Nav's Corner

The early days

2009-11-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how soon you forget things .. The first time I saw and held my lil’ one is still fresh in my memory but everything else is a haze. Right, trying to remember now..the first memory apparently goes back to very long nights when we used to struggle to remain awake :D. During the first three months there was not a single hour on the clock that we didn’t see. Some days she would wake up at midnight, some days at 1pm some days at 2pm and so on. Getting to a routine was a far-cry. It took her the first few days to get adjusted to the light and all the surroundings which were obviously quite different when she was in the darkness of the womb. Meanwhile, friends and family poured in their wishes and enquiries in every possible mode. Some called, some sent messages over internet, some visited and some sent cards and gifts by snail mail. We had organised a small party on the 28^th day which went well in spite of my clumsiness and last minute preparation.

Soon my father had to go back to India as he had to attend his law classes and more importantly prepare for the elections. He was going to canvass from this party. He was quite sad to leave his new found love (that is of course LP) and it also meant he had to be away from my mother (this was a first in decades) . But he was also happy to get back to his routine and it was a bit suffocating to stay cooped up in the house because of the winter. After he left, my mother was around to help us for another two months. She would take care of the cooking, the housework and take turns on looking after the baby and we used to take care of the things she could not handle. Soon though, she had to leave too, mainly because of her job commitments. It was such a great help to have her around, but I hardly realised that until she left. It was quite difficult in the initial days after she left but we somehow started to manage things.

LP was very quiet in her initial days, she would just lie down and smile at us. People suggested to be careful as soon as she entered her 3^rd month, they said she could start rolling over anytime now. So, our cautions rose and we started putting pillows beside her every time she was on the family bed and kept a watchful eye on her almost all the time. She would lift her legs high up in the air and wiggle them but that’s about it. It was great fun to watch her, she was super-attracted to the lights, wherever we went she would choose a favourite light on the ceiling and kept staring at it. It was not just the lights but anything which came into focus for those lil’ eyes, she would stare at them for quite a long time.. It is amazing to see how the lil’ life starts to take in all the surroundings..

Autumn blues..

2009-10-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

I can see this beautiful tree through my bedroom window, don’t know which one it is but soon it’s going to succumb to nature. Already, there are more yellow leaves than the green ones. Soon all of them will be gone from my window-view and I will be staring at a skelton which was a plush green tree in summer. It is such an irony that people wear more clothes to protect themselves from winter while some of these trees become bare..

Few days ago, I saw a kid outside the Shrewsbury information centre having such great fun with the autumn leaves which fell to the ground. He was making the best of the crispy, rustly dryness of the leaves. How I wished to do the same..revoke the light-heartedness of my childhood.

Ah, it’s 4pm and seems like the golden rays of the sun put a new light to the tree’s yellow. It has a strange aura now, the kind which materialises just before sunset. It is telling me to mentally prepare for the season with shortened days & artificial lights. Here comes winter...

Our dream come true..

2009-10-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

We did the shopping, arranged tickets and visa for my parents, hired a cleaner to deep clean the house and hubby rolled his sleeves for some serious DIY job and re-did the family bathroom. I was off from my work end of November, my parents arrived on 3rd of December. I was very excited to see them, and really really wanted to show them around the town at least and introduce them to all the logistics around here. My due date was December 18th, but fate had something else in store. I went into labour on 7th morning, it could be because I was quite active around that time or because of the long ride to the airport. Am going to spare much of all the details here, keeping in mind the diverse readers here. Anyway, after a long labour, our little princess (going to call her LP on this blog) was born in the early hours of December 8th. The moment she was put in my arms, I forgot all the pain and trauma. Hubby was relieved, thrilled and speechless for more than a while. We both were exhausted and in a total awe with the tiny little bundle who was in fact a dream come true. We just kept telling ourselves that we are now the parents of this tiny bundle with those ten little toes and ten little fingers.. Hubby went away to convey the news to family and friends and I was just sore and sleepless. After he came back, we were shifted to the general ward and hubby went off home to get some sleep and bring back my parents with him during the visiting hours. I couldn’t get any shut-eye, and kept looking and feeling my darling over and over. There were other new moms in the ward and their babies kept crying often and on. My LP just slept and slept.. After what seemed like ages hubby and parents came to visit. Mom and Dad although jet-lagged were thrilled to see their first grand-child. After the first day, what seemed like a miracle slowly started becoming a reality. The fight to keep ourselves awake and feed her/change her became the sole motive in the lives of all four of us.

Pati, Patni and the desperate parents ???

2009-10-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

What kind of parents would want to see their babies in such torturous shows? Are they so desperate to get their children on television? And what kind of a show is it? I could hardly watch it for 5 minutes and the entertainment value seemed to be 0% with a constantly whining baby. The so-called celebrity couples, I could just puke on them (especially this lady) and NDTV imagine for telecasting such a ridiculous programme..

The Expecting Phase

2009-10-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

When we found out that we are expecting a new addition to the family, it was like a dream come true. We were excited but very very anxious. There were some complications, so family advised to keep it a hush-hush thing until I am through the first trimester. In-laws were here with us, which helped a lot, as I was supposed to only potter around and not to do any heavy work. The concerned family that I have, wouldn’t let me step down the bed/sofa. Felt nice to have such caring and affectionate family, but I was also getting very restless and bored. Was trying to read all the pregnancy related books and material but was extremely tired and nauseous. It wasn’t very bad, but I was relieved when I hit the 12 week mark. It took almost that long to digest the fact that we are going to be parents soon, in-charge of a tiny new being who will monopolise our lives ;-)

Comparatively, second trimester was a breeze. It was just a bit weird at work, considering the fact that I had not shared the news with many people. I was feeling conscious that people are staring at my growing belly or eyeing my double-size lunch box, ha ha.. There were no other complications, but hay-fever and dental problems cropped up. I couldn’t take the regular medicines so it was quite a feat to tackle those.

Third trimester rolled on and I was growing bigger and bigger. Lots of preparation was pending, parents were coming down to help, so we had to arrange for their visa and tickets, then there was the baby shopping to do and also get the house ready to welcome the little one.

Meanwhile hubby had to fly to US for a week-long conference. Normally I would have jumped up to the chance and gone with him but I was in a state where it was not advisable to fly, so had to let it go. But, where would I stay? Hubby said a big no-no to staying alone and I was wary too, so off I went to stay with a friend and her cute little daughter. Coincidentally friend’s husband was also on an out-of-town training, so it was just us ladies. Travelling to work was tedious ( am thankful to the colleague who helped) and was missing hubby but it was nice to spend time with the friend and get to know her better. It was an absolute delight to play with her little daughter.

Anyway, everything was slowly falling into place and we were getting ready for the big day. But deep in my heart I was scared and kept telling myself everything will be fine...

Where does time go ?

2009-10-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow! It is October 2009 and I have a very faint memory of last seeing the blogger dashboard (more than a year ago). In all these months I did not blog, I would have felt the itch-to-write more than a few times, but there was simply no time or opportunity to do so. Actually, life has been so eventful, every moment was worth blogging, so I decided it is best to sit back, relax and enjoy :)

I am now journeying through one of the most enjoyable and beautiful phases of life – Motherhood. Soon, it is going to be an year since our little princess came into our lives. Actually, if we count the pregnancy months, it will be even longer. I have lost the count of days, I keep forgetting what date and day it is, more so because I am off on maternity leave,. Alas, where does the time go?

First, it was the anxiety and thrill of pregnancy, then, it was the pain and relief of the Miracle called birth, next it was pure awe, new found joy and sheer exhaustion of being a new parent. Beautiful moments and new challenges followed on when she was 3-6 months old, after that, it was the much awaited, exciting but a hectic trip to India. Now, we are back in UK in the pre-toddler phase where not just activity but hyper-activity seems to be the key phrase. Will delve on each of these phases in detail..soon!

PS: Blogger looks so out-of-date, time to move-on to a newer look, hopefully sometime soon.

What do I like to read?

2008-03-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Recently whenever the subject of reading came up, different people have asked me what kind of books I read. My current answer to them is "Well, I do not do science-fiction or fantasy, nor thrillers and investigative novels, no romance, no chick-lit, absolutely no-horror, not complete autobiographies, but books that are somewhat close to real lives". The answer is getting quite long as I am unable to coin a phrase to describe the kind of books I like to read.

Like I said in this post, I love to get a peek into people's lives of may be a certain locality or time. But that is not all about it. Occasionally, I have picked booker winners, although I hate to say that I chose only the authors who are award winners. I am sure there are unrecognized brilliant authors too. So, can someone please help me ? These are the last 10 books I have enjoyed:

The Kite Runner
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Shantaram
The Inheritance of Loss
Catch-22
Memoirs of Geisha
Angela's Ashes
The Clockwork Orange
Family Matters
Life of Pi

Taare Zameen Par : Movie Review

2008-02-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

I had caught glimpses of this movie on the TV and heard about it from a few friends. Found a website and were all set to watch it online, but the print was not easy on our eyes. So, my better half promised we would watch it in the theatre. Few weekends ago, we DID and it was totally worth it. Although it is a little late in the day, I cannot stop myself from writing about this movie.

Before I saw Taare Zameen Par, I thought it is about a special kid. Only after watching the movie, I understood the real meaning of its by-line "Every child is special". If you have not seen this movie and are under the assumption that it is a kids’ movie, beat it. It is a movie featured on kids and an 8-year-old plays the lead role, but Taare Zameen Par is a must watch for all the educators, parents and parents-to-be.

The protagonist, Ishaan Avasti(played by Darsheel Safary) is the younger child in a middle class family based in Mumbai. Other than Ishaan, his family consists of a loving mother, a pedantic father and an overachiever elder brother. Ishaan is a different kid, he has trouble reading and writing but he understands colours and animals very well. He is also an excellent painter. After several mishaps and bad feedback from his school, Ishaan's parents decide to put him in a boarding school, even if it is a bit over their budget. Ishaan is unhappy with the decision; his mother and elder brother sympathise with him but father seems unaffected. The boarding school doesn't bring any life changing difference in Ishaan's performance and rather drives him to go into a shell. When everything seems very bleak, a new temporary art teacher, Ram Shanker Nikumbh (played by Aamir Khan) enters the scene in the second half of the movie. This new art teacher has a different perception of educating children because of his own experiences and a genuine sensitivity towards every child's different needs & interests.

Ishaan's daily encounters with his parents & teachers, who are extremely unhappy with his performance in the class and exams, make us all sympathetic towards him while watching him on the screen. But when it comes to real life, how many people can act differently and notice what is actually going wrong? Something like what Nikumbh does in the second half! The movie is more than a lesson to the viewers on how to understand and tend to a dyslexic child.
Taare Zameen Par has done enough justice to match reality of an average middle class family in India. I was relieved that this masterpiece gives a different treatment to the stereotypical characters we come across in the real life. I was also relieved the movie was not "yet another depiction of", how a poor child suffers due to the ill-treatment of the society and negligence of his parents.

This movie is also a teaser for the whole education system of India. It does not take a genius to see that the Indian education system is not the most practical system in this world. Nikumbh challenges the school principal and Ishaan's parents with some intriguing (but totally right) questions. He does provide some solutions but, I like the way, he left these quite open-ended. No single movie can single-handedly address all such issues.

Many scenes were brilliantly composed. These scenes had a rare, but right, blend of creativity and poignance, which moved me intensely. For instance:

The first scene where Ishaan captures a fish from the dirty gutter and gives it a home in his Aquarium.
The scene, which aptly portrays how the everyday rat-race takes over our lives. In contrast, Ishaan bunks school for a day and becomes an onlooker on 'the road'. When he confesses to his elder brother on the same night, the later rightly admonishes Ishaan for his guts. I agree, it is dangerous, but how many of us get such an experience at all. It’s a boon to have a protective parent, I totally agree, but we should not oversee the fact that an open mind to provide children with an extent of 'freedom of choice' is equally important.
The breathtaking views from the Panchgani boarding school left me awestruck.
Not much words are used in the scene where a simple action of showing the flip book to Ishaan reveals that his new art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh cared enough about him to visit the former's house.
The last few scenes left me completely teary eyed. You have to watch it to experience it.

I very much liked the way this movie relays some great messages through the art teacher, Nikumbh. In the first part you see a child doing certain things, which are not considered normal. It is shown that the child is well cared for and given special attention by his family. The boy, however, poses a big problem to his parents by not being able to 'perform' to the right standards. In the second part of the movie, you come to know why Ishaan actually does what he does and what the people concerned (parents, teachers, siblings & friends) fail to see beyond the symptoms of the 'said' under-performance.

Darsheel Safary did a tremendous job at bringing us the character of Ishaan Avasti. Hope this genius child actor gets more such opportunities and treats us with more of his talent. Amole Gupte & his wife Deepa Bhatia should be acclaimed for coming up with such a great story, doing all the research and groundwork. It looks like their contributions in the form of creative direction, editing, etc were substantial for this film to be well-received by the audience. Writer-Producer clashes or whatever, Aamir Khan deserves more than a remarkable award as the debut director of this movie. He definitely deserves brownie points for bringing us 'the artistic work of Amole and Deepa', in full colours by donning three different caps at a single time - producer, director and actor.

Whispers: Short fiction contest at Jason's

2008-02-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Story tellers! Go over to Jason's site, if you are interested in dabbling with fiction. It was fun participating in his previous contests. Last day for submission is 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 27th (Eastern Time, United States).

New Gadget to 'kindle' your reading hobby

2007-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this newsweek article today through the del.icio.us popular list. Amazing! The moment you feel that you have seen the most cutting-edge technology, something new springs up. An e-Reader. Now that I have read about "the future of reading", somehow it seems like this was inevitable. How could I not see it coming ? The newsweek article was lengthy but, I had all my eyes/ears up for it.From the article I quote,

"Technology," computer pioneer Alan Kay once said, "is anything that was invented after you were born." So it's not surprising, when making mental lists of the most whiz-bangy technological creations in our lives, that we may overlook an object that is superbly designed, wickedly functional, infinitely useful and beloved more passionately than any gadget in a Best Buy: the book. It is a more reliable storage device than a hard disk drive, and it sports a killer user interface. (No instruction manual or "For Dummies" guide needed.) And, it is instant-on and requires no batteries. Many people think it is so perfect an invention that it can't be improved upon, and react with indignation at any implication to the contrary.

Yes - "the book", we take it for granted, don't we ? Also all the zillion number of other objects which evolved with each and every tiny step of mankind. Recently, we have been keenly watching the TV show "Dragon's Den". It makes me aware that so many people come up with so many ideas and only a few click with the right match of creativity, market research, sales perception, everyday user-friendliness and the luck factor. Those are the umpteen number of things we see/use in our daily lives. And here we are - the rest of us- who just use them and carry on with our mundane lives as though we have had a hard day. Going back to the topic of reading, I had mused a few blog posts ago, that the paper and pen we are using today might be extinct soon. Turned out that even before I conceived that idea in my brain someone had already put that on their agenda.

Whatever it is, an e-Reader seems like the next generation's BOOK. For a moment I thought it wouldn't work but, when I see the synonymous effect of email with respect to snail mail, it is inevitable that such gadgets (if not Kindle) will someday, surely replace our traditional books.The future generation will never know the experience of our paper & print culture, the same way we cannot imagine how it was to dip a feather in the ink and write on a scroll. Hmm, it will take a few life times to understand and enjoy the depths and lengths of the evolution of each object in its creation.

Restless Dawn - Short fiction contest

2007-11-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

Jason is organising another short fiction contest, this time the theme is Restless Dawn. My entry to the contest can be found here..

Email etiquette

2007-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

I am sure many of us follow some unwritten etiquette while using email at work. I am also sure that there are many people who are very unprofessional and awkward at their emails -even at work. However, you might be relieved to hear that I am not going to dwell on that. This etiquette is just limited to personal emails. Every now and then, I receive certain emails that are quite annoying; sometimes they are from very close friends. So close that if they were anywhere nearby, I could have twisted their ears and set them straight :oP If you want to stop annoying me or start annoying me, read the following and make necessary amends. That's about it.

The first rule of emailing: start by addressing the receiver properly. You can write "Hi," or "Hello," without personating the receiver if and only if you are writing to someone without a name, e.g. an organisation's helpdesk email account. Even in that case you can say 'Dear Sir/Madam' or whatever appropriate locale specifics. But, if you know you are emailing 'Joe Bloggs' start with 'Hello Joe' or 'Dear Joe', am sure that might make Joe's day :) am not kidding.

Subject: It is there for a purpose. If you are emailing for a specific reason like sharing your contact information put "Contact Details" in the subject. Won't hurt, really! In fact, imagine the receiver decides to send you a birthday gift and starts searching his/her emails for your contact information. The subject might come to help you receive the birthday gift in time.

When you are replying to an email please read it patiently and take into account what the sender has written; the information they are trying to convey to you and those that are in the form of questions. When they mention "I have switched jobs, now I am a circus clown, enjoying it very much" , acknowledge with a "Hearty Congratulations" or whatever is appropriate. When they ask you questions like "What are your plans for this Easter vacation" reply back saying ,"We are going to have a house full of guests" or whatever. I mean these are the basics of any email conversation, even a primary school kid probably knows that.

I am not saying one-liners are not OK. Especially, if you are having a chat kind of conversation with a friend, you would want to leave out all the nitty-gritty stuff which, can be assumed - like the addressing and signing off part. Also, I prefer one-liners to "no-replies".

When you are replying to an email make sure whether you want to 'Reply All' or Reply just to the sender. This happens a lot in the case of e-groups, the reply goes to everyone in the group.

When sending an email to large number of people it is prudent to bcc (blind copy) every one's name especially if it is not a specific group of people who know each other.

Never ever send an email to everyone in your contacts list without checking all the addressees. One of my acquaintances used to send irrelevant forwards to everyone on her contact list including some 'ContactUs' email ids for jobsites (e.g info@naukri.com).

The SMS or telegraphic language - please keep it to a minimal usage. It might shower you the gift of convenience and give you a nerdy reputation. However, no email service charges you for the number of letters you are using. Some of the shortcuts like 'u' instead of 'you' and 'r' instead of 'are' are quite common and known to many, but, if you have a spare minute, use the expanded word instead.

Spell check, please.

A forwarded email is a monster. Sometimes, I dread the thought of opening it, esp. when it is from a particular sender who is quite adept at wrecking my nerves especially when sending forwards. Wait a minute, I have never ever received a personal email from them, it has always been nasty forwarded emails with hardly one or two good ones.

In the case of those so-called entertaining forwards, kindly delete all the trailing email ids and junk like header/footer information before you forward on to other people. If you do not do so, the purpose is beaten. There are very less people who will have the right mind and time to search out the actual content. Take a moment to delete all the unnecessary information, keep only the relevant content and send it on. If you do not have the time to do so, why forward ?

Those chain emails, ignore them. Especially the ones which shower you with ill-luck if you do not forward it to 100 other people within the next 5 minutes. Silly they are, don't you think ? I do respect peoples' right to believe in things quite blindly, but why do it by troubling others with our own spam ?

Email attachments: Use them selectively. If you would like to share something you found on the internet do not copy-paste the whole thing into an email. If the sender has the facility to just follow a link and see it on the internet just as you did, send only the permalink. Similarly, if you want to send pictures to multiple people, upload them to a photo sharing website(cannot vouch for how secure they are) and send a link to everyone instead of cramping every one's mailboxes.

After reading through whatever I have just written, I feel, I sound like Miss.Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. . Never mind, hope I got my point across. Happy Emailing..

A trip to the neck of woods: Little Ness

2007-09-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, while we were planning our easter vacation, we talked about how nice it would be to visit the country side rather than a touristy city/town (as we usually do). A little bit of research on the internet, few phone calls later, I found the perfect place. Since, I was limited in the driving department, did not want to hassle R with driving too far. The place was, literally, in the neck of the woods - a quiet country side farm house, at least that is what the pictures and the listing on the internet said.

We started off sevenish in the evening, the rain still fighting like an undettered soldier. Just minutes away from our destination, at a road fork, we went off in the wrong direction . Guess, I just grabbed a few words, from our host's directions (like 'white', 'pigeon', 'pub' 'cottage'). So, we ended up in front of a white cottage, a really old dubious looking house. The house was facing the road, no drive way, and looked eerily vacant. As my nerves were chilling, I stepped on to the porch and rang the bell, spotting the cobwebs all over the roof. After a couple of minutes, I phoned our host, desperately hoping that this is not the place we booked . To my great relief, she confirmed that we were, infact, at the wrong place and directed us to our destination. She even came out and stood in front of the entrance, in spite of the irritating rain (sweet gesture).That very moment, I felt re-assured our choice was not wrong, even if we had to shake ourselves a bit to squeeze the car inside the tiny driveway.

Pleasantaries later, the lady showed us to our room and answered our queries on where to go to eat, etc. It was not just a room, we also had a cosy sitting area with a few steps leading to even cosier ensuite bed room. Freshly plucked flowers, antique furniture and my most favorite figurines from 'The Leonardo Collection' gave us a very beautiful feeling. The portable 11 inch tv looked so out-of-place. Instead of routinely switching it on, we opened the windows to get a view of farm animals grazing near by. Our next predicament was to find a place to eat. Even if the landlady had given us the directions, we had to reverse the car out and drive through the country road. We fared well though, ending up in the Sky hotel of Nescliffe, which turned into none other than a Chinese place(R's favorite). I was happy too, because I could custom order my favorite - Thai veg green curry. An absolutely delicious meal later, we were waiting for the bill and quite unexpectedly, our attendant brought us a fresh fruit platter. Freshly sliced melons with some grapes, it was an absolute delight after such a sumptuous meal and totally unpaid for :) Aww.. the joys of being in a countryside!

Next day was another dream come true.. waking up to the sounds of cock-a-doodle-doo, literally. Just about six hours of sleep, but still we felt fully recharged. It was amazing to be up and ready by 8am on a Saturday. Some appetising English breakfast with the usual stuff like eggs, toast, baked beans and bacon (for R), we also discovered this delicious cereal made of oats, barley and hazelnut. After breakfast our landlady quickly showed us the farm and we clicked these pics..

Paid for the stay in cash and started off to vist the Adcote School for girls (once a stately home) and then headed to the food festival of Oswestry. Pics from the food festival!

It would have been nice if it were not raining on the Friday, but hey, we got to experience a typical Shropshire countryside in a typical English weather.

-I did freak out just a little when we had to drive on the narrow country road, which was hardly enough for one car, kept praying that we will not encounter any oncoming vehicles.

-Getting back to the farm house after our dinner at the village hotel/restaurant. It was pitch dark, raining and the road seemed to be leading into deep and deeper woods. Having the GPS didn't help much, the only thing that did was R's direction sense and accidental memory of spotting a white car near our destination.

Recycling: Doing our bit

2007-08-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

-First major achievement for us is: minimising the number of plastic bags. We usually buy our groceries from Tesco, so, I had bought a reusable bag from them for 48p. I make it a point to keep this bag in the car and take it everytime we go grocery shopping. On top of the reusable bag we tend to take one/two plastic bags for the frozen stuff ('coz that makes the bag wet n' messy) However, I make sure that I recycle most of these bags. This saves me the trouble of storing/discarding all these difficult-to-manage plastic bags and guess helps the environment a little bit. Other than this, when I go on an odd & unplanned shopping trip - I tell 'No' for a shopping bag, if I already have one that can accomodate what I purchased.

- We have been religiously separating all the rubbish and filling the kerbside box with all paper, cans, cardboard, glass bottles, etc.

- Growing some vegetables - We have started growing some tomatoes and herbs. More on this in a different post. We have not yet reaped the fruit yet, but, I am hoping our carbon footprint has definitely reduced with this..

I am now a member of the local freecycler's group through which, we recently got some top soil and bricks for the garden . There are lot of things at home that we no longer use and I am planning to post these off to someone who can benefit from them. Also, when our green bin was overflowing, we had made use of the community recycling centre to dispose off the wood and garden waste a few weeks ago.

We have been getting to work fairly early these days, so I do not have the overwhelming guilt to rush to my seat. I now take the three flights of stairs as opposed to the elevator/lift..

I have tried to spread the awareness of recycling to my group of friends ..

I still have to work on :
- Carrying a reusable bag at all times and getting the carry bag count to a minimal.
- Minimising food waste & Utilising leftovers
- Minimising the use of paper towels in kitchen - I just cannot resist using them
- Spend less time in front of the computer and tv (yeah right!)

I wish supermarkets like ASDA and TESCO start giving the option of 'paper bags' as many stores do in the States
I wish someone introduces/exports the Jute bags we use in India for shopping, they are just amazing, I am planning to bring one when I go back home this time.
I wish store managers and people who work in a store don't give strange looks when I tell them, "I do not need a bag" .

With all things to be considered house keeping is getting more and more complex. I bow down to all those efficient home makers who keep their family happy, healthy, hygenic, economical and still work good to their conscious..My public apologies if I ever under-estimated the planning and intellegince required to manage a household.

The art of writing

2007-08-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

I curl my fingers to point the pen in between my thumb and index finger, rest the base of my palm on the table and scribble. Yes, scribble! I cannot write anymore, only scribble. In the past decade, my hand-writing has gone to dogs to say the least. Last time when I sent a letter home, my parents were flabbergasted to look at how my hand-writing has deteriorated. In the past, one thing they were and even I was definitely proud of - my handwriting. In school, our English teacher taught us hand writing in 7th std. All of us were given four ruled notebooks custom-made to improve hand writing and he taught us the boundaries of each letter in the alphabet. How the long of 'h' should go till the top-most line and how the tail of 'g' dragged till the bottom line and the other letters strictly stayed in between the second and third lines. You might not believe this, but most of my classmates fell into his handwriting spell and cultivated (almost) a look-alike handwriting. Thanks to TGK sir, I had improved from a writing, which needed a microscope - to something that is visible to the naked eye and authoritatively good hand-writing. In our pre-computer era, people used to ask me to write messages/addresses on cards or write announcements on the notice board. Most of my classmates wrote in my autograph that they really admire my handwriting.

However, since the time I have become a keyboard slave, things have changed. My hand invariably hurts whenever I have to write more than a few words. More than often, it takes me a while to understand what I had written earlier. If I have a really nice pen/pencil and I have ample time & patience to write what I want to, then the writing is bearable. I wish someone imposes on me 'Write a page everyday' assignment and I get back my old hand-writing. I dread the thought that pens and pencils might one day become totally obsolete :(

PS: Apparently today is international left handers' day. Did not know before that such a day exists. It is interesting to know how minorities like left-handers struggle with day to day tasks and how this club is helping them overcome it.

Listening past-time

2007-08-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ever seen anyone sitting in front of their workstation, tapping their feet or their hand rhythmically and trying hard not to be too obvious. That's me these days. R (my better half) got me the new Sony Ericsson w850i and am overwhelmed with the number of great features it has; best feature being the radio. Guess, I am making the most of it. It has a walkman, too, just loaded my all-time favorites but, I usually end up listening to the radio for an hour or so after lunch. It is fun and although some of the things covered on this show sound quite trivial, I get to see how people are similar in their daily madness. I also get to keep abreast of the news, traffic, weather and they play a good selection of songs as well. These songs are best to listen to while writing some code and when I need to concentrate to shut the noise of the outside world..

Need to..

2007-08-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

I need to update my blog more often. I also need to be organised more often. Every time, I look at a consistently organised person, I cringe and feel why I cannot do that, but then I return to my lazy-self. Postponing the important but non-urgent tasks (quadrant 2 from Stephen Covey's First things first) has become the norm of my life. I am good at making lists, I make lists for all kinds of different things and keep recording remainders. But the irony is that I do them in many different places, some are in my work calendar, some are in my pocket dairy, some are in my mobile phone and some on hundred different post-it notes. It is the same case with my writing. I start writing about different topics and keep saving them to continue some other time. They are scattered all over the place in different word files on different computers and different mails. Hoping to sort this out soon..

Halo: Short fiction contest

2007-08-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry to Jason's short fiction contest. Today is the last day for submission, 11pm EST, so hurry up if you want to send an entry.

Fresh air

It had just stopped raining. The clouds started to clear out and the sun was about to set. Nina strolled her way through the pavement and approached the edge of the road. Scattered earthworms lay everywhere on the pavement, most of them half crushed by the pedestrians, rest just glad to be alive. She got on to a pathway leading into the woodlands. First, it was just a few trees but then it was getting quite dense. She kept strolling until she abruptly reached a small clearing and stopped in her tracks to observe the surroundings. Mystified by the bunch of pine trees that rose around her, she dreamily pulled a twig out of a fallen branch and made random impressions on the ground. Her lips broke into a smile. Sun rays were beaming through the canopy and penetrating their last chances into the rain drops that discreetly remained on the grass. Birds were hustling back to their nests. The smell of moist earth lingered still very fresh in the air. Nina wished this moment would not seize.

"Hope you all enjoyed the transformation to the most serene place in your mind. Now you can all open your eyes!” With the instructor’s voice, Nina came back to reality of 50 other people squatted on their yoga mats around her. A deep breathing exercise later, she made her way out to the tube station and into the humdrums of her daily life.

Picture Courtesy: Jason Evans

The Mango Season: Book Review

2007-07-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

Priya Rao - the protagonist of this novel, returns to her hometown - Hyderabad, India (ok! city), to visit her family, after living seven years in the States. Her prime motive of the visit is to persuade her parents & the extended family to her decision on marrying a non-Indian. Fights, arguments, whining, ego-clashes and some of family politics later, she seems to have done it. A few well-written recipes are thrown-in here and there. The typical masala of middle-classy marital affairs and relationships seems to be the main feature of this book. Although, thankfully, this time the readers are spared any extra- marital affairs.

More than often, Priya Rao comes out as a rebellious child. Yes, at 27 years of age, she still seems a child - always in disagreement with not just her parents, but with anything Indian. Everyone in the story seems to be stereotyped as very narrow-minded. Even Priya herself seems to be very shallow, not able to understand the dearth of an Indian parent and yet producing sarcasm about it. I think it is quite important to read books that introduce us to a culture we are not familiar with. At the same time, it is also quite important to read a story, which is set in a place you can relate to. Even if I disliked this book, I do not regret reading it, because I learnt a few things:

For the first time ever, I knew – what makes me dislike a story ? Now, I have a clearer picture of the sort of things I would like to avoid, if and when I write a story.
Why I should not interpret and get prejudiced about a culture or a set of people, based on a single book? Of course, I shouldn’t, but reading this book, gives me more reason not to do so.
Throwing in some recipes and typing out emails does contribute to the number of pages in the book, but not to the quality itself.
I should cut short my expectations before reading any book.

I am almost tempted to allege that ‘The Mango season’ appeared to me more like "Amulya's memoir with some added spice", than any kind of fiction. I came across her biography on her website and follow her blog, so could not help picturing her as "Priya Rao" in the book. Before reading the book, the title made me expect some nostalgia. I thought I would be transformed back into my childhood. But, all my expectations to feel the familiar air of Hyderabad fell apart, except for some phrases she had scattered in the book just for the sake of it. Look out for the italicised words- Tank bund, Minerva, Osmania and Monda Market.. Please do not read it if you want to know anything about Hyderabad or Mangoes. Read it if you enjoy cheesy novels.

Angela's Ashes: Book Review

2007-07-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

A very touching read where the reader suffers through the narration about the author Frank McCourt’s childhood. The poverty pictured in this Pulitzer-winning-memoir is very heart wrenching; the survival of a family amidst dirty rags, lack of food, illness and infections, an alcoholic father and children who appear and disappear. Frank McCourt starts his tale by introducing how his Irish parents meet each other in America, leading us into his birth and also his parents' wedding. After Frank's birth his family grows by the head-count, but shrinks monetarily, while his father thrives on alcoholism, instead of making their ends meet. The tragic death of their little sister shatters Frank’s mother-Angela, and deteriorates her health. But other than whining and blaming her husband - Malachy, Angela does not seem to take any drastic measures to better her family. With such hopeless parents, Frank's maternal relatives intervene and arrange the whole family to be shipped back to Ireland. They first stop at his paternal grandparents’ place where they spend a day. Next day they briefly visit Dublin en-route to Limerick (Angela's place). The family tehn arrives at and settles in the slums of Limerick. Frank articulates for us, all the hardships they go through, deaths in the family and the misdeeds of his parents. He also gives the reader a sneak- peek into his growing mind, his adaptability to the circumstances and yet an undying hope to lead a better life.

Angela’s ashes made me think of how people are afflicted with poverty - sometimes by their own actions and sometimes by sheer chance. Even if it is for a moment, this book compels the reader with humility towards what they already possess. The book gave me a good glimpse into the Irish culture and religion. I have seen directly/indirectly how poverty prevails in India, read stories and saw movies about poverty in some developing/under-developed countries; but, I always wondered, how it is in the Western countries. I also got this book from the library, but am going to return it back; it is too much of sadness I can take at the moment. Have to put it off until I am ready for another gutsy read. BTW, the only thing I could not understand was the ending of the book. Since it is a memoir, I did not expect it to have a framed plot & ending, however, I could not understand what the author wanted to convey about his future.

Image Source: http://www.impawards.com/1999/angelas_ashes.html

Family Matters: Book Review

2007-06-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

It took me a long time to finish this book esp. because it is such a heavy read. Also, my in-laws were visiting at that time, so we were quite busy.

The only reason I managed to get some reading done was because, I watched less television during that time.

Mistry is a great writer and I think, he is a natural writer; the flow of his story is quite smooth and the language is beautifully simplistic. I think he has poignantly depicted the life of Nariman and his other family members. Having not met any Parsis or read about them before, The book was my first taste of Parsi culture. Its a bit difficult to outline the story because, the book is wrapping events around the members of a family. However, here is a rough outline:

Nariman Vakeel is an old man with a burdened past-life, living with his stepchildren. As his parents could not agree to an inter-faith wedding, he had to forego his lover to marry a widower. An unhappy past behind himself and the never-ending haunts from his ex-lover make his married life miserable. Later, Nariman looses both his wife and ex-lover. However, all these memories come back to him when he is old and desolate with Parkinson's disease & the pain of a broken leg confines him to the bed. His stepchildren are not too eager to nurse him and draft plans to send him away to his own daughter Roxana - who lives with her immediate family. Roxana 's husband - Yezad agrees, although, he is not happy about this arrangement as he earns a meagre salary just enough to support his wife and two sons. Rest is the story and dramatics of Nariman's ailments; what goes through Yezad's professional life and his encounter with the bullying Shivsena activists. Readers are rewarded with a promising end after all this suffering.

It is a beautifully and intricately sketched storyline and as an outsider I got a fine peek into the life of a middle class Parsi family in Mumbai. Mistry brilliantly portrayed all the characters. Jehangir - Yezad's younger son is my favorite. An account of Jehangir’s emotions throughout the above mentioned histrionics and his desperate measures to tackle them, is the part I enjoyed the most.

A Clockwork Orange: Book review

2007-06-18T07:55:00.001-07:00

I had seen this book on many popular lists but had no idea of what it was about. When I found this book in a second-hand bookshop I grabbed it. The first few pages were extremely repelling.
The language was completely beyond my understanding and I was chiding myself for reading a book about this irresponsible-youngster whose best past time is crime. I do not know what made me stick to it for few more pages, because once I had given up reading a similar kind - this American book. With A clockwork Orange though, the reason I stuck to it might have been the size, or just the hope that I will fall through the author's plot and start enjoying it. And I sure did. Using the context, my mind started translating the nadsat talk to plain English without much trouble. Story line is as follows:

The narrator Alex is the ringleader of a bunch of teenagers who commit bloodshed and violence for the sake of money and excitement. They rob, beat-up weaker people, innocent girls and in the course of these actions commit murders. Alex is the ringleader, but there is unrest in the group when others’ ideas of pilferage are not encouraged. During one of their regular misconducts, Alex gets trapped by his own gang members. He finds himself behind the bars, sentenced for fifteen years over the murder of an old lady. Then it is the prison life for young Alex and a turn of events makes him a victim of the Ludovico technique. A torture technique, which makes the criminal hate violence and crime. Rest of the story is what Alex goes through after being a victim of this horrifying technique..

The book is short but quite intense and gripping; a must read for people who are interested in criminal psychology. The place I live here in UK is very much infested with yobs and I have heard a lot of incidents that are similar to what the protagonist commits. A chilling but insightful piece of fiction.

Image Courtesy: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9145/aco.htm

Book tag - Contemporary Indian Authors

2007-05-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

There are good days and bad days. On a good day, I stumbled on Geet's blog, explored her world, found that she is an author of this book and left a comment. It was quite kind of her to not only respond to my comments but also tagging me. Thanx Geets, here goes the tag: I have added a few more to the original list. I have placed the books I have read in bold and the books I am wanting to to read in italics ..

1. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri (started to read but had to let go the book, wanting to read ever since)
2. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy ()
3. An Equal Music - Vikram Seth ()
4. The Vine of Desire - Chitra Divakaruni ()
5. Mulligatawny Soup - Manorama Mathai (sounds like a good one)
6. The Burden of Foreknowledge - Jawahara Saidulla (would love to read since I visited the author's blog)
7. By the River Pampa I stood - Geeta Abraham Jose ( definitely want to esp. after stumbling on Geets blog)
8. My Story - Kamala Das
9. The Raj - Gita Mehta
10. Circumferences - Suma Josson (it transported me to my childhood, good book)
11. Mediocre but Arrogant - Abhijit Bhaduri
12. The Enigma of Arrival - V.S.Naipaul (read two other books of his, but not this one)
13. The Better Man - Anita Nair
14. Fault lines - Meena Alexander
15. The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (i hope she is a better author than her mother, sorry Anita!)
16. Fasting, Feasting - Anita Desai
17. Bookless in Baghdad - Shashi Tharoor
18. Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh (always wanted to read Khuswant Singh but never got around)
19. Difficult Daughters- Manju Kapur
20. Desirable Daughters- Bharati Mukherjee
21. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (read Mistry's Family matters, will read him again when I am strong enough for another heart-wrenching story)
22. The Feast of Roses - Indu Sundaresan
23. Malgudi Days - R.K.Narayan (read it a long time ago!)
24. Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat
25. Anything for You, Ma'am - Tushar Raheja
26. The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie (I started to read Rushdie's Midnight's children but did not seem to get the hang of it)
27. One hundred shades of white - Preeti Nair
28. Serving Crazy with Curry - Amulya Malladi
29. Selective Memories - Shobha De
30. A suitable Boy - Vikram Seth (Read it half way through, but had to return this lovely but bulky book)

Bhaswati and Shyam you are tagged..

My World of Books

2007-05-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

Was just wondering about the complex set of cultures in this world. It seems like every now and then I discover a new culture which, for me, never existed before.. First there was the culture of my home-town, then it expanded to my home state and then to the rest of diverse-India . Once I set my foot abroad, my perception of Western culture changed. I was pleasantly surprised to see how so many people are so starkly different. Mainly, three things introduced me to this world full of different cultures :reading books, meeting people and visiting places. I read a book, I talk to a person who can relate to the book and then I visit the place of the book's backdrop. In that sequence or not, some cultures unwind in front of me and expand my thoughts on people's lives in different corners of this world. That and also some movies and tv shows have introduced me to this person called: the Bengali, the Parsi, the Mumbaiite, the Italian, the Irish, the English, the American, and so on..

Of all the things that introduce me to the world of different cultures, one that is close to my heart is, books. Some authors do a great job at not just telling a story but weaving the story around, to give an insight into the lives of people in a certain locality and time. I have realized that I enjoy these kind of books more than the ones which deal with plain fantasy, murder mystery or science -fiction. I never get bored of the former kind. In the world of books that are getting released by minute, a clear distinction on what I like to read appears in front of me(which is subject to change). So what after reading these books ? Guess, I have also acquired a compulsion to maintain what I have read. It bothers me to think that the memories related to some of the books I have read in my formative years, have vanished into thin air. I love to -keep track of my memories. That is in fact one of the main reasons to scribble and scrawl here and there. So, by the means of my corner, I would like to mark the books I have read. If a book overwhelms me or I have too much time on my hands (unlikely, these days) I will write a full-fledged review on it - just like I did here and here. If not, I shall combine several reads into a single post and share the best/worst/memories related to each book. Hope my blog-readers (if any) will find it useful..

Short Fiction Contest: Endless Hour

2007-04-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy: Jason Evans

Jason Evans is running yet another wonderful contest . Less than two days left to submit your entry. Unlike everytime, I submitted mine, just in time; you can find it below and also here. Do not miss reading all the other beautifully crafted entries, as it is amazing how many different perspectives rise from a single picture.. Happy reading !!

The A-Class 170 swirled through to the end of the motorway and set-off towards the beautiful and picturesque little village of Ambleside. The views were breathtaking; the mountains rose and fell not so far away; greenery spread across to the horizons; sheep appeared as cute woolly buttons stuck to the grass; the curves and bends of the B-road were playing hide & seek with the nature's beautiful aura. Lake Windermere was shimmering with glow, inviting the young couple with open arms. A surprising number of pedestrians flooded the pavements. Little girls adorned with angelic smiles and colorful dresses seemed like butterflies in disguise. Infact, it appeared as though, nature's beauty brought-forth the best in everyone.

Conversely, Sheetal gasped, she leaned back into the passenger seat and closed her eyes. She could not believe herself; she had an unfortunate curse, which would not let her enjoy this un-ending beauty. How she wished, he had understood her better. As the same dirty picture flashed in front of her again and again, she flinched. Her mind played the devil with her and tortured her to death.

She insisted, she would finish the dirty pile of dishes, before they started off this morning. Poor Atul had only intended to miss the rush-hour traffic. If only, he knew his wife's compulsion for cleaning-up; he would have preferred getting stuck in the traffic, for a couple of hours, than to foil a beautiful weekend at the lakes.