Our Plane ride

We went on a vacation recently to Boston,CT,NY. Our biggest fear was the plane ride with a toddler. Our little one doesn't like to stay put in one place . So we were a little worried on how we were going to manage in the plane. On top of that he had an ear infection whose effects are said to be accentuated by air pressure in the plane. So we prepared ourselves by googling about it and getting everything possible to calm him in he plane. We filled our carry on bags with candies,suckers,cookies - everything sweet you can imagine. We also took a portable DVD player to keep him occupied.
As soon as the we boarded the plane, the most unexpected thing happened. Our first one started crying out of fear. Only then we realized that we totally did not plan for the first one. Even though our first one is only 4 ,we treat him like an adult after the second one is born.We expect him to behave fine and dandy every time, not realizing that he is still just 4. I guess this happens in ever house. Somehow we survived the plane ride with minimal incidents.

Likes and Dislikes

It's amazing how kids develop their sense of personal taste at a very young age. My younger one rides with me to his day care everyday. I have a bunch of cd's I play over and over. My little one is very specific about what songs he wants in each and every CD. If I happen to put a song he doesn't like, he just screams. In fact looking back, My first one also used to be the same way. Amazing how they develop their own likings at such an young age.

Learning the Words

Our kids have been busy lately 'Learning the Words'. The younger one is learning to speak while the older one is learning to read.

For a while now we have been guessing and second guessing what our little one is saying to us. He literally lets out various sounds thru' his mouth and gets very frustrated if we don't understand it. He sometimes gets over it by pointing at objects that he wants. But other times he is just frustrated and starts crying. But lately he is catching up and has begun to talk words that make sense to him and us. Even though we are going to miss his 'baby talks', I am sure the baby will be in much better mood once he starts conveying his wishes. No wonder they call it 'Terrible Two'.

It's been a different kind of challenge with the older one. I sit with him and teach him words. For the initial few days, he was frustrated that he cannot read. He kept saying 'Daddy, This is very hard'. Also I used to get frustrated that, inspite of all the efforts, he is still not able to read. Then suddenly one day he just started realizing how to read. I don't know what happened in his brain the previous night. But all of a sudden the next day he got it. He was very happy when that happened and so was I. Now he is slowly beginning to read short stories and he is enjoying it.

So the last few months have sure been very challenging for our family.

Contrasting personalities

When we initially conceived our second baby, one of the first things that came to my mind was 'We already have one and we have gone through many ups and downs with the first one. Now that we have learnt our lessons , How hard can the second one be?'. I am a programmer by profession. That's probably why I must have thought like that.
But Oh boy! We just can't believe how different our second one is from the first one. Granted they look similar. But they are 2 different personalities. Life always seems to present us with challenges all the time. But we are thoroughly enjoying it.

Enforcing ratings on TV

I read an article about a 9 year old boy in India dying after trying to imitate a stunt performed in one of India’s reality TV show. This is one thing that has always bothered me. I have subscribed to an Indian channel here in US and you can be assured that there will always be some R Rated gory scenes telecast by this channel without any inhibitions. So I always change the channel when such scenes come by and when my 4 year old is watching TV with me. This is true even when I watch News on TV. They show violence without any kind of censor even during daily news. This never happens on US public channels. Of course there are specific ‘Rated’ channels. But you can never expect to see such things on public television. I wish such things are enforced even in India.It would prevent these kind of incidents.

Apart from this Parents too hold the responsibility to steer kids away from watching such things. Media alone cannot be blamed for this kind of incidents.

What do you think?

Who was that guy?

Yesterday while I was strolling in the mall with my family, I saw a guy but I just could not remember who he was. I was thinking long and hard for a long time but just gave up after sometime. Then suddenly when I woke up today morning, I remembered who he was. It was as if my brain was processing the request in the background through out yesterday night and found the answer and gave it to me today morning. Amazing how our brain works.

Sweetie, This is your first time!

I overheard this conversation while I was having lunch with my son in Ihop. A young waitress was describing about her wedding preparations to an old couple. She was describing how stressful the whole process is and how much time it’s taking out of her day. The couple who was listening to all of this quickly remarked ‘Sweetie, This is your first. The first one is always stressful’. To that the waitress replied ‘Yeah. I know. That’s what I have heard.’
How long is that marriage going to last????

This is not the first time I am hearing the exact same conversation. A Real culture Shock!

Aliens and Monsters

My 4 year old, like any other kid, is afraid of the dark. He always thinks that there is a monster somewhere in the dark waiting to attack him. So I have told him many times not to be afraid of Monsters and aliens because they are not real. Yesterday he told me a theory on why he is not going to be afraid of Monsters and Aliens anymore.

Varun: Daddy I am not scared of aliens and monsters anymore. You know why? Monsters are not real. They are only on TV. I am also not scared of aliens because they live outside the earth. But all the dead people who live outside the earth will fight and kill all the aliens. So I am not going to be scared of Aliens anymore.

I thought about it and laughed for quite a while. Pretty interesting theory. Then I gave a little dad’s talk explaining stuff to him. But I am not sure whether he got it or not. Anyway it was an interesting incident.

The City Commissioner cut my hair!

The man who cut my hair today is the commissioner of city I work in. This man owns the salon and cuts hair apart from his responsibilities as commissioner of the city. Can that ever happen in India I wonder? We look down on some jobs and professions while we hold others in great esteem. I think this is one thing we should learn from the people here. No one job is better than the other as long as you enjoy what you are doing. That should be our bottom line. But our society is so ingrained with such divisive beliefs that it’s hard for us to look at things in a different perspective. But with time and effort, it should be possible.

Roku

One of my best buys for 2008 was definitely the 'Roku' Netflix player. Of course you need to have $8.99 Netflix subscriptions to thoroughly enjoy it. But the amount of movies in Netflix Instant is vast. So personally I feel that it's definitely worth it (especially if you are a big movie buff like me).

The best thing about it is the video quality. No one watching it on TV would doubt it is a Streaming device. Most times the clarity is close to HD. There are some movies available in HD too.

Recently it added 'Amazon on demand' service to it. That pretty much rules out me travelling to a video store again. On a click of a button I can get rent any new movie and watch it.

There is also news that just like Amazon, it's going to add 10 other channels by end of 2009 with YouTube confirmed to be one of them. That's really exciting and I am looking forward to all future improvements of Roku. Great thing about it is it just costs $99.

This post may appear like a commercial. It's not. I just wanted to share my opinion/review about my Roku box.

Reestablish

Another good thing that has happened in the last 6 months or so is that I have been able to reestablish my friendship with lots of them from my school, college, previous work etc. Thanks in part to all the major networking sites like facebook, orkut etc. Thanks in part to all my friends who took the effort to locate me. A big thanks to this blog and Google that helped most guys find me.

I sometimes used to wonder why I am writing this blog. Well this here is a good reason to do it. People who used to wonder about what kind of guy I am could get a sneak peek into my life and thoughts.

It really was great to talk with most of them over phone and reminisce about all the pleasant memories of my youth. Hopefully I keep in touch with them from now on.

ARR, Sachin and Dhoni

There are 3 guys who are very much an integral part of my emotions apart from my wife, kids and family - A.R.Rahman, Sachin and Dhoni. They influence my daily emotions in a great way. My wife knows this. Whenever I am grumpy, the first thing she asks these days is - 'Did we lose yesterday?’

I have been following A.R.R right from his 'Roja' days till now (Delhi 6). After listening to Delhi 6 , I am convinced that this man will keep me entertained till the end of my term/ his term. So when he won Oscar and GG, there are no words to describe my happiness. I am typing this listening to mellifluous voice of ARR in 'Rehna Tu'(Delhi 6).

Next is Sachin. The master scored 161* two days back. People talk about age in modern day cricket. Well guess what??
I still remember Sachin taking on Abdul Qadir in an exhibition game when he was 16. That's when I became interested in watching cricket and it hasn't waned till now. My family knows how my day will be when Sachin gets out in 99.

Dhoni is a relatively new comer to play into my emotions. But man, is he an example of grit and determination. You can be sure India will win as long as he is there. And sure enough they have been for quite some time now.

Since it's a personal blog of mine, I just felt this should be there. I am sure many fellow Indians can relate to this.

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

There are some people that work very less but make a big deal out the small work they have done. On the other hand there are people who work extremely hard but remain quiet and not show off.

Extremely hard working people somehow shine through and get rewarded most of the time. But what really bugs me is when these insincere people who don’t do much, but make a mountain out of a mole hill, also get recognized.

One lesson that such things teach us is the fact that there should be a good balance between working hard and at the same time making higher authorities aware that you are doing it. So there is nothing wrong in being a little bit of a boaster as long as you have the work to back it up.
Of course working hard will reap its own benefits. But doing both will reap such benefits a little quicker than the other way.

There may be times when the ‘other’ kind will go up faster than you. When that happens, I think it’s a sign that you are not under a good management. That'll be the time to seek the alternative, when possible, instead of being bogged down and depressed. It’s a big wide world out there. We should just move on.

What do you think?

Turmeric Milk

I am a big fan of drinking Hot Milk with a pinch of turmeric in it. More than the medicinal value, I like it for it's taste. FYI, Turmeric is said to have high anti inflammatory properties.

Do you know who else likes to mix turmeric with milk? Our little Master. I was pleasantly surprised to read this in NDTV.com.

Now I guess there is no reason for me to feel weird when I drink this.

Health is Wealth

Lately our family has been becoming health freaks. I think it's one of the side effects of having babies in our home.

It’s almost as if we are turning away a few decades of innovation in cooking and going back to old days, when people didn’t have all the variety and choices that we have today. Here are few examples of changes we have made to our lifestyle :

1. We try to eat organic sources of food as much as possible. In olden days, that was the only means – Organic. Now with mass production techniques in place, organic foods are luxury.

2. Multigrain whenever possible. We eat only brown rice.

3. We are actually thinking about throwing away our non stick cookware and switching to cast iron or copper cookware. There are lots of reports on the voodoos of using nonstick cookware.

4. We are trying to stay away from processed food – Trying to eat as much home cooked as possible.

I have even heard of instances where some babies are being brought up with only organic foods. With the incidence of diseases like diabetes, cancer etc. increasing at an alarming rate, I think these changes should help.

On the other hand there are skeptics that say ‘Life is too short to be spent worrying’. To them I say ‘health is wealth’.

Working in Phases

One thing I have observed about me over a long period of time is the fact that I work in phases. I seem to be too enthused about something during a certain period of time and then totally ignore it after that period of time. This has been true in almost everything in my life. I guess that's true with this blog too. I have ignored it for too long now and I think I should jump into the mix of things. I can give the usual excuses that most offer, that I have been very busy in my personal and work life. Even though there is some truth to it, I guess I could spend a few minutes every week on this blog. So I guess I am back again. Look for more of my ramblings in future.

More Fun ahead

It’s a real fun with 2 boys at home. There were lots of people scaring us before the birth of the second one about the amount of work involved, stress etc.

To be candid, our lives haven’t changed as much as people portrayed it would be. It is now more fun than it used to be. We are really enjoying every bit of our little one and the older one.

The first picture is my first kid Varun when he was 4 months old and second one is Naveen who is now 3 months old.

I am sure there is lot more fun ahead.

Happy 2008, New kid on the block

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2008!

On a side note - we became proud parents of a boy early December. So we now have 2 boys. With that we are planning to put an end to a flagrant display of our procreating prowess.


Happy Blogging!

Are only White people allowed?

I was waiting in a hospital waiting room yesterday and there was this African American kid waiting with his parents. His dad was an African American and his mom was white. His mom was pregnant and had come to visit the doctor. As her name was called, she walked in and his dad told the child ‘We are not allowed inside. Only mom should go’. After a little while another person who was waiting was called and both the parents went in. Incidentally they both happened to be white. This kid who was watching this immediately asked his dad ‘So only white people are allowed to go in?’ Everyone who heard this was shocked and I could see that the dad was very embarrassed.

How Sachin showed me a sign!

For those who weren’t following the India vs. Eng series, Sachin was unfairly given out when he was on 91 and as usual I was totally frustrated. I was so down for sometime that I couldn’t even eat my breakfast. Then as I was watching the match, I saw Sachin come out on the balcony with an ice cream in his hands with his usual smile looking totally unbothered. It was one of those moments. I immediately hurried for my breakfast feeling totally embarrased.