My Backup(s)

It's not clutter, it is just being prepared.

I need to keep a pair of slippers and an umbrella in the car for backup because I might need to stop on the way for something and it might rain.

In fact I am so prepared for contingencies that my car always has a spare set of sun-glasses, a stock of reading material, a packet of biscuits, a bottle of water (sometimes a couple of empty ones also) and some extra things which we might need, just in case…

I had to clear out all this stuff when the car was being sent for servicing.

From the backseats, out came a glittery hair-band, a set of Uno cards, a Barbie doll, an Enid Blyton, a tiny purse with a lipstick and comb, a toy mobile-phone, a pack of crayons, a half-empty bag of chips….

Ready to tell them what they can do with the junk, I stopped my kids as they are about to leave for their Badminton class.

The younger one had my racquet slung across her back, she looked at me and promptly picked up her own:


"I am going to play with my own one; yours is just for backup."


(And this when they don't know what's in my handbag! Gosh, it's eerie how they pick up our idiosyncrasies)

Negotiation Tips - Anyone?

I’m Hungry. Can I watch TV?
No. Have a banana.

But I am feeling sad because I am hungry. Bananas make me sadder, I need to watch TV.You said you were hungry and that is making you sad. TV will not help. Have biscuits.

On a deeply resigned "Mom’s just don’t understand" tone: I am sad because I am bored and hungry. If I have boring food, I’ll be sadder. I need to watch TV.By this time more than a couple of colleagues are gathered around my desk, waiting for me to trip.

My ever-understanding daughter herself offers a face-saver: I can have chips.

We compromise on biscuits and playing games on the Ipod.

Best laid plans

I hated planning; thinking ahead, organizing….the works

Life being what it is, tried to teach me all about it, giving me no option but to buckle up and change gears.

Now I work on a calendar on which most work appointments are (thankfully) maintained to some degree by Microsoft Outlook.

I keep adding other meetings, personal reminders (to book gas cylinders, doctor’s appointments, picking up stuff for school projects, getting laundry done, filling petrol, submitting bills, buying gifts for birthdays the kids have to attend etc) to that.

And yes, once the school calendars are out, I superimpose those to my existing one so that I also get the reminders for school competitions and holidays, unit tests, parents’ days, sports days etc.

Since this calendar doesn’t work when I am offline-I add all the important ones to my phone too-so that every driving, shopping, talking, walking, moment is organized to the bar of the T.

I’ve also organized my grocery shopping through a master list, from which I need to strike out the items I don’t need, and generate the list for any month.

Enough to win me a nomination for Ms. Efficiency? Probably.

Had it not been for the times, I left the phone in the car and missed the reminder for calling my college room-mate on her birthday or picking up stuff from the dry cleaners (or the umpteen times I leave my phone charger at office and leave the battery to whimper out) .

Or the times I’ve pulled up at a petrol pumps and realized that I’d left my credit card at home.

Or, the times when I’ve received emergency calls from school/daycare and raced out of meetings, training sessions, client calls….whatever.

Even the times when I’ve got hold of an interesting read and let go off everything else.

And the last few times when I forgot to print the programmed grocery lists and ended up with four bottles of toilet cleaner, three packets of turmeric and an empty sugar canister.

Well, there is only so much planning can do!

Mobile phones

What is it that gives any kid above four (or is it three or even two these days?) an intrinsic knowledge of how to unlock, operate, and find the games on any damn cell phone?

And that when I still have to ask for my husband’s help to set/restore the esoteric settings on my phone.

My Mom is worse off by an entire generation much to my kids’ frustration as they were teaching her how to add reminders on her phone.

Nani doesn’t know anything!

Now nobody gets away with that.

She is smart enough to use email and send you those e-cards with music and cartoons, isn’t she? (She was also smart enough to add my brother’s profile to Shaadi.com a few years ago, add his contact details, and keep the login information to herself.)

She doesn’t even know how to change her ring tone.

Yes, but she likes the one she has. And she doesn’t know what games she has because with her eyesight, she cannot play them anyway.

She knows only how to call and send messages because that is what she needs the phone for.

Oh but it is still such a waste!

Giving a mobile phone to a grown up.

Another begining

That time of the year again.

I am going mad with covers and labels for  two sets of books, arranging uniforms, marking out the ties and socks, sorting out the tiffin boxes, the water bottles, the pencil sets, the clips and hair-bands and…

The end of the summer break!

I am all worked up about how to get these two to start waking up at 6.30 am again. How will they cope with staying cooped in with textbooks after two months of absolute mayhem? How would they get back to regiments of the daycare after the complete chaos of this time?

As for these two:

Within the pile of books and bedding, they are jiving away to glory with “music (?)” at ear-splitting levels.

When I go and yell “Girls! We have school tomorrow”. I get identical blank stares “But that’s Tomorrow”.

Yeah. For tonight, lets Rock!

Bliss!

Sometimes it can be sitting in a car and having biscuits for breakfast.

It is a space of your own, without negative vibes all around, knowing that you can be yourself, without the need to explain, to justify, or even ask.

It is a time of your own, knowing that just this once, you don’t have to rush for completing something which you don’t even want to do.

I have a bit of both-for the moment.

And it is Bliss.