The day, the cake and the lesson!

Image Coutesy of SOMMAI at FreeDigtalPhotos.net

Usually I take some time to write a post and publish it. I do proofread it a couple of times and yes every time it definitely gets better. Today I have decided to type away a post at one shot and publish it.  The moments when the mood to write and the availability of time coincide seem to be quite less. Hence I have decided to just write, read once and publish. To grammatically err is human!

December is a month of birthdays in my family-My father in law, my brother and both my kids. My children have their birthdays in the same week - his on the 26th and hers on the 30th. So besides the festive mood the whole world is in, we actually get into a special family celebration mode.

I don't bake frequently but I do experiment once in a while with a small oven that I have and an eggless chocolate cake is something that usually gives me satisfactory results. After filling my seven turning eight year old with enough excitement about it, I put all the dry ingredients in the sieve , mixed them up together and thought of turning the oven on for the preheating part. Plugged it , switched it on and Lo! The lights, fans, TV and every other thing dependent on electricity for life went off. The switch in the power circuit breaker box had tripped. Switched it back on  and tried again and it tripped again! Tried switching off some other appliances possibly causing the overload and yet it tripped again. The oven had decided to absolutely not cooperate. I have an oven that is super cool. So cool that it simply refuses to heat or even preheat for that matter. Sigh! Grrr!!

The immediate thought was to throw away the mix into the dustbin and go buy something at the nearest bakery. I was disappointed, frustrated , irritated and mad at the oven. The birthday boy was actually cool about it but the birthday mom was getting on the nerves of the rest of the family members. Anyways I decided to discuss with Google about other alternatives. Pressure cooker? Microwave? A couple of youtube videos later - microwave seemed to be not bad an option to try.

I put in things in the recipe and those not in this recipe but other recipes supposed to work best. Milk, baking powder, lemon juice and God knows what else i added. Poured it into a suitable vessel, put it into the microwave and started praying.

Six minutes later when I took it out, the results were YUMMILICIOUS!!!

It had the same taste and texture that thirty plus minutes of baking in the electric oven would have given me. In fact it was a teeny weeny bit better. The cooking was much more uniform.

We did have a home cooked cake after all and day two - the plate is clean. No cake left and we did eat it all.

No the cake in the image is not mine. That is someones whose oven never gave trouble. Yes, the art of making a cake lies entirely with the machine and not the humans that prepare the mix ;D

SO time to enter 2017 with a philosophical lesson from an eggless chocolate cake.

Things may not proceed as we expect. But going ahead with possible alternatives instead of grumbling might give us better results we never ever imagined.

If your plan does not work out, see whats in the big plan for you. It may be a much better option!

I can't think of any philosophy to explain a new bread-making baking tin and a couple of ingredients that I had purchased on a become-an-expert-in-breadmaking whim.  Thats a different story!! :) Happy New Year all !

It is contagious!!

Saturday morning! Here I am, sitting on my most favorite piece of furniture in the household - a wooden rocking chair, holding my cup of filter coffee and letting myself go in its aroma. But wait - The reflex act of opening one's mouth wide and inhaling deeply due to tiredness creeps from inside my being. In other words I am letting out a big yawn and resisting the wild urge to get back under the sheets and cuddle away into my world of dreams.

Image Credit www.maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com

A yawning kitten is an absolutely adorable sight. Babies too!...For that matter, any yawning baby, puppy, kitten, cub, calf etc. looks amazingly cute...err!...wait a minute!....Do calves yawn? I have seen kittens yawn and the wide yawn of a lion is an oft-repeated sight on the likes of Animal Planet and Discovery channel...But horses? Cows? So I meditate upon Google baba and he enlightens me...Except for maybe teeny weeny insects, most animals do apparently!

Image Credit www.maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com

Yes there are places where yawning can be really dangerous. Like in the classroom, for instance. The Biology teacher would be cursing his fate for having to explain the human respiratory system to a bunch of obviously uninterested teenagers. Yet, a practical display of the same in the form of a huge yawn can drive him bonkers. I had one teacher who used to keep telling us in Tamil " Athu kottaavi illa , athu ketta aavi" ...Well kottaavi is yawn and ketta aavi is bad spirit/ghost. So it kind of translates to "Thats not a yawn, its a bad ghost" . I know it doesn't sound that amusing in English, but in the native tongue, it did have a nice rhyme to it. 

Office Meetings of course! Especially after one decides to make it the cheat-the-diet day of the week, and gorge on a lunch solely to satisfy the taste buds. The sales forecast graph on the wall begins to look like a stroke of Ravi Verma's brush. The recently devoured biriyani begins its anesthetic reaction. The words coming from your boss's mouth transform into musical notes and gently float in the air - all nervous links from the ear canals to the brain, totally numbed in your stupor. Some Ilayaraja song that the morning fm in the car implanted in your consciousness starts playing in your head. The body reacts to all this - your mouth opens wide without listening to you and you let out a massive yawn. God bless you if you do it without any noise, and are aware enough to stifle it as much as humanly possible. Especially when the bespectacled guy next to you is listening with rapt attention to every word being said and is equally particular about  venting out a flurry of relevant ideas, in his desperate attempts to secure a place in the next promotion list.

The most contagious thing on this planet is not influenza or cholera or chicken pox or bird flu. Its not even a disease or an ailment. Its this simple everyday bodily action this post is about. One person lets out and almost immediately the other person would repeat and its a classic example of a chain reaction. I had no idea that it could spread without face to face communication until a few days back, when I was talking to my brother on the phone. As we were discussing a whole lot of mundane things neither of use to us nor anyone else on earth, I heard his words getting garbled by a yawn and I followed suit in almost a nanosecond. In fact I was just browsing the net trying to find an image suitable for this post. Just the sight of all those people and lions and hippos and dogs and cats yawning somehow infected me again.

This thing is really dangerous!

Song of the rain

Reasons to be elated,

 Image courtesy of [Suriya Kankliang] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reasons to grieve,
Reasons to be excited,
Reasons to further achieve,
Reasons to worry,
Reasons to fear,
Reasons to shriek with joy,
Reasons to shed a silent tear,
Reasons that push us high,
Reasons that cow us down,
Reasons to illuminate with a sparkling smile,
Reasons to submerge in a melancholic frown,
We all have some.
Yet, now,
In this infinitesimal slice of time,
When one cloud kisses another,
The air reverberates with the noise of the skies
The heavens take pictures
Of me,
The man in the black jacket
And the woman with the red umbrella
All silenced in unison
By the song of the rain!

Whats news?

I decided to write a blog post today. About what? Well, I opened a new post page and stared for sometime at the white space and then assuming that it might give some ideas , I shifted my gaze to the Publish button, the Save button, and then at the B  I and the U  on top but no ideas.

There have been times in the past when something in the news has triggered an idea. I open a new tab and say "Get me the news". The main page usually has the "Breaking News" topics. They do successfully break ones confidence about goodness still existing on earth and I prefer to simply skip it for now.

I decide, let me check other sections. 

Entertainment:Its Shahrukh's birthday and he has turned 51 already. Ok, heres the guy who was going ka...ka...ka...Kiran when I had barely entered my teens and he is 51!!!!  I am a fan yes but all the related news reminds you of ones own age!!!

Ok moving on to Lifestyle! There was this dolphin in Sea world Orlando that grabbed an onlooker's I Pad and dove into the pool with it. Its now quite I-bad!!!!

Ok, may be the Health section would give me some nice topic. "Dont Miss! A list of celebrities who have aged horribly over the years". Yeah right! That piece of knowledge is the most significant thing that would impact my health for now or for that matter the health of anyone on this planet!!

Its really what my dad used to say. Not news but nuisance!! Sigh!!!

A little more sensible talking and a little less sensitive listening

I have always been a big fan of animation movies. It does take us into the world of kids and definitely its more peaceful than the world of adults.

I remember watching the Disney movie Bambi as a kid. I also recall feeling terribly sorry and sad when the hunters attack the forest and kill Bambi's mother. Another scene that comes to my mind simultaneously is one from a dubbed Asian movie that I watched as a kid again. This one I dont remember the name, what original language it was in, the actors , the story;Nothing!- All blank. The only thing I remember is the guy telling his girlfriend that his favorite movie is Bambi and that he has watched it 14 times. Why has this stuck on to my memory like it accidentally stepped on some chewing gum? No idea! Maybe the idea of an adult watching an animated move 14 times fascinated me?

I had quite forgotten the detailed scenes from Bambi till I watched it again with my son last year. There is one character who has become my favorite now. Its a little rabbit called Thumper. There is one important lesson Thumper's mom teaches him.

Quite simple and straightforward. But its one advice that can mend a lot of things in the world and in our lives.

We tend to get insensitive about what we say about others which has its roots in lack of empathy.
We tend to get oversensitive about what others say of us which has its roots in ego and maybe stress.

The great Tamil work Tirukkural , a literary wonder capturing almost every facet of life in beautifully coined couplets has a line

தீயினால் சுட்ட புண் உள்ளாறும் ஆறாதே நாவினால் சுட்ட வடு 
Theeyinaal sutta pun ullaarum aarathey naavinaal sutta vadu

A wound caused by fire may heal but never will a wound burnt by a tongue.

A lot of arguments and fights happen, especially in families and social circles, about what someone said during a conflict, rather than the conflict itself.  I think the solution is to just swap the intensity of our sensitivity. We need to be more sensitive about what we say of others and less sensitive towards what others say about us. I don't mean to say to project deaf ears when someone gives us good advise or tries to correct something. If something is said purely with the intent of causing hurt, it could be best ignored.

Getting ready for a photoshoot at school

My little girl is two and a half now and goes to a nearby playgroup for two hours.

On Thursday they were supposed to have a group photo taken.

I decided that I should get her impeccably dressed and ready for the photo shoot. (We mothers of girls are always at it aren't we! )

Well I was busy with something in the morning and the husband was glued to his laptop. Anyone with a toddler will vouch for the fact that a silent house is a most dangerous one. The silence ignited a doubt in me and I went to check. My darling had helped herself to my kajal stick on the dressing table and was now in the bathroom trying to wash herself. Her hands were black, her dress had patches of kajal. The toilet bowl had tiny handprints of kajal all over it. Above everything else, she had smeared it all over her face. I had a mini visitor from some tribal groups in Lakshadweep standing and grinning at me in my bathroom, soot all over her charming face.

After the initial gasp of utter shock I set about cleaning her up. I applied coconut oil all over her to dissolve the stickiness and then gave her a good bath.

She was roaming around the house while I was busy in the kitchen. After sometime she came running to me, this time covered in white all over. Oh dear! Who asked me to leave the curd on the table!

I normally give her a small bindi with eyeliner. As we set off finally she said "I don't want water bottle" and proceeded to remove the bottle that was hanging around her neck. In the process she smudged the bindi and had a huge black line all the way across her tiny forehead. Thankfully I had wet wipes and I quickly went about setting things right.

Finally when we reached school she tripped and fell down. She was not hurt but crumpled the uniform I had ironed with care and the tucked in shirt came out.

Nevertheless I smoothed it out , tucked it back and sent her inside the playgroup.

At the end of it all no photoshoot happened that day. It got cancelled!

Soup, the good old appetizer

I remember writing some post before about a topic that came to my head just like that, Bhindi.

My son has been saying that he wants soup today and hence my next post is going to be about , Soup!

I remember we had a Management course in college where the professor used to say , "In India we say we drink soup because its always a liquid here and in fact is served in cups on trains. But in other countries it has a lot of things like vegetables, meat etc and they say they eat soup not drink it" .

Its become customary starting any dinner with soup as it is supposed to be a good appetizer. But consider the gluttony all of us indulge at treats with friends or eating outside, does one really need an appetizer? What we actually need is an antacid at the end of the meal.

I remember going to restaurants with my dad and he loved adding all the sauces placed on the table into his soup. My mom would insist that those would actually shadow the whole taste of the soup and I think she was right. Of course every person has a basic birth right to eat what he wants to , the way he thinks is right!

He would also panic whenever I added salt to my soup assuming that I was mistaking it for pepper. Once he did not and the lid of the salt shaker actually fell into my soup. Of course along with its entire contents making my soup not at all consumable and an expression of "See this is why you need to be careful" on my darling dads face.

We once went to a restaurant , just me and my dad. The soup was obnoxiously spicy. Without realizing that he proceeded with his usual ritual of adding all the sauces including chilly sauce. The moment he put the first spoon in his mouth, his eyes welled up .  My poor dad! I remember how he did not want to waste what had been ordered and painstakingly somehow tried to finish it.

These days I see so many peddlers outside parks selling soups early in the morning. Somehow the word soup is associated with health conscious or sick people and so we have a variety of soups using all the traditional herbs meant to be good for the body.

I love trying different kinds of soups at restaurants and my favorite is Sweet Corn Vegetable soup. My kids love tomato soup or Tamatar Ka Shorba as its called in Tandoori restaurants.

Well thats not a bad post I guess. So what memories does the word 'soup' kindle in you?

Being fat invokes teasing

During my teens and early twenties I used to be an overweight person. Well there are those whose metabolism makes sure that any food they consume is converted to 100% energy even if they don't spend any of it. Unfortunately I did not belong to that group.

Being overweight is one thing. The amount of teasing and bullying that happens on that account is another thing.

You are nicknamed idly or jumbo.

You sit on a chair and someone will make a joke that it might break.

You step on someones toe by mistake and they tell you they must have a fracture.

Coaches tell you that you do not need to play basketball. Your mere presence in the field would scare the opponents away.

You already look like an aunty. Who will marry you? someone says.

Of course the extremely lean ones also have their own share of woes. They are drumsticks or cluster beans. The wind will blow them away.

Who is perfect physically? But the fat ones or the lean ones are easy targets for everyone to have a good time. Usually they just laugh along and sometimes even make self deprecating jokes. Thats just to avoid being left out or shunned.

But you know what? It hurts. Really hurts. Especially when one is in their teens or young years with dreams just like everyone else. It makes one feel like a mole.

Yes one needs to do positive thinking, think about whats good about oneself, all is fine. But when someone else keeps teasing about this it shatters their self esteem.

Once in a while, a joke is okay. But there are those who tend to overdo it.

Of course looking at it from a bright side, it sometimes does give one the motivation to try hard and lose weight. The focus of course should be more on being healthy and staying active.

Next time you see someone making someone feel miserable by commenting about their physical features at least try not to join and laugh along. Someones feelings there are getting hurt real bad.

Silly things can make one happy! :)

There are some silly momentary things in life that can give us immense pleasure, excitement and a feeling of fun. It does not have to be a vacation to an exotic location or a big achievement in studies or work.

Like yesterday I got a new toothbrush. Just opening the pack and using it for the first time fills me with a childish excitement. What the heck! A toothbrush is a toothbrush....But unwrapping it in its pristine form and using it for the first time is fun, isn't it?The same does apply to taking a new bar of soap and using it for the first time! :D

When I buy a new notebook and start writing on it, it feels good! Its like a symbolic representation of a new start, a fresh beginning with unlimited possibilities. The smell of fresh paper and the way the ink starts making forms and meanings on it is wonderful.

When the tube light becomes old and we replace it with a new one - Switch it on and Whoa! The world is suddenly much more brighter....

When we rearrange some shelf and once we are done with the task - the neat organized appearance definitely lifts our spirits a bit!

When you get something free with something that you buy....It could be a floor cleaner bottle free with a toilet cleaner...free is free for the customer...Those companies know this psychology and they make the best use of it...Buy 2 get 1 free, buy 1 get the other free, buy a tshirt get a cap , buy soap get shampoo, buy biscuits get a pencil..The list goes on ....They make sure to cater to the age group...As kids a miniature figure of a cartoon character or a simple sticker can make our day....Become adults and it needs to be more sensible though!

I remember the scene from a Tamil movie where the college going heroine is excited about a kaleidoscope that her neighboring little boy has. He refuses to show it to her and she goes to a very crowded market to get one for herself. The hero braves the crowd and manages to get her one and she gets super happy on getting it in her hands....

So what silly things make you happy?

Glasses, sunglasses!

I used to wear glasses some time back.Then I decided to sacrifice myself, as a practice specimen,  to the surgical skills of a local ophthalmologist. A LASIK surgery made sure I did not need them anymore. Boy! the first few days after a LASIK surgery is fun. Everything looks a lot brighter than before, and you can suddenly spot things really far away with an eagle vision.

I think I have mentioned it in some of my earlier posts. A few hours after the surgery I had to spend without opening my eyes. I did an imaginary salute to the millions of blind people in this world who carry on with their lives depending on their senses and somehow fight against the odds.

Before that when I used to wear glasses, there were umpteen times I would place the spectacles somewhere in the house and search for them like mad.The amazing clarity in my vision would never remind the preoccupied me, that they were safely perched on the bridge of my nose and were now slightly sliding down towards the tip. Finally when I would look at the mirror casually while searching it would strike me! Eureka!!!

Last week I had been to the local florists. None of the flowers seemed bright and all the colors seemed really dull. That is when I realized that I was still wearing my sunglasses. The dark purple had tinted my entire vision as I was indoors now at the wet market and the dim lighting there did not warrant a pair of sunglasses at all. I removed them and Voila!! The flowers were beautiful.

I could not help getting philosophical. Many a time in life what we see may not be what actually is. We put on sunglasses of a specific perspective and then it becomes difficult to see reality as is. Sometimes we need to take a step back and check if we are wearing sunglasses after all. 

Ladies Fingers and Gentlemans Toes

A few ideas had been stemming in my mind for my next blog post. Nothing seemed solid or interesting enough. Pondering over this, I was preparing good old vendaikkai a.k.a bhindi last Wednesday. I said to myself or rather to the hexagonal slices of the vegetable I was sauteing in my saucepan " If I am unable to think about anything else, my next post would be about you" . And so here I am , sitting and typing away about the good green vegetable.

By കാക്കര (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I have always remembered the English name for the vegetable as ladies finger. I really cannot imagine my fingers shaped like a bhindi(Alright !Alright!who called you ladylike?? I hear it!!!) but I wonder what prompted anyone to give it that name.  It was during my visit to the US that I discovered that its referred to as okra in those parts.I was amused to find frozen versions of it in the freezers there. In fact ice is the only thing that we would freeze back at home. Who knew that vegetables could be frozen?

There is a technique to be applied, while picking this vegetable, that I learnt from my visits to the market with my parents. You had to hold the pointed end and try to snap it. If it breaks with ease, it is tender and good to go into the basket. If the stalk stubbornly holds on, its not okay. Good old vegetable vendors of the local market were absolutely fine with their customers going snap-snap-snap before deciding which lot to buy. In the neatly weighed and sealed-in-polythene bag versions that we find in today's supermarkets how on earth can we apply this trick?

My paternal uncle believed that bhindi was good at getting the grey cells to work and would request his mother to make vendaikkai poriyal  on the eve of his Maths exams. If Kelloggs or Maggi learn of this secret the next Oats released in the market would be in bhindi flavour.
"Be it Maths or Hindi, have a cup of Bhindi" the jingle would go.

Thinking of these points for this blog post I went through the items in the weekly vegetable bill. "Gentleman's Toe - 500g". My eyes rolled in full circles a couple of times and I set about finding out which vegetable had that name. Ladies may be first but the gentlemen would always compete. Go Google and Eureka, I found out! Thats another name for kovakkai or the ivy guard.I really like that vegetable though some believe that its more useful for cleaning slates and blackboards :D. A friend recently told me that she read somewhere that it has a detrimental effect on ones memory.  I have been eating it for quite some time and there are things I would like to do a Shift-Del in my memory but they stick on with vigor.

By Aravind Sivaraj (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Well be it ladies' fingers or gentleman's toes make sure the cook is good. Eat more vegetables. Have a healthy life ladies and gentlemen.

Hearty hypochondria

A few months ago, I developed this strange ache around the chest area. I was not able to exactly place the point of pain and it was a dull throb. It was a nag in reminding its presence throughout, and yet was not disrupting any of my routine.

We belong to the cursed internet generation(Yes,Yes Everything has Pros and Cons, I hear you!). Any small predicament, and we begin to trust that webpage that lists out everything under the sun that can cause a specific ache. Unless it states something obviously stupid, like you have a chest pain because the neighbors dog has diarrhea, you end up believing a lot of the stuff you read.

I do not know if Google spreads knowledge but it definitely spreads hypochondria.

Ignoring the intelligent voice in my head that is screaming "Don't Don't DON'T YOU DARE", I type www.google.com followed by "Chest Pain" and Enter. Along with WebMd, scores of other websites  list out probable causes and solutions. To my dismay, the majority of the content is focused on cardiac ailments.

A heart attack is usually a crushing pain. I try to analyze my version. Is it dull? crushing? pressing? sharp? ....What on earth is the difference between a crushing and sharp pain? This is not crushing. Wait a minute, is that what you call crushing? Naah!!

Women are not supposed to be prone to heart attacks. Phew!   Okay, belonging to the feminine lot does have some advantages!

I decide to take a break and take a look at the nuisance I mean news channels. Some fifty plus woman celebrity breathed her last due to a heart attack. May her soul rest in peace. Heart Attack? Yikes!

Well, I am still in my thirties and so I guess its okay.

Oh yes, my father and grandfather had heart ailments. I am supposed to be genetically at risk right?

Go back to Webmd!

It says, A heart attack cannot last for more than few minutes. The ache is there throughout. Well, I am safe. Is this what Webmd calls Angina? the pain that is serious but not yet a heart attack! Do I have blocks in my aorta? Oh No! What do I do?

Maybe its just a muscle tear. Oh my dear Google, get me information about muscle tear...Open Sesame!!!

I know what you all must be thinking, WHY DIDN'T YOU GO TO A DOCTOR?

From a facebook post, No idea about source!

I eventually did when I came to India for vacation. Turned out it was just a muscle pain due to carrying my baby girl and yes sometimes in the not so right postures.

Well while I was waiting at the clinic, the receptionist started distributing some brochures.

FULL CHECK UP FOR WOMEN! Special New Year Offer, U.P 2010, now only Rs 1980. I think my chest pain had placed a heavy weight on my mathematical abilities. The woman in me jumped with glee. ( Somebody should have told me , Its not a METRO shoe sale idiot!) . My father in law who had accompanied me saw it and exclaimed " Just a 30 rupee difference,this is an offer??!" That is when I realized that 2010 is only Rs 30 more than 1980.

 I got reminded of the umpteen whatsapp forwards, "Spot the hidden leopard and consider yourself a genius!". The human brain tends to miscalculate with these numbers I assume and the psychology department must have come up with the numbers.

By the way my neighbors dog is hale and hearty and did not cause my chest pain!

A cellphone story!

Around three years ago I joined the league of ordinary ladies and gentlemen of this century - the proud owners of a cell phone that is as the name suggests quite smart!  Well, my phone is definitely smart but it has a not-at-all-smart owner whose maintenance and safeguarding of the device is quite close to pathetic.Really close! The difference is tiny, minuscule, imperceptible! Never mind!

I came back to my apartment one day after finishing a few errands. I stepped into the lift and pressed the floor number slightly readjusting the way I was carrying my baby girl. A friend who was supposed to come over pinged me asking for my floor and unit number. I stepped out of the lift face focusing on the cellphone screen as I proceeded to whatsapp her the details.

Flash! I dont know what happened. My daughter who was getting a little hungry snatched the phone? Or I tried to prevent her from pulling it and it flipped out of my hands? Or did I trip over a wheel of the stroller and let go of the phone? Oh yes! I dont know! The cell phone flew out of my hand and fell on the floor of the lift, and, as I stared in horror,into the gap between the lift and its door. Down! Down! All the way to the ground floor. It travelled more than four levels to be precise!

For a quite perceptible time interval I stood there with my mouth wide open with shock and disbelief and the cursing-of-self part followed soon. I rushed to the ground floor. I borrowed a friends phone and dialled my number. One of Ilayaraja's BGMs started playing from somewhere. That was my ring tone! My phone! No doubt!

"You are alive!!" I was flabbergasted. The phone had fallen to the floor of the elevator that needed  hands of expertise to access. The security personnel of my apartment informed me that they would check with the Lift company and get back to me.

Then came the biggest jolt! The company gave me two options. I could wait for two to three days. Whenever they came that way they would retrieve it for me. They could come immediately and do it but that would cost me $50 , no $49.50 .

I pictured my poor phone lying out there in the cold all by itself with its battery life ebbing away to zero. What if water splashed on it? What if it got bitten by rats? Above everything else , having to suffer the handicapped life without a cellphone was unimaginable. I decided to part with my fifty dollars.

In a couple of hours the cellphone was safely in my hands and would you believe it, Not a single scratch on the touch screen. That was one miraculous escape.

A few months later, the same phone was lying harmlessly on the sofa. I took it in my hands and a screen  cracked beyond usable limit stared back at me as I let out a cry of horror. I still have no clue what exactly happened though the primary suspect is my now two year old girl, then around 18 months of age. Well, "If only I had stayed under that lift without making noise" I could almost hear my phone say that.