T's response to being asked "nosey kaha hai?" (where is your nose?)

Sins I committed...

Mozzarella the day before...
Lado yesterday and a guilty gulab jamun :(
A rasogulla today..
(and can't stop dreaming about a Hot Chocolate Fudge)

I will never be thin again... :(

After a series of low days and some extremely low days, I feel better today.. Hope and optimism have woken up from the deep slumber that they had settled into for a while. Nothing specific happened to change anything but then nothing specific had happened to make me feel low either.
I guess the disastrous picnic of 26th had set off my mood and then my general negativity had taken over. I had drowned myself when I had the liberty and time, to delve on life's choices and where they've brought me. Everything seemed wrong and there seemed no way to make it better. The clouds have parted now fortunately and all's right with the world again. I realize that what is keeping me away from the life I want is only ME. I am the one stopping myself from being what I want and doing what I want. No I did not read a self help book but just used my head after a long time. Just hope I can remember this when I need to.

I think I need a list. During my student days and even my corporate job days, I always had a very specific list of goals for the year down to how much money I need to make and what new things to learn or new places to visit. Since I started working with my father, the career goals have been vague. And since T's birth, the goals have been about T sitting up by 6th month, crawling by 8th. I think coming up with a specific list will give my life some structure and a target to work towards. And I can just look at the list on gloomy days and hopefully tick somethings on it and feel better.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

We watched an extremely interesting rendition by director Tim Supple of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's dream at Kamani Auditorium last evening. We had to struggle quite a bit for the tickets and ended up buying the most expensive ones, though surprisingly the theatre wasn't even close to being completely full. Anyway, it was an amazing production and totally worth spending our time and money on. The thing that really stood out and made an impact was the use of various languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Sinhalese, Malayalam and Sanskrit). This meant that no one really understood all of the dialogues as different characters spoke different languages and yet everyone seemed to understand and enjoy the whole. In fact, it was interesting to hear different parts of the audience react to different parts of the play.

The acting, the expressions, the body language, the modulation of voice and of course the acrobatics were enough to play out such complex situations.
Before I saw the play I was wondering if it would be possible to create the magic of the fairies and the enchanted forest on a stage unless expensive technology and costumes were used Broadway style. I couldn't have been more wrong. Magic was created on stage with sheer muscle power without much use of technology. A simple grid of bars about three floors high and stage wide was all they used and a couple of ropes hanging from the top. The rest was left to the actors and their acrobatic skills. They left us completely spell bound.

The symbolism used in certain scenes, like a complicated maze of thread running all across the stage, around the arguing actors was extremely effective. On the whole it was a great experience and I hope we in Delhi get to see more of such excellent theatre sans the struggle for tickets.

A first for me...

I fired someone for the first time today. It was a horrid feeling. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be an entrepreneur :(

The cosy job at IBM was much easier. The closest I ever came to affecting someones carrier was just a performance feedback but taking away a job seems terrible.
Although this girl really had it coming. I had been warning her for the last 2 months to no effect. So I guess I shouldn't really feel so miserable about it.

The list..

Hmm... inspired by MM, heres my list..

George Clooney

Shiney Ahuja

Abhishek Bachchan

Milind Soman

Richard Gere

will get P's list soon :)

A picnic and a new milestone

T and I were really happy today to have P around after a long time. He had been busy with work the last 10 days or so. So we decided to pack lunch (Sunday special rajma-chawal) and visit the Lodhi gardens. The day was bright and sunny and we had a great time soaking in the green surroundings, the sun and the cool breeze. T enjoyed crawling on the grass and eating some of it too.. He noticed the birds and squirrels, he was quite fascinated with the rustling of leaves in the trees above.

And the best part came towards the evening, T called me 'maah'. It was such a beautiful sound and it took me a little while to realize that he was actually calling out to me. It was such an exhilarating feeling. I think I really felt like a mum today after he christened me. 'maah'.. and when angry or irritated a more emphatic 'maaaaaah'..

I'm always filled with wonder when he understands something new like when he points to the sky as soon as he hears a bird or an aeroplane. And lately it seems like he's understanding and expressing much more than he did earlier. But that means he's growing up really fast and I haven't yet got my fill of this stage in his life.

Here's a picture of T reaching into the picnic basket..