The 11 o'clock Show

I figured yesterday that Vijay and I should go for the late night show of 'The King's Speech'. By 11 p.m., hopefully all three kids should be in bed, and what was a little loss of sleep when it came to watching such an acclaimed movie.
I thus booked the tickets online and off we went at the appointed hour. One hot chocolatey brownie, a huge tub of popcorn and a large coke accompanied us into the hall.
I was terribly sleepy however, and I have to say that while I really liked the movie, it's not exactly the riveting fast-paced kind that would keep you wide awake at that late hour. But I had a lot of fun and net-net decided that this kind of movie experience could be managed once a month.
Vijay was making sighing and making comments like 'Arrey, yaar....bahut dheere bolta hai...' I thought he was just being funny till the end of the movie, when we walked out hand in hand but realized that our views on the movie were completely opposite.
'WHAT?' he said 'You LIKED IT?'. He then proceeded to say something that annoyed a lot of people who were walking out with us towards the lift, something along the lines of how 'next, koi maharani ko zukaam ho jaaye aur usse koi doctor theek kare, uspe movie banayenge!'. He thought it was predictable, plotless and felt like an extended serial instead of a movie.
I thought it was eminently enjoyable and that the acting was truly superb, even though I did feel that the plot was very predictable. I said I liked the acting a lot...the King, his wife, his brother and of course, the Speech Therapist.
Vijay thought about it and said 'I liked Aunty'.
Which Aunty, I enquired.
'Wohi...wo aunti jissne King ke bhai ko phassaya...woh mast thi'.

Whatever, Vijay. Seriously, should have just let you watch Dabanng at home on your laptop, the corny dialogues of which you were chuckling at, like a teenage boy, just before we left for the hall.

Next late night movie, you get to pick. And I'll be picking the holes in it.

What fun!

Writing...

I am supposed to be submitting a reworked draft of the book in the first week of April. And suddenly for some reason, it seems impossible to find time to write. Between the three kids and work, there's just hardly any space left. I come back from work and then it's one thing after the other and oh my lord is it really 10.22 p.m. already?
Of course, you may be wondering why I'm able to find the time to blog but basically there's no pressure involved in it with you guys.
Seriously though, I need to finish that book - when when when when WHEN?
Got to feed Papad now.

Zoobie-doobie

My daughter really has a way about her.
I scolded her about something this morning. I knew I was being a tad unreasonable about it. Mornings with three squalling babies and trying to get ready for work are a little-bittle difficult to handle sometimes.
After I finished scolding her, I saw her nostrils flaring and knew she was going to lose it with me. She began to say 'Mama...you're being st...' but better sense somehow prevailed, and instead she chose to convey her message musically.
Nostrils still flaring, but her mouth beginning to twitch, she started hopping from one foot to the other, and then she began to sing. Initially, I had to strain my ears to make out what she was saying but by the end of it, she was nice and loud.
It was a fast-forwarded version of Zoobie-Doobie.
'Zoobie-doobie-zoobie-doobie...pampaada...zoobie-doobie...padampaaa...
Zoobie-doobie-zoobie-doobie...naache kyon...pagal stupid MA'.
Point made.
And thanks, Vijay, for teaching her that one.

Errr...Supermom? Not really...

Actually, I'm not anywhere close to Supermom.
You won't find me jumping over diaper piles as high as buildings during the days, and flying above the traffic from my office to my home during the evenings. I do wish I had the power to fly a few times around the Earth to reverse time and get another extra couple of hours with my babies, but I've tried and it doesn't really happen.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not being apologetic here about being a less than perfect Mom. I'm actually just trying to be the best mom that I can be. But it's a description that just doesn't fit me, although it's kind of nice that at least some people can't tell how frazzled I really am half the time.
Having said that, I'm actually feeling really refreshed and kicked right now after a game of squash. I've taken up playing the game with my husband and he's been beating the crap out of me at it. Have you ever sprained your left butt-cheek while playing squash? Not that I'm saying this has happened to me. But sorry, that isn't very a Supermom-like question, is it?
Oh well.

Y's Big Book Break

I've always wanted to write. When I started this blog in November, 2006 ( oh my GOD that's a long time ago), it was in order to have some sort of a creative outlet.
I blogged fanatically for a while until I realized I was spending too much time on it. But it was a very important step. It put me in touch with some wonderful people, especially mothers. I made some good friends in the blogging circuit. I learnt to deal with (surprisingly few) negative people. And importantly - there were some people who told me that they liked reading me so much that I should write a book.
So Guess What?
While I was on my maternity leave (must have been the near-death experience as I dramatically put it to myself), I wrote me a little something, sent it out, waited a looong time, hoping and praying that someone would like it enough to actually publish it.
And Guess What?
Now don't get too excited - it's a long while away from actually becoming a final product and being launched, in fact, it could take upto a year as the completely darling Chief Editor says. So there's really not much point talking about it just now. But here's the strange thing - over the last few months, my orientation changed completely to 'I want it out soooon' to 'I don't actually care too much about a few months here and there'. The point is - I'm an author. And I know this is only the first. My head is already bursting with ideas for the second and one of my discussions with the Editor today was on a list of book ideas so that I know which one to work on this year, while the first one goes through it's own course of finalization et al.
So it's a huge deal for me. I've been blogging very little because it's hard for me to not write about what's happening in life, and I didn't want to talk about it until it really happened. But now I'm back and I think I'm going to be a lot more regular about writing.
And yeah, I'm not quitting my day job just yet. From whatever I hear, there's not very much money in writing and besides, I actually like my job (gasp!) despite the occasional little annoyances that it entails. Besides, many mouths to feed and all that jazz. So therefore, balance is the key. As I figured when I stopped home after work for about an hour before heading out to the Editor-meeting, and was faced with two wailing babies who wanted to be fed and cuddled at the same time, while Peanut hung on determinedly to my leg as I tried to leave, claiming 'Tell me a SHTORY right now. You ALREADY went to OFFISH'.
Deep breath. Balance. Very important. Sigh.
But before I forget. I want to say a big thanks ( Oscar Style!) to a few people.

To Stuti and Svety and other kind bloggers/commenters for all the encouragement starting many years ago and consistently telling me I write funny and should write more.

To the lady who inspired me to start and finish and send out to publishers and all that jazz and who has no qualms about 'Taking full credit' as she puts it herself. And by the way, happy birthday, Parul.

To my good friend Ganju, Richa and my sister Gitanjali for giving me their feedback on multiple versions.

And to my hubby dear, mother dear and the rest of the family and friends - for all the great material. It just keeps coming at me, every single day.

But balance calls...little Papad has woken up after fifteen minutes of deep sleep and is now wailing for attention.

What fun.

And with that I bid you Goodnight. You beautiful, beautiful people, you!