tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26895566431548202322024-02-03T09:34:43.852-08:00regenbogenChickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-75042581405998587462009-05-27T09:47:00.000-07:002009-05-27T09:50:24.714-07:00Defective Piece!Someone who shares the same flesh and blood as I do was called a "defective piece" by her in laws and husband for having 2 back-to-back miscarriages. How do you react to something like this?? I have been seething after getting to know about this. I wish I could just shoot their fucking brains off.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-80267363394617882262009-03-30T10:08:00.001-07:002009-03-30T10:20:56.405-07:00The reason why I have been AWOLIt has been a long time since I updated my blog. I would like to blame it partly on laziness, our move, my work and of course the best excuse - my pregnancy!!<br />We are getting ready to welcome a new member into our family in June, I will step into my 7th month in a week's time. My daughter is very excited that soon she will have a baby to play with. <br /><br />We put our current home up for rent and moved to our new home, so the moving and packing took up a lot of my time. My old home will always be special as this was the first home that G and I bought 10 years ago. We found a nice indian family who will be renting our place, they are both doctors, so the good thing is that, the rent will always be on time :). I cried like a baby on the day we moved. I am a very emotional person that way, G on the other hand is very practical and he says it is good to think about the great memories that we had in this home and move on to the new one. We will put our old home up for sale once the market improves. I do love our new community and the best part of my new home is that I can always see deer grazing at my back yard :). My daughter's new school is literally a stone's throw away. I will post the pics of our new home once we settle down, until then Ciao!Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-88249035234442041902008-05-02T12:33:00.000-07:002008-05-02T13:12:39.411-07:00We found BhargaviI did a post on my cousin Bhargavi's abduction three months ago. My mom said that she was hearing all kinds of rumours, somebody mentioned that she had eloped with the local MLA's son, another mentioned that she was abducted by a bunch of thugs, some body else mentioned seeing her in Mumbai. Nevertheless, all this had a terrible effect on Bhargavi's family. I was moved by her family's plight and vowed to do something about it. I sought my husband's help and he wholeheartedly supported me in this effort. <br /><br />I contacted Capt.J who happens to be the MD of a leading detective agency based in Koramangala - Bangalore, this company was my client when I was involved in marketing e-commerce solutions 9 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to know that he still remembered me, I explained the entire situation to him and gave him the details of my cousin, my mom gave him Bhargavi's recent pictures. He assured me that he would look into it and asked me for a week's time to investigate this matter. It got very busy on the work front and I was busy traveling and attending training seminars and it missed my mind that I was supposed to follow-up after a week with Capt.J. 2 months ago, I got back from work, finished the necessary drill (cook, put my daughter A to sleep, clean the kitchen) and went to bed. I was woken up by a phone call at 12-45 a.m, it turned out to be from Capt. J, the line was not clear and he hung up twice. Now I started getting worried and had already made up my mind about Bhargavi's fate, I got up and kept praying, sleep just eluded me. Capt. J called me again at 1:30 am, this time the line was clear and he started off by telling me " I have good news for you", I heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that. He started telling me all about it, Bhargavi was in love with the local MLA's son, he happens to be from a different religion, Bhargavi's parents had come to know about this and had tried their best to dissuade her, no amount of coaxing or emotional blackmailing seemed to work. They even went to the extent of beating her up and keeping her under "house arrest". Fed up of all this, Bhargavi and her boyfriend hatched a plan to elope and make it seem like a kidnapping incident. Their efforts seemed to be paid off as most of them did believe that she was kidnapped. The cops however had their own theories (!), they were right all along (for a change), they just said it was an open and shut case of elopement and they wouldn't and couldn't do anything about it.<br />I was a bit mad at Bhargavi's parents for not disclosing any info about her affair, at least it would have put my mind to rest. I was also not happy about Bhargavi's irresponsible attitude, but I don't think I have a right to judge her or her parents. I was only concerned about her safety, that is all.<br /><br />Bhargavi is happily married now and living with her husband's family, she has plans to complete her BA via correspondence. She called me 2 weeks ago and apologized for what she did, she also said that she loved her husband very much and that they both grew up together and she couldn't imagine not being with him. She also mentioned to me that her parents were on the verge of finalizing her marriage with another guy and they were getting ready to whisk her off to the neighboring town and get her married forcibly. She couldn't think of any other options, so she had to take this extreme step. <br /><br />Any way, I am glad that she is happy and that is what matters to me the most.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-37975973457215826782008-02-06T13:08:00.000-08:002008-05-02T12:33:36.257-07:00This is what is happening on our end..It has been a long time since I blogged, lot of things have happened in the last 2 months. For starters we embarked on a major home remodeling project, as of now we got granite counter tops for the kitchen, added a flair (tiles to the wall), got wooden flooring for living room, changed our blinds. We still have a long way to go, as we are planning on getting a new staircase, and of course, we need to remodel our 4 bathrooms, and paint the whole house (phew). G and I bought this house 9 years ago, we couldn't really afford any fancy options as G got laid off immediately after we signed our contractual papers, so we ended up with bare minimum options. One of the major resolutions for this year has been to clear out the clutter and remodel our house, which we are achieving at a steady pace. We donated 3 sacks of clothes, 2 sacks of shoes, all of them in pristine condition mind you. <br /><br />I have taken up a certification in my line of work and that pretty much takes up most of my time in the evening. Our little one caught the stomach bug and promptly passed it on to mommy, so I am down with high fever, this illness has tired me out so bad that I can't even stand or walk in a steady manner. G is taking care of both of us, he is cooking for us and ordering food every now and then. I have taken time off from work for the last 2 days. My team is so dependent on me that they have ended up rescheduling all my meetings :(, just when I thought that I could get a real break from my work!<br /><br />I would like to end this post by congratulating fellow blogger and friend orchid for purchasing a new home. Orchie, it is a lot of fun doing up your new house. Hearty congratulations to you, Uj and little A.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-68890426376425351802007-11-27T13:10:00.000-08:002007-11-27T13:12:24.399-08:00Thanksgiving holidayWe had a lovely thanksgiving weekend. Here is what we did for the last 3 days:<br />On the D-day (Nov 22nd) I woke up at 6 am and made aloo and carrot paranthas and spicy coriander chutney, packed some pickle, water, fruits and cereal bars. Woke hubby and my daughter with great difficulty, when one of them was getting ready to wake up the other would go back to sleep and vice versa. <br /><br />We left Virginia at 10-55 am (scheduled departure was 8 o clock, but 11 is GST (DH standard time). I decided to get behind the wheel for the first 3 hours and then hand the car over to DH. We drove for 2 hours and decided to break for lunch at one of the rest areas at Maryland. The surroundings around the rest area looked so beautiful; there was this constant drizzle of yellow, orange and maroon leaves from the trees which gave a very ethereal effect to that place. We had our lunch and drove some more. We passed Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. When we reached Ohio, it started to snow badly, that is when DH got behind the wheel as he has lived in Buffalo for 2 years and has driven in really bad weather conditions. We made sure to pack a lot of toys for my daughter and believe me that really helped. <br /><br />We reached Detroit at 10 p.m, daughter was very excited as she was visiting her friend R’s house. R is a 3 and a half year old boy and he usually goes to bed at 9, he managed to stay awake all along to welcome his pal A (my daughter). The moment we reached our friend’s place, my daughter started running near the door and her friend R was there ready to hug her, I was amazed at this, my daughter and R have never seen each other, they may have chatted over the phone 4-5 times in the last 3 months or so and they were behaving like long lost friends. They also excitedly exchanged their gifts. A got a cute Dora story book, this has voice over capabilities and it comes with 3 cartridges and 4 story books, A was super thrilled. A gifted R a Spider man laptop and he fell in love with that. What is with boys and super heroes??<br /><br />Our friends V and S welcomed us into their beautiful home. S had made lovely spinach rasam, veggie curry, chapattis, and onion sambhar. We polished our plates in no time as the food was absolutely delicious. Then, we started chatting while the kids got busy playing. By the time we decided to call it a day, it was 12-30 am. The next morning S made lip smacking masala dosas and a special chutney which is famous in Chitradurga. I made sure to get the recipe from her. After hogging to our heart’s content, the boys (hubby and his pal V) went out for a drive to have some guy talk and S and myself had a nice time gossiping about our lives and families and of course the In-laws/Out-laws.<br /><br />By 2-30 pm, we packed our stuff and were getting ready to leave, when little R started crying; he put on his jacket and shoes and held on to my daughter. He kept saying that he wanted to come with us. It broke my heart to see him cry, my daughter kept asking me “mommy can we take R with us please” with those big pleading saucer like eyes. I had to take her aside and explain to her that we can come some other time and visit R or he could come visit us in summer. She agreed reluctantly. We reached the Canada-US border in 20 mins and immigration formalities were a breeze. By the time we reached Canada it was 3 pm. DH’s uncle and aunt (aunty) welcomed us into their home. Aunty and A instantly took to one another. They were inseparable for the next 3 days or so. Aunty became A’s Santa Claus, she took her to Toys r us and bought her a huge load of toys. She also insisted on feeding my daughter and also told her lots of stories and sang many songs. Uncle is a little more introvert, but A made sure that he also played with her. He sat still while A combed his hair with a teeny weenie Barbie comb. Aunty made so many lovely dishes for us; she didn’t let me enter the kitchen even once. Every time I insisted, she said “I want to give you a break, will your mom let you work when you visit her? Consider this also as your mom’s place (thavaru mane) and just sit by my side and talk to me. They stay in a huge 9 bedroom single family home; it has been beautifully decorated by aunty. Uncle and I watched Chak de India and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Uncle and I are very much alike, we loved to dissect and critic the movie’s every single scene. We also savored mouth watering samosas, bhel puri and Pani Puri which were delivered by a gujarathi lady who lives very close to their home. Aunty and I had a long chat about our lives, about being away from the family and living abroad, about raising kids here (US and Canada). It felt very good to talk to her. She is a very nice lady who has always been affectionate towards me. Every time we visit them, she begs and pleads me to move to Canada, I know that it is impossible as we are planning on moving back to Bangalore for good in the next 3 years. <br /><br />We also went to this place called Colasanti’s, this is a nursery farm, plus a mini-zoo all rolled into one. Aunty packed upma, chapattis (50), Obbattus, Chaklis for us to take back home. I even joked with her saying that in olden days, when a girl visited her mom’s place they would send back all these goodies back with her, it felt the same in my case, to which she replied that this was my mom’s place. Aunty also said that she lost her mom at a very young age and she never did experience all this, but she wanted me to enjoy this experience. I was really moved by this. She gifted me a beautiful teal colored saree with zardosi work; DH got an ipod, daughter A got 5 sets of toys. On the day of our departure, my daughter just wouldn’t let go of my aunty’s hand, she kept asking aunty and uncle to put on their jackets and shoes. We had a tough time convincing her that aunty and uncle will come and visit us later, my daughter asked if they will come “tomorrow”, we said yes, after which she calmed down. We bid a tearful goodbye, with promises to visit each other at least once in 4-5 months. We stopped at Pittsburgh temple on our way back and had our dinner of tamarind and yogurt rice with yummy pickle. We reached home at 12 am; I worked from home the next day and went back to work today. All in all this was a very satisfying trip; it was a bit taxing physically, but well worth it.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-69180776132010498382007-11-21T10:03:00.000-08:002007-11-21T10:04:33.783-08:00Happy ThanksgivingHappy Thanksgiving to you all! We (DH, my daughter and I) are driving down to Canada tomorrow; it is a 9 hour drive. We are keeping our fingers crossed as this is our first long distance drive with our toddler. We have been invited by hubby's uncle and aunt who are settled in Canada for about 35 years, they can't wait to meet their grand daughter. So what are you all doing on thanksgiving? Drop a line or two about your plans.<br /><br />I have some news about Bhargavi; will share with you all once I get back.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-42074265299849190062007-11-12T11:43:00.001-08:002007-11-13T13:06:50.836-08:00Taking credit for other's workWe have all come across situations wherein somebody takes credit for something that he or she has not done. Infact not just at work, but also within your own home you come across such situations. Here are 2 situations that I came across in the recent months:<br /><br />Situation 1: The Inlaws/Outlaws house at Bangalore<br />One of the days when we were vacationing in Bangalore, my MIL asked her loving son as to what he was craving to eat, her son duly said rava idly and sagoo. My MIL said she will ask her daughter (my SIL) to make the sagoo as she makes the best sagoo in the whole world. I pitched in to help, I cut the onions, cut and peeled the potatoes and cooked them in the pressure cooker. I also dry roasted and ground the ingredients. My MIL did the tadka/seasoning and added the ground paste and the potatoes and let it cook for some time, my SIL who had vanished into her room came by then and stirred it a little bit and tasted it and said it tastes great. My MIL asked her son how it tasted and he said S's sagoo is indeed the best (!). To this day I tease hubby every time he asks me to make S's sagoo. I ask him "you mean the sagoo where in I cut the onions, I cooked the potatoes, I roasted and ground the masala and your mom did the tadka, that sagoo right?".<br /><br />Situation 2: My Company<br />I am leading the process improvement functions for some of the products within the company and recently I implemented many initiatives within my group, as a result of which the performance of some of the product lines has gone up to a great extent. My Director who also happens to be an indian got very insecure because of the praise I was getting from other business leads. I was supposed to meet with the COO to submit my recommendations on a bunch of initiatives that we were planning to execute in UK and Singapore, my Director scheduled the meeting and conveniently "forgot" to include me in the invite. She went ahead and presented my recommendations. I had a feeling something like this would happen so I "conveniently" forgot to add the data justification slides to the presentation deck. As a result of which she was left in a lurch and she had no choice but call me in the middle of the presentation to answer the questions that the COO had asked. Finally at the end of the meeting my COO was convinced that it was I who had developed the deck and not my Director. I feel bad doing this, but I couldn't think of any other alternative. I am pretty sure now she will be very careful movign forward. The other good thing is that I have been asked to lead another team within the same company so I will no longer be interacting with this mean attention craving Director.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-41241919725284843792007-10-22T19:32:00.000-07:002007-10-22T19:54:09.899-07:00Bhargavi - Where are you????Bhargavi is a 19 year old pretty cousin of mine studying second year BA at Kolar Government College. She is my grand mother's sister's grand daughter. So we are second or third cousins as you see. Bhargavi's parents are from Kolar and have faced financial problems for quite some time. Bhargavi's mother Manjula aunty studied till 10 standard and was married off when she turned 17 to Ramesh uncle. Ramesh uncle is a kind gentleman who loved Manju aunty and took good care of her. They live in a modest little home in Kolar. <br /><br />Every time Bhargavi visits my family, my mother makes sure to send her back with lots of goodies, mainly new salwaar kameezes, sarees etc. Today being Monday I was quite busy at work and by the time I had my coffee break, it was 12 noon. I badly wanted to speak to my mom so I placed a call to Bangalore. My sister had done some Naga Prathista pooja and we were talking about that. Suddenly, mom said "Do you know Bhargavi?", I was like "yeah, Manju aunty's daughter right?", mom said "yes, somebody has kidnapped her, Manju called me today and gave me this news". For a second, I was shocked and didn't know how to react. Mom said that Bhargavi was giving her Second BA exams and was returning home on her cycle and some miscreants who were travelling in a car stopped her and took her away in their car. This happenned 4 months ago. <br /><br />Manju aunty and Ramesh have been running pillar to post trying to find their daughter's whereabouts. They even lodged a complaint with the police, however the policeman was not sympathetic at all I believe, he kept saying that their daughter might have eloped with someone. Manju aunty broke down when she was sharing all this with my mom, she kept saying "Akka, I know Bhargavi, I know my child, she is a very studious kid who wanted to get a job as a teacher and support us, she can never elope with anyone". Of course the neighbors and so called well wishers are painting the town red spreading nauseous rumours that Bhargavi has eloped with one of her class mates, which however is not true.<br /><br />I just couldn't concentrate on my work after this call, I kept thinking about Bhargavi. I had 2 presentations to make in front of my VPs, I ended up rescheduling my meetings. I discussed this with my husband and he is feeling very bad too. I am planning on sending Bhargavi's details to Crime Story and Crime Diary offices. G and I are also planning on contacting a few detective agencies. I know that it is already too late, however we want to bring back Bhargavi and help her rebuild her life again. Every time I close my eyes I see her smiling at me.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-47263803010772094122007-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:002007-10-19T10:51:57.131-07:00Athithi devo bhava - does that thing still exist??We all know the term "athithi devo bhava" meaning a guest is like a god and needs to be treated like one. I have grown up in a family wherein guests dropped by every single day, most of them unannounced. I have never seen my mom make a face or get mad. No matter how tired she was after toiling for 10 hrs at the bank, she would still enthusiastically whip up a mean meal with about 10 entrees and a couple of desserts thrown in. My grand mother on the other hand used to live in a joint family with 6 other brother-in-laws and their wifes and their kids and ofcourse her Monster-in-law (read my gread grand mother). She would toil in the kitchen from 4 am to 10 pm feeding everybody who would stop by. She was known as "Annapurneswari" the goddess of food and the name is just apt for her. I on the other hand prefer some advance notice. I need to make sure the house is clean, my china set is nicely polished, the floor is vaccumed and the whole enchilada. But one thing, if I do invite someone I make sure that every thing is in order and I try my best to cook a decent 3 course meal. I also make sure to cook something new and innovative. <br /><br />I was in Bangalore 6 months ago visiting family and had to face an interesting situation and wanted to blog about this, rather rant about this so here I am.<br />The hubby wanted to visit his cousins so he started calling them up one by one, they are actually three of them and they are all his mom's sister's sons. G is very close to them as he practically grew up with them as they were neighbours for 15 long years. When you are in India, you need to have an agenda and a list of people of visit. If you visit some one and leave out the others, they are bound to get offended. On top of that, there is this running between your In-laws house and your mother's house which tires you out completely. Any way, I digress, two of the brothers (B1 and B2) invited us for lunch and dinner respectively. We first went to B1's house, we were very warmly received and they showed us their new house which is one of the most famous houses in Bangalore renowned for it's terrace garden and an exquisite architectural plan. Their cook had made some really delicious dishes and the best part was that my daughter immediately took to their kids. They busied themselves by pampering my daughter. We had a great time and came back happy. <br /><br />B2 wanted us to visit his place for dinner on a Sunday. I had already made plans and had accepted an invite to have dinner at my mom's sister's house. She is like a second mother to me and I call her amma. I was really looking forward to that and here comes this invite. I tried to decline politely, but B2 insisted and said that his wife who is a doctor is not free on any other day. I had to relent as hubby G really wanted to meet his cousin's family. I cancelled my other plans, my aunt was not too happy about this, but I somehow convinced her . Finally we reached B2's place at the appointed hour, we kept ringing the bell, after a good 10 mins B2 comes and opens the door and invites us in. The wife is nowhere to be seen. We were trying to make polite conversation, and at 9 p.m after a good 1 hour or so the wife makes a grand entrance. She says that she was working and was on the phone to discuss something. My kid was getting hungry and she usually has her dinner at 7 p.m and this was well after her regular schedule. This lady just sits and stares at us and then goes off to the kitchen to make coffee for herself, didn't even bother to ask if we wanted something. My daughter followed her to the kitchen and asked her "aunty I am hungry", I felt so bad on seeing this. I just dragged my daughter away and looked at my hubby's face. The look I had was enough to kill someone believe me. Hubby got the point and he got up and said we need to leave, at this point of time this lady says the food is on the table, please help your self and walks back to her room for another hour(!). B2 insisted us to have dinner and I tried to feed my daughter, the curry was spoilt as it had a bad smell, the rasam looked like it was made a century ago. Nobody can fool me with left over food, I am pretty good and spotting them in a quick manner. The chapatis were rock solid. The funny thing was their kids, especially the precorious 5 year old told me "Aunty I like this rasam, we had this yesterday and day before. I love it". This lady who had vanished for another hour came out at 10-30 pm, just when we were getting ready to leave. Her only question was when we were planning on coming back to Bangalore and whether we had invested in a house in US or not. I wanted to tell her that it was none of her bloody business, but kept quiet as hubby was trying to restrain me with his pleading eyes. All in all a total disappointment. When you are not interested in entertaining guests, why go through the pain of inviting them and insulting them? that is my pet peeve. <br /><br />I had to share this with my MIL mainly because she still seems to hold a grudge that during our wedding, my parents did not do the honours of inviting my inlaws to have the lunch with the bride and groom (this is called bhoomada oota in Kannada). It clearly did not matter to her that my aunts and uncles and scores of other relatives personally waited on them and invited them. She would keep saying that my family does not know the meaning of athithi devo bhava blah blah. I shared this incident with her and waited for a reaction, she just kept quiet and didn't even open her mouth.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-63847860388220243522007-09-15T19:54:00.000-07:002007-09-15T19:56:18.976-07:00Angel: Day 9 updateAngel passed away at 5-45 a.m today. I just got a call from my mom. I tried to talk to my sister, but she was not in a position to talk to me. Please join me in praying for angel to attain a peaceful moksha.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-89724019322086495182007-09-14T11:03:00.000-07:002007-09-14T11:10:38.464-07:00Angel: Day 8 updateAngel had a brain hemorrhage yesterday night. The doctors discovered that she also has a high fever. The hope of her survival is diminishing as every day passes by. I am on the phone for hours every day talking to my sister. I miss her so much, I wish I was right next to her. I come from a family which is very religious, my parents, my sister's inlaws and my aunts every one of them took the horoscope of the baby and my sister and visited 4 different priests who are well known for their astrological predictions. Every one of them has given the same answer, the baby will not survive. They have even given the date and time as to when the end may come. The date is Oct 24th, time is 9-30 a.m. <br /><br />Thank you all for your prayers.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-75134350346960957132007-09-12T11:01:00.001-07:002007-09-12T11:12:28.883-07:00Angel : Day 6 updateAngel had some internal bleeding in her brain yesterday, it was minimal and it stopped after some time. The doctors gave her medicines to control that. My sister is currently faced with a dilemma. Her husband J visited her at my mom's place and spoke to her in a very nice manner and kept telling her that he loves her and does not want her to sink in to depression. He also mentioned that, doctors have not given guarantee that the baby will be healthy without any birth defects. The following scenarios may happen:<br />- The baby might have speech and hearing disabilities<br />- Mental disabilities<br />- Sight problems<br /><br />Again, these are just some probabilities that may or may not happen. J said that as parents they are the ones who have to go through the mental trauma of seeing their child suffer. More over this is a girl child, how do we handle it when she attains puberty and is mentally retarded, or has any other disabilities? J firmly said that they both have to take a decision soon. But he didn't really go into details on the so called "decision". He also told my sister that after 2 months when the baby is handed over to them, he will not take any responsibility for bringing up the child. On one hand he was all soft and nice, on the other he is also extremely practical and just doesn't care whether his words will cause hurt to the other person, the other person being his wife and my sister,my best friend. I called her an hour ago, all I could hear was her crying. She said "I see my baby everyday lying in the incubator, how can I bring myself to tell the doctor to remove the life sypport system?? what do you think I should do?". I did not know what to say as I am a mother myself.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-68797530774756624422007-09-10T07:52:00.001-07:002007-09-10T07:52:41.217-07:00Angel - Day 4 updateMy little angel is in the incubator and on the ventilator right now. She had a high sodium and potassium content in her body, the doctors treated her and reduced the levels. Yesterday she had some platelet defficiency, so the doctors had to give some blood to her. There is a pipe from her nose, there is another one stuck to her little feet, there is one from her belly button. She weighs 1.2 k.g and not 1 and a half pounds as I mentioned earlier, there was some confusion on my mom's part when she conveyed the news to me.<br /><br />The doctors tried to remove the ventilator when they observed that the angel was responding well to the treatment, but the baby came down with violent convulsions, so they were forced to put the ventilator back. The doctors still maintain that the baby is in a critical stage, anything may happen at anytime.<br /><br />May god give the strength to my sister to brave through this. I am at work, but I just can't seem to concentrate on anything. My sister was discharged yesterday, she broke down when she came home. She never thought that she would come empty handed. She became hysterical and violent I believe, my parents notified my aunts who have always been pillars of support for both of us. They immediately came and had to restrain her. Thank you all for your prayers, I will keep you updated on the angel's progress.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-87542995378678162252007-09-05T19:41:00.001-07:002007-09-06T04:04:29.165-07:00Please prayI haven't been on the blogging scene for quite some time as I was really busy with my demanding job and the constant travel to UK. <br /><br />My mom just called and told me that my little sister has delivered a baby girl, but I am not jumping with joy, my sister was due in November second week. This baby is just 1 and a half pounds I believe, and really tiny. Her internal organs are also not properly developed! My heart goes out to my sister. She has been through a lot in the last 2 years. Her marriage has been through turbulent waters, to top it all, she had a miscarriage last year. <br /><br />The doctors have predicted an 70 (+) - 30 (-) chance of survival for the baby. We are praying for the well being of the little one. As I type this my eyes are tearing up. Please pray for her, that is all I ask for now. I am currently imagining my dad praying and my mom crying silently in a corner.<br /><br />Please pray for the little angel, will you??Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-25645041597134579412007-08-16T11:52:00.000-07:002007-08-16T11:58:33.490-07:00Mera Bharat MahaanSaw this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswp7hrGomo<br />at another blogger's (Usha's ageless bonding) site and was moved to tears just like she was. Mera Bharat Mahaan! and nothing can change that. I am proud to be an Indian and if I am ever born again, I would like to be born in the same country . My husband and I had been debating on and off on becoming american citizens. Yesterday, we finally decided to forego the american citizenship. The terms Indian Citizen and a person of indian origin are quite different. We opted for the former. Both of us are extremely proud of our decision.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-88127809107305398982007-06-26T12:19:00.000-07:002007-06-26T12:52:37.829-07:00National College Soliloques - I PUC ExamsI still remember my I PUC exams at National College. I hadn't studied anything, I couldn't decipher the formulae nor could I make any sense of the scientific equations and experiments. That was when I seriously regretted taking Science. The exams finally started, the first two exams were English and Sanskrit and I did quite well in both these subjects. The next one was Biology, I managed to answer most of the questions in this subject too, however the worst was yet to come. I had an accident a day before the physics exam, it was a minor head injury still I couldn't study for the paper. Not surprisingly I didn't do well in any of the most important subjects (Physics, Chem and Maths). I was still confident as every body had told me that no matter how badly the students do in the exams, every body get through the exams. So that was one hope I was holding on to.<br /><br />I took off to Madikeri for 2 weeks to cool my heels and totally forgot about the exam experience. I came back to Bangalore and called my friend B, she mentioned to me that the results were announced. She had passed with a first class and I had got second class. I was happy to note that I didn't fail. My friends M, B and A were discussing about II PUC tuitions, some of them had already finalized the tuitions for PCM with prominent professors like RKJ, GV for Physics and Desikachar for Chem. I started to worry as I hadn't done anything of that sort. My friend Anand mentioned to me that there were still few seats left in one of the tutorials run by Professors NAR and KR. I went to meet with them and they gladly accepted my application and I was enrolled for Physics and Chem classes. <br /><br />I still hadn't enrolled myself for Mathematics tutorials. My friend Viji recommended Prof. A.K.Manjunath. I found out that he was located very close to my home and was a well known lecturer. I met him and asked if he had any seats left, he said he was completely full and had no seats left. I was disappointed and worried so much so that I was close to tears. I told him "Sir, everywhere else the seats are booked, I am not very good in Maths and need all the help I can get, please accomodate me", he said he didn't like the word "booked" as it seemed like it was a business that was being run for profits. Finally he relented and agreed to take me in. I was in a batch of 6 girls and we met twice a week on evenings. Some of the names of the girls who were in my batch were, Pavani, Sandhya, H.N.S, D.V and Roshni Rajkumar (the one who had appendicitis surgery, I am sure orchid will remember when she reads this :)). I must say, of all the tuitions, I liked Maths the best, because A.K.M was a very good professor and his methodology of teaching was excellent. He was also very strict and quite short tempered. Thankfully we didn't get into trouble with him.<br /><br /><em></em>The over all tuition fees came up to Rs. 5000 (!).Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-44296952507782419882007-06-19T08:11:00.000-07:002007-06-19T08:13:14.464-07:00Off to LondonI am off to London for a week and will be back to blogging once I get back. I have been assigned to a new project which requires some travel to our UK office. So Queen of London, here I come!<br /><br />Take care y'all!Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-38009091765107919632007-06-11T09:01:00.000-07:002007-06-11T09:26:25.353-07:00Visit to Vidyarthi BhavanThe hubs and myself had prepared a list of restaurants that we wanted to visit during our tenure in Bangalore and one restaurant which figured high on our list was vidyarthi bhavan. Vidyarthi Bhavan was started 63 years ago and has come a long way since then. My dad mentioned to me that this place used to be a regular hang-out for Masti venkatesha Iyengar, T.P. Kailasam, even Sir M.Visweswaraiah used to visit this place frequently I believe. I visited this jaunt for the first time with my dad when I was 6 years old and since then have been addicted to their masala dosas. <br /><br />My SIL and FIL were conducting some homa in Gandhibazar so we decided to go to vidyarthis for breakfast and head out from there. We reached the place at 9 a.m and it was a sunday. The place was jampacked, on top of that it was very hot (around 40 degrees to be accurate) and we were sweating like hell. This is a very small place, may be around 1000 sq. ft or so I guess. There are around 20 tables, enough to accomodate 50-60 people. There is a narrow passage next to the seating area where dosa lovers like us stand and wait to pounce on any seat that becomes empty. My pouncing skills have weathered down as I haven't been to Bangalore for long and I seem to have forgotten them completely. However my FIL saved the day by finding an empty seat for all of us. Even before we all could sit there was this huge sumo wrestler who plonked herself on the seat. I usually ignore such incidents and try to find another seat, however this was vidyarthi bhavan and I was waiting for 15 minutes in that heat, no way was I ever going to let her do this to me. I immediately told her in a loud voice that we were the ones who reserved that place first and glared at her. All this I said by standing in my professional kick-boxer pose. The look that I gave her must have scared the hell out of her, she immediately got up and mumbled a weak sorry. I heaved a sigh of relief, and sat down with my family. My daughter was really excited and kept saying "Othelle dose elli??", meaning where is the hotel dosa. Immediately we placed our order and after 10 minutes or so our waiter came by carrying 20 plates firmly balanced on his right hand. Now this to me is a skill. You need to balance these many plates and move through the narrow passage and you also have to make sure that you don't get hit by any of the bystanders (read pouncers). <br /><br />Finally the fragrant dosas were placed on our table and we all mentally said "attack" and finished them off in a jiffy. The dosa was crip and reddish brown in colour and the inside was slightly thick and smeared with red chutney. The coconut chutney and the fiery sambhar were out of this world. My daughter is a fussy eater, and she is about 2 and half years old. She managed to polish off one and a half dosa and was asking for more. A dosa at vidyarthi bhavan is incomplete without coffee so we ended up having that too. The coffee was also very good. In the end we all came out with a very satisfied look on our faces. This visit was well worth the wait and the heat. God bless vidyarthi bhavan!Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-13776392113268035742007-06-01T06:45:00.000-07:002007-06-01T07:06:48.017-07:00Bangalore - Gastronomical DelightI have travelled all over India, but nothing comes close to Bangalore when it comes to good food. Hubby, my daughter and I literally gorged on the restaurant food every single day. Of course nothing can beat the food cooked my mom, she took a lot of pains to cook all my favourite dishes. At G's(hubby)place we would make it a point to order piping hot idlies, spicy sambhar, crispy vadas from Sukh Sagar - Koramangala. Oh my! my mouth waters even now while I type this. My daughter absolutely loved to have Othell Dhossa (hotel masala dosa). Infact I tried to trick her into having the dosas I make here by packaging it just like the way it is done in Bangalore, but she could make out the difference in the taste (!). <br /><br />Udupi Krishna Bhavan has also opened a branch in Koramangala close to Jyoti Nivas College. The food that they serve is heavenly to say the least. They make the best Open Dosas. This is actually a huge soft dosa smeared with spicy chutney powder and on top of that there is a huge mound of aloo dry curry (palya)and of course a glob of butter. <br /><br />Another casual eatery that I have to mention is Mast Kalandar. This is a small restaurant started by 3 IIM graduates which got so popular that they have opened 3 more branches in the last 3 years. You get awesome paranthas, khichdis, and ofcourse Aam Ka Panna. The food is very light and not oily at all. G and I would go there at 10 every night to try their paranthas. <br /><br />We also had lunch at this place called Gramin, they offer a very good Rajasthani menu and food is out of this world. We had the Kaju corn masala, and hara bhara kababs, and some other paneer dish which was very good. Adigas fast food joint is another place that I love going to. I love their lunch thalis, these are priced at 30 rupees per plate and you get a naan/roti, a curry, and a dry palya, rice, rasam, sambhar and yogurt and a sweet dish. How cheap can it get??<br /><br />I also visited the famous SLV fast food joint of Banashankari II stage, I am sure fellow blogger Deepthi knows this :). I was in for a pleasant surprise as they also serve Dosas now. They always served yummy idlies and vadas. <br />BTW I used to go there after finishing my 10 std tuition classes with my friend A.<br /><br />The best part of this trip was that I never had to cook even once. I made anna saru and palya just once, but that doesn't count.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-8957173755323222012007-05-22T12:50:00.001-07:002007-05-22T13:32:21.832-07:00India TripWe came back from India 2 days ago and are still reeling under withdrawal symptoms <br />:(. I would like to give a brief update on our trip in 2-3 parts and then get back to blogging on my college life soliloques.<br /><br />April 21st: Our flight was at 6 P.M and we were flying by Virgin Atlantic. I called the cab to come and pick us up at 3. I was running around trying to finish up the packing. Hubby and daughter were blissfully unaware of my tension and were happily playing with their toys (hubby with his laptop and daughter with her toy car. Hubby finally decided to pack at 11 a.m. I cooked simple anna saru. We always make it a point to make that our meal before we leave on a long flight. By 12 hubby realized that he had forgotten to pack some of the organic shampoos for his mother, he goes to wholefoods at 12-30 and comes back at 2 (!). There is still some packing to be done. I am fuming and hubby calmly ignores me and goes ahead with his packing. By 3 the cabwallah is at the door, we are still running around trying to load the dishwasher and checking on the heater and gas knobs, this and that. We finally get out with our luggage by 3-20. <br /><br />The cab driver turned out to be a Nepali and we settled down comfortably and started chatting with him in hindi only to realize after a good 10 minutes that we had left the stroller behind. You can manage easily in Bangalore without strollers, however we were planning on spending a week in Paris and Switzerland, there is no way we could manage a 2.6 year old toddler without a stroller. So off we went to get the stroller. <br /><br />By the time we reached the airport it was 3-50. By the time we checked in and went through the security gates it was 5-00. <br />We were flying via London and Srilanka to get to Bangalore. This was the best deal we got as we were booking in peak season. The plane took off at 6-15, the flight was smooth, however it was a bit of a problem for my daughter. She is potty trained and pretty independent, however she absolutely refused to use the plane toilets. The moment she saw the teeny weeny toilet she said "Mommy, this is galeeej, not good, I won't do pee pee or kakka here". The filthy smell in the toilet made it all the more worse. So I was forced to put her in diapers. She hated it too, but she didn't change her stand in using the toilet. She managed throughout the flight like this and once we landed in Srilanka she was able to use the toilet. The Srilankan airport is very clean and well maintained. <br /><br />We reached Bangalore on April 23rd at 9-30 a.m, the customs and immigration process went in smoothly. We collected our luggage and headed out. My family were waiting there with a big smile. My mom didn't notice me first and she was busily chatting with her sister, I went to her side and tapped her shoulder, she was like "ayyo neenu yavag bande?" and hugged me tightly. I got quite a few compliments as I was lighter by 18 pounds. The last time they saw me, I had just had a baby and had piled on weight at all the wrong places (!). My dad, SIL, FIL were there too. After hugging everyone we got into our cab and went to my husband's home. My MIL was waiting at the doorstep with arthi to greet us. We were treated to spongy soft set dosas and mango-ginger-coconut-chilli chutney. It was to die for! <br /><br />By evening I went to my mom's place with my daughter. Well, you gotta follow certain protocols once you get married and one of them is that everytime you come to Bangalore from abroad you go first to your MIL's house, then you are expected to take permission from her esteemed presence and go to your mom's place. Once I broke this rule and to this day my MIL hasn't forgiven me. I never take permission from her though, I just state that I am leaving to mom's house take it or leave it.<br /><br />This time it was my mom and sister's turn to do the arthi. My daughter was treated like royalty. She was pampered silly by my mom, dad, sister, my aunt's son, and my grand mother. My daughter absolutely refused to look me in the eye lest I start lecturing her on how to behave.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-85082274279409011192007-04-20T10:08:00.000-07:002007-04-20T10:10:00.413-07:00Off to India!!!I am leaving to India tomorrow and won't be back until 5/21. Will try to update my blog (provided I get some time, you all get the picture I am sure :))<br />Ashakka, Deepthi, Supriya and Orchid and anybody else that visits this blog, I will see you all after a month.<br /><br />Bye Bye! Take care Y'all.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-65965129084922714042007-04-12T11:39:00.000-07:002007-04-12T12:25:45.362-07:00Cultural activities and I PU examsI was always interested in taking part in cultural activities or co-curricular activities within school and college. I have learnt carnatic music for 7 years. My sister R and I were enrolled in music classes at a very young age. <br /><br />There was a very talented singer in our class and her name was GS. GS was a pretty girl with curly hair and sparkling eyes. Her voice was very melodious and sweet. The cultural committee has announced group singing competitions in 3 categories (light music - Bhava geethe, Folk - Janapada, and patriotic songs. GS was holding try-outs at the auditorium, she asked me to sing and immediately liked me. I was happy as my other friends A, and DG were there. We had a guy called Janardhan who had reluctantly agreed to play tabla for us. He was a very shy guy and we were 9 girls. We had to bunk some of the classes to practice for the upcoming competitions and I was only too glad to oblige. The lecturers had a certain kind of respect for GS as she was quite well known with the cultural committee members, so we always got attendence even though we missed attending those classes. <br /><br />We practiced atleast twice a day for 10 days. I liked our group as all of us were able to coordinate our voices in a beautiful manner. Needless to say we got first prize in all the three singing competitions. We became known as GS group. The overall prize money was 450 rupees and we split it equally among ourselves. I went to 4th block Jayanagar and brought a nice cotton salwaar set with that money. It was a big thing for me. <br /><br />My friend B's cousin was getting married so B invited myself and my friend A for the wedding. B's cousin was getting married to a software engineer who was based in Los Angeles. The wedding was in Belagodu choultry(kalyan mandap). A and I went to the wedding and saw that every body were dressed in really expensive outfits while A and I were in simple cotton salwaars. B was also dressed in this really pretty dress and I asked her how much she paid for that and she said 2000 rupees. I was shocked thinking that the most expensive salwaar that I ever had at that point of time costed 350 rupees! A and I both felt uncomfortable at the wedding, every body were dressed from head to foot in gold, diamonds and what not and were giving us dirty looks. B really tried to make us feel comfortable. A and I gobbled our lunch quickly and immediately left. B had taken 3 days off due to the wedding and returned to school the following week. She told me that her cousin's wedding was annulled as she had eloped with her boyfriend 2 days after the wedding. I was shocked to hear this. B's cousin looked perfectly happy when we saw her at the wedding. She kept blushing every time somebody teased her about her hubby to be. B's uncle had spent 18 lakhs for the wedding and he was devastated. In the end B concluded her story by saying that her cousin's boyfriend is a very rich guy so she did the right thing. I was apalled to hear this from her. Is money that important?? I never knew that B was that materialistic. <br /><br />B and I were very close to this girl called Nandini and she also knew B's cousin. I casually mentioned this to her about how the wedding got annulled. Nandini promptly went and spilled the beans to B. B was mad at me for sharing this info with Nandini and swore not to talk to me. I was hurt but it didn't let this bother me too much. The first PU exams were nearby and I hadn't even touched my text books. My friend Anand would always tell me that every body passes in first PUC no matter how badly they perform. I was relying on this statement to a great extent. My friends Mayura, Chaitra and Arundathi would always discuss Math problems, syllabus while I was least bit interested in any of this. Our hall tickets were issued. I was quite confident about English, Sanskrit (thanks to professor satish kumar karanth kota) and even Biology to some extent, however, not so confident about Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-39366876871323491252007-03-19T12:28:00.000-07:002007-03-19T12:30:06.730-07:00Happy Ugadi to you all!I would like to wish you all a very happy Ugadi. Ugadi habbada hardhika shubhashayagalu!Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-89987950471299617272007-02-21T09:46:00.000-08:002007-02-21T11:09:40.313-08:00First week at CollegeWhen I walked into my class (I PUC A section) I saw that the class was jam packed (about 85 students). As usual there were no takers for the first two benches. I promptly went and sat in the second bench as all the other benches were occupied. After few minutes another girl walked by and sat next to me, her name was Soumya and she was from Vasavi vidyaniketan. We had 3 lectures and it was 2 p.m when we were done for the day. My school would get over at 5 and here the classes were over by 2! I was really thrilled and marvelled at the change :). <br /><br />I also found out that out of 85 students there were 12 of them who were rank holders. I was getting ready to head out when I spotted my Websters school class mate Harish, I was atlast happy to see one familiar face. His dad was an MP so he had somehow managed to get into PCMB in National college inspite of getting 54% over all. I did meet him and his wife when I went to Bangalore to attend my sister's wedding 2 years ago. <br /><br />There is this pastry shop called "Butter Sponge" which is right opposite National college and they have yummy cakes and puffs. I simply enjoyed gorging on the goodies whenever I got a chance. <br /><br />After a week or so I got a notice from National College Jayanagar that there was a seat vacant for II PUC B section and that I could take a transfer if I wanted. I was really happy about this and immediately jumped at the offer. I hated travelling in those crowded buses and had to deal with those "accidental brushes" here and there by fellow commuters (men of course!), so this was a welcome solution.Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2689556643154820232.post-5851082333529206922007-02-12T07:55:00.000-08:002007-02-12T12:55:46.788-08:00Hunt for the right collegeAfter I was done celebrating my 10th results, it was time to move on. All my neighbourhood aunties and uncles started interrogating me by asking me "Estu percentage bandide? Namma Sureshange 98% bandide, yava college ge admission hakiddeeya??", I would get really irritated on hearing this. I would say "not sure uncle, I will join whereever I get a seat" and scoot off. I guess this is the Indian mentality to be curious about everything :)<br /><br />The application process started off with a gusto, I started queing up in lines in front of National college, Vijaya College (Main and PU collkege), BHS, NMKRV and BMS college.<br /><br />My dad wanted me to join National College, Jayanagar as it was a good college and every body had spoken positively about it. I was fine with it as it was close to my home. I had made up my mind that I would take up PCMB. Now when I think about it, I feel I made a big mistake opting for Science. I guess when you live in a environment where everybody judges you based on the branch you opt for (Science - good, Arts - useless, Commerce - Ok, so -so), the percentage you get, the college you join, one is pressurized to toe the line, and that is what I did. I blindly opted for P - Physics, C - Chemistry, M- Maths and B- Biology.<br /><br />The admission results (as though the 10th std results were not enough!) were announced in the month of May. I realized that I had got admission for PCMB in National college Basavangudi and BMS college for Women. I opted for National. I realized that my school friends Vasu, Pari and Uma had got admitted to BMS college. I was really disappointed that I couldn't be with them. Now I had to not only get accustomed to a new environment but also make new friends :(Chickoohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14130875129454523527noreply@blogger.com5