Boo Boo, Mamma and Daddy

Manmohan Singh won the vote of confidence.

1. I once bullied this guy on the phone (now this is secret is something similar to RADS secret). So this was from the time I was doing my summer internship (part of MBA course) and one of my classmates P (Intern) was also with me. She was a free spirited girl and believed in having fun and living life to the fullest. And in this company where we were working as interns, there happened to be an employee S. So our P fell in love with him at the first sight over lunch, of course we were eating in our table and he sat in the opposite table. This guy was good looking but not really mirror cracking material. So she wanted to start a conversation with him but she was not sure how to start it and guess what she thought of calling him on his hostel phone and break the ice of course without revealing her true identity. But there is a catch to this, her voice was a little coarse and she wanted me to call him and speak with him. Well was not really busy those days and I started chatting up with him pretending as P. One fine day we were in the campus and he called out my name, I was with P at that time, for a moment I was startled. P convinced me to speak with him and it seems Mr.S fell in love with me and he was aware of our little prank. I was really embarrassed and told him the whole story and ran from there and never spoke with him for the rest of my stay there.

2. In 7th standard I ratted about my classmate who was cheating in the exam. In the later this whenever I remembered this incident it made me feel very silly

3. Myself, my sister and two close buddies tried to steal bhutta (sweet corn) from our school security guard’s backyard. So this guy used to live just outside our school and he planted corn in his backyard. So all four of us would eye the corn plants every day in the morning and afternoon and one fine day we plotted to steal a few in the evening. As planned we were strolling around his house till it got a little dark and we tried pulling the corn and in the process we uprooted a few plants and the watchman heard and came chasing us with a stick. It was dark and he could not recognize us but one of our friend who was around 6 feet at that time was spotted and he complained to our principal the next day. This happened when I was in the 8th standard.

4. This one time I broke my leg while riding a scooter without my dad’s knowledge. He and my mom were out of town. I went to the doctor and got a cast around my ankle and pretended as if everything is ok and when parents returned all three of us sisters told them that I slipped from the stairs and broke my leg. I think they don’t know about it till now.

5. Now this secret is from those days when I was dating M. I was in Chennai on a business trip and was supposed to return the same day evening but I told my parents that it is a two day trip. After returning from Chennai the same evening I spent the night at M’s place.

6. I had a huge crush on my 10th grade science teacher. This whole crush thing proved out to be quiet helpful to me as I used to study really hard to impress this teacher he was just out of collage) and as a result of this I scored 97/100 in the board exams. He left the school after my 10th exams, I was left heart broke. I think he knew about it because one time when he came to our school in the 11th grade he met me and gave me a big lecture on how studies are important and how I should not get carried away by this whole “love and relationship” thing. It had a huge impact on me, it was like I understood the whole thing so easily. Later I found out that he cleared the IAS exams and is posted Bhopal, M.P

7. I tried smoking pot onetime when I was in Cyprus but chickened out at the last moment and never tried it again.

8. I did lots of naughty stuff while in Cyprus, which I really cannot write here, so they are going to my grave with me.

9. I go shopping for clothes on the day my salary is credited. Nothing like retail therapy.

10. I lost my engagement ring and M doesn’t know about it so far.

Wow, that was pretty exhausting I must say. I am not going to tag anyone. Whoever wants to tell their secrets, take it up.

So yesterday evening i was walking from Grand Central to the port authority to catch the bus to get home and somewhere near Bryant park i see this homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk and he had a placard which read like this “I used to date Hillary Clinton and look where I am today, get a hint America.”

I could not stop laughing for a whie.

So Saturday morning after the routine breakfast and lunch drill we were supposed to leave. Once again I was not really excited about going there so kind of dropped the idea at the last minute and started watching TV and within minutes M started complaing about how we are postponing it for weeks.  So I pulled myself together and started getting ready. The reason why I was not so enthusiastic about the Atlantic city trip is my stay in Cyprus. I was living on the sea front there and every evening we would take long walks on the sea front. Weekends meant shopping at the farmers market for fresh fruits & vegetables and head towards the beach. There was a small rocky island within a small distance, so M and myself would carry a beer each and swim to that island, sit on those rocks soak up some sun, drink our beer and catch up with the stuff happened on the weekend. This was very unwinding and very romantic. So now if I have to drive two hours to get to a beach, it doesn’t motivate me that much.

Anyways lets come back to the present, so on Saturday afternoon around four we started from home for Atlantic city. We totally forgot about the traffic part and it took us three and a half hours to reach Atlantic city. We parked our car in Bally Casino and came towards the shopping area to find a whole bunch of brand names like Banana Republic, GAP, Ralph Lauren…..Well no points for guessing, I totally forgot about the beach and the boardwalk and entered into Banana Republic. Found a cute pair of white sandals and really cute almost grey metallic hand bag. Bought them without a second thought while husband was sulking for that I was wasting time shopping instead of going to the beach. Within minutes we headed towards the beach and it was almost dark. I was almost sure these guys will not get into water but booboo never fails to surprise me. The moment he saw water he ran towards he waves trying to catch them and I ran behind him. A big wave washed the shore and I could feel cold water on my legs and I immediately grabbed booboo and ran away from the water. Booboo was very disappointed and freed himself from my clutches and went to his dad and begged him to go towards the water. And that was the beginning of a wonderful experience. He enjoyed playing in the water immensely. What surprises me is that neither he was afraid of the darkness nor the cold water. Within minutes he was a all wet and rolling on the sand. And then he spots another older boy, almost 5 year old and both of them start laughing at each others jokes. Booboo never gets intimidated by anyone, its so difficult to embarrass him or scare him. After sometime the older boys mother came and he went away and booboo turned to his dad for companionship. This whole thing was so much fun.

I had to literally drag father and son from water and they took shower and got dressed. By the way did I mention anywhere that I did not pack any change of clothes or even towels because M said he wont get into water and I had to run and buy towels and clothes for father and sun while they were having fun in the water. Now all three of us were real hungry and ate a nice big pizza slice. Whenever we come Atlantic city its kind of a custom to eat funnel cake (American version of jalebi) and the curly fries. This time I did not like either and had to eat something good to take of the bad taste and what else can be better than fried ice cream with topped with fresh cream. Now this was awesome and I can suggest you guys to try it at least once. Booboo slept in the stroller after dinner and then we took a long walk on the board walk and I won a few soft toys in some of the arcade games and the M & I went go karting, of course separately because on of had to be with booboo.

After the games and go karting it was casino time. Once again children are not allowed inside so we took turns, blew a hundred bucks and came back empty handed.

We headed back home an hour past midnight and it was a two hours drive. So the conclusion of the trip is that booboo is not scared of the sea and we need take him to Coney island this weekend. But no funnel cakes or curly fries this time.

Looks like I am not capable of staying away from trouble for a long time. I was under tremendous pressure when I started working for this company. From day one I kept on complaining and M kept on pointing out towards the bright side which included the role I am in, the kind of work atmosphere, blah blah blah.

Somehow I managed to overcome the initial troubles and slowly got comfortable with the role and things started looking better. One fine day I get a call from the director of the new team I moved into recently. One of his manager was moving to another team so he wanted to know if I would be interested to join his team.. The offer was very interesting, I was gonna head the team for US and Brazil, but that doesn’t mean I should not look at the downside.

Its three weeks since I moved into this new team and literally I am walking into the office @ 7:00am which means I start at 6:00am and leave work way past 7:00. Inspite of all this I have loads of pending tasks and unread emails in my inbox. Looks like people have high expectations from me and this makes everything all the more difficult.

When I complain to M he has the same answer, things will improve, give it some time. The question is will I live to see that day? By the way yesterday slept in the bus while coming back home and the driver woke me up when the last stop came. I had to take another bus and travel back home. I need good food and sleep.

Its been a while since a wrote a post. I am totally swamped at work and then everyone knows the drill at work. Things are slowly getting under control. Lots of things happened since my last post. From the top of my mind I remember few of them:

*           Found a cleaning lady who comes on Saturday / Sunday morning and helps me in the routine cleaning. It’s a great relief to have her around. I guess for the money I pay for one visit one can afford to have a full time maid for the whole month. Still it’s a very good proposition. The best thing I like about her is the ease with which she adopted my best practices. Looks like I am addicted to the house work because at times I found myself helping her.

*      Had an amazing 4th July weekend. Thursday (3rd) we had early dispersal and I spent shopping at the H & M store in Manhattan. As a fellow shopper put I, it was impulsive shopping but I had fun. I bought two very cute skirts, one halter neck top and a couple of formal shirts. Friday (4th July) we went to the nearby Six Flags (this is the second visit to six flags in the last two months and M has already planned another trip alone sometimes next month). All of us had lot of fun and I was amazed to see that booboo is not afraid of the rides. Infact I am yet to find out something which can scare him, brave little boy he is.

*      Saturday (5th July) we planned a trip to the ocean city but we cancelled it due to rain. We spent the whole day lazing around. It was amazing. Sunday (6th July) we wanted to go to the nearby mall, but M was not in a mood, so instead of the mall all three of us spent one good hour in the Jacuzzi which was followed by lunch and a good long nap. The day was pretty much over and we ended it with a trip to the Indian grocery store and called it a night.

*     Today I took membership for the New York Sports Club, this gym is in the same building as my office so I plan to come here for a work out either before or after work every day.

*      Two of my friends from Cyprus gave birth to baby girls, both of the kids are adorable and the third friend is due in September.

*      Watched Sex and the City with my friend (again she is also from Cyprus but now moved to MI). Well I am not gonna write about how great it is to have friends forever and all that but cannot stop myself from mentioning about the hot neighbor Samantha had. He was “wow”. I also liked how well Samantha handled the situation.

*      My birthday is next month and I have started dropping hints to M.

Well I guess this is all I can remember as of now.

Take care all of you and I will try to be more regular from now on.