Thank you 2012! And Hi 2013 :-D

WHOA... Did another year just fly by? Was it just a year 'coz it felt like a lifetime!! Looking back at my last post in 2011 it looked like things could not change any more. Clearly 2012 was not gonna be shown up a year that was so last year! ;-) So I went on another roller coaster ride, even more terrifying with the kind of ups and downs which makes you feel like your face is gonna get blown away in the momentum! But I survived. Actually, No. I did better than survive. I got crushed, bruised, had a few of my emotional teeth knocked out. But with a lot of help from my friends and family, I got up, brushed off the dirt and the best part, laughed about it. And boy, was it hard! But boy, was it so worth it!

So this last post is for all kickass people who helped me smile! This post is for a big, Big, BIG

I have no idea whom to start with, so in random order...

Chinch - Sweetie, you are a hundred miles away but I love you for the fact that you are always reachable and always there. For being both the comfort and the sharp reminder to keep strong and move on.


Annie Mathew :  I think the most of what I said about Chinch applies to you too. Then again I'm not surprised both of you being birthday twins!! :) Of course, you are your own brand of 'pat and whack' but I know I could not have done it without you!

Chinnu and Elu : For just being the mad cap sisters you are. For the times you never realise how much energy and joy you bring into a room. For the times you never realise how much it means to me.

Akhila : :(  Who'll understand my half sentences? Who'll make me kanji-paiyer when I'm sick and make me feel pampered? Who'll.. never mind.. you know how long that list is. I'm just incredibly glad we had the time we had together. God, I'll miss you. So freaking much!!!

Maria: I don't think you know how much of a role model you are to me. In a world where there doesn't seem to be a lot of people who you can look up to and want to be like, I'm just so happy I have you!

For the Blore Boys, ie Renju and Mani : We are not the closest of friends and we don't get to hang out as much either, but just knowing you guys, Mani with his forever enthu eloquence and Renju with his calm composed demenur, are around the corner if ever we needed help was an unbelievable reassurance.  Something I'll sorely miss :(

Eapen : It means a hell lot to me that I have talked it out with you and we are friends again. Maybe I'll never get back my best friend again, but you are pretty great as just a friend and I would hate to lose that. So thank you!

Vijay : For making me laugh about all the complicated relationship statuses and situations; for keeping my sanity and the countless hours of advice, both useful and useless. For just being a friend I'm really proud to have!

My out of towner boys ie Peppy, Thiru and Don : My sunshine!! The boys who can't help me but make me smile like mad no matter how down I'm feeling. Pretty please, stay the same with the annoying (yet secretly delightful) ways always!!

Bobby Uncle and Lourdsy Aunty : For being the sweetest, kindest and most understanding people I know. For raising kids who are an absolute joy to know and to love!

Uncle G and Teena Ammayi : For the fact that you reached out even when you were abroad. For the fact that you reached out and helped me feel like I'm not alone. For reaching out and bridging gaps when certain bull-headed people were being, well, bull headed! :)

Amma : Well, for being everything you been, even the time I dint couldn't see it or appreciate it. I just don't have the words to thank you enough.

Alex : hmmm... this is a tough cookie. So I'm gonna steal something which pretty much says what I have to say. It's from "As Good as It Gets",  one of my all time favorite movies! And I love the scene with Jack Nicholson when he takes Helen Hunt out for a real date, because I think This is how I feel pretty much all the time when I try to say something nice. And in case you were wondering, I'm Nicolson! :-)



Melvin Udall: I've got a really great compliment for you, and it's true. 
Carol Connelly: I'm so afraid you're about to say something awful. 
Melvin Udall: Don't be pessimistic, it's not your style. Okay, here I go: Clearly, a mistake. I've got this, what - ailment? My doctor, a shrink that I used to go to all the time, he says that in fifty or sixty percent of the cases, a pill really helps. I *hate* pills, very dangerous thing, pills. Hate. I'm using the word "hate" here, about pills. Hate. My compliment is, that night when you came over and told me that you would never... all right, well, you were there, you know what you said. Well, my compliment to you is, the next morning, I started taking the pills. 
Carol Connelly: I don't quite get how that's a compliment for me. 
Melvin Udall: You make me want to be a better man.



And Last and Most Importantly, I want to thank God! For having given me these people in my life! There's not enough words to express my gratefulness for all that's been 2012, the good ,the bad and the ugly!

And I Pray and Hope 2013 is so much more!

Wish you all a fantastic year ahead! Yet another year choke full of memories and stories.

Review :Em and The Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

Some books, characters speak to you immediately. For me it happened the moment [semi-spoiler alert] Em explained the idea of calling someone 'Angel Ears' because their ears look liked crispy bacon ie page 2. Equating food, love, feel, texture.. the idea left me a little breathless when I read it because it was so close to how I feel things sometimes.
The fact is when I think of Em, I find it hard to think of her as a character instead of a person, even after I closed the book. That speaks volumes of the talent that is Jerry Pinto.

It's sensitive take on a raw personality and a controversial subject; but the controversial subject for me [spoiler alert]was not the madness, but the mother-child relationship. Reading this book was like seeing it under a microscope; a magnification of the faults and longings that form this unique bond. Which means while it looks out of proportion with reality in some aspects, the larger than life perspective also makes it clearer and easier to understand.. and to some extend,to accept. The voice of the narrator is brutally honest and yet, it's the brutal part which highlights the ironical humor that life has.

Wonderfully etched characters, like those made with sharp ,bold and minimal strokes without making them caricatures in spite of the larger than life feel of the central character, Em. With a character like Em it's easy to overpower the other characters into nothingness or into a side role but Pinto's made sure that each person has his or her place. The only person who might have been side lined was Susan, Em's daughter. I was left craving for a little more information on her, on her relationship with the narrator, a bit more on the sibling bond. But then again it might just be me coz like the narrator I thrive on details.

Jerry Pinto

For all the drama and seriousness it speaks of, it's a surprisingly fast read. Maybe because Pinto doesn't try to overpower you with sentimentality( which would have made it tedious and cliched) or over explain or justify character faults. He knows they are flawed, but he loves them anyways and you realise you do too.

A surprisingly fresh voice in the new genre of Indian Authors in English and I can't wait to read more of his work :)

The secret hand book of Moms

Have you ever had a discussion with your friends where you are talking about the impossibilities your mom used to threaten you with as a child and have the entire gang go,’ I KNOW!!!!’? Or gone to a friend’s place and found that her mom nags her exactly the way your grandmom does, though her mom is saying it in hindi while your gran used to harangue you in Malayalam? I always used to wonder how is that moms’ across the country have the same idea. I kinda dismissed it as a common cultural thing ( though to be very honest there is little else similarity between my gran and Parvinder Aunty).

But as the world started to get smaller and my views broader (thanks to cable tv and books.. later internet), I could not help noticing that putting aside language, moms’ across the world nag/threaten/cajole/pet saying pretty much the same thing. Growing up( in my household), the ultimate prophesy of doom was that you’d end up a sweeper if you don’t study. And as a child I never really understood why it was so bad because it seemed a blithe enough an existence to do nothing but sweep. I thought you’d be getting off easy rather than studying another 4-5 years to be an engineer or doctor.

Years later, after 4 years of engineering, part of a new batch of trainees for an I.T company I found myself surrounded by people from all 4 geographies of India. That was one of the best times of my life, to be part of that training, especially the batch I was put in. For a whole lot of girls that was the first time they were away from home, but no one was home sick. Boys and girls would sit late into the night playing off key anthaskari, ‘truth or dare’ at 4 in the morning on unsuspecting and extremely sleepy people leading to hilarious consequences. And of course, marathon conversations which covered everything under the sun, including moms. And it was there that I found replace ‘sweeper’ with ‘chaprasi’ or ‘cooking lady’ in another language and you have more or less got someone else, or rather everyone’s mom! :-/

And reading Amy Tan’s books, you really wonder if she actually talking about Chinese moms or Indian moms coz you really can’t see the difference.

It can’t be sheer coincidence, right? Moms across the world? Only one thing sounded plausible to me. Like the bible, there’s yet another book which has practically been translated into every language known : the secret handbook of moms. I believe as soon as  someone is known to be a mom, some guardian of the code comes and gives her a book under oath that it not to be shared with anyone who is not a mother. It’s a mass conspiracy I tell you. Mothers around the world, united in their cause to shape up someone worth leaving behind. Not that it’s not a worthy cause, but does the ends justify the means? Was so convinced, that I did a mini raid in my house for the book because if any mom is likely to forget where it is and misplace it( or think that she did), it’s my mom!! But the fact that I could not find din’t detract me, in fact it only convinced me the deviousness and ruthlessness with which the organisation works. It fact I think that there is only one copy of the book in every language and that the new mom has to memorise the whole thing before passing it on. You can ask me how is that possible in the day and age of population explosion, but I ask you, is it really that difficult in the day and age of internet??

But to be honest I don’t think it’s a online copy. I think it’s hard copy, a physical thing infused with the power of moms over the ages. It’s probably more like an infectious magical entity. I’m not entirely sure how to imagine an object encapsulating all the wisdom of all the moms. It has to be awe inspiring to the point of being just a wee little frightening while still remaining a thing of great beauty. Kinda like Aslan the lion from Narnia.Something which would disintegrate if touched by anyone who doesn't hold the awesome kind of love and heart that only a mother would have. ( Try breaking that code, Hackers!!)

But then again, with kids like me, I think they would need all the help in the world :-) And only the collective wisdom would rein in and reign over my kind!End of the day, we love our moms ( in fact, if I go home and they don't nag I feel out of place!)

and hope we are half as good as the ones we've had and there's actually a hand book to help us out!

What do you think?!