A couple of weeks back, my kids were staying at my mom's place for vacation. My Hubby was out of station (as usual!) and me and my trusted househelp were alone at home and then she too wanted to go to her home town for vacation. So, I thought I will also go to my mom's place for 3 days till hubby come back...with that plan I left home with a bag packed for 3 days. But, God had other plans....

I went there alright and we had a fun time...went for movie "Vaanam"...ok...can be watched once, attended a birthday party of my cousin's kid, went shopping with mom etc etc.

But, suddenly my Chithi, who has come down from UK, and had a Hystrectomy about a month back, developed a complication. She has got herself operated by her own SIL (Ahem! Ahem!) in a "cook gramam" near Coimbatore. I always thought people come to a city to avail all the latest medical facilities, but only in my family do people come from UK to get operated in a remote village in Tamil Nadu!!!! The SIL and her husband were both good doctors alright...but still something went wrong and she had her wound infected again!!! So, the SIL landed up and wanted to take her away to that village again. Now, she did not want to go alone and my mom had to go with her for an INDEFINITE period!!! So, there I was stuck with 2 kids, a dad and a grand mom to look after. What started as a good vacation now became a pain. We had a servant and cook alright...still...

That week end my hubby came back...but no sign of the "trusted" househelp that I had for the last 5 years, so we decided to stay there only till Mom comes back.

Now, finally she is back but is going back again next week to bring chithi back. My kids went to my In laws house for 3 days and I am back home...trying to come back to my usual routine...with new servant. Still hunting for a cook....and hosuehelp!!!

It's Akshaya Trithiya!!!

God knows what it was about 4 years back...we hadn't even heard of such a thing. Thanks to all the Jewellery shopowners...now everyone...whether they have money for food or not, wants to buy atleast a gram of gold on this auspicious day.

Women - do they need any better excuse to buy jewellery??

Anyway, for the past 3 years or so, I too have been allured by this craze (I am a person who doesnt even need this excuse to buy jewellery...its always "We have 2 daughters so we need all the gold in the world for their wedding...see the rates increasing...what better investment other than gold"...is my usual dialougue). So, if not on the very same day as the "Akshaya Thrithya" I will but something the day before or the day after.(God knows where is the whole logic!!).

This year it is falling tomorrow...but to my shock my hubby is still out of station!!! Being the "Pathini Deivam" that I am I usually do not go out much without my hubby, leave alone jewellery shopping. I mean I have all the financial independance and the poor chap too would not mind...but I always need his reassurance for the purchase of even a safety pin!!!

So, what do I do? Now, here comes the hand of destiny (which I very much trust). Today I went to my new office (I relocated from one branch to another) and friend R suggests we go to a Jewellery shop during lunch!!!! Wow..what a dream come true...so post lunch me, R and F went to a famous jewellery shop were I ususlly buy...and I bought a RING!!! Today's gold rate was 2064! (This I have mentioned for it to be etched in history...I remember my grandma saying "Enga kaalathula ellam, savaran Rs.13 than!!!"...so when my grandchildren read this, gold rate could be 1 Gram= Rs. 50000 or so!!!).

F bought a pair of lovely Jumkas for his wife (about 5 times the price of the ring that I bought!!! Ahem...Ahem...N are you reading this?). R who basically intiated all this did not like anything and did not buy anything for today. Said she might come back tomorrow!!!

So, finally I have made a solo purchase without hubby or mummy...and am really excited!!! Wanna see his reaction!!!

It's vacation time and my kiddos are off to their grandparents house...and generally having a whale of a time there. It's like ice cream everyday...one craft work atleast per day...lots of yummy finger foods lovingly prepared by my Mom...and old tamil movies!!! Yes, now at 7 years my daughters are crazy about mythological pictures yknow like "Thiruvilaiyaadal", "Saraswathi Sabadham"...etc...infact they get up (I really don't know how!!!) by 9 AM every sunday to watch "Vinayagar Thiruvilaiyaadal"...when usually they sleep till 10 or 10.30 AM during holidays. Infact, me and hubby still sleep till 10 or 10.30...while they watch TV quietly!!! Definitely this is not my gene or hubby's... dunno from where it came!!!


From when they were 3 they were very interested in summer camps...so every year I enrolled them in some summer camp where they learnt some craft, drawing, songs etc. Last year I had sent them to a swimming camp which V was not very happy about. But, N on the other hand took to water like fish and did really well.

This year all of us are really lethargic. I am too lethargic to search and enroll them and they too on the other hand are lethargic to go to any camp! They just want to laze around in their grandparents house!!! Guess since laziness is creeping up...they are growing...now...that's my gene there!!! But, still I want them to go for swimming atleast to have some touch...let's see.

This was written some months back and I had saved it as a draft....surprisingly I am not even able to remember when and why I had written this...definitely it was not my best day I guess!!!

Despite all the hurdles that God had placed in our life...he has given us the most important gift...the gift of being able to forget...or rather forgive and forget!!! Maybe I should make use of it more often....

I just remember this one incident when they were in UKG. It was the last day of school and they came to me and said that tomorrow is celebration day and we need Rs.5 each to buy something and share with all. They said everyone in the class will be going and celebrating, pouring water on each other etc...I trusted them and gave them Rs.5 each and sent them.

The next day, they came home with partially wet uniform and all was well.

Later, just out of curiosity I started questioning them on the happenings of the day when a new story unfolded!!!! There was no celebration that was planned in the class. They had a couple of van friends from higher classes (2nd std and 1st std!!!), who had made the plan. They had decided to bring money from home, meet under a particular tree after school (I never in my wildest dreams imagined that my babies knew the way around the school...except from and to the van!!!! How naive can I be?!!!), go to the canteen, buy and eat snacks etc...later when these 4 came late to the van, the van anna had questioned them and they had poured water on him and teased him etc and the poor guy just shut up and brought them home....my lil babies...were becoming lil rowdies...Rowdy Rackammas!!!!