Tag: water

Of the Ocean and the Beach!

Day 10:

All the four of us are lazy souls, so we wake up late, at every possible chance we get! We don’t have exams to prepare for or have a flight to catch, so yes, waking up at leisure is not that bad. (Warning; Don’t try this at home! If you get beatings from your parents for waking up late, it is not my fault!)

As we were lazing on the beds, watching Insta reels and FB posts, the caretaker assigned for us at the resort came up to our door, begging us to come have our breakfast! It was hardly 8 A.M. (Either he had other stuff to do or is a punctual guy!)

That’s when I took the matters into my hands, woke up both the kiddos, gave them baths. All of us were ready by approximately 8:40 A.M.

Our caretaker brought us 4 thalis filled with neer dosa, onion poha and slices of ice cold watermelon, along with yellow coloured kesar. I don’t know if people in Mangalore ate sweet for breakfast, but I hardly eat sweet 10 times throughout the year. I prefer sinful chocolates and sinful is not a brand name!

Anyway, breakfast was a bust. What is this Neer Dosa? I couldn’t eat it, even if my life depended on it. It was bland and soft to touch. I like dosa which is crunchy and crispy and nothing could change my prejudice against neer dosa, not even the chutney or the sambar. (I had to wash it down my throat with huge sips of water or neer, maybe that’s why it is called Neer Dosa!)

neither crispy nor crunchy – no second chances! – pic source: Google

The breakfast menu sucked big time, mostly because I am also not a fan of poha, but if it were batata poha, the breakfast would have been in my tummy in a jiffy, thanks to the potato, but onion poha was a no-no. (It seems, the caretaker is not a specialist when it came to making breakfast!) Interestingly, this caretaker guy thought that both my kids, who are less than 7 years old combined, would eat as much as us, adults. Their plates were exactly plated like ours, in adult portions! Such wastage of food, that too, the food which none of us like!

After our not-so-satisfactory breakfast, we rushed to the beach, applying 2mm thick sunscreen and continued playing till black spots began appearing before our eyes. (Playing under the scorching Sun can do that to your eyes!)

Three to Tango!

We returned to the resort, showered under the shower head and got into the pool.  We continued our fun in the swimming pool for more than half an hour, before returning to the room, taking baths again and changing into fresh dry clothes. It is hard to make the kiddos come out of the pool. Their favourite pass time is playing with water and they love swimming pool, more than anything.

The Ocean meets the sky in the background while the foreground has a cutesy pool.

For lunch, we had Veg Fried Rice, Paneer Sabzi and a foot long glass filled upto brim with masala buttermilk.

After an hour or two, we returned to the beach, with the plastic tools bought in Subrahmanya, to make the sand castles. I would make a sand castle and the baby KBee would have a hearty laugh after stamping and razing the buckets of sand, every single time. He would laugh out loud and once he is in his fits of laughter, he ends up with hiccups. So ya, its interesting watching him laugh between hiccups! (I know who he takes after!)

We also fought each other in the sand, took some pictures and again had brief fun at the swimming pool before calling it a day.

Baby with an Umbrella as a shield – KBee after a sand fight!

I took loads of pictures of Sunset and one Mr.X, an uncle of a close friend advised us that it is not a good omen to take pictures of ourselves with the setting Sun. So, there goes our beach photo session in vain! (We decided not to show them to others, lest they pass any such comments!)

Morning to noon – empty beach

Another click from my cellphone….

Coconut trees on a beach have a charm of their own.

We ate paper thin pulkas, dal tadka and had fresh watermelon juice to finish off the dinner. Both the kids are extremely picky, so the only juice they like having is that of watermelon and I too order watermelon juice if mosambi is unavailable.

With a completely satisfied stomach, we ended our day, with the background music of the rising tides of the ocean waves. Another day of leisure comes to an end.

P.S:

  1. Sorry folks if I offended anyone about the neer dosa, but honesty is the best policy and I follow it everyday of my life.  Andddd, people do have varied tastes and thank God for that!
  2. Even if Mangalore is a beach city, we didn’t feel the humidity at all, maybe because we dressed appropriately for the beach. Food for thought!
  3. The caretaker looked like a pukka South Indian, but turns out, he is from Assam and had relocated to Mangalore during the pandemic! That maybe the reason why his South dishes failed to impress us, whereas, pulkas and rotis were fabulous! I still can’t understand, how anyone can make a paper thin pulka! I am not giving neer dosa another chance though. It is completely opposite of everything I like, it is a no-go!
  4. Visiting a beach on weekday, from morning to noon is the best thing one can do. No human traffic, which means, we can have the beach to ourselves. Beach at Mangalore felt like a private beach for a whole day!
  5. Like I mentioned in previous post, never miss the masala buttermilk in any city or town of Karnataka. It is the best.
  6. Sometimes, when Mr.Bee and I drive to far off locations, with mountains and hills, we remember Charlotte and miss those beautiful mountains, we would frequently visit, every month! I miss you GrandFather Mountain, Gatlinburg and Mt.Soma! I miss you too, Pigeon Forge and Chimney Rock!

Cheerio, till the next post.

The (Un)Lucky Worm!

It gives me immense pleasure when I see my kids playing outside, with worms and insects no less. I feel satisfied and pat myself on the back, when they entertain themselves with insects and not with the T.V or the much dreaded cell phone. Ya, they take after me.(Though they still have a long way to go) I had the best childhood, playing with all kinds of insects (one of the perks of being an introvert) and I still find it funny how my mom never stopped me from playing with them.(She probably never knew!)

Let me make this clear. Playing with insects involves, observing them from close quarters, seeing what they do when a leaf is placed in front of them or when food is available readily. It also involves checking out their living quarters, like an anthill and trying to understand how they manage to make those! I hope this doesn’t sound creepy, but it is entertaining in its own right.

I had previously written innumerable posts about this, but they are lost in the sea of internet and my back up issues of blogging. I may write about them in future again, but for now, the topic is the kids playing with worms, an earthworm, to be specific, if you are really into details!

We went on our bi-monthly visit to my parents house and the kids were playing in the verandah, when this little incident had taken place.

My parents have a lengthy verandah which kids their age love. They can race each other, listen to the birds early in the morning, run after the lone butterfly or even spray each other with water from the low level tap. Once or twice, some birds may even come after you, to peck your eyes out (or to kill the lice in your hair), if you make any suspicious movements!

So, one Sunday afternoon, GBee and KBee were running after their grandfather, showing him around his own garden! (Ya, they took him to a plant to show its flowers to him. They took him next to the mighty coconut tree to show him the coconuts, as if its something new. It is his own house for Heaven’s sake!)

GBee suddenly found an earthworm on the cement walkway, slowly going about its business, crawling slower than either a sloth or a snail! He called out to us. KBee too came running at once, not to miss out on the fun, whatever that excited his brother.

Spotting the rogue earthworm!

Suddenly, GBee ran away and KBee tried to touch it (or poke it, probably), but I stopped him midway. GBee returned with a tiny bucket filled with water and splashed it on top of the earthworm!

Watering the earthworm or playing with it?

I thought he was intent on killing off the poor earthworm! But I was mistaken. He was in-fact making a swimming pool for the little creepy crawly! Goes to show how much he loves a swimming pool. (He keeps asking me to buy a house with a swimming pool, as if that comes cheap!)

Once he was done pouring water, I envied it, one lucky worm, got itself a swimming pool, no less! But that might be my opinion. Who knew what the worm wanted? (It probably wanted a less adventurous life with no sudden splashes of water immersing it completely!)

Imagine if we had a downpour of rain, just like a bucket had been emptied suddenly on our heads. That would suffocate us surely. So on second thought, the earthworm must have cursed its own bad luck!

Why me?

So what do you think the worm was thinking?

P.S:

  1. In the last panel, I zoomed the earthworm, so that I could show the facial expression better!
  2. My daddy was impressed by GBee’s thought process, about gifting a swimming pool to the earthworm and all! Did such thought ever run in your brain? NO, right! It is so out of the box, rather, out of the bucket!
  3. Watching insects of various sizes surely changes your perspective of life. We begin to understand life, problems and happiness are all relative. We also understand that philosophy also comes to us in bursts and intervals and thankfully, doesn’t engulf us completely. Even philosophical thoughts are temporary like our sorrows and happiness. Food for thought!
  4. I thought my readers needed a change of pace with all the posts about Ooty. The next post will continue the progress of our vacation.

Cheerio till the next post friends.

Bengaluru Beckons!

Mr.Bee and I had planned a short vacation, way back in November 2022. But LIFE happened and we cancelled our trip at the loss of some hard earned money. So this time, we wanted to travel, but with a flexible itinerary, to avoid cancellations and to not be disappointed. That is how we started our 14 day vacation, with 2 year old KBee , 6 year old GBee on our nearly 6 year old Vento!

Since Hyderabad felt like a sauna, we decided on a cooler destination and immediately zeroed in on Ooty. (I have fond memories of Ooty from my teens and Mr.Bee had never been to Ooty.)

Our trip started with buying loads of healthy snacks for our drive, a 10 litre Milton cooler for water needs of the kiddos, emergency medicines, medical kit and 4 suitcases full of clothes for all the 4 of us!

Day 1:

…..Started with our drive from Hyderabad to Bengaluru . We started at around 6 a.m., (originally planned on starting by 5 a.m.) drove to Kurnool, on time to have our breakfast. (Both the kids had fallen asleep on the car-bed we had installed on the back seat. ) I had masala dosa and it is the best I had in recent times. GBee demanded cell phone to have his breakfast, but thanks to the dozen or more police officers having breakfast at the Hangout, he stayed away from throwing tantrums and had his plain dosa in silence. (GBee is afraid of the police.)

Even though it was still 8:30 a.m., the Sun was already showing his might. So we kept ourselves and kids hydrated by drinking water and Gatorade in alterations.

At Ananthapur, we bought the juiciest and sweetest guavas ever. I ate two in a sitting. They were awesome. Thanks to the seller, we also had some guava leaves, which I placed on top of the dash board, to test my theory. Plants and flowers attract heat and cool the surrounding areas, so the leaves on dash board meant, they took the heat and the passengers have none. (If you are going out during peak summer heat, place an onion in your hand bag or shoulder bag and get on with your business. The onion prevents sun strokes by absorbing the heat, especially in tropical climates, it is very helpful.)

We reached the outskirts of Bengaluru at around, 1:30 p.m. and had our lunch at Nandi Upahar, near the road to Nandi Hills. There was a waiting line and although the restaurant needed a face-lift, we had our lunch and started our drive into the City of Traffic, Bengaluru! (Don’t get me wrong, I love Bengaluru and its pleasant climate, which is similar to that of my second home, Charlotte, NC,USA.)

We reached Mr.Bee’s colleague, R‘s house, at BTM Stage 2, took our time to freshen up ourselves and by the time it was 5 p.m., we went to the nearby park. GBee and KBee had a blast playing there. Once it started drizzling, we ran out of the park and rushed home. Our dinner that night was Dominos Pizza, because, the food delivery showed a waiting time of more than 1 hour, thanks to the heavy rain that night. We had a Vegetarian Gourmet Pizza, with added basil seasoning and it was good. GBee was over the Moon thanks to the junky dinner!

We slept, for a night of peace. Both the kiddos slept like logs, a long drive can do that to anyone!

I woke up at 7 a.m., as usual and was mesmerised by the silence of Bengaluru. I saw atleast fifty people going for walks, jogs in fitness gear. A retiree continued with his stretches, all the while, nodding his head to one or two familiar faces. Everyone was going about their business in silence. This pleasant scene tempted me to ditch Hyderabad and move to Bengaluru. But then, I am a pukka Hyderabadi.(Also, I had temporary lapse in judgement!)

R even tempted us guys by saying that the plot nearby was ready for sale! As if! We just enrolled GBee into a new school and that’s when it hit me, how easy it is to take decisions before having kids and after! We moved to India, in the blink of an eye from Charlotte, but something like that is unthinkable now.

Anyway…..

For breakfast we had scrumptious thatte idli (first time eating it) and medu vada with tasty pudina chutney.  

Thatte Idli –  Image Courtesy Google Search Engine

With that done and stuffing some Mango leaves onto the dashboard, Mr.Bee, I and the kids bid our farewells and started for Ooty! Chalo Ooty! That’s how we started our Day 2!

P.S:

  1. Interestingly, if you want to convince your mom that you don’t want to go to school or college, an onion in one’s armpit, raises the body temperature and causes fever! Now take a blood oath that you won’t tell your mom, this is where you read it. I don’t want any mothers cursing me!
  2. It is always better to check leaves for caterpillars. Thankfully, GBee was quick to observe that the mango branch of Bengaluru tree had a very active caterpillar. I jumped out of my skin, car came to a sudden halt and the branch went right out of the window! No one was hurt by the above incident!
  3. I couldn’t post for more than 3 weeks, because, we were busy with the vacation, the return, the laundry, the school induction programs, the books, the uniforms and the likes.  Hopefully, I will bore you guys silly with more posts. The next post will be about Udhagamandalam, Ooty for short!

Cheerio till the next post.

Gardening with Gusto!

Do you have a young child or toddler at home? Do they love playing with water and manage to drench themselves wet? Do they also like playing with mud and don’t mind the occasional insect they come across? Good!

Gardening is an excellent hobby for such tiny tots.

So, for G let’s go with Gardening.

Gardening is the process of laying seeds, watering the plants and taking care of them either on ground or in pots. Gardening is a useful hobby to have, because no amount of cooking is complete without herbs and growing your own herbs can be so gratifying.

If you don’t have enough place for gardening, you can at least install a Herb wall in your kitchen or utility area like this…

Herb Gardening on the wall

If you are more invested in this than an average person(and have deep pockets), go ahead and get yourself a smart monitoring technology for your kitchen garden inside the cabinet! Something like this….

Smart Monitored Kitchen Herb Garden

Look how stylish the good old gardening has been given a makeover.

So what do you say? Are you up for some gardening experience?

P.S:

  1.  Gardening should be part of the school curriculum, just like that in Western countries. I wish we had something like this during our school days! (I don’t take any credit or the images in the post)

Ms. Appleberry with her students Cody, J.J, Rico, Nina, Cece and Bella – The Cocomelon Gang

2. Although gardening is therapeutic, it comes with its own set of problems, like the insects which keep ‘guest appearing’ in our tiny gardens. It is upto us to march them out of our plants!

3. I know a couple of doctors who swear by gardening and grow quite a lot of plants on their terraces and balcony gardens.

4. The other hobbies which start with a G are Geology (my favourite subject of all) , Glass Blowing, Gymnastics and Graphic Designing. Wait for the next post, cheerio!

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey!

Long ago, but not very long ago, in 2019 B.C. (Before Covid!), Mr.Bee , I and GBee, then an only child, flew to Maldives, for our summer vacation. (Do visit Maldives if you love to travel, because, nothing beats the quaint little cluster islands! Nope, Tourism Department of Maldives has no idea I am promoting their country. It’s just goodwill.)

Anyway, while we were returning to the airport, (There will be a detailed post about our travel, soon), we met a fellow Indian, a doctor at that. She was serving the people of Maldives. It is my privilege meeting her, because, anyone working on an island, for people’s health needs all the respect one can give! The said doctor , KV became a very good friend of mine. (I don’t make friends easily. I am an introvert and introverts generally treasure their friends.)

We have stayed in touch and I hope to meet her again some day. She stays in Pondicherry, so I need to plan well ahead to visit her!

Meanwhile, KV once suggested all her friends to watch Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey! (a Malayalam movie on Disney Hotstar) As soon as she did, I watched it, sacrificing my precious sleep and I don’t mind it one bit.

It is one such movie you should never miss. What a movie!

Movie Name: Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey!

Released in: 2022

Actors : None that I know of. (No Malayalam Super stars in the movie)

Queen Bee watched in : December 2022

Firstly, if you thought the story has hints of patriotism, since the title is the lyrics of our Indian National Anthem, then you are greatly mistaken.

The movie is about Jaya, a lower middle class girl from Kerala, whose life decisions are always made by her father and maternal uncle and after marriage by her husband. She is not even allowed to study as per her choice. Her uncle is against her studying away from home and manages to convince her dad that studying in a local college is the best choice for Jaya.

She adjusts to a course, falls in love with a lecturer there, who in fact encourages her to study well. Turns out, he is not as good as he lets on, he is a possessive guy who is also abusive. (Yuk! Possessiveness and abusive nature are both repulsive, in both men and women.)

Like all Indian parents,once her love story gets out, she is soon married off to the first guy her parents find for her. I liked the subtle emotions the heroine Jaya shows, like how she is frustrated when her uncle is crying during her bidaai. (He was the one who spearheaded her marriage!)

The initial days of her marriage show that her husband Rajesh is a guy of routine, who hates trying anything new. It is, personally,  so off putting and exasperating at once. He eats the same food every single day! I mean, how is that even possible? If someone takes the pain to cook something new each day, they should be appreciated for putting in effort. But Rajesh begins to abuse Jaya! (Maybe the song from Saaho, Saiyya Psycho, would have been apt here!)

At first, he feels bad that he slapped Jaya. He takes her out on a date to appease her.  But the same story keeps happening in a loop, slapping her, taking her out.

Jaya’s mother in law and sister in law, who stay with the newly weds, have no say in the house.  Jaya reaches out to her parents and they tell her to shut up. Just when we begin to think the movie is going to take a routine turn, Jaya shows us what a topper with a will of steel can do. She gives back what she gets, the abuse, to her husband! (That is the moment which made me sit up and watch!)

From this point on, the movie is on an upward curve. It is more like who will let their guard down first and who will win.

I really loved the acting of the lead pair. Jaya made me admire her grit and determination, Rajesh made me want to kick him repeatedly. Top class!

Even when everyone is against Jaya for turning against her abusive husband, only her brother seems to understand her, which was unexpected. We never see much bonding, but, when they have a common enemy, it shows, blood is truly thicker than water!  (In typical Telugu movie style, it is called Rakta Sambandham!)

The one scene that I liked a lot is the one, where the egoistic, chauvinistic hero, (I have never used such adjective for a movie hero, ever!) finds his mom and sister in the kitchen. His mom had been a young widow, his sister had been abandoned within a year of marriage by her husband.  But both manage to survive, because women are mentally strong. The hero is already defeated, because, he knows he can’t survive as a single man!

Thankfully, it is not a sob story. It is more about women empowerment and teaches us without being preachy and I love it more for that! If you are up for watching a movie, why not go ahead and watch Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey and you can thank me later!

P.S:

  1. The most important thing that one needs to remember is that women listen! So be careful about what you talk around her. She may look homely and demure, but she packs quite a punch and she can accomplish anything she sets her mind to!
  2. This is one such movie which gets top marks for the effort, the story, the presentation.  I watched the movie when I was feeling low and it instantly cheered me up. Why not watch it and decide on my credibility?
  3. The other malayalam movies that I love are Mohanlal’s Drishyam (Sorry Venkatesh, I love the original better, even if I saw it a lot later than yours!) and Ayyappanum Koshiyum.
  4. Bidaai or Vidaai is the process of sending away one’s daughter after marriage.
  5. Dear friends, if you ever meet someone who is being abused or if a victim confides in you about his/her partner being abusive, kindly help and support them. Even a famous actor like Johnny Depp was abused by his wife, so men and women can both be victims of domestic abuse.

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