Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya...

Finally, I stole an afternoon and watched the movie, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya. Quite a difference from the usual tamil movies. I must say I loved it, except for the twisted ending. Looks like, tamil movies are steering towards a good path. Thank You Gowtham!!

A simple love story, beautifully said , absolutely lovable songs, Simbu(Karthik) & Trisha's(Jessie) neat acting. Must salute Simbu for having stayed away from his usual tortorous acts. Trisha , just lovely. Trisha's voice in the movie, which I believe is Chinmayi, added that extra pinch of essence. Jessie in her sarees, always pretty pretty. Karthik looked good too.

Love strikes at him, and then the girl too. A wedding in between. A love spell. A separation. A wedding again and the rest I have erased it off from my memory. Screw you Gowtham, for that twisted ending. I hate it. I would very much advise anyone who hasn't watched the movie yet, to walk out when the movie inside the movie ends.

Wow, how loves strikes.Still makes me wonder, how amazingly well it has been captured. Songs & the picturization were just out of the world. It still sweetly lingers in my heart. After a long time, I watched a movie, I truly love. If you know me, you would know that I am not a big fan of movies. I would rather spend an afternoon at home with my books. But, not this movie.

 My husband thought it was dumb for Jessie to leave Karthik, as she just didn't justify herself well. Well, I say its good enough of a justification when she says, 'I would rather be hated by you than by my parents'. Sounds a little extreme, but somehow it convinced me. Whatever....

All together, I think it was absolutely beautiful. Well, the movie would leave you dreamy... which would last for a good while.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya..
Pudavai katti-kondu Varuvaaya...

No Singlish Please!

Oh My God! My baby is speaking Singlish!

Yesterday, Nephy screamed at me, for having left her in the middle of her play to drink water. And she screamed 'Amma... No... Go'. Man.... I don't speak that kinda English. Then, realization struck. Its my maid, who talks Singlish. Thank you M'am, but No, Thanks! For your information, my baby can understand Tamil very well.

My heart aches to think of the fact that , growing up in Singapore, she would speak Singlish with the verbs , pronouns missing and an 'already'(actually Oreddi) attached to every sentence. Ofcourse, the famous 'lah!'. The 'can-can'. No, darling , Please don't.  I might not feel so bad, even if you were to speak Tanglish with a 'va' attached to everything. Like 'ok-va?' 'No-va?' . My heart would still ache to hear Tanglish, but not so much.

I think its time to teach my baby some proper English. I do consciously try to speak to her in English at times, but then its forgotten and the tamil always comes first hand. It isn't like, when she is doing something naughty to tell her 'Nephy.. please stop doing that'(with an added English accent). Its more like 'Adi vaanga pora Nephy'.... and believe me, the latter works like majic(sometimes).

Until then its 'No...Go..'

The other day, my neighbour said to Nephy, 'You shop oreddi, you no go,  I no go shopping oreddi, I go..' Well, go figure....

Finally, a movie after 2 years!

After 2 years, I finally managed to go to the theatre and watch a movie with Anto (Sigh! Sigh! I believe the feeling is mutual. Wish it was Jay & Prabs or Augus & Nithi & the rest of the coll gang)
When growing up, films weren't a part of family tradition. We never went to movies on family outings. As a kid, I remember, the only movie that we went as a family was 'Anjali'. Later on, during trips to KK, there were a few movies watched with cousins. Then, it was Prabs & Jay who opened up the world of cinemas when in school. In College, I don't even have to say, what the ten of us were up to? Crazy times!

Tats past. Sigh! Sigh! Sigh a lot!

It was my idea to watch a good tamil movie in good old Satyam on my last trip to Chennai. But you know what happened to my vacation? Chickungunya happened and nothing else happened. So, into the drain went my grand plans of Satyam cinemas & butter pop corn.
During chinese new year. With 4 days of holidays and no trip planned, we ended up staying at home for 4 days and Nephy provided all the necessary entertainment. It was the only long weekend for a long while , so a good chance to catch a movie, while the lil one was left at home with her grandma and the maid. Anto & I went to the theatre and damn! No tickets for the only tamil movie there, which happened to be Goa. Settled for an english movie. Valentine's day. Nothing great abt the movie. Too many characters, revolving around Valentine's day.
I realised a few things. In the first place, I was never a movie buff and still am not and movies don't give me the thrills. The second thing I realised was, Nephy was much of a better entertainer. The third thing, sweet pop corn is still tastes good.

Nephy's vocab list

So-So means Chocolate - and don't you dare mess around with her when she cries out for So-so.

Amma - Appa - Anto

Numbers are always 'Two', How many Grandmas u got? Two... How many birdies did you see? Two... How many so-so do you want? Two.. Ask her to say 'One'... 'Two' tumbles out, 'One' never
Its still Aasaa for Grandma, however Grandpas are spared, she calls them Thaatha.

The maid is called 'akka'

Water is 'Tha.. Tha..' Milk is 'Pa-a'. Toys are 'Jaamaan'. cheese is 'Seez'. Shoes is 'Chappal'. Food is 'Chapa', fish is 'yum-yum'.

Uncle is 'Mama' , Auntie is 'Athai' and chithappa is loving called 'Thaappaa'.

Teacher Sapea is called 'Apea' and she still continues to smother us with kisses when asked, what would you give to teacher Sapea.

Shampoo is called 'Shampoo' . Thanks Sweetheart! That seems to be the only one which is said the way it should be.

There is Apple, Ball, Bow-wow for dog, ba-ba for sheep, 'Yaana' for elephant.

You dont wanna know what is Kakka & Susu... yup, we are potty trained(almost). However, occurences may happen with no warning whatsoever and occurences may not be notified or subtle hits may be given out by asking for a mat and trying to wipe it off before being noticed. That is all that I can remeber for now.

Natalie baby is fondly called 'No-no' baby

Did I tell you that my niece, Natalie's vocabs has grown too. She keeps crying out on the phone...'Kaaka paathiya'.. Yes, darling, I indeed did. (Did you know that there are no crows in Singapore, sad lot, these folks kill all the crows just becoz they aren't fond of a small little birdie's droppings) and she does call out to her dad, Mathew cutely as 'Matt-Thuu'. Can't wait to teach her 'Dey.. Mathew'. Then there is the 'Thanni Thaa' 'Mummy Thaa' and lots of other lil things.

Nephy @ Playskool

Nephy @ Playskool

Nephy's short stint at playskool lasted for about 2 weeks. The first day, mommy & daughter (Yeah, daddy & grandma too) set off to school. It started out well with Nephy playing with all the wonderful puzzles & blocks & toys there. Finally, her teacher came and then all the kids cheered. Hmm, never had I seen anyone ever receive such cheer & smiles announcing their arrival. So, it was Teacher Sapea.

Followed roll call, some kids said a YES, while a few others answered a YES for all. Teacher Sapea broke into a song and a dance and the kids joined in. Nephy sat with her toys next to me, and refused to join. I went and sat among the kids and she still refused to join me, happy with her own play things. There were 2 more teachers in the room, who tried to get Nephy to come over, but none of them forced her to.

Then Teacher Sapea came up with these 2 water bottles, one with hot water and the other with cold water, the children sat around her enthralled in what they were hearing. She called up each of the kids to come up and touch the bottle and asked them to say 'Hot' and 'cold'. Finally, it was nephy's turn. The lil one went up to the teacher, touched the 2 water bottles, and wrestled the 2 bottles out of the teacher, and brought it with her.Did I tell you,'with a winning smile'? I tried to pry it out of her hands and hand it back to the teacher, but the teacher said it was alright for her to play with it. I thanked her.
Time to drink water, so all the kids took out their straw-bottles and sipped water, while teacher Sapea took out Smiley stickers and stuck it on to the kid's bottles, appreciating their good work of drinking water(wish my manager was half as appreciative as her..Nah, not with stickers, but a little bonus wouldn't hurt). Nephy demanded that she be given more stickers(That Brat!)  and surprisingly the teacher obliged.

Next lesson, happened to be learning what is smooth and what is rough. She held up 2 plates one rough, and the other smooth. Each of the kids, went to the reacher and found out whats rough and smooth. Finally, Nephy's turn. This time, the teacher was wise enough not to repeat her mistake. She made Nephy touch them but didn't give it to her. Until the end of the class, Nephy refused to part with her bottles though.

Then, it was time for lunch. Since its a day care, even those half-day ones like Nephy would be provided lunch. Nephy took the spoon, and protested to me or the teacher helping her to eat. She took one lil mouthful, and almost gagged. That lil dear who is so used to poricha meen & pepper chicken, couldn't eat the bland kids food. Well, when it comes to trying to make her eat, I would even climb the everest with relative ease. She went on to play with another class, who were colouring. Her age kids continued to eat bowl after bowl and I was very much in awe. Think, those kid's parents are blessed.
After lunch, it was time for chinese class. The teacher tried to teach them Gong Xi song and a few other things I didn't follow. Class finished.

Oh boy, wat a lovely day.
Just one little rogue kid, hurting my baby. Plump little fellow, with sharp nails keeps pinching my baby.....
...(To Be continued)

~~ 26 years old ~~

After 26 years, a marriage, a baby, I definitely have to ask myself a few questions. 'What have I done worth-while until now' 'Have my dreams come true' 'Has life turned out to be the way I wanted it to be'. Ha ha . No, no such questions would pop up even if it were my last day on earth. The question thats goes in circles in my mind, before my birthday 'How do I trick my husband into buying me a gift' and the aftermath question varies based on gift or no-gift.

If I've ever said anything mean about Anto, I take it all back, I take it ALL back. He proclaimed himself as 'The Sweetest husband' the other day, the day after he bought me an iPhone(Did u hear me say, for-almost-nothing). He was very pleased with himself, 'Betsy, Am I not the sweetest husband, I bought you a gift even before your birthday'. I agreed.

*Evil Grin* I vowed to myself that 'You aren't gonna look anywhere near so-pleased-with-yourself when I claim my real gift'

The weekend before my birthday, he casually, asked 'Do you wanna buy something?' I gave him enough hints the week before by looking through every jewellery store window near home. Finally, shopping. Anto chose this lovely solitaire and I knew it would blow his budget beyond reach, but he was still smiling. Tats when the sales girl revealed the details, carefully placed tiny diamonds, to look like a solitaire. No, thanks a lot.

Then I chose a lovely earring and Anto was in smiles too. For one second, I thought I would choose another. I mean, he shouldn't be happy about it, he should have that look,'OMG, how the hell will I ever pay for this'. I was too tired to look for another. So, deal done. After deal-done, I found something really big and really expensive, and then the sales girl kindly offered to cancel the previous order and bill this one. Then for one glorious moment, I saw that lovely look on his face. Well, maybe another time *wink*

He is still happy about it which kinda makes me want to run back and change. Well,

all said and done, Its time to say, 'Thanks Anto! I'll agree with you this once! U r the sweetest husband!'