Tagged yet again.

This is another tag that 3inone tagged me with.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes. My paternal grandmother.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Today, after reading someone’s blog.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Sort of.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? Meat, fish, eggs--not fussy.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Yes, 3.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Maybe
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Sometimes
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No—not now.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? Breads-made of any cereal.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Hmmm. Yes.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? Anything but Vanilla.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their expression.
15. RED OR PINK? Red.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? Lots of things.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST ? My children when they aren’t around, my mother and my mum-in-law.
18. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Violet sarong and black slippers.
19. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Bread
22. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Gordon Lightfoot—‘If you could read my mind now’ on Youtube.
23. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? Sea -green.
24. FAVOURITE SMELLS? Morning coffee, powdered cinnamon, jasmine or mahogany flowers on the night air and freshly grated lemon rind.
25. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? A niece
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yes.
27. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Nothing really, but will watch anything just to keep company.
28. HAIR COLOUR? Pepper dusted with salt.
29. EYE COLOUR? Almost black.
30. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No.
31. FAVOURITE FOOD? Breads and Bengali sweet curd (mishti doi).
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings.
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? At the theatre? Quantum of Solace.
34. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Light blue.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Cool weather.
36. FAVOURITE DESSERT? Fruity desserts of any kind, chocolatey desserts and Bengali sweets.
37. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND ? Respond to what?
38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Just finished Inheritance of Loss.
39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No mouse pad..
40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? ‘The Proof’ a sweet movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. (this was done on 23rd)
41. FAVOURITE SOUND? A baby’s gurgling laugh.
42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.
43. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? California, USA
44. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Well…..maybe singing
45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Bombay(was still Bombay then), Maharashtra, India.

Would anyone like to do this tag?

Hiphop Grandmom's tag

Hiphop Grandmom tagged me.

My oldest memory:
Going to nursery school in Bombay; being taken after school to an older cousin’s house, where I drew on their wall and was scolded for it.

Ten years ago:
My husband’s 50th birthday and when I told my husband that our now son-in-law wanted to marry our daughter.

My first thought this morning:
It’s a holiday and so I have more than an hour to spend online.

If you built a time capsule, what would it contain:
An 33rpm LP record—to show what that looked like, a newspaper (Nov. 5th 2008), an old book, a picture of our present picture tube PC and a couple of magazines—one news mag, one showing gadgets of today and one woman’s mag.

This year:
Has been full of events and has gone by at a crazy pace. The financial meltdown has been a big topic of discussion, as also the election. It’s an ok year.

14 years from now:
I hope that I am as ambulatory and healthy—mentally and physically—as I am today.

Now to tag 3 people--Mrs. T, Mallika and Dot?

A tag from Hip Hop Grandmom

I have 2 tags to complete. I'll do the older one first.
Hip Hop Grandmom had tagged me to name 5 of my own posts with the following criteria: the five have to be about
1)Family
2)Friends
3)Myself
4)My Love
5)Anything I like (my favourite post)


1)Family:- This post about my father's demise is the one I chose.

2)Friends: Well I have never written about the friends I have, who are not part of blog world, because I felt that I have no right to write about them, where they can't see what I've written. Otherwise, my best friends are in my family. So for this one I cheated a bit and I have chosen a post from the family blog about 2 friends!

3)Myself: The post I chose about growing old.

4)My love: Well my loves would include family, animals, the world outside my window....
But I have chosen 2 posts for this section about 2 people I love/d very much--the first one and the second one

5)Anything I like: Can't choose a favourite post. But this post I liked when I re-read it today.

As usual, I am not tagging anybody. But feel free to do the tag, if you wish.

Tagged by Geets

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATRE

Jodha Akbar.

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING

'Conversations with God' by Neale Walsch

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME

Scrabble, Pictionary

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE

Good Housekeeping, Online webzines of all types

5. FAVORITE SMELLS

Fruit scents

6. FAVORITE SOUND(s)

The sound of the sea, call of the magpie robin

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD

Watching your child suffer.

8. THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?

Now what do I have to do?

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE

Dosa places—(there are only Indian fast food places here)

10. FUTURE CHILD’S NAME

Have one grandchild. No future name ideas, ‘cos it’ll be left to the parents to decide:)

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT: If I had a lot of money….

Probably travel, give away some to charity.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST

No way!

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL

No my husband does (called hillgrandmom)

14. STORMS COOL OR SCARY

Depends on the storm.

15. YOUR FIRST CAR

The first car I ever drove was a Fiat.

16. FAVORITE DRINK

Fruit juices

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT: If I had the time I would…..

I have all the time.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Well, broccoli is not something we see here, so the nearest would be cauliflower and that I do eat the stems of.

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Silver

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.

Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ooty, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Kottayam

21. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH

Not a big sports enthusiast, but if at all, preferable gymnastics, snychro swimming or anything with dance like routines

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU

She’s really smart!

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?

Dust bugs!!!

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?

I don’t know. Depends on what my soul feels like then!

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL

Night owl totally.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP

If you mean how I like my eggs, any which way is fine. I LOVE EGGS

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX

If it’s in my house, then it’s in my room, by the window.

28. FAVORITE PIE

Apple pie, with lots of cinnamon.

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR

Real fruit flavoured ones.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED (with this)WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

Don’t tag anyone usually. So any one who wants to take up this tag!

Eve tagged me. She wanted me to write 5 things I wanted to post about but didn't post. Well, here goes.....
1. Couple of times when I wanted to rant about events in my life but didn't.
2. As you mentioned about the onset of winter, I too had wanted to do a post about the end of the rains, which incidentally went on & on this year. I didn't but compromised by taking a picture which I've put as my heading :)
3. One about the ever so many flats that are coming around here (with pictures already taken), and the angst it's causing me.
4. A time when I was awash with self-pity but felt that indulging myself like that wasn't such a great idea.
5. A poem I had saved for the longest time and didn't post. But here it is now (so does that qualify?)

To fly free, unseen,

To have no me, mine

No more hunger, thirst, bodily desires

It will be good to be free of my body and become one with the Universal Being.

One day!

So there's the tag done!

A Tag

This is a tag I found over at Onedia's & Moanna's.

4 jobs I've had

1. Housewife
2. Teacher
3. Marketing & Sales (family-owned firm)
4. Music teacher

4 places I have lived
1. Bombay
2. Calcutta,
3. New Delhi
4. Cochin
(All in India)

4 places I've holidayed
1. Kovalam, India
2. Khatmandu,
3.Europe by rail
4. English farmhouses

4 favourite foods
1. mangoes
2. biriyani
3. appams
4. fruity ice creams

I left out the last one about where I'd rather be, 'cause it depends so much on my mood!

A Tag

I was tagged by Eve about my eccentricities—if any.

After much thought, I have come up with two.

1. Cigarette butts and burnt out matches are dirty I know, but for me it’s almost like a phobia. I used to feel pukey. But I’ve sort of forced myself out of that!
2. I keep things away very safely---and then I can’t find them!!!!!

I promise you Eve, I did try to come up with some more, but there isn't. I'm not obsessive at all--truly. But I am considered eccentric around here because
1. I don't bother to dress up like everyone else
2. I'm not in the gossip league,
3. I'm not a regular church goer;
In fact, I am not much into any of the usual pursuits of women, particularly of my age, around here.
So Eve, you can judge how eccentric I am :)

This is the 3rd tag. Geets tagged me.
My favourite smells:-
1. The smell of moist earth after the first rains. Heavenly! I so love the smell.
2. The scent of fresh limes, lemons, orange peel. Sometimes I rub my hands with the peel just for the scent.
3. The scent of a baby--a mix of milky breath and Johnson's soap & powder. Nostalgia!
4. The smell of coffee brewing--perks you up just with the smell.
5. The smells of baking--whether bread, cakes of cookies.
6. The smell of frying chicken.

As always anyone can do this tag. It's a lovely one.

I was tagged by Dot too a while back. Now for Dot’s tag;-

There are 3 rules.

Rule 1. Same as for the last tag

Rule 2 You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

Rule 3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I don’t have a middle name. So I gave myself one—Suma.

S— Shanti(peace). The desire for a peaceful life is so strong, which is why I tend to avoid confrontation (as I mentioned in the previous tag). I have also pared down my wants and needs to achieve this peace. Maybe in pursuing this peace so strongly, I am sometimes derelict in my social duties, but even the thought of a mild social ostracism makes it difficult for me to compromise that. [Or am I trying to justify an uninvolved disposition?]

U---Understanding. Empathy and understanding helps one get through a great many difficulties—mainly in relationships. Under this point, I also add tolerance of other people and their lives. From my point of view, I think I’m understanding and empathic and I feel that has helped me greatly in trying to see things from someone else’s view point.

M—Music. Ah what would my life be without it? I have loved music and sung all my life—as far back as I can remember. My mother sang and all my siblings sing. My children all sing too and play musical instruments. In my husband’s family too music is important and there is very rarely a family social occasion where there is no singing. However down I feel or tired, music always helps me feel better. My taste in music is pretty eclectic I guess and depends largely on my mood. I listen to everything from oldies rock & pop to jazz, especially Latin jazz and classical music both Western and instrumental Indian. But you can say my favourite is jazz, particularly Latin jazz.

A—Accommodating. Well I had to think long and hard about what to put down for A and this is all I came up with. I looked up accommodating in freedictionary.com and figured it was basically what I was trying to describe about me, particularly this one :-

good-natured - having an easygoing and cheerful disposition; "too good-natured to resent a little criticism.

So that’s it. Now I have to tag 4 people. Maybe lawyeramma, beks geets and hiphopgrandmom may not mind doing it? Actually anyone who wants to do it is welcome. But please do leave a comment if you’ve done the tag.

Now I have 3 tags to do(re my last post). I thought I'd post one tag per day.

First one--Eight truths/facts tag.
I was tagged a really long while back by Shari of Daily Three. Sorry Shari for taking so long.

Here are the rules for doing the tag:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
But I think I’m changing rules 4 & 5. Since many of the bloggers I read regularly have all done some variation of this tag(meme), I’m not tagging anyone.
So here’s my rule no. 4 If someone comes across this blog and decides to do the tag, please do, but, please leave a comment saying that you have done the tag.


Now to the tag itself:

1. I feel most embarrassed when I have to say anything about myself, which is why I take so long to do tags.
2. I am basically a lazy person and most of all where cooking and exercising are concerned. I know I’m fat and need to lose a great deal of weight, but motivating myself to exercise is so very difficult. Making myself cook is even worse, but that I have to do.
3. I totally love the company of young children. The affection that 2 to 8/9 year-olds give you is absolutely unalloyed and is conditional only on the genuineness of your interest and affection for them. [Hence I’m a nursery teacher.]
4. Among the things I love to do are read, listen to music and sit at the computer. But my absolute favourite things is to get together with the family and have a sing-song/jamming session.
5. I guess you could call me a feminist—at least by Indian standards. I tried to bring up my daughter and my sons similarly. I think that marriage is a partnership between equals. Yes we may be made different, but that doesn’t make either less in anyway. I think I feel that way about my daughters-in-law too and I certainly hope they get those vibes too. I don’t know whether I’m making proper sense here, but what I’m trying to get across is that I believe in women’s equality and have tried to practise it too.
6. I’m short—5’ nothing. Add to that overweight, so dumpy would be the word for me.
7. I am interested in nature and how things work. You could say I have a scientific bend of mind—maybe not as much as some in my family—but just about.
8. I hate confrontations. I very rarely argue with anyone and very rarely lose my temper too. I'd rather give up something than get into a confrontation.

So that is Tag number one done. Please feel free to take on the tag anyone who drops by, but let me know if you do do the tag.

Tagged by HHG

Hiphop Grandmom had tagged me a long long while ago, to do the thinking blogger tag. I really am sorry that I took so long to do the tag. I’ve been doing a number of things and not really using my comp all that much. So here is the tag at last.

Firstly let me say that I really liked the way the way HHG did the tag. So I have decided to do a group thing like hers. Now for me to tell you about the blogs that make me think—

1. Blogs by psychologists: I am deeply in interested in psychology and that kind of thing, besides which I go through phases of real depression. So I am always attracted to blogs of that kind. In that category there were two. One is Make the Most of U : This was one of the earliest blogs I read. I was feeling tired and depressed and also looking for blogs written by women. This blog gave me a big lift. Pam is a professional of course and so many of her topics are meant to be inspiring. The second one was called Love Honor and Dismay. Unfortunately Dr. Andrew, the blogger, has quit blogging for now.
2. Then there are 2 older people’s blogs, both of which I found when I was searching for blogs for my mother by people nearer her age.The first one is Dot’s thoughts. I love her blog because she is so inspiring. Dot is not in the flush of youth. But the amount she does is truly amazing and an inspiration. The other blog is Monk’s progress. He really does make me think.
3. The 3^rd group is people who try to find things to be happy about. One blog is the Daily Three. Shari is an inspiration for the way she deals with the difficulties in her life. There are more of those
4. Then of course there are all the many Indian bloggers I read, mostly women though. I confess that I read mostly women’s blogs. There is Hiphop grandmom, and 3inone’s blog(though she too says she’s off blogging for while) and Rohini’s blog and various blogs I read off other’s blogs but haven’t added to my blog roll yet.
5. As a 5^th I want to add Blogher, which is not technically a blog but a group of women bloggers only. It is fascinating because you can find—and read clips—from blogs by women on all kinds of subjects. Anyone can join up too.

I’m not tagging anyone. But anyone who reads this is welcome to take up the tag.

Geeta tagged me.

The book titles in bold are those I've read, those in italics are those I want to read and the others are those I have no idea about. As you can see, I'm not so great on Indian authors!

1. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri (made me totally understand all my young ABCD relatives!)
2. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (well I live in the neighbourhood.)
3. An Equal Music – Vikram Seth
4. The Vine of Desire – Chitra Divakaruni
5. Mulligatawny Soup – Manorama Mathai (didn’t know she did humor)
6. The Burden of Foreknowledge – Jawahara Saidulla
7. By the River Pampa I stood – Geeta Abraham Jose
8. My Story – Kamala Das
9. The Raj – Gita Mehta
10. Circumferences – Suma Josson
11. Mediocre but Arrogant – Abhijit Bhaduri
12. The Enigma of Arrival – V.S.Naipaul (for serious readers only!)
13. The Better Man – Anita Nair (I enjoyed it)
14. Fault lines – Meena Alexander
15. The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai
16. Fasting, Feasting – Anita Desai
17. Bookless in Baghdad – Shashi Tharoor
18. Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh
19. Difficult Daughters- Manju Kapur
20. Desirable Daughters- Bharati Mukherjee
21. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
22. The Feast of Roses – Indu Sundaresan
23. Malgudi Days – R.K.Narayan (read it a long time ago!)
24. Five Point Someone – Chetan Bhagat
25. Anything for You, Ma'am – Tushar Raheja (your comment makes me feel like reading it)
26. The Moor's Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie (I liked most of Rushdie’s books)

A tag

Haven't blogged for a while. Have been busy and so just never got round to doing this tag that Hipgrandmom had tagged me with a long while back. Here it is done at last!

Three things I’d like to do
1. Travel all over the world
2.Have the ability to be invisible atleast once.
3. Become trim

Three things I hate to do
1. Say good bye to my children when they travel far.
2. Cook at short notice
3. Listen to malicious gossip (conversations where someone or the other is being run down, behind their backs)

Three people whom I’d like to meet
1.Stephen Hawking
2.The Dalai Lama
3.Dot over there.

Three things I long to have
It’s funny, I can’t think of a single thing I long to have!

Three things that make me glad
1. Having long chats with my daughter (sons will rather die than do that!)
2. Going on holiday with my family
3. A lovely breezy day like we get here post monsoon.

Three things that make me sad
1. The continuing poverty in our country
2. My own inability to do anything about it
3. Watching one’s child suffer knowing that you can never really bear their suffering for them.

Three things that break my heart
1.The sorrow of a mother who loses her child
2. The abuse of small defenceless children
3.Injustice anywhere

Three things that I like to dream about
Only thing I dream about—travelling to far off places!!

Three things that need to be stopped
1. Wars-using force to settle arguments rather than discussion
2.The use of the religious card by politicians.
3. Bringing up children with prejudices.

I didn't want to tag anybody specific. Anyone's welcome to do this tag.

Another tag

I had been tagged by Shari quite a few days back. As usual writing about me brought on writer’s block :( Anyway, here goes:-

The tag was about my style………………………….

1.Style in terms of appearance can be defined by practicality and comfort. So I have curly greying hair cropped short (dyeing and/or straightening all require too much maintenance!), wear glasses with scratch-proof lenses, and dress mostly in cotton handlooms or khadi. As for footwear, it used be one comfortable pair all the time. But after getting a dress-designer daughter-in-law, I atleast try to match my footwear to my outfit occasionally (i.e. black or brown)!

2.Style in the home interior—again practicality is the operative word. As I have dogs who are very much a part of the household, the house is geared for that. The lines of furniture are very simple too, as I hate fussiness in anything. But I’m a very laid-back housekeeper.

3.I thought with this should go the style of the food served at the house. Again practicality and no-fuss rule. So the food we have is down-to-earth; will keep body and soul together. My aesthetically inclined younger son used to occasionally get really irritated about the lack of colour co-ordination in my food—he’s a great cook and takes the trouble to do that.

4.Lastly my style in terms of my relationships………………….here the operative words are easy-going, peaceful (at any cost) and private. [So any hells I go through, I do it alone.] I am very uncomfortable with confrontation, so will do anything to avoid it. I have always tried to make my house a haven of peace for my family and their friends. I don’t know how successful I have been though—especially where my sons are concerned. I guess it’s up to all those who come here to say if that’s true or not!

I hope I have answered your tag ok Shari. I don’t want to tag anybody, but would eve’s lungs, beks, technomalayali and Dot like to do this tag, if you haven’t already done it?