Arya at 15 months old

Long time since I have posted something about Arya and his progress. I want to write it somewhere to remember it in a few years...

Walking:

Enough!!! He is testing my patience! It’s a big wait for me to see him start walking. I have heard from other mommies that once he starts it, I would get no rest. Ideally I should be happy to wait.

Teething:

He has sprouted 4 teeth now and can bite. Whenever he wants to show love, he bangs his head on mine, scratch my face with nails that I had cut yesterday, or bite me on hands, legs and face. I have read that I should not encourage this behavior, and I don’t, yet he is not showing signs of slowing down!

Talking:

He talks a lot in a baby language saying, “Mum mum mum” very clearly although not to me. He says it to the person he wants work done from, like hoisting him up so he could see what’s cooking in the kitchen.

He can say AAI (again not to me). But he knows who’s-who now. He looks at the right person when we say – “Pappa kuthe aahet (Where is your dad?)” Or “Go to your mom.”

He understands simple sentences like “Paani pii” and searches for his sipper and to drink water from it.

These days he is doing babb babb babb babb with his lips and ‘Ha Ha Ha’ at the end of Johnny Johnny.

Mangal has taught him to do boova ala, making an ‘O’ with his lips pulled inside his mouth!

Peekaboo!:

He loves peekaboo! Okay - all babies do. But it is real fun to play it with your own baby. And they seem to take it so seriously. (Did I write about this before?). To start the game I just need to say “Arya kuuuuthe??” OR “Mee kuuthe” (Where’s Arya?/Where am I?)

When I say the former, he knows that he is supposed to hide. He takes only 2 spots to hide, either behind our kitchen half-wall or between the curtains.

He crawls and sits behind the kitchen wall at the same spot each time, eagerly looking over the corner with eyes wide and alert, smiling all the time. The moment you say “Sapadla” (Caught), he laughs so much, sometimes touching his head to the ground or rolling on the floor (ROFL – only babies can do it).

The other spot is the curtains. He cannot really move them and go behind yet. He just goes and sits in between the folds, clearly visible to everyone in the house. Me or Yogesh have to still say “Arya kuthe, Arya kuthe (Where’s Arya)”, looking in all directions but one. And then shout “Sapadla”, starting the giggles all over again.

There is yet another way he has devised all by himself! He just goes and sits right behind you, either leaning his back on yours, or sitting facing it, for you to search him. You have to look around and pretend to search him for a while until he slowly pokes his head and shows himself, laughing all the while. This is a sweet trap though… he repeats this as long as he has your back accessible and you can’t say no.

He also looks for us throughout the house and loves when we jump out of hiding.

Cricket:

He has a plastic bat and different balls to play Cricket with. He pretty much smashes the ball with all his force using the bat. This is a single person play. He hits the ball and crawls speedily with the bat in hand behind it to hit it again. Sometimes we help by throwing the ball to him.

At times we find him lying facing down on the floor and his bat extended below the sofa or the table trying to nudge the ball out (Who taught him this?). BTW Cricket can also be played with brooms and onions too, if you do not have bat and ball. Who knew?

Chicken:

Arya has a toy chicken. Actually it is a cock. It flaps it wings and runs ahead when we pull its string. We’ve had many laughs at the expense of this toy. Sometimes it runs in the kitchen and we say that it wants us to it. Arya beats it up a lot, tries to remove its wings, and sometimes pushes it very hard for it to run ahead. The cock just lies there ‘cause it was lying sidewise in the first place. Arya beats it up all over again.

I hope all these sweet memories never fail me in future. I also know that I will collect more and more such sweet things to remember each day.

God! I can be so stupid!

There are lots of stupid things I do and I don't want to be so dumb as to post any and every comic thing I do. Some things are better kept under the wraps. Actually I do such things when I think there is some logic to it.



Today I have done something that most people in this world wouldn't do. Yogesh will remind me once again that 'Tula duniyadari cha samaj nahi!' (You do not know the ways of the world.) I can't tell you this today 'cause he reads this post and will definitely ask me questions.

More to come...

Holi and Woman's Day 2012

I’m feeling like writing something in detail, but there are so many topics. So I’ll just write about them here in short.

• Driving to office 


• Came to office alone today on my bike after many months. I’ve gotten used to Yogesh driving. I just sit behind doing nothing but watch the houses and streets go by. I’ve also gotten used to his company all the way for the 1 hour drive. Plus I am a lazy person when it comes to driving. I had tried emotional blackmail with him in the morning for dropping me here, but it didn’t work. He’s getting good. Well, missed him.  



• Streets were bare today on account of a holiday for Holi. It felt good to drive when I started. I remembered that this was how driving in Pune used to be about 6 years back when I first begun driving. Actually I liked driving today. Felt independent once again. I know that tomorrow I wouldn’t want to drive. A woman’s mind can be so complicated!  



• Elections have given Pune smooth & silky roads. Rains will again change them to a more familiar sight. Wondering why roads cannot last more than a few months. Yes, politics and strategy by road contractors is the reason.



• Not too much pollution on roads today. Government should give more such holidays for the environment.
• Not being at home


• I’m missing Arya and know that Yogesh must be enjoying his company. Jealous? You bet. I hate the days when Yogesh has a holiday and I don't! Sincerely. I’m not a hopeless romantic, but I just feel good to be home when everyone is home. Saturdays, he goes to work and I’m home – it’s not the same.
• Women's day today


• It is women’s day today and I am feeling something for the first time. Pride, Solidarity, Appreciation, Respect – a little of each. Earlier I used to feel that people have just hyped the concept. Today after a marriage and a baby and a job, I think differently. Someone has written to us – “Many of you manage a tough balancing act between your personal and professional lives and I am aware that there would have been times when you had to make personal sacrifices and trade precious moments for guilt.” Very thoughtful.



• Yogesh hasn’t wished me yet. He forgot about mother’s day too last year, when it was my first!



• HR person on the floor is planning some event for women’s day today. Company is also planning something different.
• Holi today and Shimga!


• Missing my lunch and breakfast friends in office. No one to chitchat with me on our internal messenger. I’ll have to search some company for lunch.



• Today, people in my society "CasaPoli, Wakad" are playing colors in the club house. I don’t play colors but enjoy watching people play.



• I got a pichkari for Arya for Holi. Since he cannot hold a water gun in his hand, I got a cute Spiderman water-toy for him. It is a small plastic toy where you can fill water from his head, and press a black button on his stomach. When you press the button, the Spiderman pees on your face! A water jet! Arya was so happy to see Spidey pee! He began pressing that guy’s stomach again and again. It was fun. And we fooled Maushi too – asking her to press the button!



• Arya saw Holika Dahan yesterday. Saw that there are lots of sweet children in the building. Women are bonding with neighbors. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten to speak to many women due to my office hours and baby care. Well, someday I will.

Thoughts and Traffic

Yogesh comes to pick me up from office at Kothrud to home in Wakad. (I just love him for this.) It is a 14 km and a 45 min journey that gets boring and routine most of the time. I keep asking him, "Ghar kadhi yenar?" ("When will we reach?"). And he replies 10 mins just for the sake of it, even though it is about 30 mins away.

There is traffic with dense black fumes coming out of PMT-PCMC buses and 6 seater rickshaws. (Seriously guys, don’t the pollution rules apply to public transport???). And I feel sorry for the kids begging at the signals or some poor homeless man sitting at a pavement with just 1 cloth bag full of god-knows-what as is sole possession. Sometimes I get anxious when I see little school/high school kids crossing the busy roads chatting with their friends, paying little heed to the speeding vehicles. Dunno how I am going to let Arya go to school on his own, ever! And then there is tree-felling going on all around for some road widening work. I plunge into thoughts all over again.

Yogesh weaves his way out from all this mess. Poor guy. Sometimes I think he knows that I am pondering over such seemingly petty things, and hence tries to distract me by talking about Arya, a guaranteed mood up-lifter for me.

These days I try to find some silver lining in such cloudy mess. Just to uplift my spirits and carry on like any other sensitive but lazy-to-change-anything person.

Few days back when I was on Senapati-Bapat road, I saw many trees on the road-divider. PMC is working hard at maintaining the shrubs and trees on it. (There are some areas though, where the shrubs have dried up and need a good trimming.) Some of the trees are dried up too (deciduous/lack of water? Dunno). But suddenly I found the silver lining there!

Even on the dried up trees I saw there were many bird nests. On almost every tree throughout SB road! It means that although the citizens and PMC are doing their best to cut trees off, the birds have still managed to find a small haven right in the middle of the busy road! We need to give a thought to give them more space, more safety. If we can’t plant trees, we can atleast arrange for some artificial bird nests and artificial bird feeders (Actually, one of my friend sells these.)

I must admit though - Bravo to the birds, and to the spirit of living!

Arya’s first Makar Sankranti and Bor-Nahan

Makar Sankranti was tomorrow. Arati tai asked me if I was planning a Bor-Nahan for Arya.

Bor-Nahan is Showering the kid with berries, chocolates, and other eatables. Bor/bora are nothing but berries. The custom is for bringing prosperity to the kid by showering stuff on him and distributing it.

I began considering it. Arati tai told me what could be done in a short time. I am not a big fan of customs and traditions, but like to do fun stuff when it is easy to do.

15th Jan 2012 was a Sankranti. I couldn’t find Bora anywhere. We also had to buy the little guy a black dress for Sankranti. Mom and dad got these items, thank God! They also searched for halwyache dagine (jewelry made out of til-gul) for the event, but couldn’t find it. Anyway I only wanted to do as much as I could. So I let it go.

I had got til-gul, kumkum and some return gift to ladies who would come. Maushi made some bhel & tilgul laddoos at home. I made a mixture of revadi (tilgul vadi), murmura, dairy milk chocolates, bor (berries), etc. for pouring on Aryas head. I called up some kids from neighboring chawl (my maid’s kids). And guess what? She got few more kids along. So while I was planning eatables for 4, as much as 9 kids turned up.

For the Bor-Nahan, Mani placed Arya (dressed in black)on her lap. I showered the mix on his head seven times. At first he was surprised, then confused and finally shocked. Kids were waiting, eager to collect the showered stuff. At the seventh attempt, they literally pounced on him and picked up everything. A smart one picked up only the dairy milk chocs. Some kids tried in vain to search chocolates. Some tried stealing from the bowl of mixture when they thought I wasn't looking! Yes, I let them take it all. Mani surprised them by giving them a packet of Kurkure each. We gave them bhel, more chocolates and sent them on their way. It made their day! Boys had their pockets full and girls held up their frock hems to make a Jholi to carry stuff!!!

A short and wonderful ceremony. Good fun and great memories!

A Pesky and Pampered Traveller

I love to travel when conditions are favorable. I mean I am a little pampered and sensitive, but still, I love to travel when I don’t have to bear physical stress. Mostly I have found people around me who are caring. Yes, whenever I travel, the person next to me is always caring towards me. Good things happen to good people I suppose.

Travel with Mom:

I always sat next to mom while travelling. I always had a shoulder to lean on, ask for stuff I wanted, etc. Thanks to my height, I could even lie down on the bus seat with my legs folded, when I put my head on her lap.

Travel with Kanchan:

At one time, I had to travel with Kanchan to our friend’s wedding. It was a sudden fix, and we had to rush almost in the middle of the night to Sangamner, Akola, about 14 hours journey by some jeep. We couldn’t miss it. Luckily Kanchan sat next to me. But there was a catch. I love to sit silent looking out of the window. And she can be uncontrollably talkative. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is not an answer for her. You have to answer in detail. Yes, she gave me the window seat all the way to and fro! See, I don’t forget a good deed. Oh, I digress. We enjoyed the wedding, and for me the travel was bearable thanks to her. I also remember that we had taken only a single set of our ‘new dresses’ for the wedding and saw that the whole crowd changed clothes every couple of hours! We were embarrassed but couldn’t do anything.

Travel with college friends:

This is going to be nostalgic. I remember the college Alibag trip that my group had set up. I didn’t want to go and jumped in at the idea at the last moment when my friends sent someone’s dad to pick me up! Again I just got up from bed and went off. Kanchan, Nivedita, Seema and all our friends…we enjoyed a lot. Yes, I had to talk and answer questions in detail.

Travel with Kanchan's friend:

 I even recollect one occasion when I had to go to Andheri for an interview for MBA summers, and Kanchan’s classmate ‘R’ was travelling with me. She had told him to take care of me! And R made sure I got the window, and helped me with the luggage, etc. R told me that he was asked to do it!

 Travel with Asmita:

There was once when me and my younger sister – Asmita went for a Harihareshwar, Shrivardhan trip with dad’s friend from office. He was taking his tuition class students on a group trip. We joined. This time Asmita gave me the window seat at least for a major length of time. She acted the older sister part and I could sleep on her lap. The trip lasted for 2 nights and 3 days. We both couldn’t gel up in the group and we missed mom so much. We called up mom and talked at lengths. Dads friend tried to include us in the group but it didn’t help much. Asmita and me talked about all the students and how they behaved.

At Harihareshwar, we couldn’t find any hotel room to sleep – I suppose all were booked. It was dead cold winter and we were shivering. We got shelter at a person’s backyard. Some students made amazing dinner outside and we ate. Asmita and me found a cows shed, filled with hay, cowdung, and of course cows and bullocks. We got in a corner and made some place to sit. I laid my head on her lap for some time. It was warm and cozy and we slept in no time. After sometime, we both got up with a tap on our shoulders. Sir had come to wake us up. We saw that the cow’s mouth was so close to us, eating the hay from near us. It was amazing. Sir said to me that Asmita seems to be your elder sister since she is so caring!

Travel with Yogesh: 

And after that naturally it was Yogesh. Right from our honeymoon trip in Kerala, where I could lean on his shoulder and sleep for hours in the bus, to sleeping on the platform with my head in his lap while waiting for the train, Yogesh has always been there. I have always enjoyed the window seat when I am with him, plus he is extremely caring and concerned when it comes to food we eat while traveling.

I have had migraines on many of our trips and he makes sure I enjoy even then. I remember clicking many photos on or Kerala trip. We had made the bus stop at many scenic places to do just that. Other couples in the bus were sort of irritated by this but we couldn’t let go of it. One such place was the tea gardens at Munnar. Everyone was reluctant to get down from the bus but eventually everyone did, and those photos are still the most memorable!

Travel with Arya:

Today situation is a little different. I travel with my baby and I have to be the caring person for him. In our Konkan trip, he slept on my lap for hours on end, numbing my legs. He stood near the window and shouted out. I had to hold him all the way. I feed him in the moving bus and made sure he was comfortable. Yogesh still looks out for me. But I’m the one for Arya. It has made me more thankful for the caring I get these days.

Birthday jitters

Preparations for Arya’s first b’day are in swing, even between the arguments that me and Yogesh have.

The caterer is booked, the venue is booked, invites have been sent, and calls to people have been made. Mandap booking would happen this week. Decorator will meet us this week too. We have got some decoration items for his b’day at home. Cake is to be booked though. Searching for good soft music CD’s to be played during the event. Also thinking of return gift options and birthday caps for kids.

We both love to do this for him. I hope everything goes off well.

Arya and the disappearing curtains

The latest big story in our house is our curtains.

Couple of days back, I was feeding Arya in the kitchen, while talking to his nanny. Suddenly we heard a small crash and saw that the curtain rods in front of our terrace had fallen down, bringing all the curtains down. (Well, my aunt sat on the curtains! But that is another story.)

I, my aunt, my maid and the nanny began talking about it. We were all calm and someone said that anyway we wanted to wash the curtains, etc. None of us overreacted or acted distressed.

This is when Arya got confused and all animated. It was a big thing for him it seems. He started talking in his language, making quick sentences, telling me with his hand pointed towards the place where the curtain rods were! He also pointed towards my aunt and started talking in a deeper voice and a frown. As if asking her why she did that! We were surprised. He continued the same thing over and over again, gesturing with his hand up in the air, meaning ‘Look what happened!’

We understood that he was upset. So we put away the rods and curtains. But this boy would play around for a few minutes and come back there muttering about the missing curtains. Yes, it was his play spot behind the curtains. And the curtains are beautiful and change the ‘look’ of our living room significantly. Maybe he just knows what-is-where in the house and doesn’t want it to be changed.

And just yesterday we had a security door fitted to our main entrance. It is an iron door – brown in color. Arya liked the men who came for fitting it, and loved the din they were making. He even loved the new door, going to it again and again while playing.

In a way he was telling us that he is familiar with his house and doesn’t want it to change so fast.

He has a mind of his own and doesn’t want to be taken for granted.

TV, Tooth and Arya

Wanted to write so many stories over the days but didn’t get enough time. So here is one now. Of course it is about Arya. Writing about something else will require even more time.

Arya is smarter now. (Yea, I’m writing this for the 100th time). The other day he was standing near the sofa chair that I was sitting on. While playing, he dropped the TV remote on the floor and I told him to give it back. And hey, the little guy carefully sat next to the chair and tried to grab the remote. After three tries, he managed to get it. He looked up and handed the remote to me! He understood me even though he cannot talk a word!

Yea and he does know what to do with the remote when it is in his hand. He holds it up in the direction of the TV and presses several buttons at a time. He also looks up at the TV to confirm if something has happened!

To continue the TV story, my boy now goes to the STB directly and presses many of the buttons on it. Just to remind you, we have already paid few hundred bucks to get a new remote when he had dropped it. STB replacement will cost more. So this one presses buttons on the STB and cranes his neck up, towards the TV, to see if something has changed! Who told him this? I have changed channels only a couple of times from STB when the remote was too far off!

Ok, moving on.

He knows his name is ARYA now. I think he can say it too. It is just not very clear yet and I am not sure if he says ARYA. He pronounces it ‘AA EEE YA’. I would want to believe that he calls his name.

About 3 weeks back my baby has sprouted his first tooth! Yea! Finally I can feel something hard and sharp in his mouth! It is not all the way out yet. It is just a small point. But it is so funny. Sometimes when he remembers his tooth, he tries to chew a small grain of rice with full concentration. His face holds a frown and the sweet and round lower jaw does the work. It is so cute to watch! I’m thinking wow what a logic kids have – food+tooth=chew!

First timers for Arya on our Konkan Trip!

 Cold winter air on the face.

 Mom dad by the side all the time.

 Good-old mom-cooked food to eat at unexpected but beautiful locations!

 So many ducks and pigeons in cages making weird sounds. Talking to them and calling them near.

 A window seat to stand and see the trees, houses, people and cars actually move backwards. Wow!

 Rhythmic vibrations of the bus for a sound sleep.

 So many happy faces in the bus. Two new friends – Mandar and Sakshi!

 Vast expanse of water and roaring waves that seemed about to go over the body!

 Cool sea water at the feet!

 Sand rushing back to the sea from under the feet with the retreating waves!

 Mom splashing water high up with her feet.

 A ride on the horse-cart at the beach.

 A place to stay with trees and gardens all around.

Arya experienced all this and more for the first time...on our Konkan – Harihareshwar, Srivardhan and Dive Agar trip last weekend.

Kids love toys, but not necessarily the one's we get them!

Since Arya was turning 11 month old on Monday the 19th December 2011, I thought of getting a gift for him on the way back home from my class. Yes, we make it a point to celebrate every 19th of the month for him (at least for his first year)! I’m sure he might be thinking “Hey, what’s the big deal?”

From a local toy shop I got a big ball for him. But since I am a woman, and that too ‘a mom’, I am both gifted, and entitled by nature to buy something more, like a beautiful toy mobile phone.

Arya loves playing with our mobile phones and we love to see him finally silenced for a few minutes so that we can relax. This phone has 3 modes – numeric, alphabets, and songs ‘n’ greeting. It has colourful buttons and a huge bright blue light at the top. It can stand on its own and the screen shows letters and numbers as you type. Here’s a photo I downloaded from the internet.

First, I gave the ball to him on Saturday and placed him down in front of it. But, what was I thinking? Arya screamed on top of his lungs and rushed to grab my legs. He must have thought that this huge object that can move on its own might crush him. It seemed threatening to him. Since then we are introducing it gradually to him. Now even after 2 days he gently tries to poke the ball only when we are around, and yet comes rushing to us thinking that the ball might chase him.

About the phone, Maushi and I were desperate to show him that for the past two days. Yesterday Yogesh got a pack of cupcakes and lit a small candle on one. Arya wanted to grab the candle and the knife too. (Kids want anything that is dangerous.) We did the usual song and cake cutting.

Then we showed him the gift. Arya’s face lit up with all the buttons and the big led… and the voice and he loved the musical tones. We felt so proud for getting him something that he loved (and especially after the ball incident). It is so fulfilling to see happiness in your baby’s eyes.

Today morning after playing with his mobile for about 15 minutes, my boy suddenly dropped it and went back to playing with his favourite baby oil bottle!!! It is transparent, filled with oil and has a white cap. As simple as you can imagine!!! I’m thinking, what’s so great with this baby oil bottle that fascinates him so much???

Only he can tell.

Missing the Baby

Dear Arya,

I am missing you a lot, just like most days in office. It is now 5.30 pm and it is still an hour and a half before I will see you again!

I love how you yell 'AYE AYE AAA' from inside the house the moment we knock the door ever so lightly. You are already waiting for us long before we knock. We love to hear your voice outside. It makes me smile even though I am tired.

You become so impatient for me to lift you up while I'm still dropping my helmet and removing my shoes. I know I should wash-up before I pick you up, but I can't let you down. After all you've been waiting... You get so excited, that you almost beat me up with both your fists, when I hug you, making me realize yet again what I am missing every day.

And you are getting sharper by the day. You have understood that when mom or dad wear helmets, they are leaving... and that's when you come to me so that I will hug you and maybe not go to office. It is your attempt to try and keep me home. You don't like it when I put you down or give you back to Maushi on my way out.

You've learnt to wave goodbye to me in the morning. It is heartbreaking. You don't realize yet that tata means we will be away from you for 9 hours!

Hey, it is nearing 6 pm now so I'll pack up to come home!

Love,
Mom.

Weekend wedding, Arya's talk, and the pampering!

I got silver kadaas / anklets for Arya’s feet on Saturday. They have little ghungroos on them... so he goes chum chum chum the entire place now. My parlour lady wasn’t available to do Arya's haircut. The boy hair grows like anything. The last cut was just 2 months ago! I'll have to get it done coming weekend. I also put 4 of my dresses for stitching and counting days to get to wear them.

I visited my mom’s place. My parents were very happy to see their grandson say words like 'AAEEE, AATYA, AAJJI, MAMAA, PAAPA'. Yea Arya has started jabbering this for the past week and a half. It is such fun to watch. He opens his mouth wide AAAAHHH to say AAYEE. So now my aunt (UM) wants me to let him call her Aayi. She says he can call me Mama. :) I'm not sure but, OK.
My mom also got to experience what a tycoon my son could be. Running up to corners and climbing every piece of furniture!

On Sunday UM made Idli Sambar. In the evening we went out for Yogesh's collegues wedding. Weddings are fun and here I met the people he works with. I'm not saying fun food-wise, but emotions wise. It is a new start for the couple and everyone in their families. Or, am I too senti these days?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While we were travelling for the wedding, I had a sudden sharp pain in my right arm. And it didn’t go away. As always I began to wonder why...I had done a lot of cleaning work in the house over the weekend. Was that why? Or was it because I carried Arya over my arm for a long time to comfort him. Nope. It wouldn’t cause such a sharp pain. Was it the bike ride? Or was it carrying the laptop for so many days finally is having its toll?

Yogesh applied some ointment to it, yet I woke up in the middle of the night to reapply. I was thinking of the reason for the pain even in my sleep. And it suddenly struck me.... I had washed Yogesh shirt! 1 shirt! I can't imagine that I’ve become so delicate and pampered!

Kanchan believes that our (i.e. me and her) bodies are not made for physical labour. We are made for only light physical work, like sitting in front of a computer. I think she might be right! Is that funny?

My baby's first birthday coming up!

Arya is turning 1 year old in Jan 2012. Planning to throw a bash for him.

Need to do loads of planning.... lists of guests, cake, menu, decorations, gifts, invitations, clothes, venue, shopping, etc etc etc....

Wondering when it would be an ideal time to start?

For the venue, I need to choose from the 2 options below -

1. The club house in my society that has a big terrace and is surrounded by trees on one side. It can be decorated by some professional guy. We can have colored lights, 1 banner on the stage and balloons all over. We can have a buffet on one side with chairs... need to give this a thought. It sure would be nearer to my home and easier for everyone to come.
2. Any restaurant these days gives you a party space for free if you give them an order for X number of plates. They have professionals who can decorate the space for you. Pro - you do not have to bother with the prep and food arrangements as they do it all.

Invitation cards would not be needed since we would call up people on phone. Email invite would do for others...

Date is another thing... do I keep it on the 19th which is his b'day, but falls on a Thursday? Or should it be a convenient weekend party for everyone?

Still humming the same song!

Does it happen to you? Do you wake up in your bed, and have some song playing in the mind for no reason at all? Yea?

Do we hear that song in our dream? Or has our subconscious mind heard it playing somewhere while we were sleeping? Was someone singing this song yesterday? Dunno.

But I know for sure that when I wake up in the morning with a song in my head, it plays endlessly throughout the day, even when I am working or feeding the baby. If I’m talking or focused elsewhere, the song comes back to me as soon as my mind has a few cells of free space to play. Sometimes it can be my favourite song, so for that day I'm fine. But a few times it is just some stupid song like an item number from a Hindi flick. And it won’t go away, no matter what! I’ve tried singing that song aloud, giving it due importance so it would go away. It doesn’t. I try singing something else ALOUD. But no help.

Today I woke up with another good song. It is from Linkin’ park, titled “Somewhere I belong”. The lyrics are good, but it has a very heavy music. I have a flair to remember the music - as is - from any song that I hear even a couple of times. And so I now have a head full of metal beating against each other with some fast paced wordings!

Here it goes...

I wanna heal, I wanna feel,
Like I’m close to something real.
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

Birds at Pashan lake

On our way to office in the morning from Wakad to Narhe by highway 4, there’s a beautiful lake at Pashan.

I read an article that Pashan Lake is a home for huge number of migratory birds coming in winters. We do see native birds here throughout the year.

This year Pune municipality has decided to renovate the lake and secure the boundaries by constructing huge walls around the lake and creating a pathway for bird watchers! Needless to say that the work is half done and the number of birds coming here is reducing year on year. This year the numbers have dropped once again. So now there may be a path for birdwatchers, but alas there would be no birds!

Half the lake itself is covered with water plants, particularly near the HEMRL side, and there are no secure resting places for birds. There is constant human interference too!

The city used to boast this lake as a bird watchers delight. Well, one more delight fading away.

Yet, I see a few beautiful non-native birds here resting on the walls. It is a pleasant sight to start the day. I hope we save the lake - their environment.



Detailed article at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-28/pune/29482725_1_migratory-birds-pashan-lake-human-interference

Beds and growing up

A few months back when LO was 5 months old, he began to hold on to the sides of his cloth crib and to roll on one side to look over the edge. He also did not have much space to stretch or move around in it. I tried in vain to ignore these symptoms. Yes, him growing out of the crib. But eventually I had to include him in our big bed.

I asked Yogesh to fold the crib and put it in the overhead storage space. He did it in no time.
And there I was heartbroken, standing and staring the empty space. Till today I had bumped my toe so many times on the edge of the crib and cried out in pain. I had tried to find places where I could keep the crib so that I won’t fall over it. And now I couldn’t imagine him not in the crib there. Shouldn’t I be happy that my baby is growing up! But then, I would miss him being so little too! What an emotional mess a mom can be.
Today LO occupies nearly 50% of the space on our bed, changing angles, sprawling his hands and legs in whatever direction he wants until one of us is cornered or thrown off the bed altogether, to sleep on the mattress on the floor! So far so good…

work and loads of it.

Friend on office messenger at 10.30 am

“Hi dear. How was your weekend?”

“ Very bad, loads of baby work, house work and no one to care about that OR about me.”

“Don’t fret. Your kid and house is your responsibility. Do not expect other’s to help. Do whatever you can, and let them feel the guilt.”

“No one would ever realize what I am going through.”

“They will, don’t worry”

Him on email at 13.15pm

“So how’s your day? Had food?”

“It’s fine. How’s yours? Didn’t eat yet.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Exhausted. But ok I guess.”

“OK. Take care, eat fruits.”

“Oh, you gave fruits in tiffin. I didn’t realize. Thanks v. much.”

Head banger

LO is developing a nasty habit. He bangs his head on the wall whenever he gets the chance to! We pad the walls near his bed with pillows, but since he has learnt to stand up, he raises his head above the pillows and bangs his forehead on the wall. It might be a great game for him, but it is a shocking for us to watch. Sometimes while playing, he accidently sits with his back to the wall. And as soon as he realizes that there's a wall behind him, he starts rhythmically banging the back of his head on it. Other head banging targets are my forehead (actually anyone’s forehead), anyone’s tummy, pillows, furniture like stool, sides of the bed, doors, etc.

As always, I read about this on the internet. It says that boys are more susceptible to this behaviour than girls. They do it when they are bored, or overstimulated, or if they have ear pain, or teething, etc. etc. etc.! So pretty much anything and everything. What’s more, only 20% of the boys seem to do it! And my baby is one among the minority! What a life!

Night-time awakening

LO woke up again this night at around 3.00 am. *Groan*. He has been waking up at nights from about a week ago. I’ve not had sleep for 2 consecutive nights and hence office just seems to be some halo I walk into every morning. Some days I seem to be sleep-walking and my tongue doesn’t seem to move quick enough to form clear words while talking to people. My analytical skills and typing skills have degraded. My appearance is just a little bit better than the at-home-and-with-a-baby look, barely passable office attire. These days the time and energy is too limited. On top of it all, my face says I’m an owl. I think I can expect someone in office to call me a retard soon enough!

I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the net about what to do to make the baby sleep through the night. Feed him, form a bed time routine and teach him to sleep back on his own. Assuming that he might be hungry at nights, I tried feeding him different kinds of food at different times to see if he feels full enough till the morning, but it hasn’t helped. Articles say children have frequent light sleep cycles with deep sleep cycles, and so when they half-wake up, they don’t know how to go back to sleep! Whew! Hence to make sure he doesn’t fully get up, I pat him on the back when I see that his fingers are twitching or when he changes sides in the bed. See! I am awake when he starts moving in sleep!


The only bed time routine that I can afford in my limited time as a working mom is to feed him, put a diaper on him, change his clothes, and rock him to sleep! I can’t afford to wait for him to go to sleep on his own, especially when the big bed is inviting me to sleep. Maybe someday when I have the time and patience to do that, I will. I'm hoping he will learn it on his own. Till then me, and yea a few times Yogesh, will have to be the two night owls, guarding our prize.

LO loves me!

I had read that babies’ as little as 8 month old give parents loads of kisses when they are in the mood! I never thought this was literally true until...Babies make life so easy!

For about a month now LO stands on my lap, and grabs my hair strands near the ears with his tiny fists. With a sudden jerk he tries to bring my face closer to his (he ends up banging his head on my forehead, and it hurts!) Oblivious to the pain, he immediately follows this by kissing my face (read licking). My face gets covered with slime from his wet kisses! The best part that is all the time he keeps saying something like 'booae booae' sometimes sounding like "boy boy". I am the one lucky person to receive this affection most number of times, since I don't have a moustache and a beard, you see. What’s more, if we have him playing in the lap & if we start making booae booae sounds, he immediately starts the whole routine again!

Lyrics of Marathi Songs

Tired of searching lyrics of a lot of Marathi songs online... and the forums are so lame with no one to reply to interested people who want to know the meanings and words.

So now I am going to start off with the activity of uploading lyrics of songs I like (and yes, the ones I have understood).
There may be some errors and I would appreciate corrections too! :)

Few days in the village

You might have stayed in some village (in India) and woken up to a faint smoke in the air. It comes from the water boilers that use ash and some wood to boil water. The water gets piping hot and there's a smoke of the burnt wood n ash, mingled with steam ... a delicious aroma. At the same time you might see a lady making tea on a chulha (shegdi) - an Indian stove that uses dung cakes as fuel.... again a superb mixture of aroma of tea and the smoke from the stove.

I remembered Sachin and Seema today and my mind went back to about 15 years ago, when I had visited with Seema, to her native place in Akola.
Seema is my closest friend and Sachin her younger brother. Right from my childhood, me and my sisters religiously tie rakhi to Sachin each year. Sachin hardly forgets the occasion to visit us.

Oh, I remember the near 14 hour cramped ST bus journey to Akola with Seema very much comfortable amidst the crowds, Seema’s mom trying to give me a banana during the journey and me refusing it for fear of its obvious retreat from my stomach.

In Akola, Seema's ancestral house was 3 floured building with the wooden structure matching old lavish homes. It even had an old styled fan made of cloth on a wooden bar attached to the roof. You had to pull the roop at the wall to fan the room. We visited lots of other houses nearby, saw some great temples, walked through farms and went to the river for play. It was a new experience, especially since I hadn't seen anything but metros and other cities. None of my relatives live in villages and all have settled long back in cities for livelihood.

Reminiscing those days...

Do you smile when you open your eyes in the morning?

My sister and her year-old baby girl stayed over at my place on the weekend. It was amazing!

The moment she caught up with the new place, Bebo began scampering all over looking for things to hurl on the floor, or things to break, also reaching for slippers (slip-on chappals) in the house to chew on. Yogesh kept carrying her out for short walks and showing her cars and kids playing. She loves to see cars go to and fro, her head moving right to left with every new car she caught sight of, and immediately tracking the next car and moving left to right and so on.

She made sure our biological clocks went for a toss by keeping awake till 2 am in the morning! She kept ordering to us to wake up - in her limited vocabulary (aye! uppp!) - in case we were trying to doze off. She kept doing tricks like throwing toys about and dancing in baby gestures, and looking at us for appreciation. Obviously although we were desperate to sleep we couldn't help getting exhilarated with every trick that she had in the box.

If the music stopped... Bebo used to pat her hand on my lap and point to Yogesh and immediately raise both her hands in the air in bhangra (Punjabi dance gesture). This signal was for me to tell Yogesh to play songs on the laptop - so that she can resume dancing.
From time to time, she made sure that we all were really looking at her while she danced... (waving hands and shoulders and moving the mouth for some foreign words). She scolded people who weren't attentive.

Finally she slept off and we kept trying to sleep for most part of the night. We awoke at our usual hours but she kept sleeping most of the morning, requiring us to hush our voices. I so waited for her to wake up begin the dance again!
The best part of being a baby is how you get to wake up with such a broad smile on your face. Bebo smiled at each of us in the morning, making us smile back. Such sweetness... and innocence. I began wondering when is it that you stop waking up with a smile on your face, not wanting to get out of your bed, not wanting to face the routine all over again!
Bebo gets out and starts waving hands for toys she wants and lo-behold, they fall in her lap automatically! We are so eager to please babies and see them smile.

When my sister and Bebo were leaving, we couldn't help feeling sooo sad, wanting the baby to stay for few more days, wishing she wouldn't come for such a short time. But then...no amount of time would be enough, right?

A Day at Tamhini Ghat

Last rains we decided to do a one day trip to Tamhini near Pune.

It was a Sunday. We got up, had early breakfast and left our house at Warje by 7.30 am. We took the road via Pirangut, Paudgaon on our bike and kept driving for about an hour.

The drive was splendid with all hills covered with greenery and lots of farms on the way. We stopped for tea at a tapri (a small shop) at the touch of Mulshi lake. Entry into the lake waters and its perimeter is restricted and is a property of Tata power. There is also Mulshi dam on the way.

When we reached Tamhini, we saw some smaller waterfalls but stopped at a spot where there were few vehicles already parked. Waterfall was at a small walk from the road. We began our small trek towards it amongst the hills. It was amazing with the sparkling water flowing by and us having to walk through it to reach the waterfall. The water was about knee to waist deep at some places. There were other picnic groups too having lots of fun. (Picture 1: Yogesh and a beautiful backdrop of mountains and rain clouds)

When I saw the waterfall, I couldn't help shuddering! The water crashed down heavy amongst a little enclosure in the hill. We were surrounded by the hill and trees. There was a small lake created at the base of the waterfall... it was paradise, a world outside of our world. We stepped into the lake and walked towards the waterfall, not imagining for a second to stand under it! Water falling from such height hurts like rocks on your body. We sat on some boulders by the waterfall to click pics and ate snacks, splashing water all the time. (That's him in maroon conquering the waterfall!)

Then began our trek back to our bike, with us shivering, drenched to our bones. On our way back we stopped at a small resort for snacks and tea, and reached home by 8 pm well in time for dinner!

First Wedding Anniversary in Tarkarli, Malwan

We had a super romantic 1st wedding anniversary celebration trip. It was on the 24th of December 2009. We had a short leave of 3 days and so planned to go to Tarkarli in Konkan. This place is near Malvan in Konkan.

We did online bookings for resorts through rtne.co.in and since it was a last minute booking we managed to get confirmation from Namita beach resort. MTDC has a cool resort there with great view though most people love to eat in the town. Namita is a doable home stay right near the beach with the sand just one step out of the rooms! It has coconut trees and a cool hammock where it is a amazing to have a cup of tree in the evening!

24th Dec, Evening: We did reservations for MSRTC semi luxury bus from Sant Tukaram bus stand Pimpri (Rs. 664 for both of us one-way). The Nigdi-Malwan bus starts in the evening at 7pm from Nigdi, Pune and reaches Swargate at 8.45pm (but was late as usual and left from Swargate, Pune at 9pm instead). We needed to book our return tickets to Pune since we cannot do it from Pune city.

25th Dec Morning: We reached at Malwan at 5.00am on 25th. Malwan to Tarkarli is just 15 mins away by auto rickshaw and they have standard rate of Rs. 60 per trip. We walked a small lovely walk amongst coconut trees and wells, and sand to our resort. On reaching there, we had a bath, some refreshing tea, pohe and left for sightseeing. We had decided to check out Malwan town first for booking and site seeing and beaches and fun for later.

25th Dec afternoon: Reached Malwan by some walk and then by auto and secured our return tickets from the ST stand! Then we began our exploring…starting from Sindhudurg in Malwan.

Sindhudurg: Sindhudurg meaning a 'Fort in the Sea' was built by Shivaji Maharaj. We need to take up a ferry from the Malwan coast to there. The fort has intact outer walls but the buildings inside have collapsed and nothing remains.

Things we saw there were -

• Clear sea waters from the walls of the fort. You can even see corals and sea weeds from the top of the fort!
• Entrance of the fort is well preserved. It is curved, so not visible to the enemies from afar and well protected from threats or ramming of enemy elephants.
• Nagarkhana (on the top of the entrance)
• Hand impression and foot impressions of Shivaji Maharaj in lime
• Drinking water pond in the fort that was used for drinking water in the past.
• Temple in the fort of some deity
• Temple of Shivaji Maharaj constructed by Rajaram Maharaj, his younger son.
• A secret underwater passageway (chor vaat) in one of the temple for escape outside the fort.
• Rare but famous two branched coconut tree (which is dead now with only trunk remaning)
• Snorkeling: We had already made up our minds to try snorkeling when at Sindhudurg and found some boatmen who would take us there. Charges are Rs. 250 per person for 30 mins. Yogesh had already done snorkeling at Kovalam beach, Kerala and was not as excited as me.
  
  Our boat sailed around to the back of the fort and was anchored. There was a ladder from the edge of the boat leading to a floating tube waiting below in the water. I descended into the ring and began floating in the sea! Wow! The boatman gave me directions to breathe using the face mask and what to do in case water fills up the mask. Yet, the moment I submerged my head using the mask... PANIC!!! I immediately wanted to get out and hold on to something stable. The life guard held the rope to my floating ring. He calmed me down and after a little reassurance I tried it again. This time it was ok. Yogesh joined me in, and we were off to see the corals.
  
  Corals were shiny... white, black, silver, green and blue shaded. The fish were dotted yellow and stripped and some were white... the guy gave us some bread crumbs and we fed them with our hands!!!! Wonderful experience totally. Snorkeling was an amazing adventure! This one in Sindhudurg, Malwan is very safe however types of corals and fish are limited.
• After this we changed back to our dry clothes and left back for Malwan coast. We were terribly hungry and now wanted to eat some delicious Malwani food! And what would be better than the famous old 'Bamboo restaurant' in Malwan! We walked to this place from Malwan beach, and reached at 1 pm.
  
  Bamboo is a relatively small outdoor place with about 10 tables of fours. Sad part is the wait. Hungry but determined now, we waited for 1 hour before we got a table. We ordered fish curry and rice and solkadi! The food was Simply Delicious! We couldn’t lift ourselves out of our chairs when we were done! :)

Click here to continue reading!

Ek undir asto. Toh gavat rahat asto…

Sometimes for a change I like to hear someone else’s story too. Literally! I make my husband tell me some short story. And yea, he has a very nice manner of narrating them. I will put here some stories he tells me (oh yea … he tells the same stories over and over again if I want to hear)

Gavatla undir.

Once there was a mouse who lives in a village. He is very tired of the village now and bored of the life in it. There wasn't enough food to eat and he had to run around a lot everyday for food. And there was a huge cat in the village who always wanted to eat him up. So he decides that thats-it... now he has to go to the city to live forever.

His friend (a city mouse) wants him to come to the city and had tried many times, to make him give up his village life. The city mousse tells him that there is lot of food in the city and he will never have to go hungry. And so he writes a letter to his friend in the city that he is coming to live with him.

He gets in a bus for the city and waits for his stop to come. He gets down at a huge stop in the city and sees huge crowds everywhere. There are too many cars, buses and bicycles on the roads and he finds it very difficult to cross it. Somehow he manages to reach his friends house. His friend is very happy to see him and offers lot of delicious food.

But suddenly they hear lots of purring around them.. cats! They run for their lives and hide into a hole in the wall. To the city mouse this happened everyday but the village mouse is very afraid.

Finally he tells his friend, 'Look brother, I came here because I was afraid of the cat in our village and food was hard to find. But here you have lots of food but so much danger to the life. I am going back to my village where there is only one cat to be afraid of and not so many. I will search my food but live in peace!

Moral: Peace of mind is the best wealth!

तर ही गोष्ठ मी मराठीत ऐकत असते. एक उंदीर असतो. हा उंदीर गावत राहत असतो. त्याचा एक मित्र असतो. हा मित्र शहरात राहत असतो...

Goodbye emails

Long time since I’ve written something here. Well, sometimes you don’t find things worth writing about, and sometimes there it is, and just don’t get to do it.

Last week yet another of my very good friends at Aftek resigned. Her name is Kanika. Couple of years back Paayal, Ashwini, Dipti, Kanika and me had a rocking time together. From eating tiffin on the terrace together to nature walks in the middle of the city, to one day trips! We did it all. Kanika used to get mangoes and superb upma so many times and we would be fighting to get a good share of it!

Then Ashwini got married and moved to the US, Dipti left, Paayal got happily married last year and now Kanika joined another company. All of us have newer things happening in our lives.

I am left wondering how many new friends we keep making and how many old ones we leave behind. When we join a new company we hardly know anyone there, but end up talking to some people and get to know their nature, like it or get used to it. At the same time even people begin to know you, some like you and some leave you alone. But point is, we make new friends and start looking forward to spending more time with them. How many times do we have to let them go - just on a note that we may them again sometime? May? All the goodbye emails...

And what I wonder most is how easily we come to work the next day and even if see that their cubicle is empty, we just go on ahead with our work as usual. Don’t we miss them? Well we do actually but I guess that’s how life is. In today’s corporate run, it is necessary to move on.

I still do miss Paayal. The kind of shopping we did on FC road, pastries and patties we ate in Pastry Corner, roaming around on Karve road and gossiping and cribbing about lot of people everywhere :) We shared driving my bike to the office and going back.

Ashwini is yet another innocent person whom I will always miss. She was simple hearted and a good natured person who always wanted the best for her friends.

My mom-dad’s generation worked for a single company all their lives and made life-long friendships - friendships that lasted through good and bad times! I wish we could have enjoyed that.

But hey, my old friends from school, Kanchan, Nivedita and Seema, are surprisingly closer to me than most of the new ones. Wonder why? Maybe like Kanchan said, ‘cause we had spent most of our day with them together and that we were innocent. I think maybe it is ‘cause we weren’t desperate to their friend and were so because we liked them and not to form strategic friendships!

I think I am going to be in touch with most of the people I’ve liked over time. Gearing up!

Enjoying the first heavy rain shower

Yesterday I stayed back home. My hubby, Yogesh wasn't feeling well, so at first I thought I'd go to the office at 10.30 am or so. We both were chatting about some timepass topics and the 10.30am went to 12.30pm, within no time!

When I looked out of the window, I saw HUGE dark clouds gather in the sky. It looked scary but I was amazed. For a city that has had to wait for about a month for a mere shower of rains, these clouds appeared JUMBO. And then just like you'd turn on your tap, it began to rain. It wasn't just a shower, it was a total downpour. Within 2 minutes, the small lane between houses in the chawl in front of our building, were flooded. These lanes come by my apartment building and from my window I could see small rivers flow fiercely towards us. The water passed from front of it to go to the right where it joined more such rivulets ahead.

I sat on the sofa by the window to see the lane flood a knee deep. Water from the asbestos tiles on the roofs fell into tin enclosures made at the end of the rooftops, to avoid the dripping all over the front yard. The tin enclosure slightly tilted towards one end of the roof has a small pipe or a hole for water to flow out and down. Yesterday water flowed out from it with so much force that for a second I thought we must collect it in all the buckets that we have. Rain water harvesting was what I began thinking of. Just then I saw some women rush in the rains to put buckets, plastic tubs below such pipes. They were doing it just for fun I guess.

Women called unto each other in the neighboring houses to just stand in the rain, in foot deep waters. Small kids, some crying when their parents held them in the rain, some dancing and scampering, holding umbrellas not necessarily on top of their heads, some little ones with all clothes left at home to enjoy the shower full time, filled the small lane within no time. Gradually all parents and old women came out. A guy even got a foot ball to play water games with these kids.

We both were watching this from our window. I decided that a better view would be from our covered terrace. I went up to see that our neighbor on the top floor was already drenched in the rain. I thought that I too shouldn't lose this chance to make my day. I step into the heavy shower, with Yogesh warning me that I'd get sick.

Wow, and the cold water took me by surprise!
‘Pani kitna thanda hai!’ I cried out.
'Bhagwan geyser On karna bhul gaya hai', Amit my neighbor said.
His wife Archana joined us. Yogesh was pulled in by Amit. We called Arti Tai who stays near us. She came with her umbrella and we had to trick her to get rid of it. And then the fun began. Our terrace was filled with half a foot of water, more than enough for us to splash it on each other. Me and Archana tried jumping in it so it splashed even more. It was fun.

'Just gimme a tablet tomorrow if I get sick', I shouted out to Yogesh where he was standing under a roof.
'Sure and I will give you a good kick too, for getting drenched in the rains, when I was warning you!’, Yogesh said :)
Nevertheless I continued playing until I was tired and shivering.

Although I do enjoy the rains every year in more or less the same manner, it was my first shower after getting married, after coming here to a new place, new surroundings, intermingling with new people...

We came home, changed into dry clothes, and had a cup of nice hot tea and steaming Maggie while looking out of the window.

Rain not only cleanses the air, the streets but also stressed minds and bodies. It brings all kinds of people together to celebrate and it opens up our souls to one another.

Where are the rains?!

For about a month now, we in Pune have been waiting for the monsoons to start! With eyes looking up to the skies, we expect to see huge dark clouds. And they do come almost every alternate day, but there's no rain. The clouds disperse just as quickly as they come. It's like they are mocking us in their own way.

Pune's major sources of water are the dams - Temghar Khadakwasala, Panshet and Varasgaon. And as of today 1st of July 2009, only 2.23% water remains in these dams. Even with extensive cuts, water will last only until 20th of July when the monsoon is expected to hit the city! Situation is grave. Puneties need to understand and do their little in conserving water individually. Pune Municipal Corporation needs to create more lakes for conserving water and find alternate source of water for the ever growing city. It needs to urge citizens to do rain water harvesting and provide all necessary help. Social awareness is a must!

Coming back to my own selfish self, I still need to buy a raincoat. I see shops display rainwear (umbrellas, jackets, and beautiful raincoats) and wonder when people will start buying it. I also am planning to make some great rainy season trips this monsoon as soon as there's greenery everywhere, but I have to wait until then.

Do we still believe that there's good in the world!!!!

I drive a cool TVS Scooty Pep+ to my office every day. Suddenly I noticed that the headlights of the bike weren't working at all. I wondered when I could take it for servicing. So I am still using it without headlights.

Usually I leave my office at 7.30pm or so... and it gets pretty dark outside. I still had to take the risk of riding the bike home (it’s just 10 minutes away if I take the national highway). And just within 2 minutes of my slow and careful drive on NH4, I noticed that 2 guys were following me on a bike.

Well it started like this. I overtook them from my left and I think that triggered it. Girls know that most guys have this fear that if a girl overtakes their vehicle, they wouldn’t be able to show their face to the world :)

Well so these guys began driving exactly parallel to me, slowing down when I did and accelerating when I sped up. I didn't know what to do... the pillion rider was staring at me and talking to the driver. It was scary and weird. It's not that it was the first time this happened, but then I had options to drive the way I want. This time it was not so since I had 0 lights and was forced to drive slow. I was hoping that the busy signal ahead (8 mins away) comes up ASAP, and that I take the small service road to my house.

Suddenly a thought crossed my mind. 'Are these guys following me just to make sure that I was safe… driving close by so that I can drive with the light from their bike!?' Crazy thought for a cynical person like me, eh?

The signal approached and I took the service road to my house. These guys were already on the flyover and were still looking at me when I disappeared in the lane... I don't know why.

I don’t know if they meant well. Why is it so hard to believe that people have good intentions? I'm still wondering… whether they were trying to help me OR it was just another incident of harassment. I truly want to believe the former for once...

Mere paas maa hai.

P: Hey wats that written on your whiteboard? 'Pistol jail mein aa chuka hai'
K: yea we are writing dialogues from famous films on this board. but thing is ... we should first use that verbally in a relevent conversation and then write it here.
J: toh quote of the week hoil.
P: hmm... so what does this dialogue mean?
K: nothing really.
P: Ok thik aahe. nako sangus.
K doesn't know what to say.

Next day >>
K: I have to buy grocery for this month! That too cash this time!
J: ab to baniye ne bhi udhar dena band kar diya hai. Voh kehta hai, 'pehleka udhar chukta karo, aur baad mein saman le jao'.
K: wow this one deserves it!

Yet another day K walks into the office....
K: hey J i have mentioned you in my blog after you told me what that bird was called
J: 'yeh toh apka badappan hai, varna mujh jaise nacheez ko kaun poochta hai'
K: 'hum voh cheez hai jo udne vale parinde ke par gin le'

J and K in D's cabin. (D is the boss)
K wanted to show some PDF file on D's PC, but it was taking huge time to open.
K to D: it's taking so much time to open the PDF
D: (smiles) i'm not a developer so my PC is slow. Developers get faster PCs.
Later outside the cabin K mentions to J what D said.
J: Khud Gabbar ki pistol mein paani!!!
We got another dialogue of the week :)

and the dialogue bazee on the board went on...

After a few days... J erases all dialogues... 'doesn't look professional he says'

but the verbal dialogue bazee still continues...

Bird watching (in a good way hehe )

I always love watching birds, on trees, on windows, on electricity poles, on the wires …everywhere. They are chubby, chirpy, and so very active! I love to see them crane their necks to see some object or move their eyes from side to side. It is very lively. Such small creatures and so much enthusiasm for things!
Anyway, lately I have shifted to a seat near a huge window. The window is wall to wall and ceiling to floor and I have a beautiful view from the stained glass.

Now here's the thing. I have a regular feathered visitor on this window sill on the fifth floor. The bird comes everyday in the afternoon and rests on my window. With twigs in its beak, it surely is building a nest somewhere near this building. Of course it doesn’t know that it is sitting soooo close to a human being! Sometimes it stares at my window straight at me. It can see its own reflection; it stares for a few seconds at the image and flies away.

The other day, it was raining heavily and this little fellow sat near that window for shelter. I showed it to my colleague Jayant who told me that it is a 'Titvi (Marathi)', which is a Redwattled Lapwing. The bird has reddish brown wings with black feathers on the neck and head, and a white belly. I know that there are birds that are far more cute, but this one is great to look at. Now that it comes here every day, I think I've formed some sorta bond with it.

Waiting for it to come by even today :D

My life is based on a true story

Someone once told me that 'You only understand the meaning of what you do when you look at the past. You can only join the dots looking back'. Now when I imagine my earlier education, the days at my mom’s house, grueling engineering results, MBA campus and all... it sounds like there was a story being made. It is still going on.

During my school days I felt like I could achieve anything, become anything. I passed out with flying colors and got selected into engineering. Even though I wanted to do be a medical professional, and getting admission in one of the good colleges, I chose engineering.
I came to know what great brains truly mean :) It just means being smart. Yes. I don't think all engineers are super intelligent. It is just that they are smart. I always thought I am doing something that I shouldn't be doing. ... Engineering??!!! What in the world was I thinking???

When I managed to pass that, fate decided to change sails and after some research I ended up doing MBA (it was also because admissions to other streams were already closed by that time).
I thought I was always the odd person out in the MBA group. Too technical, not wanting to lose the sharpness I got in Engineering. Today when I look back to those days, I feel I want to live them again. If given a choice, I would do everything that I avoided doing during those days - late night parties ;) socializing, bunking lectures, group studies, canteen time pass, etc etc etc. Yet, they were the best days I can remember.

I hardly remember why I chose to stay in Pune. I declined offers from my campus and another offer from Infy to join my present company. When I look back at those earlier job years now, I know I worked hard, achieved great, learnt a lot.

Well, I was beginning to get set in a routine, but the big director - life - doesn't want the story to look boring... it introduced Yogesh to me... and we got married. Even today, everyday, there is a story being written and it feels like I am playing the lead role in it. I am sure there is a great climax to this and looking back at today, I will be happy to see that every phase was so beautiful, so fulfilling.

I don't feel like working today

Don't know why... and hey I don't blame my work at all. I work for Aftek, a great company with a superb environment that makes me wanna come to office everyday.

But somehow, once in a blue moon, I don't want to just get out of my house at all. Today was such a day. Today all of a sudden I am feeling very home sick (even though I was there just 6 hours back). Even now at work, I am thinking of the comfort of my home.

Why have humans complicated their lives so much? Why do we force ourselves to go some place out of home for a better part of the day? Why do we have to earn for our loved ones, but get to spend so little time with them.

Sometimes I think of the old rushi-munis (hermits) who stayed in the Himalayas, ate fruits, and had no materialistic ambitions. They were so content with whatever they had. Why can't all humans be like that? I know I can't. Maybe it is 'cause we are not brought up that way.

In prehistoric days they didn't have to pay mobile bills, petrol bills :). All men did was to hunt for food and women just cooked; they also made sure that the species didn't go extinct. But mankind has made so many discoveries and inventions that a single person cannot do everything in a single lifetime. Hence we ended up trading and hence 'working somewhere'. Why did we have to do this to ourselves!!! We should have happily stayed in the himalayas or hunted for food forever! Why create wheels? Why invent electricity? Why form software companies :D ???

Ok... getting back to work now.

Healthy food - try creating a diet chart

Our discussion began when me and my hubby Yogesh were driving to my mom's place. He was telling me that we should eat 1 cup of Matki (a sprouted lentil) everyday in the morning, and that too uncooked (yucks).

Frankly speaking I am overwhelmed with the dosages of health tips from the Internet already. All these health gurus or doctors keep telling us to ... Eat 1 serving of spinach per week... OR Eat Omega 3 rich Salmon and Tuna every week!... Go eat blackberries.. Eat multi colored (dark) foods for more antioxidants, Eat almonds, Eat dates, Eat this and Eat that. If any of these doctors combine all these health advices over all the sites, and try to create a food chart for a week, I'm sure they wouldnt be able to cram even 10% of these into a single week. Moreover there are other overwhelming lists like.. what not to eat, how too cook and how not to cook to best preserve the nutrients, how many days to store the food before it is useless!!!!

I must give due credit to Yogesh though, for pursuading me to eat salads. Now I can atleast say that I've started incorporating something healthy in my diet. I'm sure he will have more tips!

A simple person like me would want to eat healthy food, but wouldn't know when and what. And the Internet is doing a great job of creating confusion and guilt conscience in my mind. Cause now although I am aware that I should be eating XYZ, I either do not know when, Or how much.
I think thats why there are nutritionists. But let's not get into this .... it'll require a separate blog for that ;)

For now i'll go with whatever is in my tiffin.

I don't detest cooking... but it is not like breathing!

I love cooking. Right from my tenth grade, I could cook basic meals (and some frilly stuff too once in a blue moon). Initially I took it as a challenge... sort of like a chemistry experiment we used to do in our twelth grade chemistry lab. No, seriously, like any dedicated group, we entered the chemistry lab with the sole objective of entertainment, trying to mix some liquids and powders to create jazzy results (mostly acheiving heavy fumes with the stuff hardening in the test tube and rendering it useless for future experiments!) Sometimes we did get beautiful results like for example, a cyan colored precipitate floating in a reddish liquid of some sort. Whatever. My point is, I took cooking to be like that.

Cooking is nothing but adding interesting stuff to your preparation and presenting it in such a way that the person in front of you can eat it without frowning (and still survive hehehe). I think I am downgrading myself a lot here. In reality my husband, mom, dad and friendz love to eat what I make. I like being surrounded with various masalas and spices, choosing what to add to make this dish lil bit different than what I had cooked earlier. I don't kill my time though with this stuff.. as I have office to go to, but this is damn interesting.

I love the fact that I am an Indian. By virtue of that, I can get tonnes of spices and masalas on my shelf, and I love to taste them too. From one of my friend, I have heard that most cooked food abroad looks whitish, creamish, or greyish ...and very little spicy. People there are generally intolerant towards spices (ofcourse they wouldn't be able to afford them, even if they were - another plus for being in India.)

I did enjoy cooking once in a blue moon. But life has changed ... I got married last month and now have the full fledged responsibility of cooking alteast 2 meals a day without a break! I can manage the time no issues, but it is no longer as enjoyable as it was before since I consider it as a mere task these days to be done with. To get it over witha and reach office within a reasonable time (we have flexi timings). And again to get back home and get it done with to go to sleep in time. I am wondering if life ever gives us a chance to enjoy something so much that we don't start hating it. Why do we start getting bored of things that we love to do... if we do it everyday? Time is a factor, but I think energy and dedication is another...

Will think about that...

Bored today....

Well today began with me waking up late and staring at the TV that was off... I immediately started ruffling the bedsheets to check if the remote was somewhere there. Couldn't find it.
So started looking at the window - boring view again.
Was extremely tired of getting out of bed...

Jungle Safari - A week in Dandeli forest, Karnataka

It was chilling and already dark when we reached the Kulgi forest in Dandeli, Karnataka. We had planned a trip to this forest in the last week of December 2007. We were a group of 12 people from Pune.

It was a fresh and crisp weather - a very predictable one. The air - just a breath of it, blended with scents of from the woods, flowers and the moist earth was enough to refresh my spirits.
We went off to sleep immediately, as we had a Nature trek :) scheduled at dawn.

Mornings are a jump-start in such beautiful surroundings, as compared to the drowsy feel you have when you wake up at home. You get to wake up with the sounds of the jungle creatures. Since I enjoy light treks, this one was delightful. Walking amidst dense jungle, observing the trees, nests, flowers is something that we never get to experience in cities. Monkeys are a common sight in these forests. After a 3 km walk we came to a small hill with water flowing nearby, and there! people in my group saw a pair of spotted deer. They gave a typical squeal when they saw us and ran away to safety.

After returning from this supberb trek we were all charged up for our next destination - Syntheri Rocks! this is a huge rock formation at the bottom of which a spring originates. It is an excellent site to see, however it is extremely dangerous for anyone to venture into the waters.
In this jungle you get to visualize the rare scene where dew drops condense and fall down, giving an impression of a rainy morning! Simply fantastic!

Well, we slept for only a few hours to rise at 4.30 am sharp for our Jungle safari! A very first one by me!We were expecting to see some tigers on the way... were planning to click a few snaps, modeling near it :) While our guide asked us to keep our voices low, he was looking for animals at their most frequented places.
It had been almost 1.30 hrs now and we hadn't spotted anything apart from monkeys... I was begining to feel dejected. (I had heard that 2 other groups had had no luck with the safari's they had.) I took to watching different types of trees... birds, etc. And just then by sheer luck I spotted an Elephant at some distance behind some huge trees. It was a huge creature, calm and moving with natural grace.I pointed it out to our group. It was immensely exciting to see a wild animal in its habitat, eating away leaves from a huge tree. Unfortunately since we created some yelping noises... the poor guy got scared and ran for his life :( After this we got to see a pea-hen jumping into the tall grass, a fox who I mistook for a dog sitting on the road :) (my dad identified it from its tail). We also saw colourful birds - hornbills, bluebirds, etc.

The week in this forest was the most exciting experience that I've had in my life, away from the city's concrete jungle, pollution, crowds leaving no space to walk .... and the list goes on and on and on...

Is one lifetime enough?

After a long long time I am watching the sun set. Within the gray-white interiors of my office, I had almost forgotten how it feels to see something as miraculous as a simple sunset. The fluorescent skies, the river, the dark shadows and the birds, everything seems perfect.
This 45 minute drive home seems like a never-ending one today. It's Friday, the weekend. Lots of plans, lots of things on mind. Two days to myself! Ah no, its two days and an evening! But are they enough?
I wonder how many colors there are in the skies that I have not seen yet, so many different places yet unvisited, interesting people that I have not met so far. So much to do, so much to achieve, right here, right now. Sometimes I can’t help thinking….. Is one lifetime enough?