Thursday, March 28, 2013

To Fizz with Love...



I keep on telling these things to Fizz, but we tend to forget it ourselves. Both of us are so busy with our lives… Work is going good, we are happy (Mash Allah) but very very very busy. Handing our individual assignments, a toddler and a house without any help or any family besides us close by, it can be extremely taxing. We end up hurting the ones we love and hurting ourselves.

I miss our pre-Zoe times just because of this. Zoe has sure completed our family but when it comes to the 2 of us, we have time for everything and everyone but us. We’ve always been the best of friends and then a couple… I don’t want that to change.

So this one is for you Fizz:


  • It’s very important we take out time for ourselves, I miss those days.
  • A lunch or dinner date without Zoe looks impossible as of now, but whenever we can we will do it.
  • We’ve become parents, that doesn’t mean we have no time to pamper/compliment/take care of each other. (This is more for me than you.)
  • Whatever time we spend at home it’s either with Zoe or in front of our respective laptops. I guess the laptop time sure has to reduce. I know our work requires us to be in front of the laptop, but we can take out an hour a day at least.
  • Lastly, we have managed to take at least 2 vacations a year since Zoe became a part of our lives… we have to keep this tradition going strong.

Lots of Love…






Monday, March 18, 2013

Some more Z-ness

The toddler has been on the roll right now, I can't believe my eyes when I see the changes in her on an almost daily basis...
  • Can't wait for her school to start, which will start in June In Sha Allah. The Toddler knows the name of her school, she keeps saying "Lets go to See-Saks" which mean Siksha (the name of the school she'll join)
  • If you are sitting quietly and not responding to her, she leaves every thing and says - Kya Hua... What Happened. 
  • Fizz loves taking a nap on Sunday afternoons, but now courtesy the toddler he hardly rests for a minute or so. The moment he makes himself comfortable on the bed... the toddler starts Uthiye ... lets go and she literally drags him out of the bed.
  • The Toddler loves her manners (at least till now), she always remembers her Sorry, You're Welcome and Excuse Me, you do not need to remind her. She is a little averse to saying Please... Whenever I remind her "Zoe say Please..." she says "No" 
  • This is from my Facebook status - Everytime I utter a word Zoe says "Shhhhhh... Mommy please quiet!" And she starts her chatting. Now temme whose the boss... I mean mom... :-( No one has ever done this to me... Sob Sob.
 Now I leave you with some pictures we clicked of Zoe over the weekend.





Friday, March 8, 2013

A Letter to the Little Lady in my Life!

Dear Zoe,

I'm writing this letter to you on International Women's Day, I know you would not be able to remember much of this day, but I will make sure to make women's day special for you every single year. 

Sweetheart you are so amazing (Mash'Allah), you are silly, funny, loud, smart and everything I wanted you to be and a lot more. I want you to be this amazing ALWAYS. Just a few things I would like to tell you:
  • You should listen to what others are saying ONLY IF YOU WANT TO. Never blindly follow what someone says or does or thinks. Make your own decisions. 
  • You are Strong and always remember that.
  • Being a girl doesn't mean anyone and everyone has the right to tell you how to dress 'appropriately'. 
  • If people tell you to be silent and stop you from voicing your opinion, that gives you all the more reason speak up. 
  • Do not show you are foolish, emotional, weak to everyone around you to gain sympathy. You do NOT need sympathy, be strong
  • You might love Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or playing dress up, I used to love them too. Explore The Dragon Prince, racing cars, fire engines and dump trucks.
  • Many tales end with Happily Ever After. Do not let your Happily Every After be based on one moment, do not wait for some Prince Charming to come and sweep you off your feet. Your Happily Ever After should depend on you, you can make moments and life happy. You can be absolutely happy without a Prince Charming, but if you do meet someone you fall in love with, he will have to fall in love with who you  are - with exactly whatever you are. (and vice versa). Changing for someone is oh so not worth it. 
  • Remember you are capable of doing anything... changing tyres, flying jets, anything you want. 
  • Eat healthy and workout regularly (do what you like Zumba, Aerobics, weight training, swimming, yoga, anything but do it regularly). If you will be healthy you will be able to enjoy your chocolates, ice-creams, cupcakes et al even more.
  • There would be those days when you will want to be slimmer/fatter, fairer, richer, brighter, taller, or you would also want to become a boy at times, laugh those days off, do not take them seriously. Be happy in what you are. Remember what your favorite Dr. Seuss said “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
  • Keep your love for reading alive... read a lot and travel a lot more (seeing how you have enjoyed the vacations we have taken, you love this as well). These things come naturally to you, and you get to learn so much.
  • Have a very strong relationship with God, trust me the best moment of my life has been when I say my Namaaz and have a conversation with Him. You will find your way to connect, but do stay connected, it will help keep you at peace with yourself and the world around you.
  • Respect and be nice to people who matter and who love you, but do not forget to respect/love yourself. DO NOT LET ANYONE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU - Yes people do that.
  • This is something I have learned the hard way and I want you to know, do not rebel just for the heck of it (actually never do anything for the heck of it). Raise your voice and rebel when you actually and really need to. 
  • Never do things because YOU ARE EXPECTED TO DO SO. Mamma hardly cooks - remember. If you like cooking and when you want to do it. Same goes with anything and everything.
  • Dress up and take care of yourself. That does not mean you become a Fashion Victim.
  • People who do not have a mind of their own follow anything and everything their peers do. You my girl are my Smarty Pants.
  • Not all guys out there are foolish (remember your Fizz if that thought crosses your mind)
I know there are lots more things I need to add... will do it

Lots of Love 
Mommy


 And here is something I want you to read, you will love it:

For My Daughter -By Sarah McMane

“Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.” – Clementine Paddleford


Never play the princess when
you can be the queen
rule the kingdom, swing a scepter,
wear a crown of gold.
Don’t dance in glass slippers,
crystal carving up your toes --
be a barefoot Amazon instead,
for those shoes will surely shatter on your feet.

Never wear only pink
when you can strut in crimson red,
sweat in heather grey, and
shimmer in sky blue,
claim the golden sun upon your hair.
Colors are for everyone,
boys and girls, men and women --
be a verdant garden, the landscape of Versailles,
not a pale primrose blindly pushed aside.

Chase green dragons and one-eyed zombies,
fierce and fiery toothy monsters,
not merely lazy butterflies,
sweet and slow on summer days.
For you can tame the most brutish beasts
with your wily wits and charm,
and lizard scales feel just as smooth
as gossamer insect wings.
Tramp muddy through the house in
a purple tutu and cowboy boots.
Have a tea party in your overalls.
Build a fort of birch branches,
a zoo of Legos, a rocketship of
Queen Anne chairs and coverlets,
first stop on the moon.

Dream of dinosaurs and baby dolls,
bold brontosaurus and bookish Belle,
not Barbie on the runway or
Disney damsels in distress --
you are much too strong to play
the simpering waif.
Don a baseball cap, dance with Daddy,
paint your toenails, climb a cottonwood.
Learn to speak with both your mind and heart.
For the ground beneath will hold you, dear --
know that you are free.
And never grow a wishbone, daughter,
where your backbone ought to be.
 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Gearing up for CSAAM 2013

Dear Friends, April 2013 is a month away, and we are gearing up for the 3rd year of CSAAM. As you are all aware, through the month of April we talk about the menace of CSA across social media, via Facebook, twitter and blogs. We count on your support and participation as always.

Partnering us in our efforts this year will be organisations working in this field like Arpan, Tulir, Human Rights Watch as well as online initiatives like Blogadda and Womens Web.

You will see personal testimonials, expert advice, twitter chats, information sources, resources, workshops, an iPhone app and lots and lots of blog posts across the blogosphere.

We need to get people talking about this elephant in the room. If you would like to post on your blogs, do send us a tentative date, so we can schedule your post in. If you would like to participate in a twitterthon, do let us know. Even forwarding this email to anyone you think might be interested in participating and contributing would be welcome.

If you would like to add to the discussion or know somebody else who would, please note that we welcome entries
• mailed to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com OR
• posted as FB notes and linked to Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month Page OR
• posted on your own blog with the badge and linked to the main blog OR
• linked or posted on Twitter tagged twitter.com/CSAAwareness OR
• Anonymous contributions are accepted and requests for anonymity will of course be honoured.
• You can also support us simply by adding our the logo of the initiative to your blog’s sidebar. Grab the code below to do so http://csaawarenessmonth.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/batch-code-txt-2013.docx
• Please remember to send in a mail with all necessary links or just your input to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com so that we can track your contribution and make sure that it is not inadvertently lost or something.

Some guidelines
1) Please precede the title of your post with CSAAM April 2013. Then add a hyphen and your title.
2) Please insert the badge html in your post. If you carry it on your sidebar for the entire month of April too apart from just within your post, we would be honoured.
3) If you refer to sources for information kindly italicise that part of your post which is taken from the source and provide the link to the original source in a bracket.
4) And finally please avoid graphic descriptions of the abuse. Stay as factual as possible if you’re doing first 
person accounts.
 
We need all your help to make this month a success, and are counting on your support.
We look forward to hearing from you.
 
Warm regards,
CSAAM team
 
 

Wild Karnataka – Experience

We were ecstatic when we got to know we were going to see  Wild Karnataka.  It was a long trip to Vega City mall, Bannerghetta Road, Benga...