Maavu Mania!!

Before I start writing let me tell  all my blogger friends out there that "Maavu" in Kannada means Mango - The king of summer!! The summer holidays and the mangoes have always gone hand in hand for me. Some of the best memories of my childhood have mangoes as the main character...
In the summer holidays, we used to go to our native - which is about 50 kms from where i stay now :-) I know everyone is not so fortunate enough! :-))
So, we would be about 8-10 of us at any given time and my uncle used to get basket full of mangoes home.
Each of us would get a mango after lunch! yes! you heard me right! we would get 1 each and not more...we would eat them in limit and relish each and every bite we would take. The way the juice would trckle down our hand and the way we would lick it! ummmm... (this explanation reminds me of the Aamsutra ad ;-)!!!) but that is how it was I promise!
We also had a mango tree in our front yard - we used to get someone to climb the tree and pluck the raw mangoes! the amazing combinatons we would get of raw mango, a little salt and a little chilli powder..yummy-licious!!!

The mango tree that bore so many fruits year after year for us is no more - it had to be felled as it had aged but the memories will never be erased from all  our minds! It still is like movie running infront of my eyes...waiting for the mangoes to be thrown down, pleading with aunt to mix it for us and finally waiting for our turn to taste it!!!

Triology - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading the Triology from Steig Larsson - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.

I went to RN's place on the 30th of April, wanting to pick up a book to read. It was sometime since I had read anything serious and big. I had some errand on the 1st which required me to wait for more than an hour in some place. So, RN gave me these books. I asked her to give me 1 at a time but she told me take all three - you will read it one after the other.
I took them home and my Tryst with Lisbeth Salander and Michael Kalle Blomkvist began...
I was so bowled over by the character that Stieg has put across. She is the ultimate in what she does - she does it so perfectly. doesnt get affected by what anyone thinks of her. She gives a damn. Imagine, someone who has a photographic memory, who just by looking at a complex formula once can know how it is and how to solve it.

But, howmuchever i liked the character,  the book set forth in me a raging war against all values and beliefs. It goes on to tell you about the complexity of relationships. It Shreds into pieces the trust you have on marriage as an institution. It makes you wonder if you were thought the right thing and somewhere along the way all of it were lost and a new system came into place. It Makes you think hard - if it really happens and you are just too narrow-minded and it your own little safe & secure world.

I know- "this is not a book review, just my view!"

A collegue and I were discussing all the stuff that happens in this book and we thought - as Steig died just after submitting the manuscript, the publishing house did not bother to do any editing as a tribute to him! :-)

The first book was amazingly awesome but the 2nd & 3rd just take a toll on you, makes you skip pages like (a lot of them)

Finally, I finished the book 1 & 2 in a week each but the 3rd book took me for ever to complete but I am done now. I still feel it will take me a while to digest everything I learnt from it!!!

The Day I Became A MOM!!

I had almost completed 8 months and that day was the wedding of I my husband's cousin. I had to go to the doctor and then the plan was to go to the parlour for a bit of threading coz god knows when i would get a chance to go again..a few months may be. As usual, I went at 1.30pm to the hospital as my doc would only come at that time there. I went to her, she did my routine check up and gave me the news that my BP had shot up and they had to keep me under observation. I was not at all prepared to go & get admitted in the hospital but to go to the cousin's wedding. I went back home and on the way called hubby dearest to come home ASAP. Came back home and told my mum - " the doctor asked me to get admitted right away and I am scared" she said - "why?" nothing will happen do not worry. So hubby came and took me to the hospital. The doc checked my BP again and put me under observation. hubby did not want to go to the wedding reception but I sent him off as all his cousins were there and in any case I was not delivering that day..in the morning my mum had made Bisi bele bhath and I relished it :-)! When the doctor came a lttle while later, and asked me what I had for breakfast - i told her. She is like oh oh! we will have to wait for the food to digest before we start on you. Then she asked me how I wanted to deliver as a debate was going on b/n mom & MIL -natural VS C section. Finally I went in for the C Section - not coz I wanted to obey my MIL but was scared to go through the natural child birth. Finally I went in to the operation theatre at 4.30pm. My daughter was born at 5.21pm. When the baby cried, I was crying too..the doc did not tell me what baby it was, when I asked her - she told me it was a baby girl! I was overjoyed and cried. The doc thot I was crying coz I wanted a baby boy?? no ways!!! nada I always wanted a girl! I had got her. my little angel. She was born at 5.21pm on the 31st day of August in the year 2006! She is soon going to be be 6 yr old. I have been a mom for almost 6 years now! But still remember the day she was born and her first cry so vividly!!

8 Years of Togetherness!!

Soon we are going to cross another milestone, another year of togetherness - of love, of fights, of irritation, of faith, of trust, of knowing each other like the back of the hand, like the wart on the finger,of wanting our own space...I can say I have been really lucky to have him as my better half. I am little flighty, over-entusiastic, emotional types and he is the strong logical anchor who has kept me rooted to the earth. He completes me. He is the yin for my yang. If I am a rainbow of 7 colors, he is the purest of whites who absorbs all these colors into one! It is going to be 8 years for our wedding soon very soon...When we told at home the first time, there was a world war at my place :-)!! I shudder to even think about the day I told at home about him- all hell was let loose and the next morning when I got up, I was hoping all that happened yesterday was a dream....but it had haapened. From the day he came to our house when summoned by my pa, I fell more in love with him...Every year has been a new learning...Last year when we crossed the threshold of the 7 year itch - I kept threatening him but he truly knows it is all just air and no solid substance. I cant look beyond him. I guess when we both are old, we will sit together on the porch or in the balcony and look at the sun setting in the horizon, throwing a orange-pink-golden glow on the whole world!!