Brains

Dr. Usha is a cleanliness freak. Are all dentists like that? Or am I lucky to get paired with one. Needless to say, I don't live upto her expectations of cleanliness. I tend to leave things behind as if I meant to get back to them, but forgot. I can't say myself for sure, if it is purposeful forgetfulness or genuine. I think in my case, the line between both has blurred a long time ago.

Anyway - coming to the present - summer vacation for kids - wake up late in the morning - mom's almost out the door to clinic - dad fixes breakfast - mess and mayhem follow....... yeah! you get the idea. Today's no different. To keep things simple, I carefully planted the idea of Vanilla Milk into their brains even while the toothbrushing is going on. Thank god, they bought into it.

They attacked some of the toys lying around while I ran into the kitchen to prepare Vanilla Milk. After mixing it up, feeling proud of getting a handy froth machine, I poured it into 3 cups, left the spoon on the kitchen counter. Yeah - lazy to just push it a little bit left so it could find its way into the sink. I placed the cups on the kids' picnic/park bench, ordering them to gulp it down by the time I come back from a visit to the bathroom.

I came back in a couple of minutes to pick up the glasses - but as usual - the milk cups were untouched. The kids were busy checking their toys after what seemed like ages for them since last night. I ran into the kitchen to mix some vanilla milk for myself. Instead of taking another spoon, my brilliant brain remembered conveniently that I didn't put the previous spoon into the sink. So, I reached out to the spoon - but my hand came back immediately with a mini shock. On seeing the ants attacking the few droplets of vanilla milk on the spoon. Where did they come from? How could they come faster from seemingly far off distance - while my kids can't reach the milk glasses within their arms reach?!

Who's got the brains here? The dad - who conveniently remembered and thought of reusing the spoon? The kids - who were making the best use of their summer vacation playing around, not even heeding to the call for milk? Or the uninvited guests, who stormed the spoon for the few drops of sweet milk, and lost their lives?!

Is there a way to draw Lakshmanrekha lines all around the house ?!

Swasti!!

Our First Summer

We have been looking forward to it. With varied feelings. If we can live through this summer, we would know how it is to live here. Not that we haven't lived in India and Machilipatnam before. But that 'before' was almost 17 summers ago. A lot has changed since then in India. But more so, regarding the summer weather. I don't recall summers being so brutal in those days. May be because the day time highs were not as high as they are now. Was it because there's much more greenery around, much less concrete buildings and much fewer motor vehicles and much less pollution then? Could it be that we were more tolerant then? Or was it that we were not exposed the luxuries of life and were living more in unison with the nature to not feel 'burnt'? Or is my memory just trying to gloss over the past, making the present look worse?!

Whatever be the reason, it's very very hot out here. Forget 'out'- it's very very hot in here as well. The other day, blazing hot summer heat 'waves' started hitting the doors and windows as early as 10:30 in the morning.

Just 5 days ago, I was thinking - 'It's already the first week of May. This summer hasn't been as bad as I expected it to be. May be people just get psyched out about the few days of peak temperatures and attribute those temps to the whole season......' Then, as if the Sun God sensed my silent contempt, he started coming out loud and clear and early too - every morning since then.

Today it's 110F here in Machilipatnam (weather.com says - it feels like 116F). I thought the 110F I suffered in the Hoover Dam area in Arizona/Nevada border back in 2000 summer was my worst summer day. I didn't expect my native town to outwit that weather hands down - every summer day.

Dog days of summer?! Here they are, for sure. Yeah - the kids are grounded indoors from 9:30am - 6:30pm. Well - they have no complaints of course!

Swasti!!