For our monthly getaways the BH has started looking at places that allow dogs. And in the process we are discovering beautiful places. Homestays where the intent is not just to make money, but mainly to ensure that you have a good time. Where the people are nice and give a truly homely feeling.
Such was Mugilu. Near to Sakleshpur. Its about a 5hr drive from Bangalore. The homestay is run by a couple in their thirties. Very warm and friendly, they actually make an effort to make you feel comfortable. They have three cottages and can accomodate more people if needed. They'll provide spare mattresses etc if you are going as a group. The balconies in the cottages were to die for. Two easy chairs and a view of their estate.They have three dogs- a German Shepherd, a very friendly Rottweiler and a local breed. The dogs keep to themselves unlike the ones at Rappa. So even if you are scared of dogs don’t worry. They just sniff around and then go off to do their own thing. The best thing about such places are the total ease and comfortable feeling that you get. Cocoa gets to run around freely ( she is never chained) and she just enjoys these outings.
Sightseeing per say, we didn’t do much. Went to the Hemavathy backwaters in the evening, had fun playing in the knee deep water. Cocoa as usual went berserk with all that water around. The food was good tasty Kannada stuff. We really hogged!Nothing new about that, I know :-) The next day early morning went for a hike. Halfway into the hike we decided to not trek up to the top, but took a detour to a private waterfall. Slipped and slithered over the rocks, it was an adventure for us city people :-) played in the water and then got back with a HUGE appetite. We got back and dug into stacks of toast and omlettes, rava idlis and curries. Conversation was resumed after only a hour or so.
It was a very short trip. Reached there on sat afternoon. Started back by Sunday morning after breakfast. Got back to banaglore by evening. The perfect weekend.

[The meadows next to the homestay- Ideal place to play ball or just laze around with a book]

The battle!

Where did it start?
Was it when I accidentally overheard a friend on the phone giving advice to one of his friends that he shouldn’t marry a girl of the same age coz they turn old and fat very quickly. (The BH and I have an age gap of just a few months). I was shocked and more than that it was like a part of my self confidence just plummeted. He was my friend. Is this what he thought about us? And this was before my pregnancy! Yes, I had put on a couple of kilos after college, but was I that fat and out of shape ???
Or was it the time I met an old classmate who looked at me and exclaimed with glee” You have become so fat. You don’t look beautiful at all now!” Here there was more of pity for her blatant rudeness. I was pregnant at that time. Apparently she didn’t even notice.
The final straw was very recently when I met a friend who had slimmed down to her pre-pregnancy weight in 9 months after her delivery and here I was blaming those extra kilos on a two and half year old Mowgli!!!
It was a very depressing phase. I hated shopping for clothes, because invariable none would fit. I hated having to heave myself into tight salwars daily. I hated looking at the mirror and finally one day I decided that I HAD TO DO SOMETHING. This was something that I had to be strong and DO IT. I had joined the gym a couple of times, but they all fizzled out pretty soon coz the weight scales refused to budge. I love to eat and absolutely despise being hungry, so all those strict diets- GM, Atkins, liquid etc were not for me. Then one day purely by chance browsing through random sites I came across a couple of reviews of Rujuta Diwekar’s book “Don’t Lose your Mind, Lose Your Weight!” Acting purely on a whim I ordered the book and promptly forgot about it.
The book came a week later and from the first page I was hooked. It was completely completely doable. As the book suggested I took a look at my eating habits and realized why with all the gymming the scales refused to inch. SWEETS. I used to have a sweet after every meal. Be it chocolates/cakes/pastries/ puddings what not. If there was nothing available I would buy a Diary Milk and have it. The BH and I would eat out regularly 4-5 times a week. If not actual dinner, then at least an ice cream or pastry. Visits to Corner House and Cake walk were like a weekly feature in our house( weekends not included!) . Yes, it didn’t help that both of us loved sweets. All in all I had put on a total of 10-12 kgs from my college days and the BH around 15-20 kgs! If we needed to get back in shape, the first thing that had to stop/ at least reduce was eating out and sweets.
So what did we do?
1. Totally cut down on tea and coffee. From 7-8 cups a day went down to 1 cup a day. And with that reduced my sugar intake- each cup had about 2 big tsps sugar.
2. Instead of morning tea, I had something solid like a glass of milk, oats, fruits, nutrichoice biscuits etc. The one cup of tea that I have is in the evenings when I majorly need that energy boost.
3. Started having small meals every 2 hrs. This needs some amount of planning and stocking up to be done. I have cheese slices/fruits/handful of peanuts/salads/sprouts etc for those in between meals. Have kept a dabba of peanuts in office permanently to munch on if I forget to get something from home.
4. Eating out only on weekends and that too mainly for lunch. I guess this is the biggest factor that helped. So no more cheese cakes/ice-creams at 10pm. We have a light dinner at home and fill up on fruits.
5. Exercising regularly. It could be an hour in the gym or some days just 20 minutes. But EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! There were days when I didn’t want to go. The only thing that kept me going were the voices of my so-called-friends. Their snide remarks. That was THE one thing that pushed me to go to the gym even if I was tired/didn’t feel like going. The factor that this time the extra kilos should go and stay away!
6. Having sweets as a meal and not as dessert after a meal. So I would cheat and have my laddoo the first thing in the morning rather than have it after my dinner because there were less chances of converting it into fat.

Discovered that even if we couldn’t eat out, I could very well try making different stuff at home. I used to find cooking very boring, but now with trying out new and different recipies most of which we have not had before cooking is fun now. It also helps that the BH is very enthu about what all I make and is not fussy about food. I’ve lost about 4-5 kgs in 3 months. Pretty slow mainly because I never totally went off sweets and other fattening things. I’ve just reduced my intake. But more than kgs lost, the inch loss was awesome. Lost my double chin, my bulging 5 month-looking –pregnant tummy is down to looking 3 months pregnant, my hips and legs have toned down. All in all I look far more slimmer than I did before. And the best part about all this I feel that it’s a lifestyle change that I’ve made and its more sustainable in the long run. There is no way I’m going to get off these changes that I’ve made in my eating habits. Hopefully they will and should last me throughout my life. I still have about 5 kgs to lose. I will get there maybe in another coupel of months. Slow and steady :-)
And to all of you looking to lose weight, if I could do it with my greed for good food, then anybody can do it :-)

Crazy!

On the way to the daycare....
Music in the car : "Maula Maula, Maula meri maula..." from Delhi 6.
Mowgli intently listening to the music and then asks me " Ithu Mon lalinte paatalle? " (Isnt this MohanLal's song ?) yes I know, he pronounces Mohan Lal as Monlal, but still this was too much! The BH and I laughed for ages over this.
Evening returning from daycare... Some random music in the car. Mowgli after some time asks me " Ini mamootyde paatu vache!" (Now put Mamooty's song!)

How does he know MohanLal and Mamooty? Courtesy the grandparents! The BH'S family are crazy Mohan Lal fans and they have taught Mowgli famous dialogues etc. My mom is a die hard Mamooty fan and how could she stand her one and only grandson talking about Mohan Lal. So she taught him about Mamooty!!!
Crazy, arent they???

My first Mother's Day!

Mowgli came back from his daycare with a huge smile. His hands were hidden behind tightly clutching on to something. The BH tried to get him to show what it was but to no avail. "No Dada. Mowgli give mama!" a very stern voice piped out.
When I came back from office, my cute son gave a card to me and said "Lub you. :-) Happy Muter Day!" and a kiss... It was so nice. The lines were taught by the BH. The card was made by his aunties in teh day care. But the whole presentation was his and his alone. The eagerness, the feeling that this was something special, and his impish smile!
Well, my first Mother's Day card !!!
The green BH is eagerly waiting for Father's day!!!

Dear Mowgli boy

You are a BIG boy now. Or so you tell me. “ Mama, Mowgli big boy. Mowgline edukanda” ( No need to carry me now). The next instant you forget this and beg me to lift you up.
These are the days when you make me go absolutely crazy with your naughtiness and at the same time make my heart swell up in love when you decide that I need some loving. These days a prayer is almost always on my lips. A plea to keep you safe and not take you away from us. At least not in our lifetimes.
You talk nonstop. Sentences. Paragraphs. The other day I was hanging out the clothes to dry, I heard a strange voice from your room. You were playing with your trucks and mixer and cars. Apparently the truck was not well, so you were miming for it. A sick voice for the truck. Then another voice for the doctor who examined the truck and decided that an injection was due. I burst out laughing and came in and hugged you hard. You pushed me away irritated at me for disturbing your game. I used to talk aloud to myself, when I heard you also do that it was so funny!
You have started speaking in English and that again is so hilarious! “I want a this”, “I come, you go”. " I no come." and other jumbled up stuff
One day your dada refused to give you his morning cuppa tea for you to dunk your biscuits in, you immediately turned away from him and said “ You go! Mowgli no your friend!”. You had to repeat it a couple of times before we understood :-)
At times we tear our hair in frustration when you refuse to obey. You challenge us to take away your toys, to give you a screw. The only thing that works is being made to stand in a corner. I don’t know when you’ll behave, when you’ll start listening to us. When I will not have to threaten to take away your toys. Maybe once the “Nice threes” start? Just hoping :-)
Sometimes, the hurt is there. That you are the object of my love and the object of my frustrations. And the two are never balanced. There are days when I can control my anger/desperateness and not direct it at you, but some days it just slips out. I get irritated with you when all you want is to spend an extra 5 minutes playing in the water. Later on I feel bad about it. But at that instance I’m not thinking rationally. Daily I try making these vows to myself. That I’ll talk to you in a sane voice even when you are doing totally insane stuff, that I’ll not snap at your dada, that I’ll smile and get through the day. Well, well well… I’m a huge work in progress in that regard!
As a society we often talk about how children hurt their parents and how they should never do that. But I think more important than that is how parents hurt their children knowingly or unknowingly. By not listening to them when they speak, by dismissing their fears/concerns , by not treating them with respect, by fighting with each other in front of them. I read this in an old copy of Reader’s Digest a lot of years back and this is something that has stayed in my mind: “ The greatest thing a dad can do for his children is to love their mother” and I will add a “vice versa “ to it. The greatest gift that parents can give their children is to love one another.
And I hope that we can do that. Till we are gone. To love each other and love you and be a family.

memories

Today is Kitu's birthday. I still mark the date on my calendar. Rediff sent me reminder mails showing me potential gifts. His friends have wished him on Orkut.
All I can think of is why would God do this to someone so young? Somebody who has yet to live his dreams. We were planning to go for a rock concert. Planning to visit him in Goa. Hoping that he would get a job in Bangalore. And its all been wasted. Futile. I can think of so many people who could have died instead of him. What was the karma there? What was the purpose?
Love you lots Kitu. Be happy.
Those dreams... we'll live it up next time. Promise.

The BH got back safe and sound yesterday (most importantly with all bags intact!).

Mowgli has been all over him. Dada dada a hundred thousand times. I still hold to my theory that the love came only after the BH opened his suitcase and got out the cars and toys for Mowgli :-) He has been fiercely possesive about the BH hugging him tight, clinging to him and announcing to all and sundry "My Dada!". I hugged the BH and told Mowgli "Not yours, Mine! My Dada" (Yes, I'm childish that way). I was given a sharp rap on the head by a toy hammer and a stern warning "ini cheeyvo?" (Will you ever repeat that again?) . From where did he learn that????

Dads and their little fans! Hmmph! I'm off to read my book in peace!