We’ve heard of people who chanced on enlightenment in various ways. Like, how Emperor Ashoka received it after the gruesome Kalinga war. Or of the Buddha himself, after years of meditation under the Bodhi tree.
I, however, got it when my nose-pin went down the drain. One that I got after years of waiting, planning, yearning.
Before we get into more details, I must specifically mention that my threshold for pain is below ground level.
The first time I got a nose-pin was in 2008 (a story that deserves an entire post of its own). It was painful, resulted in an infection, and did not last longer than a couple of weeks. Despite all the misgivings, I attempted it again in 2010. It was meant to be a painless process, but ended up being as painful as the first. But there were no infections and it remained on me for years. In 2019, a baby was expected to storm in and grab anything that glistens. 😀 So, I took it off before getting it ripped off my nose. Obviously, the hole closed up in defiance. And, ever since the little girl overgrew her nose-pin-rip-off age, I had been yearning for The Return of The Nose-pin. I even bought a few no-pierce nose-pins, but they kept coming off loose, falling out.
Finally, the time arrived. In 2025. When the little girl was ready to get her ears pierced. We did not want to force it on our baby, wanted her to opt-in when she was old enough to understand pain and her rights around that topic 😀
And so, the day she got her ears pierced, I got my nose pierced. We got it done at KIMS Hospital. This time, it was (as) painless (as it can get when a sharp pin drills a hole in your nose)! 😛 But, I was relatively calm, except for the sliver of a twitch and a small whimper. The doc asked me to return in a week’s time to replace the pin with a permanent one.
A few hours later, my head began throbbing. The entire right side of my face felt heavy, I was in pain and my head was constantly throbbing. I endured, for the love of the nose-pin. Three days later, we went on a trip to Vagamon and stayed on a tree-house. I got a cold, the head continued to throb and every sneeze nearly killed. I endured, for the love of the nose-pin. On the day of my appointment, I went to a friend’s silver jewellery shop, bought a lovely nose-pin and went straight to the doc with it. He removed the gun-shot nose-pin, applied some ointment on the infected area, helped put on my new sparkling silver one and sent me home. The pain continued, so did the throbbing. I carried on with the pain, the ointment and frequent cleansing, hoping it would all ease. I endured, for the love of the nose-pin.
Two days later, when I was gently cleaning the infected area, my lovely new nose-pin hopped off my nose and dived down the drain. One second it was there on my nose; the next, it was gone. Without a trace, without a proper goodbye, leaving no room for rescue…all I had left was an ugly gaping hole on my nose!
“FUCK IT! That’s it. I’m done. I am done trying to make things work. I’m just going to give up and move on.” After years of waiting, after weeks of incessant pain, after hours of constantly baby-ing my nose and its pin, I couldn’t accept what just happened.
My moment of enlightenment had announced its arrival. Quite unfortunate that it had to start with an expletive.
Now, let me make it clear that I am not one to use the F-word frequently. I also cringe when I hear others use it like it’s a mandatory part of every sentence, as would be a comma or a period 😛 I use it only when the situation demands it: like, when the 4th toe (one next to the baby one) suddenly discovers a hitherto unobtrusive piece of furniture and bangs on to it OR when I manage to strategically bang the tip of my elbow somewhere OR when the most painful memory yet in life raises its ugly head OR when nose-pins dive unannounced into bottomless drains. Only, usually it is a loud “Ffff” that sort of tapers off without letting folks near me register the full word. The nose-pin episode, however, brought the full word out: in all clarity, full volume, but zero fury.
In that moment, I became a changed person. I learnt the art of letting go. There was no fury or frustration. No misgivings or sense of loss. In a flash, just like the pin’s disappearance act, I was anger-less. Calm. Zen.
I no longer lose my cool (though avoiding sarcastic comebacks at certain select people will take a few more nose-pins :P). I no longer mentally abuse wrongdoers (in our society, on the road, in the family, etc :P). I no longer complain if things do not go my way; I choose to show them another way. I no longer argue with my mom; I let her win her battles. I no longer hound the husband; I’ve given him the clean chit. I no longer worry about “if-onlys” and “I wish(es)”. I just focus on what’s in my control and change what I can; and what aren’t, I let go.
Who’d have thought it’d take just a tiny little nose-pin to teach a 40-year-old some major life lessons 😀
Oh wait! Before you judge me and spew abuses, I mean this Wife of mine, whose ‘husband’ I am, whose subtlety is unimaginably minuscule 😀
She and I met at work in 2012, and shockingly, have been friends ever since. I say shockingly, because…
1. She is a fashionista, while I’m forever in my check-shirt, jeans and sneakers. 2. She knows every makeup brand’s every product, while I know nothing of it nor use any except for a Shringar kajal and a Maybelline mascara (both of which, by her standards, are ‘ugh’). 3. She is all about pink, while I hate the mere mention/sight of that colour, much less having it on/near me. 4. She is all about displaying her affection, while I am all about ‘I hate being hugged!’. 5. She is all about nothing-more-than-unintelligible-conversation-sounding English ‘music’, while I’m all about real, legit ‘music’ 😛 6. She is all about selfies and Insta-moments, while I always choose to stay behind the lens. 7. She is all about Hollywood and Bollywood, while I know nothing — esp about the Kardashians 😛 And the list goes on…I’ve asked her this in 2012, I still ask her this in 2025: ok, tell me this…how’re we friends, again? 😀
But we’re still friends, 13 and a half years later. If there’s ONE thing we have in common, it is that we can laugh uncontrollably at the jokes we’ve shared from 2012 😛 Jokes that only the two of us find funny 😛
So, we were talking about some of those in general, and I realised there were so many more ‘Queen of Subtlety’ stories that I had not documented (for future use, of course!) here. So here are some of those. P.S: This is more a journal entry for her and my sake, than for any readers who still come on this page (which I seriously doubt) 😛
We once went to Goa, sometime is 2013 or 14. If I remember right, it was a 5-day trip. I had one standard cabin-luggage sized suitcase, while sae has two huge ones AND a small one AAAAND a bulky handbag. Seeing how she’s packed her entire wardrobe, I did double check the tickets to make sure we were indeed returning in 5 days 😛 Anyway, we reached, we checked in, we went out to the beach and had a lot of fun laughing at everyone, everything, and ourselves. Day 1 went as planned — no muscles were put to work. On Day 2, we woke up early for no reason, and decided to enjoy early-morning beach-time. That’s where the plan fell apart. We were walking, talking about random stuff when suddenly I hear a nearly orgasmic “Oh!” and see her running in the opposite direction! I called after her, but to no avail. And she returned sometime later, panting, clutching her sides, and said “Oh my God, that was Arunodhay Singh.” and I go “Who the hell is that?” for which she berated me and explained. From then on, her vacation turned into this waiting-for-Arunodhay-to run-by-so I can-run-behind-him-hoping-he’ll-see-me-and-fall-in-love-with-me thingy, while I sat around and laughed at her and what she saw in Arunodhay Singh 😛 All that running she did in those four days would put Usain Bolt to shame. If only Mr Singh had seen her even once. Well, rumour has it that the man was running for his life from the crazy woman chasing him down the beach and has never visited any beaches since 😛
The Queen of Subtlety’s… Story #6
The Princess (as she likes to be called) was always found to be munching on something or the other. mind you, she has the fittest body in that entire 8-floor office building, if you ask me. And a mind strong enough to keep to her ‘healthy’ diet. And yours truly was always found to be spewing out one PJ after another. Once, while she was having her daily dose of yogurt, I said something funny and…all that yogurt from her mouth sprayed on to me. No kidding! And, she did it again another day with biscuits. And both times, we were caught blaming each other saying th exact same thing: “This is all your fault…you’re always cracking some stupid joke or the other”. “No, this is all YOUR fault because you’re always eating something so you can spray it on me!”
The Queen of Subtlety’s… Story #7
The Princess loooooves Mariah Carey…and butterflies…and pink…and shoes. And she loves throwing surprises on birthdays. So for her’s, I decided to surprise her: with hand-painted canvas shoes that had Mariah, butterflies and pink! A friend of mine was doing this as a business, so I thought two birds, one stone, etc. After weeks of planning with the artist, identifying the right shoe type, imagery, design and all that, I gifted her a pair that cost somewhere about Rs 1600/- (in 2013, that was a lot of money for m :P). She was all awwww, oooh, yaaay about it…before it struck her that it was SHOES. Panic! “You dumbo, don’t you know that gifting shoes can kill the friendship forever!?” While I’m stunned and trying to make sense of this absolute ridiculousness, she says “It’s ok. I can just pay you for it and we’ll continue to be friends.” Guess what she paid me? Eleven bucks. Yup. INR 11. That’s it. Surprisingly, we’re still friends, despite the loss I suffered. And, I’m sure she threw it away to be doubly sure the shoes don;t kill our friendship, ‘coz I’ve never seen them again, despite practically living at her place so many times after.
The Queen of Subtlety’s… Story #8
Later that day, the entire office gang (we were an all-girls team) had planned a surprise part for her at her apartment. We asked her boyfriend (who we collectively hated) to take her for a movie and keep her out until 8 pm or so, so that we could decorate the apartment, get the cake in and hide ourselves. It took us all a lot of time to get the apartment decked up, especially with lots of pink balloons. By the end of it, we were all so tired, we just wanted to have her home, yell surprise and just plonk down and rest 😛 Anyway, when Princess arrived and we heard the key rattling against the door, we all hid. The door opened, we heard hr go “Oh shit, I got the wrong door!” and the door banged shut 😀 We meant to surprise her, but got VERY surprised ourselves. As we all dissolved in laughter, she sheepishly opened the door again, having realized she won’t be unlocking other apartment doors with HER KEY! While both of us don’t remember why, it was also the day she broke up with that boyfriend of hers who we all hated. Good day, indeed!
And there are a lot more.
How she first came to me at work in 2012 and said “Hi. You look like Sridevi. Can we be friends?” Apparently, me looking at her warily with my expression screaming NO did not waver her resolve to befriend me. 😐
How she once told me “Let’s go to Daddy’s Deli for lunch” and I said “Ok, but next week we go to Mummy’s Mumbai” and she said “Ooh, where’s that!?” 😐
How she is always thinking about food: wondering what to have/make for lunch in the middle of breakfast, planning what’s for evening tea while wolfing down her lunch, and worrying about dinner while sipping on tea 😛 In 2025, her own words about 2012-14: “this food thing was funny when I was skinny and starved. Now it’s just like bitch wtf how much will you eat” 😀
How I’d crack a PJ, she’d go “Hey Bhagwaan…” in exasperation, I’d respond with a “Hey right back!” and get either whacked or eye-rolled at. 😛 How I’d crack yet another PJ and she’d go “Jack!” (short for jackass) and I’d say “Oh, Rose!”and get mouth-farted by her, or sprayed by whatever is getting chewed in there 😀
How for her birthday, a colleague, her sister and I gave her some fake gifts that we made a big show about (a pen, 3 color pencils, a boring diary and some other crap of that kind), she went “Oooh, these are so cute, I love them, thank you girls…”, nearly cried trying to cover up her huge disappointment and then screamed “Oh, thank God those were fake gifts, I hated them” when we finally gave her the real stuff 😀
How when she showed up for my birthday without informing, saw my perplexed expression (which was the introvert in my trying to come to terms with her sudden appearance) and thought to herself “Oh my God, I’ve become so fat she doesn’t recognize me!”
Ok, I think this is enough for today. I’ve been sitting here laughing loudly by myself this entire time, and my maid’s been giving me strange looks. Am sure she thinks I’ve got a few loose nuts and screws in my head.
Long ago, between 2009 and 2013, I lived in Koramangala, Bangalore. Two years of those, I had my parents under the same roof.
And we had a house help, who would come in less frequently than she would bail out. Yet, my mom liked her very well, for she brought a lot of life into the house each time she walked in. She was always yapping away, telling us stories of Bangalore, its people and their attitudes in general since we were “outsiders from Kerala”. She herself was from Tamil Nadu, and spoke to us in a mix of Tamil, Malayalam. Kannada and Hindi.
Akkamma was her name, and she was a happy sort, and always had the widest smile that reached her eyes. And best of all, she loved Pumbaa just as much as we did, despite all his butt-sniffing 😀
Happy was not all she was, though. She was very enterprising! For instance, those days Moringa hadn’t yet attained its ‘super-food’ title, and so we never ever found Moringa leaves in any veggie shops/super markets, not even the ‘Spar’ hypermarkets. Why, we never found it even in Nature’s Basket stores…though if we did, I’m sure we wouldn’t have been able to afford it 😛 Once, after she heard me telling my mom how much I miss the Moringa-leaf thoran, she actually brought three huge bunches of it home.
“I heard you wanting it so much yesterday”, she said with that crinkly smile of hers. Overjoyed, we asked her in unison where she got it from. “Aaah, I broke it off from a house on the way here.” Shocked, we asked her if they wouldn’t complain, to which she casually said “Why, no one eats this here. I’ll bring every day if you want.”
I think my mom took two steps towards her to hug her, but Akkamma needed more than just a hug: “Just 30 per bunch, Amma”, she said. My mom’s expression then was to die for. “You steal from someone else’s compound, you actually tell me you stole it, and then you charge me for it!?” asked Mom. “Yes, I’m bringing it for you no? If I don’t bring, how will you eat?”, she asked without missing a beat, smiling. “You should be reported to the police,” said my mom, to which Akkamma smiled her crinkly smile and said “I know you won’t!” 🙂 And so it was with our insatiable love for Moringa-leaf thoran that Akkamma continued to earn INR 30 at least twice a week.
But this isn’t about Akkamma or Moringa leaves. This is the story of Akkamma’s uncle and the Kerala Police: a “maid-up” true story, if I may 😛
Once, Akkamma vanished.
No calls, no intimations, nothing.
The first few days, nearly the whole week, we were worried sick about her. She’d told us stories of how her husband would get home drunk and beat her black and blue. And this, she would be telling us the next day, with that same crinkly smile. But when two weeks passed, my mom was beginning to get upset, having decided that Akkamma had “just decided to leave our home and go elsewhere without having the basic decency to tell us“.
And just as we decided to find a new help, Akkamma walked in the next day, her crinkly smile intact.
And here, as I share their exchange, I must switch to the native languages of both parties 🙂
“Evide aairunnu ithrem naal? Ennittu onnum ariyaatha pole keri vannirikkunnu!” (translates to ‘Where were you all these days? And what makes you think you can just walk in like that as if the past few weeks did not happen?’)
Sensing my mom’s fury, a huge pout appeared on her face, promptly gobbling up her crinkly smile. “Ammaaa…” started Akkamma, in a shaky voice, “oorukku poanaen. En maama eranthu pochu Ammaaaaa…” (translates to ‘I went to my home town. My uncle died.’).
She broke into an absolutely heartbreaking wail.
While she wailed loudly, my Tamil-illiterate mother understood that as maama irangi poi, meaning her uncle left the house/went missing, and got all the more annoyed.
“Athinu ningal avide poittu randu aazhcha ninnittu enthu kaaryam? Mama erangi poyaal police-il paraathi kodukkanam. Njangal okke angane aanu cheyyuka. Avaru enganeyenkilum thirichu pidichondu varum.” vented my mom. (translates to ‘What’s the point in you staying there for two weeks? If your uncle is gone, file a police complaint. That’s what we do in Kerala. They will bring the guy back, come what may‘).
Akkamma’s loud wail came to an absolute stop. Part confused, part impressed, she asked “Unmaiyaa!?“. (translates to ‘for real!?‘)
Akkamma’s sudden transition from wail to stunned surprise threw my mom also a bit, for she had no clue that she had misunderstood what Akkamma had said or meant!
It is at this point that my dad, who had hitherto been sitting silently in the corner of our sofa, chuckled and said “Of course! What did you think about our Kerala Police!? The have godly powers…they can bring back even the dead!”
This is when my mom plopped on to the other end of dad’s sofa, in absolute stitches, having realized what she said! If I remember right, Akkamma too plopped down by our door, tears streaming down her eyes again; only, this time they were of uncontrollable laughter!
It was then a standing joke how every time Akkamma reappeared after one of her unannounced day-offs, she would ask my mom whether the Kerala Police was intimated regarding her absence 😛
…generally brings to mind that face, which would have scared the bejesus out of most of us who watched it. Fortunately, I happened to watch a spoof ahead of the original, so the bejesus stayed put.
Not only did the bejesus stay put, it also ensured that any memory or mention of The Scream only served to make me laugh. As a result, the 5YO even went to school this Halloween in a DIY Scream look, with a blood-stained knife to boot. She was seen pointing that knife at everyone and saying “Happy Halloween!” 😛 A sweet-sounding, cute version of Scream.
But this post isn’t about that scary Scream or this tiny version of that Scream either. This is about a very real one that did indeed scare the bejesus out of us and all sundry! In fact, one that should NOT have happened, for it has scarred me for life.
It was a peaceful night at the Hobbit House, Munnar. It was my 40th birthday getaway, and since the pyramids were out of the question, I had managed to get myself the next best thing: a day (or three) in the life of a Hobbit 😛
It was the cutest Hobbit hole, and won my heart instantly. Did the same for Hobbes, our 5YO and the Wife! too. We spent the daylight hours lazing around, exploring the resort, clicking random pics and wolfing down some really good food.
Soon, night fell, and along with it, pitch darkness. Mountain side, after all.
I was glad. After such a long time, I’d get to sleep in absolute darkness. For Hobbes to sleep, all he needs is gravity. He can settle down anywhere, anytime, and sleep like a baby. I, on the other hand, need absolute darkness. I also need absolute silence and a fan too. Actually, I need the sound of the wind, so maybe ‘absolute silence’ doesn’t qualify. And of course, I need a bed. In fact, from the time the 5YO was born, we always put her to sleep in a dark room. This was so that I would get mine too 😛 much to my mother’s annoyance. Like, who in their right senses would make a baby sleep in the dark?!
Fine, I digress.
Hours went by, and when bedtime arrived, it was pretty amused to see that Hobbes was already fast asleep. Yet, it lingered around long enough for the 5YO to sleep too…and for the Wife as well (who was on the phone until then, and one with the brightest display-screen ever put on a phone, I tell you!) *rolls eyes*.
As soon as her phone turned dark, I put away mine. I turned on to my right, with my back to the 5YO and Hobbes beyond her. Blanketed in that “mountain” of silence, caressed by the absolute darkness, I gleefully hugged myself, thinking about the amazing sleep I’d have, when…
Aaaaaah! Aaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!Aaaaah!
Fortunately for you and unfortunately for me, sounds don’t transmit on WordPress. These ‘a’s and ‘h’s do sub-zero levels of justice to what it sounded like and did to the rest of us.
My blood curdled, to say the least. At least, as far as my understanding of a blood-curdling scream goes!
The Wife’s bed was to my right. I knew the screams were coming from her, because I obviously was WIDE AWAKE, having just put my phone away! I called out her name thrice, between those screams, but she continued that bloody scream!
And as I was calling out to her, I was also pushing the 5YO further away and into Hobbes, to ensure whatever was getting at the Wife does not get to the 5YO. While doing that, I was also fighting off possibilities in my head:
A huge mountain snake that had hitherto been lying hidden under her bed was now strangulating her.
A wild animal that had sneaked into the room unnoticed had decided to feast on her.
A thief who had managed to get into the room was trying to kill her, and would kill us too.
I called out her name again, this time with all my courage and strength. And that’s when I myself realised I’d been pretty feeble a few seconds ago.
In parallel, I sensed Hobbes calling out “moley” (assuming the 5YO was in distress?) and then the Wife’s name. I’m assuming he was still in sleep’s grip, coming to terms with the “Where am I, who am I, what the hell is going on?” moment. He managed to jump off the bed and switch on the bathroom light, banging the bathroom door open in the process.
Thanks to his light-and-sound show, the screaming stopped. With a peaceful-that-rapidly-turned-sheepish expression, a just-awoken Wife asked “Oh. Oh!? Was I screaming? That was me?” She looked at our stunned, blood-drained faces, and more sheepishly went “Heee…sawwrryy!”
My heart was thumping away to glory and I could barely hear her. I could see Hobbes looking at her with the most smirkingest smirk on his face. I could also see him mentally clutching his chest in relief for he apparently thought there was a landslide and the Wife was being taken away by Mother Earth. I could also hear the 5YO crying feebly, disturbed by the commotion and all the squishing I’d been doing.
And then in rapid succession, we all got over that bloody scare and started laughing our heads off. Like, how typical that she pulled a stunt like that on us.
Apparently, the madam had dreamt that a huge man was standing over her, about to strangle her…and she was fighting him off. Trust me, if there was such a man for real there that night, he’d have had a cardiac arrest.
Aaaand, she had actually been asleep for at least 30 minutes before The Scream. Just that her phone was up with it’s display on because she, unlike me, cannot take too much darkness 😛 It was when her phone slid off her hands and fell screen-down that I thought she’d just turned it off 😛
Aaaaaaaaaand, after all that, she actually asked me “you’re sure I was dreaming, right?”, making me go “Yes, I was WIDE awake, I KNOW!”
If I remember right, the 5YO and Hobbes managed to go back to sleep in another 5-10 minutes…but the two of us laughed for at least another hour or two (and most of the next two days). Next evening, when it was bedtime, Hobbes remembered to ask her pointedly whether she planned to deliver another round of The Scream before falling asleep 😛
Hilarious as it sounded later, that moment had been absolutely terrifying. And, every time I remember it, I still feel terrified. With all the what-ifs, you know. What if it had been a snake? What if it had been a landslide? Or a wild animal? What if there had indeed been a man in there trying to kill her? We were the only guests in that resort that night. And, no points for guessing that NO ONE CAME RUNNING to check on us despite those loud blood-curdling screams. Screams, which by a mountain-side, must have been barely louder than a mere whisper!)
Long ago, there was a time when I had spent many nights in the Wife’s house in Bengaluru. We still talk about those days: the absolute fun it had been, and how we should do it again. Much as a I still love her, I am no longer sure I ever want to spend another night under the same roof as her 😛
Just a pic-in-pic of The Scream-er. Who would ever connect a peaceful image like this withThe Scream.
I was born in Thiruvananthapuram. I grew up in Thiruvananthapuram. Until I turned 23, I lived every day of my life in Thiruvananthapuram. Yet, it took me till I turned 40 to get atop the Trivandrum Lighthouse!
Well, the lighthouse is just one such in my long list of Trivandrum sights I am yet to see 😀
And I thoroughly blame it on not having had a boyfriend-with-a-bike until I was 23. You know how girls with biker-boyfriends got to zip around the city and explore hidden gems (mainly because they want to stay hidden from prying eyes of relatives). I did not know to ride and hence had no bike, neither did I have a boyfriend with a bike; the brother-with-a-bike had his own girlfriend to zip around with 😛 Well, it is thanks to him that I did get to visit Aazhimala when I was still in my early 20s).
I moved back to Trivandrum when I was 36. Yet, in the four years that passed, most of those sights remained unseen. And I blame it on my husband who HAS a (super)bike 😛 You know how these men with superbikes believe only in the journey, and not the destination? In these four years, he’s seen most of Trivandrum because there are ‘breakfast’ rides to most of these places. And it is literally that: ride together, arrive at destination, have breakfast, leave. Duh – what’s the fun in it for someone like me when there is no exploration scope! I went once with that gang, all the way to Kanyakumari, only to have breakfast and return (~4 hours on the bike, with a 45-min breakfast-break in between; it was so boring, I refused to go on even short rides after that). I then once voluntarily went to Thenmala, since the gang wasn’t going 😛
Apart from the Planetarium, Zoo, Napier Museum, Ponmudi and Neyyar Dam (all of which I overdid as a kid every time someone visited from outside Kerala), I realised a lot of Trivandrum was yet to be explored. Sometime in 2022, I’d threatened the husband with mounavratham if he did not come along for “Trivandrum sightseeing”, so we did cover a few places then:
Neyyar Dam (a place I’ve overdone as a kid, but it still was lovely going back)
Varkala (we went to a place highly recommended by a friend; it was a complete disaster, so I must go again someday)
Kottur Elephant Rehabilitation Center (went two years ago, but they were still setting up, lot of construction going on, very few elephants)
Aazhimala Cliff/Beach
And then, thanks to some visiting relatives, the following sights were also covered 😉
Poovar Mangroves – loved it, until we hit the beach right about 1.30 pm 😀
Jatayu Earth’s Center – I was so impressed by this one, incl the well organized cable-car ride
Anyway, blame games and threats are passé now. It shouldn’t be about boyfriends and husbands and bikes. It should just be about letting the travel bug bite, which I’ve dutifully done now. I am now on a self-driven mission to finally and truly “see” the city I grew up in, call my own, and love to bits.
I waited till 40, so I’m in no hurry. One sight a weekend, perhaps.
This weekend, I covered Kovalam Arts and Craft Village (KACV), and Vizhinjam Lighthouse. Yes, with the husband, minus the bike 😛 Think he took pity on me, ditched a planned breakfast ride, and came along with me and the 5YO 😛 We also recently did the KSRTC Swift’s Nagarakazhchakal double-decker open bus ride, which was fun. All these deserve their own posts (coming soon).
I have many more to go, before I can say I’ve seen Trivandrum! 🙂
Right within a 10-km diameter:
Padmanabhaswamy temple (been donkey years since I’ve been there, the last was in 2004/5! And, it is more for the architectural marvel it is, than to pray)
Kuthiramalika (never seen) and Methanmani (seen as a kid perhaps)
Mateer Memorial Church and CSI Church opp. Public Library (never stepped in, sooo want to)
Parakkovil (never been)
Natural History Museum (never been)
Aquarium @ Vizhinjam (never been)
Akkulam Tourist Village (never been)
Magic Planet (never been)
And then within a slightly wider diameter:
Sasthampara (never been)
Vaazhvanthol (never been)
Meenmutty Falls (never been)
Kottur Elephant Rehabilitation Center (went two years ago, but they were still setting up)
And wider still:
Padmanabhapuram Palace (last visited when I was 13, during a school excursion :P)
Kanyakumari: see the sunrise and sunset, ferry on to the Vivekananda rock (last visited when I was 13 during the same school excursion, but the sunrise and rock were out of scope then)
Varkala (went two years ago, but it wasn’t a good experience; probably a better spot?)
Anjuthengu Fort (was either closed or too bright by the time we left Varkala)
Athirapilli and Vaazhachal waterfalls (been when I was 8 – barely remember it)
Chitharal (Rock-cut Jain Temple – Vellamcode, Tamil Nadu)
Vallichunai (Kumarakovil), Thripparappu and Thiruvattar waterfalls (don’t know if I have the courage for Vallichunai anymore, having seen a video about snakes in the water 😀 )
If there are any you’ve been to and loved, is a must-visit in your opinion, and not in my list, please comment in… 🙂
It was Feb 2019. The 4th or 5th of Feb, if my memory serves me right.
I was pregnant, with the baby due in a month (March 5th was the date I was given).
I was living in a quiet neighbourhood in Bangalore; in fact, far too quiet to qualify as being in Bangalore (despite having a resort within the property).
Anyway, I was minding my own business despite being (so fed up of being) so pregnant :P, when Hobbes came up and told me “We have guests coming over in the evening. You remember my old friends from work…they are coming over for a drink and dinner”.
The introvert in me woke up, instantly annoyed. “Why are they coming here? Why can’t you meet them elsewhere? Just take them to the resort. Do they need to come here? Inside this house?”
Yes, yes. I abhor people 😀 Ok, not entirely true, but almost.
Poor Hobbes. Took him quite some time to convince me that they will leave quickly and that I needn’t get out of my shabby home clothes and dress up to receive the guests, I can just stay in my room, out of sight. Whatever. Grumbling, I did change into something that made me a just a tad bit more presentable.
A bit later, I heard a car pull up at our gate and I could hear voices. Female voices. And a bark. Which friends are these now? I walked out to the living room from the bedroom with a grumbling heart while the face struggled to hold on to a smile. To my utter surprise, I saw the Wife, her dog, and the 3rd Musketeer walk in.
There were hugs and loud laughter and this and that and so much commotion. In fact, because her dog Toby was so big, we had to restrain Pumbaa and Khloe in our room to avoid fights. We sat around talking, Hobbes duly forgiven for springing a surprise, which wasn’t all that bad. Apparently, the three of them had been planning it for a week!
The Wife told my mom how much she loved Amma’s Pazhamporis and Parippu Vadas that it took my mom less than a second to pop into the kitchen 😛
In an hour or so, she was serving them the freshly made yummies and tea, pleased to see them wolf it down with tons of praise. We were all assembled around the table. Hobbes to my left, Pumbaa between us, Wife to my right, Toby between us.
The Wife had in her palm some broken up cheese cubes, which she kept popping over to him. One such she threw, he failed to catch. It fell behind his leg and she kept saying “There, Toby, there…”. When I saw him struggling to find it, frantically turning his head every way he could, I put my hand out to point at it so he could gobble it up.
BITE. I didn’t realise what happened, hence felt no instant pain(though I thought I heard some gasps).
RELEASE. I saw the little finger of my right hand come out of his mouth, dripping blood.Before I could react, down came those teeth again on the already disfigured finger!
BITE. I pulled my finger out as soon as his teeth made a gap, jumped off my chair away from him, and nearly fell over a totally aghast, fired-up Pumbaa.
I then slowly registered Amma screaming, Hobbes looking shocked, the Wife sinking into her chair, looking near-paralysed.
From the second bite on, everything seemed to happen in slow-motion. To this day, I can re-live it, in slo-mo, in that sequence.
Toby opening his mouth after the first bite, letting my finger go, baring his teeth angrily at me and bringing them right back down on my finger. I can only assume that he probably thought I’d taken his cheese cube and was either attacking me for it, or trying to snatch it off my hand. Whatever.
For someone who has a self-declared near-zero threshold for pain, it stuns me every time I think of how calm I was at that point.
My first concern, as the pain rapidly amplified, was to calm Pumbaa down. He’d sprung up, utterly furious at this huge dog who attacked his dear hooman, and wanted to give it back in kind. There was much barking between the two, Pumbaa threatening Toby, who (despite his huge size) tried to hide behind his still-stunned human. I asked Hobbes to take Pumbaa away.
My next concern was my mom. I could see that her BP had shot up and someone needed to support her, which I requested the 3rd Musketeer to do.
And then calmly, brushing it off as if it was just a paper cut, I loudly announced to no one in particular, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m ok. Let me just wash this.” And I calmly walked over to the washbasin, washed it…and THAT is when I realised how monstrously bad it was. A big piece of flesh had been torn out, and was left dangling. Seeing that, my pain amplified to levels I couldn’t imagine…and I didn’t even know how to ‘plop’ it back in place! Hobbes came, took one look and said “Let’s go to the hospital.”
If I remember right, it took us about three hours at the hospital before I could return. And being so close to term, the doctors there were terribly hesitant to do anything at all. They stitched it up, told me to speak to my gynec and get anti-rabies shots. Their paranoia got us pretty paranoid too.
I spoke to my gynec over phone, and that ever-calm woman sounded positively anxious!
When I got back home with a loosely bandaged palm, the atmosphere in the house was terrible.
The Wife told me she wished she could just sink through the ground and never rise.
The 3rd Musketeer remained uncharacteristically mute, asking me now and then if I needed anything.
Hobbes didn’t know what to say or do, except apologise to me time and again for planning this surprise-that-couldn’t-have-gone-further-wrong.
My mother declared a lifelong HATRED for my two best friends, esp the one with the dog.
Truth be told, I was in so much pain, I just wanted them to leave so I could lie down and cry 😀 But I braved it and we sat and talked for a few hours, Pumbaa close by my side, Toby locked up in their room upstairs. I kept telling the Wife that it was alright, Toby probably didn’t mean it, etc. But she was ridden with guilt for bringing him home, knowing he was extremely unpredictable with his anxiety issues. When I went to bed (I had to sleep with mom that night since Wife and 3rd Musketeer took her room), I got it left, right and center from her for inviting a dog over. “How stupid can you all be? That female had no sense. You both also had no sense!?” Fair question, but well.
My gynec was aghast when she saw me the next day, and told me to go to a specialist hospital right away and get the shots done.
My mom and I waited in that hospital for nearly an hour before I was called in. A couple of bloody inhumane nurses handled my finger so roughly, I finally had to yell at them. To add insult to injury — quite literally — the nurses were laughing at my pain as they administered the shot right INTO my wound. Apparently that’s how it was to be. All the stars in the universe danced around my eyes then and I let out a loud scream right onto that damn nurse’s face for giggling through my agony, asking her if SHE had ever been bitten! Those insane giggles died down rather quickly.
I had to get multiple such shots for the next two weeks. I don’t remember how many or in what order. All I still remember is the horrendous pain I endured those days, both with the shots into the wound as well as having to manage myself with the wounded hand. A phase of my life I HATE to be reminded of, which I invariably do every time I spot a German Shepherd somewhere.
I went into labour in 15 days, and it was NO FUN getting the still super-sore wound squished, shoved, pressed, hit at and what not…in all the flurry of the baby coming out and being held. My mother’s anger came down only when she saw an absolutely healthy baby squirming around in the nurse’s hands. She had been petrified that the anti-rabies shots would affect the baby somehow or the other. I am positive she half expected the baby to let out a bark instead of a squeal 😛
In fact, the day I went into labour, I’d called my gynec on phone saying “I feel a bit bloated, think it’s gas; could you give me the name of the syrup you recommended last time?” And when she asked me if I felt I was going into labour, I SO CONFIDENTLY assured her with a “No no, this is just gas.” She calmly told me “Ok, good then. You come over anyway, let’s do a quick check.” When I reached the hospital, I was nearing 9-cm dilation and my gynec was shocked that I did not think of it as contractions and labour pain 😛 “How in the world did you hold on for so long? You kept telling me your pain threshold is nearly zero”.
Well, in my defense, I always thought labour pain would be the worst (and that I’d most likely die of it). This was of course thought well before being bitten by a dog 😀
So, I suppose I was waiting for the kind of pain that would be WORSE than the one on my little finger at that point, and hence attributed actual contraction pain to bad gas 😛
If you’ve known me a while, you know my love for dogs. Introverted as I am, there was always one set of complete strangers I’d happily, voluntarily walk up to: the ones with a dog accompanying them.
Ahem, let me rephrase that.
Introverted as I am, there was always one set of complete strangers I’d happily, voluntarily walk up to: the dogs accompanied by their hoomans.
And me being me, I seldom had anything to talk to them hoomans, except ask of their furry friend’s name, gender and age, and the permission to pet.
Until Feb 2019.
The only dog I trusted after that episode was Pumbaa. I don’t know when I’ll get over it. I still pet dogs when I see them, but I’m no longer as scare-free as I used to be. Once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten, thrice scared 😛 And it also scares me that the dog probably senses my fear and may want to play alpha. So, I don’t pet random dogs nearly 10% as much as I used to.
The Wife ensured never to step into my mom’s line of vision after that. Even before coming to visit the baby, her first question had been “Is your mom there with you? If not, I’ll come”. She waited till Amma travelled to Trivandrum for a month…and only then did she step in to see the baby (when the baby turned four or five months) 😀
Recently, two months ago, she sprung another surprise visit and came to Trivandrum to celebrate my 40th. We went to Munnar…and when I reached back and fell sick two days later, she messaged Hobbes saying “I bet her mom blames me for her fever”. ROFL!
By the way, the part of my little finger where I got bitten is semi-numb to this day. And needless to say, the finger also sports that same white thingy Shail wrote about (a post that became fodder for this post) 🙂
This is not a pic of Toby (but what difference would it make?) 😛
Yes, you guess it right. 2024 was nasty to me. In many ways. Some of which I definitely do not want to pen down here.
January
The year started on a promising note. In Jan, we took an impulsive decision to trek up Agasthyaarkoodam and the wish was granted: a miracle that we’ll cherish for life! If you are planning (or know of someone planning) for this trek, please hit the link and pass it on 🙂 It was a trek that truly made me look within and take some decisions that I would never have done otherwise.
I got pulled into an immensely demanding project at work, which nearly threatened me with the possibility of having to skip Agasthyaarkoodam. Fortunately, the trek and the project both took me to good heights 🙂
We laid the foundation for a new home, and construction began in Jan. We demolished the house I grew up in, in an attempt to make it a nicer, liveable ‘home’ 😛
February
Our little one turned 5 and we celebrated her birthday for the first time. Yes, that’s right. It was a decision we had agreed on even before she was born, that we would not celebrate her birthday before she reaches an age where a birthday celebration matters to her. I’m yet to experience a “first birthday” celebration where the kid is not bawling its heart out while a huge group of adults and other kids are having the time of their lives, eating, drinking and making merry 😛
Anyway, she turned 5, knew what a birthday celebration was, got lots of gifts and had the time of her life 🙂 Made so much sense.
March
Hobbes and I went for a movie. The big screen. Our first movie-outing in Trivandrum, since relocating from Bangalore in 2021 🙂 Well, we took forever to recover from both, the Covid-19 induced paranoia of being in a closed air-conditioned room, as well as the devastating experience of watching Odiyan in 2018 at Bangalore 😛 This time, it was the last night show mid-week, there were very few people n there and it was Manjummel Boys, a far better experience 😀 Incidentally, this was also our first-ever entry into Lulu Mall 😛
April
The 5YO went to Lulu Mall for the first time, and fell in love with Funtura 😀 Seeing the absolute joy on her face made us get a Funtura membership as well. Sigh. Little did we know then that we would end up spending many weekends of 2024 at Funtura 😛
More movie nights (and afternoons!) were also waiting to happen. Life seemed good.
Until.
May
At the start of May, I got a new boss and another demanding project at work. It is a phase I would rather much quickly forget 😀 The only thing that kept me going through that month was the thought of an upcoming trip on May 20th to Kashmir.
I have still not recovered from it. In fact, Kashmir is such a bloody blotch in my mind now, that every time I want to refer to Kashmir, I involuntarily end up saying Pakistan first, and correct it to Kashmir 😀
June
The 5YO was hospitalised for the first time in her life. A little girl who never fell sick even when vaccines went in, was in the emergency ward, weak from a terrible spate of food-poisoning induced diarrhoea and vomiting.
The work scene was rapidly deteriorating, thanks to several aspects. For some reason, we began attributing everything negative in our lives to Kashmir and the darned tour operator (hope they rot in Haryana or UP or wherever it is that they are based) 😛
July
Hobbes, Mom and Dad all fell gravely sick, all symptoms pointing to a Dengue (though blood reports were -ve for Dengue). The 5YO was spared. I was too, probably to play caregiver role. Well, not for too long. By end of July, while the others were slowly getting on the path of recovery, I got hospitalized. For 5 days.
Mine was a combination of Dengue (blood count drop), Chikungunya (extreme pain in all joints), and Zika (itching all over, as if the bloody mosquitoes were eating up my flesh). Again, blood reports were -ve for all three, but symptoms screamed loudly of D+C+Z). I’d never been so sick in my entire life.
August
Work was becoming a nightmare. Quite literally. I was having trouble sleeping, thanks to ‘bugs’ of a different kind. And the constant pain across all joints didn’t help. I could not even lift a glass of water with one hand. It was that bad. I permanently moved to the room downstairs because climbing up and down the stairs was something I could not even imagine doing. At 39, I was walking around like I was 93 — no exaggeration.
It’d been four horrible months and a break was in order. We went to Fragrant Nature, a lovely resort in Kollam. There was a lot to do — boating, fishing, swimming, playing…and a LOT of walking to do to and from the restaurant. Frankly, while it is definitely one of the most lovely places I’ve been to (and truly fragrant too), it did me more harm than good. I returned home three days later, feeling more unwell and more in pain than I was before 😦
September
Onam was fast approaching. Initially, because of all the pain, I was dad against the idea of a sadya and having extended family over, arranging a pookkalam, and all that jazz, but I was constantly looking and feeling so bad, I decided to dress up for Onam. It was perhaps the first time in my life that I voluntarily bought myself a saree. A Kerala saree from a friend’s start-up, Ash and loom. Frankly, it was the beauty of the saree that made me convince myself that I needed to be draped in it. I arranged a pavada-and-blouse for the %YO and a shirt for Hobbes, all in the same colour, so we’d all be color coordinated.
October
The 5YO and I went on our first outing without Hobbes, and watched the Wild Robot. We both cried our hearts out and declared eternal love for the movie.
Work became a complete nightmare: it was killing me, mentally, physically, emotionally. ANd, the constant pains didn’t seem to want to leave me alone! And to add insult to injury, I began losing hair like nobody’s business. It was almost as if I was undergoing chemotherapy. I would have clumps of hair between my fingers, on my comb and caught in my towel each day. To a point where I was afraid to touch my head! I was beginning to wonder if I had some grave illness within. Apparently, it was just the effect of the devastating viral attack I’d had.
November
I turned 40 🙂
It had been the dream to wake up to the Pyramids of Giza on my 40th, but those darned Hamas b******s ruined it for a year in advance. So, we did the next best thing that’s closest to my heart: spend time in a Hobbit House at Munnar 🙂 Not to mention the surprise visit the dear Wifeshocked me with!
Of course, with the low immunity levels, we later realized Munnar was a bad idea. It was raining through and through and we were mostly stuck inside the Hobbit House which just grew damper by the minute. Sigh. I promptly fell sick again.
As if all this wasn’t enough, we also got a really unexpected blow from a super close relative. It killed all our joy about the new house shaping up, and just leaves us with a huge debt!
December
I got into a new project again, this time, one that was on fire. Task #1 was to douse that fire. Which I did, in two weeks.
Hobbes and I embarked on something super interesting with a partner-friend, only to have it fall through in a matter of two weeks. Much effort and time spent, much flak received from partner-friend for no fault of ours. In fact, it was so bad, Hobbes and I had a near-fallout 😛 Bah.
And, we happened to watch Barroz 😦 😦 😦
The saving grace was the Christmas season: the 5YO’s wish-list was granted by Santa, we had several family-and-friends parties (which the introvert in me half-heartedly attended), and a good close to the year at work (the craziness paid off).
So, 2025…please be good.
Give me a year of trust, respect, priority. Bring me good health, food, love, joy and laughter. Grant me peace, good sleep, and travels galore. And chips, pancakes, biriyani and pastas. With music, songs, and Ukelele times.
Thre! Nevr works when I want it to. That title was meant to read ‘Typing without ‘. There, still not working. ‘Typing without e’. Aah, now it did.
So, the ‘E’ key on my laptop is brokn. It’s been all jiggly for ovr two months now, but I never bothred sinc it was working. Four days ago, it brok off completly and has ben dancing around on my kyboard vr since. It works on some words, doesn’t on othrs. No rule or logic to it, just random bhaviour.
This is my work laptop. If I’v to gt this fixed or rpaird, I’v to go all the way to Bangalor! Imagin that. For a brokn , spending 10k on a flight (or half of that on a train/bus), going all the way to Bangalore, spending hours on the road and probably gtting a rplacement laptop that’s worse.
So, I’v dcided to live with it for as long as my patienc lasts. How I gt any work done is beyond m, sinc min involves a lot of typing. Wll, that’s my fault bcause while most popl just call th other person via Tams to discuss whatever it is, I choos to typ out sntenc after sentence just so I can avoid having to ‘speak’ (if the decision is left to me). If you’ve known m long nough and hav followd my blog, you know I’m on of those extreme introverts who would rather typ than speak 😀
And that rminds me of some peopl who ar absolutly clueless about the existnc of introverts lik m and don’t understand the stress they feed in by randomly placing a call, without having the courtsy to ping beforehnd. OK, I digrss – this topic dserves an entire post for itself.
So wll, I will continu to live with this brokn ky for as long as I can; my mails are still perfctly writtn, but i cant say that about th ping; suffice to say my tam has now understood that my E’s dying a slow death.
I guss this is the univers conspiring against m just days befor I was to dcide on getting regular on this blog again 😛
Since I took th decision to blog her more often, I decided to try keying in one post without consciously going back to the e key and trying to make it bhave. Uttr chaos, can’t you se? Not to mntion all that additional tim it takes m to ensure I have a typo-less post. Th previous two took me so much tim, I could have written 4 posts if the e stayd in plac!
And the biggest paradox here? Missing alphabts in AlphabetWorld!
I normally turn off the Internet on my phone before getting to bed, to avoid incoming messages and their ping-pong sounds. And that’s what I did Tuesday night as well, around 10 p.m., before crawling under the comforter. I was aware that I hadn’t shut down my laptop, which was in the same room. Since I did not want to budge from that oh-so-good bed, I decided to let it be and was slowly drifting off to sleep. Suddenly, the entire room was washed with a brightness that only digital screens can produce.
The darned laptop! Aaaargh, I should’ve shut it down.
I got up and unlocked it to shut it down. That’s when I realised what had caused the hitherto dark and moody machine to light up so brightly without warning or prodding. There was an incoming call on my WhatsApp (desktop app), from my cousin who never calls at such odd hours. It instantly worried me – was something wrong?
I quickly shut down the laptop, not wanting to take the call in there and awaken the sleeping 5YO and husband. I grabbed my phone and stepped outside the room and called her back. Before I could finish saying hello, an unexpected little voice greeted me with utmost distress in his voice.
*Obviously, this was a Malayalam conversation, but let me reproduce it in English here for everyone’s benefit*
“Priya ammaiii…”, he squeaked.
That sound and the distress in it only made my hair stand up taller on their already busy ends. Because…why, oh why, must a 9YO attend his mom’s phone at that hour?! I had barely begun to shoo away the deluge of disturbing thoughts, when he continued in utter distress…
“I have a charity form, I have to submit, tomorrow is the last date.” I am completely flabbergasted at this point, going whaaaaaa!? “Ok, what can I do about that?” “I need money from you!” Now I am amused, this straightforward demand for money is cute. “How much money do you need?” “Any amount is fine.” Cool, no demands on the amount. “And how will I give it to you now?” “You can GPay it to mom.” Wow. The little boy’s as practical as one can be! “What charity is it?” “Help charity. Help India.” I can hear my cousin laughing away in the background at this point. “HelpAge India?” “Yes, yes!” I am taken back to my own schooldays, and I totally resonate with his distress.
It is at this point that my cousin took the phone from him. She told me how she’d received a reminder for the form submission from his teacher. It was only when she asked him about it that he frantically fished the form out of his bag: one that was given to him 3 weeks ago apparently! 😀 To her surprise, her 11YO also frantically fished out a look-alike form! Apparently, after that, it was a frenzy of who all they could collect money from so late in the evening. Neighbours were obviously not a choice; the inmates of the same house were. After all avenues were exhausted, they hadn’t collected enough for their liking! And, since it was all GPay, my cousin apparently was chasing her mom for currency notes at that late hour too 😀
Anyway, she and I had a good laugh, I told my cousin how I still remember the HelpAge India charity form from my own school days, and promised to GPay her. And as I was hanging up, I could hear her telling the 11YO “No no, stay quiet!” I am pretty sure he had his own distress he wanted to share with me 😀
For added effect, the 9YO sent me a snap of his charity form via WhatsApp, and I was floored!
Because, on Row #4, I saw his name, with a ‘(Myself)’ and a ’14’ against it!
For a 9YO, I thought that was pretty sweet!Clearly, he thought it was important for him to donate a share of his small savings too! That stole my heart. And, he seemed to have given it considerable thought. Though I couldn’t make out the initial amount that’s been scratched off, I am assuming it is 20, given that the next scratched off number is 18.
While Rs 14/- is nothing in today’s world on its own, for someone who may just be short of Rs 10/- for something really important to them, fourteen rupees can be immensely valuable! His decision to part with a big chunk of his tiny savings for the good of absolute strangers floored me.
I guess this is all we need in children. Instead of straight grade As in subjects taught at school, such goodness in their hearts. Knowing the importance of sharing, having it in them to ‘give’ ❤
I immediately made the transfer, my mom did too. And in the voice message that came later with a “thank youuuuu”, the distress was completely replaced with joy!
At 10.15 p.m. that night, I took it on myself to begin a fundraiser support for these little ones 😀 I turned to our extended family WhatsApp group that has over 25 “earning” adults, and requested them to urgently “GPay to his mom” any amount they pleased. While I didn’t care how much they got, I was glad to see “Thank you” messages going out to a good number of group members the next morning. A bit of ‘My good deed for the (previous) day’!
Long story short, that late night distress call was the sweetest, cutest distress call I’ve ever received. I thought this needed to be documented for posterity. When this little boy of 9 turns 19 (or 29), I would like to see his reaction to this episode from his younger days! 😉 ❤
I mean, it’s been JUST and ONLY SIX YEARS since I posted here last. Barely reason to be forgotten, unfollowed, unsubscribed, and whatnot, right? 😀
Several things that happened in the past two days (and one in the past 1.5 years :P) that prompted me to get here today.
Sometime in 2023 (March 28, 2023, to be precise), I happened to come across a blog that mentioned me. For the life of me, I can’t remember how I ended up on that blog. I sure wasn’t blog-hopping, a feat I can have last attempted 10 years ago.
Imagine that. I hadn’t written for nearly 5 years, but apparently I was this blogger’s muse! She wrote this based on what I had written eons ago on the same topic! I got all flattered and fired up that day. I told myself I should return to blogging, which I promptly forgot about after a good night’s sleep. Did I hear some people say ‘Typical‘?
And thus, that was that. A year and half ago!
About a week ago, I read Shail’s post. Apparently, she had looked through old blogs in her list and unsubscribed from those that hadn’t been posted in for years. I’m sure I’m out of her list now, so she probably won’t even see this post anymore or add me back. 😛 Not that I can blame her, for only God knows when I’ll post next 😀
But, her post took me to the old blogging days when it used to almost be like a competition: all that leg-pulling and blogging about the leg-pulling and then someone ‘reply’ blogging about that blog on the leg-pulling…you get the drift! But, I agree with Shail. She’s the only one who continues to blog (from my list at least) apart from 2-3 others who are just barely better than me since they post once in 2-3 years! 😛
Yesterday morning, I woke up to a comment on my last post from Oct 2018 that said: It’s been 6 years since you last wrote. I grew up reading your blogs, picking up vocabulary from here, reading for hours and hours on end! And I really miss reading endlessly of someone’s life, someone that I have never met, someone who doesn’t know of my existence. I just wanna prove that I’m a real fan by saying that I’ve been following your blog since the cucumbercity blogspot times hehe. Please write again… Though the “I grew up reading your blogs” part make it sound like I’m an old woman now (which I have to admit I am), this comment made my day!
And yes, the CucumberCity mention does make the commenter authentic. It was my first ever blog on blogspot.com, before I migrated over to WP! I just went there, read some of the posts and went “Teehee…who was that person?”
Anyhow, all this made me decide I must absolutely get back to blogging, even if I manage only one post a year month. But what can I write about, suddenly? There needs to be continuum: from when I swallowed the last morsel of that scone to going “Teehee…who was that person?”, right?
And thaaaat is when the doings of a little nephew, who made me an urgent distress call at 10 the prior night from his mom’s phone, came to mind!
**I hope this ending to this post is as effective at making you wait for my next post…as are episodes of Netflix series! 😀 **
AlphabetWorld! 
