Happy Birthday to you….

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Today GG & BB turn 8. Happy birthday sweeties!! The last eight years have been a fun-filled roller-coaster ride for all of us. We’ve had our share of sweetness and some sadness, but overall, it’s been delightful and I am glad that nature thought us worthy of the twins!

They’ve taken some sweets – Smarties to share with their friends in school. Tonight their school celebrates the Mid Autumn Festival and Family Day and we’re sure to have a blast there also. Enjoy your day darlings and we’ll continue our studies and work tomorrow…

Here are a couple of videos for your enjoyment!

 

In My Hands Today…

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The Aztec Heresy – Paul Christopher

In search of a Spanish galleon in the Caribbean, Finn Ryan and her partner, Lord Billy Pilgrim, find evidence of a lost Aztec codex. The invaluable book, created by fifteenth  -century explorer and accused heretic Hernan Cortez, is said to reveal the secret location of the lost City of Gold. Finn and Billy soon realize they are not alone in their quest. Also on the trail is the head of a menacing religious cadre, who would kill to get the codex first, as well as a sociopathic billionaire, with his own sinister reasons for wanting to possess it. But while trying to find the Codex – and stay alive- Finn and Billy come upon an even greater and more explosive secret. This mystery will take them from the jungles of the Yucatan to the Sonoran Desert, where the stakes are life and death and the game is just beginning.

To Work or Not To Work….That is the Question…

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Another day, another commute in a crowded bus. To add, it rained last night and early this morning adding to the jams on the road. There are a couple of accidents on the expressway which I take so the bus is inching it’s way to the exit. You must have guessed that I am writing this on my way to work.

The past few years I am increasingly being asked by myself this question – Do I need to work?  The answer is not as simple as it seems. Based on my earning ability we upgraded to a bigger house about  18 months back so any decision to quit work has to factor that in. But now this question has been quite insistent and I look forward to the way that I can take a break from work. I want to take a couple of years off, concentrate on BB & GG and once they finish the dreaded PSLE exams, do something that enjoy doing. Maybe study further – there is a world of possibility out there. But all this will remain a dream unless I find a way to replace my income for the next four years at the very minimum.  I estimate I will need approximately S$ 120,000, give or take a few thousands to replace my take home income for the next four years. This is actually a pared down income level as for the past three months I have been getting around 75% of my previously drawn salary as I am now working less hours a day. Now all I need is to strike the lottery or get an unexpected inheritance and I’ll be set for my life of leisure.

While we are dreaming let me dream about that perfect life I will have when I am not working. I can wake up later than the 4:45 am I currently do, maybe around 5:30 am? Then get GG & BB, along with S ready to get out of the house by 7:15 am and start preparing my day. I would quickly finish my cooking and clean the kitchen. Next on my agenda would be some exercises say between 30-45 minutes after which the exercises would continue in the form of clew if the house. Once that is done, I can go and have a bath. By now the time should be around 10 am. After this would be some computer time or other general stuff – like ironing, clearing things etc. By this time, if i have not had breakfast, I would be hungry so time for lunch. Then rest till the children get home from school. Once back, they should keep me on my toes till it’s time to unwind and sleep! Aah, while I continue to dream about the perfect life, let me get to work!!

This and That…A Khichadi Post

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This post is a khichdi of different things. First things first though – a khichdi is an Indian lentil and rice dish which is essentially a one pot meal. You just chuck in rice, lentils, vegetables with some spices and create a fulfilling meal! The image is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Yesterday I went for my annual PAP smear test. My ob-gyn has recently shifted his clinic and somehow even though I kept saying the correct name, I landed in the wrong place! I had taken BB & GG with me since I wanted them to see the man who brought them into this world! BB & GG were very excited about this! The test was a routine one, but the Fibroid that I have in my uterus has apparently grown by around 20% over the last one year. It is still small enough to leave it for now, but over the last four years it has grown by almost 250%! Hopefully it stops growing any more and I am saved from surgery…

I also realised that I am seriously overweight! My scale at home is broken and I have not yet bothered to replace it. I weight 92 freaking kgs! I really, really need to do something. I also realised that this weight is very close my weight when I was nine months pregnant with twins! No wonder in the last few weeks, more than one person have offered me a seat in the bus – they thought I was pregnant!!

While coming back home from the clinic, we were talking about the fact that in my side of the family BB is the only boy in his generation – my sister has two girls and other married cousins with children also have only girls till now – and I said, “Because BB is the only boy in this generation, the grandparents tend to pamper him a lot”. For some reason, this set off GG in a fit of giggles and she wouldn’t tell me the reason. Then later when the giggling subsided, we realised that she associated the word ‘pamper’ to diapers or Pampers! Cue to continue giggling whenever the word was used, and believe me she used the word in many ways during the 10 minute drive home!

I also heard some other piece of sad news yesterday – an ex-colleague of mine JS who was just about my age (give or take a few years) expired on Sunday. I am not sure of the cause, but I heard the words Heart Attack. Even though he and me were not close and in fact I disliked him a lot, here’s a prayer for him and his family and may his soul rest in peace. I know he is the only son and has aged parents with medical conditions. May God give them the courage to go through this tragedy. It can never be easy for a parent to see his/her child go before them, this goes against all the laws of nature!

Conversations with God!

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What is religion? According to Wikipedia:

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values.Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

I was born and raised as a Hindu, particularly a South Indian Iyer Brahmin. While we follow all the tenets of the Hindu religion, there are some which are uniquely ours. I’ll be writing more about these in subsequent posts, but while the overarching theme of this post is religion, it is more specifically about God and my relationship with Him.

Different people view religion is their own ways. For some, this may take form of praying religiously in front of the manifestation of their preferred religion, for others it may be something they view with suspicion and fear and shun it altogether.

Where I am concerned, I believe in the religion I was brought up in and within which I bring up my children. I believe everyone needs an emotional anchor with which to anchor their lives and religion, if handled correctly, can provide that. My relationship with my religion and the God who personifies it for me is very personal and intense. To me, it is not necessary to pray a certian number of times a day, go to the temple so many times a week, but not be a good person internally. I believe that what lies between you and your deity is personal and should remain so. I definitely pray and constantly think of him, but it is very personal.

Painting of Lord Ganesh from Bali at home

Many Hindus have something called an ‘ishtadev‘ which essentially means a favourite God or Deity. I do too and with my ishtadev, I have a one-on-one relationship. My ishtadev by the way is the Lord Ganesh. I have always been drawn to him since childhood and there is one particular temple in my hometown of Mumbai that I love going to. This is the Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi and never fail to go there each time I go back.

I look up to Lord Ganesh or Siddhivinayak as a friend. I pray to him many, many times a day and selfishly also ask him loads of things during the course of my day. If something is not going my way, I ask for his intervention and when things are working in my favour, I

Idol of Siddhivinayak at the Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai

do thank him. A case in point – last night we got home very late from the temple (details later) and I didn’t have a very good night. Today morning, when I got dropped off at my bus stop, I did mention to S that although I am sleepy, I know I won’t get place to sit in the bus. Then the bus that came my way was not the bus I usually take, it was an abbreviated service that I usually ignore since using that bus means changing to another bus later on. But this bus was fairly empty and I saw if I boarded it, I can get a seat, so I got in and slept till it was time to get off and change buses, which coincidently came within 3 minutes!

This is my relationship with my God, my friend. How about you? Do you believe in God, in a higher power? If yes, then how do you communicate with him/her?