Tween Mantamisms

On our vacations, we usually eat all the meals outside and try exploring local places and food specialties. This time on our vacation though, we brought a few utensils, and a few basic pantry staples to make rice and dal atleast. There were a lot of border closures and restrictions changing so frequently that it gave us a sense of peace to be equipped with resources to cook a meal if need be. Last night we were really craving for some comfort food and I cooked rice, dal and fried potatoes. We all had a soul-satisfying meal, burp!!

Abbas (Suddenly had a thought): Mantam, when you fly the nest and are on your own, what will you eat to survive?

Tammu: We’ll eat sandwiches and salads Baba

Mannu: Hey, speak for yourself Tam! I’ll go to Maccas and KFC.

Abbas: You’ll have fast food and enjoy it for a few days. But then you’ll crave for home made simple food like this. What will you do then?

Tammu: I will never leave the house insert cheeky smile

Abbas: Seemu, I’m so worried now. What will they do? They have to learn to cook and learn so many life skills to survive

Seemu: You are worrying for no reason. When they will crave for it, they will learn to cook anyway. Look at me, I never moved a finger before marriage. If I learnt life skills to survive, so will they

Mantam (gasping for breath): Wait, what? Mumma, did you say that you never moved a finger before marriage. And here you are making us do all the chores at home at since our childhood? This is unfair!

Me: Yeah, because we had domestic helps at home. They did most of the things.

Tammu: Mumma, were you from a rich family?

Me: Well, kind of!

Tammu: You are saying, I could have been rich too!

Mannu: Tam, if Baba hadn’t married Mumma, I would have been born to Mumma anyway. I would have been rich. You would’ve been born to Baba. So you wouldn’t have been rich either way!

For the uninitiated, Mannu is the miniature version of me and Tammu is spitting image of Abbas.

Tammy Tales

I have been contemplating on whether to post this or not because no matter how much I dig my memory, I can’t think of a funny conversation with Mannu. Am I being a partial mother? Probably Mannu is not as funny as her twin 😀 Mannu, if and when you read this, just know that your Mumma loves you as much she does Tammu (Not as much as she loves Laddoo and you know it 😀 )

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After finishing our lunch, I asked Tammu to clear the dining table and wipe it clean as she took too long to finish her meal and I ran impatient. I was sitting on the couch and …

Tammu: Where do I keep the leftover rice?

Me (The rice was in the rice cooker utensil. I thought it will be hard for her to put it away in a different dish): Tammu, just put the rice back in the rice cooker. I’ll sort it later

After a while, I happened to turn to look at what she is upto and my heart was in my mouth. Tammu was carefully taking spoonfuls of rice from the utensil and transfering it into the rice cooker.

Me (exclaiming): Tammu, what are you doing?!!!

Tammu: You told me to put the rice in the rice cooker, Mumma!

Me: Dang it! I never thought you would take my instructions literally!! Phew 😦

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I got a new T-shirt for Abbas and he wore it on a Friday morning. When he got dressed up and came to the breakfast table, I noticed that the T-shirt was a bit tight and it was a little transparent too.

Within seconds of me even thinking that, Tammu goes: “Mumma, I think you must have also bought a bra for Baba along with the T-shirt. I can see his nipples through the shirt 😀 ”

 

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I was reading a booked called ‘The Perfect Wife’ and Tammu asks:

“Mumma, why are you reading your biography?” I know, I know! This girl is so cheesy 😀

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I was cooking pasta one day..

Tammu: Mumma, are you going through hair fall lately?

Me: Uhh well, not lately but it’s been going on for long. What makes you ask?

Tammu (She points to the store bought pasta packet which reads ‘Angel Hair Pasta’) : Because all the lost hair seems to be in this packet 😀

Me: Tammu, You are outdoing your dad in delivering clever dialogues

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Whenever Abbas and I have our skirmishes, Tammu always comes to my defence (whether or not I’m right). Mannu used to be biased towards Abbas but these days she calls a spade a spade. On one such occasion when we must have been arguing about something and Tammu has clearly taken my side.

Abbas: Tammu, you are such a chamchi of Mumma!

Tammu: Did you call me a spoon Baba?

Abbas: Chamchi /Spoon is an expression which means that you are a blind supporter of Mumma

Tammu: No Baba, even with one eye closed and the other open, I will be Mumma’s supporter!

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Day 1 | Mantam-isms

Day 1 of the Blogathon deserves a post on Mantam-isms as the purpose of this blog was to document the anecdotes of my twin girls. But I keep digressing and using this space to ramble about my musings!

Back to the point!

Abbas is the first one to leave home on weekday mornings. Once he is out, Mantam and I eat our breakfast, pack our bags and get ready for the day. One of these days, we all waved and kissed good-bye to him and came back to resume our business. Just a couple of minutes later, all of a sudden the door opened and my heart trembled in fear. Then I saw Abbas coming in and my mind still raced through a million thoughts as to what made him return. He said that he had a flat tyre and that there was nothing to worry about. He said that help was on its way and he headed straight to the toilet 😀 (Making use of the time he had on hand!!)

Tammu goes close to the toilet and loudly asks him (while he is answering nature’s calls), “Baba, what is the name of my first teacher?”

Abbas: Whatttt??

Tammu: Baba, tell me what is the name of my first teacher?

Abbas: Why do you ask Tammu? I don’t know!!

 

Tammu, swiftly makes her way to find me, comes close to me and whispers:

“Mumma, this was a secret test to see if this man who just entered our home is really Baba or an impostor? If it was my Baba, he would know my first teacher’s name. You know how in Harry Potter, they drink Poly Juice potion and disguise as somebody else, I think someone has disguised Baba”

I start laughing my head off at my Potterhead of a child. Right then, Abbas comes and asks “What happened? Why are you laughing?”

Mannu enters the toilet and immediately exists with a wrinkle on her nose and closes the case by saying:

“That smell in the toilet!!! I am 100 percent sure it is Baba. It can’t be anyone else”

😀 😀 😀

These girls are hilarious, I tell ya!!!

 

 

Blonde Hair

It just so happens that I picked up Blonde Hair colour on a whim. S and I went to buy something and we both spotted this great deal on Hair colours and we both picked one each. Just like a typical impulse-buy, I wanted to grab the super awesome deal with both hands but wasn’t sure of what colour I wanted. While I was contemplating on whether to go for maybe red or brown, S suggested I must go for highlighting. She reminded me of the highlights I had got years back and said that it looked good on me. She was also planning to do the same. So we both picked Blonde hair colour 🙂

 

I came home and Abbas was the first one to spot the hair colour. He was flabbergasted!

Abbas: “Have you lost your mind?”

Me: “Why? What’s wrong?”

Abbas: “Are you going to go blonde?”

Me: ” Yeahhh! What do you think?”

Abbas: “No, you’re not! I know you very won’t” (Still unsure, yet pretending to know me inside out)

Mannu and Tammy both heard the conversation by then and Mannu came rushing to me and held me so tight.

Mannu: ” Noooooooooooo Mummmmmma! You can’t do that”

Me: “But why?”

Mannu: “You just can’t! Are you serious?”

By then Tammu has already taken the hair colour pack and run away to hide it to avoid living with a Blonde mom 🙂

Me: “Ok Mannu! You got me there. I won’t, don’t you worry”

Mannu: “Then why did you get it? What are you going to do with it?”

Me: “I was so bored of having black haired daughters. So I brought this for both of you. I always dreamt of having blonde kids 🙂 ”

Mannu: “Nooooo Mumma. Come on! Tell us the truth now”

By then Tammu is also back with a victorious aura after having successfully hidden the hair colour out of her Momma’s reach.

Me (Taking a deep breath) : “Ok ok, let me tell you why I bought it”

Both listening with utmost interest….

Me (continued): “The truth is that it is for your Baba”

Mannu: “Whattt? He hardly has hair on his head!”

Me: “Yes ofcourse, it is not for his head. It’s for his underarms”

And I start chuckling like crazy…..

Tammu: “Oh my goodness. This is like the dumbest thing I have ever heard”

😀 😀 😀

Day 12 | Return of Mantam-isms

Although these conversations did not happen today, they do bring happiness as I jot them down. So, cheating a bit to get today’s post done with 🙂

All four of us were watching the movie Queen on Netflix. There is a scene where VijayaLakshmi hurls abuses to a guy in French. The subtitles flash with the F word over and over again.

Abbas and I: (share eye contact wishing the kids didn’t notice the subtitles)

Mannu: What does that mean?

Abbas and I: (Again looking at each other yet clueless what to say, each hoping the other one manages the situation)

Tammu (takes charge): Mannu, it’s a bad word. So you don’t need to know!

Abbas and I: (Rolling eyes and trying to control our laughter)

Mannu: What???!! So you know it and I don’t need to know! Seriously?!

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Abbas brought a bunch of greens which is rarely available and I made a traditional Bengali dish with it. As we sat for lunch, Abbas looked at the dishes on the table

Abbas: Haven’t you cooked the greens?

Me: Yeah, I have made this mix veg dish with the pumpkin greens

Abbas: What? Seemu, they were bottle gourd greens and it is usually added to lentils.

Me: No no, they were not bottle gourd greens. I know very well that they were pumpkin greens.

And the argument goes on for a while in a fun way. Abbas makes fun of me and vice versa. We go on to google to look for images but are still confused who was right. Abbas looks for bottle gourd greens Bengali dish on Google and gets the same link as I get when I googled for Pumpkin greens Bengali dish.

It was a laughter riot in parallel to the argument.

Mannu: Guys, please stop it now?

Tammu: Mumma Baba, can you both first decide if you are arguing or laughing?

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Mannu, Tammu and I are walking to the station in the morning

Tammu: Mumma, you know what?

Me: What?

Tammu: I think I am a good person

Me: What makes you think so?

Tammu: Because my friends throw food in the bin, some of them drop food on the ground and others stamp on it. I try to make them understand that they shouldn’t do it.

Me: Yes Tammu, you are right.

Tammu: Actually I feel sad for the food. For example, the other day S dropped crackers on the floor and D stamped on it. Now imagine how the cracker might have felt. It must  have been thinking how excited the day is going to be, I’m going to go inside someone’s mouth. But it got hurt instead.

Mannu (Who was hardly paying attention to the conversation so far, suddenly got alert): What is she talking about? Who gets excited about getting into someone’s mouth?

Me: Mannu, that’s because that someone we are talking about happens to be a cracker 😀

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We went to a friend’s home and her mum had made fish fingers which were out of this world. Mantam enjoyed them so much and asked for seconds.

Me: Mannu, you loved the fish fingers, didn’t you?

Mannu: Yes Mumma, they were the tastiesst food I have ever had.

Me: That’s good

Mannu: By the way Mumma, no offence to your cooking skills, ok?

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Sunday evenings are routinely allocated to folding the truckload of washed and dried clothes and organizing them. Mantam usually help me with this chore. Tammu, being the lazy bum that she is, always gets distracted by the mirror and starts posing or acting weird. Mannu is the sincere one, always tries to learn folding techniques and always tried to improve. Tammu always picks undergarments as they are easy to fold. We named her the chaddi (underpants) girl. She always sits down and Mannu keeps flinging chaddis at her as she drags them from the mountain of clothes.

One day, Mannu wasn’t in her usual spirits and did not turn up to help. Tammu had already begun her chaddi folding business. Mannu dragged herself reluctantly to help us.

Me: Tammu, let Mannu sit down and fold the chaddis today. Why don’t you fold the other clothes.

Tammu (agreed half heartedly): Ok fine!

After a while, she remembers all the chaddis being flung at her by Mannu. She starts taking revenge. It was funny sight to watch and I couldn’t stop laughing. When she ran out of chaddis to flung, she took the ones she had already folded!

That is when I had to take the charge and stop her! (I’m not able to bring the humour through my words, but it certainly was a fun sight as all three of us were in giggle hysteria)

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Me (Hugging Tammu on some occasion): Tammu, do you know how proud I am of you?

Tammu (cozily enjoying my hug): Thank you Mumma

Me: I’m so lucky to have you as my daughter

Tammu: It was all due to your hard work, that you have me as your daughter 🙂

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Mantam-isms for a comeback

This post is dedicated to Tara for the sweet message she left on my blog. I am still grinning ear to ear with gleamy eyes thinking of how someone read my blog twice and was waiting for me to write a new post J

 

The best way to make a comeback after a sabbatical is to write some tidbits of Mantam’s conversations. So here goes:

Remember how I had written in one of my previous posts that Tammu had come up with this idea of naming our future puppy with a name that starts with R so that our family name becomes SMART (Seema, Mannat, Abbas, R and Tamanna)?

Now the lass has gone a step further and planned of having her own family called DART. That would D for Darcy, A for Angela, R for Rachel and T for herself, Tamanna. When I asked who these girls are, she replied that she is going to adopt three girls. She is not going to marry anyone. Well, we’ll see! She also hugged me and said ‘Thank God, you are married someone whose name starts with a vowel! How else could we have come up with a word?’

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On the eve of our wedding anniversary this year, Mantam had made our bed neatly and written a message on the door which read “Have a good night Mumma and Baba. Love, Mantam”. Next morning

Mannu – Mumma, how was your night? Did you watch a movie? Stay up late?

Me – Nahh, we played a movie but felt so sleepy that we went to bed soon after you both slept

Mannu – Oh Mumma! How unromantic are you both, huh!!

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Tammu was recently brainstorming on what gifts to ask Santa for Christmas. And I was relieved that they knew we were the Santa and didn’t have to worry about getting gifts as per their wishlist.

Anyway, the funny bit was she could not come up with ideas as to what to ask for. The girl was later found googling for ideas to come with a Christmas wishlist! Can you believe it?

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The latest fad in our lives has been watching the Full House series back to back. It was an amazing feeling as this was one of my favourite series during my childhood days. I had never imagined that Mantam would love it as much as I did, if not more. We even finished the first two seasons of Fuller House on Netflix. Mantam have been so obsessed with it that most of our conversations see us quoting examples of similar situation in Full House.

One of the episodes saw Danny (who was a widower) begin dating and his daughters did not like the idea of their father seeing other women. When he saw the way the girls were impacted, he sat them down and had a conversation. He asked them why they were upset to which they said that he didn’t love their mother any more as he had started dating other women. He explained to them that he will always love their mom and that she would be happy to see him move on. They asked him how he knew it for sure. He told them how mum and dad have such conversations where they discuss what would happen if one of them wasn’t alive anymore. They had discussed this when their mum was alive and that’s how he knew.

On seeing this, Mantam paused the episode, turned to me and asked, “Have you had this conversation with Baba?” I was stunned and was speechless for a moment. I blurted out “Errr….. No!”. They said, “Then you should have it Mumma. Not that something will or should happen. But you should have the conversation anyway”

I didn’t know what to say! When did my girls grow so old and mature?

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Once I caught them doing something that they weren’t supposed to. I can’t remember what it was, thanks to my declining memory!

But I was sure that it was Tammu who was the culprit.

Me: Tammu, I know it is you who did it.

Tammu: How do you know Mumma?

Me: I’m your Mumma. So I know it’s you.

Tammu: I’m not innocent, I’m not innocent. (She meant that she is innocent)

Me: There, you confessed it.

Tammu: What?!

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They have these spelling tests every week.

Me: Girls how many did you get wrong today?

Tammu: I got one spelling mistake wrong.

Me: Tammu, you are so talented. You even get mistakes wrong?!

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Mantam usually have this habit of giving me instant feedback when they are served a meal. Usually it’s good with words like delicious, yummy, really good, scrumptious etc etc. Occasionally I hear, I don’t like it, it’s too spicy . One day Tammu gave me a feedback that I will never forget. Actually it was one of my experiment dishes that did not turn out as expected. Honestly I didn’t like it either. Tammu had a spoon of it and without batting an eyelid, said “This does not taste like anything” Can you beat that?

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I did a health program recently for 6 weeks and lost 7.5 kilos. Before starting the program, I was explaining Mantam what it was and how it works etc. Mantam understood that I would lose weight with the program. But Tammu had another serious doubt – “Mumma, will you grow tall when you do it?”

 

Mantam-isms

Abbas usually takes Mantam for the weekly grocery shopping when I give him a list beforehand. But the trio comes back many additional items that I never mentioned, occasionally goofing up and rarely missing items requested.

After coming back from one such expedition, I was putting away the groceries in their rightful places. I spotted baby broccoli when I had mentioned Broccoli. I usually don’t buy the baby version as they are costlier than the usual one.

Me: Hey, why did you guys buy Baby Broccoli?

Mannu (rolling eyes): Mumma, did you want a family Broccoli??

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Then I spotted two new items in the shopping bag and raised my eyebrows?

Me: What’s this? Who bought them?

Tammu: Mumma, they are hanitisers.

Me (already started laughing): Tammu, what’s a hanitiser darling?

Tammu: We bought it to keep in our school bags Mumma. You know they can be used to clean our hands.

Me: But what you are talking about are called Hand Sanitisers, not Hanitisers?!!!

Tammu: Bwahahahaha , that’s what I meant. You understood right?

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Mantam go to gymnastics classes on Saturday mornings. One particular Saturday before everyone woke up I was watching a Kannada movie after a long time on my phone. The movie kept me glued and I was enjoying it. I had to keep it aside to fix breakfast for the kids and pack them off to the classes. Abbas went to drop them and I plonked myself on the sofa resuming my movie session. When Abbas came back after dropping them, he saw me shedding buckets of tears looking at my phone. He was terrified at the sight but I told him it was an emotional scene in the movie about son and dad that tugged at my heartstrings.

Abbas had his breakfast, sat for a while and went back to pick Mantam from the classes. The girls stormed in to the house and took me to task.

Mumma: “Did you cry in our absence?”

Me (giving Abbas the why-did-you-have-tell-them-you-big-mouth look): Errrr, I was watching a Kannda movie and there was an emotional scene.

Tammu: So Mumma, from today onwards we declare it illegal for you to watch any Kannada movies!!

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We all love the song ‘Hanikarak bapu’ from Dangal. We were listening to it in repeat mode.

Me: Mantam, do you know the meaning of Hanikarak Bapu?

Mantam: No Mumma

Me: It means dangerous father. In your case, it would be Hanikarak Mumma as I’m the one who is strict and makes you do things whether you like it or not.

Mantam (start giggling)

Me (sounding hopeful): Arey, aren’t you supposed to say I’m not an evil momma?

Mantam: Well, we’ll think about it

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We bought bicycles for Mantam recently as we realised how bad parents we have been that they still cannot ride a two wheeler. We had bought one long back but we were too lazy to take them to a park and teach them. This time around, we resolved to take them every weekend to learn riding. The first time Abbas took them by himself as I was late from work. The second time we all went together and both the girls didn’t trust me to teach them and each demanded Baba.

Finally, Tammu was brave enough to allow me to supervise her.  After a while of practicing

Tammu: Mumma, you are getting better at it now. Don’t give up!

Me: Whatt a what a what a what whatttt??? Aren’t I the one supposed to say that?!!

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Mannu is enjoying reading a lot these days. She was glued to a book called Margaret, which she had borrowed from School library. She was telling me that is she would not finish it before the next week’s library session, she would request it to be re-issued. I took them to our local library too and Mannu was searching the catalogue for Margaret high and low.

On Thursday evening:

Me: Mannu, did you get your Margaret book re-issued today?

Mannu: Nah! I returned it and got some other books.

Me: So did you finish reading it?

Mannu: No, I didn’t

Me: Then why did you return it? You really liked the book, didn’t you?

Mannu: Well, I didn’t like it so much after all!

Me: And you are telling this today?

Mannu: Eh? Would you have liked me to tell you tomorrow Mumma?

Me (banging the palm of my hand to my forehead): No thank you!!

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Mantam and I walk to the station together in the morning, they catch the bus to school and I the train to work. Mantam’s school bus leaves at 8:45 AM but I can’t afford to wait to see them off, so they see me off first and then wait for a bit before hopping on their bus. Now, I have a train at 8:31 and the next at 8:41. My goal everyday is to catch the 8:31 and but I fail 😦 Some days we get so late that we even rush at jet speed to catch 8:41 too. On one of those days:

Me: We are super duper late today Mantam. Let’s walk really fast.

Mannu: Mumma are we going to miss our bus?

Me: No no, you both will get the bus. But I am worried about not being able to catch my train.

Me (continuesw to blabber while walking): Increase your speed girls. I am not able to catch my usual 8:31 these days. On most days I have been taking the second train at 8:41. Today we  are struggling to catch the second one too. Forget about my usual train

Tammu: Mumma, if you are taking the second train on most days, isn’t that supposed to be your usual train? Don’t worry, we are only hurrying to catch your usual train today.

We all cracked up!

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Tammu got selected in her school’s T-ball team. We got a note saying her team will be travelling to a park every Friday to compete against another school. We were asked to send a pair of long socks and shin guard for her. Abbas bought them and at home we were trying to put it on.

Tammu putting the shin guard on..

Me: Tammu, wear the long socks first and on top of it you can put on the shin guard

Abbas (laughing his head off): Seemu, you have zero knowledge about sports. Tammu, don’t listen to Mumma, keep going with the shin guard.

Tammu: Baba, Mumma must be right

Abbas: Tammu, Mumma has not played any sport ever. I used to be a soccer player and I have worn all this. You listen to me.

Me: Arey, the shin guard has such a pretty colour, isn’t it supposed to be seen? If she covers it with the socks, what a waste of colour?

Abbas: Seemu yaar, please! Come on, she is not going for a fashion show to show off colours and patterns

Tammu: Baba, Mumma might be right you know? Let’s check a youtube video on how to wear the shin guard.

Me (thinking how this girl blindly believes her Mumma and basking in the pride)

The youtube video proves Abbas right.

Tammu: It’s ok Mumma, don’t be sad ok?

Me: Takes my blind lover into arms and squishes and smothers her with kisses

Abbas: What about me you girls???

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Day 25 | Mantamism – special edition

This post on Mantamism is specially dedicated to dear GB. She had commented on my previous Mantamism post saying it made her very happy and that’s why one more coming her way:

Mannu told me one day that there was this guy L in her class who repeatedly kept telling her that she had an ugly face. I stopped in my tracks and thought about how I must make her understand that what other people think of you in none of your business. But my train of thoughts came to a grinding halt when Mannu said “Mumma, I don’t know why he says that because it’s wrong to judge others on their appearances, right?” Instead of her feeling bad about being called ugly, she was worried about L’s actions. I grinned ear to ear for two reasons. The first reason was that being shamed had zero effect on her, it did not bother her one bit. Second reason was that she believed that judging other people based on how they look was not right.

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Mantam get a report card by their class teacher twice a year. As their progress is not measured here based on exams, they get evaluated based on their behaviour, sports, Math and English skills demonstrated in the class on a day to day basis. The report is usually sent along with the kid in a sealed envelope. The teacher always stresses on the envelope not being opened before reaching home.

The last term when Mantam came back with the report, Tammu had a Eureka moment. She said Mrs.Stone gave me the report card. I am going to prepare a report card for her about how she has performed as a teacher. I just let her do what she felt like. She made a report card similar to what was given to her. It had a page with the description of how she fared, other page had the evaluation column. She listed different attributes and rated them as Good or Bad. She then sealed it in an envelope to present it to her teacher. I missed clicking a picture but I was in awe of her ideas.In the evening I was too curious to know how her teacher had reacted and couldn’t wait to know. Tammu told me that Mrs. Hall laughed on receiving the report and after reading it she said “Tamanna, you are so funny”

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Mannu is the helper of her class as she she is at home. She proactively lends all her friends a hand and needless to say the teacher too. Mannu says that her teacher once asked her “Mannat, your house must be clean all the time as you are living there.” One day they had an activity where each kid took turn to face the class and was given an impromptu topic to speak on. Mannu’s turn came and when she picked a random chit, she got the topic “The chore you hate doing” And guess what? Mannu’s teacher voluntarily told her “Mannat, I think this topic will be too hard for you as your love doing your chores. Why don’t you pick another topic?” And Mannu proudly came home and told us this.

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One day Tammu was making up a story. She said “There was a girl and a boy. The boy was a Hundred air”

Mannu and I were stumped “What was the boy??”

Tammu: “A hundred air”

Me (thinking that this must be some Aussie term that is out of my limited vocabulary’s bounds or some familiar word that she is pronouncing in a heavy Aussie accent): “Tammu, I really don’t understand. Can you please explain?”

Tammu: “Mumma, you know how you once told about a millionaire is a person who owns million dollars. But this boy in the story only had hundred dollars. So he is a hundredaire na?”

Me: “Yeah, you’re right. Why didn’t I ever think about it?”

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During our vacation, one morning Mannu kept saying that her ankle was hurting. After a while, she started limping. I got worried and we were in a place where she had to walk. All I had in my handbag was Amrutanjan (pain relief balm) and I offeref to apply it on her ankle.

Me: “You are limping na? Shall I apply some Amrutanjan?”

Mannu (pain filled frowning face): “Ok Mumma”

Me (sits her down): Can you bring your ankle forwarf so that I can apply the balm

Mannu (brings her foot closer to me): There!

I nicely apply the balm and lightly massage her. Then we start walking again.

In just about a couple of minutes,

Mannu: Mumma, I’m feeling a lot better now. Thank you for the massage.

Me (patting myself on the back at a well done job): You’re welcome my dear. I’m glad you are feeling good now.

In just a couple of more minutes,

Mannu (in a concerned tone): Mumma, you know what?

Me: Has it started paining again?

Mannu: No Mumma

Me: Then what happened?

Mannu: Mumma, I actually gave you the wrong leg to massage. The pain was in the other leg.

Me: Whatttt?? So does that mean the pain is still there?

Mannu (chuckles): No Mumma, strangely the pain has gone away.

Me: Hmph! Next time wherever you have pain in one body part, I’ll apply medicine on the other. Seems like it works magic!!!

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Every night when Mantam go to bed, Abbas and I go tuck them in and say good night. I always give them a hug and we kiss one another. Most days I even lay down with them for 5-10 minutes chatting about everything under the sun. Somehow, that chat feels really precious and at times it gets dragged on for more than 10 minutes. Abbas then starts nagging me to let them sleep as it would be hard for them to wake up next morning.

Today, Mantam went to sleep a bit late as I came home late and relaxed more than any usual working day as tomorrow is a public holiday here. Before going to say Good night to them I asked Abbas to let me speak to them tonight as there was no rush to wake up at the usual time tomorrow morning. He said “No problem. Talk away as much as you want tonight”

Mannu was very sleepy as it was past her bedtime and was not so much in a mood to chat. Tammu is an owl and can stay awake whole night if you let her. Tammu and I started talking and giggling. Mannu was trying hard to sleep and got very irked with the noise we were making.

Mannu: “You both are not letting me sleep”

Me (in a disappointed tone): Tammu, see today your Baba was ok for me to chat with you both but Mannu is irritated.

Tammu (in a naughty sarcastic tone): It’s ok Mumma. Life is unfair after all!!

Me: ?!?!?!?!?!

Tammu: (Starts laughing hysterically)

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Day 17 | Mantam-ism to the rescue

All these days I was happily sailing through the Blogathon with ease due to the holiday series. Today I was totally blank as to what I must write. With a little more than an hour to go, sleep luring me to go to bed and tiredness causing the mind to protest, the very own Mantamism comes to the rescue. Thankfully I had made simple notes about a few conversations on my phone which I am going to elaborate in this post.

As you all know, we as a family, have started day-dreaming about out new home. We talk at length about all the things we plan to do there, how we are going to live there, when we might be moving, etc. You get the drift right?

Some of the conversations related to the same:

Abbas: As soon as we move in, I’m going to buy an aquarium which will be at the entrance of the house. In the backyard I’ll have a huge cage for my pet birds. We’ll also get a dog.

Me: You do all that you want, but not as soon as we move in. By the way I’m only interested in a dog.

Tammu: I want a little baby sister. My friend K had a little baby sister mumma. I too want to have one.

Abbas (in a mischevious tone): Seemu, we are both such nice people. We must produce more like us as a gift to the world.

Me: Oh yeah, why not! Only if you can conceive, I’m happy to go for it.

Abbas: Hmph

Tammu (Now clueless about the decision): Mumma, so can I have a baby sister?

Me: Yes darling, you can have a doggy sister.

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Abbas: We will have to buy a beeeeeg TV and a fridge before anything else.

Me: Why do you need a beeeeg TV first? We already have a TV and we can live with it for some time.

Tammu: Can we have a swimming pool?

Abbas and I (unanimously): NO!!

Tammu: Ok fine. Can I have my own room?

Abbas: No!

Me: Yes!

Mannu: Can we have a trampoline?

Abbas: Yes, why not?

Me: Errrr, we’ll think about it. By the time we move in, you girls might not even be interested then.

Abbas and I back to the initial argument about TV.

Mannu (in a gyani-baba tone): Guys, guys! Listen to me.

Abbas and I looked at each other and then at her

Mannu: First we must fulfil the needs. Only then we can think of the wants. Remember that needs are important. Wants can be let go of.

Abbas and I: ?!?!?!? (Too shocked to utter any word)

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Getting a dog has been voted in favour of by all four of us. So we have started imagining our future pet dog too. We even started coming up with names. My suggestion was ‘Rocky’ as my pet dog at Kundapur was named that and we were very attached to it.

Mantam and Abbas had many other suggestions, but as soon as I suggested Rocky, Mantam liked the name. Abbas utterly disliked it.

Mantam trying to convince Abbas.

Mannu: Rocky is such a nice name. It sounds like a rockstar

Abbas: Why would you name your dog something that sounds like a rockstar. It sounds so silly.

Tammu: Baba, if we name our dog Rocky then we will become a smart family.

All three of us (puzzled): Whattt???

Tammu: Look, mumma’s name starts with S, then Mannu with M, then Baba with A, Rocky with R and my name with T. S, M, A, R, T – that will make us the Smart family!

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We had recently been to one of friends’ home during christmas where we partied and stayed overnight. Mannu and I spent some time alone in their backyard sitting on 2 zero gravity chairs, gazing at the stars and having a heart to heart conversation. We really enjoyed it and this is how the conversation ended.

Me: Mannu, I feel so happy to be having this conversation with you.

Mannu: Me too Mumma.

Me: I absolutely love the idea of spending 10-15 minutes every night gazing at the sky. DO you like it?

Mannu: Yes Mumma. It’s really good.

Me: Hmmm

Mannu: Mumma, once we move to our new home, all four of will do this together. What do you say?

Me (excited by the idea): We’ll buy 4 of these chairs and do star gazing together. Sounds like a plan.

Mannu (in a concerned tone): Mumma, do you think we’ll have enough money to buy 4 chairs once we move in?

I started laughing at her innocence and went to tell Abbas the same

 

Day 5 | First Mantamism of 2017

I told you how Mantam joked with us on the christmas cards. This is about another joke which is a continuation on the same topic. One of the presents that Santa, err we gave to them were the bubble blowers. After Christmas, one evening we went to a park to spend time outdoors. Mantam took their Bubble blower with them and seemed to enjoy it a lot. They kept blowing bubbles after bubbles in the air and kept running around after them. I said “Look, Santa gave you such a nice gift eh?” Tammu makes a puppy face and retorts without missing a second, “Yeah Mumma! It was very intelligent of my parents” I cursed myself under my breath “Why did I have to act smart and bring up the topic of Santa! Silly me”

At the new years eye fireworks, we reached at round 12 noon. It is peak summer here in this part of the world and we were literally getting barbequed under the harsh sun. When we reached home at 3 AM in the morning, we asked them to take a shower as our bodies were sticky and dirty after spending in the sun and amongst such a huge crowd. They said they were exhausted and that they didn’t want to take a shower. We insisted and told them that they would feel light and relaxed after the shower and could wake up as late as possible. Tammu said “Mumma, but I already had a shower”. I asked with astonishment, “When was that?” Tammu replies with a serious face “Don’t you remember Mumma? I got showered in my own sweat today?” and she laughs mockingly at me.

Hold on! All these while I was writing Mantamisms where I could laugh tat them and now I’m getting a feeling that I’m being the scapegoat here. Talk about tables turning with time!

I had a few more incidents to write about but I am on vacation and extremely tired. Abbas is snoring and Mantam are deep asleep. My eye are almost watery and I’m struggling to keep them open. Will write more in the future posts.

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