Hello everyone! I am really excited to welcome Anagha Yatin Joshi from Mocktail Mommies and Canvas with Rainbow on my blog. She is an an engineer and management graduate by training, and a mother to a growing teenager son and a pre-teen daughter. She loves reading, traveling and is an accomplished bathroom singer! She indulges in a lot of chitter-chatter with her friends, mostly Mocktail Mommies buddies (yes, they are 8 of them!). I hope you enjoy her fun chatter here.
Over to you, Anagha…
It was the month of October. The Rain God was lashing the city with all its fury and might. Watching the incessant rains, someone was getting upset beyond manageable limits. Soon the living room was filled with occasional rants and grunts. The rumbling of the celestial bodies was matched with an equal shout from Master Grumpy bear…. “Hey rains, you…DND!”. I lowered the book, that I was reading, a little bit from my sight to take a stock of situation.
Here was my son, standing tall but all upset, his nostrils flared up! He had made grand plans for four days… the much-awaited holidays after a grueling fortnight of exams. There was nothing in our ability that we could do to stop the march of the mighty dripping soldiers though…
But what fancied my attention was “DND”… “Do Not Disturb!”
Innumerable occasions flashed from my memory as if competing with the lightening in the skies. All were my very own moments of utter frustration for not getting my “DND” tag honoured. Now before you start fancying that I am going to complain about the incidences of irresponsible staff at the hotels where I might have stayed during certain journeys, let me caution you that its not the case…
I welcome every new month with a great fan fair. Only reason being, I love monthly grocery shopping at the nearby super mart. A predecessor to this is a mandatory stock taking. With a pencil and a chit of paper… Oh yes, I belong to ancient times; I use pen and paper for making the list and not the smart phone. So I usually set out on my mission to prepare the list.
While making the list, I am half present in my kitchen and half way already transported to the super mart. The grocery, the toiletries, the bakery, the dairy products and many more sections of the house, kitchen and the super mart are at once floating in different spheres of my mind.
A big DND is written in Bold and Italics all over my face.
As the fate could have it, it is never honoured. Either the doorbell announces a casual visitor or my own clan comes up with some emergency situation, mostly their fights or the man of the house needing an urgent detail on phone! And the result? I am bewildered with two toothpastes staring in my face when I wish to fit in the one recently purchased next to them. The mosquito repellent refills are in the mood to repel any more addition to the stack. The grains declare the flood situation as the containers are filled till their brim.
Poor me, I am so at loss of space and words courtesy my list that was never done to my satisfaction! Post my monthly grocery shopping sojourn, it then takes me ages to make sure that kitchen cabinets do not explode with the deluge of surplus grocery packets!!!
One more from a real long list…I love mathematics since time immemorial and am so proud of being a mathlete! But this very pride bites the dust when I am facing the green grocer and trying to calculate the exact amount to be paid for 650 grams of apple or 800 grams of lady fingers! When I am busy doing some mental maths, believe me at those times, I find it far more complicated than rocket science.
DND flag is up on face by this time, which the green grocer fails to recognize, so do the fellow buyers. The honking on the street by the vehicles also join this gang. They all collectively dishonor my right to privacy for calculations! Sans any pen and paper, I then try to figure it out in air. The mobile rings at that very precarious moment. All the numbers and calculations done so far, vanish from the air screen. By the time I reach out to the mobile in my purse, which is like “Alibaba’s den”, the ring dies out. Gone are the numbers and the caller. The green grocer then takes pity on me. No wonder most of the times he says, “Madam, you finish purchasing first. Don’t bother about “hisab”!” DND flag is then hoisted down, so very unceremoniously and with a pain of great defeat!
Have you faced retreating of the DND flags? Do let me know… One thing is for sure, though they are signs of utter frustration, they make for a good laugh in hindsight!!
This post is written for the December blog hop #mymojo with Shalzmojo
Linking up for #wordsante with Namysaysso for every post deserves some love.
All pics courtesy Pixabay and ImagesBazaaar
42 Responses
Thank you Shilpa for hosting me. Its an honour and pleasure!
Thank you, Anagha for writing this fun and interesting guest post for me. It is my absolute pleasure to host you here 🙂
You truly have a way with words Anagha!
My most frustrating moment is usually in the afternoons when with gr8 difficult I get 2 kids to take a nap simultaneously and with a mix and calm and dread I lie down. Within a couple of minutes, someone will ring the bell or call. Oh! If only I can get that 15 mins of naptime I will feel blessed. But its a rare occurence
Perils of parenthood, specially when the kids are young! Nap seems like a luxury beyond means…
Thanks Namratha for visiting, praising my efforts and sharing the DND moment!
You do calculations in your head? That’s impressive. I simply stick to buying in easy multiples. No calculations for me.
My siesta is the time I like to put up a DND. And if it’s nobody else the amazon guy is sure to flout it. Or when I have wrapped up for the night, the kids are in bed and I just begin to curl up with a book, I’ll hear a call from one of them or an argument will break out that I just have to sort!
Cant take pity on self at such moments, isnt it? In the minds of mind, I would have given the Amazon fellow a punch on the nose…But outwardly action could be just a plain “Thank you”! How I wish…
Thanks for visiting and sharing your DND moment
That is a post I can relate to..
I truly am on DND before going to the supermarket.. Opening up the store to check pulses, toiletries, trying to remember from head to toe what will be needed and no, any disturbance whatsoever is not entertained..
I also do this when I have to travel and I am packing my bags. Pen, paper and me — that is all I need!!
Oh, packing for the journeys… it definitely calls for DND flag hoisted way up and standing tall!
Thanks Deepika for the value addition to the DND list!
You can calculate cost of 650 gms of apples in your head? OMG! I wouldnt mind paying more than taxing my old grey cells for such a complex calculation! 😀
Ah! For me DND situations would be when I am having my morning and evening tea, when I take my afternoon power nap, in winters when I am snuggled cozily in the bed with blanket et al.
Shouldn’t it be declared sacrilegious to infringe on someone’s DND moments? It should go like this… “Fancy dishonoring my DND ? Be ready for the conundrum!”
Thanks Shilpa, you gave me new thought to augment DND!
Anagha your way with words is fascinating and always leaves me in awe. I cannnever imagine doing those calculations in my head ( I am a CA and I love accounts but not a Math person) I skyways day this! This was a fun read. Reminds me of the precious weekends when my toddler takes a nap and the only time I get as a working mommy to indulge in writing- tada, there will always be a hindrance from someone which gets on my nerves
Akshata, this reminds me of one absolutely filmy dialogue… Twisting it lil bit here… “Ek chutti ki kimat tum kya jano babu!”
Thanks dear for visiting and sharing your DND moment!
Oh Anagha DND seem to be only letters to be ignored. I have countless situations where I am always disturbed – in fact any serious project is always done in fits and starts….. And I assume the groceries you are buying are online because that’s what happens to me. I have to give up half way only to get back when I’m completely in another zone and land up checking for jeera when I actually want haldi.
Sunita, I feel we all sail in the same boat! At the same time, do such situations not give us chance to enjoy those “lost” moments in hindsight?
Thanks for visiting and sharing Jira and Haldi spices to the DND discussion!
Ah! This is such a cute, fun post. So well written Anagha.
I stopped buying groceries online, because I always end up getting the wrong sizes. You are a mathematic pro. I wish I was half as good as you.
Cheerio!
Thank you Shilpa for hosting Anagha and giving us an opportunity to read such a interesting post.
Thank you Natasha for praising my effort!
Will it not be fun to jot down the list of “don’t do” activities where in DND is not honoured? That gives me a good food for thought for may be next post…Thanks for that!
Haha, this was lovely Anagha. I am so glad I came across you. You have a way with words. And for the DND moment..well I had it ten seconds ago while reading this post..with my six year old accusing me of ‘ doing WhatsApp’ 🙂
Same here Meha!
We can give discount to your son, because he may not have been able to read whats on your flag!
Thanks for sharing your tiny tot DND moment!
My DND is my reading time at night. Dare someone come between me and my book!
A red flagged DND here! Agree you Damayanti that invading the reading time is so sacrilegious.
Thanks for visiting and sharing your DND moment.
lovely post Anagha….My DID situation is I am busy jotting down what i need to buy from the market in the meanwhile somebody rings the bell or my kid calls “come here”…..by then i am done…many more DND situations!!!
Hahaha… I can see your tall little girl calling you out with a sense of emergency while you are busy and the sense of emergency!
Thanks for visiting and sharing your DND moment.
lovely post Anagha….My DID is I am busy jotting down what i need to buy from the market in the meanwhile somebody rings the bell or my kid calls “come here”…..by then i am done…many more DND situations!!!
Oh I can so relate to it! I am a good example of partial amnesia. One intrusion and I forget about everything that is in my thoughts then 🙁
Yeh loved this term, “partial amnesia”. And indeed its such a fragile thing that it needs no reason to break at drop of the hat.
Thanks Keerthi for visiting and furthering DND discussion!
I just had a moment like this yesterday, really fun reading this one
DNDs happen at least once a day for most of us, Manisha! Thanks for visiting.
Oh yes this happens at the most inopportune moments. Like the doorbell will ring just when you have a face pack on
Good funny one Anagha!!
Thats a classic case of DND! Thanks Shalini for adding this real funny number to the ever growing DND list.
Hi Anagha,
I laughed all the way through. I can totally relate as I know many of us can.
Thank you for visiting and I am glad that you had a fun reading it.
Mathlete! Love this term coined and the first time I love something which is my nightmare. Maths! Love Shilpa’s introduction. Anagha! Like you I am a pen and paper person, doing list on a chit than the smart phone which seems so fake nowadays. haha! I am forever a DND person.
Hahaha…liked this one, ‘nightmare that one can love’. And Iam with you when you say that I am a forever DND person!
I am a pen and paper person like you, Anagha! And I also have failed miserably, rather keep failing every day with the DND in my head! It is like whenever, I try to catch a short nap, be it at any time of the day, someone ought to trespass that DND imaginary line :/
Ah…I so loved reading this post 🙂
Much thanks, Shilpa, for hosting Anagha !
Offenders of the nap crashing crime should be prosecuted by some law! We must start an on line PIL to this effect Meenakshi…hahaha!
I totally love the idea of a big “DND sign written in bold and italics over my face” Thank you for this lovely piece of writing.
Thank you so much Heidi for visiting and uplifting remarks!
my DND moment is when I am reading a book. I hate when anyone disturbs me then
Curse be upon them who dishonor reading time DND, Dipanwita! Thanks for visiting and sharing your DND moment.
I really wish I did have a big neon sign hanging over me at times…but I’m pretty sure it would be to no avail!
Hehehe… a big neon DND sign!!! Loved this thought Roshani. Thanks for visiting and adding to the discussion on DND.
hahaha…. Loved it Anagha! DND, can relate to it but the way you have described it is awesome.
Phone rings and special hindrances at the time of making list. Btw I am also the pen & paper list person for grocery shopping. Though it goes in my 5 yrs oldie’s hand while I move the cart. And later realize half the items were added by her.
Calculations – phew! hats off, we have monthly payments for veggie vender, all I do is scribble down the day’s expenses and hand over list to better half for calculations… hahha