Baby Picasso

Tarun was getting very bored. I thought i was innovative and thought would develop his creativity, teach him two colors and so on, and gave him two sketch pens. Well the result of it didn’t make me feel too intelligent :)
He had scribbled / drawn in the notebook I gave him, and also extended his creativity to the floor. I managed to pull the sketch pen away from his hand after a line on the wall :) I have put up Picasso’s sketches on the fridge. One proud mom !!!! :)

benazir bhutto

benazir bhutto, is all what the Indian media had to say for the past few days.
a strong woman, a good orator, and an india hater.
her death no doubt, was a terrible one. the theories as to how she died, another sad story.

I wanted to write about this on the day of her assassination, but dint have the time. I think I was in school, and there was a program called, the world this week. It was a program on current affairs, a subject in which I was very interested, at that point in time.
Well, I can never forget a part of her speech, where with all her might she was yelling into the microphone that – Kashmir hamara hai - Kashmir is ours and so on- I even remember the scarf on her head flying and roaring like her spirit and her voice.
She was an India hater, all her life. She loved America and the Americans loved her. Thus hillary clinton’s sympathy and request for inquiry. she was never for peace with India, and was a jihadi supporter. She was a true politician, fuelling the Kashmir dreams of Pakistan. She wanted our Kashmir.
What struck me the most that day, was that the super duper Indian politicians proved themselves – Indian politicians-. they issued statements that benazir was a true friend of India, that India had lost a good friend, Pakistan had lost a good leader and so on.
I am not a Pakistan hater… after all its human beings everywhere, on both sides of the border…My sympathies to the family and the motherless children.
But, Pakistan is always Pakistan and benzir bhutto a true Pakistani…

moral policing in chennai

-the shift key is still not working, so please forgive the casing-

is there a limit to moral policing ?.
In Chennai, for the past three days, in the deccan chronicle, we have been reading that all night parties that are being conducted in the farm houses around the east coast road, have been subject to raids from the police.

These parties are being conducted with prior permission from the police department and are mostly attended by the techies who work in the various information technology companies.

These are attended by both men and women and are becoming an easy target for the police to make money. These police guys, conduct raids, confiscate foreign liquor, and photograph the people using the cameras on their mobile phones. Some pictures given to local news papers, with news that women have been found drunk in less clothes lolling around the swimming pool and so on.
All this in the name of upholding / protecting the tamil culture.
I was surprised to read this.

The may be times when there are some dirty ugly parties too , but I guess only adults who are old enough to make their own choices attend these parties. I don’t want to dwell on the issues of moral right and wrong.

Why should the police consider themselves protectors of the culture?
Their department is corrupted to the core. May be the one among the most corrupted in the world. Every one takes bribes… from the lowest ranking official to the highest. Personally I have seen a traffic policeman take a bribe from a speeding motorist. power corrupts and absolute powers corrupts absolutely.
Any woman in her right sense would never walk in to the police station to complain about anything. that’s the level of trust we have in the police. Yesterday too in the paper, there was an article where a girl who was taken into custody, was assaulted by the police inspector in charge.

So much for the moral policing ! ! !

Christmas Tree

We put up the Christmas tree at home last week. I did not have time to transfer the picture, hence didn’t put it up. We bought it last week. It’s a lovely tree and most of all Tarun baby is very happy about it.

Chris Mother Chris Child

Christmas time in office, and we are playing the Chris Mother Chris Child game.All those who
wanted to participate gave our names, and all the names were put into a pouch and we picked
up one name from the lot.
The Rules go like this: You are not to reveal yourself to your Chris child. To keep it a
suspense till the 21st. You are to get gifts for your Chris child, if possible, every day
starting from the 12th to the 21st, the last day of the game.On the 21st you are to get a grand gift for your Chris mom and one for your Chris child.We will have the gift exchange event on the 21st.
We can use our collegues to carry gifts to our Chris child, over a promise of secrecy.
Some of us dont even even know if ours is a Pa or a Ma.
The organizing team has also created a group id to which the Chris Children can mail and
thank their Chris Ma / Pa .


Samples of the Thank You mails :
Thank you for the gift and the card mom.... it was gr8 :)
Christmom/ dad, Thank you so much for your cute gifts.
hey chris ma thank u chooooooooooooooo much for the beautiful GIFT's...........
Thank U Chris Mom for presenting me chocs( My favrte One) & key
chain.that smiley key chain was awesome.Tks a lot ;))))
Hey Chris Ma/Pa ...Thank u so much for the yummy cake !!!!
Chris Parent --- Your gifts were awesome .. Thanks a bunch .. The teddy bear was huggly
wuggly cute !!!! :-)


And coming to myself
I gave my Chris child a pack of choclates
From my Chris mom, i got a pair of pretty earrings. Coincidence was that it perfectly
matched the clotes i wore
My friend / collegue has gone out of town, and i adopted his Chris child and bought him a Choclate Trouffle.
My friend will be back next week, so till then i am the parent :-)
I courired 5 gifts to various Chris children of Various Chris ma 's / pa's
Its great fun.No matter the size or cost of the gift, the joy one has when giving and receiving is awesome!!!
Joy to the World and God Bless Us All ....

Endae Keralam, Ethra Sundaram

On the fourth of this month, i happened to watch the Malayalam news on the Asianet channel and believe me, i was shocked.
The political party and the party workers belonging to the K Karunakaran faction, was holding a meeting. Suddenly the party workers of the party that K Muralidharan belongs to, barged in and started assaulting everyone and every thing in sight. Humans, mikes, tube lights, chairs, tables. Even the press and cameras were not spared. Father Karunakaran, a veteran Congress man, and son Muralidharan also belonging to the Congress party, and the battle never stops.
I was shocked to see a woman clad in a white sari, along with a group of men, beating up a youth from the other party.
Father and son against each other politically and the end result is that it puts the political ideologies to shame. Gods Own Country, indeed !!!!!!!!!!

Office Acronym's

I could not restrain myself, from putting this up...

An acronym thats used most commonly at our office is 'OOO' which stands for Out Of Office.
This is used across at all levels, when person leaves office during ''official working time'', which is 9 AM to 6 PM.
A mail is sent to all the concerned, with 'OOO' in the subject and an 'eom' (End of Message).

A few samples
OOO - after 1pm today - REACHABLE ON MOBILE (eom)
OOO after 5.00 PM today (EOM)
OOO for an hour and will be back to office - EOM
OOO from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM -- Reachable on Mobile ----- EOM
OOO from 3:00 PM today
OOO on 03/08/2007 and 03/09/2007.

Now you get the concept ???
This 'OOO' by itself sounds funny, and two of my crazy friends added to it....

OOO - Out of office (Sounds sensible ??? )
OOS - Out of seat (Alright)
OOSFL - Out of seat for a long time (Now thats going too much)
OOSFA - Out of seat for ages (Whoa !!! )
OOP - Out of project (reading fwds, wasting time) (Hee Hee Hee !!!)
OOW - Out of work (project completed, sitting pretty trying to spend time) (Isnt that nice??)
OOWWC - Out of work warming chair (Aaah Bliss !!)
OOSBM - Out of seat, bothering Manager !!! (LOL)
OFL - Out for Lunch (Nice)
OOM - Out Of Mind (Thats whats happens sometimes, right!!)
OTHO - Out tearing hair out (Rolling On the Floor Laughing)
OOO - NCB - Out of Office - Not Coming Back (:D)
OOOP - Out of Office Partying (Hehehe .. Thats welcome !!)

Dressing Up - Is it for Yourself or for the Others?

One day, at office we had quite a discussion on whether we dress up for ourselves or we dress up for others. My say was that - its for ourselves. We feel good about ourselves if we dress well. Three of my collegues / friends / neighborhood cubicle dwellers- were of the opinion that it was for the others. They even came up with '' Eat for Yourself and Dress for Others''. Well i still differ.
You dress up to feel good about yourself. Who would'nt like compliments from someone?
Reminded me of one incident...
It was Oct 18, 2006. It was my birthday. I was wearing a Calcutta cotton saree, and i thought i looked good. That morning, i still remember, George and me had an argument. It all started with a statement, that he would not be able to pick me up in the evening. Then we used to live with my in laws, and their house was quite a distance from my office. On my Birthday, the thought of bargaining rates with an autorickshaw driver in the evening and so on, depressed me so much.
He was dropping me at office, by bike. We stopped at a signal, next to an autorickshaw, when a lady (I guess an office goer) from inside looked up at me and said ''You are looking very nice''. I was shocked, because in India,its unlikely that a stranger compliments you. That person, whom i would not recognize the next time i see her, lifted up my spirit and i felt so good about my self. She made my day !!
Actually in the evening, George did come to pick me up :-)

Family - Pictures - George, Anooja, Tarun

The Family

Me

Tarun
Fav Photo 1
Fav Photo 2
Fav Photo 3

Weight Worries

Hii Anooja… Uve gained so much weight
You look like an aunty
You need to exercise
You need to loose weight
Hey can you not go on a diet
You can end up with diabetes and other problems
Just imagine, at this rate how you would look in another few years
Are you second time pregnant?
Your face is nice, but loose some weight, would make you look nice
Loosing weight would boost your confidence
Your feet will not be able to take the weight
Loose weight, you will feel good about it
Hey you know what, only fat people can make jokes about themselves on their fat.. and laugh, and that means they are not confident..
No mam we dont have the size.(and a stupid grin)..(This happens only when i go out to shop with my husband, George)
At a school friend's wedding - whom i had not seen for 10 years, my ''friend'' the bride, at the reception '' Hey you have gained so much weight, you look very auntish '' (in presence of George)
I am fed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May be i am just finding excuses
I work 9 hours + a day, run a house, have a little fellow who is 2 yrs and 3 monthsI just cant seem to have the time
I need to sleep too...

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office - George Bernard Shaw

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake-Author Unknown

If nature had intended our skeletons to be visible it would have put them on the outside of our bodies. ~Elmer Rice

I keep trying to lose weight... but it keeps finding me! ~Author Unknown

I'm allergic to food. Every time I eat it breaks out into fat. ~Jennifer Greene Duncan

You can't lose weight by talking about it. You have to keep your mouth shut. ~Author Unknown

Dieting is not a piece of cake. ~Author Unknown

Don't go out of your weigh to please anyone but yourself. ~Author Unknown