soon after she was born, she was plopped on my lap. As I lovingly gazed at her, I saw she was so tiny, her skin was so tender, cute small fingers tightly closed and eyes firmly shut. Hesitantly I slowly tried to pick her up and hold her. Worrying if I was holding her right, I looked around for some assurance from the nurse, but she was busy with something else. And then as I looked down, my daughter slowly opened her eyes. They were sparkling and bright and she looked straight at me….it was as if she was trying to tell me something…it was as if she was telling me, “ Mom, don’t worry, everything is going to be alright, I am with you”. And that's when I realized that my life was never going to be the same again, I was a Mom and it's the most beautiful thing in the world!!!

My brother dearest...

I hated him when he arrived….he was 4 years younger and cried a lot, which made my parents give him lot of attention! Who is this guy who suddenly landed up in my life?!?! Why do my parents fuss over him so much? I mean, it’s not like he can talk, sing or do acrobatic stuff like me, I thought, climbing on to the arm of the sofa. I jumped below and did a gymnast pose like they show on TV, with hands spread wide. My mom did not even notice… hmph!! All he does is eat, cry and sleep! How can they like him for that!

These were the first emotions when my kid brother was born. Little did I know then, that we would grow to become best of friends!

My brother was the good one in the family and I was, well…the other kind. He was quiet, calm and obedient. I, on the other hand, was naughty and talkative, always getting into trouble. But perhaps it was this dissimilarity that also made us get along well. I was the brat, devising ideas for our mischievous things and he was the perfect cover! Mom – “What are u both up to, out in the noon?” Me- “ Nothing amma, bro wants to play hide & seek” and that would be the close of matter, while we were probably throwing stones at the dog in our neighbor's house, or chucking paper rockets at someone on the road and ducking to hide in our balcony, giggling.

As days went by, we both grew out on things to do together. He’d always play cricket and football with his friends on the street and I would curl up in the bed with a book. We got into our own world, with different friends, studies and interests. It felt like we belonged to different generation altogether. I slowly stopped relating to him and Gosh, we fought a lot at that time! I went to hostel for sometime in college and that kind of broke off even the little connection that we shared.

Few years went by; I moved back into the house and my relationship with bro stirred up again. This time we were both in college; I was doing Post grad and him graduation. Slowly we discovered that we still had our same old bond. He spoke the same language (not literally of course) as me now, hung out with friends like me and watched same type of movies too. We had very common likes and dislikes too; he loved Linkin Park and hated sweetened curd, for one :). We both hit it off again, we shared our love for music, he got me totally interested in the world of cars and automobiles, and we both loved watching action movies like the Die hards and the Broken Arrows! We went for long drives and we talked a lot about our friends, family, studies and other stuff about us. It was one cool relationship yet again.

Then I got married. I knew one person I would miss the most would be my bro! Thankfully I wasn’t moving abroad and stayed close by to be in regular touch. But still, I really missed just chatting with him over a cup of mom’s coffee (yes, coffee again:)), going for drives and fighting friendly fights with him. However, we got ourselves into a very good habit of being in constant touch through phone. We both knew, at all points of time, what exactly was going on in each others life. As days went by, our relationship went from cool and friendly to something more meaningful. It is beautiful now. We don’t discuss philosophies or converse about life, but yet there exists the deep connect. We get each other. Now that he’s abroad, he calls me once every week and though we mostly just talk about weather (!!), his studies, movies, music etc…I know it is one conversation that I always look forward to and will always do. He is my perfect brother and cant thank god enough for making him that :).

A hot cup of Coffee!

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. ~Flash Rosenberg

Born in a typical south Indian family, Coffee is something I 've grown along with. Though I wasn’t allowed to actually taste it till was a certain years old, I remember I used to be fascinated about it even before tasting it. The way my mother would carefully brew the coffee in her ‘filter’, the strong aroma it had, the way it was served in a nice 'ever-silver davara-tumbler’ (a south-Indian equivalent of cup and saucer made of stainless steel) had me very interested in this beverage.

I was initiated into coffee-drinking when I entered college. I spent a year in hostel. Our hostel being inside the campus, we used to get up just in time to brush, change and run for classes. In the morning hurry, we rushed to the canteen, nibbled at our breakfast but most importantly, grabbed our mug of coffee, which was our means of keeping awake during the first few hours of lectures! Now anyone who’s stayed in a hostel would know how the coffee would be in a hostel, very watery and mild, it lacked the ‘kick’ of a good coffee and let me not even mention about the flavor. But yet, it was our means of survival and we devoured it!

At home, a hot cup of coffee at around 4.00 in the noon is almost a ritual. Something that I look forward to even today when I visit my parents. It’s almost as if the coffee has something like a ‘talking serum’ or whatever and makes one want to open out and talk. I recall my mom and me always finding some interesting stories and family gossips to share over a cup of coffee. Hmm, I wonder if it’s probably why coffee is such a preferred drink at most of the ‘ponnu-pakara’ events (Event where the prospective groom is taken to meet the girl for the first time, in a traditional arranged marriage set up). :)

The modern day café’s cropping up in every other street nowadays has a profound influence in our lives. I, for one, love the CCD’s and Baristas. I am a big fan of theirs and a loyal patron. I love the concept of just hanging out with friends & family and having a steaming cup of good coffee. I know, one can do so even in a normal roadside hotel…but it’s something about the ambiance and the setting that one can’t really compare. I recall lot of fun times I have had with my friends and colleagues, all in these coffee shops. I remember a coffee shop in Bangalore which served exceptionally good coffee; it was within 10 minutes walk from my office. My friend and I used to unfailingly take a walk everyday after work and relish every drop of the drink.

And coffee at work, need I even mention its significance! It’s our savior, it’s our oxygen. I remember someone joking; the ‘Most Efficient Worker of this Office’ Award should go to the Coffee machine! :) And why not, I say!

I know, I haven’t mentioned anything about the ill-effects of coffee and caffeine….nah, why spoil such an ode to the finest beverage by mentioning that. All’s well when kept in moderation, I believe. And all I can say to the people who do not have coffee is, …What a pity!!!

A Hair-raising story!

I have always had funny hair stories!!! I have never had luck with my hair! I don’t know if its jus me or if it’s my hair…but there are jus so many amusing hair stories for me!

About couple of years back, I had decided its time I got rid of my boring, safe, pony-tail, hair style and try something new and hip! Do something that everyone takes notice of! My hair is, by nature, very wavy…and to get a drastic change in the look, I decided to straighten my hair…and that’s what I did!

My first reaction as I finished straightening was despair, because I wasn’t sure myself if I liked it! But I had paid a bomb for it…so I better like it, I decided. I walked out of the salon confidently and got into the car where my husband was waiting for me. I casually reminded of what I had told him earlier that day. He smiled and added in a programmed, By-hearted-way, “I like it, u look different.” Good, that was reassuring, but I knew I had to do better.

I spent the next few days trying different styles and slowly kinda started liking the hair this way. It was new, it was very easy to manage and more than anything, I could get ready for work 15 minutes faster than before!! I decided it’s the best thing that’s happened to me :).

A year and few months passed. My hair grew out of the straightening effect. That’s when I thought I’ll jus get a new hair cut and that’ll create a new look! So I cut my hair….and that was the doomsday! Because of the semi-straightened effect, my hair did not respond well to the hair cut. It looked as if my hair was partially straight and partially wavy! I almost cried in the parlor and pleaded that they do something. The people there informed me that my hair was damaged cause of the straightening and that I could do nothing but wait till it grows!

I had an important presentation the next day at work and I couldn't miss it (else I wld‘ve taken an off). I went to work and not a single person stopped staring at my hair! People who knew me gave me sympathetic smiles. People close to me gave me their condolences! I was the talk of the office! "Well", my colleague joked, “At least now everyone is taking notice of your hair”. Yeah…I have never had luck with my hair anyways!!!

Arranged Marriage

Ours was a conventional ‘Arranged' marriage. Horoscopes were matched, parents met first, photos exchanged and then of course, we met too.

Both our parents were quite broad-minded and patient. We were allowed to meet and speak how may ever times it took us to decide. No pressure on deciding. It’s a different matter that we met just twice and decided that this was it!!!

In that context, I really feel, ‘Arranged’ is probably jus the right word…. When I met Arjun the first time, we hardly spoke on issues of importance…I think it mostly went off in just talking about each other's work (I remember cribbing about my strict boss!), about movies, about traveling, about cars (we both shared a passion for good cars and that was the single common thing!!), we even talked about mobile phone models! So that was all we did in the first meeting, by the beach side. It was obvious that we had to meet again and this time, really talk!

We met the next day at his place. We sat ourselves on the balcony and started chatting again. He is a palm-reader so he read my palm. Yes, a little better than talking about cars! He spoke about what he interpreted from my palm and that got us into long talks about life, expectations and hurdles. We must have spoken for almost 3-4 hours and then as we ran out of things to talk and up came some silence… I remember smiling at him and him smiling back. At that point, both of us decided that we were going ahead with this. It was just as simple as that!

It was probably something that we talked, that clicked, or something that we felt, the strong positive feeling. Only, we were having a conversation as normal as two strangers trying to get to know each other. Nothing that we talked could have helped us decide for sure that this was it….but yet, that vibe, that urge, was so strong & optimistic! It goes beyond human reasoning. That is when I to began to understand…that certain things were just meant to be. And so I believe that it truly was an ‘Arranged’ marriage
…only arranged by the supreme power above us!

This is my first step into the big Blog world and I must admit i joined the bandwagon only to not feel left out..and also due to one eye-opening incident.

The other day, as I was coming back home and got into the elevator, two kids joined in with me. They must have been around 12-14 yrs old and were busily chatting. One said she had to rush home and finish her homework, do some "serious orkutting" and then chat with her cousin in the US later in the night. Wow, I thought, a busy agenda for a girl all of 12!! The next girl, not to be left behind, added that she was taking it easy that day as she had already finished her homework and all she was gonna do was " fill up stuff in my blog"...adding, i am in a mood to write something Soulful!!! I jus couldn't believe it, forget having a blog and updating it regularly while balancing homework, tuition, classes etc at that age, but she even felt 'Soulful'??? I mean, I am sure i dint even know what that word meant when i was her age!!

That is when it hit me... feel soulful & expressive or not, Blogging is something I probably jus have to do...probably not a good idea to be left out on this one!!! :)