I have a Curious George Problem

Image February 27, 2014 jcisnowjs 7 Comments

Being a Mom you don’t have a choice but to watch their favorite cartoons once in a while. Problem with being a Mom of three is that, you have to watch cartoons three time more, as each one of them as a different favorite cartoon. Good thing is that I know now almost each cartoon character, bad it’s hard to come back to real life.

I was watching one of their favorite show, Curious George. This one is liked by each one, maybe because it’s about a monkey or well, there can not be any other reason more compelling than having a curious monkey.

So, this curious monkey is named George and he is a pet owned by The Man in the Yellow Hat. Yes, the man is always referred like “The Man in the Yellow Hat”. Weird thing is that he not only has his hat yellow, but his whole suit is yellow, a bright lemony yellow. Why didn’t they named him “The Man in the Yellow Suit”? Why only Yellow Hat? There must have been an interesting answer to that. Alas! my limited knowledge. I am not aware of it.

While watching that show I thought, why would anyone living in a posh apartment and having all the luxurious things around his home, would like to have a freely roaming pet monkey. (doesn’t want to say that monkey should be chained though. Strongly disagree with this notion.) But think of it in this way, that why not a dog? Or rather a cat? Why a monkey which is as mischievous as George.

Problem with George is that he is curious, way too much curious. His curiosity is such that he is always creating problems for the people around him, specially for The Man in the Yellow Hat. Like this one time he create a mess in the home by splashing water all over the place, one time bringing a cow and once few pigeons to his home, or once bringing muddy feet to the whole building. Once he even lost some important documents and delivered all the packages at the wrong address.

Notion is who would want to own a pet who is always creating problems?

Well, I was just thinking about that and then I saw my cushion covered in crayons art, my toiletries all mixed up and on the floor, kitchen boxes in the play room, newspaper pieces in the clothes cupboard, clothes in the living room, pillows on carpet and toys, well toys were everywhere. Then I just looked and I can look only at one person, my two year old son Renne. He is a saint of a child, it’s just that when he is around, everything just starts to crumble. He would be happily running around and somehow the room walls will come on their own in front of him. Sometimes, he will just go in the kitchen and all of a sudden all the boxes would come and join at his feet. He would walk in an shopping aisle and all the food cans would just come rolling on the floor. It just happens. He don’t do any such things.

Well, I am not saying that. His Papa believes that. And want me to believe that too. 😛

Now, I know what does it mean to have a monkey in home. Also, you must have guessed who is the Man in the Yellow Hat, in our home.

Kids and Me

Happy Birthday My Darlings

Video February 26, 2014 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

Two of you are now two years old. A very Happy Birthday to my two little sweethearts, my babies Abhuday and Ranuday.

Kids and Me, Life

What is the worst thing in having a Vacation?

Image February 20, 2014 jcisnowjs 5 Comments

It’s been almost a week when I wrote my last post “What My Kids Want From Me?”, and it seems harder now to write this one. As if I have lost the touch or that writer’s block kind of feeling. So after going through a blank mind for last two days I thought of writing about why I didn’t write for a week. Smart idea hmm….

I was vacationing. Yup, that’s the reason. Our fifth anniversary is coming up and also second birthday of my twin sons, so to celebrate, me and my husband decided to pamper ourselves with a holiday. A dream vacation. I am a mother of three now, but still if you would have asked me what is my dream vacation? My top three answer would definitely gonna carry Disneyland as one of the option. Still a kid from heart 🙂

Our trip included Universal Studio‘s theme parks, Disneyland and then we went to Miami and key west island. It was amazing. A really beautiful and wonderful experience. But this post is not to tell you about my vacation but rather to write about what part I didn’t liked.

What I didn’t liked was – The Preparation for Vacation.

Yes, here I said it all. It was too much tasking when you are going for a week long vacation and that too with small kids. Specially when you are something like me, a control freak. I need to have everything in control, and everything planned before I do anything. So when we sort of decided to go on a vacation, it was a nightmare for me. Nightmare because I was making plans even in my sleep.

From finding the flight tickets to booking a nice hotel and then to find out what are places that you should see. Not to forget canceling out what you can not see, because of small kids or time crunch. But above all, it was the clothes. Like all women, I have whole cupboard full of clothes, in fact I have taken over a part of my kids cupboard too (just don’t tell my hubby :P). But, still when we decided to go on a trip, I found out that I do not have anything good to wear. Yeah, I know it happens with all the girls out there. Mission shopping started…

After doing a lot of shopping for me and kids I realized maybe my husband need some new clothes too. It’s always a good idea to buy something for him too, in case you don’t want to focus his attention on the shopping bills 😛

Shopping done. Now to pack. Phew!

What to pack and what not to. By the way there should be an app for this. It’s so hard to pick something and leave the rest. If only we can pack everything in seconds and it won’t even consume any space in your bag. I wish. Alas, it doesn’t work that way.

We had an early morning fight, I have packed my stuff and kids stuff by the night, hubby was still chatting on FB, and I was not even sure if I have packed everything necessary. You know that feeling when you feel like what if you have forgotten something. That feeling along with why you are the only one who seems to be worried about everything. That’s when I panicked.

Now I even had a headache. Wow!!!

I don’t know what happened maybe a miracle or something that good senses prevailed into my husband and he came to the rescue. In time, I guess. So, I went to sleep after he promised me that he will handle everything and I can rest.

Well, he did. So in the morning I saw the bags all packed, every document in place, every bag placed in the hall near the door and my hubby tiredly sleeping on the couch. I was smiling. Grinning actually from one ear to another after seeing him like that. I knew from that moment that my vacation has started.

Love you sweetie.

(xoxo)

Kids and Me

What My Kids Want From Me?

Image February 8, 2014 jcisnowjs 20 Comments

I was watching “Everybody Loves Raymond” (yeah, I still watch the reruns), lying leisurely on my couch. When abruptly my daughter Tisha declared “Mamma, I want something”. Something as in something to eat.

Boy! There is nothing more terrifying than this ‘something’ word. Something means they are not sure what they want to eat. Off course, they don’t want a proper food food. So you have to go through the whole charades of showing them everything you have, and asking them one by one, if they would like to eat that. Most tiring thing is you will always hear no, till the time you feel like crashing on the floor.

Having no other option I asked –

Me: you want egg?

Tisha: No.

Me: Chicken?

Tisha: No

Me: Biscuits?

Tisha: Noooooo

Thankfully, Otu (My 2 yr old son) came to my rescue.

Otu: Grapes. Mamma, grapes.

Grapes given to them. I came back again to my dearest couch and resumed the show. When….

Otu: Mamma, plate.

So, now they want grapes in separate plates. Given. Few seconds passed, I sat and….

Otu: Mamma, spoon.

Now, who eat grapes with a spoon? Well, looks like my aristocrat son Otu does.

Spoon given.

One minute passed.

Otu: Mamma, hanky.

Even when he is eating grapes, that too with a spoon, he somehow managed to get his hands dirty. :O

Wearily, I said “Go ask your Papa. Why didn’t you guys go to him? He is also sitting here. Call him.”

BTW he (my hubby) was also there, just sitting quietly with his laptop, doing nothing. As always. Giving me ‘The Look‘ on hearing his name.

Otu: (again) No. Mamma, I want hanky.

Given. Sigh….

Me to hubby: Why can’t they ask you for everything and leave me, at least for 5 minutes? Why don’t they come to you?

Hubby: because, you are lucky. 😛

(He meant it sarcastically, believe me.)

I started thinking, was I like that with my mother? I remembered my mom saying to me umpteen times, how I have never let her sit for a moment. How I was always calling her for my every little needs. I didn’t went to my Papa, even when I wanted something from him. I always went to my Mamma first and then she used to take my case forward to Papa. I was not scared of him, he is not at all scary :). It was just that I always believed my Mamma understand what I want much better than anyone else. She was my first person.

Back to my lucky phase, my kids. I realized, how they come to me for their tiniest needs. When they are hurt, or happy, or just showing off. They will scream Mamma, and suddenly it will be the only thing that would matter to them, to get the desired reaction from their Mamma. To see, how she kisses their fake wounds and heal them, or to see how she laughs with them, or admire them each time they learn something new. I realized how much it meant to me, that they are calling me first, and not their Papa or to say anyone else in this whole world. Just me. I am the most valuable parson of their life. I am their first person.

I am lucky. 🙂

And, what do they want from me? Well, Everything.

Random

Story of Kavita – Enslaved in The Name of God, Helped by Mortals

Image February 5, 2014 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

Kavita seems to be an ordinary looking middle aged woman working her way out to earn a living, but look deep inside her eyes and you will see the pain and humiliation that she has gone through. To make the matter worse, what happened to her was done all in the name of God. How can any God be so merciless to deny a girl the right to study, right to stay with her family, right to have a family of her own, right to have a decent relationship in her life, right to marry a man, right to dream, right to be her.

Kavita was a Devdaasi, translated it means Slave of God. In actuality it means more than just a slave, it means married to the God for her entire life, but serve all the Men.

Devdaasi was a very old system practiced in India. Some say that it is still active in some of the rural villages of India. In this system, girls of 5 and 6 years of ages, were given to the temples, where they were married to the God in big ceremonies. The girl thus married to the God, can not marry anyone else, and served all her life in the temple as a slave. But, this was not all. Girls who were married to God, had no free will and thus mostly she was forced into prostitution. Only god knows how many girls have faced this humiliation of serving these devilish desires of men. Irony being a prostitute has a right to say no, but being slaves a Devdaasi didn’t even had that right. They were just reduced to being a Temple Prostitute.

Now that this practice is almost in extinction phase but still the ones like Kavita, who have come out of the system are working hard to make their ends meet. Being a single mother of two teen age children in a small village of Karnataka, India, she finds it hard to even manage the school fees of her kids. To top it all, as the stigma of Devdaasi is attached to her now for permanently, she and the likes of her do not find any job opportunity. Only thing that is left for them to live a dignified life is to start their own small business.

How can you Help Kavita?

Kavita has started a small business of selling textiles. But she needs more support to scale up her business. Her friends Kasthuri and Mallava also have the same stories. They are in buffalo and goat rearing business. What all of them need is some support from all of us so that they can scale up their business, and help their families to build a better future. These 3 women seek a loan of Rs.45,000, repayable over 18 months, to expand their small scale businesses. To help them and learn more about the cause, please visit Milaap’s site here.

Milaap and Mass are NGO, working with ASSET India Foundation for the empowerment of these women. These organizations are helping these women to come out of the Devdaasi system by providing them small support to start their own business and be financially independent. They are also helping their kids against human trafficking and giving them opportunity to study.

You can help Kavita and her group by lending her a helping hand in scaling up her business by lending a loan. In case you can not lend a loan, then do spread the word so that others who can, come to know of her plight and help her.

Please visit the Milaap’s site here to help Kavita. Because slavery to Man or to God, slavery is still slavery and there is nothing more valuable than Freedom.

Help her.