A Welcome Portrait

March has a record number of posts by muah, because these 3 months have been exam months. I know. It's a paradox. I tend to blog more when I have exams because that means more time on my hands. Usually during vacations my days are so full that I go weeks without the PC, days without the TV and never without proper food :) 

But the purpose of this post isn't to discuss my blogging habits. It's to prove that I have as much skill in art as I have technological expertise ;) 

                                                                    Family Portrait

Welcome to the family, little girl :)

Lots of love,

CM

My Backyard Blues

My chilli plants are flowering in the backyard, at least that’s what my mum said some weeks back. Given the insane heat back home, I don’t know if those plants survived. I’m hoping they watered them, but I doubt it because my backyard isn’t actually safe. I’ve seen a fair number of questionably shady looking individuals walk through it (it’s an open stretch of land behind the kitchen and it’s connected to the adjacent houses’ yards as well, since we live in terrace homes)

The papaya tree needs to be cut down.  The tree has grown to an incredible height but the fruits are far too fibrous to be eaten. Even the birds don’t eat them anymore. But it’s been there for the past four years, so we’ll see…

The kanaga flowers (subspecies of the hibiscus, I believe) are doing pretty well though. My dad ventures out every three days or so into my hazardous backyard to pluck the flowers and offer them up at the altar during evening prayers. I hope they’re ok. The kanaga flower plants I mean.

My feathered, two-legged siblings seem to have toned down, also due to the beating sun overhead, no doubt. They only come to gate and chirp in the early morning or late evening now, and even then only after my mum has done her routine cleaning of the courtyard, which involves spraying water all over it to remove the sand and debris from the previous day. I’m sure she misses them. The two-day old rice in little tupperwares in the fridge has probably been reused in fried rice, for fear of them going to waste (lesser sparrows, hence lesser need for left-over rice, meaning even more leftover rice for us humans at home … oh, what joy : S)

Oh, did I mention the baby banana trees? As a kid I would stare at them for hours - so many different birds would perch on them and each had different plumage. The insects I saw on them usually made me feel itchy all over, but they were fascinating in their own way too. Every now and then a rodent or stray cat or dog would wander past and that’s still a source of fascination for my nephews. I should do that again sometime, just leave my kitchen door open and wander around the backyard (hopefully with my brother or father not too far away :P)… or, maybe, we should just move everything to the front courtyard. Hmm…

Gardening’s a pain – digging into the ground, sweating profusely for the sake of a little greenery, getting icky and dirty. But the smell of freshly turned earth and the frustration at the bits of dark soil stuck under my fingernails has a very subtle magnetic pull for some reason. The newly emerging plant shoots, the small budding leaves, the annoying bugs and vermin that get me into a frenzy and of course the flowers and fruit are something else all together. The joy and pain of it all is almost like raising a kid. All right, I’m exaggerating a bit, excuse the melodrama :)

I am looking forward to my time at home, when I get to bicker with my mum over bits of shrub, because had it not been for her, I would have been stuck in front of the TV or curled up with my story book, or running crazy mad hatter races with my brother and sister as a kid.

I miss being able to say ‘I planted that’ or ‘that needs weeding’ or ‘die, stooopid bug, DIE!’

Anyone know how to make the next papaya tree less fibrous? Would appreciate the input! Then every time I feel like eating chilled papayas with a squeeze of lime, I needn’t look farther than the backyard :)

Speaking of that, I wonder how my mum’s lime tree’s doing. The most minute of grasshoppers, which look a bit like the infamous cutie that made it onto Rainfield’s blog, can wreak havoc on that poor tree, and they’re too fast to catch.. I wonder if they died in the heat? Yeah, I’m evil ;)

Missing my life in the backyard, at home. You could say that I'm having a somewhat warped version of backyard blues.. and to give it a kick and so that I'll be able to laugh at myself sometime down the road, I highlighted the source of my blues, in well, BLUE :)

Conditional Love ;)...Earth Hour Reminder

I assure you I am not becoming all sentimental suddenly, I just think this is cute... and also because unconditional love is so rare, I just wanna remind you guys that we still have conditional love to fall back on - as a sort of back up if you will, and that it aint half bad :)
Conditional Love – Girl’s Take

Don't judge me by the pretty dress I wore, 

or that line of blue over the mascaraed eye

Don't remember my poise and gait, 

nor the giggle as you walked me to my door

Think instead of when we fought, 

my face scary and scrunched up in anger

Remember the green of spinach between my teeth, 

and how when we yawned, I yawned louder.

If you can think of me sitting in my PJs, 

hair not combed (and chewed nails to boot) 

and not have to suppress a shudder;

If you don't close your ears when I sing in the shower,

But care enough when I don’t always do what’s right, 

I might just have to give you more than my number

Conditional Love – Guy’s Take

When I say I’m tired, I need a break

It usually means time with the guys,

Don’t get angry and throw a crazy fit,

Loving me was never meant to be a piece of cake.

If I’m glued to the PC, on WoW or DOTA,

Or even if I’m just being a tech freak’s freak,

Please, don’t ask me to do the dishes or laundry

Feed me, clothe me and mother me a bit

Don’t however treat me like a kid

I don’t mind driving you to the grocery store,

But let us get this one thing clear:

When you say you’ll only be a minute and nothing more

I won’t bother to look for proper parking,

And trust me, I’d rather wait in the car

I love my car, my cell, sports, fast food and TV,

And don’t mock my skills with a wrench and hammer,

I assure you I also know my way

around a broom, mop and vacuum cleaner,

But most of the time I think ‘Why bother’!

I too can commit and that know you know

But don’t expect a helpless romantic

Or my pals will kill me, baby, I’ll be a social goner.

I thought women were 

suppo

sed to be the one

s with the word power and more complaint

s? Who would have thought, eh? ;) Though the girl doe

s do a better job at rhyming :D

   Al

so wanted to remind you guy

s that today we've got Earth Hour happening, and regardle

s

s if your area i

s participating or not, each of u

s can do our part

s by 

switching unnece

s

sary electrical appliance

s during thi

s time to cut carbon emi

s

sion

s. If you'd like that i

s :) Heaven know

s my laptop could do with a break and maybe during thi

s time I can get 

some much needed 

shut eye!

Lessons on Beauty

“Just because you’re beautiful, you don’t get the right to treat others like sh**.”

-          -  from the movie ‘10 Things I Hate About You’

“Oh, sure he’s gorgeous today. Give it another three years and he’ll get fat.”

-         -   from a (slightly?) intoxicated friend during a postmortem analysis of a failed relationship

“The most beautiful thing I’ve seen today is your smile.”

-           - Anonymous

Moral of the story:

Beauty won’t help much if your attitude’s out of line.

Beauty doesn’t last. Or is the lesson more of a ‘don’t end up with a ‘pretty’ boy’? ;)

Smile :)