Gotta be a better Ambassador

A week back, I was having lunch with my colleagues and one of my colleague mentioned that she loves Indian food and that just yesterday she had an eggplant dish.

She couldn't remember the name of the eggplant dish she had, and being the only Indian on the table, I believed it was my responsibility to help her out, so I started with my list......"Beigan bharta", "Beigan curry", "Beigan ..... right then my Chinese colleague said "Beigan Masala!" and my American colleague went.....YES! I sat there feeling dumb, embarrassed, looser.... I can add more synonyms to it, but you got the idea I believe.

So when yesterday, my manager was scanning through resumes for potential candidates we are looking for, to fill a position in my team, and asked me, "How is Anna University?, Is it a good one?". I very confidently said, "Hmmmmm....I have never heard of it". She said, "If you have never heard of it then it might not be a good one". I said, "Yeah, may be, there are lot of new schools coming up in India".

Out of curiosity, I searched for it on the web and was one more time dumb founded. Anna University was ranked top 5 in India, even above IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur! I felt like jumping in the sea, but all I could do was accept my ignorance. When I told her that it 's top ranked University, she gave me a glance of, "How could you have not heard of it" and smiled.

I got up, went to the kitchen, poured myself some green tea and decided that I am going to be a better ambassador to my country. So, I started getting current by reading Indian New papers online and all I could get current about was politics and Bollywood.

Say, that is why it is called General Knowledge (GK).....

PS: Please leave your comments, if any on the blog itself. Thanks....

Confession

Before we had our second baby recently, it used be a regular point of discussion among us friends, if one should go for a second kid. Given we would always be struggling with taking care of our first one, having another, had to be a well thought, discussed and consulted decision. And for the outcome of the discussion, it would always be that two kids can entertain each other and you are "off the hook" pretty much. Especially coming from parents of two kids {and more}, we fell for it, literally.

Now that we have two, the statement of they can entertain each other doesn't quite seem to be true, atleast not until now. It's been few months now and we are never "off the hook" at all, instead both of us are pretty much "stuck" with atleast one of them at any given instance. Both the kids "demand" completely different level of entertainments, if you know what I mean and if you just said yes to that, trust me you don't, unless you have two {or more} yourself. So....... when we met this family of three (they recently moved into our neighborhood) last weekend, the memory of the days of all the discussions of going for second and the faces of all our dear friends who coined the phrase "off the hook", was fresh again.

With their daughter around the same age as my Tammy (my older one), playing in the room upstairs, we mommies decided that we should be in the same room so as to keep an eye. During our conversation the lady complimented me for how great I look for the fact that I just had a baby. I really liked the lady, coz if you don't know, "looking great" or "you have lost all your weight" is the sweetest compliment you can give to a new mommy and she was going exactly by the books.

I guess most parents to one kid, consider a lot before taking on the decision for the next one, I believe going or not going for more just comes out naturally after that.

So when she asked me, "How is life with two kids?", " How did we decide on having another kid?" etc, you would wonder what my reply was. Well, I can summarize my answer by saying that I gave her the concept of "off the hook" myself.....surprised?.....yeah, I was too......and honestly I really liked the family......I still am trying to figure out what got into me. I looked at the closet mirror in front of me and I could see the devils horns on my head. It's been four days now and I feel really sad for not giving her the true picture of life with two kids.

"Off the hook" is only a hope for us right now, "We are stuck" is the current slogan.

{sigh}.....So help me GOD......'coz I have sinned.........

To be the Best!

"Mommy my piano doesn't work. It is broken, I think"
"Don't worry sweetheart, papa will fix it. It needs new batteries"
....
"Mommy, look at my shoes. This is not right, yes mumma?"
"Don't worry baby, we will show it to papa. He will fix it with a glue."
....
"Mommy, I want to open it and play with it"
"Hold on dear, we have to wait for papa. Papa will assemble it first, then you can play with it"
....
"Mommy, I want to ride my bike." "
Wait for papa to come. He will teach to how to ride it"
"Mumma, papa can do so many things"
"You bet! papa knows everything, He is the best Daddy"
"Yeah, my papa is the best! He can do everything."
"Mommy, I love my papa so so much"
....
[And last week]
{tuck} The chalk falls on the floor and breaks
"Papa....this broke"
"That's ok dear, now you have two chalks to write with"
"No papa, I want the big one. You have to fix it."
"Fix it! No one can fix it."
"Papa but you have to....you have to fix it"
"Why"
{convincingly} "Coz otherwise you will not be the Best Papa anymore!"

My little back seat driver

When my little Tammy learnt about traffic signal I was very proud.....of myself.....ofcourse for obvious reasons.

Red says NO,
Green says GO
and Yellow says SLOW....SLOW....SLOW!

that was our little traffic signal song :)

Tammy has learnt a lot more by now about traffic rules. STOP sign rule, bike lane, right of way etc etc and she would make sure that I follow all of them......all the time! It is fun most of the time to hear her from the back seat guiding me thru the traffic, can't deny that it gets irritating sometimes.......or let me confess......most of the time. But who would have thought that the most pain in the @$$ rule would be the Yellow signal rule.

My reflex action to the yellow light would everytime be accelerating a little to reach the other side ASAP and little Tammy would always notice this tiny acceleration and would start screaming.... "Mom, it's yellow light, you have to go slow.....slow mom.....slow. I am not talking to you now. You did a wroooooong thing. When its yellow light you need to...." and she goes on and on about it until something interesting catches her attention.

So yesterday I decided to not accelerate when the traffic light turned yellow........and the light I picked to follow this rule had cameras..............which meant "No forgiveness" and all the rest happened in the fraction of second -

- I took my foot off the accelertor which slowed the car down....so I was following the signal.
- I judged that I will make it to the other side assuming that the car behind me will stay put and wait for the next light.
- Wrong assumtion! The next car followed me and I knew right then that he/she will not make it.
- The guilt feeling of me being the reason for his/ her bad luck today creeped in.
- I prayed god to help him /her.
- He/She quickly went to the next lane and crossed the intersection along with me.....making it to the other side just in time.....my prayer was heard.....fast!
- I thanked god for helping him/ her out and got honked at by him /her.

Woah! that's it....I decided I am not listening to my little back seat driver anymore.

On the Side:
I narrated the story to my husband and when I was using "him/her", "he/She", he paused me and said, "Oh! the driver was a HE" and continued looking at my expression questioning how...."the fact that his mind worked fast and he moved to the next lane and saved himself......is a proof in itself".

Hhhhhmmmmmmmmmm.......