The duck that turned 31..

This duck is 31 years old today. But as the years pass, is there any change in the wisdom at all? The duck has certainly changed from what it was, say 10 years ago. It has obviously grown older physically and there's a lot of change in ideas too. Has all the change been for the good? Or is the word "good" also an illusion?

In the past year, the duck has had a baby duck added to its family. It also lost a grandma duck to death. It has faced high and low tides. There were some mind numbing lulls where nothing happened and then there were waves of excitement. There were a few storms that felt like hurricanes and tsunamis (they probably weren't THAT bad), but the duck has survived it all. It cannot really claim that it hasn't been chafed some, life, after all, is all about the downs too. The duck still believes its lucky to have what it has.

Many a times the duck wonders if the other beings in this world even realize what it is all about. Some beings expect too much of it - if it brings and shares a lot of fish, they think that its nothing taxing as the part of the sea the duck lives in has plenty of fish. They actually blame it and criticize it whenever it gets tired of sharing. Then there are others who think this duck is a good duck and don't seem to realize that this "good" duck has its bad moments and bad days too. They complain "you were not like this earlier", but somehow forget that they in the past were not like what they are today either. And maybe the duck actually has evolved into an unknown being. Or maybe what they assumed the duck to be in the past was actually wayyyyyyy different from what the duck actually was. Maybe they never knew the duck. At all.

One thing the duck has realized in the past year is that man, it has a temper. When it quacks several times and is not heard, the quacks turn into screeches and screams and the duck literally throws a tantrum. Maybe it should learn to gather all the algae/seaweed around it and stuff them into its hugggggge ears, so that it doesn't hear half the things that make it mad. What is a better idea is to stuff the sea weed into its mouth (which is wayyyyyyyyyyyy bigger than its ears), so that no quack comes out ;-).

The duck sometimes finds itself torn between what should be and what is. It doesn't understand what is expected of it sometimes. Torn between complaints and consolations. Torn between taunts and praise. Torn between blasé and insinuations. Torn between accusations and agreements. The duck is thankful for the steady rock that its partner is and somehow they hope to figure things together. The future will only bring with it more expectations, more challenges and whatever the duck may have faced before, its all nothing compared to whats ahead. The duck will surely face it head on :).

The duck is in a very poignant mood today and hence will not be putting up the usual Garfield birthday comics. The duck is also sorry to have confused many beings with this post and shamelessly admits to being thoroughly confused too :-p.

A very happy birthday to the duck and super cheers to all that it actually is :).

The truth :-D

Pardo's First Postulate to Murphy's law: "Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or fattening."
Arnold's Addendum: "Anything not fitting into these categories causes cancer in
rats."

Sad, but true :-p.

The punishment :-D

Snugli is the featured student for 2 weeks at her school and hence this is my punishment ;-) :-D - a poster featuring her and everything she loves :).




The things parents need to to when their kids are in school!!!

I don't really like this type of manipulating from the schools. How does it make me a good mom/parent if I am concentrating more on the poster than the kids? We were out of town on the weekend and the teacher suddenly dumped this on us on Monday (no warnings at all and it was needed "right now"). Moreover Sri, God bless him, doesn't have a single artistic bone in his body, so I came up with the concept, designed the template, got the photo printouts, cut them all out, glued everything together literally in 24 hours all with a cranky baby and an extremely inquisitive pre-schooler around. All this to please a few teachers because Snugli hardly paid any attention to it and I'm sure her classmates would have been the same :-p. I could have done a shabby job, but the perfectionist in me had to get it right :-p. Basically, I think it becomes a matter of pride for the parents.

I'm already ruing the day when Sunny will be all grown up. Proud of myself though :).

The concern :)

This happened about 3 weeks back, you know why I haven't been able to put it up ;-).

One day while I am feeding Sunny, Snugli comes and sits right next to me.

Snugli: "Amma, puttu baby amma hotteinda bantha?" ("Mom, did the baby come from mom's stomach?")
Me: "Huun." ("Yes.")

(Whenever she troubled me too much, I told her that since the baby came from my stomach, I had aches and pains all over and so she asks)

Snugli: "Amma, ninge hotte abbi idya?" ("Mom, does your stomach hurt?")
Me: "Huun."
Snugli: "Amma, ninge bennu abbi idya?" ("Mom, does your back hurt?")
Me: "Huun."
Snugli: "Amma, ninge kai kaalu abbi idya?" ("Mom, do your arms and legs hurt?")
Me: "Huun."
Snugli: "Amma, naanu Walgreens hogi medicine tharthene. Ninge abbi ella hothade." ("Mom, I'll go to Walgreens and get some medicine for you. All your pains will be gone."). Walgreens is a pharmacy store here.

:).

On a side note, typing a post on iPhone, moreover by left hand is HARD :-p.

The audacity!

Some people are so full of themselves! (Another huge rant in progress, consider yourself warned :-p)

Today morning I get this message from a person saying "don't u answer u'r freinds e mails". Now this person was my best friend in childhood and we have been touch for many years thanks to my efforts and absolutely no thanks to her (my calling her "person" instead of "friend" shows you how angry I am). We lost touch a couple of years back thanks to her constant changing of phone numbers. No, I can't even say we lost touch because I have her email and kept mailing her on her special days - her birthday, anniversary, her kids' birthdays and so on. And she never replied a single thanks. Plus I have told you how fond I am of sending photos to friends and relatives once or several times a month (:-p), she is in my mailing list and again, she never ever, not once, got back on whether she even saw the photos.

Out of the blue last week, I get a message from her giving her yet-another-changed-phone-number and asking me for my contact details (this is despite the fact that my phone numbers haven't changed since 6 years, from the time I came to US). Thanks to a 1.5 month old that was born to me and that I'm quite busy caring for (which again I had informed her through a mail), I haven't been able to keep up with all the communication. So I didn't, make that couldn't, reply. And I get this message from her today! I am so outraged, just what do people think of themselves? And how much do they expect of me? The more I do, the more I'm expected to do.

There have been many days in the past when I've gotten sick and tired of the whole thing and think I'll just quit putting in the effort. This is one of those days. But then again, I take a deep breath, tell myself that just because some people are atrocious, it doesn't mean that I should give up what I am and then make the effort again to keep in touch. But seriously, this was like I was literally stabbed with a long sharp knife. I wrote a blistering reply to her and being the goody-two-shoes that I am, I should have regretted it by now, but I haven't. One big part of me is very very very angry with her while another small part of me is actually sad - it feels like I have literally lost a friend. Or maybe I lost her years ago, have been deluding myself all these years with my puny efforts and am realizing it only now :(. How dumb I must be!

Update: She replied saying that she was busy with her household and kids for all this time and that she took liberties with me as she was "eager" to get back in touch with me. Oh well, I didn't know "eagerness" can translate to years and you know me, I am a free spirit without households and kids :-p. Anyways, enough of this subject, lets move on :).

The unoriginals!

Whats with Indian music directors these days? I'm so sick and tired of listening to old songs remixed and changed these days. Yeah there were remixes earlier in pop albums, but you didn't really have to listen to them unless you wanted to. These days the songs are in the movies and whenever I watch one, I end up being really mad. Is coming up with an original tune so difficult?

I especially become angry when I hear a favourite tune all jumbled up and made weird by these weirdos. The last straw was hearing "Ravivarmana kunchada" (originally sung by the great PB Srinivas) made all so-called modern (meaning destroyed) in the movie Buddhivantha (I know I'm late in pointing this out but bear with me since I caught up with the movie only now). If you can't come up with something nice, atleast please stop spoiling what was good. Is there no thing called copyright for these things?