Chez Moi

You know when someone you have known practically all their lives is suddenly taking an interest in a totally new ‘hobby’, there has got to be a Reason. Right? Usually it is a girl. I mean, there’s a girl at the bottom of most things in life, where guys are concerned and vice versa, I agree.

But this time, I was astonished, astounded, amazed and a couple of other fancy words starting with a. Why? Said person is none other than my lazy ass brother. So what’s he done now, you ask. Well, he has gone and decided to take part in the Silicon Valley Marathon! And, here’s the big, he is doing it to raise money for charity.

Strike me down with a feather! My baby bwother is all growed up!

Okay enough silly-billyisms (to quote my son). When I first heard of this latest endeavour of the brother’s, I was skeptical to say the least. 26 frigging miles is no joke! And to get trained fit and ready in 6-ish months before the Event struck me as something maha difficult - def not for the likes of me. Which is why you wouldn’t find me doing it. But what I am doing is something equally good - am feeling all saintly about it now cos I am sponsoring some of hubby’s hard earned dosh towards this good cause.

His aim is to raise $2300 towards ASHA, the charity that tries to “bring hope through education” in India. The money is tax deductible in the US of A. But if you live elsewhere in the world, I hope you will not let that pesky detail stop you from giving anyway. It is for a good cause - some poor child in India is going to learn to read and write thanks to the change we can spare. So please do dig deep and donate. If you have any questions about anything concerning this, do drop him a line at teamasha AT arvindashok DOT com and am sure he’ll be more than happy to answer your queries.

Edited to add: That noob in the piccie is the sibling. If you are as puzzled as me why he runs barefoot, the explanation is here!

I reached that monumental mark yesterday - chalked up three decades of living. So I can no longer call myself a “girl”, no matter how inappropriate it was till now. But, as certain laydees, who are certainly rocking in their 30’s and 50’s attest, life begins NOW. So am hopeful of things to come. 

But not as far as my son is concerned. Left to him, I might as well go on the national OAP register. 

Anyhoo, the budday yesterday ROCKED. Totally! Hubby started things off with a bang on Friday, the “star” budday by giving me this amazing pearl set - gorgeous chain coupled with drop earrings. Celebration started properly by mid-Saturday, with a trip to the cinema to see Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na. We both had been real keen to see this flick, ever since the music charmed us. Plus, with the early birds who had been humming away since catching it on the first week egging us on, we simply could not put it off anymore. 

Happily, the movie did not disappoint. I actually want to see it again. The only part I did not like was the character of that Sushant character. Why did they have to make him so easy for everyone to dislike and get rid of? Wouldn’t it have been better had he been a regular, decent soul and despite that, Aditi loved Jai best cos that’s the way it should be? (Any of the Bollywood director types looking for a consultant - well, your search stops here!)

Sunday dawned bright and sunny - a marvellous day in London, which is a glorious thing in itself. For once, we left home quiet early so we could have a sensible day out. Started off with a spin on the London Eye. As P had only seen it from far, he was pretty excited. He enjoyed the Eye thoroughly. We had fantastic views of the city, spreading as far as the eye could see. A loud American was pointing out various landmarks (quite wrongly!) to his awestruck family. I wished he’d either shut up or pipe down. Of course he did neither! 

After that, we let P loose on the park where he proceeded to try all sorts of balancing tricks on the rope bridge and climbed up the rope column - thrice - before deciding enough’s enough. 

Next stop - BFI IMAX. 

As IMAX were showing P’s current favourite flick, Kung Fu Panda, there was no escaping this. After the miniscule multiplex screens of today, the 20 m X 26 m IMAX screen seemed MEGA! We were all astounded at the size of it and the sound quality was literally mind blowing. So much so I thought one member of the family would have big problems with it. The Bun proceeded to rock and roll through out the movie, making for some exceedingly uncomfortable moments. 

Once that part of the day was finished, we went in search of Ping Pong, a Chinese dim sum restaurant. The review said grub was good while the same cannot be said for the service. They were spot on. The location was brilliant. We got outside seats as it stank too much of fish inside and I couldn’t bear it. But flagging down the wait staff was an art we sucked at and most of the time was spent in waving furiously. I was reminded of Bill Bryson’s pithy remark: “… you cannot make a waiter see you unless he is good and ready..” 

Reared as we are on the Saravana Bhavan School of Hospitality, the service didn’t bother us much. Especially when the food they brought in was like pure morsels of heaven! The dim sums are served in individual wooden steamer baskets and each one contains three dumplings. Though our waitress suggested we order about three baskets each, we displayed rare (and in this case, misplaced!) caution and ordered one each. 

Presently, the farcical part of the routine started. There we were, with some amazing smelling, glistening morsels of food waiting for us and we were armed with two fiddly sticks. It didn’t help matters any when the brat mastered eating with chopsticks like he had been doing it all his life and polished off his dumplings with “YUM YUM” noises. Sighing, we stabbed, poked, prodded and generally mutilated our dumplings into submission. But man, was it worth it or what? 

The next couple of hours were spent in trying to attract the wait staff’s attention, ordering more portions and slowly coming to grips with the chop sticks. By the time we downed tools, we were absolutely sated. Three portions of dumplings, followed by a miniscule portion of yummy mango pudding, watered down by a strawberry and lemon cordial (for me- while hubby had jasmine tea and the brat OJ) constituted my budday meal. I was one happy bunny!! 

Needless to say, that was the best budday ever - if this is a taste of things to come, then bring ‘em on! 

Me! I won an award and didn’t even realise it! DOH! K-3, very sweetly bestowed this award on me (thanks, K3!) and I am going to preen a bit by showcasing it here, if you don’t mind.

Gee! I feel like a school kid. What is it about these things that makes a person feel so chuffed? I don’t know but I am liking the feeling. So much so, I am going to think deeply about who to pass it on to. Hmm, dunno who hasn’t got it yet but going by personal reasons, I’d like to pass it on to quite a few - starting with Tharini, for throwing me that incredible baby shower (well you thot of it!), my fellow MTBs - Poppy, Kodi’s Mom, Boo, Mags, Lavs and Nutty, and my three personal doulas - MM, SilentOne and CeeKay. And to Sue, for The Name!

This award here is for services past, present and future! Feel special, people! 

… Kodi’s little brother, Plane Paapa. Congrats Kodi’s mum, the first of us MTBs to give birth!! Who’s up next? Lavs? Planethalder? Their babies are due this weekend. After that, it is Maggie and STS’ turns on June 21st.The lineup has started MTBs - get ready for the ride! 

 
Fresh out of college, I used to work for a local, city-based portal as a content writer and then later, Web Content Manager. In that guise, I met many interesting characters, attended many functions and generally led an interesting life. But of all the people I met, none affected me more than Vandana and Vaishnavi, founders of women’s charity organisation, Banyan.

I wasn’t a trained journalist so had none of the grit or the backbone needed to tough it out in search of assignments. All I had was a head full of ideas - ideas on what was great and good about my city that I could showcase on my website. Through a teacher at college, who was a good friend of Vandana, I heard of Banyan and was really impressed to learn about two women, who, in the prime of their life, threw away a regular lifestyle and immersed themselves in caring after mentally challenged women.

It sounded like a plot of a movie - too fantastic to be true. Clueless about what to expect, I asked for an appointment to visit the place to write about it. That visit and the women I saw, changed me and I honestly feel, I grew up in that space of two hours I spent at Banyan. I remember crying bitterly on my way back to work. Seeing those women, in their bedraggled state, not knowing what was happening to themselves or where they were, affected me like nothing had.

Though it has been years since I met them and the women and their organisation have come a long way since, I constantly think of them and their dedication to their cause. I cannot think of two better examples of women to salute, on International Women’s Day.

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