Merry Christmas

This year, we managed to put up a Christmas star. I mean I had to prod V for a week to do the needful - a new paper star, bulb etc. Well, I always take credit for getting things done around the house with his nod - such as installing the mosquito screens for the windows - and that is because major decisions on the house has to be made on a consensus basis. Also, some of the things I do without consulting turns out disastrous - a recent instance being a new cordless phone I purchased (though I suspect that the problem is not with the phone but with its proximity to the computer).

WE also decorated the Xmas tree from last year with baubles, bells, drums and best of all, some olive wood-carved hangings from Israel that we won at the church auction.

And today, as we prepare to leave for Kerala to celebrate Christmas with our families, I wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. And we are treating my 90-year-old paternal grandma with a birthday bash on 26th.

God bless you all. Have a whale of a time the week ahead. See you all next year, on the 2nd.

Morning madness

The day just did not start out right. Yes, I did get my 7-hr beauty sleep - these days that is a luxury since Ash entreats us with his inke chori (scratch here) and anke chori (scratch there) -while the husband got an extra hour. Tea and newspaper headlines later, I dip my palm in water and sprinkle it on the faces of the sleeping dad and his lil girl, a technique popular in Kerala. The daughter is roused up before 8 am to be readied for school in half an hour.

A few tantrums later - about when she should get up, who should brush her teeth, bathe her and what dress she would wear (she is getting more and more tomboyish growing up with a big brother, as she hates frocks and skirts and wants only clothes with pockets) - she is ready for her jam-and-bread breakfast (vetoing the idli-coconut chutney made for the kids).

But not so the husband. He needs a few more sprinklings to leave bed. Then he decides to shift base to the chair and stare at outer space. Proddings and entreaties dont work much. I cant get him angry enough to refuse to drop the child at school - in those 5-10 minutes I make a vow to go to the driving school to brush up my near-forgotten driving skills. But then, even if I do, I will take almost a year to be able to drive the 4-5 km to College Road. By then Mira would have finished her pre-KG and would be studying in a school with van facility.

It is 8.15 am by the time the husband is ready to move to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He then reheats his tea and settles down on the sofa with the newspaper. I eye the clock nervously, it is 8.25 am. We need to leave by 8.30 to make it somewhat on time. The school authorities keep the gate open till 8.45 am since there are many latecomer-dads like V.

I plan a trip to Ash's school on the way back to collect a fee challan; today being the last day of school I need to do it without fail. There is also a box of Kitkat to be distributed in Mira's school as a Christmas treat. We finally rush down the steps at 8.35 am, which is not so unsafe a departure time. But today we are not so lucky. The car doesnt start despite repeated revving of the engine. Disgusted, I decide to head back - it is too late to catch an auto.

A few frantic calls later - the Maruti 24-hr road service seems like 12-hour ones since the cellphone numbers provided are all switched off - a colleague brings a mechanic from the local car service centre. Rats have gnawed some of the wires. In half an hour, the car is ready for our next assignment _ Ash's UV and peadiatrician appointments.

But today the UV room has an endless stream of patients, so we decide to meet Dr. Thomas first. The blood tests from the other day are fine save for an infection, probably viral and not malaria or typhoid as suspected. Back at the UV room, we wait another 10 minutes before abandoning the project and heading back to our individual offices after dropping Ash home. It is too late to go to Ash's school, however V offers to have it collected in the afternoon.

Half our lives as parents are being spent at hospitals, I think. And the other half of my life if spent at bus stops.

Worrying times

Feeling a little down in the dumps. A few things bothering me, the first being Ash's skin which is getting no better. The UV therapy continues, but since Madras is having its best climate - a ghost of a winter - until early February, I cant expect things to improve. And he makes things worse by not sticking to his diet, the latest being a Ferroro Rocher that V's colleague presented him. With the result that he nor us slept until 3 a.m. yesterday.

The second worry is if the maid will return after the Kerala trip. She is setting her sights on the Gulf shores after her sister went there a month back to work as a housemaid. Not that we are very keen on keeping her, but a sudden pull-out would throw things out of gear - managing kids' school, babysitting, my leave and so on. Since she sugars her nanny services with many a lie, we do not know how well she takes care of the kids - whether she feeds them the stuff we entrust her with, whether she beats them etc. There are things that make us suspect - some from what the kids say - on that lines. And now I need to worry about things that she might pilfer when she goes home; we have had to take that risk with most of the maids we had. If we decide to check her bag - so far we havent done that with anyone, though a couple of them offered to show - she might use that as an excuse to not return.

Meanwhile, our best nanny Leelamma is getting more and more ill by the day that I cant think of bringing her back at some point. When I called her yesterday, she said she had almost lost the sight of one eye owing to some nerve damage. To top it, she has diabetes, a liver disease and her hubby has cancer. I guess they are struggling to meet all the medical expenses. We have offered to help out, and this time she took the offer gratefully. We owe her a lot - for taking care of the kids and us very lovingly, of managing the kitchen efficiently and not wasting things the way maids usually do. I could happily leave my guests with her, knowing that she will know how best to serve. I have the best memories of her time here, though initially we had been worried about hiring her - she had been our first recruit from an agency. It makes me feel very sad to think about her now.

Yesterday, me and Mira attended the colony Christmas special meeting and had appam-veg stew after the function. Absolutely delicious, it was. Meanwhile, V took Ash along as he went to meet a friend, who stayed the night at our place before catching an early dawn flight to Delhi. Church was out of yesterday's scheme of things as V had a full-day SAP training programme somewhere in OMR.

Vacation plans

I do a lot of talking on the blog, but I have forgotten to mention that my Christmas vacation is nearing. I am like that. I give instructions to the maid but I forget to tell her very basic things. I assume that she will know but only when she makes a major bloomer, I realise that she is one of the dumbest ones I have hired. As dad says, if she were intelligent why would she want to work as a maid?
Well, we are off to Kerala on the 20th for a 10-day vacation. Ten days for me, the kids and the maid and a week for V, who will return to Chennai earlier. I travel back on the 1.1.2009. The company has introduced a holiday for New Year this time as it has gained a holiday when the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister clubbed Tamil New Year day (April 14) with Pongal (Jan 14). I dont understand the crazy logic that went behind shifting New Year to the Harvest festival. Not that people are going to stop celebrating New Year on April 14 just because Karunanidhi told them to. It is not as easy as making people call Madras Chennai or Mount Road Anna Salai.
While in Kerala, we hope to arrange/attend my grandmother's 90th bday celebrations on the 26th. This year, though, all the NRI kin wont be coming down. I just hope Ash's face would be presentable by then. Keralites being notorious for unkind and improper comments, I dread to take him there.

Weekend action

• On Saturday, we took Ash to the renovated park in Shenoy Nagar in the morning before his UV therapy. I did not prepare him well for the latter - I mean I forgot he needed to wear briefs for the radiation, so we had to invade the first baby shop that opened in the morning to buy one.
• On Sunday, we took Mira to church. Then we came home and took both kids to see Lijy, who is nursing a broken elbow after slipping on the freshly polished mosaic floor of their new flat. The kids emptied all of Jason's toys on the floor to play. Luckily her maid was in and I am sure she tidied up the place after we were gone. I have to teach my kids to put away their toys. They hate to do it.
• On Monday, we played host to V's sister and family who came down past midnight on Sunday. We chatted into the early hours of the morning while the kids played till 2 am.
• And today is a holiday for Mira, being Bakrid. The buses were not crowded, and the one I got to had college-going guys and girls occupying many a seat - probably on way to ECR or a cinema. The girls who sat next to the guys were either ill or terribly tired for they rested their weary heads on the shoulders or laps of their beaus. I thought of their parents, and what lies they must have told them to sneak out of home on a holiday. Special class in college, visiting a friend for combined study etc. Arent we living in the most conservative of the Indian metros? Or hadnt I noticed that Chennai had become very modern in its outlook and behaviour?

Season's musings

The Christmas spirit is in - shops selling christmas-New Year cards (though these days one mostly sends e-cards, even a friend who has been sending me Xmas and Birthday cards for over 15 years has finally decided to take the e-plunge) , Christmas CDs being played in shops like Landmark here, mannequins donning red and white costumes, Xmas trees and decorations for sale etc etc. Though in Chennai, Christmas is a bit low-key unlike in Kerala where we breathe Christmas for the whole of this month.

A carol service in Ash's school brought in the Christmassy cheer to me yesterday. I went partly because I wanted to meet his teacher - who had told the van driver that we dont send Ash to school until he is fine - and partly because I wanted to hear some Christmas carols in my son's school. Somehow, I feel very emotionally close to the school thanks to Ash's teacher who has been very kind to him.

I had sent him to school on Tuesday and it had been a disaster - the teacher told me later that the boy was miserable and wanted to remove his clothes and scratch himself. When I got him ready for school yesterday, the van driver and the ayah dissuaded me from sending him. As for Ash, he has become very lazy and refuses to go to school after the two-month hiatus.

Well, I got to hear only 3-4 songs and the closing prayer as I reached an hour into the programme. I managed to trace Ash's teacher in the car parking lot. She told me that I let the poor child recover fully and that it was fine if he came back to school in January after the Christmas vacation. She said he was very good at his classwork, so I neednt have any worries. Just make him practise the alphabets and numbers (1-10) at home, she told me giving me a sympathetic pat on the arm. I admired her bead chain and walked away. She always wears lovely chains and necklaces.

* UCA school has put up a notice regarding LKG admissions for the next academic year. The forms can be collected on Dec 11th and 12th and submitted before 19th when the school closes for Xmas vacation. A copy of the birth certificate, self-addressed envelope and community certificate for those who are eligible for seat reservation (SC/ST/OBC) are to be submitted too. We need to collect a form for Mira this year. If she makes it, I hope she gets Ash's class teacher or Reji, the friendly lady from our church who teaches in another LKG division this year. Already, the teacher and the ayahs are enquiring about her whenever I meet them :)

** Mira's school is celebrating Christmas along with the WCC college girls on the 8th. The kids are expected to bring a "white" gift - wrapped in white paper - for the less privileged. The suggested gifts include coloring pencils, coloring books, notebooks, soap dishes, water bottles, story books etc, but no used stuff or eatables. I bought a few coloring books, storybooks and crayons from Landmark for that today.

However, I need to see if we can give it in tomorrow since Mira might not be attending school on Monday. Her aunt, V's only sister, is arriving here from Australia on 8th on her way to Kerala. The kids will stay put at home to spend time with their big brothers aged 13 and 9.

Photo-op

Mira gets help from the maid in tying a sari. As kids, most Indian girls go through this "sari" wearing phase. If I used bedsheets once upon a time (that was because dupattas and salwar-kurtas were almost unheard of in Kerala then), Mira had my dupatta to try out.

This head-scarf business is a favorite pastime for the maid and Mira. The maid is a professional in that since she has worked as a daily-wage labourer in the paddy fields and construction sites in Kerala, where women shield their heads using the very-Kerala towel we call thorthu.

She reminds me of Kasturba Gandhi with her long-sleeved "blouse". But then Muslim women in Kerala still use long-sleeved "jackets", so it cant be labelled a pre-Independence costume.

With her brother. Unlike her, it is very difficult to get him to pose. There he is looking over his shoulder to see what is showing on TV.

There she is, looking very Divya Unni in her smile and ears. I hate to compare her with the actress as she is my least favorite among Kerala heroines.