08.Nov.2010: நானாக நான் இல்லை...

பட்டாசு தயாரிக்க குழந்தைகளை
உபயோக படுத்தியதை எதிர்த்து வாங்காமலிருப்பதா? - இல்லை

பட்டாசு தயாரித்த குழந்தையின்
உழைப்பு வீண் போகாமலிருக்க வாங்குவதா? - இல்லை

பட்டாசு வெடிக்க ஆவலாக இருக்கும்
என் குழந்தையின் ஆசைக்காக வாங்குவதா? - இல்லை

பட்டாசு வாங்காது போனால் தவிக்கும்
என் குழந்தையின் தவிப்பை போக்க வாங்குவதா?

வாங்குவதா? வேண்டாமா? புரியவில்லை ...
ஆனால் ...

நானாக நான் இருப்பதொன்றும் அவ்வளவு
எளிதல்ல என்பது மட்டும் புரிந்தது.

08.Nov.2010: தீபாவளி(லி??)!!!

தீபாவளி அன்று யார் வீட்டின் முன்
நிறைய பட்டாசு காகிதங்கள்
என்று தெருவில் வேடிக்கை பார்த்தபடி
சென்றனர் இரு சிறுவர்கள்...

தான் வெடித்தது தான் அதிகம்
என்ற சந்தோஷத்தோடு ஒருவன்
அவன் வீட்டினுள் ஓடுகையில்...

இன்னொருவன் முன்னவனை விட சந்தோஷத்தோடு
தனது சாக்குமூட்டையை திறந்தான் -
அந்தக் காகிதங்களை அள்ளுவதற்கு!

Tirunelveli - Kerala Trip: 06th to 10 Oct 2010

Most of you know that we had been to a 5 days of religious cum vacation trip in the October, 2010 from 06th to 10th. Just wanted to tell you a little about the trip.

Origin of the trip: I would like to tell how this trip originated. The actual plan, was that we were planning to visit Anu's native temple, Lord Laskhminarayana, in Paapakudi near Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu. It was a long pending trip as we should have visited immediately after our marriage. Anu used to tell me often to visit the temple. So after 5.5 years at last we planned to visit or rather the Lord allowed us to visit Him. No train tickets available even before 1.5 months as its the only train running in that route. So we just checked if we could go in flight and found 2 airports nearer to Tiruvnelveli - Madurai and Trivandrum. Once Trivandrum came into picture, we thought of Guruvayur as Anu had the Thulabaram in the Guruvayur Krishna temple pending since she was 3 years old. Thus, what ought to have been a weekend trip turned out to be a 5 day vacation for us :) And I need not tell that we had a great time all thru the trip except that Anu was not in good ' health.

A little detail on the places we covered.

Day 1 - 6th Oct: We started around 3.15am and reached Bangalore airport around 4.15am. Took few snaps and climbed the Kingfisher flight by 6.30 after completing all the formalities. This is the first time Anu's parents are travelling in a flight while my mom had been in flight earlier but its her first fligh with me. Sure they would have had great feelings. They provided breakfast - sambar idly and vadai..mmm it was yummy that time though a bit sweet. The view was secenic just before we landed at at Trivandrum airport but was a little disappointed to see the airport. Cab driver Arun was waiting outside for us.


Welcome to Trivandrum and it was raining and we were a little worried to see the rain. We then started to Tirunelveli and reached there in the afternoon and had lunch. The route was pathetic really that we could not commute faster. There was no rain fortunately. Then went to Paapakudi Lakshminarayana Temple and waited for the priest for sometime. Once he came and pooja was over we had the prasadam and started back to Trivandrum and stayed in Nadan Hotel that night.

Day 2 - 7th Oct: Nadan Hotel was good except that we dint have hot water in the morning for bathing but we managed with the cold water, otherwise it was pretty decent. Had breakfast and went to Sri Padmanabasami Temple. The moment we went, a person came with a basket and literally banged into Anu's hands telling that its for consecration(archanai). Likewise, another person came up with the ghee pots. After a few yards, one person was there asking for money for all those we have been forced to buy. Since it was the first time, we thought its their practice and got it. If we need to perform consecration we will get it and they should not be forcing people to buy those things. This was the first shock. Then came the next part for waiting in the queue to view The Lord. We waited in the queue for consecration for quite sometime before we discovered its not going to happen as we expected. Then we moved to the general queue except Anu as she had the archanai basket. Both the queues are separted by a rod and thats it. The moolavar is same as that of Sri Rangam temple near Trichy, Tamilnadu. This one had 3 doors where each part of The Lord could be seen - Head, Body and Leg. We could sneak a glimpse of it, note a glimpse only and not a good / full view of The Lord. We came out and waited for Anu. Looked at other areas of the temple and came out. Then we visited Aatukal Bhagavathy AmmanTemple. It seems this temple is called "Ladies' Sabarimalai". Spent sometime in the temple.

Our next destination was Alleppey boat house. Before that we went to a Kerala Saree shop Karalkada and got sarees for the ladies. Could not get dress for Aditi there. The shop was really good and took some snaps there.
After shopping, went to Veli Lake and spent sometime there taking few snaps.
Then had lunch on the way and reached Alleppey boat house in the evening. It was drizzling. All of us boarded the boat house and sat in the drawing room for sometime. The boat house contained a drawing/dinner room, 2 bed rooms with attached bath and a kitchen and a roof top space. The boat started moving. We were given tea for refreshing.
Then it started raining and so they had to park the boat over the nearby shore. We were enjoying the new experience of traveling and staying in a boat house in the backwaters. They were preparing dinner for us and we were watching a movie in DVD when suddenly there was few surprise guests flying inside the boat. Came to know it was bats and they came for the fruit which they kept inside. Immediately I locked the fruits inside one of the rooms and sat there. Once the dinner was ready, we asked them to serve inside the rooms as we don't want our guests to visit again. But believe me, the bats did not come when we were having our dinner as the boat guys had told. We felt strange really. And, come on, its time for us to have a good night's sleep in the boat house.
Day 3 - 8th Oct: In the morning woke up early and enjoyed the nature and the vast area covered with water. We had coffee and slowly we got ready while our breakfast was also getting ready. In the meanwhile, the boat house started its journey to show us the near by villages. We were enjoying the travel having our breakfast and watched other boat houses passing by. It was a 2 hours journey and we thoroughly enjoyed it. They dropped us in the boat house station and we started our journey to Guruvayur.

On the way, we went to Ambalapuzha Krishna Temple. There was a statue for an Elephant but you will mistake it for a real one. It was the one which served the temple and they raised a statue after it was dead. Took few snaps and moved on with our plan to visit Athirapalli falls. Though it took sometime to reach there, we went and had a view of the falls and returned. Reached Guruvayur and stayed in Bhasuri Inn. Had dinner in their restaurant and rested for the day.
Day 4 - 9th Oct: Woke up after we felt its fine to get out of bed and we did not rush up to Guruvayur Krisha Temple. Got ready, had coffee and went to temple. We had to wait in the queue for a little over 2 hours. One good thing here is that it was very well organized and we dint face what we experienced in Padmanabasami temple in Trivandrum. Had a good dharshan of The Lord. We then waited in the queue for thulabaram - where we can donate any item for the wieght of us. We did thulabaram for Anu (rice) and Aditi (banana). They dont allow you to take your camera inside and they have a good business in taking snaps of thulabaram and such things. We also took few snaps and gave our address and money. They were so prompt that we received it in a week's time along with the digital copy in a CD. We were impressed really.
Then we visited the nearby Mammiyoor Sri Mahadeva Temple.

We thought of visiting few places in Thrissur which in on the way to Kochi. We heard that the Marine Drive in Kochi will be too good and skipped Thrissur plan so that we can go there before evening. This stretch was the horrible one. For a mere 100 odd KM, we travelled for close to 5 hours. Thats it, Marine drive plans too collapsed. By the time we readched, it was closed. Fortunately the government boats are closed and we went for a 1 hour drive in a private boat. It was a wonderful trip. Wondered how it would have been if we had gone before dark. In the travel, they showed us: Bolgatti Palace/island, new port under construction, Chinese fishing net, place where the backwaters enters into the Arabian sea, rainbow bridge.
After a good ride, we visited Anu's chithappa place, spent sometime talking to them, had dinner and stayed in a hotel near Kochi Airport.
Day 5 - 10th Oct: The final day of our trip. We got ready and visited Kaaladi, brith place of Sri Adi Sankara. Then we came to Kochi airport. Settled the cab and started our journey back to Bangalore in GoAir flight. Reached Bangalore around 3.30 and had something to eat and reached home.

So what this trip had for us. Due to the bad roads, we could not make it to the destinations as we had expected and ended up visiting lesser places. This is just the only bad, I dont know if I should really call it bad as we dint feel that way all through the trip, part of the trip.

The driver Arun was very helpful all through the trip right from handling the luggages when we have to almost daily take it outside the cab and keep it again the next morning; taking us to places where we wanted; communicating us about the places we come across in a way we can understand in Malayalam and things like that. Though we could not cover the list of places we had on paper, whatever places we went to, we had a great time and loved it. So I would say, it was a great trip for us and this time with our family :)

One Good Thing is...

All of us know that a coin has two sides. At one point in time, you can see one side of a coin only. If you had to look at the other side of the coin, unless you flip the coin, you will not be able to see it. Likewise, in life, you have most of the ingredients in pairs like happy-sad, tall-short and such pairs.

Why I am telling this is, most of the times, many of us, including me, will look at things happened to us - looking at one side of a coin. And we forget one important thing - not flipping the coin to see the other side. In not flipping we are unaware of what is there on the other side. And there is
always "One Good Thing" in what ever has happened which you might discover when you find time to flip. I am sure this does really excite you, but I am sure that when you flip, you will appreciate and accept that it is a fact that One Good Thing exists in anything, more importantly anytime!!!

Let us have a look at a few of the happenings that occur either once in a while or in our daily walks of the life, which had atleast One Good Thing in it.

One Good Thing

* when any of your closest person, be it a friend or relative or your love, ditches you under some circumstances, is that it is really good that you learnt that you cannot count on them anymore.

* when you have failed in any of your attempts towards a particular goal, see that it in turn makes you think much better to achieve what you wanted thus honing your ability.

* when you miss the train / bus to your work place from your family / friends on a weekend night, is that, you can spend with your closed ones some more time.

* when you feel sorry / bad on seeing few folks who slog a lot to earn very little, is that, you can relax as they have got something to take care of them

* when you cross a Volvo bus, is that, you can rest assure that you will not be the chosen one for those idiots who spit out on the street from a bus.

* about this post is that you have been reminded that always there is atleast one good thing in everything and has brought a smiling curve, rather than a frowning curve, on your lips for a moment atleast.

Though at moments, you will not be in a position to look for the good things in whatever has happened, it would be good to flip the coin to discover and recover from that soon to see for the good thing in that. Now that you know that there is a good thing in everything, appreciate life for letting you know through an incident or happening.
This content is published here: http://authspot.com/thoughts/one-good-thing-is

20.June.2009: Closer look at the Sun.

Took this one from our balcony in Belathur, Bangalore. Zoomed the maximum possible in my handycam and caught the sun before it was off to rest. Loved the way it was and one of my friend told that the glare around the sun looked like Shirdi Saibaba, does it for you too? :)

23.May.2009: Shell in sand with sea behind.

Immersed the shell in the beach sand, took the snap by keeping the camera close to the sand. The result is the snap by your right hand side. Clicked in Elliots Beach, Chennai on a beautiful morning.

23.May.2009: Shell in my hand.

When I went to Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), Chennai, with my friends on a beautiful morning, I kept the shell on my fingers and shot it by myself very close that the beach was cloudy in the background.

A Typical Day!!

Just thought of sharing how a day typically happens for us now after moving to the new place. So here it goes and most of them take place almost everyday excepting a few days.

Our typical day starts with music. Yes... listen to it now. Beep beep beep... thus goes the alarm somewhere around 4 to 4.30 in the early morning (should I say mid-night?). It is one moment when we hate ourselves like anything on why in the first place we set the alarm. Most of the times I do not get disturbed by such intrusions hihihiihiiii... Cursing with a "pch..." or "hmmm..." we (mostly Anu) hit the snooze button only to get irritated by the beep in a few minutes.

Though Anu wakes up to snooze it she makes sure that I get up first and get refreshed and she succeeds almost every time. Think this victory should give her a great feeling and this means she can sleep for some more time. And when I come out and wake her up, she opens and closes her 5 fingers as though pumping the air horn and I hear her feeble voice begging "5 minutes pleaseee...". Without waiting for my response she covers her head with the bed-sheet and continues her sleep.

I go out to wash the clothes. I should thank the washing machine that helps in completing this task. I sometimes wonder if the dhobi in our area washes so many clothes in a week atleast which we wash in a single day. I set the timer and go to wake Anu in case she is still sleeping. I start peeling fruits which we have when we travel to office in the cab. In the meanwhile, she joins me in few minutes in the kitchen after getting refreshed. Then she prepares coffee for both of us. Then she starts working towards preparing breakfast and lunch. Sometimes I assist her in cutting vegetables and then dry up the clothes.

Actually we have 2 situations - when Aditi is asleep or awake. So, all the above are possible only if Aditi is sleeping. But somehow she gets to know that both of us are out of the room and will shout either Amma or Appa. So I would go to take care of her, since I dont know cooking, while Anu does most of them on her own. The remaining is taken care by Anu's mom after we leave.

Once Aditi is awake, I go to take care of her. We get into bathroom to brush. Most of the times she brushes herself and sometimes wants me to do it. Then she will have milk (horlicks or boost) by watching TV. Then I take her to give bath, dry her, dress her up and comb her and she is ready. And in the meantime Anu is complete with packing the tiffin boxes for us - both breakfast and lunch, pack Aditi's lunch box and pack her school bag. This happens only when either Aditi or I are in a good mood, else one other task in Anu's plate for that particular day :)

Once Aditi is out of bathroom, it's the turn of Anu and me to get ready. Once we are ready, we kiss a goodbye to Aditi and rush to the cab pick up point, fortunately just in front of our apartment. I usually go first so that I can ask the driver to stay for sometime just in case if Anu has not arrived. We get into the cab and finish off with the fruits first before crawling into the book which we have in the laptop bag. I have heard and read that reading in the traveling vehicle is a strain to the eyes, and you can enjoy the world outside while traveling too. All that sounds fine, but if you happen to travel in the cab we go, for that matter any cab, you might as well be happy to not see how rashly he drives the vehicle. So to avoid getting tensed that early in the morning, we prefer reading some book or the other till we reach office.

By the time we reach the office, Aditi would have started to her school in the school bus at 8 am. She will come back around 12.30pm, picked up by the lady from creche that is inside our apartment. She stays there till we pick her up in the evening.

Once we reach office we go straight to the gym and work out for around half an hour. Then we refresh and go to cafeteria to have the breakfast we had packed from home. Once we are through, we goto our workplace and continue with our office work. We start from office in the evening at 4.45 and reach the apartment around 6pm. We then pick up Aditi from creche and go home.

After getting refreshed, I take Aditi to the play area. She spends sometime there along with the other kids in swing, slide and playing with sand. Sometimes, Anu joins us. Then we go back home. Anu continues with her dinner chores and Aditi does some coloring or that amuses her - singing. She loves it as she seldom closes her mouth. She will sing rhymes or movie songs or prayers or at times, something on her own. Its time for dinner. Once Aditi and I are through with our dinner, Anu will have her dinner and sets the dining area/table right before sleeping.

In the meanwhile, I will take Aditi to make her sleep. I have to tell her a story or two else she will not allow me to sleep. Most of the times, I tell her the story with half asleep. Sometimes, I wake up when Aditi shouts "come on tell appa" and had to hardly remember what I was telling her before I fell asleep and continue it :) Most of the times, before Anu is off to bed, she takes care of setting the alarm so that our next day also starts with music - obviously which we won't like it the next morning :)

Grand 'SLAM' Time

Hey its the month of April - time for an exclusive hunt - and every year this hunt will be on with mixed feelings. The hunt I am referring to is about getting your autograph book or slam books slammed by the buddies whom you think you dont want to miss, atleast for that moment, at a later stage of your life. Though the word SLAM sounds a bit harsh, I look at it a perfect framing. The words in the book will find the depth of your heart as though it is slammed inside your soul.

This exercise of getting your slam books slammed by your friends, teachers, non-teaching staffs (though I have not got one...hmm) will look more important than completing your final exams as you don't want to lose anyone before you move (in most of the cases). And this slamming happens right from the school days, it continues to your high school, then to college days. I am not sure if anyone has got their slam books before they leave from one company to other and maybe when they retire:)

What are the times which will make the guys pick a slam book? The situations could vary from moving from one school to other in case of elementary to high school or high school to higher secondary or school to college or in case of the person's parents getting transfered to a different place and the list can go on. What finally needs to be looked at is the guys coming up with a book in their hand in mixed feelings to get their book filled in by most of them around.

So, why this becomes so special in your life? I should say it is a very special phase that you would love to read what every one has slammed in your book about them - their birthdays, address, photo and most importantly about you :) Sometimes, even this would get rid of the enmity between a few in your schooldays which is really good, right? And for some, it could be an ambition to get it filled from the ones they like/love and the word from them will mean everything for them :) It gives you a lovely feeling at that moment and a great feeling when you happen to look at that book after several years. It works like a time machine that you make a special trip to that older moments virtually, live there for a moment with the happenings around that period and so on. And, reading it again after years makes you feel very happy for sure :)

The other day on the road, I saw two guys going thru the slam book and could see a smile on their face. Looking at them, unknowingly I was smiling and feeling happy since it reminded me of my good old days where I got autograph of so many great people who shared their times with me in some walk or the other in my life. Guys if you missed it during your school/college days, even now its not too late. If you are going to move to a different company from the one you are working now or if you are going to retire, make sure you get slammed by your people around and I can guarantee that you will love to read it after a few years.

So, get slammed and have fun!!!!!!

This content is published here: http://quazen.com/shopping/grand-slam-time/

Relationships!!

Have you, at times wondered like - "what's happening to me?", "few years back it was not like this", "what happened all of a sudden?", etc...?

Few years back you would have been talking to your closed ones (siblings, relations, friends...) without any hassles but now the scenario might be different that you try to avoid each other and you are feeling uneasy. You are like an isolated island with respect to that person(s) though you are very close physically.

If you look back at it, spending some time for that, you will realize that it could have been avoided by talking open heartedly. So talking the issues and thrashing it out before it's too late is a good thing to maintain relations is what I feel. It's not that we don't know this but we DON'T DO it. How sad :(

What's happening is that we are not ready to accept the uniqueness of each personality. Each person is unique in his own way. But when it comes to being together with others, we, somehow, expect others to behave like how we expect. So, we DON'T ACCEPT THE DIFFERENCES. On the other hand, we are not ready to listen to what others tell. That is, if your closed ones tell you something or wants to comment about your act, you are not OK with that and DON'T WANT TO LISTEN.

When such things happen and you don't talk about that, the gap becomes large that you start to feel some discomfort with the respective person. If the talking had happened somehow, you would not have moved into the so called discomfort zone. So start talking to your closed ones open heartedly, now atleast so that such petty things dont destroy the relation between two good people. These talkings are good in any kind of a relationship - be it between your siblings, between your family members, between parents and their children, husband and wife or between friends.

Aren't these things very simple and can be shoo-ed away just like that without any issues? It CAN be done provided, you - both the ends - are open to accepting the differences and listen to what others say. I know it is very difficult though easily said but when it comes to maintain relationships, which atleast I feel, is very important in all walks of our life.

This content is published here: http://socyberty.com/relationships/relationships-9/

15.Mar.2010: Artist Anu's feat!!

Think most of you know that my better half (yes, really better :)) Anu does many art work that includes drawing. She has now got a drawing notebook and started drawing after a long gap. Recently she drew a toy seller picture using different HB pencils for shading. It came out so well that I immediately took a copy of that drawing and pasted in my workplace. No wonder that everyone who had seen that drawing were amazed at the work and I really felt happy for her.

I never knew that much more happier moment is waiting in the cards for me. Yes, my manager Sri went a step ahead and asked me if Anu will draw some picture for her in a chart. She also told that she will get the chart and pencils for that. Isn't that a great thing? Yes, it is and I was very happy to hear that. I checked with Anu and confirmed that she will do it.

Anu din't say "yes" immediately as she was afraid if she was of that calibre but ultimately agreed. The next day, Sri came with 2 charts and charcoal pencils and I handed it over to Anu :) Anu (for that matter me too) was not aware if such chart sheets are there as we are used to the normal chart papers only. Also, it was the first time that Anu will be trying in charcoal pencils. She thought she will first try in one chart to learn the nuances to use charcoal pencils and then will draw in the other chart.

She started to draw the same drawing which Sri liked. She could not spend time during the weekdays and sat to draw during the weekends, that too after Aditi slept. She spent totally 3 weekends to complete the drawing. And, yes... she did complete in the first chart itself which she told she would first try. Think I need not say that it came out really well and was beautiful.

We handed the chart to Sri and she was very happy that Anu took sometime to draw it for her. In the next 2-3 days, Sri sent us the snap of the drawing that made both of us very happy. Sri framed it and added more beauty to the drawing and hanged it in her home and snapped it and sent it to both of us. That moment was really great.

This is the collage of her drawing before and after framing :)

Anu was so happy to see her drawing decorating someone's drawing room :) Wishing her to achieve more and who knows maybe I would be managing her business in the future scheduling her Art exhibition :) I wish that to happen for my wonderful lady :)

11.Mar.2010: உணர்தல்

உன்னைக் கண்டதும்
பருந்து பறப்பதற்கு
தன் இறகை மெலிதாக அசைப்பதைப்
போலிருக்கும் என் மனது...

நீ என்னைக் கண்டதும்
புறா பறப்பதற்கு
தன் இறகை படபடப்பதைப்
போலாகிறதடி என் மனம்!!!!

09.Mar.2010: தமிழுடன் ஓர் உரையாடல்

என் மொழித் தாய்
தமிழுடன்
உரையாட ஆசைப்பட்டு
அவளிடம் சில
மணித்துளிகளை வேண்டி பெற்றேன்.

அனைத்தும் நலமா?
என்ற என் வினாவினை
எதிர்பாராதவள் போல
கண் கலங்கினாள் அவள்.

என்னை பதற்றம்
தொற்றிக் கொள்ள - அவளிடம்
கலங்கிய காரணம்
கூறக் கோரினேன்.

என் தூய்மை
நீங்குமாறு
ஊர் ஊராக
என்னை கூறுகளாக்கி
களங்கப் படுத்தியுள்ளீர்களே...

போதாததற்கு
வேற்று மொழி கலந்து
தமிங்கிலமாகவோ
தமிந்தியாகவோ
தமுங்காகவோ
மாற்றிவிட்டீர்களே...

என நொந்தவளை
கேள்வியோடு பார்த்த எனக்கு
"எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்" என்பதை...
"எப்டி இருக்க"
"எப்டி இருக்கீங்க"
"எப்படி இருக்கேள்"
"எப்படி இருக்கீய"
"எப்டி கீர"
என மாறிய உதாரணம் கூறினாள்.

இதற்கே இப்படி
வருத்தப்படுபவளைப் பார்த்து
ஒன்றும் செய்ய முடியாதவனாய்
நிற்க நேரிட்ட வருத்தத்தோடு
வேண்டினேன் தமிழிடம்...

sorry என்னை மன்னிச்சிடு என்று!!!

25.02.2010: சமூகம்!!

மனித சமுதாயத்தை
சமூகங்களாக பிரிப்பது
தவறு எனப் போராடிய
அனைவரும் ஒன்று கூடினார்கள்
"சாதிகள் இல்லையடி" என்ற
ஓர் orkut சமூகத்தில்!!!!!!

Dec,2009: சுவாசம்

நண்பர்களே!!
ஏதேனும் ஒரு சந்தர்ப்பத்தில்
நான் மயங்கிய நிலையிலோ
சுவாசிக்க சிரமப் படுவதையோ
சகிக்க முடியாது போனால்...
மருத்துவமனை தேடித் போகாதீர்கள்!!!

என்னவளின் பெயரை மட்டும்
எனக்கு அருகில் வந்து
உச்சரியுங்கள் போதும் - ஏனெனில்,
அவளை கண்ட நாள் முதலாய்
நான் சுவாசிப்பது O2 அல்ல...
அவளுடைய பெயரைத் தான் !!!!!

13.Mar.2010: Aditi's school day - great day to us!!!!!!

Last weekend, 13th March 2010 to be precise, was Aditi's school day / graduation day function in Hotel Evoma, on the old Madras road in Bangalore. I should say, it was a memorable and a fantastic event for Anu and I. Hope most of you know Aditi was going to Apple Kids - a play school near Whitefield here in Bangalore.

On 13th, since the function was at the odd time (4pm in the evening) and Aditi was particiapting in 2 events, we made her sleep immediately after breakfast. Woke her up for lunch. After having lunch, we all (Aditi + her grandparents and parents) left for the grand occassion to Hotel Evoma. We reached there before time like most of the parents and sat in the first row just in front of the stage. Though the hall was not that full, there were kids with their parents / siblings. There was a person sitting in a corner doing hand painting for the kids.

The performances by the kids started after sometime and the teachers asked us to dress up Aditi for her first performance of the day. She got dressed up in a cute pink frock with white socks and was waiting to make her first stage performance. Then came the call for the performance "Next on stage is a dance performance for "Apple Kids" song by play school kids". And Aditi climbed onto the stagee with a broad smile on her face. I need not say that the performance by the kids were so cute that we loved a lot and captured the dance. After that we had real joy in watching the performances of the kids.

Check the Apple Kids song video by clicking here

Then we dressed up Aditi in a traditional dress - bluish green silk dress.

In the meantime, they have started giving the medals for the kids who had performed all over the year in sports, fancy dress and overall performance. We felt happy to hear Aditi's name each time they called her to stage. First time they called her name to get the medal for coming first in Frog race. She was called again to receive the next medal for throwing ball in a basket. She posed with those 2 medals with a big smile. Then she climbed the stage to get the second prize dressing up like an IPS officer in Fancy dress competition.

Then the program continued with other performances and Aditi went to perform for 2nd time with the traditional dress for the song "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" representing Tamilnadu's part of the song along with another kid. It was fun to watch kids in different traditional dresses that are worn across our country, India. Then they gave the certificates to all the kids and Aditi got her play school participation certificate from the center head.



Then came our wonderful and more joyous moment. Aditi was called on stage to receive "Star Performer of the Year" award. We felt really very proud for her. They called us, the parents, on the stage and asked me to give the award - a cup, to Aditi. With lots of love and great pride I gave it to her. As a parent, we felt proud and could not control our happiness on the stage. We got the moment snapped - one for the life for sure :)

Down came the curtains after other star performers in pre-kg and other batch of play school were awarded. After high tea, we took snaps with all the teaching staff and non-teaching staff before returing home with a proud feeling with Aditi's certificate, 2 medals, a prize and an award. We wish her to achieve more to make us happy in the days to come.

We love you sweetie - Aditi :)

Live in others!!!

We have heard of "Live and let others live". I would like to modify this a bit as "Live in others and let them live". Yes, when we have a chance to live in others by donating blood when we are alive and other organs like eye, kidney etc after our death, the modified statement makes sense right?

I thought of sharing my experience I had last weekend as it was a very satisfying one for me as I was chosen by The Almighty to help a person in need . To be specific, the person, suffering from blood cancer, was in need of blood platelets.

I know many of you who read this would have donated blood atleast once or would be thinking of doing it in the future. I am not sure how many of you have heard of donating blood platelets, a component in our blood.

Last weekend, I got a call from some group, which assist in arranging blood for the people in need, to check if I am interested to donate platelets. They have traced me through the site www.indianblooddonors.com where I have registered very recently. I checked with our family doctor if it is safe to donate blood platelets and confirmed them I can donate.

Platelet separation process
This particular platelet donation takes 1 to 2 hrs of time based on the platelet count of the donor. Normally the range is 3 to 4.5 lakh platelets per cubic liter of blood (the person I donated had a count 8000 only). They have an instrument to separate the platelet from our blood. This is how the process goes.

Before the process starts, they check if the donor has good platelet count. Once it is fine, they ask us to get refreshed and come as we will have to lie down for a max of 2 hours without any disturbance. Once we are ready, they inject in our hand and pull blood to a container in that instrument. And when the blood is pulled out of our body, you will feel numb around your lips as the Calcium content gets dropped. The lab technician gives you a tablet to chew so to compensate that.

Once 400 ml of blood is collected, the platelet separation process starts. Don’t get panic on what will happen to the 400 ml of our blood. The blood is collected by the instrument into a container with a solution that keeps the blood safe from clotting. Once the platelet separation process is over, the blood with out the platelet will be injected back into our body.

This process of pulling out and injecting blood into our body happens 4 to 5 times. In this process platelet collected was around 210 ml and the platelet count will be around 2 lakh it seems. And they call the platelet donation "online" because the life span of the collected platelet is 2 days it seems. So ideally, once the platelet is collected from a donor, it should be immediately injected to the patient. Since it is the component alone that is injected, it is good than the whole blood being injected. Also, you can donate blood in the next 2 days :) Cool right!!!!

The patient's people called us the next morning to say that now the count has increased from 8000 to around 90000 and that he was a bit stable. What more one can ask than things like this in your life? My wife & I were very much satisfied.

I would like you all to visit the website "www.indianblooddonors.com" and have yourself registered as you can not only look for the needy people, you can also look for the people who donate. Also, the details may not be the exact one. Check with your doctor for more details or google to know more.

And get a chance to live in others to make them live!!!!

This content is published here: http://healthmad.com/medicine/live-in-others/

School Hunt

Come October and it is happening time for the schools and a nightmare for many parents who are on the look-out for schools for their kids from pre-kg or pre-nursery to any grade.

A short intro on where we are and for what we are hunting for schools. Right now we are in Bangalore and we planned to put our daughter in Pre-kg for the academic year 2010-11. Most of us, our peers, would have studied in some normal / government schools except a few. And as any normal parent we thought of looking out for a good school where our daughter could get some more exposure than we have got during our school days.

And I never thought checking out for a school would be such a big challenge/learning experience. Yes, in deed it was a great experience for us before we zeroed in on a school which, at least we felt would be better than the rest.

Initially, somewhere around August, we started googling for CBSE board schools in the city and prepared a list of schools and took a print out of the same with the address and numbers. Then, we enquired our colleagues about the schools they feel is good. October came and we started our hunt for schools. We went to an area and searched for schools in and around that area with the list we had. We called up the phone numbers and found most of them were outdated. And we got the numbers of few schools through the JustDial service.

This way we went to 3/4 different areas and enquired in schools about the details like - fees, donation, whether they have some extra-curricular activities apart from academics, teacher to student ratio, if the school has playground and things like that. And our daughter got admission in a school in the first week of November.

In this process, we came to know one thing - admission in schools is a very big business. The reason why I say this is, we came to know through some of our colleagues that there are brokers to get a seat for pre-kg (not for BE and MBBS as it was during our days) and the cost for that is few lakhs it seems.

I just wanted to quote an incident happened to us in one of the schools. When we enquired for the direction over phone, we were told that they don’t have Pre-kg and they admit kids from LKG only. But we just wanted to look at the school and asked for the direction again. The response was "Why do you want to come when we do not admit kids for pre-kg?" and they just hung the phone. The school is one of the so called "good" schools. I was totally taken aback by this and I just told to myself, is this the one or similar one my kid is going to study in? But I had no choice and I had to choose the best among the worst
available. And we got admission for our kid in a good school.

Here, by good school, what I mean is that, we felt the school was good. With that assumption, we have given our kid a channel to start her academic / career / life. And we could do nothing more as finally it is the kids who, with the parent’s guidance, in future will show us if we chose him/her really a good school.

So, my take is, do not worry much about which school to seek for. All are good and bad. We can just go by our knowledge about the schools and expect for good things to happen. I am sure, good things will happen to all of us - the parents whose job of hunting for schools have become a terrific task these days!!!!

This content is published here: http://socyberty.com/education/school-hunt/