Posted by: inbavalli on: October 27, 2009
The other day I noticed Kutty wearing a chemise beneath a thick school shirt beneath a pinafore and I bristled. Did she imagine she lived in Siberia, I asked. “History Miss says we should wear a slip beneath our shirt, Ma,” she explained to me. This history teacher surely lives in Victorian England.
“No more of [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: October 27, 2009
I love them. They smell good, are easy to wash off and do not make tall claims about nourishing my hair, preventing hair fall or removing dandruff. Their sole assignment is to make my hair squeaky clean and that they do well. They come in cute little containers and what’s more – they are complimentary.
Posted by: inbavalli on: October 21, 2009
“Dabbu laedhu”. I’m sick of saying this to my kids, ‘Tuppperware’ friend, salary-advance-seeking maid, and just anybody who asks. I honestly mean it. With a huge home loan EMI gorging into our salaries, the husband and I seem to perennially fall short of funds these days.
This is when I look back at my parents with [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: October 4, 2009
To the daughter who thinks she’s old enough to handle her own hair:
No, at nine, you aren’t that old. C’mon, you aren’t even a teen yet! As your paati would’ve said, “molachchu moonu ela paayala”.
No, I will not let you chop off that beautiful waist-length hair. That stupid friend of yours went for a stupid [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: September 23, 2009
That’s my mum’s favorite theory. She firmly believes that every man, given a chance, will let his eyes rove. And his hands – or at least his mind – would like to follow suit soon after. Aeka pathni vratham, she says, is a vratham after all – not at all the norm and a tough [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: September 13, 2009
I honestly don’t know why I do this year in and year out. Every Janmashtami I crib and cringe over the bakshanam torture and then end up slaving it out in the kitchen, as I did yesterday.
At least earlier I had little choice – my MIL would have none of this Janmashtami-with-milk-and-fruits-alone business. But now [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: September 6, 2009
With Facebooking, Orkutting and What-not-ting, I’m suddenly getting in touch with a plethora of henna-haired, Talwalkars-shaped ophthalmologists, Montessori teachers, investment bankers and mid-level executives who were once my schoolmates.
For someone like me who sucks at networking, this is turning out to be one big bore. Now, if it’s just keying in a polite, two-line email [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: August 30, 2009
Amidst boring course material (I’m doing an MA via distance education) I found something very interesting – on how children, especially girls, should not be discouraged to talk loudly.
The author says Nature has given girls a shrill and clear voice as a self-defence tool. By insisting that they talk softly, we’re essentially blunting that tool.
This [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: August 13, 2009
Thanks to the flu and the accompanying panic-demic, the kids are under house arrest for nearly a week and that means I am under kitchen-arrest.
To fill up my cup of joy, Kutty developed a nagging stomach pain and fever yesterday. I knew it was not The Fever but she did have to be taken to [...]
Posted by: inbavalli on: August 3, 2009
What do you call a person who’s bored to tears with her job, which she has been at for the past 5 years, but won’t quit?
I call her Inba.
I’d always prided myself at doing whatever I loved and doing something only if I loved it. And last month I suddenly noticed that I’m quite bored [...]
They say so...