Teeth Trouble - Part 1

I am having tooth ache since last night. Thinking back, during college days, I was wearing braces for 2 years but to no avail. You will know why as you read through the post.

A normal human being is expected to posses 32 teeth (or is it?). But I was blessed with 40 (or more!!!). My father used to say, "God has opened your mouth and has thrown a handful of teeth inside". The fact is that, he was not exaggerating. I used to have that many teeth!

I once threatened our house maid at night with my teeth and that was the last day that she came to our house. She didn't even bother to collect the balance 15 day’s salary that we had to pay her.

As I grew older, and joined engineering college, I got to see girls dressing fashionably, waxing their hands and legs and wearing make-up. Something struck me and I decided to get rid of my extra teeth.

I called up my dad and informed him of my desire. It was those good old days when we had to wait in a queue and call our parents from the telephone booth inside our hostel. There were few of them and the STD rates would be less after 9 at night. We will start queueing up outside the booth from 8 and wait for our turn. When I speak to my dad, I will spend less as the conversation would be short and crisp. But when my mom speaks, I will have to write the balance and pay the booth guy the next day.

So coming to the point, my dad was instantly ok with my proposal to get my teeth right (He had the biggest responsibility of finding me a guy, you see!) and came down to Chennai to take me to a dentist near Saidapet (For those who do not know places in Chennai, it was around 15 Kms from my college hostel).

The dentist was so sweet and had a bunch of students who were working under him. He examined my teeth and came to a conclusion that at the beginning he will have to pull out some teeth (Obviously!) and then put on braces and that it will be alright in 1 year. He also suggested a surgery for my jaws but my dad wasn't so keen so we didn't bother much about it. The whole process would cost 10000 bucks. Thinking of my future and considering the amount he has to spend for my marriage if I don't get my teeth corrected, my dad accepted. Then started the Ramayan. I had to pull out 8 teeth, one in a week. My dad was travelling all the way from my home town for taking me to the dentist every week. I told him not to come every week and I will manage myself.

After that, my roomie, let’s call her B, took me to the dentist. We used to go and come by train. My dad insisted on someone accompanying me. One such weekend, when we were coming back, I fainted in the train and she had to wake me up by sprinkling water on my face...

As the blog is getting too long, I will continue in Part 2.

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7 to 10...Phew!!!

The time from 7 am and 10 am in the morning on weekdays is something which keeps me on my toes. Weekend is a different story which deserves another blog.

Today is no exception. I got up at 6, made Bournvita for my daughter and made her drink it when she was fast asleep. With so much reluctance she drank it and slept off again. Being a Chennaite in Mumbai, felt the early morning weather to be pleasant to sleep, continued my sleeping journey.

I keep 4 alarms in my mobile and adding to it, I keep it in a remote place in my bed room so that I can get out of my bed to switch it off. One at 6 and following that, 6:45, 7:00 and 7:10 as I cannot afford to sleep beyond that. I know what you are thinking right now...You dumbo..there is something called snoozer which you can use in your mobile alarm!..Yours truly, being an expert, finds the alarm, instead of pressing the Snooze button, presses the Stop button.

So, coming back to the story, I got up at 7:10, made coffee for myself and my husband and it was 7:30 now.

Rushed into the bathroom, took a 5 minute bath, and got myself ready to office.

My daughter was still sleeping. Waking her up is a tedious process. Think she was Kumbakarna's sister in her previous birth.

Tanviiiiiiii...I shouted at her ears. Get up. You will be late to school.

She (Eyes half open): What day is it today?

Me: Wednesday, why are you asking?

She: Let me sleep for 5 minutes.

Me: Ok. But you should not extend beyond that.

She (shouts): OK

After 15 minutes....

Me: Get up fast, you will miss the bus.

She: Nee romba paduthara ma (You are troubling me so much). I will complain to patti (grandma).

Starts crying.

Me: Stop crying and get up.

I bathed her and put on her uniform.

She: You are wearing color dress everyday to office but making me wear uniform.

Me: I wore uniform when I went to school.

She: I will go to your office from today. Do you have Toy room in your office?

Me: No. We don't.

She: Then I will go to school only.

Me: Good for you.

She had her breakfast for 1 hour and in between...

She: Ammaaaaa....Stop!

Me: What happened?

She: I want to go to the wash room.

Me: Go faaaast and come.

She: Ok Ma.

Comes after another 15 minutes. I put on her school shoes.

She: Ammaaaaa....Stop!

Me: Ippo Enna ma???? (What now?)

She: I forgot to piss.

Me: Shit!

She: I did that!

Me: Sari seekiram poittu va...(Go and come back fast).

She came back and I put on her uniform and shoes. AGAIN! The school bus came and I thrusted her into it, had my breakfast in a jiffy and went to catch an auto to go to my bus stop.

In Mumbai, it's difficult to get an auto for short distance, like less than 2 Kms. With so many refusals from auto drivers, I get into an auto finally and land at my bus stop and waited for my bus.

In the bus stop...

A guy and a girl, who were also waiting for the bus, were flirting happily but unfortunately I couldn't overhear much because most of their conversation was in Marathi. Managed to hear some English words like resort, weekend. The girl was the so called "cute" in Maharashtra. Here, a "cute" girl means, she should posses the following qualities:

Zero figure, quite fair, straight hair, wearing 1 inch Kajal on her eyes. In short she should look like Michael Jackson. Extra make-up would be a value addition.

So...the bus came and I got in, fell into a window seat and reached office finally.

Since the blog is getting too long, I am cutting it short here. Happy Reading!

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Activities during summer

It was a Thursday and it was like any other normal day. I left office at 6:30, after the day's work, went home and was browsing through the channels on TV when my 4 year old daughter threatened me to change the channel to POGO as she wanted to see Mr. Bean (The animated series). I obliged as always and had my dinner.

I fed her while she was watching the lousy cartoon and once she was done and slept, I decided to call it a day.

It was 10 pm when the power went off. Cursing the EB, I called them to find out when the power will come and they said it will take an hour.

With the help of a candle, I made tea for myself and sat in the balcony when all the kids came out to play Hide and Seek.

Seeing them play, I was reminded of the summer vacation at my aunt's house at Trichy where we used to play 24/7. Yeah, I am serious. We used to play word game after going to bed, till my aunt scolded us for keeping awake so late and to sleep immediately.

These were the activities that we used to have all day long...

 

1. Motta Madi (Terrace) Cricket

    We played Cricket at the terrace where we used to draw the stumps with a chalk on the parapet wall. I was an all-rounder and was popularly called as Ajay Jadeja (Stop laughing)...My knees were never without bruises and all I did about it was to apply a drop of thengai ennai (coconut oil) on the latest bruise I got while playing.

2. Cards

   It was ultimate fun when we played Bluff or Trump with some ten people. My Patti used to invent games with her own rules and claim that such a game exists. I still do not know if there is a game called 'Vrogen' which she taught us. Other games include Rammi, Card cricket, Mangatha and the list goes on.

3. Cycling

   My cousin sisters being pros in riding cycle promised that they will teach me how to ride a cycle. We used to hire a cycle for 1 rupee from a cycle shop which we can use for an hour.

4. Haircut!

   My mom was dead against me cutting my hair short and I always wanted a short shoulder length hair. When my two cousins and I inform my aunt about our plan to trim (read: rip) our hair, she asks us to do anything (read: sprinkled water) but outside the house. So we equip ourselves with a pair of scissors, combs of all sizes, a hand mirror, towel, water etc and get to work…nee enakku pannu, naan avalukku panren, ava unakku pannuvaal (I will do for you, you do for her, she will do for me!)...As in the old monkey story, we will keep trimming our hairs till it attains a length that we are satisfied with and which my mom can never imagine seeing me.  I am sure you can imagine the scene on returning to my home town.

5. Paper ball TT

  We used to tie a rope on the two windows of a room which will act as the net. We will play TT with a writing pad and a crushed paper ball.

We played in the scorching sun, not bothering about the dirt; we didn’t have a curfew time when we should be at home studying for the next term during vacation; we didn’t have umpteen classes to attend during vacation. Willingly or unwillingly, kids are forced to attend Swimming, Karate, Tennis and what not!

The video games and Xboxes will never replace the authentic Gilli, Golli and Mangatha…and the future kids will never know their significance! Leave alone the significance…they will not know their names in the first place.

Hello World!

Welcome Everyone!
I am creating this blog with the sole purpose of honing my writing skills. I am hoping to have fun and to make you, the readers happy!
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