Whatz up?

Whatz up here in Kachi Kautu world? Lots and lots!! A 750KM car trip to Coonoor with just the dad, a 7 month pregnant mom and the two of us!! Wow! This was last week for Diwali and guess what? Neither of us had a problem..in fact, we enjoyed being pampered by the grandparents so much that we wouldn't have minded if the parents had left us back in Coonoor, but my poor mom fell sick on the way back!! She caught a cold that soon turned into a sinus and chest congestion and is just beginning to get back into shape. So, while we run around like brigands, she's been sitting by the inhaler with steam blowing all over her and spouting from her ears every time she sees dad...mainly for taking her on a trip that cost two days of travel by road and that seems to have broken her already bent back!
Anyways, for us, we find more joy in each others company now a days...in fact, even fighting has its merit when we can run to dad and mom with a bruised cheek or hand and get the other guy into trouble. Why, we even bang our head (ofcourse mildly, but the parents don't know that) just so that they give us a good massage and a kiss! What do we not do for a hug and a petting! We find just about anything ridiculously funny these days. The other day, we were traveling to Coonoor (Thatha and pati's place, which is quite close to ooty). We were in our usual place at the back..mom and dad had stuffed the space below the seat with bags and put our blanket over it with a dozen or so pillows for us to play with and made it so cozy that we hardly ever bother them on these car trips. And so, to continue the story, Kachi had a thread hanging from his pant and I found it exceedingly funny! I would pull it and both of us would end up rolling in laughter at the back. Dad and mom would look back and smile at each other, but would never interfere..cause the moment they did, we would try to attract their attention and stop our games all together! So, we fight lots more, play with each other lots more and in general, we get this feeling that we are the court jesters here in our house! All mom and dad seem to do is sit and watch us romp around and we too..play every trick in our sleeve to get them laughing....so, till the next time we get a break from our hectic schedule, its tata from both of us...

Loads of luv,
Kachi and Kautu

God works in mysterious ways

Now, I had mentioned in my previous post about how Karthik undertook a solitary drive over 360 KM to reach Kachi and kautu to the safety of their Grandma's house. He reached at 7 last Thursday evening and left from there at 6 in the morning the next day. Left for office in half an hour after reaching here and by evening, his left eye had begun to swell. And by night, it was oozing water and had turned bright red. My right eye that had swollen to the size of a cherry was just begining to allow light through the tiny slits. Both husband and wife lied down that night, each holding a towel to the eye and slept grateful that they were the ones suffering and not their kids, imagined the kids playing happily with their grandparents and thanking god that they were saved from this pain.
Next morning, I got a call from mom saying that Kachi's eye had begun to swell too! Ah..for all the well laid plans! They had booked tickets to take the kids to Kerala that day evening, now all that was thrown out of the window! Amma and Appa, along with kachi and kautu took the train that night from Chennai and reached here the next day morning, by which time, Kautu's left eye too was beginning to look red and kachi had just slits for his eyes! Mom's eye looked suspicious and were sure she had succumbed to it as well! Appa was the only one left out. He remained in the kitchen the entire morning, cooked enough food to last us a week and left the place with just a toothbrush in hand! Got the afternoon bus back to Chennai..and last I heard from him a while ago, he's absolutely fine! But, the kids managed to give the red eye to the driver in Chennai, who has a new born in his house, so, I am praying day in and out that the baby is alright.
In all, theres now a house in Bangalore (may be just one of many, looking at the sheer number of red eye cases here) that has all its inhabitants pouring drops into each others eyes, towels hanging out of every corner and everyone looking like pictures out of the gross horror flicks. Still, on the brighter side, Karthik n me get a whole week with the kids..no ones gonna come and interrupt this wonderful interlude for the fear of infection and my mom has a few extra days with us as well!! So, exclude the pain out of the equation, we are all fine...infection and all, kids are recovering fast, I am almost through it and mom and karthik's eyes do look red, but they too are in the last stages..and we still have three more days at home!!!
God's ways are not known, what we propose, he often disposes, but as I have seem ample times in the past, what ever happens, it always has a reason, a purpose and works out for the best. It is up to us to work out the reason and to draw our conclusions from it. There might be a few hidden lines in this post that might show what the reason might be, but, for now, let it just remain in my thoughts alone!!

The missing kids...

I have contracted the dreaded conjunctivitis, and so, Kachi and Kautu have been packed off to their grandma's place in Chennai. More miserable than the pain in the eye is the pang of being without them. Hubby started on his long solitary drive in the afternoon today, and is yet to reach Chennai. Last I heard from them, both of them are being absolute gems, not cried once the entire trip and remained in their back seat like the great guys they are!! So, till tomorrow afternoon, am home alone..and letting my poetic skills wild and free...heres an ode to my kids...


It takes but a wink
To obliterate an entire link
What was before you a while ago
Is just now just a small memory or so.

Walking about the lonely house,
Devoid of both children and spouse
I hear their laughter, I hear their cry,
I feel them talking to me and sigh!

This is their book and that is their chair,
These are the toys they just won't share.
This is the bear with the missing drum,
And thats the doll which used to hum.

I am sitting by the table writing these lines,
They would have climbed on me like the clinging vines,
If I ignore them for a minute or two,
They would turn on each other to bite and chew!

They are funny, they are sweet,
They are a pure visual treat.
The biggest thing I right now miss,
Is hugging them close and giving them a kiss!!!

..I miss you guys!!!

Hip Hip Hurray!!!!

This Monday was the D day. Packers and movers came at a real late 11.00 in the morning. We had earlier gone to the new house (a pretty old one, actually) and finished the 'Palkachal'. My mom and dad were with us, so, things moved at a very fast pace. Once the P & M got things started, dad, mom, me and Kachi and Kautu moved over to the new place and started cleaning it head to toe. We saved the owner so much trouble that when he came to fix some pipe, his eyes literally popped out at the cleanliness of the place!! By afternoon, Karthik and the P & M arrived and then, started the work! Dad and I sorted out the kitchen (this is smaller than our previous one, so, had to dump out loads of vessels to the loft) while mom took to taking care of the kids and doing the kids room. Karthik busied himself with the living room and would you believe it, by tuesday afternoon, the house was looking spic and span and it felt as though we had been living here the past few years! The curtains were up, carpets were down, all the paintings and wall hangings were in place and we even got the carpenter to finish the extra grill on the railings to make it children safe by the afternoon!!
We even had guests that day (dad's elder sister and her family had come visiting) and they said they couldn't imagine that we had shifted in just the day before! Every thing was fine, except that I got a severe back and abdomen pain by the evening. All the bending and folding took its toll on me and there I was....lying down for a good part of the evening. Still not too bad, by the time dad left on Tuesday night and mom on Wednesday night, we were all settled. Theres just our room to get done, my items (Karthik calls it "Make up and stuff"!) to be unpacked and then we'll call it a week!! Shall post the pictures of the house soon. Right now, I am just soaking in the light, the trees, the breeze, the sound of birds chirping and waking up to the gentle ruzzle of the leaves. Leaving you guys with a rozy picture to imagine...

A cup of tea at 6.30 in the morning on the big wide balcony, facing the neem and mango trees and Kautu standing nearby talking to the cat that still hasn't woken from its sleep. It takes me a solid half and hour to get back to reality.

Shift in house, a shift in perspective!

The first update is that we are shifting houses!! Yes...moving from the lovingly decorated house with a very much used swimming pool, beautifully maintained garden and a spacious children's park and most important of all, our very own house to an 8 year old rented one! Well, things reached such a peak last week that we had no other option but to go house hunting. Being anti brokers, hubby and I scoured locality after locality, much on foot, and some by car searching for 'to let' boards and asking the local shopkeepers and apartment security. Believe it or not, we found a lot of houses by just spending three days on the hunt and finally settled down on a very old world, charming house. It is bang next to a montessori school (what we liked best about the school was the ample space for kids to run around, loads of trees and benches, in fact, it reminded me of my childhood in the open skies of Kerala!) and is owned by the people who run the school. The front room has french windows opening to a neem tree and there is a veranda by the entrance that faces a mango tree. In fact, the mango tree has a very horizontal branch that I have set my eyes on to put up a swing for the guys and me!!! There is a small garden by the side of the house, at present very unkempt, but for which I have made great plans already!! Every window in the house faces a tree..what more can I ask for? I have wanted to stay in such a place all my life and had lost hope..so what if it is rented...so what if it is going to be for a short while..I am going to make the best of it!!
Now for why we had to go in for a change..the traffic in Bangalore has come to such a state that what used to take me 20 min to reach back home from office now takes a good solid one and a half hours! Need you ask more? Plus, the bad roads, constant accelerator and clutch gives the now 5month old pregnancy a tough time. So, for now, till the next baby comes along and mostly till the traffic somehow gets better (lost hopes on that a long time ago!), we are moving close to my office..and I am going to get a garden and lots of trees for at least another year or so!!!! Keep your hands crossed...am gonna be moving soon!!

Ridiculous??

Just yesterday I was reading Winkey's ways and humming Tharini's amazingly meaningless song to myself. Its catchy and racy and I was wishing there was a way to get the tune she was using!! And Kodi's mom tagged me today to give out Kachi and Kautu's names! So I went back, and read her list of names, to discover just how much we moms have in common! All of us associate our kids with Lord Krishna..it is almost instinctive. Deep inside, all of us would have wished for kids who are as mischievous and as cute as krishna. For us, the word Kalla (thief) is an endearment. Like how Krishna stole butter and hearts..our kids too are stealers and keepers of our heart. Ordinary words that, if called an adult would seem an insult, becomes terms that we regularly call our kids. Words that seem ridiculous roll out of our tongues with ease, confident in the knowledge that neither we, nor the kids can understand what it means, but can get the feeling with which it is said. And I have noticed that during sudden spurts of overwhelming love, the language deteriorates to the mumble jumble even a caveman would have been ashamed of!! If there is a psychologist out there reading this, could you throw some light on this phenomenon? Anyways, now for the actual ramblings!!

I will start out with a song my dear husband composed and that went on to become the song we put them to sleep with, every night. Infact, once when we went to Kochi for a wedding, our song became so infamous that we would catch someone humming it in his bath!! Various distorted versions sprang up, and each time we started singing it, those high pitched, off tune, laughter mingled versions filled our head, and by the time we returned from the trip, both hubby and I were cured of the song!! Luckily for kachi and kautu!!

This is for kachi..

Kachapu kalachapu
lacha lacha pu
dingitipu dingitipu
dingiti dingiti pu

Can also be sung as --- Kachapam ka lachapam etc. by converting all the 'pu' to 'pam'!!
Same goes for Kautu if you just replace the kachi with kautu.

One version is...
Kautapam ka lautapam
lauta lautapam
trinkitipam trinkitipam
trikiti trinkiti pam!!

Well, the names that we have concocted for them goes as...

Kachi kalla...if you ask kachi who is kachi kalla, he promptly and proudly points both his hands to himself and says.."huh"!

Kautu bhuji...This was coined by my neighbor..Akshara..a 5 year old whose main pastime was entertaining these guys. The moment they see her, their eyes will light up, a huge smile transforms their face and the three of them play together like old friends!

ammu kutti, pattu kutti, chella kutti, kachi chellam, kautu chellam, ammulus, pattulus, chakare (sugar), sundarus(handsome!!) and so on..are all used interchangeably with no noticeable reaction from the kids!!!

I'll sign off with the traditional song I sing for them (I sing it in Malayalam, but have translated it here in English) when giving them an oil massage...

Let the little legs grow and grow (while oiling the legs and cycling them, stretching them and crossing them over each other)
Let the little hands grow and grow (take both their hands and cross it over the chest repeatedly)
Let my little baby grow and grow!

Walking the tight rope

I knew that going back to full time work would be tough. But I did not anticipate the first three months of light work load. I was put into a project which had a dependency on a deliverable from another site. And this, in plain english, meant that I was let off till that site delivered their work. So I just spent the last three months going over documents and giving presentations, which meant going to office at 11AM and being back by 4PM and doing the reading and most of the presentation preparation from home. Things seem rosy, right? But here is where the egoist in me took over. The work schedule was fine from the home front. But I wanted to be more productive in office. I started getting restless, though, as a mother, I should have been happy to let it go this way. The initial high over being able to work full time and still getting ample time with the kids wore away as I started feeling underutilized and could take no pride in the output I was producing. So, being the unreasonable me, I requested my manager for more work and there, bang! I got landed with a tough nut to crack. The mother of all problems was handed over. And now, I spend the night and day pouring over an issue that is threatening to loosen all the screws in my head.
I tried telling myself that I should spend more time in office to complete this, and that somehow, the more time I spend there meant that more work was being completed. This was true some two days last week when I had a whole lot of meetings etc. to complete the task handover from someone else. I would drive back at 9 in the night and come to a silent home. The kids would have slept and Karthik would have prepared my dinner for me. It worked for those two days. After that, I could really not miss being with the kids in the evening, and so, on Monday, I returned home by 5. Surprise after surprise, I found the missing urge in me and worked on the issue till late 12 in the night! And tonight, at 11.37PM, I have finally fitted in the last missing piece in the jigsaw and winded up the task. Phew! So, with the kids put to sleep, Karthik gone right off to deep sleep after the excitement of the Indian win, having finally solved the issue is like someone whispering to me that all is right with your world!! You are pregnant, a mother of two 1.3 year olds and currently enjoying the work you are doing without it being a strain on you. What more can a person ask for at this juncture? More strength and will power to keep it going as it is? More wisdom to manage everything and not let any disappointment get undue importance? More energy to keep running through the day, yet feel that there is nothing much to it all? Ye god...let me do all this and more...and most importantly, let my kids be this happy and more as we go along!!

I know you guys are all with me..so, here's to a happier journey ahead!