Birthday boy

Some pics from Ash's birthday on the 25th.

Mom came with her maid on 25th morning just as Ash was preparing to leave for school with his box of Poppers and some 5-stars for his ex-teachers. His last year's teacher gave him a lil car in return. Ash, who has inherited much of V's generous ways, had given me a long list of folks from school to distribute sweets to. He forgot the taunts of his classmates and van mates, and wanted the best for them. In fact he never tells us what he has to endure in the van each day as he returns from school. It is Mira who gives us a picture of things - that Ash spat at someone who taunted him, that we not send him by van till he gets better and why Jesus doesnt cure her Achacha's itching. And then today her class teacher also hinted about a classmate who taunted him in the van and how she warned him in class.

The birthday celebration - the cake and the dinner after - has worsened his skin especially the state of his scalp and face and I had to sms his doctor at Vellore to suggest a medication.

Mom left today night shortly after seeing Ash have a near-accident - he hit his forehead on the door frame and almost passed out. Luckily for us, we could revive him soon enough and mom could leave in peace. Her maid, who had her first train ride and was seeing a big city for the first time in her life, had an Alice-in-wonderland expression throughout the four days she was here.

Birthday eve musings

There's nothing much to say other than my usual troubles and travails. Upsetting my plans to devote my day off to our birthday boy, and my mom and her maidservant who are arriving tomorrow from Kerala, yesterday the kids' nanny called to say that she would report late for work, if at all she did, after attending to some urgent bank work. Since it didnt look like I could report to work at a decent time after she made her appearance, I decided to advance my day off and grant her leave for the whole day.
Today she is back bright and chirpy, but I am earnestly looking for an alternative who wont be so irregular.
Ash, meanwhile, is all excited about his birthday but still doesnt understand the duration of his birthday - would it be one whole day or one evening or the morning etc. Anyway he has a box of Cadbury's Poppers for the morning (to distribute in class) and an eggless chocolate truffle cake for the evening (after insisting on Spiderman and Snowman cakes, he relented to V's advice that he go for something that wont do his skin much harm).
The skin, which had begun to look pretty good - save for the scalp - deteriorated in the days following his mother's birthday celebration probably because of the eggy, creamy cake and the dinner. The wet wraps, which had made the skin on the hands and legs pretty soft and smooth, were also done very irregularly. Since he howls like crazy when I begin to put it on him, I dont exactly look forward to the chore. But we are back to wet wrapping him once again, howls and screams notwithstanding.

Mandhara reincarnated

Six years of experience with live-in maids and a couple of part- time maids has taught me nothing much. They continue to throw up new surprises and new character traits, and my slow brain continues to be taken by surprise each time. As V says, "what I see in my mind, they see on the sky." I mean they are just too smart for us most of the time.
After raving to folks back home about the new wondrous maid I had procured, I began to feel everything cant be just that perfect. Politely enduring her self-promotion talk for at least half an hour every evening after work, I knew by heart that her young pregnant daughter had been burnt to death by her inebriated husband, that the incident had left our woman in a state of shock for many months and that it had taken a toll on her beauty. But most of all, she emphasised the poor work record of the person who had referred her to me. She told tales about Kala (my partimer of many years) until I heard from other sources how much our lady liked to indulge in gossip and how often she took leave.
About the latter trait, we got a quick insight when she didnt turn up for work at her usual 12 pm and declined to attend our frantic calls to her cell phone. The long and short of it was that V, hastily summoned from office, decided to sit at home until I finished work and returned home. Kala came later in the night to prepare dinner for me, and plan a future strategy. She advised me to keep R till she found another more reliable person for me.
Today our truant returned to work all smiles and raring for information about how we managed yesterday. That neither of us really divulged in the afternoon, but I guess I will have to be prepared for a long session when I reach home tonight.
p.s. In the Ramayana, Mandhara was the scheming maidservant of Queen Kaikeyi.

Remains of the day

A pineapple birthday cake, bouquets (the one above from V and the kids, and another from some colleagues) and a dinner at the Seashell restaurant here to have what we call Arabian food down south.
For the kids, birthdays mean cakes and they were all excited until we cut it in the evening. Ash asked me the previous night what I'd like as a gift, and said he will ask Appa to get it for him. What he gave me in the end was hilarious. He drew a page of gifts in all sizes and asked me to choose one!

Clowning glory

Mira and her best friend Joanne the 'joker' dressed as clowns for the Junior Evening at her school today.
From clowns to aliens, from a Michael Jackson number to a skit on global warming, the programmes were lively, contemporary and very professionally managed. But the problem with letting event management companies manage school anniversary programmes is that not all kids get to participate, unlike last year. Only 12 each were selected from Ash's batch to dance to the tune of the Hindi number Yeh Mera Dil... and Ash, anyway, was not one of them.
Instead, he along with us craned our necks from the balcony of the auditorium since we could not find seats in the main hall. The crowd was more than we had expected, and we got to see only the fag end of Mira's event standing tip-toed and peeping through gaps in the heads and shoulders ahead of us.