London Marathon and So On

Thank you random google searchable website with such cards. It captures the essence of my relationship with my daughter perfectly! Though the visual is quite off. She is about an inch taller than me now, and it may interest you to know that recently, she outgrew her crocs, passed them on to me, and bought the next size. 

It has been an interesting summer, for sure. Last summer, in one more of those incessant food battles at home, I had thrown her a challenge. I asked her to grow taller than me by the end of the summer, and Show Me. It was awesome for me that she didn't manage that last year, but then the time to gloat has passed, and I am officially the shortest person in our house, plus have the smallest feet.

We had a great trip to London. I ran the Virgin Money London Marathon, it was amazing. It was my dumb luck that the day of the marathon turned out to be a super cold day. I barely sweated, and held together very well for a long while, running even Kms. The last few Kms were tough, I was still a bit cold, but no big. Met the family at 40th Km, gave me some mojo, finished in decent spirit and time (4:24), felt strong but was very cold. By the time I settled down near the other Indian runners, my lips were blue and all the clothes I wore were of no use. Thankfully, after a coffee and a hot bath, I felt fine!

The week long vacation we had after that was really fantastic. We did a walking Harry Potter tour (Muggle Tours) which was incredible, 'cause it was super geeky (so child lapped it up and answered all the questions before they were even asked). We did the Universal Studios thing also, which was alright. Butterbeer was terrible. Ugh. SO SWEET. We went on a Beatles walking tour (cute), saw Matilda (amazing), Mousetrap (super), rode everywhere in the tube, went to the Lord's Tavern (glug), drank some awesome beers (mmmmm...), cooked in our apartment (why not, dammit?), lost a scarf in Hyde Park (but found it again), & stood on the Prime Meridian. 

The grass on the other side...

The monster just started on a new swimming gig. The pool at my campus is closed for renovation, for god knows how long. So, I shopped around, and found this place. Its okay. I mean, the bathrooms are wet, and a bit icky. There are dragonflies. But there are coaches and such. With whistles. And three separate sections (shallow, deep, deeper). Lane markers. I cannot wait to get in there and work on my skill. But meanwhile, the homies are in, taking lessons. Monster doesn't need a beginner lesson, but I couldn't find an intermediate one so we figured she can use this opportunity to work on her technique.

For the past three days therefore, I wake up at 5 am, and do the things I do in the kitchen. We all get ready and head out. And while they jump into the pool and hope that the coach shows them some attention, I step out, switch on my ipod and run. Just.. get out of the pool complex and run on the road, thats what I do. I wind up my run in time to pick up the monster and get her showered and changed, while her father does likewise in the men's section. We all return back and start rushing around getting ready for school and office and so forth.

This is a nice situation. Meaning, when I am running, I don't have to worry about the monster suddenly waking up and finding herself alone in bed, as used to happen when the husb. was travelling. I usually am a few minutes late in getting ready and have to cut my run short to ensure that I am back in time to wake up monster and get her ready for school, left to my own devices. Now, since I am forced to be ready by 5:30 am for the sake of their class, I have an extra 10 mins of running time, at least. The road outside is not bad at all. Slightly busy, but not bad. I just run into the good ol' campus at some point, hang a bit there, and hook a U back. Footpaths are wide for the most part, though a bit uneven in places. When I return to the pool place, I can do steps, going up and down in the place assigned for audience (during meets). The steps are a bit steep on one side but not bad on the other, as I discovered yesterday. Plenty of space for stretching and push-ups and so forth, if interested.

But everyday, I feel a twinge of regret. I want to get in the water and swim. I have considerable amount of work to do on my technique in swimming. I love running most of all, but on a hot Chennai day, the pool looks really inviting. On the other hand, when I was taking swimming lessons last summer, and had to drag myself every single day to the pool for a couple of weeks, I would look longingly at people who were running. And wonder about my mileage for the week, and how I could fit in a long run.

It is greener, isn't it? The grass?

The Games We Play

Ludwig consented to eat dinner with us last night. We felt so thrilled. I suggested to the monster that I should call a few more young people (one of my cousins was going to come as well). Young people as in, not kids of course. I am not known for my skills in handling kids sans parents, definitely not between the hours of 7 and 10 in the night on a school day. So, young people >18 years of age, and preferably not dependent on mommy for eating purposes. That was my criterion. Monster nicked that one in the bud. I don't think she meant it seriously, sometimes she says the exact opposite of what she wants. Anyway, Perakath could not make it either due to the earliness of the hour, so it was a small tight gathering consisting cosily of ludwig and cousin and me and monster - the husband arrived later in the night by which time everyone was back home, some working, some chatting, and some snoring (meaning, me).

Now this brings me to ludwig. sometimes I think he is like Kevin Bacon, but with a difference. I like Kevin Bacon (no, that is not the difference; minus twenty points for thinking that). My favourite K.Bacon movie of all is called the "AIR UP THERE" - its a basketball movie from a long time ago that has the dude go some place in Africa and kick some basketball ass. Its famous for a dialogue which goes "Read it and weep!" in a context that I will not belabour here.

Six degrees of separation, right. Only, with ludwig, its less. Usually whenever I meet someone, this is what happens.

"Hi, my name is Kenny. Do you know ludwig?"

"Yes, yes, I met him in XYZ in the year RTY"

"Oh! Nice guy no? And Machan, have you noticed his head?"

"How do YOU know him"

"Me? From here and there. We were in college and grad school and cambridge and asha meeting and so on together"

"I see. He does that thing right? (** thing being something absolutely crazy sounding, movie reviews, standing on ones head, eatomania contests, stuff of legend like that **)"

I mean, it could be ANYBODY. Of any of the three genders that abound on this bountiful earth. Sorry, I meant two. They invariably, inexplicably, know ludwig. Some refer to his love of animals. Some claim they like him because he swears like a sailor. Some say they worked (!) with him. Some were his roommates. Some are his running buddies. Some have participated in Eatomania with him (and lost). Some are his shopping mates.

Now coming to the monster. Last night, when I told her he is coming over, she expressed her happiness by completely ignoring my statement. She was hanging out in a corner of the kitchen reading 'Ramayana for children' behind the fridge because she felt shy of my cousin. Then once ludwig showed up she sprinted up the stairs, forced me to go with her to her cupboard (I do wish, that some cupboard in my house, old mother hubbard, would be bare, most are overflowing with stuff usually this one surely was). I suggested puzzle X Y & Z. She dissed it all. Searched hard for the Unicorn Jigsaw Puzzle and brought it down. No words were initially exchanged. But soon enough everyone was solving the Unicorn Puzzle. Ludwig was at his abusive best and the monster was abusive back with 'knobs on' in her words.

Some twenty years hence I guess the monster will be a person who will say

"I know ludwig, we used to solve puzzles together"

Its something, I guess. And me? I was just happy to eat dinner with people that don't need to be fed... And who eat heartily and like food and don't dislike Green Peas.

Vacation Shmacation

We went to Srilanka. Still is a beautiful place, I remembered that part right. The last time we went, we had a wonderful time, just the two of us. We went with two backpacks. By the end of the week that we spent there we had
* knotted calves from climbing down Adam's Peak too fast
* nasty dirty clothes filling the backpacks
* a wonderful feeling of satisfaction in our bellies...
We took local transport except for one place where Pere, a friendly young fellow, insisted on driving us in his (rental) car. Buses. Trains. Standing in line at the train station. Exclaiming at the quaint-ness of it all. A gorgeous, slow, train ride through the hills. A bus to the Seetha Temple. The botanical gardens in pouring rain. Tea tasting. Arrack tasting. Bednbreakfast inns that were the cutest things ever. Watching in fascination at the shooting of a Sinhalese movie - all the ladies dressed in pink frilled frocks. All this was in early 2000. The last time we went there.

This time we had a planned itinerary. We went with friends. Of course the monster. It was much more organized. We did what was definitely a sensible route. We went to Horton's Plain (which I ran through of course, a wonderful 9 km trail). Guns & I ran on country roads and were chased by dogs. We ran on city roads and were hounded by buses. The gyms were fantastic. I did weights after eons. We hit the beaches too. We drank some poisonous tasting local stout beer. We stayed in at least two spectacularly magnificent hotels. All close to nature and rocks inside the hotel complex and a dude playing the flute sitting on top of rocks and everything. Food was great too, we nosed out several local places serving yummy veggie food. It was all wonderful, but in such a different way.

But, But, But. On day three or so, the monster rolled off the bed in the middle of the night. How? Why? No one knows. She injured herself pretty badly. We spend three hours in a hospital in Kandy. Getting her X-ray. Waiting in line for the very popular orthopedist. She is fine. It was a hairline crack. I would have expired of guilt if left to myself. But she recovered real fast too. She climbed rocks and played in the ocean just as if there was nothing wrong with her. And when she cried in pain, I was strong and held her (loosely, so as not to hurt her further). She lost weight. Her father took over the task of coaxing her to eat (May I say he did a wonderful job of it, its the most painful job ever).

I did not wallow and rue the ruination of vacation. Heck, it was NOT ruined. On hind-sight, it was just great. Children are that way such cool creatures. She wore this nasty clavicle brace happily with no acknowledgment of the stares she was receiving. We possibly relaxed a little more than we would have normally - I mean in terms of pushing ourselves physically, the gymming and running which are a good part of our vacation usually, was reduced, just so we could hang out together. For myself, I did not climb Adam's Peak as originally intended. But aside from that, we had quality family time. We met other friends (who were also there) - albeit briefly. We hung out drinking beers and listening to the IPOD several nights in our hotel rooms. The other child (who is a good eater) could be heard trying to teach mine to eat well. They were so cute together, those two girls! We have a billion pictures taken.

You learn from every experience. I learned to appreciate what a trooper my little monster is, over this vacation.

Still Raining

Its hard to believe, but its still raining here! I mean, whats up with that now? I always assumed that other people had mood swings and not me. You know, like people take naps, and I don't. But that is all out the door. I took naps this weekend again. Plus I am having major mood swings of late, try as I might to avoid them...

Super disappointed that I had to miss the ECR run, it seemed like a bad idea to run on a road which was water logged plus had highway traffic running through.

Happy to see everything cleaned out and green from the water.

Irritated at how big a deal people are making of this rain, including my husband, who replied to every suggestion with 'What! In this rain!'

Elated to have found two small snails and several centiped(ish creatures) on various walls, and, possibly a leech in the backyard.

Disgusted with all the mud we have been trailing into the car.

Thankful to driver who shakes out the car mats so many times through the day.

Depressed about missed basketball games, and long runs, and today after nearly a fifteen-day long stretch, did not do any planks/crunches in the morning as really, whats the point, in this weather?

Happy that I could use the school holiday of yesterday to do the thing I have been meaning to for a while, go to the British Council Library.

A tad disappointed with the BC exhibit on Charles Darwin, which turned out to be just a bunch of poster boards in their main library foyer. Too much text to read, and the displays were just seahorse shapes you moved out and there was more text there. Not very creative, I am afraid.

Anyway hippocampus trip yielded the last Judy Moody, which was duly consumed, and, Roddy Doyle is most crazy and the monster enjoyed him so now we are dreaming of going to Ireland. (How big is Ireland? As big as your bum: She got this from the book and whatever, I have let it be, she finds it hilarious).

I think, on balance the rain is good, its fine. My garden likes it. So what if the house/car are a bit icky and I have a bit of a situation with the clothes? So what? Now if I can just get off this pendulum....

It Happened One Day - Today!

Three days ago, I told my friendly household monster:
"Look, we going to be 5 and 35 only for a few more months; don't you think we should enjoy every moment of it rather than being like the Cats of Kilkenny?"
".."
Meaning, she said nothing then. But you know how scarily things you say get imbibed by your child in manner of an osmotic process which, to you, might seem unreal, and frankly at some point of night seems so to me as well, but I cannot admit it because, you know, I am a Chemical Engineer and all, and my rep to hold up (at least till some point of night; such as, for e.g., this, and I mean Osmosis of course).
Well, anyway, that happened.

In other words, I am constantly reminded that we are only going to be 5 (AND HALF) and 35 (AND HALF) for few short months now.

Mostly, it has been good. I have immediately relaxed onto the low dimensional manifold which is my Zen state; from my usual state of "GABABABABABABBA STOP IT ALREADY I AM COUNTING TO THREE AND THEN THERE WILL BE TROUBLE MISSY"

Sometimes the mommies say stuff like Oh My God I cannot believe my kid is old enough to:
(a) Go to College
(b) Marry
(c) Give birth
(d) etc.
and I always think, What The Fuck Woman? Grow up and cut the damn cord already! Go on a vacation, get a perm, whatever. Stop giving us all a bad rap. Shoo now... Well, I think that in my mind of course, but I would be loathe to say it to your face. Yeah, you too (but I do love you, you know that, right, babe?) So, of course, it came as a shocker to me, my reaction to this
(a) The Monster's First Tooth Fell Out Two Days Ago
See, its in all caps in my brain. Not just in Abc format. I am still unable to deal with it. I am going around saying stupid ass stuff like "OH! But Her Teeth Just Came Out" (Hello? That was, like, in 2005, which is, like, 4+ years ago now). "Its too early, must be from that fall she had last year" (Mmm. Your turn, go on, give it to me).

Today was a rain holiday. I was really irritated by this. I checked the school web-site at 7:13:05 am (prior to proceeding on my morning obsession of PLANKS!! TO BUILD CORE STRENGTH!!). We left home at 8:12;01 am soon after a small yelling and retracting of said yelling session between mom and daughter (viz. Me and Monster). I was jubilant that we got a spot right outside the gate. Woohoo! She was to wear Pink canvas shoes as her school shoes (black, nasty, Bata) were still a bit wet and I am so NOT a mother who can allow her child to wear wet shoes. So what to do?

* The Creche is Out - I have not even bothered with the November month fees; she just refuses to go
* The Husband is Out - of town that is (which makes sense, I mean, why not?)
In other words, she came to my office. We stopped at home first. I fortified myself with a quick cup of tea. She changed into normal human being clothes (as opposed to the uniform, which is made of tent-cloth and would serve you well in arctic winters). We filled a bag with books. The books were:
a) All the Pippi's owned by her (= All the ones that Astrid has bothered to write).
b) One Enid Blyton
c) One Tinkle
Since the plan was to read (a); the little monkey (to simulate Mr.Nelson; close friend and associate of Pippi) was brought along. A satin thingie that came with the chocolate thingie that we got recently from someone was brought along (to serve as Mr.Nelson's bed; if the mood to lie down overtook him). All were piled into the green cloth bag from an (environmentally conscious) friend's wedding. Raincoats and umbrellas were taken.

We had a great time, really. I downloaded a ton of fantastic sounding papers. She read through the entire stock of Pippi. We had a leisurely lunch at home. She then read something else while I put together some notes. She also set up an entire household inside the tent (its just one of those toy tents we have; and I relented finally and set up over the weekend, its very China-made but a big hit with kids; everyone we know seems to have it, we had two and I passed one off quietly to my sis, my nephew sleeps curled up inside it on occasion) while I hmmed and hawed at all her suggestions and pretended to eat all the eggs she cooked for me from inside the tent (we also recently acquired a set of Russian Peasant Doll like eggs; you know, one inside the other inside the another inside the yet another).

We took off at some point to Hippocampus (thinking of Judy Moody; but ending up with Roddy Doyle and a bunch of Blyton's due to lack of time. Hippocampus = Library, fantastic, for kids, you can identify which books are theirs just by feeling them - per monster - they have slightly rough plastic covers on all, just, really fantastic). I went for a run in the campus. She read through the new collection from H.C. I finished my run and we sighted the world's smallest Chameleon (they like the hot Chennai weather; we see them a lot; should let Eric Carle know). The frogs have obviously not had a go at each other yet; could not find any tadpoles.

Back home and dinner and here.

The day has been perfect. Really. Muah.

Breathe, Kenny, Breathe

I don't know why, it has been that kind of week. I am real glad to find myself face to face with Friday. Especially after a long discussion with Guns involving planning a run (long) and drinks and food and hanging out and as always, the benefits of exercise.

The monster, oh my the monster. She has been awful this week. The thing is, she looks so cute being awful that later when I think of her face in my mind, I feel terrible. The main issue, as is often the case these days, has been food. I have woken up earlier, been more creative, discussed at length with the cook, made stuff myself, stretched the eating time so that she is more hungry, yelled, threatened, sweet-talked, lost my temper, felt tired, nearly cried, and everything else in between as well. While all this soap opera soliloquy has been unfolding, she has eaten maybe ONE BITE.

My cook has assured me that I yell at my child too much. She is also telling the child when I am out of ear-shot, look, I am giving you just a little bit of food, your mum gives you too much (NOT. I give her like 10 chocos; of which she takes 2 and keeps in her mouth for the entire day, or something). Although she means well by it, and usually tells me later that she was hoping it would convince her to eat, I get really riled when someone says stuff about me to the monster. I do think its hard enough to respect and appreciate a parent, especially one as irritating as myself, without getting external reinforcements like this, in whatever spirit they may be conveyed. And the monster, who is extremely shrewd as kids are, picks only the parts that are convenient and forms opinions based on that. Meaning, you can sing my praises till the cows come home, and she will distill out the one negative thing you may have said about me, and latch on to that. I am sure she gets it from her dad. Hmph. Not me.

All this going on and a whole lot of travel (for work) coming up next week. Travel which is never just travel but involves serious military-style strategising and what not. And the idiots are refusing to reimburse my car-ride UNLESS I leave at 7:30 am. I cannot leave at 7:30 am because (a) my husband is out of town, as always in such situs and (b) Kid needs to be dropped in school at 8 am and I am darned if you get me to leave before that. Plus, its the tone of the voice, I am annoyed at more than anything else. Gr Gah. But yes, it does not matter. This week has been the kind of week when problems have been solved by the throwing of money at them.

Meaning. The car had to be brought in to service. It was in real bad shape and barely climbing over speed bumps (of which there are about twenty from here to home). The driver had taken Monday off. But that was OK because we still had the car and thankfully, legs, so we drove ourselves. Then on Tues the husband took it in (I swear if I had to be even marginally involved in taking the car into the workshop I would have exploded; or imploded, as the case might be). It was gone for two days. Meanwhile, I did feel as if the same legs, were cut off. I missed my Zen. I called a Call Taxi. SO MANY BAGS to ferry around. And although I am in a campus all day, its HUGE. Its 4 km to the nearest Auto. And I had class at exactly the time the school finished and other such cute coincidences. It was so impossible to manage it all and the Call Taxi thing so damn annoying with the radio blaring nonsense messages all the time and the guy burping like he was going to throw up and the car slightly smelly and the monster licking the nasty Call Taxi seat.

Although it is still making what I think are weird noises, I am super glad to have the car back. Not to mention the driver. Whom my husband suspects of driving on half clutch, and being solely responsible for the ruination of car. Thankfully he has refrained from accusing me of the same, possibly in recognition of my very incandescent mood. At least the man displays some sense, every once in a while. For that I am glad because I really would like to have gotten past the stage where I say stuff I regret deeply later, in language that would NOT make my mother proud.

Anyhow at the end of it (well, almost, there is this afternoon to contend with. The after school thing she goes to on Fridays is on break this week, of course there is a talk I would like to attend at 4 pm), I must say that I have somewhat regained my composure and equilibrium. So BRING IT ON. Just BRING IT ON.

Jumping Jack!

Have you ever found yourself concentrating so hard on the task at hand that, when a soft voice suddenly says 'Madam?' near you, you JUMP out of your skin, so to speak?

Lets say you are reading, or walking, thinking of something or the other, or cleaning your clothes cupboard, colouring with crayons, whatever, somewhat of a quiet activity, and intentionally or unintentionally someone comes up to you and calls you.

Do you

(a) Have very good peripheral vision and can detect them a mile off and while you do have your head bowed down to the task, are not unduly surprised and look up, affixing a polite smile

or

(b) Give a leap, spill the glue, scatter the crayons, clutch at your beating heart, exclaim in a very unladylike snort, spill the drink, drop the clothes, and generally give them a big laugh
(and then after they laugh and go away and five minutes later they come back and do the same thing again, this time surely intentionally, do you get angry at their amusement?)

In this house which has so many dark corners, in fact, so many corners and turns to get from here to there, a hundred places for a small creature to hide herself in (if she can control the giggling), its a wonder I have not had a heart attack yet.