Musical Madness 2.0

mayG and I have been wannabe musical maestros in our own senses. We consider ourselves more than the average "bay-sura" (somebody who sing out of tune) and find ourselves singing casual duets unconsciously all over the house at random times. She might we working on her laptop humming a tune with the follow-up lines continuing from across another room from my side.

This would of course would make us unconsciously very content, just with the thought of being bonded even in the world of music. The funny part is that we share a huge common music vocabulary as well. Not that we have a 100% commonality, that would be too perfect, there are some tunes that mayG brings up which I have no clue about it. This is usually from the "farangi" (English) genre.

I am not sure if I have some which mayG doesn't know. If they are then they would be probably from the Qawwali or Sufi domain. This was all well and good until recently when the little one joined in as well -

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new genre in the house - Barney. Dora. Nursery Rhymes. Kid Songs... sigh..

She has figured that this is another way to get involved. So once in a while, out comes a tune at the top of her voice, expecting everybody else to follow-up on the lines. This would seem cute to most readers and it doesn't seem like a big deal - Parents should after all appreciate and encourage such acts of confidence by the child...

Well, let me tell you that you forget one small aspect of toddler tunes - they are always and always sung with actions! You can't get away with a casual hum, fade it out in the background and switch back to your own music quickly. You have to do all the hands up high and touch the toes and look left and right and do the boogie-woogie stuff.

As she has grown older, she has picked up on all the cheapoo bollywood tunes that *the mom* is such a big fan of. So we see the little one joining in even on the most difficult to remember and hum-along tunes.

The three year old has all the desi girls, rock ons and dance pe chance types learnt to perfection and for the others where the lyrics are kinda tricky, well who cares! its all about being involved, for that we have mastered the art of lalala-ing and hmmhmmhmm-ing along! One doesn't need to know ALL the words, right?

We have of course noticed this and trying to revert this concept of bonding to something more constructive. That same energy is being directed to Religious Rhymes (Yusuf Islam). But its a long way back from where we have come.

I wrote this post after this just happened.. funny scenario - picture 3 different songs being sung at the top of the voices by 3 different people (2 adults, 1 child) trying to suggest that their song is the best and everybody should sing that now! Check out the selections -

mayG - "Kya Soorat hay... Kya Soorat hay... (Bombay Vikings)"
UTP - "Kuch larkiyan ... Chaierin Mujhay... (Sajjad Ali)"
Little one - "Baba kee Rani Hoon... (Hindi Movie)"

Love-Struck Bakra!

I’ve already cribbed enough about how romance seems to have taken a backseat in our lives.. add to that the Mr.’s ultra demanding job, staying back late at work, exam preps (he is sitting for another exam YET AGAIN urgh!), working weekends and this newfound addiction to Texas Holdem Poker and we are left with no time or opportunity for “romance” unless of course if cheesy facebook “pokes” count :P

It’s a no-brainer that I quit hoping for those random acts of TLC that would sweep me off my feet.. but I still like to think I’m this love struck teenager at heart and hey I still believe in miracles ;)

So one early morning of what was technically a weekend, I saw him off to his exam review class. This is when I was a little unwell and he had set the breakfast table for me before he left so I wouldn’t have to run back and forth from the kitchen.. just as I was heading back to bed I notice this envelope tucked under the cereal box right in front of my dining chair. It read “SURPRISE” in bright bold letters and a line underneath that said I wasn’t supposed to open it until told so!

I almost shuddered in excitement, eyes bright and wide forgetting how sleepy I was moments ago, the hugest grin flashing across my face as my mind raced from massage appointment to movie tickets and mushy poetry just like old times.. sigh.. I can’t believe I used the “old times” word like we are pair of 60 year olds living retirement life after the kids have gone their own ways!

Anyway back to the envelope, I was sorely tempted to tear it open that instant but stopped myself thinking I should give him the chance and not spoil the surprise now that we are graduating from facebook pokes to surprise envelopes! I did try to read through the closed envelope with no luck :P it didn’t say don’t try to read through the envelope did it?

I forced myself to fall back to sleep thinking about the surprise that was in store and hoping to be woken up by his call or sms telling me to go ahead claim the goodies.. but that never happened.. I woke up a few hours later and decided I couldn’t take the suspense anymore.. texted him in between the class telling him how thrilled I was about the surprise and couldn’t wait to open it!

by the time I was done with my bowl of cereal I had decided I was going to open it anyway.. a part of me had been nagging me that it was far too unreal to be expected of UTP and it had to be something else :P then I noticed the surprise word was written with a girly PINK pen!! muahahhahaha!! no way in hell was this something the dude would do! did he even know they have pink pens now?!

hey did a girl try to get fresh with MY hubby?! And I decided to dump that thought right away- no girl on this planet could be half as stupid as me ;)

So I went ahead and opened the envelope that said it shouldn’t be opened before requested to do so.. and sure enough, inside was a “pay it forward” kindness card asking one to smile and was a prop used by one of his teammates at the toastmasters public speaking clubs in her speech, it had just slipped out of his bag when he was hurriedly sorting out his books to leave for the class..

I smiled, not because the smile card asked me to; I sheepishly smiled for realizing it was my MTV Bakra moment of the day, for realizing that UTP will be calling any minute and laughing his head off, I smiled because I had something to recall and laugh about years from now and then I smiled some more..

I smiled for realizing that romance had not taken a backseat in our lives, it simply manifested itself in other ways.. things like his setting the breakfast table for me before leaving so it would save a sick me couple of trips to the kitchen and back, things like reaching out and hanging the laundry on the washing line because I am a wee bit short to reach it comfortably, of loading the fridge with cans of my favorite orange juice of saying dinner was yummy even if its plain daal on menu.. oh well guess I’ll be happy with all that and the random facebook pokes.. no surprise spa days and mushy poetry for this girl in this lifetime!

And then Life Happened...

I heard these two words from Mayg very early in our life together and just loved them.

"...and then life happened..."

She said it in a different context which I will get to but that also applies to why we have been missing from the action on this blog.

I wouldn’t say we have been that busy that we couldn’t write a post but I believe this went a bit low on priority somehow. I did continue to write on my blog which has kinda become routine now and Mayg probably got focused a bit more on her work. In the meanwhile, this blogspace was at the end of negligence from our side.

We would like to thank people who still come here. You people are an inspiration.
Anyway, back to the post topic. Everybody has ambitions in life. Everybody wants to do this and wants to do that. Everybody wants to have something to look forward to. There are so many things that one plans to do.

I will do good deeds regularly. I will blog every day. I want to play basketball alternate days. I want to lose weight. So many different little things to do.

I want to do something that makes me a millionaire. I want ... I want... sigh....

And then life happens...

You get taken over by responsibilities. There are more things that take priority over other things. There are things that need getting done or the people who depend on you suffer. I mean, all those nice-to-have stuff become exactly that. Nice to have. Low priority.

Life happens to all of us. The challenge is getting those little things done from within that. Find that little time in the week for doing those nice-to-have stuff. After all they are still something that you want to do. Don’t let them become off-the-list stuff.

Life is too short to just let happen and find that as an excuse to let go of the things you wanted to do. I still keep my list of things that I want to do. However, still waiting for that time.

A Typical Friday Afternoon

We have Friday's OFF in this part of the world cos we work on Sundays. So here is what happened on a typical Friday Afternoon.

A lazy guy spread on the couch like it's his kingdom, with dreams of his throne and some exotic women fanning him with huge peacock feathers and a feast in front him ....GETS SHAKEN TO LIFE !!!

Have you heard the song "Yeh Lazy Lamhay..." or was it "Yeh Crazy Lamhay...". Anyway, that is the background music for that post.

Then at 5:00pm, the following discussion follows,

M - What would you like to eat? Chicken in a Desi Roll or in an English Wrap?

U - Do we sit on an Desi WC or an English One?

M - Dont know what I should wear for the evening out? Jeans or Sari? (obviously, the above question was just for the sake of it)

U - Do we sit on an Desi WC or an English One? When we go "potty"? (obviously dying for the undue attention after using the potty sentence of the day)

M - Would you like 1 or 2 wraps to eat? (ignoring it as usual)

U - One (oh what the heck?)...(and rolls over on the couch...back to his kingdom...)

Then comes the little one with the newest of her innovations on the top of her voice...

"Hot Cross Parathas...Hot Cross Parathas....one a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Parathas...Hot Cross Parathas..."

And we all crack up laughing...and thats how we keep living happily ever after...