Modern Maids

We live in Apartment Complex here, and its is really amusing to watch maids bringing kids, to the park in the evenings. U must be wondering why can't they?! Well!(Gulp!!)its difficult for moms like me, to be found as the odd one out, among these modern maids. Enter the apartment parks in Bangalore(or for that matter any Cosmopoliton City) and its difficult to distinguish Moms from Maids. Why ??? Coz these gals r truly Accessorised and fully loaded with the latest Gadgets in town. They come in all shapes and sizes but all in all ,I must say, they follow the latest Fashion trends. Why shud I mention this ?? I shud say Hats off to these Modern maids!! who take in the place of the Child's Real Mom. The Child's Mommy and Daddy are high salaried IT professionals, who wud pay any amout jst to get their Precious kid all the earthly blessings...(which parents wudn't??). They Shower these modern maids with stuff from Mobiles to the latest Salwar Suits. And few of these maids own even a two-wheeler......
The other day a maid from Hyderabad came to Converse with me!...she shocked me by speaking very fluent English!! ..and to add to my "Shock of the century" she asked me if I were a maid or a mom!!....but i must say,I can't blame her cos "Moms in the Park" aren't Trendy any more.

Trip to Vavrath

Dear Friends...
A few days bk,in the month of Feb,we went for a visit to Pune for a few days and happened to visit a wonderful place on the way...I would like to share my experiences during this trip with all of u...
We went to this place called Vavarath...It is a tiny village in the
middle of (u can almost call) a desert....it is around 55 Kms from
Ahmed Nagar(maharashtra)....the reason for our visit was that one of
my Hubby's Aunt, Sr. Eugene (she's a nun) lives there. She along with
Father Thomas and 3 other sisters run a boarding cum school for the
Adivasi and Village children,the poor and less fortunate....all for
free. It is a MArathi medium school.They have been staying there for
the past 7 yrs and they have transformed that place into a Paradise.
They have absolutely no funds whatsoever to run that place. Each day
there passes by only with the Lords Provision. The vegetables they
have, r provided free of cost, by a very kindhearted grocer from
Ahmednagar every week and that too compeltely for the whole week...(for
example..onions,he provides 10 kg.. a whole sack of it for every week
and so on for other vegetables too) he says eversince he has been
providing them he has been blessed and has recovered a majority of
debts...isn't that wonderful??.....
the 55kms that they travel to get their provisions from town, was only
recently tarred, around 8 months bk, due to a promise made a local
politician, who happend to win the election...we were fortunate to vist
them only coz the roads were tarred by God's Grace...till then it was
tuff to get travel to the village the past 6 yrs or so..the way to
vavrath is alsmost like a desrt with few withering trees,sand and
rocks...in the early hours of morning or towards the evenings we get to
see a few wild animals on the way...deers,porcupines,rabbits,peacocks,pigs
etc....even tigers have been caught from those areas...intitally there were

lot of snakes in the place they were living but by God's grace they r seeing only very
few these past few months.
the climate there r in the extremes ...its either too hot or too
cold...electricity is provided for 12 hrs a day...but then they get
only 6 hrs a day on and off,even the phone connection to that place is
tuff to get....during the days we stayed there, there wasn't
electricity for a whole day(24 hrs)...the sisters there have made a
small farm with lots of hens,ducks swans, pigeons,fish and a few cows,a
dog too.they have a beautiful garden and lots of fruitful trees and
plants, Each child there has a duty...some have to water the plants,some cut
vegetables,some do the cleaning,even help in cooking if they have free
time...even serving breakfast,lunch,snack and dinner r done by them....
letting the animals inside the cage and outside..keeping their
classrooms and premises clean...
the sisters have prayer time and these children love praying and attend
whatever prayers r there(even tho not compulsory)...always sharp to
rise early morning and on time....its amazing to see their discipline
and wholeheartedness in every thing they do..they r always doing some
work or the other but with pleasure too...they have their own free time
too..
the food those kids have is a special kind of dry hard roti which
poeple like us cannot eat...there is local cook who cooks food for them
according to their taste...they eat raw carrots and beetroots...so
mostly for evening snacks they have those fruits sometimes....the
sisters stay in a kitchen cum bedroom cum dining room....in a few
months they will shift to a seperate small building which is under
construction.....the sisters r on the run the whole time....
i knew that Sr. Eugene is old but when we met her face to face, she
looked so yung...even tho she is 68 she looked only 40....i even told
her that...the sisters here have a lot of work...they juggle btwn
cooking, teaching and supervising too.....even tho we took rest with
our kids,it was amazing to see how they all did all their work without
much rest.....Really God's touch is upon those toiling there...
Right now there r around 184 children,out of these
33 girls and 70 boys live in the boarding school there.....they
all have twinkling eyes,eager to learn and are very disciplined
children much to the awe of everyone.....they kept entertaining Leah
and Grace...they were always greeting us with a handshake(Jai Christh)
and were teaching us a few marathi words too....while visiting them
during their meals every child invited us to sit with them to
eat...these children haven't seen much of the outside world and long to
see poeple different from them....last month they got a chance to visit
Bombay by Gods Grace who provided for all their needs...navneet
publications arranged a nice big bus for sightseeing...oriental home
publications poeple arranged their stay and provided each child with a
bed and blanket...so nice isn't it??......
inspite of all their good times, one sad thing about these children is
that their parents get them married of by the age of 10(boys and
girls)...there was one girl who kept crying all the time that she
didn't want to get married....she even told she will sign a statement
which can be given to the police that it is against her wish... the
Sisters or Father Thomas cannot do anything but advise their
parents....they don't encourage parents when it comes to marriage..
there are tutors who stay there with their families....these tutors r
paid too , few of them r dedicated but some of them come to teach in
that village only coz of the money and they do not stay long...Sister
Gloria is the principal of that small school..the uniform those
children wear to school was sponsored by a bike agency..they took their
measurement and got them stitched specially for the kids...the other
sister there is in charge of the medical needs of that village...she
sits in a small clinic...they run a small stationary shop too....we saw
some small local village children come running with 5 RS to the shop to
buy a small packet of parle G biscuit...hehe...its very cute to see
them....
inspite of all the hardships they face, Father Thomas and the Sisters
there r just thankful and grateful to all those who extended their
helping hands and keep telling of all the blessings they have
received...they treated us like king and queens while we stayed there
for 2 days....they made duck(their own duck caught by the boys there)
curry and fish(their own) fry ......it was just wonderful and
touching...they even packed snaks for us for our return..
i can go on bout this place..ther's so much to write about....i think i
haven't organised my writing properly..
if u guys can make it u shud
really visit this place and see for urself...I was soo happy to see
those joyful kids...my kiddos were not well during those
days...G was having fever too....but still they fell in love with
those kids and that place, specially FAther Thomas and all the
sisters...forgot to mention there was a nun and another brother who
were staying there as a part of their service...they get to stay ther
for a year and then leave the place after a wonderful time....
if there's anybody who wants to sponser a kid from this place or wud
like to help them in any way orplanning to visit...do lemme know...i
will give u their complete address and phone number too...

Golden Triangle Trip

We made this Golden Triangle trip a year back in February. And i wud like to share this with u all.
Throughout our 5 day trip to delhi,agra,jaipur.....it was cold and cloudy there ..but still all of u enjoyed thoroughly including my kiddos and we returned back in perfect health....
let me give u a brief of what all we visited....
Day 1
we got up at 4 in the morning.... landed in delhi by flight(2hrs 15 minutes from bangalore).. .it was cold and raining in delhi...we took a volvo bus to jaipur...took bout 6 hrs ...saw lots of camels on thewasy....the whole day was spent in travelling.. ..we stayed at a guest house where they served home cooked north indian food which was really good...
Day 2
We visited Amber fort...we took an elephant ride there(pretty expensive 550 bucks one way for afamily) .....Leah was screaming thruout the ride...:-)on the way to jaigarh fort we saw lot of peacocks andpeahens...so pretty ...! grey monkeys and green parrots too were there in plenty....it was cloudy that day too...we came back, had food and in the evening went to this ethnic village called Choki Dani.....they open from 6 in the evening to 11 at night....they will serve the traditonal rajasthani food,plus there r lotsof ethnic dances,magic show,puppet show ,elephant rides and camel ride..u can also shop inside....its250 bucks for a person and half the rate for the kid above 3 but its worth it.... it was drizzling by thetime we finished seeing thru the entire place but itwas real treat...
Day 3
had break fast in our guest house...on the way to the bus station we saw hawa mahal,city place and Jantar Mantar from outside in an autorickshaw as we had no time.....just before we took a bus to agra, we happened to see some beautiful glass bangles and bought some for the kids ...really pretty and very cheap...5 bucks for a dozen...that whole day too we spent in travelling.. ..6 hrs almost to agra by bus.....by then we chked in at a hotel near the TajMahal....had dinner and went off to sleep....jaipur is more clean than agra.....
Day 4
We got up at 6 in the morning and by 7 we took a walk to see the Taj Mahal....it was very cloudy but the TajMahal still looked beautiful... it just a 10 min walk from our hotel......kids were really cranky that daybut somehow we managed tho there were outbreaks of anger from both hubby's and my side.....we then took a taxi and visited Fatehpur Sikhri , Agra fort and babyTaj.....this place was soo full of history...we had tour guides in these places who would explain to us the history..... i don't think there is a proper sewage system in agra coz altho the monuments r maintained well, the roads r full of dirt and muddy water....we had to travel the next day so we came back early..had an early dinner and went off to sleep
Day 5
We got up at 4 in the morning to catch a train to delhi which was it 6...it was raining and very cold....somehow coverd up the kids well and left the hotel ....just 4 hrs by train from agra....it was raining again in delhi...but by the time we reached the hotel the sky cleared up...it became sunny...we freshened up...took a taxi to go around delhi...we were really impressed by the museum and house of Indira Gandhi(a must see)...we went to see the Qutubminar, India gate,Rashtrapati bhavan and premises,where the republic day parade takes place...verybeautiful and well maintained.. .by evening ething got closed for visit and so we couldn't see all of delhi ...but there is always a next time...we came to the hotel had dinner and went of to sleep...
Day 6
We got up at 6 to reach the airport and take the return flight to bangalore... .
Wow! home sweet home!.....but loads of clothes to wash....Grace had to be in diapers throut ....
And I have to praise my kids,who really cooperated in dressing up every time for making this travel trip a success.

First time to School

School time can be no fun, specially if the child is attending it the first time. The past 10 days were tearful times for my yunger child. She intially wanted very badly to go to school like her elder sis, but when her time came, she cudn't handle it as we(her parents ) thought. These past days, she wud be crying really badly, when i would be dressing her up in her uniform.But today, on the 9th day of her school, she finally has settled. Today she went happily and we as parents were so happy to see her going joyfully. Basically, its easy to know in what mood she is in ,every time. When she's really happy ,she hums a tune to herself and her joy is contagious. Well! today thats what she did. And I, as a mom is very proud of her.

I Wonder

If our thots had a loudspeaker attatched to it, then don't u think it wud be too embarassing to even think , about anything at all.

Wake me up!

Papa(to Mama): Please wake me up at 6 in the morning,for I have to catch the early morning bus.
L: Mama, no need to wake him up . I will wake up at 6 and call him up.
G:Mama,please wake me up at 6 in the morning. I will wake Papa up when u do so.

Chiken??

Grandma 1: Oh dear! I thot I would die of Chikungunya last year.

Grandma 2: Really?? Me too, even I was laid down by Chikungunya last year.
G(overhearing the whole episode) asks me softly: Mama, can u give me some Chikungunya?
The whole crowd burst out laughing.

But who?

Mama: My dear girls..u should look after ur mama(me) when i grown old, ok??
L:Yes Mama,we'll look after u.
G(3 yrs):Me too. But mama,who'll look after me?

Moral Chaos?

After an hour of teaching L, the Story of the Greedy Dog and all the QA's in that Lesson which she had for her English Exam....I finally truimphed over the fact that she would be thorough with the story, by now. I then asked my dear one:"Can u tell me the Moral of the Story,L?"(I even hinted that a part of it lies in the title of the story). After putting in a lot of thought and hinting, my little girl said : "Yes, Amma....the Moral of the Story is 'Do not Bark' ".

What an Idea !

My daughters L and G r the Spice of my life!
They have lots if ideas going throught their mind. This is what went on btwn us, yd.
Mama: Dear Lkutty, u need to study well this year,unlike last year. Ur fee has increased a lot!
L:Don't worry mama! (all Smiles and Happy!)I will stay at home and not go to school from now on. In this way ,Dad can save some money....:)