Rain on the beach, and Chetan Bhagat

Abhi's 'big' catch

Last weekend was the most fun we had had as a family in a very long time. We were at the Marari Beach Resort, celebrating Abhi's boss's birthday and we had an absolute blast. This, despite the weekend being the one 'when the rains strengthened over Kerala', to quote the Met Dept. It was some 30+ hours of great food, great intoxicants, great company and well, not-so-great kids but what the hell, you can't have everything!

My daughter hasn't inherited our love for the sea. To the contrary, she's petrified of the waves and hates it when anyone she knows steps into seawater! Anyways, Sunny (that's Abhi's boss's elder son) had a  wound on his foot that had to be kept away from water. So he was in babysitting mode, making sandcastles with Ditu. Soon I joined them and we made this futuristic looking thing with underground nuclear reactors and an extensive defence system and access roads. Unfortunately, I can't find a pic of the completed castle!

In the private pool with Jacuzzi

Sunny, Ditu and the beginnings of the castle

Abhi fulfilled a long-held dream of sitting on the beach while a storm brewed around him. Yeah, I know, he's a little weird but I love him to bits! The food at the restaurant was fabulous, to say the least. Dinner was accompanied by live 'classical music: tailored to suit the taste of the predominantly European and north Indian crowd, the music was heavily influenced by old Hindi film music. I don't know whether I am being kind or sarcastic here.

Bliss needs no caption, eh?

The experience as a whole was heavenly! Add to it the fact that most of us were out of mobile coverage area! That's like hot chocolate sauce on a scrunchilicious banana split. Well, you get the drift....

Coming to Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots. This might sound like too little, too late but I take back all my vociferous support for Mr Bhagat on various online forums after watching the movie. Before I went to the movie, I had only read his One Night @ The Call Centre and while I was not charmed by his writing, I did like his tongue-in-cheek dialogues and the crazy plot.

Well, I recently read the book that started it all: Five Point Someone. And I must say that this is one time the film-makers were justified in using the 'Inspired By' tag. I mean, what sort of credit is Bhagat talking about? As an aspiring writer myself, I hate it when writers are cheated of their due but this was stretching it too far. 3 Idiots is way different from 'the original' and this was the only time ever that I found a movie more compelling than a book! It's sad that Bhagat took such a myopic view of the whole issue: yes, his book is entertaining  but nowhere near the absolute roller-coaster fun ride that 3 Idiots is! You just have to live with that, Mr Bhagat, and be happy that the film helped you sell a few thousand more copies.

Kids say the strangest things!

Some of the best moments of our life are auto-saved into our memory. When we recall those moments, they appear like this picture (a favourite for both Ditu and me): blurred, out of focus but unmistakably happy.

I am constantly amazed at the things my four-year-old notices, observes and says. While I could live without some of the gyan that comes from that precocious mouth (especially anything that involves boyfriends, clothes or toys), her words sometimes take me by surprise. I always think then that I hope those moments have been burned into my heart 'cos then when she's thirteen and horrible (I believe in karma, so there's no way she can be 13 and sweet), I can play it all back and smile at her tantrums.

One evening I am making chapatis for dinner and Ditu materialises at my elbow. I instinctively move the atta out of reach (she thinks she makes better chapatis and insists that we eat her creations). But all she does is smile angelically and say, "You know, Amma, you are a supermom." By now my mom radar is on full alert. I am sure she has scribbled all over my pristine white living room walls or torn my library book or.... well, you get the drift. "Why is that," I ask her, half ready to pounce on her when she confesses. "Because you do office [sic], talk on phone, then make food and take care of me!"

Believe me guys, I am not one of those supermoms, by any stretch of the imagination. You just need to take a look at my basket-loads of unfolded clean laundry to know that; in fact I keep buying baskets to accommodate the growing pile (sheepish grin). Oh, and you must have seen my hair, na.... so no way am I supermom!

I was just touched that Ditu had noticed that I was doing all these things at all! I mean, how many of us have ever noticed that in our own moms... Yes, as adults, especially on entering motherhood, we have started worshiping at our moms' feet but I am talking of the time before that. As kids or teenagers or even as young adults, there is such a tendency to take mothers for granted. I mean, I scarcely registered the fact that my mom worked until maybe my ninth class or something when I was 'forced' to do regular household chores. This, despite the fact that she worked full-time! I mean, I knew she was working but did it really register... no!!

How does Ditu understand so much? This is a question that always plagues me. I hear stories from other parents and I realise kids today are way smarter than we ever were at their age. Is that good or bad? I don't know. Here's what I do know: they never cease to awe you! What was all that about child being the father of man? I am beginning to read new meanings into that.

The other day, Ditu was looking particularly cute (or she said something particularly cute) and I went, "Awwww, my ichkoo!" She smiled sagely and said, "Do you know, Amma, even if I grow this big [raising her hands high in the air], I'll always be a little ichkoo for you?" Did you go OMG! See what I mean: kids understand ideas, concepts, relationships in a far more involved way than we did at the time. I now think half my childhood was wasted in some sort of spaced-out time-frame. Which brings me to the next question: are we doing enough to fire our children's curiosity, enhance their imagination, mould them into better human beings (I say better 'cos obviously they are good enough as a base model)... as parents, are we evolved enough?

Butterflies in the stomach, and other stories

It's like a dream unfolding in slow motion: this very unreal feeling of finally embarking on a project that you have long thought of, slept on, discussed to bits and generally analysed until you were quite sure that it would not happen anyway. But it's happening, and all it took was one small step. Oh yes, and my favourite Matrix notebook and my current favourite Stabilo pen. (I love making notes!)

DropCap was born in a rather unceremonious manner on a bright Sunday morning when I should still have been poring over my vast spread of Sunday supplements. Something in me propelled me to pop the question to Abhi, who has heard me come up with a million business plans when I am feeling particularly down and out. He listened carefully (for a change), was pleased this was not one of my depression-busters (I had been in a reasonably good mood all week) and best of all, did not involve the spending of copious amounts of money while "leveraging my core competence".

That little action has spurred a series of events and I am surprised, humbled, awed and filled with gratitude at the reactions from various quarters. One of my friends, who received an announcement email from me, called from Bangalore! She couldn't believe the motor-mouth had kept such a grand plan to herself! (I am known to call up friends with half-formed ideas which I am greatly enthusiastic about.)

I was just explaining to my little one about my expansion plans and that soon, I'll have young, college grads coming in to work for me. Until June or so, I'll mostly be operating from home. She was thrilled at the idea but I think she conjured up the wrong image of a college 'kid'! "Amma," she said. "After your work is over, will they stay and play with me?"

It's official!

Or nearly so... Abhi says there's nothing to be so excited about, that it's just a natural progression of the work I have been doing ever since I went freelance. But I can see that secret smile of his and I know he's just pulling my leg. I have just decided to extend my professional setup to a more-than-one-man-army. Going for a brand repositioning (I love management mumbo-jumbo) and calling my content solutions firm, DropCap. I went through a whole lot of names before I arrived at this one but I have been in love with drop caps for a lo...ng time.  I could go on for hours on the beauty of certain letters in certain fonts when seen in drop cap. But since that would result in my readers closing the browser window and vowing never to read me again, I shall desist!

Some more about my firm (Abhi says since it's s proprietary concern, I am supposed to only use certain words in relation with DropCap, like brand or firm. Which reminds me of an important marital tip, or a premarital one: Don't marry a CA if you can't take the legalese): Essentially DropCap will continue doing the services I am providing currently but it will have better backup support since I am hiring more people. Also, since I'll have people helping out, I'll be able to use some time to market my brand better. Have never marketed myself, by the way, and am a little jittery about this because singing paeans to myself isn't exactly my forte.

Wish me luck, guys! Oh, and I am looking for an editorial trainee. Fresh graduates with a flair for writing; no experience necessary. Will provide on-the-job training. If you are interested or know anyone who's interested, please send updated resumes to dropcapmedia@gmail.com. I also need a page designer/layout artiste. Some experience is preferred for this post (send all resumes to the same mail address). But this post, I need to fill up only in a month's time. The other one is URGENT!

What does it take to pursue a dream?

Drive, ambition, will power, resilience... a combo of all these and more? Almost all of us have a running-to-pages list of 'things to do before I die'. You may not have written it down but it's still in there. In your head or heart, as the case may be. Inevitably, the BIG ONE is somewhere in there too. Why do so many of us allow our passions to languish in the murky depths of our subconsciousness and never allow it to see light and some action, if you please? To dream and to do: God has given us human beings such a wonderful gift of taking conscious action! Wish more people would put their powers (however limited) to better use!