The "It" girls

I like to think that I have seen my fair share of the world. Been and seen plenty of places, situations etc etc. obviously these places, people and situations have taught me a lot. Well, one of these is the lesson that I will never be one of the "cool" girls - the hip and happening ones. This is not really news for me. But somehow it never fails to bother me.  I am almost thirty and a mother now, and yet the kindergarten memories just come back like yesterday when I wasn't invited to be a "gang member" because I was too dark. I have enough maturity now to know that I am better off being with real people but it seems I need more.

Anyways, so this was part one of my resolution to be a little more open, a little more vulnerable. God, it feels good. :)

On another note, phase 2 of ML is about to begin..yay.. I still have to pack, should start making list now.

The happy place

I see so many articles listing the "top ten happy places to live". Some are surprising (sweden? Really? Land of non existent sunshine??) and most are not..

But all the lists ignore the happiest place.. The place we all like to reminisce about.. Yeah, I am talking about "the past". Childhood in particular.

Human brain is amazing.

:)

As they say time does fly, or so it seems now. It's been more than 5 months and it seems like just yesterday. We call him Tanmay, one who is engrossed. I'll tell you what, he sure keeps us engrossed. All the time :)

Babies have incredible power over people. Let me ask you a question, a puzzle of sorts. There are some people standing at a bust and, waiting for the bus. There is an old man, a youngish businessman, a college going girl and a mother with a baby. Now the question is, who is the first one to start the conversation. And the answer is, the baby. Everybody wants to talk to the baby. Babies are conversation magnets.

It is true. I have made more friends/ acquaintances in the past few months than anytime before. :)

On becoming parents

No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you've got, say "Oh, my gosh".

- Marisa de los Santos

The best you can do is to conjure courage and develop a really really strong sense of humor. 

You will observe your lives go topsy turvy and wouldnt want to do anything about it. Basic comforts of life like a good nights sleep and showering will become luxuries(that will elude you for a long long time). You would (be forced to) become champions of multitasking. Stuff like poop, pee and spitup will stop grossing you out. So much so that if need arises you could leave your dinner in between, change a diaper, clean the baby, and resume your meal without batting an eyelid. Google will become your best friend (okay okay, strongly tied for best friend fine?) and will help you out of tough situations like "How to get my baby like the baby sling", "what is the correct way to put on a shirt on my baby", "how to get baby pee off my laptops keyboard". You would watch beautiful baby gear get wasted unused because your baby has outgrown them. You would only watch TV shows with sub titles because then you could put the tv on mute and still watch it. But dont get me wrong, you would truly and absolutely love each and every moment. 

A baby enriches your life in ways you couldn't have thought possible. You will finally be able to truly appreciate your parents (I wonder how my parents raised us with so little help). 

A baby will make you want to be a good human being. Even though it is a lot of work. And your priorities would change, maybe forever. 

The ultimate energizer

I have often said that K and I are complementary in a lot of ways. One of the more prominent ways is how we organize and clean. In a way that he organizes and I don’t. And then, I clean and he doesn’t. We have a good team J

In fact cleaning is the ultimate cathartic activity for me. Give me rags, brushes and cleaning products and I can happily spend hours with them.  It is such a mood lifting activity. The problem with it, however, is that people have very very weak memories. People notice filth, but not the lack of filth. That’s just normal. Nobody has the ability to juxtapose “before”/”after” pictures in their heads. So the results aren’t visible really.

Doesn’t matter so much, cleaning makes me happy. So here are some of my cleaning tips..

·         Lemon wedges clean most of the grime from counter tops, take smell off from old bottles and the microwave and when mixed with hot water, can clean oil containers like magic.

·         Fabric bleach cleans off any salt deposits from tiles

·         Mr. Muscle is better for preparing diluted solutions that you can use to clean counters every day, but for stubborn grime (like exhaust/ window sills etc.) cif is the only solution.

·         For cleaning marks off of doors (any painted surface), don’t scrub, it will damage the paint. Just use some nail paint remover and rub gently with cotton.

·         A wash with a weak solution of liquid utensil soap and baking soda will get rid of small mites from the house plants.

·         While dusting, use two rags. One completely dry synthetic one to attract the dust. And other cotton one to wipe off the surface with colin.

·         Use sellotape to pick up dust from hard to reach corners.

·         If your vacuum cleaner does not have a “blow” setting, you can use the hair dryer.

·         Water marks can be cleaned off of wooden surfaces by hair dryer. It doesn’t seem like coming off at first. But after about 10 minutes you’ll see the difference. Remember to wipe off with some light oil afterwards. But not too much.

Random

So, it has been really long and yada yada..

I "took care" of a pigeon the other day. "took care" not in the traditional sense or the lovely mobster sense.

Poor bird had somehow managed to enter our bathroom (maybe through the exhaust) and single-handedly (wingedly??) managed to wreck all of it. By the time it was discovered (when I reached home) i guess it had already spent all its precious birdie energy and was cowering over the geyser like an innocent lamb. Innocent or not, the bird sure was stupid. Trust me, I had to practically poke it with a broom to get out. "bird brain" is very very apt.

Anyways, now that the weather is getting better (finally!) the ambient happiness quotient has gone up significantly. Now we can begin with the great shopping marathon. Yay..

So time flies, some things change, most remain the same. We grow up, not realizing it a little bit. We struggle with some changes and we resist others. And we look forward to some. But most of the times we are really really clueless about the real meaning of any of this. In fact, the less we ponder over things, the more we truly enjoy them. But we think and we plan. And then we see that planning is a little futile. It just gives you some temporary peace of mind. So you replan. And attain some more temporary peace. Which gives us some temporary happiness. A succession of which turns into long term happiness. So we should keep on planning. Even knowing that its futile. Because not planning means giving up on life. And thats just stupid.