Aviyal-bit of everything

Although there is probably no problem in savoring things, do that in private; showing genuine excitement is not considered a good manner (or ‘not composed’ behaviour). Can’t help mentioning criticism Anil Kapoor received from Indian media for showing his excitement on award functions/stages/talk shows.

And my eyes well up when I see/experience loving moments like  someone get married, a hug from my loved ones, when Laksh writes about her MBA experiences, slumdog kids on the red carpet, their reception in india, when I eat a all of rice from mommy’s hand……. Sadness does not make me cry that easily.

I have changed myself a lot in this department, but not enough for sure. And I so want to be a composed person like UL, a balanced person and I have mentioned it before in my posts.

Now why you want to learn from me dear?

Leave you with this song ‘Little moments’ from Country singer Brad Paisley. Have a good weekend you all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-DKjkxbv0

The Slumdog Millionaire children — Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Tanay Chheda, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Rafiq Shaikh and Mohammed Azharuddin — bask in the limelight.

image: from rediff.com

Slumdog was all over the place and won 8 oscars of the 10 nominated.

Could you believe,indian performance on Oscar stage..

I was so happy that the kids got lot of footage and attention. See Mehandi on little Rubina’s hand( close look at this picture)..loved it too.

goodnight and have  a great week.

Sundays are very busy for me (well, other days are not?..good for you). By the time I finish my house work, grand hair wash, putting kids to bed, come down to finish off the rest of the cleaning and folding laundry , clock strikes 10pm or so. Then it is time to connect, preview the week’s schedule, prep work and some boghoping.

This Sunday Feb 22, is going to be different. I will be donning my best house dress and will be on the red carpet by 8pm EST. C’mon it is Oscar night gals.

And you all know who I am rooting for. Surprise..

Mid-day reported that the soul of Slumdog, the kid artist bunch has boarded the flight to LA  yesterday night. They will be making a trip to Disney Land before Sunday on their 6 days trip (arranged by the production house of course). This is the first time (probably the last time too..Oscar marks the end of awards season) the major cast of the movie appears together on red carpet. I am very happy for the kids and this one of a life time opportunity (who knows, I believe they have the talent to come back there many more times).

And Rahman is performing live Jai Ho with Sukhwinder Singh. Talking of Jai Ho song, My kids make a good chorus when every single time I hum the song, they do the Jai ho part in unison (although the little one says ‘eai ho’..works for me molu).

Good weekend all. Got to go gals..now where is my Oscar de la Renta dress  and Jimmy Choo shoes.

Note : It’s kind of a weird coincidence, the timing of slumdog and President Obama posts. They either appear in one post or one follows the other. It is not just the posts, Slumdog started on the award journey with Golden globe close to President Obama’s inauguration.

President Obama’s Air force One and entourage are doing trial run; his limo is testing the ice and snow.

Yes it is his first official foreign trip as the president and I am honored that he chose friendly neighbor Canada, my homeland. He is landing at 10.30 in the capital Ottawa and will spend most of his one day visit  time in the Parliament Hill.

I will be busy covering the event and might shake a hand with him. (wishful thinking girl..you will cover the event through the media for sure and for shaking hand, shake your own).

On Tuesday Peter Mansbridge of CBC (one of my fav news anchors) had a interview with Obama. Peter mentioned to him that he wears Canada on his belt referring to his famous Blackberry made by RIM, Canadian company.

There is lot of excitement everywhere; as you can see I am excited too.

Welcome home Sir, glad to have you here.

…’over to Keith in Parliament Hill.

side note to anyone interested: According to IMF, Canada has the strongest financial system in the world and we do not have sub prime issues like in US, although there are other recession related issues. Am proud to be Canadian!

If you take medicine, it takes only 7 days otherwise 1 week. Yeah, it is about how long a cold lasts.

I just got over with a bad one. I do everything from gargles, to chukku kappi ( a boiled concoction of dried ginger, jeera, black pepper, coffee powder and sharkara/jagiri) to occasional Tylenol cold. When you have cold you are not sick enough but man! Is it irritating and annoying to self!

I worked from home half day Wednesday last week, had to get to work for a meeting in the afternoon. Postponed quite a few minutes without issues, for the fear ( ? not necessarily fear)/ uncomfortable feeling of spreading it to others when in  closed meeting rooms.

While in India, not coming to work because of cold is considered something like a manipulated sick leave. Postponing your meeting due to cold, will be ridiculed I guess. Here they mostly expect you to stay away to reduce the absentees by reducing infection.

It is the same crapy cold wherever you are, but the expectation is so different. Weird? funny?

Knock Knock ..it’s an early valentine.

Thought, before many of you get covered under red roses and chocolates and everything else (like art works) , here are my wishes for you and your loved one(s). Happy V day.

I liked this movie a lot; needless to say I like the genuineness of Madhavan and Shalini, add to it Mani Ratnam’s direction and Rahman’s music. Perfect Aviyal, just to my liking.

Songs are great indeed. I leave you with this, not the songs though. Make sure you watch to the end specially the part where the Madhavan’s friend’s conversation (pull the bar to 5mts if in hurry).

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours. We are taking kids to Chuck e Cheese and family pizza lunch. Don’t see any roses coming on my way, but my fridge is now decorated with quite a few paper hearts and I love you mama’s from kidos.

Any memories around this movie you like to share? Or V day plans or just little nothings

Enjoy everyone! Good weekend too. God bless!

Note: it is a long weekend for us; Monday being family day.

Pulling over to the gas station to fill up yester evening, I was suddenly flooded with memoirs of my first gas filling here.

With great difficulty I was getting used to my new car and driving in a new country. And it was time to fill up. Unlike in India, most gas stations are self help here; just one person at the far enclosed booth/counter monitoring the activities at the pump. I had no idea how to fill gas, no idea what bronze, silver and gold grades of gas mean and which one I was supposed to fill. So I went to the booth and asked the guy to help me. He had this look on his face as if  he didn’t hear me correctly and thinking  in his head ‘woman, how dare you get a car on the road not even knowing how to fill gas’ . me in my head ‘ it is my first time filling gas in Canada’. He came to the pump and asked ‘which grade I want’ for which I asked ‘which one would you fill if you were driving this car?’.  He did not answer it but filled the gas.

After many years of driving here and many many fillings later, it sounds so silly..but not then. Now it takes only few minutes, I pay at the pump with card and I am on the road in no time.

I have so many such memoirs of tackling this country, making it my new home.

Yesterday, while at the gas station, I saw a guy looked like messing up with an old car’s rear license plate. Actually, he was accessing the fuel tank which is behind the license plate in an old Chevrolet caprice. I didn’t know it.

Over the last few weekends, I was spending time with Elizabeth Gilbert (Liz) of Eat, Pray and love. We were at the Ashram last weekend half way through the stay there. I like it so far.

I want to learn 3 things in my life definitely.

I read that Liz’s mother was non swimmer and then she learnt swimming reading a book ‘how to swim’ and swam across Lake Minnesota. Then Catherine, Liz’s sister, swam across a lake when she was pregnant. (I have a liking for side actors, as I have told you before). I want to be able to swim, for fun and for exercise. Then the family can go for more beach vacations.

I can’t bike either. really? you think. I am amazed at people and kids who can bike. I want to be able to bike, for fun and for exercise. Then the family can go for bike rides.

I am so surrounded (in the virtual world) by Bharatanatyam dancers (Suman, Anila, Apar..anyone else?…very proud of you all and bit jealous too). I competed and won in state level for Folk dances while in school. My parents could not afford a Bharatanatyam teacher for private classes and the expenses around performances. Our group dance teacher taught us the basics of this highly acclaimed dance form like mudras and adavukal. I joined a class after moving to Canada, but could not continue after the marriage. I want to be able to dance for fun( It is good exercise too). I have told one of my close friends that I will do a dance performance (as an old lady) for her book publishing ceremony, if she permits.

In this picture, she seems to be doing Swim,Bike and Dance all in one..so gracefully.

one day my dear..one day…

While I am aiming at these 3, do you have anything in your dream list?

First of all ‘cheers to my buddies’!

We made some good start here..(but some are still eating Halva).

Girls few things: please tell me if you disagree or have better suggestions. And as we go, we will make modifications.

Updates:

Redefining ‘good eats’ grades to make it more positive; negativity does not motivate. So good eats grades changed to; ‘good, ok, bad’ from ‘good, bad, very bad’.

Rules:

1. Week runs Friday to Thursday. This enables me to post summary on Thursday night. Friday night I don’t log in regularly. (moreover we need some leeway for the weekend eating)
2. Weighing scale and tape: it takes 3000 cal to loose 1lb (yah!). That darn needle does not shake easily. so we need to bring the needle to work our way. Today, Friday, get on it, note down the number. Keep the scale aside or just hide it to avoid temptation. Next time you will be seeing that scale after 4 weeks ie Feb 26^th, Thursday morning/Wednesday night .And Thursday tell me did you bend the needle in your way. Do not need to publish by how much; just say ‘Yes/No, needle bend’( oh feel free to add your emoticons. ‘Needle bend’ will be in every 4^th weeks summary post. Same goes for the tapes.

Tips:

1. Hang that one shirt/Jeans/jacket (which is your target size and you used to comfortably fit in) in your closet such that you get to eye it everyday.
2. If you use (exclusively or shared with spouses) butter, ghee, margarine, salad dressings, sauces etc write on the bottle the day you opened it. Check the nutrition label info for portion size. By the time you finish, you get an approx idea if you need to adjust your portion size. Too complicated? just leave it.. it could  be my bad writing

So we continue buddies..now sing with me

‘we shall overcome, we shall over come, we shall overcome everyday…

the temptations of the snacks, and yummy treats too..

we shall be active everyday..’

This morning I was talking to Mommy for the second time. First from home and this from work. Kid’s wished them from home and I was doing my wishing part. Feb 3^rd, it is our family Birthday, that is how we celebrate it, or it is my parents 51^st wedding Anniversary. Both acha and mommy were in very happy mood especially because Michelle and her parents ( my little brother and wiffy) are with them at home for the special day (till Saturday).

As usual Mommy and I were chatting away; mommy asking about kids and their naughtiness and how much she misses them. She was talking and I was all listening ears today. At some point she was choking up talking about what good time we had last August when we all siblings went down to India to celebrate the Golden Jubilee (because of school and stuff we could not go in Feb) talking away in the night past 4-5am.

Then she started talking about my son. She was telling me how touched she was, when from nowhere he would come and gave her hugs few times a day. My son did not know to play cricket, mommy taught him to bat and she bowled. She talked to him all day in her not so fluent English (she is not the one to hold back anyway).And it went on….

She remembered proudly how he was behaving like a responsible person to make sure that the decorations were in place and nobody spoiled it; flowers and garlands held properly by each kid to welcome my parents to the stage. This all was happening when he hardly knew anyone in that crowd of 300+ people we invited for a function to celebrate. And he was hardly 4yrs.

She took a pause..no choking this time, she said “ You know your son is much smarter than you. One day he will be a great man”. I was choking now…some silence later we hang up the phone.

It is her wishes for my son..it is her blessings for son..it’s her dream for my son.

Mommy, I have no words to thank you although you always tells me ‘never thank mothers, just love them’. I do love you..you are my strength as much as you are my weakness..you are my best teacher I ever had, you are my motivation.

A great man for her is someone in a leadership role whose decisions have huge impact on people’s life.

Mommy, Your wishes, dream and blessings will not go wasted. May all your wishes come true!