Whats New

• I am reading Rudyard Kippling's second book on Jungle Book. Yes maybe the book is supposed to be read by kids , but i love the Jungle Book cartoon movie / serial that doordarshan used to telecast in 90s. So when i saw this book on a recent trip to cross word i picked it up.
• I have finally appointed a cook.... three days since she joined.. she comes at 7 am and is supposed to finish cooking breakfast / lunch/ packing our lunch / cutting vegetables for next day by 9-915. Since i stay near one of the poshest areas of Hyd , Banjara Hills.. i pay a premium.....so far the food has been good... so far so good.. lets see how long she sustains!
• Rohan babu again knocked his head got a nice bump on the eyebrow.... man on a mission!
• Rohan attended his 2nd b'day party, got a drum as a return gift. He has already successfully pulled out the cord around the drum which was supposed to be used to put the drum around the neck. He beats the drum with his hand and puts the sticks in his mouth.
• We bought a xylophone for Ro. Again the sticks are either pounded on the floor or against each other or chewed, and the xylophone is played by hitting it with hand or on the floor!
• After Rohan's fall from the bed now his bed is made on the floor... still the dude managed to go and hit the head on his wall adjacent to the mattress on the floor by climbing over the pillows kept vertically against the wall.... he even climbs the pillows and sleeps on them... now we have given up! laga to laga.... cant pad him up any further!

Overdose Of Matratava (i.e. Motherhood!)

Well all of you who have one or more kids will smile at the post's title... and remember when was the last time you had a similar thought .... and those of you who do NOT have kids yet.. will think, oh! I will never feel that its an overdose.. to those few...i will say... dears wait till you cross the bridge!:)


A few weeks back i had a con-call at 10 am... after putting Rohan i was planning to leave as soon as the nanny came.. however our lil one had different plans! Chotte nawab woke up as soon as picked up my laptop bag! I did the mistake of picking him up thinking i can rock him back to sleep! But neither did the dude sleep and neither he was ready to go to the nanny! Somehow Prabha (the nanny) diverted his attention and i dialled into the call from home. But Rohan could hear me or sense me being around. He made a ruckus for the next 1 1/2 hour till i finally finished the call! It was too late for me to leave and i was left with no coice but to work from home. But now that the lil one knew i was home, he clung to me, i had to feed him , put him to sleeps.. the works! Prabha chilled out now that Rohan refused to go to him!

Weekends are testing time for patience. At time Rohan is absolute good boy... but then he has few tricks up his sleeves! He decides not sleep in afternoons, or skip milk when its time for milk! It can get really annoying since i don't like the idea of him being hungry! Its easier for father's to say "If he is hungry he will eat!"..... i have now devised ways... if he doesn't want milk i give him cerelac or mashed banana or rice... obviously this is when its his normal food time... else i never bother him or force feed him! Rather i should say no one can force feed Rohan!

In movies or advertisements, mothers wake up with complete composure and rock the baby back to sleep in the middle of the night. But in real life its not always like that. When at 1 am or 2am the baby wakes up , one has to be a goddess to feel overflowing love and complete composure. Doesn't happen with me...... between me and ramesh whoever has the energy to react first to Rohan's noise... first checks the time... we can figure out from the time if he needs milk.. or water or generally needs to be rocked back to sleep! There is still no 1005 hit rate of these 3 options.... but we are almost 80% able to predict... the rest 20% we try these 3 in different orders! Another factor is the AC... sometimes the dude is feeling too hot or cold.... so if nothing else works we try to change fan speed and AC temperature! But at times nothing works and Ro will sleep in either of our arms and as soon as we put him down he will wake up again in 5 min.... it has happened when he has done these antics from 1 to 3 am........ now by end of it we both are on the edge.... Ramesh will be talking to Rohan... " If you were not a baby i would have slapped you now!"... he is still ok, just says... i have once or twice given Rohan a whack on his bums! And Rohan then howls as if i have really beaten him up! But believe me ..... its so frustrating that one feels like screaming and pulling ones hair! (And oh please all of you who have grown up kids ... don't even think that you all were so very patient.... i have observed many of you on close quarters and you all have reached the edge many a times).

Like almost all kids do... Ro is in this chipku phase! As long as he doesn't see me he will be fine , playing nicely... but as soon as he spots me... he will make these crying sound as if he was in great trouble..... :) ... it really pisses off his grandfather.... who even says " Now that your mom is there.. you dont need me".... its amusing how grandparents get possessive and touchy about grandchildren!

Sharing a few thoughts!

As mentioned earlier I am reading the latest Paulo Coelho book,” The Winner Stands Alone”. Today I read this section where the author mentions a superb theory. What he says is that the current style or otherwise statement that the world is following is “Save the planet”. Conglomerates, fashion house, politicians and general educated class seems to bethinking, talking or feigning to do something about “Save the planet”. The author says that this shows how egocentric humans are and how much self importance they suffer with because what they don’t consider that the planet has been and will be there before human race and will be there after human race has been wiped out. What they do not consider is that if we step outside the limits of the planet, the planet is going to react and wipe us out. The global warming is going to submerge large sections of land and hence its us who will die, the land will remain even though submerged, so on and so forth. Hence he says the statement should be “Save Human Race”, but this statement will sound morbid and hence all whose voice matters and those who make trends have taken up “Save the planet” as the driving statement.

In another section he says that the current generation is not the hippie movement or the woman lib generation. The current generation surely dresses up in way which seems weird to their parents and listen to strange men singing in ghoulish ways and breaking guitars, but that’s the farthest this generation goes. Back in their minds the family matters and hence PC says we are returning towards an era of conservatism, family values

I finished the book on 14th. For first time A PC book made me ask… so whats the point. I mean why did he write it. It’s a thriller in which in the end the protagonist who turns a murderer to get his wife back, kills her and her new husband. The author does mention kind of conclusion through two other characters… .. but.. I didn’t really understand why Paulo Coelho had to write this book!

Overall some sections of the book are nice as all the other PC books!

I believe that some books happen to you….. I never read PC before 2002.. and since then I have read almost everything he has written….. Like a flowing River… this book is a collection of short notes and stories by PC… I bought it much before I read it…. I read it on my flight from Hyderabad to NY… and I felt the book was so apt to the personal phase I was in…. it again strengthened my belief that some books happen to us… you can buy them but you will end up reading them in the right time….. The Secret was gifted to me by my team in Infy when I quit in 2007…. I started reading the book only after I watched the movie on the book .. and that was in the first half of 2008….. … so someone might not agree .. but that’s what I believe

Some Adventures..... and a misadventure! Rohan is growing up!

I am not getting enough time to blog properly.. I did type a few posts but all are half baked. So a quick update on Rohan ….

• Rohan is now standing up holding stuff all by himself. And that stuff can be anything, sofa, bed, dinning table chairs, our legs… and even small objects like his toy basket, the walker (not when he is inside it but outside).. and hence dangerous. These small things move and the lil dude falls or topples over. At times he is careful and doesn’t really get hurt but at times he will bang his head or mouth. Poor guy.. well all part of growing up
• Last Sunday while Roger Feddrer was giving his 200% to win his first French Open our dude gave his 200% to jump off the bed and get a nice bruise and bump on his forehead. He cried so much… only Ramesh was able to put him back to sleep. Thankfully by next day morning the bump was gone though he was dull the whole day I guess because of the throbbing. First misadventure. We are no more taking chances.. Ro’s bed is now made on the floor with pillows all around. Though we used to keep pillows around him earlier too.. but he made a clean jump without disturbing a single pillow.
• Rohan loves Mickey Mouse Club cartoon. This is telecasted on Disney channel from 9 to 930 am. Mostly he sleeps by then but if he is awake and refusing to setlle down, we let him watch the show. He loves it, sits and claps… for 10 min that’s the max he can stay at one place and watch TV.. but after that he generally settles down and sleeps :)
• Rohan played with another kid for the first time today for sometime. He has met other kids in shopping malls or parties but that’s mostly for a few minutes while he is in arms of one of us. But today we met up with friends who have a 2+ year old daughter. Rohan played for sometime with his own toys which I had taken and then showed interest in stuffed toys that Rashi gave him. But every time he tried to take a toy she would pull it away saying she wanted to pay with it. I was scared that Ro might get upset, no one ever pulls a toy away from him at home. But he looked amused and surprised. When Rashi brought out her building blocks Ro couldn't contain himself, he grabbed the small pieces and started banging them. Rashi was so uncomfortable and finally did take it away. This was the first time Ro was challenged. :)… told him baby its just the starting….and blocks will not be the only thing people will try to take away from him.
• Rohan wakes up so early that now me and him wake up at the same time… or rather I don’t have the choice but to get up… and that can be anytime between 5 and 530am. We spend next 30 min in brushing teeth (that’s’ mine) while Ro plays with the toothpaste and then Ro agrees to sit on his potty chair…. (I sit opposite to him on a low stool , since the day he suddenly moved off the potty while I was not looking and fell flat on his face). Once ablutions are over Ro follows me to the kitchen (that’s the good part of this phase, he crawls vigorously and wants to come where I am rather than going in opposite direction and getting into some mischief) . Once in the kitchen his favorite activity is to take the basket with onions, spill them all over and then sit with one of the peels. He sits and breaks into small pieces. Thankfully he doesn’t put them in his mouth. I can easily finish my kitchen chores and have tea in these 15 min. Then dude gets bored. To engage him for the next 15 min , I have to give him plastic boxes which are transparent and have stuff inside. It can be his rice powder, bournvita.. anything as long as the box looks interesting. The frozen peas pack excites him so much that after I take out peas for him I have have to give him the packet till he discards it himself.
• The weather is changing; monsoon (whatever it is worth off) is starting. Three of us are down with running nose. Its becoming difficult for Ro to sleep with a blocked nose. 13th night was messy , as the lil boy kept waking up with a clogged nose. Our efforts of trying to put some nasal drops were met with so much ruckus that we gave up…. Who has the patience of reasoning with a 10-month baby at 2am?
• As per Rohan there are two type of toys…. Either they should be squeaky ones which make noise when squeezed or they should be rattle sorts… any toy or stuff which does not fall in this category needs to be banged on floor to make noise or hit against each other to make noise! This includes the remotes of the TV, cream bottles or anything that he can get his hands on. So when he stands holding the central table or the bed or the sofa.. he beats it with his hands like a drum…. U see there should be noise else its not worth the effort!
  
  

Monday Morning Blues

Today I started for office at 10:15 am.. on a Monday morning starting at that time is crazy.. the entire world seems to be heading for office at that time... on any working day 10 to 11 am traffic is bad.. but on a Monday the traffic chaos is crazy!

But well for me the time i leave home is governed by when lil Ro sleeps... i can stay home after he sleeps but then just in case he wakes up and sees me , then his whole day is spoiled as he misses me cries after i leave.. so its better i leave while he is asleep!

After driving through a bumper to bumper traffic i finally reached the kerb where it is supposed to be a "free left" but a water tanker had blissfully blocked the left... i honked and honked and honked.. hurled a few invectives (in hindi.. can u imagine that... KKS is as far as i go in hindi) and made him move and give me way... but all this really upsets me.... I was like boss i got to either start early or start late on a Monday!

Its amazing what hogwash "India shining" and "incredible India" etc are... traffic sense is zero.. following lane system.. people don't even know about it. I think we should connect traffic lanes to some religious process then people will follow....

Ok crib time over....
Good things ....
It rained heavily last eve..Rohan's first real rain.. he looked confused .. didn't understand what was happening !
Rohan for past two weeks used his potty .... :) finally!
Rohan for past 3 weeks has been peeing in the loo... but yeah there have been misses on that front.. with the lil one relieving himself on his gradpa, daddy or the bed! But we are there.. we will soon attain 100% hit rate :)
Rohan's upper jaw should soon have two teeth... his lower jaw has two small teeth already!
Lastly, i shopped on Sunday.. bought some cloth.. will get it stitched soon! (Yes i still like tailor made stuff than the ready to wear stuff of Shopper Stop, Lifestyle etc...its either too expensive or too flashy!)