Of a Mouni Amavasya, and this lovely creature called my husband.

Oh yes, there is something like that too for us.
The Amavasya that falls after Shivarathri that is. And the practice is to observe complete silence for a whole day, not to mention the upavasam ( which means, you dont eat the whole day, unless you choose to, which is just one very light meal and that too something that is NOT rice )

You wanna know how it went ? Gooooooorgeous  ( In a high pitched octave )!!!!

• You don't have to answer to ANYTHING.  Ain't that really cool!?
• You don't have to give your opinions on any matter . Totally what I need !!
• It makes you a better listener.  Not just listening to others but listening to yourself  too.
• It somehow conserves so much energy .  I really din't know that so much got used up in just talking, let alone getting into trouble for it.
• And who knows you might also get to play 'call-on-half-cough games' with your husband.

Like this one , for instance:-

"Ahem , Ahem !!"
 He turns around, looks at you. So you roll your eyes , make a cute puppy face and look at the jug of water on the table and then right back at him . He smiles, picks it up for you. 
"Ahem Ahem" ( again)!!. 
Now he decides to join you in the game. "Oh , let me guess, you want a glass to drink the water?"
The puppy eyes goes : Blink Blink !! 
" Err, then do you want me to plug in the laptop charger for you ?" 
Eyes : Blink Blink !!  
"Ooooh !! The clothes?? Do you want me to fold the clothes, on the chair ??"
 Eyes : Smile !!!  :-D

Oh I know what you're thinking ladies.....  :-P. But this ain't over yet.

"Ahem Ahem !!"
 This time, he turns around and stands akimbo," Alright, Now What ??" 

Then you make the fish face and blow a kiss at him . And he laughs hysterically !  : D

The only time I totally forgot about my Mouna Vratha was when I noticed a small microphone on the  Google search bar which said 'Speak now'. It wasn't a promotion for the Taylor Swift album.  And in that utter moment of curiosity to find out how it worked , I called out loud to the computer screen " Who is Douglas Adams?" !!!!!And just as google gave me its search results, I realized how dumb I was!!

But all jokes apart, I wasn't too bothered about not being able to speak . What I really missed to my horror was one of my deepest darkest fears........... ( wait for the drum roll) SINGING . :-(

I had the hardest time resisting my urge to sing. Every time, I would want to hum a song, and I had to remind myself, No, I can't! At least not today.
I have penned down about my struggles with this before right here. And today I'm married to the man who was my solace, those days. I can't appreciate more, how much he has tried to help me get over it, since then and still does.

This man, who remembers to kiss me even in between his deep loud snores. ( I find that really funny and adorable at the same time). This man who did not forget to grab my hand and drag me along; before he jumped out of the bed and dashed out of the room in the middle of the night  ( Umm. Bad dream. Earthquake , apparently. Lemme not say more :-P) 
This man who honestly puts an effort to understand me better everyday and loves all my in-capabilities alongside my mad love for him.

Dear Moth,

Its an honor to be your wife. And I bet we'll have loads of fun growing old together. :)

Oh, Happy Birthday by the way ;)

Love ,
Flame.

Free From YOU

Im Sorry, we turned bad and bitter
Im Sorry, we grew far and foreign
Im Sorry, we are strange and stiff
Im Sorry, but I want to be free from you

You remind my debts and don't let me dream
You reflect my pain and make me scream
You bring out my worst , let alone rest
To free myself of you, I think is best

Hoped you would help, not hurt me
Wished you would love, not mock me
Now I wonder if you'd ever be proud
Now I think if you'd ever let me be.

Forgive me for giving up on you
Forgive me for trying so hard
Forgive me for losing all hope
Forgive me for freeing myself from you

SNAFU,SUSFU, TARFU,FUBAR,.....aaaand BOHICA.

No, I haven't gone cuckoo.
I just feel , Im on a warfront, and its been officially declared  SNAFU -  " Situation Normal: All f***ed up"  But its bin quite sometime now , and now I feel, SUSFU - " Situation unchanged : Still f***ed up"  And in no time Im gonna be TARFU - " Totally and royally f***ed up". And I really hope I dont become FUBAR - " F***ed up beyond all recognition".
Why?
---------------------
Scene : Railway Police Station Secunderabad.


Seriously,this is not what I expected a police station to look like. It was like any other Govt. office. Documents literally flying all over the place. Not many of them are in their uniforms, sipping chai, jabbering away in telugu. Pot -bellied , mucchad uncles all of them. Some tall , some, not-so-very-tall.


Police Uncle: Ammayikku Em Aayindi? ( What happened with this girl?) He asks without looking up at me.
Me : Sir, I lost my bag, sir. Before Guntur, somewhere close to Nidubroli.... The robber has left another bag, in place of mine, sir. ( I showed him the bag I found- My consolation prize which had an umbrella, a half drank bottle of Minute maid Orange and a duplicate RADO wrist watch)


Meanwhile a group of men hauled in a real skinny fellow and led him to another room nearby.
In the Background : Dishoom Dishoom Aaaaarrrrgggh


Police Uncle: What you lost?? ( in a  strong Telugu accent)
Background : " ledu ledu sir, leduuu, nenu cheptha... cheptha" ( No, No no no Sir, I'll tell ... will tell)
I tried my best not to get distracted by all the wailing and howling behind me and said  "Sir, Nenu Lap top bag, ID cards , Return Train Tickets, Exam Hall ticket, Konjam Loose cash, inka konjam necessary clothes motham poyindi , sir."

Police Uncle: Laptop-u???
Me : Ledu Sir, No Laptop.

Police Uncle: "Give me one written complaint", and passed over a plain white sheet of paper to me.

As I went and parked myself outside the station to write down the complaint, my eyes quickly scanned over  the notice board which had photographs of wanted burglars, suitcase lifters, pickpockets, and chain snatchers.

And Maaaan!! Dont they all look decent! Some of them have even suited up for the photograph. Meanwhile a lady came out of the station, crying, begging, pleading.................and from nowhere did it look like,she was  trying to find a missing bag, it looked more like she couldnt find .........a person.

And I prayed silently for her, ' may it NOT be her child, Oh Lord!' and finished my letter.
I ran in back to hand over the letter to Police Uncle, and he points to chair and says " Kurcho amma" ( Sit, girl)

I sat , and waited!
He came in and out., and finally came in again, asked me to get up, took my chair and turned it towards an old  computer . He opens a word file and starts filling in my details. He types in such a pace that I wanted to politely tell him, 'Uncle ......err can I help you' . It took him a full 20 minutes to just erase the details  of the previous complainant and fill mine in.
I stood there. Admiring my patience , observing my growling stomach and appreciating his diligence.
He copied the document in a thumb drive and went out. When he came back with the print out, he asked me to sit again and  explained as he placed his signature and seal . " Look Amma...., this certificate should be enough for you to travel to your exam centre and back to Kerala. You can provide this at your examination centre also for duplicate hall ticket."

I thank him and open the document to read it, and it said.

 " This is to certify that the following person lodged a complaint stating that she lost her belongings while travelling to Secunderabad.
A thorough check has been carried out but the missing bag and its content were not traced. In this regard all possible efforts were made to trace out the missing bag and its contents , but in vain.


Hence Certified. "


Signed
Sub Inspector of Police
RPS- Secunderabad  


P. S : The TTE in train had consoled me earlier, " Be grateful that YOU were not harmed. Forget your bag! This form is just a formality beta, now move on with your life"
P.P.S: An elderly lady consoled me, " Think that you've donated all your stuff to someone" (Yeah, right! How benevolent of  me to give away my bra-panties )
P.P. S.S: The first two things I checked as soon as I realised I lost of my bag was:
1) My wedding ring : Its there. Thank lord platinum doesnt look pricely
2) Moth's Tee : My only consolation in FUBAR situations. That thankfully was in my suitcase , so the good news is I can still bury my face in it and sob.

BUSY BEE

When half the nation is watching IPL, I’m watching..........Guess what??

Scripps National spelling BEE!!!  (BAH!! Can’t care much for cricket anyways, let alone IPL, however much glamour attached to it.)

And lo!  Half the contestants in the competition are Indians. And apparently its always bin that way. And Oh boy, aren’t these kids SMART!!!

I can understand if a 10 year old can ask for the definition, etymology, part of speech, alternative pronunciations, and guess the spelling of a word.  I have seen enough spelling bee contests to digest THAT fact. If you have learnt enough French, German, Italian, Greek and Latin ( thats too many languages already for a 10 year old) you can break down the roots and guess the spelling of a hell lot of words in English.

But words that originate from Papuan, Aramaic, Hebrew, Mayan, Finnish???

These words that don’t even exist in normal dictionaries???

And you see 12, 13, 14 year olds spelling Words like Huipil, puszta, zwischenspiel, preux, jugendstil….

Yeah!! What the ****! My reaction exactly! I can’t even spell 'bourgeoisie' sometimes without referring.

And here are some of these spellers’ favorite words: cwm and humuhumunukunukuapuaa. ( I dont wanna even comment on that!!)

Do you want to be astonished every single moment as the young BEES spell a word right and feel the same pressure every time they're a given a new word. Do you want feel joy, disappointment, confusion, and nail-biting excitement without the ruckus of pointless commercials in between?

Sukanya with her trophy

And do you want to feel pride every time an Indian wins? (Like I felt last night when 14 yr Sukanya Roy from Pennsylvania walked away the champion after the spelling ‘cymotrichous’), then may be you should watch Spelling Bee, especially if you're a Logophile like me.

P.S : 2012’s Spelling Bee is going to be telecast on ESPN this May 30 and 31.Please don’t mind if I aint blogging much, ‘cause I’m busy watching BEE!! J

I want my life.........................

Disclaimer: Time pass writing ahead.......  Apologies for not showing up regularly !!

Super busy , tired and mostly day dreaming..... So here is a glimpse to some of my fleeting thoughts, which I had to quickly hold by its tail and struggle and juggle to force it onto the blog. 

I want my life..................

                                                                               

To be an Einaudi playlist.

With no lyrics you smile, without wings you fly

To be a Mindy Gledhill song

And float like “a scoop of vanilla cream in strawberry soda”

A Shakespearean sonnet, a poem by Neruda

A parmesan Pizza, a fruity Faluda

A prose by Lamb, A Murakami story

A tulip garden in all its glory

A van Gogh painting, A Tuscan villa

A sunny afternoon over a yummy Quasedilla

To be as pure as the driven snow

And as delicate as the morning dew

To have the beauty of a setting sun

And the calmness of a millpond

To be wild, full and free all above

And to always have you and your love