What My "Stay-At-Home" Motherhood Looks Like!

Alright, I am not quite keeping up to the "daily" writing but am gonna summarize what's been happening over the last few days. Basically, I have been focusing on what I had said I would be focusing on - motherhood & movie making.

Now that I am back home in Singapore and technically pretty free, I get to spend a lot of quality time with the little one. I tell her "stoories", she and I exercise together where she keeps going "MUMMY, YOU CAN DO IT! COME ON, MUMMY! GOOD JOB, MUMMY!", she and I paint together, play together with her stickers, we sing bhajans together in the evening and what not. It's been really nice.

On top of this I have been pretty much working on the feature film - yes, the same one that I went to UAE for. We will be shooting in April and there is much to be done before that.

I rehearsed with the actors, who are based out of Singapore.
It is a conversation heavy film, so I took some time to read out the entire script and record it, sometimes with some reference BGM, just to get a hang of how it would sound once completed. That was a really nice experience.
I amended and embellished the script a couple of times, based on more relevant information from whatever I saw in UAE.
I had several production related chats with the team in UAE.

On top of that, I also caught up with the hubby over dinner at our favourite Swadhisht joint over some Thalassery Chicken Biriyani, Appam, Egg Masala and Neimeen Tawa Fry. We hardly get time to talk to each other, mostly because the little one takes over completely at home, so this was nice too.

Oh I must also mentioned that I have been working out every day. These days I follow the videos from Blogilates. They are led by a really fun lady called Cassey Ho and the workouts are mostly pilates based strength training. What I like is that the videos are not too long each, so I can simply do 2-3 different ones which mixes it all up well.

I most likely am ruining all the effects of the workouts with my daily afternoon siestas, but then how long would you get that privilege. So I plan to continue doing that!

I have also been watching a few movies - Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, Malayalam movies Varsham and Iyobinte Pusthakam, so far.

So yes, that's it. I spend time with the little one, I have siestas, I work on the film, I spend time with the hubby, I watch movies, I work out.

I have to say that this "stay at home" phase is working out rather nicely! I probably shouldn't get too used to it... otherwise getting back to work is going to be tough! But for now, it feels awesome!  

Days 329 - 337: Work, Edits, Teams, Late Night Decorations, Parties, Farewells and 200,000!

26 November - 4 December, 2013

I am having such a crazy time at work, it is not funny. Even as I write this am waiting for my next call to start - at 12:30 in the night! And it has been this way for a while... I hardly get time even to eat at work and only when am faint with hunger do I realize that I should be taking a break. But things are not bad, at least in hindsight. At least I feel like there is some progress there, which is always a good thing. But I can safely say that real happiness is coming from elsewhere. Here are some highlights from the last few days.

1) Except for half of 1 scene (there are 5 in total), the edit of Aravindum Aarumugham is completely locked (after my editor spending hours at it when I am at work and both of us reviewing it every night until late - and I mean like 5am even!). This is great progress and am very excited about how it has turned out. It even makes me happy in spite of the fact that I have to completely reshoot half a scene (ugh!). I felt pretty bummed out when I realized this, but what the heck. At least I have the other 4.5 scenes that am extremely thrilled about!

2) After completing the edit, I called over the team - mainly the two lead guys, and we watched it together. It was a real fun experience - to watch them watch themselves on screen, evaluating their performances and finally, thankfully, ending the day with fully beaming faces. I was over the moon that day, thanks to my little film that has come so well until now. There is still a ton of work to go - reshoot, re-edit, sound design, music, dub, subtitles, etc. But so far so good!

3) I managed to squeeze in a couple of parties into my suffocating schedule. One was a good friend's daughter's birthday party which was held in an indoor play area. It was my little one's first time to such a place and she was visibly excited. She couldn't get on most of the games since she was too young for them, but she did manage to sit down and drown herself in a ball pit. Initially she was a bit terrified to get into it but before we knew it, there she was... lying down surrounded by hundreds of balls with only her head peeping through! The party was also fun because I could meet a few mutual friends and have quick catch ups. Some of them commented that they are still reading this blog - God bless them for that - and it gave me enough encouragement to continue writing in spite of wanting to do nothing but sleep, really.

4) Another party was the Christmas party at work, which my good self had the opportunity to organize (yes, am turning into a chronic office party/event organizer!). This was quite a small but cozy affair held in a cafe in the basement of the Singapore Management University. We took over the whole cafe and had a lovely event involving tart making contest, mulled wine demonstration (I didn't even know there was something called mulled wine - it is something like masala chai - basically spiced wine with a few fruits in there and of course, I very imaginatively called it masala wine...also, it tastes awesome!), live music (thanks to a few talented colleagues), make-your-own-santa contest, playing with a hoola hoop that happened to come along as part of a secret santa gift exchange and some really good food! The whole event was put together with just five days notice, and I was quite happy with how it turned out. In appreciation of the work, the boss gave me and the team vouchers to go for a celebratory lunch at Kudeta. Not bad at all!

5) The Christmas party was preceded with a night of decking up the office with Christmas decor. We had streamers, bobbles, candy canes, little notes reminding everyone of the upcoming party, and even a fully decked up Christmas tree! It was a lot of work but I had an enthusiastic team and we definitely had immense fun!

6) After the edit was locked, my editor cum cinematographer finally took his leave and returned to his home in India. But we made the most of the last couple of days with "farewell dinners" at two of my favourite places - E-Sarn for Thai cuisine and Ichiban Boshi for Japanese cuisine. He is a great foodie as well and appreciated the food as much as I did. I wouldn't have been able to complete my film without the tremendous help from him and am so thankful for that. Until the next project!

7) I had taken quite a long break from exercising thanks to the shoot and editing. But am happy to report that as soon as the edit was locked, I got back to it. Feeling good!

8) I must also add that I am having work until ridiculous times at night. 1am on one day. 2am on another. And to be in office latest by 8:30am the next day. So what is good about that, you may ask. Well, the fact that I am actually going strong in spite of it. And am proud of that (OK, I might be turning into a bit of a workaholic, but that's the only way to get through this phase right now). This too shall pass.

9) And last but not the least, Inganeyum Oru Katha has crossed 200,000 views on Youtube! Who would have thought!

Tough days, but like I said, so far so good.

Days 303 - 316: 14 Interesting Days!

31 October - 13 November

Today is November 13th. Which means I have not written any post for 2 whole weeks! What a bummer.

But in my defense, it has been a rather tough two weeks. As soon as we got back from Kashmir, I caught the flu and the husband caught the stomach flu. Just when we recovered, the little one caught the stomach flu. And just when she recovered, I caught the stomach flu! Yeah, it was messy. And I was completely spent after about 12 days of this sickness extravaganza.

But then beautiful things still do happen. Let me list out 14 good things over the past 14 days, just as a means of compensation.

1) Diwali - I was pretty sick during Diwali, so we weren't planning to do anything special at our place. But thanks to some encouragement and help from our helper, we ended up celebrating Diwali in style! All of us got dressed up, lit the lamps placed around the house, did some puja, ate sweets, took pictures and felt pretty good. Especially now that we have the little one, I really want to celebrate every festival, and am glad that we had our own small, beautiful celebration! We also attended Diwali parties at my brother in law's and a friends's places - complete with cards and other games, great food, lights and sparklers. Nett, it became a pretty good Diwali!

2) Winnings - Diwali became even more awesome because, for a change, I actually won a few rounds of Bingo (also called Tambola/Housie) and Teen Patti (a card game). My winnings are of the range of $6 - $15 only but as we all know,  it is about the experience of winning than the amount. I usually have terrible luck when it comes to these games and it felt great to be on the other side!

3) Hubby's office - The hubby, who is working in a startup that he has co-founded, had recently expanded his office. I had not been to the new office and just got an opportunity to take a look when we went there to perform a small Diwali puja. I fell in love with the walls in the brand colours, the bean bags scattered around, the ergonomic chairs and the excellent chococino from their espresso machine! It was all pretty awesome! His partner and family were also present and we had a short but nice time together, while the kids...they have a boy and we had taken our little one along as well.... had a pretty merry time themselves. It was fun!

4) Aravindum Aarumughamum team comes together - We were supposed to shoot the film end of this month but one of the lead actor's dad fell ill and he had to rush back to India. I decided to postpone the shoot but in a heartening turn of events, was asked not to do so, by the team including this particular actor. They encouraged me stick to the plan and committed to make the most of the time that we have, instead of postponing indefinitely. His  dad is better now and  we are sticking to the original schedule. We are no longer as prepared as we should have been by now, had things gone according to plan, but just the fact that the team believes in the project and wants to see it through, makes me super happy!

5) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - She is my most recent literary discovery. I am always on the lookout for interesting books by Indian authors and came across a collection of her short stories and man, she is awesome! Turned out that she is not an Indian but only married to one, yet her stories set in India give incredible perspective on the way of life there and she has managed to capture so many of the nuances typical of the country! I am definitely going to look out for more of her works, but for now, thoroughly enjoying myself reading her "East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York & New Delhi"!

6) Little one's final birthday celebration for the year! - Yes, her birthday celebrations are still continuing! We didn't really get to celebrate the event with our friends here in Singapore and hence, now that we are back from Kashmir, we decided to give them a "treat", Indian style. Even though the original plan was to treat them for brunch somewhere outside, our helper insisted that she wants to cook for the event and got me to invite everyone over! It was a rather nice gesture by her and I was pretty touched. She made Pulav rice, Gobi Kheema, Kerala style chicken curry, Aloo 65 and Baked yogurt! Everyone came over, showered the little one with gifts - including a gigantic soft duck that is now occupying half my living room, had lunch, sang "happy birthday" as we cut a really cute cake that I ordered last minute, played games and made it all very merry and happy. Thus, her birthday celebrations for the year came to an end with this last round of small, beautiful gathering! Wishing her many, many, many more!

7) Kitchen & Cooking - Cooking is a rather rare activity for me. But for the little one's birthday celebration, when the helper said that she would like to cook for everyone, I decided that I need to help out as well. So after a long hiatus, I was back in the kitchen and was given the task of making baked yogurt dessert. And I enjoyed that - figuring out the mix, decorating with different types of jams, packing it all up in tiny serving cups for refrigeration and finally serving them all with relish, all under her able supervision, of course. Post baked yogurt, I even grated a ton of cauliflower for the gobi kheema, which made me feel like a pro! Totally awesome!

8) A good cause - I managed to raise some funds for a family back in my hometown. The husband is suffering from kidney failure and requires transplant and the wife is the donor. This puts them in a pretty tough situation with both being out of job, with three kids and hefty bills to pay and debts to clear off. When my mom told me about this, I did my best to spread the word and collect some funds to help them. I guess one is supposed to do these things selflessly but I would be lying if I say that it didn't make me feel good. Because, it did.

9) Kashmir blogs - Even though I was sick, I did manage to write the blogs on the Kashmir travel in detail. Initially I was planning to put a couple of pictures and get done with it, but then decided against it. That gorgeous place deserves every bit of writing about it and am glad I took that trouble. Now all the details could be forever remembered. Also, after reading the blog, quite a number of people said they will be planning trips to Kashmir and that makes me happy, because the locals thrive on tourism and due to the tensions in the region, are in quite a bad situation. So the more tourists, the better for them!

10) Yoga record - Including what I managed over the last couple of days, I have now done 60 days of yoga this year, which is kind of a personal record for me! The previous highest was 59 in 2011. I know 60 doesn't sound like a lot but each yoga class takes 3 hours including commute, so am glad I managed so much.

11) Exercise record - This also brings the total number of days I exercised this year to a grand total of 150 - 50% more than my target and 20% more than my highest annual number ever! I will do another check at the end of Dec, but I already feel pretty good about this.

12) Lost a kilo - am not sure whether it is the effect of the exercise or just the sickness, but looks like I have dropped a kilo. Even though am no longer too hung about the extra weight am retaining post pregnancy, it felt good when the scale showed an unexpected drop. Let's see how long this will be maintained!

13) Little one's tricks - The little one is becoming quite an entertaining person to watch every day. She goes into these melodramatic acting sequences - it is like watching a Tamil movie from the 70s. She screams, stretches, quivers, pops her eyes, rolls over, sticks her tongue out and end it all with her toothless grin. She has also now figured out how to use the iPhone and iPad - switching the main button, swiping it on, glancing through the pictures, playing games and so on. I never thought that it would be this fascinating to watch kids on their discovery journey. She also imitates every single thing - if I "shush" her, she does the same to me. If I talk on the phone, she pretends to talk on the phone. If I pretend to go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, she will go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. What fun! Plus her first words are out - "amma", "ta ta", "nah".

14) Transcendental Meditation - And last but not the least I have discovered transcendental meditation. This simple but rather fulfilling method has really got me hooked! Hoping that it would turn into a regular practice now.

And with that - I conclude on the last 14 days. I was sick through most of it, but it definitely wasn't bad at all. Thank God for that!

Days 264 - 273: Summit, Fitness Blender, Snake & Ladder, Discoveries!

Clearly, blogging has taken a backseat.

But that's because I have been THAT busy.

Just a month into my new assignment and I was given the opportunity (a very good one, I must add) to lead a summit that involved well... a LOT of people... and that was meant to answer a LOT of critical questions.

And that meant a LOT of work. I was hitting work at 7am pretty much every single day of the week and getting back home well past any normal hours.

But the good news is that the summit - which happened over 26th & 27th, was a great success! At least that's what those who attended it told me.

So, as of now, I am on top of the world! It was back breaking work but with grin inducing results. Plus I must also add that the food that was catered for the two days of the summit was mindblowing. Probably the best catered food I've had at any meeting or training in my office!

Now, of course I am happy that the summit got good feedback. But what was most interesting was that even when I was putting in those insane hours into work, I think I was actually having fun! Because I didn't catch myself grumbling over it... not even once. That's rather strange but very welcome. And I hope this new found enthusiasm and passion is here to stay!

In other news, I chanced upon this website called Fitness Blender that has the best list of workout videos ever! And they are absolutely free too! Am having a great time trying out one workout after the other from their endless list. I also got myself an exercise ball because it was required for quite a few different routines and its only then I realized how fun exercise balls are! Really loving this new discovery!

Speaking of discoveries, we also happened to discover two new restaurants. One was a neighbourhood restaurant called "Old School Delights". We have passed by it so many times but never stepped into it until now. The menu featured typical Singaporean dishes like Mee Siam, Curry Chicken and Laksa but what was fascinating was how, true to its name, it was dedicated to Singapore's good old heritage. The Coke came in glass bottles instead of cans, there were several antiques like old cameras, cassettes, iron fans and such, and they even had the old school board games like snake & ladder. It was adorable! Of course, the hubby and I engaged ourselves in a fiery game of Snake & Ladder and I lost miserably. But of course, it was a really lovely experience. This is definitely one place I will go back to. Oh, and I just discovered their website too... which is yet another adorable part of them!

The other discovery was Rang Mahal. Well, this is technically not a discovery because both of us have been here before but mainly with other friends or colleagues and that too a long time ago. But somehow it had never occurred to the hubby and I to add this to our regular hangouts. Once the bill came, it was pretty clear that there is no way this will become a regular hangout, but I have to give their amazing starter of Jumbo Prawns filled with Crabmeat, a special mention. Because, even at that hefty price, that's one think I could go back for. It was simply out of this world!

Last but not the least, it's simply fascinating to watch the little one grow! She has moved on from ignoring or sitting up and clapping every time I sing a lullaby, to actually sing along with me. And when I stop, she continues to sing anyway and falls asleep on her own! Adorable! And these days, she has also mastered this routine of cuddling up, tucking her head into my neck or my arms, and lying there as if it's the most perfect place in the world. My heart immediately turns into a gooey mess when she does that. I was also completely amazed to see that she slides down the slide in the playground and then crawls back up to it to slide again, all on her own! I didn't even know 10 month olds could do that! This motherhood thing is a real journey of discovery, I have to admit!

So yes, it's been a few good days. Busy but happy. And those are always the best kind! 

Day 255 - 263: Ideas, Messages, Films and Personal Records!

13 - 21 September, 2013

When I had started to write this blog, my aim was to complete at least 1 blog per week. Clearly, that's not happening. Not because I am not getting enough good stuff to talk about every single day, but because I am up until my nose with things to do. Work's super hectic, am trying to squeeze in as many days of exercise and as much time with the little one as possible and she, even in her tenth month of existence, refuses to sleep through a night without getting up at least four times, which is tiring me out! So when I get back home after work, all I want to do is catch up as much on sleep as possible.

But there's been progress in my life over the past few days and am going to do a quick summary of highlights:

1) I have broken my own personal record for the number of days I exercise. In my very obsessive, compulsive manner, I have been counting the number of days I exercise in a year, right from 2010. The highest so far was 126 days in 2011. This includes yoga, walking, dancing, cycling, swimming, jogging, DVD workouts, anything of the sort. Now am super proud to announce that as of today, I have exercised 132 days in total for this year and we are still only in September! I must also note that this is way higher than the 100 days I had as part of my 2013 resolutions. SO awesome!

2) It is probably all that exercise but it looks like I am no longer at my heaviest nor my largest. It is still a long way to go until pre-pregnancy levels but am very happy with the progress.

3) I have struck upon an idea for a sitcom in Malayalam, and am pretty excited about that. I have a name, a theme, character outlines and even the storyline for a couple of episodes. I shared the thought with a friend, who is also one of my regular actors, and he was pretty excited about the whole thing too! This could be my next project, maybe, but what's exciting is this stage of being struck by a brand new idea and developing it in my head!

4) Interestingly enough, I have also struck upon an idea for another short film. Maybe I will write this one out soon and it can be added on to my pile of will-make-it-some-time-in-the-future scripts.

5) A few lovely people, unrelated to each other and unknown to me until now, wrote me rather nice messages. Few, after watching Mausams, and the others after reading these blogs. I always feel pretty thankful when people take the trouble to do that and of course, getting any kind of encouragement for these things is one of the key reasons why I can keep up the drive to continue making films or continue writing this blog. So thank you folks, it is very much appreciated!

6) Work is getting more and more hectic by the day and surprisingly enough, am still enjoying it! That's always a good thing!

7) I have also managed to meditate more number of days than I thought I would. It is still not everyday...for some reason I get rather sleepy by the time the little one hits the bed at night (which is already well past ten or in many cases, even 11) and end up not meditating. But I do hope to make it even more frequent and turn it into a habit, even. But so far, so good.

8) We have also resumed rehearsals of Aravindum Aarumughamum after a gap of a month. We have had a couple of rehearsals so far and I am happy to see that it is coming together very nicely. Slowly but steadily!

9) Last but not the least, Inganeyum Oru Katha has managed to cross 150,000 views on Youtube! Who would've thought!

Day 211: Late Night Workout!

Am having a super crazy time at work. My new business is extremely complex, the issues are very challenging and I have a steep learning curve. And also because I will be travelling for two weeks towards the end of August, there is a lot to do before I leave.

Don't get me wrong...I am actually enjoying myself thoroughly at work. I find the new role challenging and exciting but the fact is that I don't have the same amount of time as before for the little one, or my mom who is in town. Nor do I seem to get time to squeeze in some exercise.

By the time I get back home it is late at night and all I want to do is eat and sleep.

But today I was determined to get some exercise no matter what.

So after I returned home at about 9pm at night, I forced myself to do my DVD workout.

It was tough, I admit, and I really had to repeat to myself that it was mind over matter.

But good news is that I somehow managed to complete it.

I was incredibly exhausted afterwards but it was definitely rewarding!

Now to keep this up! 

Day 200: The Story Before 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'!

It all started with me feeling completely torn within, on a Friday. 

On one hand, I badly wanted to go for hot yoga because I had not done any yoga the entire week. Note that  this doesn't mean that I didn't exercise. In fact, I had exercised every single day of the week with kickboxing, cycling and circuit training but was not satisfied only because I had not hit yoga. In fact, I felt rather overly miserable about it. 

On the other hand, I felt exhausted - probably from working out too much, lack of sleep and increasing workload on my new assignment at work - and all I wanted was to go watch a movie  with my parents, and then go home and sleep. 

The only movie worth watching was the Hindi film 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' - which had pretty good reviews but was slammed for being more than 3 hours long. If I were to watch the film, then yoga is definitely out of the window. 

So I kept thinking and thinking about it through the day. Yoga or movie? Yoga or movie? 

And then it struck me. Why am I being so hard on myself?! 

When I started this year, I had set some expectations for myself. One of them was to exercise 100 days in the year out of which 50 days should be hot yoga, because that is my golden standard for exercise. I had thought then that this is a good target to hit, given that I have a baby, a job and I have other goals like travelling, writing scripts, spending time with family etc. Even when I didn't have a baby, the max I have exercised in a year was for 124 days in 2011 (yes, I keep track of everything). So 100 days this year was a reasonable goal. 

Now, the fact is that I already completed these 100 days by Jul 18th of this year - i.e. with 4.5 months to spare - our of which I had done 48 days of yoga! That, I believe, should be something I should feel insanely good about. Instead, here I was, turning into a complete mental wreck simply because I couldn't decide between yoga and film with my parents, on this one day! 

Once the above realization hit me, it was easy. I skipped yoga, and I went for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, the supper that followed, and the evening of relaxation. I felt it was well deserved, and I felt happy. 

Sometimes it is good to cut oneself some slack!

Day 190 - 193: Olay, Tae Bo, Workout Partner and Din Tai Fung!

It's been a fantastic week - one filled with work and workouts!

Let's do a quick list of highlights.

a) Work - Even though the official effective date of my new assignment on Olay is from August 1, I had already started on pretty intensive onboarding and my calendar has started to fill up with Olay meetings. This is probably the most exciting part of any asssignment - when you first start on it. The learning curve is steep and it is always exciting to learn about a new business, its strengths and its challenges. I have been thoroughly enjoying myself so far!

b) Workout highlight 1: Tae Bo!
There were a few interesting highlights at the workout front, so am gonna put them into separate points. So the first highlight is that I discovered Tae Bo - which is a form of aerobic exercise that combines Taekwondo and Boxing, found by a guy called Billy Bankers in 1976. I believe kickboxing is a modified version of this because Tae Bo itself is trademarked by Bankers. Now that I had a fantastic kickboxing workout last week, when I discovered Tae Bo videos online, I wanted to try it out. And what could be better than a Tae Bo workout video led by its founder, Billy Bankers himself! So yes, I tried this 48-minutes high intensity cardio workout. And it was deliriously awesome! I loved all the moves and the pace but more than anything else, I loved the way the supporting Tae Bo enthusiasts on the video kept chanting "1-2-3-4...." throughout the 48 minutes. It was almost like some military drill and it really added a good kick and punch to the workout! Totally love this new discovery!

c) Workout highlight 2: Partner!
I got a partner to workout with when I do my DVD circuit training. None other than my dear hubby. He happened get home at about the same time I was starting on the workout, so I invited him to join. After some initial resistance (he is not a big fan of exercising), he join in. It was so much more fun to go through the routine workout with a partner than doing it all alone. Throughly enjoyed it!

d) Workout highly 3: 10 in a row!
As of this day, including kickboxing, Tae Bo, circuit trainings, Yoga and walks, I have worked out 10 days in a row! So proud of myself!

e) Din Tai Fung: Din Tai Fung is our most favourite Chinese restaurant in Singapore. We go there pretty often but the highlight this time was introducing it to my parents. Sure, we had to queue for an entire hour before we could even get seats, but the wait was well worth it! My parents LOVED the food! We stuffed ourselves with Steamed bean curd in honey sauce, Oriental wantons in chilli oil (both were new discoveries, and extremely fantastic discoveries at that!), Duo Mian in garlic (a kind of green leafy vegetable),  Xiao Long Bao (dumplings filled with minced pork and soup - I love the feeling when the dumpling breaks open and the soup fills your mouth with a rich a taste, once you bite into it!), steamed vegetable and pork dumplings, as well as egg and shrimp fried rice. So satisfying!

Yes, great workouts, great food, great time at work, great week! 

Day 185: Kickboxing!

I discovered a fantastic workout video on Youtube today. It was a very intense 40 minutes of kickboxing!

I had missed yoga and I was in no mood to do my usual walking or workout video and wanted to try something different. I prefer cardio to strength training any day and when I bumped into this particular kickboxing link, I was excited to try it out.

And man, it was intense but SO MUCH fun!

Felt totally awesome after it!

I see myself doing this a lot more times in the days to come!