Category: Microblog Mondays

Posted on

The Pink run

So it’s done and dusted for this year – the Pinkathon , the all-women’s run for breast cancer awareness. Remember how excited I had been about it last November? I devoted some two months of practice and three blog posts to it (here is one of them ) not to talk of the innumerable mentions on Facebook. I registered a month in advance and was super excited and a little anxious wondering if I’d finish the 5Km I’d set out to do.

There really is something special about a first time.

This year I did it again but without half the enthusiasm. I managed a spot registration just a day before the run and went in without any preparation at all.

I won’t even go into the reasons for the lack of enthusiasm that seems to of late, cloud almost all things I used to love. The important part is that I did manage to push myself to complete 5kms. The moment the first warm up Zumba song rang out I knew I was going to have fun, even though I was sorely missing my last year’s buddy who has since moved to a different country.

I have to say this – Ladies, if your city hosts the Pinkathon go for it at least once. It offers a valuable message: Choose a healthy lifestyle, do not ignore your fitness, make time for it. That’s something most women are likely to forget, specially once the kids come along. 

If that doesn’t pull you in, go for the fun of it. It’s a party out there. The Pinkathon is like the happiest, most amazing carnival ever. Women of all shapes and sizes run this marathon. Heck! you don’t even need to run – a jog or a walk is good enough. It is currently hosted in 8 Indian cities – Pune, Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

I would have liked to go for 10 Kms like I’d resolved last year but that didn’t happen. However, since I’d been walking/jogging on and off, this was quite effortless. Last year it marked the culmination of my fitness efforts, this year I am hoping it marks the start of it.

Oh and did I mention the brand ambassador remains hot as ever? Well he does.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Brand Ambassador Milind Soman takes the stage.
Please note how dark it was when the event began. Waking up early was the toughest part.

The cancer survivor ‘sheroes’ being felicitated.
They ran the 5kms with us.
The young ones…

…and the old.

The royally dressed up ‘dholwalahs’

Our flagoff by the man himself.

The sari brigade

On the trampoline just for fun.

After the run
********************
Linking to #Microblog Mondays .
Posted on

Girls and boys are good for each other

H is intensely competitive, specially when it comes to N. He likes to think that anything she can do, he can do better. However, at the same time he has quite a dislike for all things he has labelled ‘girly’. So it was with a bit of surprise that I discovered him making loom bands the other day. Apparently his competitiveness won over his dislike for ‘girly’ stuff. 

ENGROSSED!!

Even at 8.5 years he is clumsy as ever and can do with some hand-eye coordination practice, as also with a hobby that involves him keeping quiet and sitting in one place for some amount of time (other than watching the telly). I was one happy mum :-).

Linking to Mel’s # Microblog Mondays . Do drop by to see how others are faring after the weekend.

Also, linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter E for Engrossed.

*********

On a somewhat related note I stumbled across this debate here on the Net about whether boys and girls learn best if they are segregated in single sex classrooms.

Research suggests children perform better in single-sex classrooms. Some maintain that the teaching pattern is skewed in favour of girls since sitting in organised classrooms works well for them while boys are better at hands on learning.

However as a mom to a pair of different sex twins I find myself disagreeing. Of course life would be much simpler with same sex kids, just as it would be easier with single sex children in a classroom. However the education we’re aiming at doesn’t have only to do with scores, is it? Boys and girls are different, that’s a fact. Their brains are wired differently, also a fact. Out of the classroom they have to live, love, compete and socialise with each other. The earlier they learn how to do that, the better.

H and N fight. A lot. Yet they have been teaching and learning from each other with no awareness of it. Without going into whether an ability is a ‘boy skill’ or a ‘girl skill, here’s how..

H might continue to be a Barbie destroyer but he has mastered plaiting their hair albeit shabbily, he knows how to make loom bands and, wonder of wonders, often remembers to put down the toilet seat! He makes an effort at drawing, crafting, singing and dancing again thanks to N.

As for N, she’s as girly as girls come but can throw a mean punch, enjoys computer games and is addicted to the outdoors perhaps even more than H.

Together they’re good!

Posted on

#Microblog Mondays – Just Do it!

Friends who have been dropping by would know for the past year or so I’ve been hooked to Zumba. I’ve blogged about it often. I can never get over the miracle that I can survive a dance class. Nor can my friends, it seems, since they use every opportunity to pull my leg about it, in a way only comfortable old friends can.

One day after a specially good session I happened to remark, ‘This track I can dance to, in my sleep’. And that was how I put my big fat foot right into my mouth. A little later, when the instructor asked ‘Who knows Bailando and can lead the class today?” I heard a bunch of voices chorusing out a name – yeah mine!

Damn!! Damn!! Damn!! was all my blank mind went while I tried to hide away wishing I would completely disappear. It’s one thing to stand in my inconspicuous corner and do my own thing and quite another to stand right there before the class. It’s like saying just because you can chat up friends you can deliver a speech – not quite the same thing huh?

This here was my nightmare.

However before I could protest, the music had struck up and there I was blundering my way through, forgetting steps I’d done scores of time, steps I knew well, steps that I did pretty well in my small corner! I wish I could say I was suddenly magically perfect like in the movies. I wasn’t. Let me just say I survived and wasn’t booed away. The girls are too sweet.

The best thing though is, that the dreadful dread is gone….. for ever. I might never do it again. But I know I can do it, I did it once, right? That’s so hugely liberating.

We shy off from doing things – fun challenging things – making a huge deal out of them. Sometimes we fear we will be less that perfect, sometimes we’re victims of our own self-image.

Breaking through all of that is freedom.

So from my new-found perspective I can tell you to dance that dance, sing that song, deliver that speech, run that race, get that LBD. Draw, paint, try a trek, take a dip in the sea – as long as you’re having fun and can laugh at yourself, chances are you’ll get by pretty well.

Don’t wait to be earth shattering. Don’t wait to be perfect. Don’t postpone joy.

Linking to for the letter D for ABC Wednesday. 

And to Mel’s # Microblog Mondays where we’re discussing superpowers. Do drop by.
Posted on

#Microblog Mondays – Morning Musings

Mornings are special times, aren’t they? Quiet, peaceful, full of energy and optimism – heralding the beginning of  a brand new day.

When the twins came along all the peace and quiet was replaced by adventure and suspense. And if you ask why – well then that simply implies you don’t have kids. The dash for the school bus is something that needs to be experienced not explained. It has very little to do with how early I wake up the kids. They can get ready in half hour flat or dawdle about taking thrice that time. Some days we are really early and then we put on music and forget about the bus and then … yeah that same dash.

Then there are morning alarm issues. There are days I wake up before the alarm rings and lie waiting for it. Such bliss!! That lazy time before I hear it go. Or there are the times, the not-so-good-times, when I switch the alarm off with no recollection of doing so. Thank Goodness for the sun (and for my large east facing windows) that comes calling, jolting me awake.


Last week was bizarre. My phone set itself to Myanmar time (Don’t ask how. These android touch phones quite have a mind of their own and tend to be temperamental). I jumped up right as it rang and after I’d wrapped up all my chores and was about to wake up the kids I realised there was a full hour to go! There I sat mourning my one hour of lost sleep. 

Don’t get me wrong – I like mornings. I love them. There’s just one small catch – the waking up. That kind of takes away all the fun. If only there was any other way to begin a morning than waking up!

So what’s your morning like? The ‘newspaper and tea’ variety or the ‘hurry hurry hurry’ kind? 

Linking to # Microblog Mondays hosted by Mel at Stirrup Queens where we’re talking about life hacks. Do stop by and share a tip.

Posted on

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday morning I woke up craving Upma – a savoury dish made from semolina with peanuts and loads of veggies. I set out chopping carrots and defreezing peas. 

As I started roasting the semolina in walked N. 
‘What are you making mama?’ she asked, ‘Halwa?’ 
Halwa is a sweet preparation also made from roasted Semolina, a huge favourite with both the kids. H followed soon, sniffing, ‘Ummm I haven’t even smelt halwa for soooo long.’ He’s such a sniffer, this one. He goes around smelling flour and dough and sugar and raw vegetables. 

The halwa used to be a breakfast staple till The Husband turned diabetic. I, in any case, am a perpetual weight watcher. Besides, I’ve been in consultation with a dietitian for the past few months and am allowed a ‘what-I-want’ breakfast only on Sundays.

Anyway, even as the kids hung around the kitchen, before I knew it, just like that, I was pouring ghee (clarified butter) in the pan, then the roasted semolina and the sugar and making halwa.


Instead of this..

Doesn’t the upma look great with all those colourful vegetables?
Photo courtesy: Dreamstime.com

I ended up with this.

That’s halwa – Sweet and nutty and delicious.
Photo courtesy: Dreamstime.com

That’s what kids do – saunter into your lives without as much as a ‘May-I’ and change your plans completely. What’s stranger, you don’t realise it for a long long time and when you do, you don’t really mind it. They do bring along lots of sweetness, right? 
That kind of makes it all worth it.
However, what they do not do, is stave off Upma cravings. And so after I was done, up went another pan and I set out roasting a fresh batch of semolina and made the Upma too. No point stifling your cravings.
The Sunday breakfast table was one happy place yesterday.

Linking to # Microblog Mondays hosted by Mel at Stirrup Queens.

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress