A fine balance

Its a fine balancing act that we do with our lives all the time and we forget that too all the time. The only times you think of what a tightrope walking that you are doing, would be when you've lost the balance !!!(It's a different story that you do lose the balance very frequently :) )And when it happens, the rule of Murphy just applies itself tightly over the whole game plan !!!
I had charted out the list of activities for the month of June and July, well in advance, with the aim of completing all my pending "To do" things , before I joined back work by mid- july. But that was not to be.
I've not been able to complete , even one task from that list!!! And I've joined back work too :(
First it was the house shifting-though you know and are very well prepared for the task, its such a pain, esp when you have to do it twice in a span of 3 months!!!
Associated with that came all the side effects like no net connection et al, but that can be treated as minor too.
Then lil Mommolde came down with a mild cold that went onto become a severe infection and the worst part was that, the antibiotics administered orally upset his tummy and he had to be on IV, which meant he had to get admitted in hospital for 5 days.
That had other serious repercussions, esp. since Achulde has become an ardent "chipko" guy, after his trip to Aluva.
Had started thinking that things are back to normal and then, Achulde's fever starts.This event is all the more complicated because, administering the medicines part is so so so difficult. He has learnt to spit , so whatever is forcefed, comes out in doublespeed.It was 3 of us holding him and me giving the medicines thru a syringe!!! That lasted for a week and now Mommolde has cough and cold again!!!
And I am already 2 weeks into work!!!
Someone asked me on how it feels like, joining back work? I couldn't help answering " Its a very fine division of time between work, home and hospital!!!' :)

Achulde goes visiting!

'Why dont you take Achulde along, when you go to Aluva this weekend?'
The statement surprises everyone including me and I regret it the moment I say it.I know I am done.
Achulde's g. parents are here for his b'day and they are going back, this weekend. The husband also is planning to accompany them as he has some other duties to take care of there. And this is when the CFL in my head decides to go all bright. Achulde's g.mother gets all excited and starts planning immediately. The husband just looks at me, he knows its one of the brilliant FIMs(Foot in Mouth) that pops out of me from time to time, those are my TMs.
Now what do I do. Since the suggestion is mine, I cannot take it back. I look at R. hoping he would save me. ' Why not
?!'comes the response from the husband!!
It could've been a life saving 'No , next time' or a ' Are you sure?' response, but no,he chooses to say 'why not?'
Amma by this time is all enthu and goes a couple of steps further and suggests that 'Let him stay there with us for a week at
least?!!
A week?! Completely out of question.He cannot stay away from me for that long. But can't you see the obvious? How will I stay
away for 2 days from my lil' Achulde?
Achulde, ofcourse doesn't have a clue of whats happening. He's so many more important thing to take care of!
Night falls. The plan is to leave by the early morning train and what do I do now? To make matters worse, theres a silly tiff between the husband and self, so there's this 'First who?!' thing also in the air.So the matter remains undiscussed till the D-day morning.

Come Saturday morning and the plans are still on. I get him dressed up, the lil fellow is still sleeping, its just 4:30 in
the morning. Clothes are packed, food is packed, everything's ready. Iam all the while hoping that he'd get up now and then
he wouldn't want to go, but no such luck!!!They all enter the elevator.The husband's carrying Achulde and as the lift's about
to close,Achulde wakes up and looks around.I press the button and keep the door open, just in case, he starts crying, I can
take him back.He looks around, assesses the situation , smiles and gets all excited and waves good-bye!!! Tough luck. I go
the balcony and wait. Thought process is that ,the smile and the good-bye is only 'coz hes just half-awake, by the time he
reaches the Ground Floor or atleast by the time he reaches the car, realisation would dawn and sense would prevail and he'll
come back in another 5 mts.I stay there , sharpening my ears to catch the crying sound. I see the car on the road- no such
luck either!!!
The next one hr, the hopes are really on a very large scale. They'd be coming back from the railway station, c'oz he realised
and started crying!!! Have you ever wondered, the capacity of the human mind to hope against all hopes? Is it coz I am an
optimist(Am I really one?!) or is every one like this?
I decide to execute all my shelved plans during the weekend. Visit to the Dr, dentist etc had been postponed for quite
sometime.I set about doing all that. Howelse would I pass time?
5 hrs later, the husband calls, they've reached Kottayam, Achulde is all smiles and really happy and playing et al non-
stop, eversince he got up from slumber.I am relieved. If he doesn't cry,then I am OK, I tell myself!!!
The full day passes, with phone calls to and fro, each one of them bringing good reports - he's fine,he's not cried at all,
he's busy playing,he's not asked for me even once etc etc !!! Although the last piece of news is not that pleasing ;), I am
happy for him, though I cannot help wondering whether he's just putting on a brave face.
The weekend is one of the longest ever, even Mommolde is wondering and looking all around, he must be feeling strange, the
place is so quiet all on a sudden, something hes not at all used to!!!
Sunday noon, I call up the husband and ask ' Didn't he ask for me even once?' 'Nope' comes the reply. 'You are sad 'coz he
hasn't, isn't it?' comes an addendum!!!I must admit I am sad, not really sad, but I'd be lying if I say, it didnt affect me.I
think I feel that way 'coz, my gut-feel is that Achulde is just not showing, somehow thats the feeling I get and thats
worrying.
Anyways, I am glad the weekend has passed.
Finally I am at the Rlwy. Stn at 6 in the evening. The Day Express arrives on time luckily.I can see them both now. Achulde
hasn't seen me yet. I am almost running towards them. I am just abt near them, the husband is glad to see me( I notice :D ),
Achulde is busy looking at the train and then suddenly he sees me. The next moment he squeals in delight and the next moment , he looks the other way, he wouldn't make eye contact with me for the next 5 mts. I am already in tears.And then he jumps in the air and is in my hands, in one swift motion. All excited he starts his rhymes ' Tain , tain gauway, come gain nather
dday !!!'

All my anxieties, all my worries have melted away and all's well in my world. Touchwood!!!

'Candle in the phone?!!'

It took me sometime  to realise why my son was blowing with all his might into the receiver of the phone mid-way through the conversations, y'day , whenever someone called  and asked specifically to speak to him.

They were singing his ' Appappachi' song over the phone, and the lil' fellow was doing the blowing the candle part in-between !!!

:)

Apartment Hunt - Part 2

Then there was this house owner, who said that  he cannot rent out his house to us, 'coz we have small children, who will mess up his house.

And then there was one who said, he cannot give his house as my parents' or R's parents being there, means more no. of people in the home, which he doesn't like.

And have you heard the latest- the owner needs 1k more from us than the rent he was getting from his previous tenants, as they were a family of 2 , whereas we are a family of 4!!!(Wonder whether the apartment size also grows, when the no. of members in the family increase)Doesn't that mean that its .5 k rent per child per month as hostel rent?!!!

Wonder , what all we need to go through before we find a decent place to stay!!!

Appappachi to you

My son has  been singing the 'Appappachi '(Happy Birthday) song for quite sometime now.As part of the buildup to his birthday which is today, we all'd been singing this to him and he was enjoying it too. But the anti-climax was that , today when we sang it, he was like ' Ildildilde!!!'(which is his way of saying Illa, illa-meaning no no). Looks like he's become quite bored with the song now !!!

At the day-care that he'd been attending while in Bangalore, there were birthday celebrations once a week-every friday, where all kids' whose birthday falls on that week, would cut the cake and then there would be a party. And on fridays, he's not that happy on seeing me or R, when we go to pick him up from the day-care.Its like given a choice, he'd like to stay back for some more time, kinds.  Too bad, he couldn't celebrate his b'day there amongst kids his age. And he has not started going to day-care here. We are planning to have cake cutting et al here at home as well.Hope that makes up.

Lights, Camera Action!

These days, when I get into the kitchen, its as if to shoot for a cookery show. Can you believe that?!!

All ingredients will be ready and kept in bowls based on instructions that were given earlier.  I just need to take the right quantity and mix and bake or cook as required. And I get into the kitchen to cook only when I fancy. And I cook/make only fancy stuff these days  like Chocolate Roller coaster etc.

One of  the many advantages of having a maid!!! What a lazy bum I've become. But I do miss running my own  show sometimes. Donno when those days will return. Not too soon, I hope, as I already have enough on my hands  with Ac and Ad.

Gopalakrishna Panickar enna House Owner

Remember the character played by Mohanlal in 'Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam'? The antics he indulges in to get the tenants to vacate his house? Wasn't he so lovable?

Well thats the last quality  I can attribute to my current house owner.We discovered that he is a royal pain, so much so that, we have given notice to move out of our current apartment , where we have stayed for just 2 months!!!

We had liked this apartment so much, it was ideally located -  near the NH, yet tucked in , less noise, easy accessibility- we didn't have to think twice before choosing this one.R was apprehensive, 'coz the house owner was staying in the adjacent one. But I didn't think that was much of an issue as we'd be minding our business and them theirs--but that was not to be.

In our haste, we overlooked checking out  some basic minimum fittings like the plumbing work for washing machine, exhaust fan connection et al, and repent we did.

I approach him(Let's call him 'G'( Gem of a person) to talk about the same, and to my dismay he says a big 'NO' to the same, his reasons being

1.) You did not tell me, before taking the house.I cannot fit anything more as the deal has been signed.

2.) Previous tenant did not have all that.

I had a good mind to say that previous tenant did not pay as much rent as well, but refrained.
You see we've always belonged to the category of those less fortunate souls who have to live in rented apartments,but I must say we had not faced such issues before.
Maybe things are different in non -metros. In Chennai as well as Bangalore, we had all facilities provided by the house owners, if something was missing, we just had to tell them , they'd either fix it for us or ask us to go ahead and do it ourselves and deduct from next month's rent!!!

I walk back saying 'OK , I'll get it done myself at my own cost' . Then Mr. G comes running behind and says 'Since you've decided to go ahead , I would like to let you  know that I can allow only premium fittings in my apartment'!!!

We realised then of the shape of things to come.

Its been a very eventful two months, since then,with lots of anxious queries for anything and everything rite from rent payment even before the month ends  to worries that  my toddler mite draw on the walls and complaints on car parking, basically everything under the sun was fast becoming a problem!!!

And we reached our wits' end when, on coming back after a week's break from R's home, uncle G. comes and complains that ' You did not tell me before going away, you are yet to learn the basics of community living!!!' to which R replies ' We thot we just have to tell the caretaker, since its his job, didn know we have to tell you as well!!'

To keep it short  we gave in our notice and are on the lookout of new apartment!!!