Birthday updates-II

Yes there have been a few millimeters of progress.

• Elena has finally decided on the return gift. I think we can do better and am still keeping the options open.
• The guest list and menu are final.
• She has revised her wish list yet again and just wants to go to Dubai-and get a watch like the one Tanvi got from there. 

All other discussions are on hold until the Unit tests are over. (Amen!)

And right after that:

Like every year, Princess Aurora wanted to have a “Barbie” themed birthday, pink gowns and stilettos and the Barbie doll cake– Boys who had a problem with that can just stay away.

She stepped down and agreed to do away with themes as long as she was allowed to dress up like a princess. 

• The return gifts are decided. (Thank goodness-That’s always such a big part)
  
  
• For her Birthday gift she only wants the table which didi got last year. [ Conversation 4]
  (And if their room feels cramped-we’ll simply 'change' to a bigger house)

 Still a couple of weeks to go-wish me luck!

Birthday update

Did the previous post on Birthdays make it seem like they are right there?

It always feels like that-right after one set of Birthdays is over. I keep a lid on all wish-lists and planning till January and then it is unstoppable.

The update:

Elena's birthday is in on 16th February and she is having a fashion show.

• I'll pull of the ramp and the music. 
• The food also (she wants the same menu as the last three B'days she attended). 
• All the gifts on her list are  beyond her age (and my budget). 
• After three trips to the market, we are yet to agree on any of the options for 'return gifts'. 
• The guest list is into it's third revision and all other details of the party are yet to be worked out.
  
  
• Yes but the draft for invitations is ready
  
  
• Oh-And she needs a dress to go with shocking pink leather boots.

Aurora's birthday is just five days after that. Since her birth was a planned C-section we even had the option of having both birthdays on the same date. Mushy logic overlooked all practicalities and we decided both of them deserve their own special day.

And so, like each year, there is another list coming along...

And when will I grow up?

My Laptop’s gone.

And I am finding it so hard to adjust to another machine.  It’s like your best friend leaving school and having to sit next to the new student in the class.

You speak to each other but the conversations and memories of your old friend always encroach. You resent this new guy because he is not your old friend. You know you are being irrational, but…

That’s fine as school kids, but to have such hang-ups about a machine at my age is just not done. So I try to break the ice, move the conversation beyond the banalities of just work and start blogging.

It’s awkward initially, like talking to the stranger who replaced your friend, but then you find he is not so strange and maybe you just find a new friend as I just manage to stitch a new post.

Gosh! And I thought I had grown beyond getting ‘senti’ decades ago! 

I am not a Shopaholic

Yes. I just miss "home" so badly that I keep trying to bring bits of it back with me.

That is why I've always had all kinds of block-printed bedsheets and furnishings and kurtis at home. And the weightless quilts in every shade. I've been wearing the delicate lacquer jhumkas (in every color)  forever too.

Sometimes, even I feel that I've had too many "torans" and puppets around the house.

So this time I tried to be rational and took two whole days to spend all my money buying the same stuff.

I visited the ATM only because an unplanned trip to Delhi came up and there was some stuff which you just can't buy from anywhere else.

I stopped because there was no more time.

But I did pick up these as I had paid the airline for my baggage and could not let that go waste.

That's just sensible shopping isn't it?

Someone please agree with me!

The Bithday 55er

the birthday countdown begins


Mom can I please have a laptop…
Isn’t it too kiddish…
Of course I need a real one…….


She brings down her demands to mobile phones and is disgusted when I say I cannot afford one, not even a Ipod nano…


and the other birthday also falls in the same week..

Delhi in a Day

Just got back home and here’s Part 1 of my Tales of Three Cities.

I was going for a sleepover at my school-friend’s house. 

My husband had no issues. 

My parent’s were not too happy because it meant one day less at home. 

My kids were wild with reactions ranging from: 

           You are deserting us…

           How can you go to a friend’s house in another city (might as well be                               another planet)….

           Oh, then we can also go…

Being Loverna, I still went ahead.

We were together since we were in 1^st C. Then we went to college in different cities and got to meet only a few times in a year. We used to talk for hours about anything and everything and the world seemed to be so much better after that.

Now we get to meet only in a few years and have to cajole our kids into giving us that time. 

We managed and talked through the night.

It was back to reality in the morning. She had work. I had to do Sarojini Nagar.

As I drove into the areas which had once been home, I was amazed that so much had changed. Relieved that so much had not.

That smooth flyover where they had uprooted the broad shady trees and build giant contraptions (which added some 40 mins to my commuting time for a year while it was being built) was dug around and barricaded all around-again.

Oh. Were they taking out the flyover and planting trees again?

Of course not. This time it was the Delhi metro.

Sarojini Nagar was the same too. Nobody remembered those security cordons and men in uniform who were positioned after the Diwali blast. The same equation held for bargaining through the bazaar (Start at 50% -10% of Original quote: settle at +10% of the same). Shopped to make it last till whenever the next trip happens.

Same story on the way out.

More cars than the widened roads and junction-less crossings could hold. Every driver trying to move into the fastest moving lane at the same time. And the widened roads suddenly narrowing down to one-third leaving the rest for metro construction. In fact I would have missed the bus home had it not been for another friend who honked and knifed and danced through the traffic with the zeal of a true Delhite.

What a city! Everyone from the Pandavas, the Sultans, the Mughals, the British and the Government of India built it up and it is still Chaos who rules.

I was told it will be all spanking clean and organized before the Commonwealth Games start.

Yeah? And then we’ll start preparing for the Olympics?