Tulika, Author at Obsessivemom

07/07/201115/04/2017

Green tunnel…

.. was the name the kids gave to this highway and that’s my entry for this week’s Thursday Challenge : ROADS (Highways, Streets, Freeways, Traffic, Country Roads, Trails,…)

This summer we did a road trip to Nainital from Lucknow. That’s when we clicked the picture. What’s more soothing to the eye than lush greenery in the burning May heat?

06/07/201115/04/2017

… is a game I enjoy playing with the kids. Long long ago one of the newspapers I worked with used to have a column called Take 5 and that’s where the idea came from. The kids have to tell me five things about a topic I give them.

The most basic one.. 5 things about myself. The start was cliched but then we had fun.

Hrit
I am Hrit Pratap Singh
I am five years old
I love to go down and play with my friends
I love chocolates and fruit juice
I love my family

Naisha
I am Naisha Singh
I am five years old
I love to draw and to ‘swim’ in the pool
I have flip flap hair (?)
Once I planted a tree that reached the ceiling

Here’s another simple one we tried.. 5 wishes you’d ask for if you found the genie in the bottle..

Naisha
To be able to fly so I can see the stars from close (anything shiny is for her!)
To have long hair that reach the ground (vain vain girl)
To have a golden pool .. where the water is golden too (I told you.. shiny things)
To have a beautiful dress that I could wear in the water and that wouldn’t get wet (Clothes, water her two obsessions)
To be able to get in a flower and smell it from inside. (?)

Hrit
To be the strongest man in the world (So I can hit all the naughty people. Naisha: You can hit the British. Hrit: But they already left. I’ll hit the chors.)
To be a fish and go deeeep inside the ocean.
To be able to fly so I can protect the insects and birds from naughty eagles. (The bug-obsession continues)
To become as tiny as an insect so I can go wherever I want and no one could see me. (Naisha: But then someone can squash you. Hrit: But I will be the strongest person in the whole world even if I’m small so no one will be able to hurt me)
To be able to talk to birds and insects.

It’s fun. It keeps them occupied and sometimes they come up with interesting/surprising/revealing answers. Try it.

05/07/201115/04/2017

Belly confusing…

Really, no film has had me as confused as Delhi Belly. No I haven’t watched it yet.. I’m the DVD audience. The only films we watch in the theatre are the Kungfu Panda kinds. Besides, by the time the DVD is out I know for sure whether I really want to watch the film. You see as a SAHM (to twins) and a woman with scores of varied interests time is a precious commodity. But DB has me stumped.. should I shouldn’t I.

First my parents watched it (They were pretty excited because someone we knew was part of the film). They came back shaken, shocked by the language and the ‘toilet humour’. Generation gap, thought I. But then my sis-in-law, a die-hard movie buff, watched it and she came back disgusted too. Her mother tongue is Telugu so she couldn’t get half the abuses but still disliked it so much she has sworn off entering a theatre… ever. A total non romantic she says, “Even K Jo is better.. at least you know what to expect.”

Then there are ToI and Mirror who can’t stop raving about it (4.5 stars, pathbreaking, cult film etc etc etc). In fact most reviews are calling it a must watch. FB is full of people going ga ga over it… yet none of my friends seem really impressed.

I was reading the Shobha De’s review yesterday and even she doesn’t seem to be able to make up her mind. She trashes the ‘toilet humour’ (TH) but says: ‘DB’ is a lot of fun when it isn’t filthy. Then she adds it’s “cute, smart and peppy”… despite the TH or because of it??

Meanwhile all those who’ve watched it.. drop a line.. And AK get out the DVD soon.

30/06/201115/04/2017

Ripples in the sky

This week’s theme for the Thursday Challenge :

Have been struggling all day with blogger. It just wouldn’t let me log in. Finally got through on The Husband’s laptop. Whew!

29/06/201101/08/2017

Rainbows on the ground

It was the morning rush hour. I was hurrying down to the gate where we wait for the school bus. I was trying to hang on to the mobile phone, the house keys, two bags (which the kids begged me to carry since they wanted to race to the gate) and two sweaters (which they refused to wear). All the while I have to have one eye out for incoming vehicles, another one at the gate looking out for the bus and at least two more to keep track of the kids as they race through their preferred short cuts … no wonder I was feeling light headed. It’s at times like this that I envy the Gods with their multiple arms and Mad Eye Moody for his eye. Anyway .. I digress.In the middle of all this chaos “BHAI! RAINBOW” yelled N. I got just as excited as the kids (rainbows do that to me) and looked up at the dull grey sky but all I saw was a thick mass of black clouds. I looked back at N. She was jumping excitedly and counting.. “…. four, five, six rainbows. Mama look so many rainbows”.

“But how come they’re on the ground?” wondered the son.. “Maybe it’s a shadow of a real rainbow,” he reasoned squinting up only to find nothing. He then looked around wondering aloud, “Where did they come from?”

“I think it’s just magic,” said the daughter, eyes shining.

Feeling like a bit of a spoilsport I told them about oil spilling on wet ground and breaking up into colours.

I’m still wondering if I did right in taking away the magic from those rainbows.