Tag: life

Home Alone – The Queen Bee version!

Long ago when I was busy with my job, designing super passages and under tunnels, leading a carefree life, my family had to travel. I excused myself from the trip and stayed back alone at home. I didn’t want to miss out on the fun at my office.

Being in ‘the’ design team in our office was a heaven. It was like being in a girls gang. 6 of us, under the guidance of the most cool headed team leader, our AGM. Those were the days. Since we had the most technical knowledge, due to our area of work, there was always someone who needed our help! We were always busy and had most fun during breaks, being in the same age bracket also helped! We even celebrated each others birthdays with much fan fare, cake cuttings and gift givings. It was the golden period in the technical division.

It is rare to find such camaraderie in civil engineering companies, because, we either have above 65 year old consulting employes or 20 something employees, fresh out of engineering colleges. That is because civil engineering needs experienced people to guide the young blood and thanks to software boom, most people avoid civil, it being a job which also includes site visits. (Personally,  I love visiting the construction sites and looking at our designs in their magnitude.)

Anyway, it all comes down to me staying alone at home for 2 days and 2 nights! Thankfully, I spent the days in office, doing the work I love in the company of the team that I admired, so that’s that. But once I returned home, I was all alone, like Kevin McCallister, except there was no imminent danger of rogues and thieves entering the flat, then!

While I planned on watching my favourite TV shows and  eating my dinner in a jiffy, the tough part was sleeping alone in the flat!

As soon as Mrs.G saw that I had parked my Mahindra Flyte in the cellar, she gave me probably 5 minutes to fresh up and knocked my door.

She meant well….

Mrs.G asked me if I wanted to eat something. She even asked me what I had in mind. I gave her a vague answer, as I really had no idea what I wanted to make for dinner. I didn’t intend to inconvenience her.

I wanted to eat samosa cutlet chaat, pani puri and even a pizza. But I refrained from telling her all that. I don’t remember what I cooked for myself,  but Mrs.G returned to give me a bowl of freshly made potato fry and won my heart and stomach too!

That hit the spot. I slept well, thanks to a full stomach.

Even the clothes hanging from the peg, which made a ghostly shape didn’t scare me, one bit!

Even the rhythmic sound of anklets and whispers around me, could hardly stop my droopy eyes from closing!

“Good night, to you too” , I whispered in response!

P.S:

1. Who doesn’t like a bowl of potato fry!

2. Although I don’t celebrate Christmas,  December 25th is not complete without watching the handsome and naughty Kevin McCallister being left home, alone! White Christmas is a dream…

3. Chandler Bing is one of my favourite characters,  which inspired the dialogue in my third cartoon.

Till the next post, cheerio!

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.

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