Obsessivemom

12/11/201321/06/2024

R is for (non) Readers

Some are born readers, some achieve being readers and some have reading thrust upon them… And then there are some who refuse to read even if it’s thrust and thrust and thrust upon them..yeah that would be my twins.We live in a house surrounded by books. I read. I have always read since we were kids. Our father would get these inexpensive Russian books for my sister and me and we would devour them within hours. Then we discovered Noddy and Enid Blyton and there was no looking back.. Amelia Jane, Malory Towers, St Clair’s, Faraway Tree then on to Famous five, Secret Seven….. It was like unlocking a treasure chest. We’d wait for our weekly library period at school. We were issued two books ( a fiction and a biography). We’d read them at supersonic speed and then exchange with our friends before the week was through.

We’d read during tiffin break, during the bus ride home, over lunch and at bedtime. Classics, comics, thrillers, historicals… I read them all.

When I got married it was wonderful to find duplicates of my favourite reads in The Husband’s collection, even though he is more of a non-fiction reader. Our bookshelf at home is nothing if not eclectic.

Since when the twins were babies they have absolutely loved stories. Beginning with Bubbles and Bruno I exhausted all the Doras and Noddys. I picked up stories from the Panchatantra. I trawled Indian mythology for interesting stories. They knew the Ramayana by the time they were three. And then tales of Lord Krishna and Hanuman.

I told them interesting anecdotes from famous scientists’ lives.. Archimedes and Newton.. Einstien and Edison. I even told them bits of Harry Potter.. broke up bits of the story like episodes. They loved it. And still they wanted more so I made up stories, scores of them.

And I waited for the day they would start reading on their own.. And nothing.. They just didn’t.

I brought them beautiful books.. ‘pop ups’ and ‘sticker storybooks’ and ‘colour your own story books’. They oohed and aahed over them, they stuck the stickers and coloured the pictures and then moved on. I tried leaving an interesting story midway. They would simply pester me till they drove me crazy and I’d have to read it to them.

Did I overdo the story telling? Maybe. Did I put them off by trying too hard? Maybe. I’d just been so excited and impatient to share it all with them. There really are so many wonderful stories to share. Sigh!

They have crossed their seventh birthday and I am afraid it’s already too late. I see hope for H.. He does pick up a book – not so much fiction but books on Dinosaurs and Sharks and other scary stuff (!!) yet I’m happy. N however, seems a lost case. She simply will not read.

One of those rare moments..

Oh I’m still trying and I’ll keep trying but I’m slowly beginning to reconcile myself to having a non-reader for a daughter and trying to be okay with that. The thing is kids will be their own people, will have their own personalities, their own likes and dislikes no matter how much we try to mould them a certain way. That’s not to say I won’t try to inculcate good habits inthem (Rather, what according to me are good habits).. but I have to learn to let go at some point.

It’s a tough lesson in parenting, but one I need to learn and reiterate to myself over time.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

07/11/201315/04/2017

That’s Mumbai

That picture was taken a few years back when we were in Mumbai.
The city is decked up for Diwali.

Linking to Thursday Challenge: “CITY” (Urban, Traffic, Buildings, Crowds,…)

05/11/201315/04/2017

Q is for the Quintessential workaholic

Yeah that’s the Husband.

One morning we went out for coffee/chocolate shake and The Husband got an official call..

Here he is at the call.

Then he had an important message to send off.
H got bored waiting for him to finish and wanted to pose with him..
but The Husband didn’t notice.

then N had to have her turn and still The Husband didn’t notice

Then H decided to have some fun

By now both of them were enjoying themselves

… and some more!

That’s how focussed he is.

He payed a pretty heavy price for his work obsession, developing stress related diabetes. However over the last few months there have been some very positive changes. He has joined a gym and to the entire extended family’s complete disbelief he has kept at it for the past five months. He is at the gym six days a week, he has lost some weight, he is eating healthier and he keeps early nights.

Touchwood!

Five stress busters that work for us…
1. Spending real time with the kids. While they might be the greatest stress creators kids are also the best ever stress busters. The Husband enjoys squabbling with them. He has been putting them to bed more often and they spend ages chatting before they drop off asleep (While I get time to blog.. heh heh).
2. Rediscovering a hobby. Blogging works for me, gardening, crafting, listening to music might work for you.
3. Exercising. Walk, dance, hit the treadmill.. pick any. It works.
4. Meeting up with friends. While elaborate entertaining stresses us out a simple dinner or coffee with friends works just great.
5. Watching Television. Yeah I know TV is a much maligned medium and I’m no blind fan but sometimes sitting before it and watching a film or show and laughing together is just fun.

So what are yours?

Linking to ABC Wednesday

04/11/201315/04/2017

Whew Diwali..

So Diwali has gone. I have to admit it’s a bit of relief. Oh I like Diwali, in fact I like all festivals but they do turn your life upside down. There’s loads to do. You are overworked and the maids are overworked and are always in a hurry and more than a little cranky.

The kids are in the way.. Either they’re disconnected with the cleaning and decorating, which irks you no end or they want to do everything and that’s worse because you have to think up ways so they can help without doubling your work. The hapless souls got more than their share of yelling thanks to frayed nerves. Not that they seemed to mind. Egged on by friends they kept up a steady list of completely non priority demands.. May I have a pat pat gun? May we buy some Lotus flowers? Can we get home the PS 3? In fact when I took some time making the rangoli for the puja N asked if we cold postpone the puja to the next day and go down for the fireworks right away. Priorities!

When we did go down she discovered a sudden fear of fireworks. Last year she was the one going crazy setting off rockets and anars while H stood in a corner trying to pretend he wasn’t scared. Well this year he got over his fear and N developed cold feet to the extent of dropping the phuljhadi even before it was half done. I’ve no clue what has brought this on. Investigation is pending!

H on the other hand was all over the place, a phuljhadi in one hand and his dhoti in the other (despite repeated assurances I could not convince him that it wouldn’t fall off if he let it go).

The Husband probably puzzled and very annoyed by his star performer’s seemingly irrational fear, gave her a piece of his mind. By the time I reached down after wishing a few friends N had been home in search of me and when I ‘didn’t open the door’ had assumed I was ‘lost’ and was crying in one corner.

We had kept the menu simple. I did manage to make jimikand (or Yam). According to North Indian folklore if you don’t eat Yam on Diwali day you are reborn as a chhuchhundar (Wiki calls it the Asian House Shrew). And so I saved my family from an extremely smelly next life (Oh yeah they smell BAD). For the record the yam kebabs I tried (for the first time) turned out quite delectable.

So that was our Diwali!!

I might not agree with Scrooge but I can see where he was coming from.