Moms out there YOU ROCK!!!

10 random thoughts that cross my mind in my role as Mom:

1. To come back home from a full day of work, pause slightly at the front door - muster up all my strength and walk in and announce 'Team buckle up Mama is here'. Well, this also means the kids almost ignore you until you raise your voice and scream 'GIRLS did you hear me, I am here!!'

2. It means as you drive back home 'you make a mental note of what is in the refrigerator, what I could cook for dinner and also updating Cozi with the things that still needs to be bought for tomorrow's dinner. Sometimes, it also means taking a sharp detour at the last minute, freaking the hell out of drivers behind me when I realise that I need to stop by the grocery story to pick up Crème fraîche for the chicken masala I would like to make.

3. It means answering a very urgent late evening call from a colleague at work with one hand and at the same time trying to tell little bunny using a lot of futile actions telling her that her handwriting could be much much better. I keep reminding myself that she will not have to write on paper when she is my age, but anyways.

4. It means getting the best welcomes in the world to die for after a business trip - but then as a matter of fact expected to immediately shed your business attire and jump back to being Mummy again - 'Mama can you take us to the schwimmbad today?' At the same time looking into hubby eyes totally in acceptance of the fact that the real superman was at home holding up all fronts diligently single handedly.

5. It means churning up some yummy food to eat in very quick intervals of time and then getting really painful looks as to why this yuckky stuff has to be really eaten completely. Thankfully gets compensated by hubby happily digging into dinner with a content smile.

6. Getting corrected regularly on the right usage of German grammar especially the artikels and constantly correcting the kids to use either complete German or English sentences.

7. It means getting squeals of delight from across the Atlantic to see their Mom on Facetime, where you would do anything in your strength to reach out and kiss their innocent faces.

8. It means trying to squeeze in couple of hours no matter how short a business trip may be to get back home with a little small gift that they would love but you know very well would be lying somewhere under the bed in a couple of days time.

9. It means lying in bed with your little ones all cuddled up and reading a night time story and stopping to take a deep breath thanking God for such blissful moments when in the next minute there could potentially be a screech right into your ears 'MAMA, she tugged on my half of the blanket !!!'. These moments of bliss always comes and goes in waves. These waves can be compared to the birthing contractions where the break between them for a woman is so blissful, but you are almost on the verge of knowing what is coming up next. I think I am analyzing that thought a bit too much here, I better stop.

10. It also means trying to endlessly clear up the clutter in every room of the house and having to start all over again in kind of cyclic intervals. But cleaning clutter even comes with an advantage, that it gets you into this state of nirvana where I can clearly visualize a product feature that can immensely help my customers solve an integration design challenge that they are facing.

This is not a complete list, but cheers to all the Mom's out there, I think this job makes all the other jobs in the world seem so easy :-) I was a bit late for international women's day, but I just think we women rock...

Bangalore beckoning

Work took me to Bangalore some weeks back. I am always excited when I get the chance to go to Bangalore, the city I was born and brought up in. But more interesting was the flight to Bangalore. I happened to sit next to another colleague who also worked for the same company that I work for. He also had moved to Germany and made it his home for the last 13 years. Very similar in that sense to me as well, but he moved from a small county in South Africa. It was extremely interesting to understand how he had gotten used to life in Germany and how we could come to some of the same conclusions about different facets in the last decade or so. We also got to comparing the traffic conditions in India and Germany. One of his remarks was very interesting – He said that despite the fact that there are no real traffic rules followed by anyone in the Bangalore roads, somehow everything works out fine because the people take care of each other. It is not the rules of the law that guide them but it is the basic human feeling of taking care of another human being that makes it work. Whereas in Germany traffic is so well regulated mainly because everybody is following the rules diligently. I was thinking aloud if the reason they follow the rules is also because of the human care that people have for each other. Interesting observation and conversation.

It was lovely to hear the officer in the immigration counter at the Bangalore international airport smile and ask me in Kannada the local language, if I am back in town. But he was kinda disappointed to note that I would be leaving back in few days. Told him that kiddies and hubby was back home and I need to get back soon, he nodded knowingly. He told me that next time we should all come together for vacation and stay longer. I told him we were here in 2010 and we really had a nice time together. Could not possibly have this conversation with somebody sitting in an immigration counter back home in Germany  but I still imagined how that would play out.

The hotel was nice, the breakfast buffet was brilliant and the best part it was bang opposite the Bangalore office. It could not get better than this, no Bangalore traffic madness for the next days. The only small glitch was that most of the time was spent trying to cross that busy road in the morning. I realized that my dare devil run across the road skills had slightly diminished, but I was gonna work on that. On the last day I managed to crush the fear within my head and glide through the road, knowing very well that all the Gods were on my side.

The thing that always hits you when you walk into the offices in Bangalore is how energetic and young the crowd around you is. The negative though is that I can no longer be content thinking that given 99% chances I am the youngest one sitting in the meeting room. You can be damn sure that everyone in that room is probably half your age, what a bummer. But you also realise that everybody has so many options in Bangalore, and I wondered if they all share the same sense of commitment that I felt when I started off in my corporate journey 14 years back. Something to ponder about I guess.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the chance to meet with family and loved ones. On this front nothing had changed, thank God for that. Lots of yummy food, unconditional love, warm hugs and enquiries galore about hubby dear and kiddies back home in Germany.

Everybody sighing and awing about hubby dear and how he manages everything singlehandedly when I was away. Yeah, hubby dear is indeed my secret weapon that actually makes all this possible for me. My strength and solid foundation for everything in life, I could’nt wait to get back and see the delight in the kiddies eyes and the sense of relief in hubby’s eye.

No matter what

Saw this movie last Friday evening called 'Trust'. The movie was a good one, all about how kids in their teenage years can very easily get lost in the cyberworld. Lost in such a way, that they start trusting strangers whom they have never met in person more than anybody else including their own parents! Trusting them so deeply and also falling in love with these strangers completely.

The movie left hubby and me quite concerned. Well, anybody with two little girls would be. Especially with kids these days being exposed to a lot more technology in the form of ipads, iphones etc than we were when we were kids.

But the key question really is, is it only about the technology? That really is only one part of the whole puzzle, is'nt it? There are so many aspects out there that could influence your children and their decisions as they grow up. A strong loving nest @ home is very important and hopefully the effect of this surrounds them like a protective sheath when they are out there in the world on their own. But as a parent I think the most important aspect from my point of view is to be there for your children, no matter what and that's the key 'No matter what'.

I am excited thinking about the years ahead with the girls, there will be a lot of joy, there will be dissapointments, there will be anger sometimes, there will be a lot of successes, there will also be failures, maybe there are some heartbreaks :-), crushes etc etc...but no matter what we will be there for them...no matter what :-))

Miss you!!

This post is dedicated to my father-in-law. A man, I can't actually believe is no more!! A man whose strong value system, I see reflected in his son the man whom I married and deeply love. Yes I had or still have a special kind of love, a combination of respect and deep admiration for hubby's father. I loved him for his sincerity, admired the fact that he always allowed people around him to have their sense of freedom and space, his very strong but not suffocating love for his children.

A completely self made man who I believe was much ahead of his times in his thinking, he educated his siblings, convinced his young wife (my mother-in-law) back in those days to do a double graduation and pursue a career, gave the best education to his kids and never stopped them from pursuing their dreams even if it meant them going far away from him. He always had a sense of satisfaction about him when we were around him and especially doted on his grandchildren.I think he was in his true element only when he was in his own home in Udupi, in the world that he felt the most comfortable in.

 
I really wish that I was together with hubby dear back in Udupi now, being part of the whole process of telling his father goodbye but I think staying back and having the time to think about him and reflect back on some very fond memories is also very special. Today, as I went through some of the pictures of their paternal grandfather with the girls, little bunny told me that her Nana is now in the sky and that he was smiling at us. I am sure he is but we miss you dearly dearest Daddy!!!

Liquid Metal Terminators

Working on the technology side of the house, I am always amazed by Apple and the amazing products that they bring to market. This is a company that I like to follow and each time they release a new product they manage to get the drool factor in me. The amount of innovation that this company churns out is simply unbelievable. Just heard that they got the rights to all the patents from a company called Liquidmetal Technologies. Well, what are they up to now? A new modern metal that they will use for their new devices? Liquidmetal anyway has deemed steel and titanium to have reached the point of diminishing returns.

My hubby's mind seems to be running wild, he says that Apple must be thinking of diversifying into new domains like making special space shuttles with new alloys from Liquidmetal which will enable us to travel to moon and back. Now I would not mind that ride one bit, especially if Apple would be creating that user experience.