Mundane Musings

Ana Kutti was two last month and she started pre-school this month. After repeatedly telling ourselves that schooling for Ana kutti needn’t start until she was three and a half, we surprised ourselves by going on and doing just the opposite. The months precluding this event of enrolling her to a school was fraught with no less tension and decision making. Why would a relatively smart, outgoing girl like her who had quite a repertoire of nursery rhymes, phrases and concepts under her belt need to get to school so soon? Definitely not because we wanted her out of our hair for a few hours a day. Nope. We just couldn’t have enough of her. Yeah I know I do sound like one of those sappy mothers but that is what late motherhood would do to you. J . One relative comfort I had from the whole exercise was the realization that I was still a lot better than those parents who had enrolled their kids in a most happening school in Chennai when the said child was still a tiny zygote in the...

A very happy second birthday to you and to me, my darling. This is my second year as a mother, a title I am bearing with great pride and with no less sentiment. It might sound rather filmy to your older self (when you read this, that is) if I were to confess that I can understand what the fuss in all those ‘ma’ sentiment Hindi movies was all about. “Mere pass ma hai” from Deewar – was so exaggerated to my adult ears, but sounds totally understated to my ‘mommy’ ears. I know now that I can do anything for you. This love I have for you is pure and unconditional. I know that now. I can protect you (yes get these lethargic muscles to learn some karate if it helps), look after you and shower you with things you cherish and of course, go out on a limb if it helps set your world right. And if all this is rolled and thrown at me in one shot, then I shall happily do so without the least bit of fanfare. These feelings, I must say, are compounded by your pure, yet undivi...

Being a mother in India – The Diaper Conundrum. Being a mother in India these days presents one with a unique juxtaposition of choices. One, Western concepts and ideas which thanks to the proliferation of articles on the Internet one is able to peruse and follow and, other, Traditional ideas that have been handed down through many proud generations – not surprising, considering the rich culture and history of our country. The traditional ones are irrefutably followed or are made to be followed by diligent grandmothers, aunts and invested kin of the new mother in general. After bathing and nappy changing and generally taking care of four tots as an aunt, I have long since stopped questioning the logic behind some of my mother’s practices. Some have lasted the test of time and some have been downright impractical. This blog post is one way of recording the things that worked for me, as an Indian mother. I hope to recount them clearly and support the choices I have made with mea...

Happy New Year folks! The year is already up and running for me…one day folds into another, one week into another and the only assessment I have of my productivity is Anahita’s healthy growth. Touch wood.  This situation is difficult to accept for all those who are invested in a career and who having opted for a child find yourself picking up long dropped soiled nappies, wiping barfs and urine out of your clothes, trying to keep yourself occupied in the middle of the night so that the little one can get back to sleep, reading blogs on colour of baby’s stool and its significance, common remedies for common cold…and the list can go on. It is pretty confidence –lowering work, especially in that inconceivable moment when you have the time and a magazine or newspaper near you and the picture of a successful woman is smiling at you. You’ll look for the nearest hole to bury yourself in.  I have never considered myself to be an ambitious, go-getter with a dream to crash thro...

It's raining, it's pouring, The old man is snoring He went to bed  And bumped his head And couldn't get up in the morning In other words, it is raining in Chennai. It's raining in a place where the only weather conditions are mild summer, medium summer, melt your pants off summer, a blink and you miss rainy season with a whiff of winter. And now we have been assailed by four systems, with a fifth one getting ready to join the fourth. Whew! That's a lot of rain and people are complaining of everything and sundry. My blog was supposed to be as regular as our normal monsoon forecast but it has languished unnoticed for more than a year. Procrastinators like me have plenty of reasons for not completing a task and in this case though I'm tempted to blame it on the weather, I have to own up that I was actually waiting for the perfect moment. Ahem...and no, that's a genuine reason; not a procrastinator's excuse. But all these limiting thoughts asi...