Wednesday, February 28, 2007

My Baby at Eleven




My daughter completed 11 months today. Its almost a year since she arrived into my arms. It feels like yesterday though. I remember, being in the hospital and looking at her sleep in the crib trying to remember her face. I was so scared, I might not be able to recognize her admist other new-borns, if at all she got lost or misplaced and someone asked me to identify her :).

At Eleven,

1) She has mastered her princer grip. She will sit and try to pick any tiny black dots, pieces of paper, dust particles on the floor. Initially she wasn't sure what to do after she has picked it up, now-a-days it goes straight to the mouth for all kinds of tasting/testing.

2) She loves tearing books into papers and then tear them again into more pieces untill she has freed the soul of that piece of paper.

3) She enjoys making all kinds of noise. She and Sharon (my sister's daughter) had a gala time snatching a plastic bag from each other and howling, trying to make the maximum noise.

4) Sharon is 3 months younger than her and when she visited us last she could just turn over and was trying to reach for different things kept a little away by her mother to motivate her to move ahead. My daughter would see Sharon struggling and howling and would go pick them and offer it to her.

5) She claps & tries to sing along with Ammachy & friends at prayer meetings. All that comes out is aaa...aaa..aaa..aaa (there are highs and lows) but she sings as if she is singing right along with them.

6) She will crawl into/over anything where she can reach, be it under the dinning table or the window sill or the side table of the bed, the sofa, under the bed ... everywhere.

7) She says Ma..ma..ma Yahooooooooooooooo!!!!

8) She can get into a standing position on her own, right in the centre of the room. She will look at me and sway either ways with clapping hands. She has been trying to stand on her own for over a month, she just couldn't take her hands off the floor.

9) She loves fish. She rather have her food from our plates than her own. She hasn't started showing any fuss over food yet.

10) She took her first small step early this month. Now she walks all around. Initially, if she sees you watching, she would just give up and start crawling but since last 2 days therez lot of walking.

11) She loves playing in & with water.

12) Earlier, she could only take things out, and never put them into the box or container or sort. Since last 2-3 days she has started putting them back. She keeps Ammachy on her toes with all the stuff she throws around in the house.

13) She understands ball ta (give me the ball), dolly ta, mama eyk ta (give it to mama), bow bow is the dog below.

14) She holds her hand to the ear whenever we say Hello!!!

15) She imitates anybody coughing, but if it is a hard/loud cough she will start crying immediately.

Its lots of fun, fills me & P with pride and overwhelms us at times to see our little child grow. Her little achievements, like when she managed to open a drawer, to walk continuously without having to sit down, to hold her balance when turning around while walking, to pick food from the table and to be able to put it into the mouth, to climb down from the bed, to be able to roll her toy and so many many more, we are the blessed witness to the divine events. We see her face beaming when she has done something she was having trouble with. We clap our hands and she claps along.

Piyush - Update 1


Yesterday I wrote to Piyush's father, Mr. Maltesh Kolur and Me & Hubby landed at their residence in Aundh at around 6:30pm. The doors to their house and their neighbours were open. There were couple of people in the house who surrounded around a laptop into some serious stuff. We were seated in the neighbour's house and maltesh joined us soon. He was glad we visited and spoke to us about his son.

Piyush was first detected with Leukemia in 2004 when he was 4 years old in Apollo hospital Delhi. He needs to undergo a bone marrow transplantation for completely recovery. Piyush is a single child and hence needs an external donor. External donor bone marrow transplant is not done in India. When the family started exploring their options with hospitals & cost associated, US was the first but it costed around 2 crores Indian Rupees plus the stay and airfare. France was the second option, and now recently they have contacted a hospital in Singapore and that seems more feasible because of the proximity to India. Find more details at www.cpaaindia.org and www.aidmyson.org

About Piyush, his condition is stable right now and according to the doctors this is the right time to do the transplant before a relpase happens. They plan to go to S'pore within 10 days just as soon as they can collect the money and get a confirmation on the date from the doctors there. I had also written to the cancer patients aid association (cpaaindia.org) in Bombay and have their confirmation on the case as well.

Also, while we were leaving, Maltesh offered to call Piyush. He came and stood at the entrance of his room and we were still standing outside. He has lost his hair. He waved a shy "hi" to us, smiling. We waved back. He needs to be protected from any kind of infection at this point and so the isolation from visitors.

Lastly, I really dont want to create a sympathy wave because they are a normal family like any of us with jobs like ours. Money as huge as this is just not easy with anyone and if God forbid, we are faced with a similar situation tomorrow we all will need to turn to the whole wide world for help for our child's sake, for our own sanity. We can not control a lot of thing but I hope to God, money does not stand as an obstacle to the little one's well being.

The cost of the transplant is around INR 1.25 crores plus accommodation & airfare. They have managed to insert an half hour program through Star News and running footages at CNN-IBN. Maltesh, himself has scrapped his bottom to pull out INR 25+ lakhs. They have collected around 70lakhs in total. But they need an another INR 50-60lakhs to get them going ASAP.

Please visit www.aidmyson.com or www.cpaaindia.org and make your contribution big or small. Please link to the above sites on your blogs and help reach out to as many people as we can.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Piyush


This is Piyush, 7 years in all. He is a resident of Pune. He is suffering from Lukemia. You can find all details at www.aidmyson.com. The family is currently trying to arrange for sufficient funds to continue the little one's treatment. Any help big or small, I am sure will go a long way.

Please do link to relevant sources, on your sites, to reach out to as many people as possible.

Piyush, you will be in our prayers. We wish you a speedy recovery.

It's Corporate Culture...

....to wear your badge from the time you enter to the time you leave office. Somehow, I have never made my peace with this ritual till date. I can never wear my badge. I carry it in my bag, my purse, in my pocket or worse, in my hand but can never wear it. Everyday, while at the office gate, I open my bag and go hunting....while a sea of people will pass me through. P drops me off, drives to office, parks, reaches his desk, calls me and 9 times of 10 my reply would be "Just reached". After one such occassion he asked me

"So what exactly is your problem with just wearing the badge and getting through with the daily drama at the gate"

"Oh..It feels like someone is invading my privacy by looking at my name, I feel I should protect my identity."

"Protect from whom??

"from Strangers"

"What strangers?? for God's sake!! you have a blog by your name, you have snaps uploaded, you write in detail about your life with numbers and names, you comment all around, get trackbacked and that is not a problem? Your workplace of all is the most dangerous place to flash you name."

"Hmm.... thinking about it... the point is I dont want people I am looking in the eye as strangers to see my name but have no issues with strangers visiting my blog, seeing my pics or reading what I write ..... you see my point? "

"Freaking, NOOO"

:) Hmm .. I see your point.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Sisters - Twins

I was on Orchid's blog and I just got all sentimental reading about her bro.

I have 2 sisters. Younger. They are twins. Unidentical. I state with lots of pride today, as I remember telling the princy of our school when they were admitted to L.KG in my school while I was in the 1st, "Sister, these are my sisters" .... I can still hear the reverberating laughter of the crazy old nuns (what was so funny??).

I was the rebel and they were total give-ins during our teens. I dont remember them having a single fight because they wanted to go to some party, or wanted to donate blood or wanted to see a movie or go to a restaurant. They just went ahead and did it and then came back home after all the merry-making and casually mentioned "oh yeah we saw that movie, we need to repay mamta" while I will be pulling my hair out reasoning with mom as to how many are going? how many girls, when will I be back? how much will it cost?, toiling for weeks and dealing with blackmails.

They have always cribbed about how I had no patience when teaching them and the hand was at work after every 2nd explanation and how I patiently explained, summarized and reiterated everything to the neighbouring kids who came in for tutions.

Whenever I felt low, serious, teary, at the verge of an emotional outburst, I would hear one of them say "hey so now you are meena kumari, the tragedy queen ", draining out all my sentiments and the substance out of the moment.

Whenever I did been hit by the self righteous/goodness bug, with stuff like "lets not judge" or "let us not bother about what people say" and they would immediately retaliate .."oh mother teressa pls stop"...All the goodness would all abruptly end right there.... ok then lets bitch. We would sit and bitch and gossip and munch all through afternoons & late evenings, It used to be so fulfilling.

We were never the united sisters so got into a lot of trouble individually and collecively. Infact we would scheme togather, act togather and then part ways over something silly, complain and then get punished. Silly I know, but thatz how we were.

This can go on endlessly. This is the problem with nostalgic trips. To say the least, I miss all thoes times.

Holkar Bridge


The Holkar Bridge in Pune is atleast 150 years old. It is built over the mula river. I pass this bridge to & from work everyday. You will invariably get into a traffic jam during peak hours around this place. The alternate route to this bridge is to travel around the city. This little bridge has side pavements & railings on either side. Other than the normal 2-wheelers & 4-wheelers, all kinds of heavy weight vehicles including buses, trucks, and military vehicles use the Holkar Bridge mercilessly. Most 2-wheelers use the side pavement and that truly in effect have turned out to be the fastest lane.

Yesterday while returning from work, in my 4-wheeler, at the onset of the bridge, I noticed the traffic to be moving at snail speed on the fastest lane. While I was wondering if we were getting into a traffic jam ahead, I saw a pretty young lady walking on the pavement and the 2-wheelers trying to keep their balance on the narrow pavement behind her. It is a dicey feeling to drive over that pavement because in all probability, the railings are also 150 yrs old and with the least help might find ourselves in the river below. Don’t worry, even if it is so, the river right now has enough water to cushion the fall so you might not break a bone or two just that you will emerge with dried flowers, plastic covers (from the flood last year) & algae all over, looking like a pretty little Christmas tree but smelling like shit. Everyone on the road were throwing her looks as if she was the sole reason for all the traffic jams in the history of Holkar bridge and only after she steps down from this pavement can they begin any improvement work and they have been waiting for it for the past 100 years. She realized the awkwardness and jumped on to the road. Now to say of the road, the extreme right & left sides of this lane is occupied by the 2-wheelers and also the gaps in between the bumpers of 4-wheelers. The precision & unsaid discipline is such that an ariel view would probably suggest VVIP vehicles moving. As soon as the confused lady jumped on to the road, the extreme left lane of motorist was all disturbed and started honking. Suddenly she started running, not knowing what to do next. I couldn't help but laugh at the sudden turn of events. So much for the rights of pedestrians & use of pavements.

The Holkar Bridge is under the cantonment administration & that is often used as the excuse for the bad maintenance of the bridge. Our finance minister Mr. P. Chidambaram, last year during his visit to the city is also quoted to have asked
"Which defence authorities' clearance is awaited? It is not the Russian defence authority. It's is our defence ministry."
Do we expect any changes this year?? Will keep you posted. Meanwhile "Long Live Holkar Bridge"(only then I will survive....yeah yeah selfish selfish me)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Joyce monkeying around




My Baby has been monkeying around from all kinds of weird heights & slants, wanting to climb, and once up wants to rest her little butt in confined spaces & places where there are no supporting planes, wants to get down and then climb again. Initially I used to put her to sleep and build pillow walls around. Then we had to teach our how-to-get-down from the bed since she seemed to be heading head-along all the time. Last week, I left her sleeping on the bed with the pillow walls and tip-toed out for something. My heart stopped beating for a few secs when I watched her in absolute amusement crawling from the bedroom towards the hallway. No fuss, no noise, and so fast. Is this a ?

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Here I come



Hello!! Mama keeps telling me she has a lots of friends and everyone is eager to see and meet me. oh I See!!!! Now thatz not very easy. I hope you understand how lazy my mom is. Also I have a really busy schedule. In-between that, Ammachy even tries to feed me and put me to sleep. Of course, I don't sleep for long and am up before she can attempt at anything. I always catch her eating when I get up and she has the look of "O'God" ...you know that look right? I think she keeps all the tasty food for herself, so I insist I need a share from her every time she eats or munches and what do you know, its really really very tasty and at times a little spicy for my little tougue too. Now I need to get back to play. Very nice meeting all you great people, will surely come again with lots of stories from my buzy days, till then ... oh where is my smiley??

Monday, February 05, 2007

Howz that??

(Friday evening)

Wife: Lets go and see "Guru"

Hubby: (blank expression) "No"

(Sunday afternoon)

Wife: Lets go and see "Guru"

Hubby: Pls dont disturb my weekend. If you want, we can take a half-day off work and go watch your movie.

Wife still wondering how to react

Friday, February 02, 2007

Feeling Great


Guess what??? ....No, I havent been to any theme park but I have just got busy with loads of Good work and with a time constraint of exactly 8 hours, courtesy my daughter, I am working dot to dot. Its been more than 2-3 years since I have been swarmed by any good work and God!!! does it feel good?? Yes it does. Its a liberating feeling. I don't know if I can call myself a workaholic, but I did love to love my work and give it my best and of-course any positive feedback just makes me love it & do all the more. And you know what, this is the only way I love to work.

I had almost forgot how it felt to be busy and under pressure. It feels like I had put my career on hold for the past 3 years or so, unintentionally though, slowing down from the fast & mad pace, getting married, having my baby & the after effects. I roamed the buzy buzzing lanes of blogospheres like a zombie from one blog to the other. It has done me good to explore many new blogs, reading their views/opinions/grieves/temperaments/recipes, and the way each go about their daily life but lots of good work is a different high altogether. It lifts my spirits and injects that much required enthusiasm into life. I have done my share of late-nights, I have slogged and I don't deny there have been times I have hated my job, hated it when people accused me of being part of cheap labour that is being exploited but honestly I have enjoyed most part of being there and being in ACTION.....Yes I have enjoyed being that cheap labour that was exploited .. HA!

And just recently while chatting with a colleague about years of experience, I realized I have been working for the past 10 YEARS. I started working in Oct-96 while in my final year of graduation full-time(1pm-9pm)against good advice to stay put, since I felt I was wasting my time and was feeling the urge to do something worthwhile. Once I passed out, I did 2 jobs, a part-time(teaching) and a full-time(coding). So I used to catch the 6:29am local and be back only around 7-8-9pm. It was an exhilarating experience & I had enjoyed every bit of it. It had been rewarding in its own ways and that fueled my efforts further.

Now I realize what I had been missing from life .... Its some Good, satisfying, making a difference kinda work.

Thanks ArtNavy for Alamy. Its damn cool