You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2009.
I cannot believe how busy I have been these past few days. Work is hectic as ever and I have the added tension of preparing Saboor for his exams. There’s too much frustration there for me to talk about Saboor right now. There are times when I remind myself that he is just ten years old, give him a break! But i’ve been laidback with him all this time and look where its led us? He’s not getting spectacular marks in any subject – not that I expect any,….but I do expect him to at least pass his subjects.
Whew! There is NOTHING in this world that can compare to teaching a ten (make that8,9,11,12,13..whatever) year old boy. I think apart from the real serious padaakus and the geniuses, all other normal little boys cannot bear the idea of sitting down and actually studying. And I have become the most horrible mother on this earth. Shouting and screaming at him, threatening him with stuff like how I will lose my teeth soon because I grit it too much when I speak to him, and how I will lose my hair soon because I feel like pulling clumps out of it…or (the worst) how my stitches(on my abdomen for the Cesarian), will unravel and my intestines will fall out. WHEW! To be fair, Saboor is just a bit shocked at my attitude and then he’s mostly unfazed. I can almost hear him saying, ‘Huh! As if!’
It’s always good to receive feedback for your work. Obviously, pictures speak better than words, although technically speaking it is a picture of words!!!:D
No words needed!
My babies!!
It happens so often that those who live in a city will never appreciate its treasures. And so, we’ve always ignored Lalbagh, and we’ve visited the flower show only once or twice. This time around, we thought of going and one evening, MIL and I went from here with the kids and Mom joined us, and together we went to see the beautiful flower show that takes place for Republic Day.
The last time we had been here was way back in 2000. For the flower show at least. And this time around, the stark difference was in the tightened security everywhere. Most people grumble when they see they have to walk through those scanning doorways and open their bags and show their contents to the guards. But I think its for the best. In fact, I’m willing to do all this and more if it ensures our security in malls and other public places where we take our loved ones. But does it really help? Probably not.
Anyway, this blog post was long in coming because I hadn’t uploaded the pictures on the computer. There’s one even more delayed one coming soon, about my trip to Mumbai last year! When I have the time of course, folks! 
We went to Vellore on Friday evening and Zoha and Azhaan started screaming all of a sudden because they were tired, sleepy, hungry and in the compact space of the car, it was maddening! Sidra suddenly switched on this video and the kids just loved it. Only problem was that it played on her mobile and both kids wanted it! So, we quickly shared the video and I played it with her simultaneously. Then, Saboor wanted to see it, and he was sitting in front with Ammi. So, we shared it with bluetooth with Junaid and then, it started playing on his mobile also. And this was the next maddening thing happening in the car for the next half an hour!!!! Gosh!
So I’d been to office today after quite a few days because sometimes I get bored of working from home and I do get much more work done in office. These past few days my company has been trying to recruit new writers and we haven’t been having a good time of it at all. Most of the people who come are not natural writers and we cannot have stilted writing on our company website so we invariably reject them.
Today, since I happened to be there, my colleagues wanted me also to be a part of the rather hopeless job of speaking to the many hopefuls who come there, explaining to them what our job is like and what kind of test we will be administering to them.
Two girls had come and the one nearest to me handed a sheet of paper, her resume. I took it and looked at it, and then turned it over because something was printed there also. But I couldn’t register what it was and although the girl explained something about paper, I didn’t think much about it and gave it back to her and we asked them to come inside for the test.
Much later when the test was over she handed me her resume and went out. I looked at her resume and saw that she had apparently trained at The Writer’s Block, a popular Bangalore based institute that trains people to become technical writers. This one was a wannabe tech writer, so WHY was she coming here? Anyway, I turned the sheet of paper again and read it carefully and nearly fell over laughing.
Institutes like The Writer’s Block routinely provide hand outs to their trainees to take home, and obviously READ it. The heading at the back of her resume was something like, ‘Top mistakes to avoid in your resume’ and it gave pointers about what kind of mistakes people usually make. AND this girl had the temerity to print out her resume behind that very handout and bring it to an organization where she came for her interview?????
What the!!!
Obviously, someone needs to tell The Writers Block to add an important point on that handout, preferably right at the top of the sheet ‘Don’t use the clean side of this sheet to print out your resume. It shows that you are not serious and you couldn’t care less about what impression you are making!’
I still cannot believe she did it! 
Why does it have to be this way? I don’t know what the problem with some schools in Bangalore is. We never got the call from Head Start and apparently the admissions are over also. I felt like fuming this morning, but I really don’t understand schools where they don’t even give any reason why the child was not selected. What criteria did we not meet?
Anyway, no use thinking about this now. We got a form for Azhaan from Podar Jumbo Kids and I think we’ll mostly enrol him there. It seems like a nice place, but my heart was so set on Head Start. <sigh>
I thought I had sorted out the admission problems for Saboor also but apparently not. Now that we live in Koramangala, it’s very far to send him to J.P Nagar. His school doesnt have a van which comes to Koramagala apparently. We thought we’ll try Bethany and apparently they dont have any vacancies for 5th Standard. St. Josephs is giving admission forms in March and they have an entrance test so I really don’t know whether it will work out there at all. I’m not going to pin my hopes anywhere and probably Saboor might finish his schooling from St. Pauls only.
I really wish the school admission process was simple. Or is it just me?
I think the last time I actually wrote something using pen and paper was for my MA exams. Its become harder to me to conceive writing as something I can do without my computer and MS Word. But of late, I have started feeling tied down and restricted and I started writing a story in a book.
I collect so many of these books, hoping to pen down stories in them eventually, but I never get around to doing it because my hand can never catch up with my thoughts. And so, there are quite a few of these books lying around and I picked up one of them and started writing two days back.
I’m glad I did. Although my thumb aches and I despair at my handwriting, it feels good to see pen running on paper. And because I have to slow down my thoughts, who knows, I might end up writing a different story altogether than what I would have, had I started it on the computer!
I also like the physical act of writing because that is something I can do anywhere. Junaid might probably tell me how he manages it in his Nokia N71, with the MS Word editor and he’s even shown me a little of something he wrote using the phone’s QWERTY keyboard. I was tempted to get something similar, but I realised that having a notepad and pen is much cheaper (:D) brings me closer to what used to be my notion of being a writer! The only problem will arise when I have to start typing all this back on the computer.
So you’re in the mood for some dessert. And you don’t want to go out and dig into ice cream. Neither do you want to hunt up recipe books and look for something to make(if you are so inclined, that is). It’s probably time for some quick fix firni.
It’s very, very simple to make and it tastes really good so all you have to do is, soak half a cup of rice in water for half an hour, drain the water and run in the mixer until it becomes a smoooooooth paste. Remove the paste from a mixer into a bowl and keep separately(I have a very good reason why you should do that. Will elaborate later)
Then, boil one liter milk and let it simmer for about five minutes. While its simmering, pour the paste into the milk while stirring continuously. – If you let the rice paste remain in the mixer, then what happens is that it becomes a bit difficult to pour with one hand. And if you don’t stir with one hand while you’re pouring, you’ve got lumpy firni. And that, you don’t want!
So, keep stirring, scraping the sides and bottom of the pan until the firni looks a little thick. Add sugar(how much ever you prefer, or how much ever your sweet tooth allows you!). Stir well and switch off the gas.
Let it cool and then mix in a few drops of rose water or kewra essence and then sprinkle generously with slivered almonds and pistachios(if you have ‘em). Pour into individual cups and let it set in the fridge.
My memories of this firni are associated with memories of Kolkata, very few memories actually. Kolkata was on our route to Hong Kong back in those days when there were no direct flights from Bangalore. The trip to Hong Kong was such a big adventure because we had to travel to Kolkata, go to Dhaka, take a flight to Bangkok and then go to Hong Kong, and I guess Abbu kept such a convoluted route because he had some work to take care of in each of these destinations. So in Kolkata, my memories were always of food.However, I don’t recall much about that also, except that the aromas of even the curries were sweet in a way that was very appetizing.
But the dessert was always firni. Yes, the same firni for which I gave the recipe. The only difference was that it used to be much more thick, and set in clay bowls. So, we had to scrape off the firni from our bowls, and I think the clay added its own special aroma and taste to the firni.
My mother and I searched around for this recipe until we found it one day finally. Actually, the firni that my mother makes at home is different from this firni. For that, the milk has to be reduced, and then she doesnt make a paste out of the rice. She grinds the dry rice coarsely and then cooks that in the milk. Once it’s cooked, she adds the sugar and milkmaid and of course loads of slivered almonds. That is also very delicious, but I don’t have the time or patience to reduce the milk without letting the bottom of the pan get burnt. So, this quick fix firni it is for me!
I made some today and I’ve kept it in the fridge. Saboor loves it a lot so I don’t think there will be much left even until the evening!
People sometimes ask me how I do it. ‘It’ being managing kids, house, career and my writing. I don’t know myself and it’s not like I’m being modest or anything, but maybe somewhere things slip up. Like the day I have to deliver more than the usual number of descriptions, chances are that the laundry won’t get done. And yes, slob that I am, my house has probably never been spic and span in all the time it’s been my home. So now you get the picture.
But then, it’s not like I live in a pig sty, I just can’t help it if I live with a boy(Saboor) who refuses to throw away even the smallest bit of paper, another boy(Az) who refuses to let the hall arrangement remain as it is. Meaning, I might have to nail down the center table to the floor if I want it to remain in the position it was when I set it in the morning. And I also live with another boy (Mansoor) who refuses to remove that whole stock of shoes he has in one of the rooms to his shop. BAH!
But if you’re actually looking to working from home, and I’ve been at it for five years now, and the last one year has been different, not difficult, because I’ve been on my own, then i’ve got a few tips for you:
- Don’t try to schedule your day. You never know when someone might drop in for a chat and you can’t possibly hustle them out to get your work done.
- While you might not work 9 to 5, try not to end up working too much in the night or early morning to compensate. Of course, working from home has its advantages because you’re free to work whenever you want, but that translates into people working at all or odd hours.
- Might sound a bit contradictory but try and get your work done by at least 6 pm. You do have a life after all!
- Hard as it might sound, make time for some sort of activity like reading. It helps to relax the mind and of course opens up endless possibilities.
Ok so much gyan from me is enough. It’s not like I know everything there is to working from home, but i’ve been there and done that, so much that I actually enjoy the odd day I go to office.
Of course, keeping the house clean…..is someone out there equipped to give me advice?
