Manage – Who me? - dedicated to someone(s) special ! I woke up this Sunday morning to the gentle snore of the Sleeping Cat, with the Eating beauty snuggled next to me. My first resolve was to do nothing for the day and to catch up with myself after a whirlwind tour of Trichur, Palakkad and Tirupur. By the way, whirlwind tour is such a poor cousin of its Tamil language equivalent election special “Sooravali Payanam”. The only similarity being that I looked torpedoed anyway. I came back with a bag full of goodies including a lovely white Kerala sari, a caparisoned elephant, a kilogram of cashewnuts, a pair of leggings, a table cloth, a pair of lovely pink leggings, a vegetable grater, some hosiery and a cell phone pouch. The family was happy with the items on display. The spouse and mom argued about the cashews and decided that families would share this. The daughter loved the caprisoned elephant and remarked quite casually that the elephant looked somewhat like the rumoured marriage photograph of the heavily bejewelled daughter of the Muthoot (?) Finance family of Kerala, a photograph that did quite a bit of rounds on face book! We finally found an awesome North Indian cook to substitute for our prodigal, truant cook mami and my kind neighbour and spouse decided on the menu while I thought about something that has been bothering me for a while. In the midst of all my lecturing on the New Companies Act (no great talent, it is the one eyed man theory) , I am often asked on how I “manage” to do “all” this. Not knowing how to answer this, I would smile coyly, look heaven ward or just shrug it off. I decided to give it a serious thought today and prepare an answer for the future. The truth as I figured out is that when you thrive in chaos, the eco system around you manages itself and you get all the credit. A combination of many wrongs mostly gets it some what right in the end ! #1: Children’s calls in office: The cardinal rule in office is that when any of the kids call ( we are a six women partner firm ) during any meeting, it is to be answered in the first ring. This is not because of our overwhelming maternal instincts but comes from an awareness and understanding that a feisty three year old can be focused and unrelenting in her calling until she finds that Mickey Mouse CD. They know all the other partner aunties numbers and the office land line numbers as well and when they need to speak, its really important. #2 : Client calls at Nalli Stores : When your mother wants you to shop with her and you know there is a client call, the best thing is to take her there and pretend to be in the next section and finish the call walking the entire stretch of the store up and down with the blue tooth on. Never matter that the other shoppers think you are mad. Over a period you train yourself to speak softly #3 : Scorched Clothes : I have tremendous respect for my maid. I address her in plural although my spouse despite repeated requests forgets to do so. When she scorches an expensive kameez, I figured that there are 2 options – stay cool in which case, you have lost the dress or scream at the maid and lose both. After repeated instances, I have a creative tailor who makes satin strips on the blotched parts. Most of my nice clothes have vertical or horizontal strips at the sleeve and the base. When she forgets to iron and you keep smiling, its win win , both the clothes and the maid are intact #4 : Train them young : An important aspect is to get the kids involved in whatever you do. My son downloads academic content, designs brochures and newsletters while my daughter is presently engaged in a project to Control + Find “rupees” and “prison” in the new Companies Act for my research on penalties. With the number of penal provisions being so high, we have a decent summer project happening!. I no longer have complaints of being bored. She will watch TV quietly until this project is finished #5 : Study Leave : I realised that efforts at studying together resulted in some inter personal issues which could have a long term impact. We have a simple compromise solution. The deal is that no books are lost, a good student is really befriended and 5 days before the exams, we copy notes and we take off two days before the exams and cram. I have written so many exam guides for classes IV to VIII by now. My kids have grown to dread these study holidays so much that they have actually started studying themselves #6 : Silence of the Dads : My 30 years of combined schooling experience ( self plus kids ) has taught me a valuable lesson that teachers do not complain to dads as they complain to the moms. Also the dads grin through it all, don’t argue with the teacher and maintain a stoic silence which is good for the welfare of the household. The kids and the dad love it. I was called this year to school only for the teacher wanted to know who Vasundhara’s mom was ! And here I am ! Signed Vasundharas Mom Dedicated to Sheela Mukherjee, Vedavalli SriramBargavi RaghuramanRajee RajeshAnusha SreenivasanPadmavathi Murali and all the other hardest working moms..
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 15:32:03 +0000
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