Our Christmas day!

This is what happened on our loverrrly Christmas day!
On Monday morning we worshipped at St.Marks Cathedral, loved the music, the message, everything.
Only, I was all excited about dressing up in my favorite green sari but you know with a toddler at hand things never go as planned. Ended up wearing a non-descript black shirt and a pair of striped cream trousers, which kinda gave me a very inappropriate feeling, especially after seeing the women dressed in shoulder less embroidered blouses and saris. But my hubby swore that I looked nice! Well all this is besides the point...
My mom and sister joined us for a nice simple lunch which was grilled chicken, biryani, fried fish, cabbage/capsicum salad, cucumber salad and fresh fruit and cream for dessert. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing all the food vanish from the table in a jiffy.
I'm not sure when I fell asleep on the couch but Lisa was extremely sweet and let me sleep, I'm not sure when was the last time I did that.
Lazed around, spent some time with my mom and sister, she wanted her face to be "done up" and gosh, was she a changed lady! We (MIL and I- it didnt take much to convince her that she's not going to get drunk) then had the perfect Margarita that my husband made, had dinner and crashed for the night. Lovely!

I'm back!

Slowly but surely I'm rebuilding my blog and I must say that beta blogger is not all that bad!Apparently it's not a beta version any more! So maybe in a way, it was a good thing that I lost all the links....now it's more organised.
Well, so what else is happening? Lisa is enjoying her Christmas holidays, I'm swamped with last minute cramming at work (which is always the case isn't it?), my sister busy with wedding shopping, and last but not the least Christmas is round the corner.
Something unrelated, I've been wanting to write down a list of funny words that Lisa uses and didn't want to miss out on noting it down, though I must admit this is not the best place to jot it down! Here goes:
Gollala- gorilla
tasas- cycle (its getting better these days)
fofa- sofa
mosico- mosquito
tose- close
tamala- tamara
Not, fair- I can't seem to remember all of it. Well I'm coming back to this list when I do remember.
Ok so here are some more:
nana- another
bitit- biscuit
pickle- eutychus (don't even ask me what the corelation is)

The Christmas Season

Commercial street is all dressed up, ready for Christmas and it's quite amazing how things have changed over the years. A couple of years ago, it was really difficult to get decorations, wreaths, mangers and so on, but now, it's available everywhere. Lovely....
We were on our feet for close to 4 hours on Saturday, shopping for our family. At the end of it all, I just wanted to something to drink and rest my aching feet.
Although I got a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, I've got some more shopping to do!!! It's going to be a very busy week!
I got a lovely Christmassy runner for our dining table and a few more embellishments for the wreath. We decided against the Christmas tree because we are still wondering where we're going to keep it, if we do buy a bigger one. For now, our miniature one will suffice. Meanwhile, Lisa is all pleased with the lights, wants it on all the time.
We also went for the Carol service in St.Marks Cathedral on Sunday evening. So, although Saturday was really hectic, Sunday was nice.

Talking about Christmas trees, here are some details of how a Canadian judge has ordered the removal of a Christmas tree from a Toronto courthouse lobby, saying it might offend non-Christians!!!! Methinks he lost sleep, pressured by the religious fanatics!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/canada_justice_christmas

I'm not going to talk about my fonts and lost settings, because I'll go crazy if I start. Geez, I can't even create hyperlinks!

Whats happening ???

This is really strange, I just wrote half a page of stuff, published it and there's absolutely nothing! Whats wrong with this beta version? I'm quite irked that I cannot even change the fonts!

Update!!!

So now, I did something to my blog and guess what??? I lost all my links on the side bar, the guest maps, the cluster maps, every single thing!!!!! Beta blog are you hearing me?????
Oh this is not a good day!

Quagmire!

Well, once again I have managed to stick my head into loads of work! What kind of work? You might assume that its possibly work at the office, considering that this is where I am right now. Nope- I'm at the office, it's 4pm and the whole day I've just about managed to make ONE presentation on the IET conference that I went to last week. What was I doing- realised that my credit card payments are overdue by 2 days, my insurance payment is almost due, paper work, seals, attestations, mails etc etc and etc. I have no idea what I have been doing since morning!!Maybe I'll feel better if I write down what I have achieved!!!!
Coming back to the IET conference that I went to(http://conferences.theiet.org/itic/india06/programme.htm) I must say I was honored to be amidst the creme de la creme of the IT world. There were maybe around 100 delegates with speakers coming from all over the world and it was a real pleasure listening to them speak. COO of Microsoft, Founder of Infosys, Chairman of HP, Head of BT- this was an oportunity of a lifetime!!!
What else have I been doing- I'm not sure actually.......the only thing I know is that I don't really have a minute to myself, maybe blogging lets me be...

Yikes, whats happened to the fonts????

Catch my Fancy!

Today was a very special day for Lisa and also for us. Her school organised a "Fancy Dress" parade for all the children, for Lisa, it was her first!.
That's her dressed as a yellow butterfly, and yes, she's on the ramp! I actually thought she wouldn't really like those wings tied to her shoulders but on the contrary, she loved it... Very very cute. Tamara was the Hawaiian girl, Sarah the angel, Sugandh the temple priest, Mrinal the king, Diya the newspaper, Nivedha the swan... I can't seem to remember all of them but it was fun and I'm glad we went. Let me climb on the soap box and say that I created those neat wings :). Vinod and his mom were there too. I'll post better pictures next week, this was the one sent by a friend.

Well, finally uploaded those pictures onto Photobucket. Here is one I love!

It's Thanksgiving!

The word Thanksgiving is everywhere! We don't really celebrate it here in India, well, because it's more of an American thing. But it did make me wonder about the "Real Significance of Thanksgiving".

Sure its about pecan and pumpkin pies, turkey, cranberry sauce and holidays but what more? Simply put, it is a day when everybody thanks God for what we have- Thanksgiving!

A lot of churches in India, celebrate something called "Harvest Festival". I remember my grandmom telling me how they actually celebrated it in Kerala. My grandparents stayed in a rubber plantation and the estate also had an orchard, a vegetable garden, and a whole lot of animals- cows, goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats.....Every year, they would collect the produce from the estate and this could be eggs, fruit jams, pickles, fruits (jackfruit, papaya, sapota..), tapioca and a zillion other things and hand it all over to the church. On the "Harvest Festival" day, the church organises an auction of all the things "gifted" by the people in the area. It is also an opportunity for the church to generate funds, for the poor. At the end of the auction, there is usually a lunch organised and the whole community eats together! Fascinating isn't it.

However, these days, things have changed quite a bit in the cities. People do not bring their harvest, (for obvious reasons), instead "gift" stuff like clothes, paintings, food, anything and everything, to the church. A bottle of jam (straight out of the shelf in a supermarket), sometimes fetches thousands of rupees. Lordie, lord, it takes something to eat such an expensive jam!

So maybe, it's not entirely right to say we don't have Thanksgiving out here, it's just that it is celebrated in a different way, at a different time of the year!

Other news:

Iceberg spotting in NewZealand

Name the new 7 world wonders Contest

Snake bursts after gobbling gator ------- Gruesome!!!

How damaged eggs are weeded out.........Interesting!

Only 50 years left!

I just came across an article in BBC that says that there will virtually no fish in the seas by 2050! We have guys Only 50 crazy years left!

I guess sea food will be bourgeois food very soon! What a pity!

Read also "Planet under Pressure" to give you an idea about what's happening to planet Earth!

Food mania!

Food and cooking has always fascinated me, sometimes, I think it's unfortunate!
Who doesn't love pork spare ribs, beef steaks, fries, kerala paratas, fried fish, samosas, pasta, the list is un ending. Sadly, a lot of the foods that are really tasty are the ones that are really unhealthy, the world however, is becoming increasingly conscious about what they eat. Fat free, cholesterol free, sugar free, caffeine free, MSG free........Having said all that, I have always felt that Indian cuisine is the healthiest! Yes, the cooking is cumbersome, and time consuming but what could be more healthier than roti, dal and sabzi? For those of you who don't understand, roti is a kind of flattened bread made of whole wheat flour, dal is lentil and sabzi is nothing but a dish made out of any kind of vegetable! However, the calorific value does look scary when the frills are incorporated to the meal. Let's say you add a piece of deep fried chicken, or panneer (cottage cheese) curry or malai (cream) muttar (peas).......
Well, I think I'm deviating a bit here because I started out intending to post about the most tasty and sinful foods of the world (not really bothering about how it affects the waistline), maybe because although it's an over indulgent thought, I must admit, it's scary.
Instead check out : "10 Foods you should never eat" and "10 Super Foods for better health".
And for those who love egg: "An egg a day is OK"!!!!!
For the icing on the cake: "KFC's new face seen from space" - how bizarre!

The Little Angel

Kenadie Jourdin-Bromley is a little girl who has a rare form of dwarfism called primordial dwarfism, a condition that affects only around 100 people in the world. Amazing isn't she?
Subsequently, I happened to read about an amazing organisation called the "Little People of America" which is a nonprofit organization that provides support and information to people of short stature and their families.

The Lost Girl

I found this article in my inbox this morning: "Help Pooja Find Her Parents!". I'm not sure about the authenticity of the whole thing and hate spreading scams but I don't see anything about it being a hoax anywhere on the web, so I guess this is the least I can do. It's really sad isn't it, how children just get dragged into the quagmire of the beggar community? I see it every single day on M.G.Road, women dressed very shabbily (for obvious reasons), dirty, with truck loads of tears streaming down their faces, carrying children (sometimes babies),begging in the hot sun.
These are the heartless women of Bangalore city. I know for a fact that the children are not theirs, apparently, they "hire" the children for a day or couple of days and use them as their excuse to beg! Most of these children are drugged to sleep.
When these women approach my car, asking for money, the only thing I want to do is report them to the police but you know I don't do it because the police don't do ANYTHING about it. The government seems to be least bothered, I won't be surprised if they are bribed too.
Innocent, babies who know nothing about the world they live in, treated like rag dolls....

Not my Job!

This will never get you anywhere, will it? But sometimes, I guess we all have to learn to say "Nope, not my job :)"!

Children's Day!

Today, the 14th of November is celebrated as Children's Day in India. It's interesting that the Universal Children's Day is actually on 20th of November, so why do we celebrate it on the 14th? Read on..."The story behind Children's Day".

Today is also another special day, Lisa was baptised exactly 2 years ago on this day in Saint Marks Cathedral. This picture was taken back then! Shes clueless isn't she?

While driving to work today, passing by the school where I studied, I saw a signboard that said "No parking till 3.30pm" and as strange as this might sound, it stirred up myriads of emotions within me. My school timings were from 8.30am to 3.30pm and I must say that I am who I am today because of what I learnt in FAPS. It doesn't sound real but its a fact. The teachers, the book seller (I saw him this morning, he's really old now) in Cambridge Book house, the ayahs, the Principal, the Headmistress, they all had some role to play. I remember walking into Cambridge Book House, (possibly when I was around 6 or 7) and asking, "I want a map, Uncle" not realising who was standing right next to me. Mrs X (I don't remember her name although she was a dear old petite teacher) looked at me and said "Don't you know when to use the word "Please" ?". I was ashamed of myself and it was almost like a slap on the face but yes, that taught me, never ever to let my guard down when it came to manners and politeness. The book seller deserved to be talked to with respect, didn't he, like any one of us? Our Headmistress, taught me how to sew and embroider when I was really little and I cannot thank her enough. Mr. Browne and Mr. Boye were my Math teachers, we were all terrified of them but I loved the subject in school and even in college and I owe it all to these wonderful teachers. Mr. Browne is now the Principal of FAPS, Bangalore and Mr.Boye the Principal of FAPS, Calcutta!

Looking back, I wonder if I would be able to expose Lisa to all that I learnt when I was growing up, probably not. I walked to school, with a bunch of my friends and I simply loved it. I was barely 7 and was occasionally scared of getting lost but that made me braver and stronger. Now, we don't have safe roads anymore, it's too dangerous to let children walk to school. The atmosphere is not fresh anymore, polluted and congested! We don't find too many Jacaranda, Gulmohur or Rain trees anymore! None of the kids play hide and seek, or fly kites, or play with marbles, or say stories to each other. And who's to blame? Are we really leaving anything behind for them?

All about Lisa

Lisa is slowly but surely getting into the playschool groove and I'm just simply thrilled. When I accompanied her to school, the first week, she was excited and all enthusiastic. I guess it was a change from her routine, lots of kids, lots to do, different food, different furniture, toys, and plenty of unrestricted activities.
It was then time to handle it all herself and that's when it broke my heart to see her screaming when I drop her off at school. The lovely teachers ensured me that it lasts only for a couple of minutes. Yesterday, she agreed to wear her little yellow bag on her shoulders and walk into school without crying, today, she had a smile on her face. I am a proud mom.
As parents, we have been told about the various activities the school has been planning. We already had a talk on "How to prepare your child for big school" a couple of weeks ago. Mrs. Angela Roye, has had over a decade of experience and it really shows. In a few weeks, we'll have a fancy dress event, not a competition, just an event. I already have her costume ready- she's going to be a butterfly :). So yes, raising a child is a lot of work and patience but I'm enjoying every bit of it.
It also turns out that Mrs. Roye is the mother of Suhneel Roye, who was my classmate in FAPS. It sure is a small world.

Road of Death

I received these pictures by email, and apparently the road is called Stremnaya Road, Bolivia. But I've been reading about it and there seems to be some confusion as to where exactly it is. Where ever it is, it sure is scary. Would I drive on these roads? Probably not!

The complex word

"Relationship" is a very complex word and our world revolves around this very powerful word. It could be the relationship we have with our friends, parents, partners, children or even God. If it weren't for relationships, we wouldn't exist.
This is something I've never pondered over as a child or even as a teenager who didn't have a care in the world. Being a daughter, sister, mother and a wife made me look at things with a whole new perspective simply because it's not the easiest thing.
A friend of mine mentioned about an article called "The Power of Ten" she read in a magazine. It basically talks about how you should evaluate your relationship (that could be with your parents, friends- anybody) on a ten minute, ten day, ten year basis. Look ahead and see how different your life would be in ten years without that relationship that matters to you as against ten minutes and ten days.
And come to think of it, it is a powerful thought. There are lots of people in my life and each one of them has something to do with the kind of person I am. And a few of them, matter to me so much, I would be proud of myself if I could not only sustain but nurture the relationship I have with them for the next ten years or even forever. On the other hand there are a few people I'd be happy to get rid off for 10 minutes, (for instance, the loud mouthed colleague at work) but in 10 years...?
Here's a good article I came across: "10 Minute Relationship Rituals".

Hip hip hurrah!

HURRAY! We are done with the puzzle!!! I actually found the picture of the puzzle on the web here it is : "Our Clementoni Puzzle". We sat up till 10.45pm on Tuesday night, determined to finish it and we hadn't even had dinner! Well, yes, we are completely insane, however, we are planning on framing "our" piece of art in a gold frame with extra embellishments and the works. Pat on our backs!
For everything else that's happening:
We were returning home at around 11 pm last night and were able to catch half an hour of fireworks at Chinnaswami stadium, where the celebrations of "Suvarna Karnataka" (marking the 50th year of the integration of Karnataka) was just wrapping up. I must say, I've never ever been that close to fireworks and it was simply amazing. The whole of MG Road was lit up and Lisa just loved it, yes it was extremely late for her but I'm glad she got to seeing it.
On the other hand, yes it was wonderful but the government actually spent a whopping 10 crore on the celebrations and I personally think it was a super waste considering that we are not exactly a country where we could just splurge on stuff that does not really matter to the deprived.

Jig Zone

I don't know if I mentioned that we bought a jig-saw puzzle a couple of weeks ago. It is a Clementino 1000 piece puzzle of the picture of the "Baptism of Christ". I never thought we would finish it but, strangely, we are at it and it seems that in less than a week it should be done. Hurray!!
I wish I had a link to the picture, but since I don't, let me see if I can upload the picture. Most would never think of putting up a picture of the Baptism of Christ in a living room or any other room in the house but this one is a replica of an amazing painting somewhere in the Vatican. It has very subtle colours and the painting says a story, very very interesting.
Apparently, eons ago, pictures stuck to wooden boards were cut into several pieces using a jigsaw and hence name "jigsaw puzzle".

For those of you who don't really want to buy one, check out "JigZone". Warning: Very addictive!

Coming to the Baptism of Christ, I'm ashamed to say that I never knew the relevance of the dove above the head of Christ in most paintings. For more on that read "The Baptism of Christ". The painting you see on that page (which is not the one on my puzzle) was actually painted by Andrea del Verrochio who was actually Leonardo Da Vinci's teacher. Da Vinci painted the angels on the left hand side of the painting and also touched up Christ's body and apparently, Verrochio was so ashamed that his student knew so much more than him about colours that he gave up painting for good!

What would I be?

The world has produced thousands and thousands of fascinating writers, all with unique identities and personalities. Writing has always intrigued me and I guess if I were not an engineer I would be a writer....People who know me will probably say that painting would've been my alternate career, yes I love to paint but I think I would probably enjoy writing a lot more. And why don't I do it, blame it on the one thing that definitely rules my life- TIME. Ahh, well blah- all excuses!! I never have enough time do I ? Maybe I should write a book on Time? :0

Read this: "The Rose and Thorn".

It's easier, isn't it, for celebrities to publish their own book?? Even if Victoria Beckham came up with a silly book called "Victoria's Wardrobe", it would become a bestseller! Well, maybe I shouldn't really dismiss her considering that she did well for herself in the glam biz :)
Oh I'm rambling aren't I?
A silly picture that came my way ! Hurray to NASA for getting all those sponsorships!

Perceptions

Just noticed a lot of alignment issues with my previous post, hopefully it's sorted out now.
Well, we had a 4 day extended weekend and were hoping to visit Yercaud but unfortunately that didn't happen but I'm glad we stayed with the family since they probably needed us around....
So what else is happening in the world- honestly I don't know.... 4 days of ignorance and it was good. Well, I'm back to work today and it seems a little strange but it's the only thing that slows me down :)
This was a week of festivals, Diwali for the Hindus and Ramzan for the Muslims and I being Indian, the biggest advantage is that we get to witnessing how people of different religions and cultural backgrounds simply coexist. This was an interesting picture that was doing the rounds via email, a few days ago. It's funny how people in the advertising business just manage to concoct stuff out of nothing.... :)

Sometimes the simple pleasures in life are what we miss out on and I realised that more than ever yesterday. We took Lisa to the park and she loved it, not that there was anything exciting out there, just that she loved to run behind the squirrels, explore everything around her, the grass, mud, trees, breeze, flowers, people ......Children perceive things in very unique ways, nothing is mundane!
Talking about perceptions, check this out:






















Mind boggling isn't it??? Now, read this : "Are We Alone?"

5 places on Earth

Okkk, so here is a list of 5 places on earth, I surely want to visit before I kick the bucket! In no particular order:
1. Great Wall of China
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Yosemite National Park, USA
4. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
5. Pyramids, Eqypt

A couple of years ago, The Taj Mahal was on my list, I finally got to seeing it and I must say, it is just worth it. I can't say too much about Agra but the Taj by itself is an experience!









Yosemite, USA
Tanzania, Africa











Vienna, Austria

















Great Barrier Reef, Australia


Pyramids, Eqypt

Great Wall of China

Giant Step

Again, it has been several months since I blogged and I think I've realised that I remember my blog when I really need to let out all those bottled up emotions, good and bad.
We've had bad news in the last couple of weeks- Vinod's cousin sisters husband went missing when his ship, the Giant Step ran aground off the coast of Japan. This article was printed in the local newspapers a week later:
"Missing Sailor's body found"
However, the investigation is ongoing and they are yet to confirm his identity. Another blogger, who stays in Japan, wrote: "Pacific Islander says" (scroll down to the post on 8th Oct, 2006).
We are all deeply saddened by the news and I guess everyone is going to question these inexplicable and unpredictable events that take place in our lives for a very long time to come.

What's happening?

It's been a while hasn't it. Blame it on blogs being blocked by SmartFilter, on being inundated in work or just plain lazy. But yes, I miss writing!
Just what has happened in the last couple of months? Strangely I can't remember, maybe only trivia that Brazil didn't make it to the finals, Zidane artistically head-butted Materazzi, Rahul Mahajan almost died and more recently Mumbai was the target of some crazy whimsical terrorists! Sometimes one wonders if there is an end to all this madness, do we really know why we are in this world and realise that a couple of decades later we might just have to relocate to another world! Maybe not!

On a totally unrelated note: My daughter has grown into this lovely human being already, shes now more of my companion than anything else. She's all of 22 months but when I look at her, I just say "Wow"!

Whats coming up: I have this silly t-shirt designing competition coming up on the 19th and I want to go for it, just simply because I can do something different.

Today, I start my fitness regime, that I've been swearing to do ever since I got back to work, from being a full time mom for 3 months. Wish me luck guys!

A full circle

Sometimes one wonders what life is all about! It goes a full circle, doesn't it? Innocent babies, rebellious teenagers, passionate lovers, wise grandparents and then back to square one- cranky, toothless baby, needing all the attention in the world.
At the end of it all I know I'm going to wonder if I gave it my best and I already know that I'm going to say "I could've done things differently". No, I didn't have to spend sleepless nights in a bitterly cold and unfriendly datacenter trying to get servers up, or spend 18 hours at work, or rant over the fact that there's always so much to do, or worry that my baby won't eat, or worry about really non-existent problems! Our lives are so transient, we are here for a short time and yet we constantly worry and dispair! Why?

But then again, isn't this what life is about, if it were that simple and uncomplicated, nobody would have anything to talk about.... we would cease to be human!!!

We are all here for a purpose, thats for sure!

Geneology

I just realised I haven't posted in 2 weeks! Whats keeping me busy? Well, work to start out with, then offcourse when I have time for a breather I work on the Family tree webpage. Hopefully in a years time I should have a Geneology report of our family. Our families are so huge, its totally unbelievable. Apparently my Father had 85 first cousins!!!! and Ive just managed to trace a handful. Hard work always pays off doesn't it.

Tiny update

Coughs, colds, flu's- to think that the world hasn't discovered a remedy for it yet!!! I had the worst ever cough which I passed on to my dear daughter. The poor thing hasn't eaten for two days and I feel so helpless. Hopefully she'll be able to regain her health in a couple of weeks.
What else happened during the weekend- mom came over with some delicious roast prawn, Matthew and Priya also came over to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday and I got a new Hidesign bag!

The laughing brats

I was down with some kind of bug last evening. Threw up like 10000 times and still didn't feel better. Had to stop my car half way on my way back home and threw up, while a couple of, possibly 10 year old brats stood closeby having a good laugh! How sadistic can they get? Anyways, I guess at that age nothing matters. Weekend is here! Phew!

Colleagues and partners in crime

So, I haven't posted in a while! Owe that to the endless meetings and parties we've been having at the office. On the first of March our department was formed, 2 years ago and the ladies (the men were un enthusiastic about the whole thing) decided that it was time for some fun and games. The end result- everybody got a much needed break from work. That's the picture of the entire team.

What else happened- Lisa got her 18th month checkup and shots on Saturday and the poor girl was down with high fever and a very very sore thigh. She couldn't even walk around. It was mom's 55th birthday on the 5th of March (she shares the b'day with Jessu and David) but we just visited her and didn't do anything much since Lisa was not feeling too good.

I've started a new project of creating a family tree using Tribal Pages and hopefully with the cooperation of everybody I know, we should be able to get it up. I'm definitely going to create a family tree book, how and when I'm not sure but it will be done. It might take a long time, simply because both Vinod and I have huge families and to set it up takes time.

Sushi platter

Check this out! http://www.nriinternet.com/Section1/11Columnists%20and%20Writers/E_Q/Kaavya_Viswanathan/index.htm . A 17 year old Indian-American writer from Harvard who won a $500,000 contract for her book! Simply amazing. I think I'm going to think of a career alternative.

Well, today is apparently ethnic day in our office and everybody is expected to be dressed in their ethnic garbs. So here I am sitting pretty dressed in a nice maroon sari. There's no way in hell I'm going to crawl under that table to fix a modem in the test bed. That would be disastrous! I should be able to post some pictures soon.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of Nami (who's Vinods cousin in New Jersey). Just look at her platter! Doesn't that look scrumptious! Why don't we get these extra indulgent helpings out here?

My weekend

What a weekend! We were invited to Milind's birthday party on Saturday and after a grand meal of fish pie, beef cutlets, peas pulao, fresh salad, mutton curry (tons of other stuff) and delicious dessert, we hit the sack, stuffed at midnight. Lisa was a darling through out.
I managed to read Chetan Bhagats "Five point someone" which I must admit is written in a very fun sort of a way, sans all those overtly elaborate words found in Arundhati Roy books! It was a welcome change and a quick read. By the time I was done with the book, Matts and Priya landed with a bottle of Grovers red wine. We debated over how our lives and the lives of our friends have changed over the years and after some loaded conversation we headed off to KFC in ITPL. Avian flu, yeah right!

Avian flu

Avian flu in India! Wonderful!
Apparently 8 lakh chickens were culled a few days ago in Maharashtra. Many more to go. What a waste! Methinks that bird flu has been in India for a while now, but has gone undetected. How else would one explain what the authorities were doing, when thousands of chickens were dying of the H5N1, at such an appalling rate? But like I've always believed, anything cooked the Indian way can never be harmful (well almost.. :)).

I almost forgot about Dr.Don's engagement to Sonja on the 25th! He gets married sometime in April this year. So that leaves only Thoma, Sachin and Vaidyan who are yet to join the league of married men and women.

Unwind time??

Weekends are supposed to be the "unwind time" isn't it? Not for me atleast. How do I get pulled into the quagmire of work? Here goes- I noticed that a wall in Lisa's room was a little dirty. Well, I started cleaning it and while pulling the bed to one side, noticed that there was a lot of dust accumulated, then I noticed that there was dust under the table too. Slowly but surely I ended up cleaning and dusting the whole house! Isn't there any end to the amount of cleaning one has to do? The fish bowl had to be cleaned, the pots had to be painted, etc. etc. etc plus I had to spend some quality time with Lisa.

Vinod managed to get the other Vinod to put my painting up in our dining area and I must say it looks cool. Like Reema put it "It doesn't look like unprofessional work". What?? Did she think I was unprofessional all along :)
And it was also the weekend when Lisa stepped into the pool for the very first time. She's growing up so fast, that I'm beginning to miss my little baby but again, it's such a pleasure seeing her learn new stuff everyday!

My sweet Valentine

Vinod did the sweetest thing for Valentines. This time around I wasn't too keen on doing anything much but then sometime in the middle of the night, when I was asleep, he pushed a box of Cookie Man onto my side. So there we were munching cookies at midnight. The story doesn't end there. I found a nicely wrapped red box on my bed when I woke up in the morning. It had the most amazing Lush body cream made of cocoa butter (and all kinds of exotic stuff) and a bar of "Sea Vegetable" soap made of Sea weed and Atlantic sea salts. So needless to say, I feel like the Queen of Sheba.

That's Erika on the right. She's Genevieve's daughter who is the same age as Lisa. Check out her sleeping position. By morning she would've checked out every corner of her crib. Adorable!

What not to do?

If ever you decide to watch a movie, don't ever think about "The Matador". Definitely not one of those debonair roles that Pierce Brosnan is so cut out for, not his milieu for sure!
Lisa on the other hand was having a wonderful time with Priya's piano. It sounded like somebody was walking over the keyboard. She also managed to dig Leah (the other kid who visited Priya and Matts) nose. :)

Cuckoo

Lisa started the "cuckoo game" with her Dada, probably at the age of one and it's still her favorite. It amazes me how kids can do the same thing OVER and OVER again and not get bored. It defies logic but then again, thats what makes them so adorable. Look at her! Aint she cute!

I've been wanting to watch Rang De Basanti ever since it was released and especially after all the rave reviews I've been hearing on Radio City. Hope it's not one of those overly hyped Hindi movies. I sure was disappointed with Black. What was with that Rani Mukherji's duck walking?? Not to mention the rather long, dramatic and filmy speech at the end of the movie, that was almost like an ugly icing on a fairly well made cake!! "If you quack like a duck and walk like a duck, you ARE probably a duck". Ahh, well, that's not fair is it, considering she's done a better job than the rest of the riff-raff. Kareena did you say!

The one thing that's happening with zeal out here is recruitment. It's the buzz word. Get people, anybody you know. BUT (a big one), where are they going to seat all these people. We already have 2 new colleagues who have no place to sit, except perhaps in the cafetaria. Or maybe the innovative double parking will do the trick! Talking of parking- I had to park on Brunton Road (I promise, I'm never going to utter this word again) and thought I did a fairly good job of neatly tucking my car in a safe corner. Happy indeed, until I opened the car door and realised that this was an erstwhile dumpyard, well atleast it smelt like one. Bleh! Lets not get into the details of what followed.

The lucky American women!

Oprah's favorite quote "If you are an American woman, you are already lucky". Well I disagree. Why? Simply because being the mother of a bubbly 17 month old fire-cracker, I can't imagine how it would be manage everything else on my own. Feeding, bathing, playing, changing endless numbers of nappies, ensuring that she's not putting her leg, head or hand in some God forbidden place, fitting in quality time, piggy back rides- the list goes on and on, there is NO rest for a mother! Parenting is THE single most gratifying job in the whole world but accept it, sometimes, just sometimes, you want to simply be able to sit down and rest your head against a soft pillow without a care in the world! I now have somebody to mop the house, a nanny(who is a God-send) to take care of Lisa and a cook to take care of the cumbersome Indian cooking. And what do I do? Well, I get back home, spend 2 or 3 hours (which is all I get) with my lovely daughter before she gets to bed. Then offcourse, there are endless odd jobs to do- laundry, dust the shelves/house, keep a track of Lisa's "outgrown clothes", grocery shopping, fret about the fused bulb (in the bathrooms) or the unkept kitchen shelves etc etc etc (why am I even rambling about this)!! So now you know ladies why I say "If you are an Indian woman, you are probably the luckiest". And if you don't fall into this category, take my advise and get the help, atleast till it lasts!
I started the day pretty bad, simply because I refused to wake up on time. End result- No parking space on MG Road at 9am and close to no parking on Brunton Road. I had almost given up after driving to the end of Brunton road, but lo and behold, there was just ONE spot reserved for me! So although, I was exasperated at the lack of parking space, I did find one. The day could've been worse, right? What else did I do- helped my friend buy a lovely dress for her friends 10 month old daughter and also realised that the lingerie section in Central has been "phased out". "Phased out" ! What is that supposed to mean? The Bangalore woman no long cares for the ridiculously expensive sheer lingerie line? Or does the recent survey (which my dear husband announced to me) in UK about the priorities of women hold good here too? Mobile phones to men!

Multitask

I think there's too many things happening in parallel. Writing 3 manuals, testing 2 products and planning for the testing of another, all at the same time.
My mind is cluttered right now and I guess I don't need more work (for instance creating a new blog) right now but I think it really helps to switch OFF once in a while. IT WORKS!
I cleared up my work space last evening and right now I'm working in a paperless mode! How cool is that? Clutter free work space= clutter free mind. Next on the agenda- reorganising my wardrobe!
Lisa's news
She scraped her knees for the very first time in 17 months and the first thing that came to my mind was "The kids growing!".
She eats pretty well these days, except sometimes when nothing interests her. I was quite surprised to see her eating all that lettuce on Sunday! 3 cheers !

My family

This is my family and my world! My husband Vinod and my adorable 17 month old daughter Lisa Anna Thomas.
This was taken a little after her first birthday at Matthew and Priyas place.

Welcome to me!

Here's the newest blogger in town!
I don't even know if this is going to work, because I think its going to be firewalled by the bloghaters in my company. But here it is anyways!

Welcome to me!