Author: queenbee (Page 8 of 9)

The Art of Candle Making

April 6, 2023 / queenbee / 1 Comment

The life span of a candle is less than a day, in spite of that, candle making is a time taking and painful art form (if you are into handmade stuff, with unique shapes).

So, C for Candle Making.

The process is quite easy if you are making a plain candle. The wax (is sold either like chunks or granules) is melted on a stove through double boil technique, wax crayons of different colours are added for the required colour, moulds are well greased, wick is placed and molten wax is filled into the moulds. Voila, you have a candle!

Pillar candles and a flip flop floating candle made by my sis.

Proper precautions need to be taken while boiling the wax, as it is a safety hazard. Even breathing the fumes can be dangerous for people with delicate constituency, so proper precautions are required.

Chunk candle – Made with chunks of coloured wax

The art of candle making is vast and it depends on ones creativity.

Rose shaped floating candles – handmade

So, the next time you want to gift, why not try some aroma candles? Your friends will thank you.

Scented and coloured gel candle

P.S:

In olden days, Candelabra was used to hold candles. Even now they are used, but for special occasions.

2. Candle Making and Carpentry are the two hobbies starting with a C and even though I tried my hand at carpentry thanks to my Engineering background, I am blogging about Candle Making, thanks to my sis S, who learnt it in her college and is still pretty serious about making candles.

3. The other hobbies starting with a C are Calligraphy(one of my favourites) , Canoeing and Cheese Making. Until the next post, ciao!

Baking is fun!

April 4, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake baker’s man,

Bake me a cake as fast as you can,

Pat it and roll it and mark it with a ‘B’,

Put it in the oven for baby and me!

so goes the rhyme….that is how much fun baking can be, if you put your mind into it!

B for Baking….

If you search the net for the definition of baking, you will know that, baking is a process in which cooking is done using dry heat, like that in an oven or cooking on hot stones or even hot sand. (I remember when my mom used to make yummy Osmania biscuits, which she baked on hot sand and fed us poor souls! She loves to cook, so I have tasted many varieties of dishes and that has made a picky eater like me into a complete foodie. Thank you Amma.)

Thankfully, baking doesn’t only mean cooking in oven or on hot stones and sand, it can also be done through steam, called steam baking and our own pressure cookers are the perfect examples of that. You can even buy Steam Oven if you are invested in cooking healthy!

But it is difficult to talk about baking and not to mention French Bakers and their breads. While we lived in Charlotte, NC, USA, Mr.Bee and I used to visit a French Bakery Amelie, which always had a heavy inflow of customers, coming for their chocolate eclairs and croissants. Although I didn’t mind eating there, I still missed the curry puffs from our Desi bakeries, back home! I love their bread, though. Never seen so many different shapes of bread and I found heaven on earth. (Bread makes me salivate!)

Anyway, baking is a good hobby. I managed to bake a cake on GBee‘s third birthday, during peak COVID lock-down, with the help of Mr.Bee. I decorated it with crushed Gems, because GBee loves them, like a lot!!

The cake may not look like it, but it was yummy. We made it with bourbon biscuits, thanks to my friend K. (Even Marie biscuits can be used to bake a cake. They are Indian alternate to Graham Crackers) Even though the cake had a wonderful taste and vanished into our mouths an hour after our baking, GBee hardly had a spoonful. He hates cakes. Even now, he only eats the chocolate flowers or balls which are used on top of a cake for decoration, but leaves out the main cake!

Now that I think about it, Mr.Bee baked me a cake, a year into our marriage. He made it from scratch, moulds, multi purpose flour, whisking, baking in oven etc etc. (we were in USA then) I think it was a chocolate lava cake or something. Thank you Mr.Bee, once again!

Mr.Bee made the cake, topping it with my favourite fruit, strawberry.

So, have you even tried baking as a hobby yet?

P.S:

Cooking in a Tandoor (clay) oven to make naan comes under baking.
The French bread that I love is the Wheat Stalk bread, which I had at the Venetian, Las Vegas. (That might be because I loved the place as well!)

3. I love watching MasterChef Australia. It taught me so much. Although I don’t cook most of what is shown in the series, I enjoy watching chefs exhibit their creativity.

I also love a webtoon, Gourmet Hound, which taught me so much about French Baking!

Let me add Li Ziqi in the mix! She is a Chinese vlogger, whose videos I watch, which promote healthy traditional way of living.

4. The other hobbies starting with a B are Barbecuing , Badminton and Body Building. I have a long list of hobbies to post, so there will be a windfall of posts this month. Till the next hobby post, cheerio. Oh, do check out all the links in the post, if you want to go deeper into the topic. Au revoir my French bread loving friends!

Amigurumi

April 4, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Foreword:

April is the month, where bloggers participate in A-Z blogging event. I had been a part of this for a couple or more years, but ‘missing’ older data and the gap years in my blogging activity, pushed this event out off the window. So this year I am participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge again and the theme is going to be A-Z Hobbies! That brings us to A for Amigurumi.

Amigurumi

Firstly, crocheting and knitting are two techniques, where yarn is used to make sweaters, doilies, scarfs, winter wear and the likes. In crocheting, one hook needle is used to create art, using yarn, whereas in knitting, two needles are used. (So basically, only the one needle is the difference between crochet and knitting!)

Doilies are decorative mats mostly used as coasters

Amigurumi is the extension of crocheting and knitting. It is the Japanese art of making cute stuffed dolls using crocheting/knitting techniques.

Queen Bee and bee Amigurumi dolls

Like you can see in the image, in the Amigurumi dolls yarn is crocheted/ knit for the outer covering and stuffed inside.

If you want to start Amigurumi, the crocheting patterns for each shape is available online, which makes replicating the dolls comparatively easy. There are also Amigurumi clubs where enthusiasts can join and learn together.

Check out the link for Amigurumi related stuff.

Go ahead and watch the video if you are interested to learn some basics.

P.S:

For all the people who have abundance of patience and who don’t mind repeating the same pattern, Amigurumi is for you. Go ahead, get the needles moving! I am already a little late on my A-Z Blogging Challenge schedule, thanks to GBee and his summer holidays leaving me with little time on hands. I plan to complete the challenge and post about other stuff too.
I do have an Amigurumi keychain of my own, gifted by Mr.Bee. I also tried my hand at crocheting very briefly and managed to make a dozen bangles for myself.

3. The other hobbies starting with an A are Astrology, Astronomy, Art Collection , Acting and Animation. Till the next post, Sayonara!

Rowdy Baby!

March 21, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Thanks to the energetic and graceful dancer Sai Pallavi and Rajnikanth’s Mapillai (son in law) Dhanush, Rowdy Baby is a popular chart buster in South India. The song is beautifully pictured and choreographed and is a foot tapping number, which doesn’t bore us, even if we have seen it more than a couple of times in one sitting!

The context in which I am going to use the said catch phrase of Rowdy Baby is completely different though. This one literally means a baby who is a rowdy, i.e. KBee!

Two years ago, when the little baby KBee was born, I and Mr.Bee were alone in the hospital thanks to COVID restrictions, we had everyone of our family near us but no one was allowed inside! (So near yet so far!) We had to fend for ourselves, leaving GBee at maternal grandparents’ house and ya, it felt lonely!

Since we were managing everything by ourselves, we had little to, no sleep. Mr.Bee and I took turns to sleep when the tiny KBee was awake and when he was asleep, both of us would sleep.

On the day of his birth, by evening, the duty pediatrician had arrived, to check the progress of KBee.

Queen Bee in a post partum daze, standing with her hand on imaginary wall!

The pediatrician was so good as to warn us before hand, that the baby is going to be one hell of a rowdy fellow! I laughed it off, poor Queen Bee!

One and half years later…one evening…

1.5 years later, KBee, kicking the books, like there is no tomorrow!

KBee enjoys throwing all the books from their shelves on to the ground and stamping and kicking them, like they owe him an apology for some reason! I am yet to come up with a reasonable explanation, except that boys will be boys and they tend to ‘rough-house’! I pity all those books, which have lost their covers or miss their pages and which are forever imperfect, thanks to the rough housing! Suddenly I am thankful that they have managed to survive these many years, without all the abuse, so that is a plus.

Some other times, KBee tends to bring his shoes, wear them and plead me to take him outside to play. If I ever tell him NO, then all the hell breaks loose.

A ‘no’ from me gets, flying flip flops as a reply!

I once told KBee that the Moon was already out and it is not the time to wear his ‘shoos’ and go to play outside. The next second, I saw flying flip flops and a tantrum throwing baby on the ground and I knew he will surely shine in soccer or football or whatever it is Lionel Messi is good at! (Soccer = Football, but these people love to confuse us with two different terms for the same sport.)

With incidents like these happening in quick succession, a memory suddenly flashed before my eyes…The one, where the duty pediatrician had commented about KBee being a Rowdy Baby!

The prophecy comes true ; Rowdy Baby indeed!

What else can I do now, except play Rowdy Baby in a loop!

P.S:

Disclaimer : I am in no way trying to demean Dhanush by saying he is just a son in law of popular superstar and nothing else! I wanted to use the little Tamil that I know in the post and that is the only reason for such a usage. No offense intended.

By the way, I prefer the Rowdy Baby song in Tamil, than in Telugu. Which one do you like? Do drop in comments.

Till the next post…cheerio!

The Elephant Whisperers

March 14, 2023 / queenbee / 2 Comments

Like how every situation has a positive and negative angle, being a person who watches movies or documentaries, if and only if the review is good has a drawback. It means we have to depend on others good review or opinion. We may sometimes miss out on a gem, if there was no review or if someone didn’t understand the said movie or documentary at all!

I would have missed out on watching The Elephant Whisperers, had they not won an Oscar! There are also other documentaries on elephants and the elephant whisperers, but I have never watched them. I think this is the time to get into watching the new genre that is the documentaries!

Belli and Raghu – The Elephant Whisperers

Title : The Elephant Whisperers

Director : Karthiki Gonsalves

Made and Released in: December 2022

QB watched on: March 2023

Streamed on Netflix

Review:

Firstly, I remember watching many a news about how elephants in South India, mostly in Kerala region, would enter villages and towns, destroy property and in one incident, which I will forever remember, an elephant was captured killing its Mahut, almost like how Hulk beats up Loki in the Avenger movie.

In The Elephant Whisperers, however, we get to see the beautiful bond between an Elephant Whisperer (can be a Mahut or the trainer, but who uses soft language/body language to train the animal) and the elephant Raghu.

When the forest officials of Mudumalai National Park rescue a baby elephant, Raghu, who has its tail bitten off by stray dogs and has skin infested with maggots, they entrust the responsibility to Belli, a local tribal man, whose forefathers have also been involved in raising elephants. To assist him, they also assign Bomman, who is the lone woman elephant whisperer in South India and also probably in India!

Through the documentary I understood that, raising an elephant is similar to having an overweight baby! Difficult as well as dangerous and injuries happen! Also, by raising Raghu, Bomman is able to overcome her personal tragedies of losing both her husband and daughter.

The beautiful scenery of the Mudumalai National Park forms the perfect backdrop to the touching tale of how two individuals come together to raise an elephant and later end up marrying each other! Their family becomes complete once Ammu, a baby girl elephant joins them.

It is indeed interesting to know that Raghu and Ammu fight for their parents’ affection just like any human siblings! (Sibling rivalry!)

Although I never expected it, I managed to shed a tear or two after watching the documentary. It is worth a watch and it is really difficult to write at length about all the emotions one feels watching it.

The best scene which stole my heart and made me smile was when Bomman and Belli comb her hair and tie two pigtails for baby Ammu! She is a 3 year girl after-all, albeit an elephant!

P.S:

Have you ever heard about the world famous South Africa born, Wildlife conservationist, Lawrence Anthony, the original Elephant Whisperer ? It is said that after his untimely death, number of elephants visited his home, to mourn his death, treating him as one of their own. I think I watched his program during my childhood on National Geographic Channel.
Interestingly, even before this documentary was released, we had planned on visiting the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve during November 2022, but due to unforeseen circumstances, our trip had been shelved indefinitely!
I have been trying to write a post for more than a week, but thanks to Mr.Bee, it was a no-show from my side. Normally, after he is back from work, he takes care of the kiddos, while I write away. But thanks to his busy schedule from past 10 days, he couldn’t spare a minute and I ended up having little time on my hands. Even if I start writing, KBee is always behind my chair, breathing down my back, playing peek-a-boo and I can hardly shoo him away! GBee doesn’t disturb me when I am writing, I think he understands I am working.
Stray dogs can be a menace even for baby elephants! GHMC has given guidelines to follow in Hyderabad, on how to behave when under attack by stray dogs, such is the menace. I am already scared of dogs and stray dogs don’t help improve my opinion at all!
By the way, congratulations to team The Elephant Whisperers and team RRR for their respective Oscar wins.

Till the next post, cheerio dear friends!

Fighting the Writer’s Block!

March 9, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Writer’s Block is a phenomenon in which a writer’s brain freezes temporarily and it is unable to come up with any new exciting ideas to write! Every writer, blogger, amateur story teller and the likes face this, once in a while, when they are stuck thinking about what to write next. There is always a solution for this. Personally, hot water bath helps or after singing my favourite songs, inspiration comes to me, each time. So ya, writer’s block is manageable!

This is an old post from 2018, when I had a severe case of writer’s block, unable to write at all. That’s when I wrote this letter addressing writer’s block itself, telling ‘him’, he is not welcome at all!

Read ahead….. (This was how I used to write then..)

—————-***—————–

Dear writer’s block,

It is not you, it is me, who is breaking up with you.

Just when I started taking baby steps towards becoming a writer, you show up and I fell for you!

All the stories I started to write, I had left them unfinished, just because you demanded more of my time, but then you said I lacked quality….

When I tried to drive away the spiders weaving cobwebs of inactivity in my brain, you asked me not to bother writing again….

Many times I would talk to people, to get more ideas, to get a new perspective and you would say…’you lack inspiration’!

I loved you , but you had always been selfish and insensitive. You knew how much I wanted to write and you have always stopped me by saying, the more popular I become the less I would have time for you.

If I managed to write something in spite of your admonitions, your criticisms brought me down like a pack of lifeless cards…

It’s been a year and I feel miserable, for you crushed my hopes, like a dying cigarette is!

Enough…break up it is!( Should I say Talak- Talak- Talak?)

Go away and let me write in peace…

Wait!

Let me return all your gifts, the lazy ring, the ‘No-time-to write‘ watch and the bland ‘No-Inspiration‘ dress you gifted me.

As you may ask for any last words, here they are, NEVER RETURN!

Yours,

Not- so – in – love,

now- Ex.Girl Friend,

Queen Bee.

Holi Ke Din….

March 6, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

As usual, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I was eagerly waiting for the return of GBee from his school. Just as he put his foot inside the hall, I saw his face. It was covered partially with green colour on his cheeks and forehead. That was when it hit me that tomorrow is Holi!

The rectangular thing in my hand is supposed to be a cell!

Looking at GBee in colours reminded me that, gone are the days when I would look forward to Holi!

I remember the days when we used to return to school with traces of gulaal (pink colour) in our hair, faces and hands. The more pink one appeared, the more proud we would feel. Being pink meant, we had played and enjoyed the festival!

QB with pink highlights in hair and some random classmates talking about Holi

There used to be this gang of rowdy boys, who would come to our apartment every year on Holi, They would catch hold of the guys in our apartment and brush their teeth with gulaal and blue colours! (Yuk!Who would want dirty colours in their mouth and teeth? Beats me!) They would also throw eggs at us kids. Phew, who would want smelly eggs on their heads, mixed with bunch of colours? Double yuk! If you are being chased by someone with an egg in hand, suddenly sit down on the floor and you probably would avoid being hit!

Trying to avoid an egg on the head? Just sit down suddenly!

Those were the days, we would drench each other in buckets of gulaal water and begin to shiver. To stop the shiver, we would stand under the Sun, in the middle of the road! (Who even does that now?)

Even the uncles in the apartment would play Holi. I remember one particular incident when someone brought silver colour to play and the next day, my father and I had severe rashes on our faces. (Silver is danger!)

The ladies in the apartment would play with the good old kumkum and haldi. We even had fun scaring away the domestic helps, who would come to their respective flats to work. We would sneak attack! If we sneak attack now, we may get beatings, people are less forgiving these days.

During one Holi celebrations in my schooling days, I had taken an egg in my hair, from K, who was younger to me. (How dare he mess up with a senior!) I waited in the verandah, till my mom had hot water ready for my bath . Meanwhile, I was fed lunch, by my dad. What fun!

I pity the generation of kids who have no idea how to spend time away from a t.v. or cell. They have no idea of how safe our world was and how carefree we were, while we played on the streets, away from deranged people who lay hands on innocent kids or the violent stray dogs or the lack of traffic and vehicles on streets. Those days can never come back!

P.S:

Before going out to play Holi, it is better to apply oil on your face and hands. This way, you won’t look like a pink alien in office. This is for all those who hate looking like they drank gulaal!
My favourite Holi song is Arey Jaa re Hatt from Navrang, a very old Hindi movie, directed by Shantaram. Not everyone likes it, but check it out. The dancer Sandhya acts as both boy and girl in the song. It was a sensation in those days. (Let me be your DJ for Holi and suggest grooving to these songs…)

and also this…from Sholay, hence the title of the post!

Lastly, I would like to mention Balam Pichkari from Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani….

Did I miss any popular Holi song? Do drop a comment and let me know. Till the next post, cheerio!

The Loudest of all

March 2, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

While on most days, the kiddos manage to entertain themselves with some games and a little bit of rough housing, some times, they have, who is the loudest matches!

Almost always, the one to initiate these matches is GBee. He loves to shout and scream at the top of his lungs. It is such a regular occurrence that, once in a while, if he manages to stay quiet, our neighbours are worried! Why is there little or no noise? Is GBee sleeping? These are the questions I get from them.

One fine day, I was busy being the bookworm, reading and dwelling in the imaginary world. That’s when GBee starts to shout! He hates it when my attention is elsewhere!

GBee, shouting and scaring QB in the process.

Before I could get back to my book, I heard the baby KBee, reciprocating GBee’s shout!

KBee imitates GBee, while continuing to play.

KBee is like a Koel. Koel never run away from competition. Have you ever tried imitating a koel? I did. I used to imitate the cry it made during the onset of monsoons. That’s when Koel begin to sing along. It is like our own Pitch Perfect competition! Koel don’t like to lose. That’s for sure.

Anyway…

Feeling Proud, listening to KBee

While I was busy admiring KBee and got pulled into the shouting contest, I was worried about the dogs in my locality! KBee was able to shout in ultrasonic frequency!

Meanwhile, the stray dogs in my area, visibly whimpering at their daily meeting!

Ultrasonic sounds scare the dogs, even if the one making them is hardly 2 years old!

P.S:

Our neighbours have their hands full with 3 dogs. The dogs are so noisy, always barking at perfectly calm people walking on the street. In-spite of all this, the owners manage to hear the noise GBee and KBee make! (Or even observe, when my kids are silent)
The next time you hear a koel singing, do imitate it and sing loudly, The koel changes the tempo of its beautiful song – like cry, to beat us. The early monsoon is the best time for a singing competition with Koel!
The one who shouts the loudest is GBee. But the one who shouts at ultrasonic levels is KBee.
GBee’s class teacher once complained to me that he has the habit of shouting suddenly during the class. One particular day, he scared his teacher and got beaten! He is 5 years old. He can be childish sometimes!

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey!

February 24, 2023 / queenbee / 11 Comments

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:

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!
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?
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.
Bidaai or Vidaai is the process of sending away one’s daughter after marriage.
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.

The Tale of the White Leaf!

February 22, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Before I start today’s post, let me tell you that, if you ever read any post titles, which sound at once intriguing, rest assured that it is related to the kids. This is one such incident I would love to elaborate on…

The daily routine of GBee is, to wake up at 7 a.m. Laze around on the bed, planning ahead, about what he is going to do for the particular day! Then after much coaxing and coddling, get out of the bed at 7:40 a.m.

The next step is to run around the bed, either to wake up his baby brother KBee or to bring his school bag, open the pouch and begin sharpening his pencils and chatting all the while. He has his pouch always filled up with atleast 10 pencils. He writes with a different one each day. (Never buy kids pencils in various colours, they ask us for one in each colour. Buy them boring pencils in same colour and they never ask for another. Don’t repeat my mistake! I bought him colourful pencils and now he has one in each colour ready for any emergencies and still asks me for more!)

When we first joined him in school, he would cry incessantly and always plead me not to send him to school. (I spent many nights wondering if he would ever make any friends or go to school at all!)

Because he manages to cry a lot, he would throw up before going to school, each day. So feeding him breakfast early in the morning was a bad idea. In his early school days, he never ate anything before going to school and always brought his tiffin / snack box, as it is, without eating. (For a week, it felt like he was fasting and opposing the school, in his silent way!)

That’s when I decided to just give him milk before going to school. To make him slowly begin eating at school, I would send his box filled with his favourite cookies and pooris in the shapes of hearts, squares and circles. The little GBee, never liked Pediasure to begin with. (Any new food / beverage never interests him. He has zero interest in trying new food) To get GBee interested in Pediasure, I bought the Vanilla flavoured one and would mix it in milk and give it to him before school and slowly he began drinking it. He never knew I mixed anything in milk, because, vanilla flavoured Pediasure was off white in colour.

Just as I was getting used to him having his morning cup of milk, one day ….

A white leaf!

Since I was busy packing his snack box, I really didn’t understand what he meant at first. My mind was occupied.

He was referring to the layer of protein on the milk, a White Leaf!

Milk Skin = White Leaf

I say ‘sad’ layer because, I hate the layer of protein on top of milk. I just hate when the milk skin forms on milk. Or even tea for that matter. I exaggerate and tell everyone who listens to me, that milk skins suffocate the throat, so I can’t have it! (which is a lie)

After he complained about the ‘white leaf’, i filtered the milk for him and then and ‘only’ then did he drink his milk.

That, dear readers, is the Tale of the White Leaf!

P.S:

I was inspired by ‘The Tale of Two cities’ of Charles Dickens while naming the blog post. I may read it in future.
The milk skin infact has a scientific name, Lactoderm! But, as usual, I love the one coined by GBee, ‘White Leaf’. He also calls grey hair as ‘White Grass’!
Do you know ‘the Order of White Lotus’? If you are an Avatar geek, you may know it. If you are not, it a secret society of intellectual people who share knowledge. It is part of the ‘Avatar’, the anime and not the James Cameron Avatar.

Till the next post!

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