Tulika, Author at Obsessivemom

10/10/201115/04/2017

Over the weekend

It’s shaking, it’s shaking.. Hrit’s tooth is shaking… another right of passage… he’s growing up. That was the highlight of the weekend. Needless to say he was thrilled while Naisha has been checking hers by the minute without much luck. For once Hrit beat her to it, which is fair considering she turned, sat up, walked and talked before him.

On the weight loss front…
I begged and begged and begged the trainers to get the weighing machine functional. One of them got fed up enough to say he’d fix it up by Monday. “Pukka?” asked I, “Yes”, said the poor cornered man. “Promise?” said I, “Promise.” said he. “Gentleman’s promise?” said I. “Done” said he and made his escape while I bit back the “Fairy God promise?” hovering on my tongue. That’s what comes of living with two kids.

Anyway.. as a result of the impending examination at the weighing scales I planned some extra bit of exercise over the weekend since I’d not been a good girl with my diet (as usual). I thought I’d go for a power walk on Saturday evening but I got stuck with the kids’ homework. It wasn’t much but they need a lot of persuasion.
Oh well.. I’ll go at night, thought I. And it decided to rain complete with magnificent thunder and lightening bang at 9.

A determined me.. set the alarm for Sunday morning. I do surprise myself sometimes — my Sunday morning sleep is completely, totally sacrosanct. However, much before the alarm rang Hrit woke me up with a, “Mama potty.” Now my kids might not take my permission for anything else but for this one thing they ALWAYS, ALWAYS need permission. Naisha will run in from play jumping from foot to foot shouting urgently, “mama potty, mama potty” till I say “go go go run”. It’s been months since they’ve become independent in this department so it’s a wholly pointless exercise. Can I possibly say No? Anyway “Go,” I mumbled trying to get back to sleep. (All those who’ve been envious of my kids early sleeping… this is the price I pay). By the time the alarm rang Hrit was in no mood to let me go and Naisha was stirring too.

I had to content myself with a short walk along with the kids, which I must admit might not count on the weighing scales but was completely worth it. Hrit came along sporting his pirate mask over his glasses while Naisha tucked a flower in her ponytail and carried a Hannah Montana wallet… some sight that must have been. But once you’re a mum… such things cease to matter.

Pune weather never disappoints and the mornings are unusually pleasant. Even though we dodged drains and potholes the breeze was cool and the perfume of Champa and Harshringar was still in the air. Naisha exclaimed at the carpet of flowers under trees yet undisturbed by traffic while Hrit picked fights with every dog we met along the way. Great fun.

The power walk was postponed to the evening. Then The Husband sat down to watch ZNMD and I really couldn’t resist the temptation to join him even though I’d seen the film. Finally after 9 I got my walk done and now I’m set to climb onto that machine provided the trainer keeps his gentleman’s promise.

07/10/201115/04/2017

Cards for the dad

This post is for Shruti’s Artsy Craftsy October. I’m hoping it is just the first one.

Here are three cards the kids and I made for The Husband’s birthday..

The first one is by Naisha… The drawing is her’s. I cut it out and stuck it on handmade paper.. that makes the card look like a card.

THE FAMILY: I am taller than The Husband and Naisha has longer hair than me

Here’s Hrit’s. In case you were wondering.. that’s an underwater scene — the ocean full of water snakes and sharks.

And finally one made by three of us … a neck-tie card. The idea came from here. http://crafts.kaboose.com/neck-tie-card.html. There was much secrecy with Naisha asking The Husband his favourite colour and then his second favourite colour.. for the shirt and the tie. It had to be dark blue and light blue… Men, I tell you, have no imagination! So that’s what our card turned out like.

I also found some pictures of rakhi cards that Naisha made.

06/10/201115/04/2017

The twins

This week’s Thursday Challenge : “THANKFUL” (Things I am thankful for)

… smiles, hugs, happiness

Hrit Naisha…. three years back

Such moments are precious because they’re so very rare.. specially these days. As they grow up they seem to fight with a venegeance ALL THE TIME.

05/10/201110/04/2025

Save my pizza

I need to launch a save-my-pizza drive because my weight loss programme seems to be slipping away. Just when I became consistent at the gym it decides to go for a face lift, the gym I mean. Apparently there are plans to include a spa. Who needs a spa for godssake? Give me simple machines any day.

Anyway, so now one half of the gym has been broken down and is being reconstructed while we workout in the other half. There’s cement everywhere. The changing rooms and washrooms are not there at all. It’s been a week now, since the exercise room has been shutdown. That means no aerobics, no abs, no yoga. More bad news — no ACs, no fans. With this hot and humid weather, there are days I walk out of the gym only because I’m embarrassingly drenched — oh I sweat like a horse and the exercise makes it worse.

I made my way so very reluctantly to the gym this Saturday only to find none of the cross trainers or the treadmills functional. Power Cut. Aaaaaarrrrrgh! No cardio then! How long can one do weights!

However, the worst bit is that the weighing machine has been kept away. Checking my weight every day is my biggest motivator, no matter what the verdict. I HATE not knowing how much I weigh each day. It’s been almost a week since I checked and that makes me feel like I’m fighting in the dark. I don’t know how hard to exercise. I begged the trainer to please please plug in the machine and he had the nerve to say, “Madam do din mein weight nahin badhta.” Really? I could do it in two hours.

I’ve been trying to figure out my weight on the age-old machine we have at home but it’s no use. Here I am counting grams and this battered old thing thinks nothing of missing the mark by a few kgs.

Then there are the construction workers. It’s kind of ironical to be struggling to lose weight (piled on through years of over-indulgence) while they’re struggling for their daily survival. The women, specially, stare unabashedly, looking puzzled and amused. I bet they’re thinking, “Come lift some buckets of cement instead of those silly dumbells.” They make me feel self-conscious/guilty… certainly uncomfortable.

The walks are faltering too what with The Husband coming home late. Even though the kids crash by 9 I’m pacing around all dressed up waiting for him to get home so I can go for the walk. By the time he gets home I’ve lost steam.

I can feel that pizza slipping away.

02/10/201115/04/2017

Required urgently…

..a cricket coach for Hrit. Not because I’ve spotted unusual talent in my son but because he just might turn into a social pariah if he doesn’t pick up the game… soon. These days he’s taken to playing cricket (not bat-ball, mind you) with slightly older boys and girls.

In his mind he is this invincible cricket champ that no one can defeat. Unfortunately he’s way lost about the rules of the game. The other day he took the crease. The bowler came running out and raised her hand to ball… “Stop stop stop,” yelled Hrit. “That’s not how you ball. If you throw the ball so high how will it come to the bat? You have to throw it lower, like this (meaning: underhand bowling).” He demonstrated.
When the girl protested he got angry. They reached some kind of an understanding because the game resumed and then again I heard the kids chanting “Cheater cheater, Hrit is a cheater.”
Now I know that’s just not true.. Hrit can be many things nasty, but cheater he’s not.
What happened, I asked.
A tearfully upset Hrit explained.. “I was taking runs and he knocked off the wicket. That’s not out na ma? The ball didn’t even touch the bat.” According to him a catch is the only way to be out.
“You were out of the crease,” said the bowler. “What’s a crease?” shot back Hrit, puzzled.

You see the extent of the problem? I tried hard to explain with my limited knowledge, then decided to rope in The Husband. Cricket doesn’t really interest me unless the cricketer is handsome or we’re winning the world cup, not just playing, winning.

The Husband, quintessential lazy man that he is, said, “Don’t worry I’ll draw out the field on a piece of paper and explain it to him.” So much for practical demonstration! It was time to use the ‘tedhi ungli’ so I put Hrit on the job. “Papa’s a cricket champ. You must ask him to teach you,” I told him. Once Hrit got the idea my job was done. Not only was he after The Husband’s life I overheard him bragging to his friends too, “My father is the best ‘batter’ and ‘baller’ in the whole world.”

Who can be immune to such flattery? And so come Sunday morning The Husband is off with the kids to get them a ‘cricket kit’ while I find some peace to blog. Cricket can’t be ALL bad if it gives me some peace.