It’s almost night, and the neighbor upstairs hasn’t finished fixing her Ikea cupboard. I look over the soft toys strewn across the sidetable and choose the ragged Winnie-the-poo, not least because of some cruel law of ageing magnets that had separated him from Tigger, to gripe to, about my neighbor’s impending nocturnal carpentry.

Some things are never easy, no matter how many times you have said them before. Goodbyes are one of them.

Some things are never said, no matter how easy they should have been. Telling someone that they are the center of your universe is one of them.

My father would fill ink in my crooked Hero pen every morning before I went to school. First it was because I used to get ink all over my hands. And after that it was because he didn’t realise I had grown up.

On most days, long after the alarm has gone off and after many angry faraway shouts from my father, I would still be sleeping. My mother would make her way up the stairs to my room. She would kiss me on the forehead and I would wake up with a smile. Even now, when I wake up in the morning, I often think of my mother.

I know my parents don’t know what a blog is. And they will never read this. So I can safely say what I have always wanted to tell them, but never could - I miss you. Terribly. Every single day. And it doesn’t get any better just because I am all grown up. Nor do I get used to it just because its been a long time.

Sure, my previous address used to be in Holland, but that’s no reason to think Germany is in the Netherlands. I also don’t know how the West Germany sneaked into my address.

Seriously, even if they never went to school, don’t they at least watch soccer?

Amazon.de sells it at a price which is more than double that of the US counterpart. And not just that, I have a sneaky feeling that the manual will be in German. Who knows, even the keys may have German equivalents. So, I ain’t gonna buy it online, without making sure I can read it.

After bracing myself to pay the shipping charges from US and the unreasonable German taxes on goods shipped from US (plus, I recently found out that UPS charges you another 11.6 Euros as administrative fee, just for paying the tax on your behalf!), I decided to buy my calculator from the US Amazon. Guess what! They don’t ship calculators outside of US! @#$*%#%!

I am just flabbergasted at how difficult it is to buy a simple thing as a calculator! Well, the bright side is - I am now more motivated to expedite my German lessons, at least to be confident enough to read German instructions on a calculator.

When I am home, I complain about how just about everyone loves to give advice, totally unasked for and often unwelcome. If I drive, the policeman at our street corner will wave and say “Ma’am, drive carefully”. If I wear a blue salwar to the temple, the old lady there will tell me, “Kutty, you should wear red saris. Red colour will definitely suit you”. If I am at the bookshop, someone is bound to give me a book recommendation. And how I long for all these to come back, because now everyone in the 1 kilometer radius of my home is stuck with the refrain: “Hmm..you have been married for a while haven’t you..hmm”. While I had found all these annoying, its even worse when no one cares, not even to annoy you.

And the apathy is definitely something I am very much guilty of. Having lived for quite a while in Singapore, which I call the king of apathic lands, its rubbed off quite a bit on me too. If I see a girl sobbing in my neighbourhood, I probably wouldn’t ask her whats wrong. I will justify she had a fight with her boyfriend and just needs to be left alone. The thing is, if everybody just leaves everybody else alone, we are all gonna be very lonely.

The next time the old lady advises me to wear a red sari, I will just nod and smile and maybe even wear a red sari the next day.

The easiest way out in Sudoku ( ok, this is just IMO - I think there are lots of other theories out there) is to crack the cells that are most restrained first. ( Call it restrained/constrained/limited whatever - I dont know the technical term.)

Anyway, the way to make the puzzle inherently more dificult (Using larger grids to make “super”sudokus does not make it inherently difficult) is to minimise the constrained cells, preferably to 0. Once I figure out how to do that, no more Sudoku for me.

My mother used to complain how fussy I was abt my clothes when I was a kid - if they were slightly uncomfortable (read not baggy-loose or has a hint of lace in it), I would bawl and refuse to wear it. It had to be plain simple and extra roomy and in my mother’s words - ugly. Somehow, the mannequin episode made me very grateful that my mother did not resort to any scary ways to force her choice of clothes upon me - no, she wouldn’t have screwed my head out - but twisting my arm just might have helped.

Why does the weather play such an important part in one’s lives? I remember, when I lived in Singapore, the ‘air-conditioned nation’, you are hardly ever really physically affected by the weather - all offices and most homes have air-conditioning, most walkways are covered so you can get by without getting too drenched in the rain and in most malls, you cant even see the outside world so you wouldn’t even know what the weather is like. And yet, my moods used to be affected to some extent by the vagaries of the weather.

The first spell of monsoon in Kerala always used to bring a sense of hope to me. The smell of fresh mud is something that one associates with new life and fresh beginnings. But then that early drizzle gives way to never ending downpour and I would begin to feel blue - maybe it was just the annoyance of sitting in a crowded classroom in drenched skirts or perhaps the inconvenience of carrying an umbrella around, but except for the first drizzle, the rain was a sure depressant for me.

Why all this weather talk all of a sudden, you might wonder. The weather in Düsseldorf has changed! And all of a sudden. The spring (or is it summer?) is definitely here. From 10 degrees on Saturday, we went to 30 degrees on Sunday! I had to strip off my jacket and roll up my jeans and keep licking at my icecream to feel sane. Now that might seem surprising coming from someone who claims to miss the tropics, but truth is that I had gotten used to the chills and I am gonna need some reverse adjustments and I might be forgiven for being taken aback by such a sudden change. Plus, Germany is definitely not equipped for hot weather. I am told that one needs to get special permission to install airconditioners, and for that you have to prove a whole lot of things, including that the air conditioner wont mar the beauty of the apartment building! I am grateful for the little fan that I sneaked into my shipment from Singapore, more for sentimental reasons than practical ones - it sure is gonna be a life saver if this weather continues.

I often wonder why the weather affects people in different ways. Whenever there is a shower outside, I say it is a great time to be snuggled in bed, while my German colleague would invariably retort that it is a great day to be indoors and working! At first, I attributed it to his industrious attitude, but that’s not the case - on really sunny days, I feel cheerful and am extra productive at work, while he gets all jittery and jumpy and would like to go out and enjoy the sunshine.

After all these technological innovations and advancements, man is still affected to a large extent by nature. As much as he likes to live a modular life, he cannot be insulated from the nature and her whims and fancies.

I have tried to have a centralised online tracking system for my chores - never really liked any - but I think I like Tada. Its:
- simple (hate those complicated ones which try to do too many things at the same time)
- allows me to have multiple lists (upto 10 I think - if u have more than 10 to-do lists, maybe you should consider hiring an assistant), so I can prioritise and compartmentalise my chores
- allows me to share some of my lists ( I dont have to call up Srijith everytime I buy something on our shopping list, if i can convince him to use it too, that is)

Good enough for me!