Bangalore Roller Coaster

My Guardian is an angel now as she watches from the heavens above..  My grandmother passed away today and as I go through the myriad memories in my mind, I remember the prayer she taught me and her other grandchildren. I have always said this prayer to myself whenever I have been tense.. before every exam, in every plane turbulence and when my kids were unwell. I will always carry her in my heart with this prayer. Just remembering her today .. here is the Gurbani prayer and the translation : Tatti wao na laggayee Hot winds (hard times) cannot touch me Paar bhram sharnaai  As I am in the Guru's protection Chaugirdh hamare raam kaar Ramaji is all around me .. protecting me Dukh lage na bhai  No sorrow or pain can touch me, my brother..  Satguru poora bhentya I have met the SatGuru ( the true guru) Jin bant banaai He has made me the way He wants.. Ram naam okha diya Ramji has given me his name as the remedy/medicine...

I have read about numerous incidents reported on the cyber space about bribes in Bangalore. In one statistic, it was reported that Bangaloreans pay the most bribes. I do not think that Bangalore city is the most corrupt city in India. I have seen worse, but I find that the people here are extremely impatient. Hence the need to get things done quickly and out of turn, encourages bribes. I also started impatiently and wanted a driving license without any hassle. I looked around for touts and agents, but two of my friends convinced me to just go and apply for the same. They told me it was simple and it really turned out to be a no hassle deal. On 21st October, I went to Electronics City , RTO and took my learners license test. While there was a hitch in the online application form, I picked up another form there, filled it up and took the exam. I scored the requisite marks and they asked me to pick up the learners license in 4-5 days . I could take the driving test a month later. T...

I have been off blogging for quite sometime. I have thought of various things to write about, but my other projects and hobbies have kept me away. So has Facebook.. which is an easy way to write your status updates and thoughts without much proof-reading . The feedback is quick and the comments are almost interactive. Sometime my and my husband comment and converse through the comments section, sitting in two different rooms in the same house. But today something happened, which I did not want to just comment upon. I wanted to write in detail and blog in detail. So I am back and will try to be regular. I am making this resolution much before the NY 2014, so that it doesn't become a fad. So folks who do read my blog (single digit number), I'll write some more and not always 'Facebook'. With that I'll write my next post, about my wonderful experience at the Electronics City RTO office. Stay tuned.

Every disaster affects real people.. and there is real pain. Yesterday, I heard a plane had crashed and my first reaction was 'Where ?' But when I heard it was in Pakistan, I  just reacted with an 'Oh !' and didn't bother too much about it. As I browsed the net today, I read about it and the people it had affected. A father lost his two daughters, 18 and 20 !! He slumped at the airport unable to rouse himself. A brother lost his newly married sister and brother-in-law. No survivors.. no bodies even. No closure for some people. While it is destiny and some lucky folks missed that flight while others like the sisters actually changed a later flight to get onto this  plane. While some may never be able to forget this flight and others may never recollect it. But as I read about the suffering and the pain, I couldn't just say 'Oh !' and dismiss it anymore. It was real now,  no matter where it was !! It was painful especially as I imagined that fathe...

I have a lot of ' what if ' moments. When after a day is done, I revisit some gone by moments in my mind and keep wondering ' what if '. I am sure there must be others who also do this, but my ' what ifs ' actually don't let me sleep or think and I go crazy replaying the events in my mind. My latest ' what if ' happened when I dropped my watch in the mall yesterday. Jahnavi asked me to pick her up and put her down so many times that at one point the watch came undone and probably fell down. I noticed my bare wrist soon enough but then I was wondering if I had put on my watch in the morning ? So instead of looking for my watch there, I assumed that I hadn't. Of course as you must have deduced by now, I did put it on and now it is gone. ' What if ' I had just looked around at the time !! ' What if ' I hadn't just taken the easy way out and kept walking !! The whole scenario has been gnawing at me and I am unable to sleep. I jus...

I have been thinking about writing this for a long time, but things have been kind of crazy at my end. I have been traveling and it has been really hectic. But now that I get the time, I want to write about an emotion that I felt.. an emotion that I had not felt for a long time.. an emotion of utter loss. At the helplessness of an individual against the forces of nature, the will of God if you would call it !! For quite sometime, I have been grateful for the health and prosperity my near and dear ones have been blessed with. But the cycle of life and death does not spare anyone. I have been lucky to have been blessed with two healthy daughters and beautiful and healthy nephews and nieces.. I have rejoiced in the miracle of life. Having children truly makes one believe there is a God out there, who takes care of all this.. the incredulity of a perfect child, ten fingers, ten toes.. those tiny features.. all chiselled to perfection!! But the loss.. the end of a life is so final. Losing s...

I always keep wondering, when will people in India learn some civic sense. I have seen a lot of cities around the world, but none come anywhere close to what Indian cities can offer in the lack of civic sense. But then with many people struggling to even make ends meet, this might be the last thing on their minds. So I would excuse that strata, but what does the middle class and the upper middle class have to say for itself ? Even the so called cream of the society totally lacks any sense of responsibility of the community. Chauffeur driven Mercedes cars, and at the traffic light the driver opens the door and spits out the paan. The children and adults, roll down the window and throw out the wrappers and tissue papers. Is the city except for their own cars and houses a huge dustbin ? One would think so. Elevators.. in my own office. I have seen people not wait for me when they knew I was approaching the lift. All it takes is to lift a finger and press the Door-Open switch, or just tell...

Life as a mother is pretty demanding and much more rewarding. First time parenting was hard for us. We were scared, the baby was sooo small and delicate and we just didn't know what to do every time she cried. We wanted things to be perfect for her.. if the doctor said she should feed every 3 hours, we would worry if she asked for her feed early.. if she slept through a feed we would panic again. If she cried, we would rock her and carry her around trying to soothe her. As a result we were always on tenterhooks and also tired by the end of the day trying to do everything RIGHT. We pampered her no end, bought her so many toys but hardly found the time to play with all of them. She wanted us, our time and our warmth.... and she was happy to be with us. The toys were for us :) Every milestone she reached was a joy for us and we prided in her growing up so well. When she started eating solids, we wanted her to learn to eat soon.. and to eat everything and to finish all that was put in ...

My friends have been asking me where did I vanish and this post is for all my friends who read my blog. Thanks for being there for me and checking on me through phone calls and mails. Last few months have been so much fun. Away from work, playing with both my daughters and watching them bond with each other has been good and relaxing, to the extent that I have even had second thoughts of going back to work. But let me get back to work before I decide on anything. Jahnavi has been a darling and she has been on her best behaviour, even when she had chickenpox, she never troubled me and miraculously I did not contract it from her. Now I am vaccinated and would like to warn all adults who have not had chickenpox to get themselves vaccinated . It is awful when you get it as an adult and it leaves a lot of scars. Ananya has had her phases but on the whole she has been a great big sis. She has matured into an elder sister while she is still a baby technically speaking. Her LKG is done with...

Last one month has been very demanding. Not just for the fact that I have had a baby girl and attending to her, but my 5 year old daughter has been a handful too. Though she loves the baby and wants to carry her around like a doll, she is also acutely aware that attention has been divided and as a result she is throwing quite a few tantrums. It all started last month on the 8th, when I went in for a planned c-section delivery. Somethings went wrong and even after the first operation, the bleeding did not stop. This meant that they took me back into the operation theater and operated again. I was in semi-conscious state and could hear the doctors talking. It was as if I was witnessing someone else's operation.. the BP is going low, her pulse if feeble... give her anesthesia.. and so on. Finally I came back to consciousness in the ICU and was not even able to speak. My husband was allowed to come in and visit me but it was just a fleeting visit. It was only the next day that I was ab...

We have been disturbed about the charm that the Television holds over kids, more so over our daughter. Once the television is turned on, her perception of everyone else is turned off. You can say anything you like to her and she is likely to be transfixed watching the latest advertisement and totally oblivious to you and your rising anger. What started as a welcome distraction in the beginning suddenly became an unmanageable demon. Soon she learnt the names and times of the cartoons she wants to watch and how to tune in to her favourite channels. When I wanted her to start eating by herself, I used it as a bait, told her that she could watch cartoons only if she ate by herself rather than the maid or myself feeding her.She rose to the occasion and ate whatever was placed in front of her. The only catch was someone had to rouse her from her reverie and continually ask her to take the next bite, pick up the next morsel. There was no respite even during the commercial breaks much to my...

My daughter has learnt the alphabets and she is into the phonetic joining of words.. or so she thinks. She reads the alphabets off our car 'V-E-R-N-A' and tells me 'Mummy I know this is Verna'. Then she read it off 'I-N-N-O-V-A' and told me 'I know this means 'Innova'. So far so good. She is really scared of the elevator as my MIL scares her that she will get trapped inside it. I prefer it this way as it ensures that she never tries to take it on her own. Most times if she misbehaves in the lift, we tell her we might get trapped. The lift in my BIL's apartment has been acting up lately and quite a few times people have been trapped inside for a few minutes and the prospect is scary. She has figured out the numbers on the elevator panel stand for floors, the door-close/open signs are also obvious. But there are two more buttons, which even I do not know what they stand for. So we tell her that if you press any of the buttons unnecessarily, the lif...

Or should I say 'Padmabhusahan Jagjit Singh's concert' as the announcer always referred to him. It was a bit of a disappointment as Jagjit Singh never connected with the audience. I think part of the charm of attending a live concert is the connection that the performer makes with his audience. Jagjit Singh came, wished everyone a 'Good Evening' and then started singing. The only people he talked to (perhaps to his chagrin) were the guys who were in control of the sound system. He had to repeatedly ask them to adjust the tones and tenors of the various microphones. The accompanying violinist was extremely perturbed as he was not happy with his microphone. For the first half he kept signaling to the sound guys to make adjustments. Two microphone changes later he was slightly pacified. And then Jagjit Singh let him play a long piece to make up for it. The selection of songs wasn't the best, and didn't sing any of his extremely popular songs. The only renditi...

Yes yes, it is already June, but we are talking about the May that went by. It zoomed past me with such speed that I couldn't even get down to collect my thoughts.Just recollecting what it was all about. As Ananya's summer camp came to an end, we prepared for a weekend trip to Goa. Goa is hot in May, and we witnessed it in all it's splendour. Though the mornings and evenings were cool, the afternoons were sweltering and lazy. Spent most of them inside the hotel. Ananya totally loved the experience and wanted to stay there '20' days, the most that she can count to till now. She wasn't too kicked about the beach but she enjoyed the pool. Next on anvil was my Ludhiana trip. Hurriedly booked last minutes tickets to Delhi and got to fly Kingfisher, which was as expensive as the other lousy airlines at that time. They didn't disappoint. Thoroughly enjoyed the flight and the in-flight entertainment kept Ananya busy. Time in Ludhiana flew in a blaze.. yet again. I...

The summer has finally arrived and we can take out and wear some of our summer clothes. Ananya has her summer vacations and we are having the summer-dilemmas. What should she do during her vacation? Is this time for unstructured-play (AKA loitering around the house) or is it time for structured-play (AKA summer camps). I opted for the summer camps and the over-abundance of summer camps around our residence did not make it easy for me to chose where she should go ? Should she learn painting (when she cannot even write alphabets ) or should she try clay modeling (and clothes colouring). Maybe Bollywood dancing is going to be her forte (ruled out by my husband as her current repertoire of bollywood knowledge always makes him uneasy). Some of the summer camps were too far away and I would end up driving her up and down, and some of them were too long (full day-care substitutes). We wanted her to be busy for 2-3 hours in the morning and then have her day to enjoy too. Finally the summer ca...

I have been toying with the idea of getting Ananya's ear's pierced and one thing or the other has been coming up. Finally this weekend we got the nerve to do it. I had already inquired about the procedure and Manipal Hospital informed me that we could come any day between 2:30-4:30pm except Sundays. So this Saturday, myself and my Sister-in-law with her daughter went for the dual piercings. As we waited outside the girls played and created a ruckus and we tried to keep it down. Finally it was our turn, the doctor asked us to come, Ananya tripped along and Akshi waited outside. As she sat in the chair in anticipation she was clearly excited, not aware of the pain she was just about to go through. The doctor who came in asked me to mark the points where we wanted the piercings and I did it for him. And then he brought out the gun for the same. The nurse had told us 5 piercings had happened this morning and all was well. As he pierced the right ear, Ananya wailed in pain not prep...

The US trip materialized at the last moment and I managed to have the worst traveling experience till date (of course barring the hijacking). The Air France flight started off late from Bangalore, we missed our connection from Paris to San Francisco. It was more like they didn't want us to take that flight, as there were no Air France officials to expedite our progress through the security checks. The plane was still at the tarmac but we were denied boarding. 6 hours later with a meagre food coupon to see us through, we were put on a flight to Houston from where we were supposed to take another flight to SFO. With only 40 minutes to go through the customs we rushed through the airport, checking out and checking in our bags only to find out the flight was delayed by 2.5 hours. The whole airport was closed as it was past 9:30pm and we waited hungry and tired for the last flight. Boarded the last leg of the flight, we finally reached SFO in the middle of the night. Rented the car at...

Finally the passport arrived and the visa is all fine too. So I am off to San Jose for the business meeting and it also means leaving my dear daughter behind. I will miss her birthday too and I am feeling so guilty about it all. Hopefully she'll manage okay without me, and these 2 weeks will pass in a jiffy. More posts when I am back.

As luck would have it, just when my US Visa expired, I was moving to Bangalore. I will get around it, I told myself and added this to the long list of to-dos in my head. Of course it took a back seat to finding us an apartment, getting Ananya's school started, getting her used to her school bus and then all of us figuring our way around Bangalore. Yeah, it also took a back seat to catching the latest movies, and then my impending vacation to Ludhiana. I kept telling myself, I will do it as soon as I come back. I checked my mail during the last few days of my vacation and saw a message, asking me to travel to the US and panic struck. It was an important business meeting and I didn't want to miss is, but what do I do now. I called up my husband frantically, asked him to scan my passport over to our admin and asked her to start the process. As the date to take the appointment came nearer, I became aware of a lot of impending holidays. Finally, I managed to secure the appointment f...

Yesterday was Ananya's annual sports day, the first formal function we attended at Greenwood high. She was really excited about it and we too were eager to see her perform. As doting parents are wont to, we had eyes only for her and her performances. She got ready early in the morning and left in her school bus. We too hurriedly got ready and reached the main school at dot nine. There were few parents and we took our seats in the first row. Though we had vantage seats, the sun shone on us brightly roasting us in no time, but we stuck on. We could see the children in their tents, eager and energetic, waiting to perform. After a few glitches with the sound system, the program started just about half an hour late. They welcomed the chief guest, Mrs. M.K. Asha and with an opening speech, the children began their march past. There were kids from Nursery, LKG and UKG and the tiny tots marched on with their eyes seeking out their parents from the crowd. As soon as the kids saw their p...