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!!!

 

 

Day 13 | All’s well that ends well

Today was a very hectic day at work! Tammu was feeling under the weather, yet we sent her to school asking her to give us a call if she didn’t feel better during the day. I went to office early, hardly got any time for breaks, stayed long hours. We were waiting for an email confirmation from our builder about the final dates today but it never arrived. I hopped on the train to home around 7:30 PM. All in all, a very dry mundane day. Hardly had anything to write about today, but hey! It’s not over until it’s over.

On the train while I was tiredly sitting, wondering how Tammu must have been feeling, the man of my life messages me to know if I had started from office. He told me that Tammu was doing perfectly fine and that both the girls were then dancing! Happiness score 1!

He told me not to worry about finances, as he had done all the calculations and that we were in a good position to move and very much in control. Happiness score 2!

He asked me if I had checked the emails, which I hadn’t had the chance to till then owing to the busy day at work. He told me to check and I found his revised remuneration letter. This was due for quite some time. It felt so good to see it come through at a time when we are direly in need of it. Happiness score 3!

He hardly messages me these days, so receiving his messages made me feel that he couldn’t wait till I reached home. He was missing me and eagerly waiting for me to reach home. Happiness score 4!

I just made some instant noodles as it was too late by the time I reached home. But I noticed that Abbas had already cleared the sink and loaded the dishwasher to my life easier. Happiness score 5!

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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Day 8 | Simple Joys

• When you meet this old lady on your way to train station and she gives the brightest smile, you smile too in return and say ‘Hello, good morning. How are you?’ She replies – “Hola! Hola” – and this repeats almost evert other day

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• When your ex-colleague messages you saying how she was discussing with the other ex-colleague about you, how you bring so much fun, happiness and positivity around you

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• When your children ask if they will ever get to see their great grand parents, you say that it depends on your parents, they reply “Mumma, your parents are good at heart. They will accept us one day”

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• When your kids have their noses buried in Harry Potter books and all you discuss with them is where they are up to, the characters, the situations, the plot etc and the only odd man out who doesn’t read books is trying to catch up on the movies to make sense out of the conversations around him

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• When you have been eyeing on fascinators in shops but waiting for Melbourne Cup to be over so that they come on sale, and as you predicted all the leftover fascinators’ prices are reduced by 90% the next day! You go loot a bunch for the following years 😇

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• When you come home and show the unbelievable bargain of a deal you struck on fascinators, your daughter replies indifferently – “Sorry Mumma, the fascinators don’t fascinate me! No offense” 😆

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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Withdrawal symptoms detected

I had heard somewhere that when you do something continuously for thirteen days it becomes a habit. I’ve been writing every night for the last thirty-one days before going to sleep. I seem to be highly addicted to this and had to switch on the laptop before making my way to bed.

Just a small highlight of the day to record here:

I made Abbas read yesterday’s post the first thing this morning as soon as he woke up and we were in a mushy mood. We had to wake up early as Abbas was traveling to the city office today and had to take the train instead of going to his usual office (located in a remote place). Now the office that he had to go to was very close to mine. I really wanted to go out with him for lunch as we hardly get this kind of opportunity as we work in two different corners of Sydney. But Abbas told me that he had the meeting from 12-4:30. I still messaged him around 11 to check if he would be able to meet me and he did not reply. Since I had not taken my lunch with the hope of eating out with my husband, I walked to a place that made manoushe (a kind of lebanese pizza)first and then went to the nearest park with takeaway lunch and a book in my hand. The next 40 minutes were spent devouring the delicious food, feeling of reading after a long, the lush greenery and birds in the park.

I went back to office and received a call from Abbas asking if I could come. I had to deny heavy heartedly as I had already been away during the lunch break and couldn’t afford to venture out again. Around 3PM, I suddenly got an idea to go back home with him. What if we couldn’t lunch together? We could travel in the train together! I left work early and met him in the station. We sat side by side, holding hands, talking without any distraction after a long time. I felt so happy as we hardly get opportunities for this kind of alone time anymore 😦 We walked back home together, hopped into our car and I sat behind the steering wheel. I have mustered all the courage to start practicing for the driving test. We went to pick Mantam from their after school care and came back home.

Conversation during the usual tea-sipping session:

Abbas: Seemu, what are you making for dinner?

Me: Pan fried noodles

Abbas: Hey I had bougt that Ching’s instant noodles. Make that na? Why are you making complicated stuff and taking stress

Me: I’m using your Ching’s noodles only to make pan fried noodles only.

Abbas: Why do you make your life so complicated? You could have easily made instant noodles and taken rest. But no, you have to find a way to invite challenge on yourself.

Me (thinking what veggies I have in the fridge I can add in): Errrr…

Abbas: You could have easily married a guy whom your parents would have chosen for you. You would have been living a luxurious life and made everyone happy and been contented yourself. But no! You had to make it complicated and chose to marry me. A guy whose to toe is broken, ligament is torn, spinal chord injured and of course the rest of the mismatches like religion, age, bla bla!

Me: (I am bad at expressing verbally. So I showed him this video:)

And yes, he snores 10 times louder and worser than the guy in the commercial. Yet, I could not have asked for a better husband for myself!!

 

Day 31 | Happiest person today

…. is none other than the man of my life. He has been counting days and waiting for this month to end even more keenly than all of us bloggers who participated in the Blogathon and were racking their brains to churn out post after post to keep the momentum going.

Most common scenes at our home during this month:

Situation 1

It’s a week night and I am still in the kitchen cleaning up, loading dishwasher, washing the bigger utensils by myself, cleaning the kitchen countertop, and the clock seems to be on fast forward mode inching towards 11 PM. Abbas comes to me and says anxiously….

Scene 1:

Abbas: “Seemu, can’t you skip blogging for one day? Just come and take rest.”

Me: “Haven’t you known me in all these years?”

Abbas: “Grrrr!!!

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Scene 2:

Abbas: “Seemu, shall I give you an idea for today’s post?”

Me (excitedly):”What? What?”

Abbas: “Just write, Will be continued tomorrow”

Me: @#@$#@$@$#@@

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Scene 3:

Abbas: “Seemu, it’s too late today.”

Me (frowning): “Hmmmm. I know, what to do?”

Abbas: “Do a shortcut post today na? Maybe just post some photos and get done with it”

Me: “No, I have already drafted a post in my mind. Just need to type it out”

Abbas: “Oh that’s great! You have it all sorted na? I knew you were smart enough to think of a quick fix post today”

Me: “Arey no, in fact the post is actually quite long”

Abbas: “What?! Ok bye. Good night.”

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Situation 2:

I am still lazing around and my engine is on hibernation mode, meaning my body and mind are reluctant to do anything at all. Abbas knows that I still have the blog post pending and too many chores to wrap up.

Abbas: “Seemu, you go write the post, I’ll deal with the dishes.”

Me: “Oh thank you. I love you so much”

Abbas: “Tell me all this in Feb. Hmph!!”

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Situation 3:

Abbas is in the bedroom waiting for me to finish publishing the post and come to bed. I am in the drawing room typing away to glory.

Abbas: “Seemu, come here and do your post na?”

Me: “No no, if I sit on the bed, I’ll fall asleep”

Abbas: “How long will you take?”

Me: “I dunno yaar. Trying to finish as soon as possible”

Abbas: “Seemu, I miss your touch….. When will this month get over???”

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Situation 4:

I finished all my chores and about to sit with my laptop while Abbas is watching TV.

Me: “Are you going to bed now? Or will watch TV for some more time?”

Abbas: “Why do you ask?”

Me: “If you are going to bed now, then I’ll sit in the drawing room. If you are going to watch TV now, then I’ll go to bedroom and finish my post”

Abbas (snarling): “This blogathon is separating us. I don’t like it”

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Situation 5:

I finished my post for the day and went to sleep. Abbas was still awake.

Me: “You know Baba, what is most satisfying about the blogathon?”

Abbas: “What?”

Me: “Every day when I hit on Publish button, I check the calendar on my homepage which gets highlighted on each day that I have posted. It makes me feel accomplished every day as the calendar gets filled up.”

Abbas (suddenly turns romantic out of nowhere): “I’m so proud of you”

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This was pretty much the scene every other night. Mantam also tried to help out in whatever way they could by reminding me of some funny incidents and conversations. Special thanks to my dear friend Harvy, who has been loyally reading my posts and correcting some mistakes that I make and I’m so grateful to her for that. Last but not the least, thanks to RS and Maya for initiating the blogathon this year. Hadn’t it been for you both and all the other fellow blogathon mates, I wouldn’t have been able to sail through these 31 days so smoothly. Congratulations to all of you!

Strangely, this time around I did not resort to cheat posts. I wrote every single day, even on days when I thought I will cheat, I ended up typing my heart out. One more thing which was different this year for me was that I visited and commented on the blogs that I follow quite frequently. The best part was that I have diligently moderated comments and replied to most of you who have taken the time out to read and comment on my posts. Thank you all so much and also to those silent readers who make me feel their presence in the stats of this blog. I can feel the warmth, love and affection and it means a lot.

Signing off this year’s blogathon with a promise of blogging actively this year. (Errrr…. and not chewing my own words!)

Much love,

Seema