Habit

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest asset or heaviest burden. I will push you up to success or down to disappointment. I am at your command. Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me, For I can do them quickly, correctly, and profitably. I am easily managed, just be firm with me. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with the precision of a machine and the intelligence of a person. You can run me for profit, or you can run me for ruin. Show me how you want it done. Educate me. Train me. Lead me. Reward me. And I will then...do it automatically. I am your servant. Who am I? I am a habit.

Profound na? Well, I didn't write it. But I loved it so it's going to be on my blog.

He's the Bestest

Couple of weekends ago, I was crankier than a Polar bear roaming in the Gobi desert. It was Sunday and I didn't really know what to do in the evening(rare occasion), the Husband had suggested many options including a movie and dinner, which added on to my irritation.

When he realized I was clueless, he quietly asked me to get into the car.... and then drove me to Crossword and told me I could take as long as I wanted and pick as many books as I wanted!!!

The smell of printed pages... I think it's what heaven would smell like! Yum mm!

The 4 figure bill in the end hurt (especially since I was paying for all of it) but who cares, I had an entire evening in one of the best bookstores :-)

He's the bestest!

1 Page Books

I was under the impression Arnav's a voracious reader, he'd managed to read every single road sign that we came across during my visit this Diwali. Out of curiosity I asked him if he likes reading books.

He said, "Yes, I like 1 Page books."

I ask, "What are 1 Page books?"

He answers, "You open the book, there's a nice picture on the page, you close the book. That's a 1 page book"

And they say.... Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

Almost Evicted

We were on our way to Kalyan for Bhaubeej... Arnav, My sis, Dad, Me and my Brother-in-law(who was driving). Bro-in-law decided to play songs from Rock On. I love the songs from that movie, the music is good and all.. but more importantly because I can actually sing along with some of the songs without sounding really besura :-)

The song 'Tum ho toh' starts playing, I sing along... utilizing my full lung and vocal chord capacity at the 'zindaagiiiiiii' part. Now Arnav's sitting next to me, and he's really really getting irritated. He asks me politely to not sing. I don't listen.

Next, tired of just sitting around in the Car,I start practicing the finger conditioning exercises that Ashwin has asked us to do. My sis asks me about it, I explain how it strengthens your fingers and to demonstrate, I jab her in the upper arm.

She hollers in pain.

Arnav who's had enough of me by now, stands up on his seat and starts yelling, "Dad please stop the car. Ask Mugdha to get out. She's troubling everyone, not listening to anyone, is generally being naughty and doing a lot of mischief."

His age 5 1/2 years. My age 30 years.

By the end of the trip:

1.Ravi did not evict me on the Thane-Kalyan Highway.
2. We had an extremely disgruntled child in the car.
3. My sister found a great way of demonstrating to her son how annoying it was when someone did not listen to you.
4. I just had a lot of fun.

To the Dude sitting up there... your sense of Humor sucks!

Now that the MBA, the 'Moving to New House', the annual vacation and other trifling matters are done with, I've begun gymming in earnest. I really enjoy it. I love waking up early in the morning, driving down empty roads and burning all those layers of lard on the treadmill. Great huh? At most times yes, except yesterday....

...I am on the treadmill, I have 30 minutes more to go, I am taking deep breaths so that my muscles are oxygenated... when suddenly the guy on the treadmill beside me lets out a Silent fart.... which was Chernobyl, the Swamp Thing, Rotten eggs, Dead dogs, a Trash can and other noxious smells all rolled into one killer fart.

As I gagged, I desperately looked around for another vacant cardio machine, and they were all taken. I had 2 choices either skip cardio and then feel lousy through the day, or suffer the gas chamber (and almost die due to inhalation of toxic fumes) but feel good for the rest of the day.

Just when you thought life was simple, the guy sitting up there decides to mess around with you!

Dude! Your sense of Humor Sucks!!!

Yes Mamma. 100 times

Was talking to my Sis over the phone this evening. We were generally catching up on family gossip.... when suddenly I heard my sister yell and scream. I heard sufficient numbers of 'Eeeiii' and 'Shiiii' and 'Eeewwws' to realise that Arnav had done something again.

I asked her what happened, she said, "You'll vomit if I tell you"... and then she told me.. Arnav had basically picked a huge booger from his nose and eaten it!

The confidence that he displayed while doing this prompted her to ask if he had done this before.

His response: "Yes Mamma. 100 times"

Velcro Feet and Crash Landings

We had a long weekend coming up... JK insisted on starting a 'Bangalore Chodo Andolan.' I was not so keen on a 4 day outing.. primarily because I didn't want to miss Jujitsu classes over the weekend. At around 5 pm..We began googling for 1- day trips from Bangalore. By 7 pm, we had completely finalized trips to 3 different locations.

Suddenly at 7.38 pm,we dropped all three locations and decided to go to Hogenekkal. We booked our cab and persuaded Pradeep and Samba to join us. By 8.30 Samba had dropped out of the plan twice... finally at 9 pm he decided that he would come. We decided to leave office at 6.30 am. We managed to leave at 7.15 am.

As impromptu as our trip was, luck was truly on our side! We managed to get the perfect driver for our trip. Why do I think he was the perfect driver?

1. On reaching Hosur, he told us there were two routes to get to Hogenekkal.. either via the main road or via the interior roads (read jungles, mountains and natural terrain)and.... he took us through the junglee route :-)

2. He ensured we stopped for breakfast before we went into the jungle territory. Breakfast was at a 4x4 sq ft soot covered Hotel Selvam... needless to say, the food was awesome.

3. When we needed a pee break, and there was no hotel/ petrol station in sight, he stopped at his friend's place and so that we could do what we needed to :-)

4. He negotiated with the Coracle guy so that instead of the usual 500, we had to pay only 350.

5. By the time we came back from our Coracle ride, he had already made arrangements for our lunch.

6. And most importantly, he put up with JK's and my singing.

After the Coracle ride, we were famished... our knight in the white Indica (aka our driver) took us to this tiny shack with 3 rickety plastic tables. By this point we were beyond questioning his judgment, we just pulled up chairs, sat at one of the rickety tables and indulged in a never-witnessed-before spree of gluttony.

Our initial plans included visiting the local Aquarium and a Crocodile Rehabilitation center (well I was not too keen on meeting Crocs in rehab)... Anyway, once lunch was over with, all that we wanted to do was get inside the air-conditioned car and fall asleep. After a quick round of ice creams, we left Hogenekkal and headed back to Bangalore. And that's how the one day vacation ended.

P.S. We also discovered Pradeep had Velcro feet- he just would not slip on any of the rocks. Samba has also patented a technique of ensuring one never loses his/her balance while boarding a coracle... he just crash lands sideways and then sits cross legged where ever he's landed.

Oh Really!

I told Arnav this morning that I was really excited about meeting him for Diwali.
His response: 'Oh Really?'
His Age: 5 years 9 months
My question: Where did he learn to speak like that

Never Ask for a Break!

We had our maiden kickboxing class at work today. The instructor mentioned he was going to make it an easy class. It began with us running in circles in the open space on the roof-top. This was followed by a 'warm-up' consisting of squats, crunches and punches. Someone in the class yelled 'give us a break'. Our instructor happily obliged... the break was a 100 count Iron Man hold.

Apparently not everyone got the hint. After a few more crunches I heard another shout for break... and break we got... this time it was an oblique bridge.

After the second break every time the instructor asked if we wanted a break, there was a resounding 'NO' that was heard. Some sadistic instructor we have.

Moral of the story: Never ask for a break. AES.

Who Hits Who?

Had read an article about Jujutsu... just for a lark, I googled Jujutsu+ Bangalore.... found http://shootfighter.wordpress.com in my search results. I really liked what I read, and went for a trial class.

Now 8 classes and 10000 aching muscles later. I am hooked!

Toinks thinks its a phase. Arnav thinks it's called Whohitswho. The husband thinks... well, sorry he doesn't think.

It's a supercool feeling... to know that when the situation arises. I'll be able to kick butt

Out of Hibernation

I am back to the world of blogging. Yay Yay yay. What joy!