Baby Talk !

I am not going into kulal inidhi yaazh inidhu pazhamozhi….( a proverb that says no sound of music is better than the ramblings of a kid) but sometimes when I have this conversation with my 3 year old, I am surprised with her vocabulary. Some of the words she uses, I wouldn’t have known them until I was like 10 or older..
Anyway here are some of the things that took me by surprise when uttered by her.

1) I am applying moisturiser for baby after a shower
Baby – mummy you missed my back
Me – I have done it baby
Baby - Smarty pants mummy !!!!

2) I am helping her dress up for our weekly visit to the temple
Baby - Ohhh ! this is gorgeous, I look like a fairy princess

3) Hubi singing ( he is a pretty good singer..unlike me)

Baby - Heyyyyy ! stop it, I am trying to sleep

4) I am asking her to nap and turn off the TV

Baby – Daddy my friend..mummy silly BOY!

5) We are walking in the shopping strip and she abruptly stops sometimes and I am trying to get her to walk again
Baby - Don’t push me mummy, I am standing here

( I wonder why she would simply decide to stand in 1 spot and think while we are walking !)

6) Watching Ice Age 3 -Ellie the mammoth gives birth to a baby mammoth

Baby - “aawww, soooo cute”

7) Any question starting with ‘why’ like why did you do this ? Why did you push diya? why dint you finish dinner ? etc..the answer invariably is
Baby – ‘Ofcourse’ !!!

8) Hubi – Do you like mummy or daddy?
Baby – Mummy
Hubi – Do you like daddy or mummy ?
Baby – Mummy
Hubi – Do you like mummy or daddy?
Baby - Daa…ummy ( obviously confused)

9) me – Let me help you with your shoes
Baby – No ! MYdo it

10) Classic - One fine day
Me – What’s that noise ?
Baby – My bum is burping !!!!!!!

Useless Information - again

Quoting 'Illiya Thalapathy Vijay' - I have tried several different roles in the past ( extremely difficult double action - one guy with hindi accent and another without it, role with 6 fingers, role of a car mechanic, cycle mechanic, kaaka, kuruvi etc) but my fans like to see me only in commercial movies and this is why i come up with masala movies every now and then (also read as always). Similarly i have tried awesome posts like movie reviews, song reviews, more movie information, but nothing is as famous as useless information. The number of readers and comments are inversely proportional to the quality of the information provided. In order to quench the thirst of the elite group i am friends with and their taste for information, here are more useless information

1) The name of the guy who acts as Joginder Singh in Abhiyum Naanum and as Officer Arif Khan in ‘Unnaipol Oruvan is Ganesh Venkatraman was Mr.India 2003 and represented india in Mr. World 2004 ! He was very convincing as a sardar and Muslim Police officer.
2) Ajmal, the actor from Anjadhey and Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru has studied Medicine in Ukraine. He is married and has a kid
3) Narain, the Malayalam actor from anjadhey, pallikoodam started his career as an assistant to Rajeev Menon bfore beginning his acting career
4) Silambarasan alais simbu was born on Feb 1984 owns a brand new while BMW X6, first of its kind in Tamil Nadu
5) Music director of Eeram, Thaman was one of the boys in ‘Boys’
6) Hero of movie Eeram , Mirugam ( which I am not planning to watch at all!) is also called as Pradeep Pinisetty, born 1982, studied in Donbosco and studied engineering
7) Chakri Toleti the director of Unnaipol Oruvan appeared as the courier guy in the movie Dasavatharam (thanks KV)
8) Actress Amala Mukherji was born Irish Mother and Bengali Father
9) Aamir Khan’s nephew Imran Khan’s parents graduated from IIT Bombay. His father works as Director of Operations in Silicon Valley. He is trained in film making from Los Angeles
10) Siddarth born in 1979, studied in DAV boys school, Chennai, B.Com from New Delhi and completed his completed his MBA in 2001 from S.P Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
11) Aadhavan story was written by Ramesh Khanna with Hasile Fisile shot in South Africe and yenno Yenno shot in Ice land
12) Anushka ( heroine in ‘rendu’ and ‘Vettaikaran’) born as ‘Sweety’ (ya that was her name) on Nov 7th 1981, was a yoga Instructor before she came into movies.
13) Abirami ( heroine in ‘Virumaandi’) was born as Divya in July 1983 ( is she that young !!) has a degree in Psychology
14) Vasundra Das was born in 1977 (older than me!!!), graduated in Economics and her nick name is ‘Lovely’ ( seriously..think out of the box parents!)
15) Action king Arjun’s full name is Arjun Sarja born in 1964, married to kannada actress Asha Rani and has 2 daughters Aishwarya and Anjana ( Tamil actors should stop naming their daughters Aishwarya – this is the 4th one I have known)

Aarumugam

I always refrain from writing a bad review about a movie. If I like a movie, I would make an effort to write a review, but if I don’t like it I cannot be bothered spending my time thinking and writing about it. Also I sometimes feel it is not fair. A lot of people would have spent time, money and effort for that movie. If I did not like it, it was probably not my kind of movie and I wasn’t the target audience. The target audience may like it, like Kandasamy ( don’t get me started on the kozhi dance..which hubi does at home to entertain little girl), Pokkisham, Sarvam, Ninaithalle Innikum etc.

Anyway I watched Aarumugam yesterday despite serious warning from behindwoods and mitch. Now I cannot resist writing a review on the movie. First question to Bharath – what were you thinking ?, same question to Priya Mani and Suresh Krishna as well.

Lot of people think it is similar to Annamalai, I want to confirm it is different from Annamalai.
1. Rajini was paalkaran( milk man), Bharath owns idly kadai ( background music...todoying)
2. Rajini’s rich friend had villain daddy Radha Ravi - Bharath’s rich friend (with similar gold frame glasses) has villi Akka Ramya Krishnan ( tada doying)
3) Janakaraj – Karunas (tata do doying)
4) Rajini becomes rich after a song and becomes business magnet in like 18 years. Bharath becomes rich after a song and magnet in like 1 year may be. I don’t think they could convince bharath or Priya mani to do a daddy/mummy role..just yet (mudiyalai..vallikudhu)

Anyway quick review – Rich boy Karthick and Poor boy Bharath are friends. Rich Akka Ramya does not like her brother and his low class friendship. Walks around in awesome designer sarees, contact lens and gorgeous accessories, separates the friends. Now poor boy challenges to become rich over night with a number of punch dialogues ( how short are his fingers, in some scenes I thought may be he had them folded, with so many close up scenes and every second dialogue being punch they should have used graphics..lol). Anyway end of song (which we forwarded) owns 4 new idly kadais, couple of scenes later is very rich and owns bungalow, then big contractor who can get the entire rich villains to the street. Then everybody realises their mistake and lived happily ever after.

Twist in the story - Josier says karthick’s wife is pregnant and the baby could ruin their status. So villi hires Poovilangu mohan, a doctor to kill the baby. But when movie finishes, Poo mohan comes back with a 2 year old toddler and gives it back to Ramya !! He must have been following her, because he knew when she has changed her mind and where she was at that time - aiyo aiyo !!!!

Every other scene where Priya comes next to Bharath – there is a song in ridiculous costumes and something that will let Bharath dance too much.
Bharath agreeing to play the role of Rajini konjam 3 much dhan.
The trend of remaking / suttufying Enligh movies, then hindi, then telugu has been changed by Suresh Krishna. You can remake your own movie. God save Kollywood and people like me who bothered to watch it, write about it and you all for reading it.

Andrum Indrum ( Then and Now )

There are always things that you thought was impossible. With due course of time your perception changes, things you never thought would happen do happen. Here is a list of things i never thought would happen

1) Then - Aravind swamy looked so 'hot' lighting his cigarette in the kitchen, in the movie ‘Roja’. Now- I cant stop screaming at hubi for stealing my lighter from the pooja room to light his smoke (he quotes this allll the time !)

2) Then – A husband calling his wife ‘darling’ is the most romantic thing in the world. Now – when hubi calls me ‘darling’ my response invariably is, now what? Coz I know it is followed by something – bunch of friends confirmed this is the case with them too !

3) Then – I would get upset with my mom for cooking idly everyday. There was a day when we had this big fight over eating Idly on a weekend. me and my br ended up doing a 'take away' for breakfast refusing to touch the Idly. Now – Since I suck at making Idly , I crave for it all the time. I think when I go to India, I will ask my mom to make Idly everyday. ( i am sure she will laugh)

4) Then – Daddy used to be upset when we watched TV in study holidays and would be chasing us to our rooms. Now – daddy was watching cricket before his exam ( the man is doing his diploma in psychology at the age of 74!!) and we could say “daddy go into your room and study for your exam”

5) Then - Birthdays mean, waking up early, dressing up, taking a tray of red and blue caramilk chocolates to the neighbours. Now I would rather prefer that my neighbours dint know about my birthday, so they wouldn’t know how old I am ( I don’t think they even know my name)

6) Then – When mummy called me ‘papa’ I was always upset, I wasn’t a little girl anymore - I was a grown up ( I was probably 10!). Now – I am soo glad she still calls me ‘papa’ coz I am sooo damn young at heart..hehe

7) Then – Ms.SA and I would spend 7 hours at school, sitting next to each other and chatting, and the minute I am home SA would call me and we would be on the phone for the next 1.5 hours to discuss what happenned at school that day. Now – I cant remember the last time I spoke to her, I think on her birthday in November 2008 !

8) Then – we decide to watch a movie on our way back from work. Now – we plan 1 month ahead, fix our dates, book our tickets and pray no one falls sick during the weekend, watch the movie in fear hoping little miss cranky pants would watch the movie without any dramas

9) Then – I would scream out loud looking at a cockroach and expect someone to get rid of it while I stand far away from the crime scene. Now – Baby finds these bugs, come screaming to me and I am expected to fight the crime…well kill the bugs and spiders. Guess what I do it - i am not scared anymore, atleast thats what i tell baby !!!

10) Then – All we had was the sun, Sun reminded of hot, hotter and hottest. Wore masks, Bandhanas, gloves to cover every part of the body ( I was one of those zombies driving scooty in the late 90s). Would stay in the AC room to protect the complexion (duh !). Now – looking out for one weekend with nice warm sun. So I can take a walk, take the train to the city and finish alllll my laundry.

11) Then - 6 ( H, N, SA,SS,SuB and me) of us would spend alll day together in college, spent weekends together, watched movies (and MNM in sun TV) together and sometimes even studied together. Now - i wonder if all 6 of us would ever in the same country at one point of time or ever meet again :(

Pasta with cream sauce - easy dinner

This is the quickest, easiest dinner you can make - limited cutting, vetting and otting. Amigo i am sure you will like it !

Ingredients
Pasta – spaghetti/spiral
Thickened Cream/cooking cream – 1 small tub
Milk – 1 cup
Garlic – 3 or 4
Raisin – a handful ( optional)
Butter – 1 Tbsp
Plain Flour – 1 Tbsp
Cheese – 1 slice
Bok Choy / mushroom – optional

Cooking

1. Cook pasta as per instructions in the pack ( cook in water with a pinch of salt and a small tsp of oil) – I use spaghetti and spiral
2. Soak raisin in warm water for 20 minutes
3. In a pan heat the butter, stir in the flour for few seconds ( make sure you dont burn this)
4. Add the milk and stir it well – this makes the cream sauce
5. Add half the tub of cream into the pan
6. Now add the cooked pasta
7. In a seperate pan heat some oil and fry garlic and bok choy / mushroom till they are cooked

8. Add vegetables, salt and keep mixing
9. Top it with some more cream
10. Add cheese if you have them (I use the cheese let I use for sandwich)
11. Add the raisin

12. if you like avacado, you can mash it with fork and add to the pasta before serving

Thats it - it takes 20 minutes tops.

Why does it rain in Melbourne ?

Quoting Thirukkural

Nallar oruvar uLarel avar poruttu. ellorkkum peyyum mazhai ( translated to “ if there be one righteous person on earth, there will be rain for him and the people around him”)
Now what is the reason for my elite talk …I got my wallet back and guess what with the 20 dollars and USB stick in it..literally untouched.

I never thought I would ever see it again.

The wallet was handed in a police station the same afternoon. Although I complained in the nearest 2 police station and enquired, this was handed over to a station away from home and it took them 18 days to contact me.
In the meantime I had replaced all the bank and health cards (that were free) and tried a few times to buy a new license, but the screen froze both time I processed payment and now I have my license back ! It was a sign…thanks for the wishes and prayers friends

p.s – Alvi thanks for your support during the hard time ;)

Angels & Demons

Preface

Do you believe in the forwards that says – send to 10 people in 10 minutes ? I get them allllll the time from people but not once have I forwarded it. I usually delete them straight away, unless they were funny and worth forwarding. So I received this forward about an ‘angel’ from one of my managers who never sends me forwards. The day was very average and so was the week. So I decided to send this email to 10 people within 10 seconds of reading it, with a note ‘ I could really use an angel this week’.

Story of the week

Take 1
I drive back home and its freezing – as usual. I try to open the door, it is stuck. I tried soo hard while freezing and struggling in the dark, no luck. It was one of days vel is in university until 10:00 pm with his phone turned off! ( don’t ask!)

Take 2
I don’t lose hope easily. Thought of alternate options. I had the keys to the front yard door and the keys to side door.
So I open the lock in the front yard door now what are the odds. This latch is stuck as well. I could not open it at all.

Take 3
I call mitch who lives 5 minutes from home and you guessed it right - he did not answer to his mobile or the home phone. All the other friends were going to the airport to see off ‘ferni’ on his trip to end his bachelorhood.

Take 4
Finally got through to KV who offered to come in the next 20 minutes and help me before he left for the airport. He also suggested I could speak to Shangy who was actually visiting his fiancé 10 minutes away from home. Shangy came in straight away, could not get the door as well, but managed to climb on the bin, jump through the fence, open the side door and let us in. We were inside after about 45 minutes of struggle. Thanks to the ‘Angel’ for Shangy and KV !

Take 5
3 days later, I am shopping in Clayton – usual grocery. Parked the car far away from bank/atm so I can get a good walk to withdraw money and then do the shopping. When I finished shopping, got the bubby into the baby seat, put the stroller in the boot, hand bag in the left hand and was going to put the wallet into the hand bag…obviously not. Because I couldn’t find the wallet in my hand bag 10 minutes later. Walked back and forth in the parking lot and the shopping strip, could not find it. So lost the wallet with 20 dollars, bank card, medicare, medibank cards, coffee voucher and my favourite picture of bubby.

Take 6
Walked all the way to the bank again and cancelled the card, bubby kept saying she was hungry and I had no money. The bank guy must have felt bad, so he let me withdraw money without any proof of identification. I took 50 dollars out of my account, walked out wearing my optimist hat, thinking worse things could have happened (I could have had more money in the wallet, someone could have misused my card). Walked back to the car, took the mobile out of my pocket and realised the 50 dollars was gone. Don’t ask. It was GONE.

Take 7
It had started drizzling by then, bubby was sucking her thumb getting ready to sleep. May be she realised I was not going to get her any food and I was in a bad mood, anything she said would have upset me. So she just kept quiet. I went back to the bank- all the way again, asked for another 20 dollars. The bank people were now giving me weird look, they must have thought I was out of my mind. This time I went straight to the car, touching the money every 3 seconds to make sure it din’t vanish again. Bought lunch for bubby and guess what she was already asleep in her little seat.

Take 8
Went to Clayton Police station to lodge a complaint – it was locked !
Finally lodged a complaint in the nearest police station, after a few ‘ you are always careless’, ‘ you should have paid more attention’ and ‘ I told you so’

Bottomline
After the eventful week AND weekend, I cant help thinking if the angel has already paid its visit or not ! I am still wearing my optimist hat thinking, things could have been worse (ya right!) or may be someone might return my wallet ( Yaaaa right!). For now – “ vennam…vallikudhu…aludhiduven”