On the face of it this visit of mine to Babina may seem like any normal visit of a sister going to meet his brother but it was much more than just that. It was a visit to witness the realization of a long cherished dream of my father, for whom my brother Chintu was always the Ram beta. And quite understandably more so after the death of my second brother Sonu in an accident on 01 Jan 1993. My father, a die hard fauji, had striven all his life to provide for his family within the limited means that the army provided at that time.

Posted on March 27th, 2011 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: asthma, brother, dream, fauji, officer, sister. Comments: 6

Dentists have a way of making you uncomfortable. Otherwise it is customary for other surgeons to reassure their patients before a surgery with something like, “You won’t feel a thing” or words to that effect but not dentists. And I’ve no idea why. Yeah, they do smile and welcome you initially but after they have done your check up if they deduce that a surgery is required to extract your teeth or some such procedure is necessary, the next thing they do is make a very long face and very seriously start writing on the patient’s slip without bothering to tell the patient what the hell is wrong with them, while the patient himself or herself is fidgeting like crazy in that stupid dental chair, quite scared to ask the doctor anything. After he has finished writing he looks up and says, “We have to extract your teeth and it is going to be a little painful. But don’t worry. We’ll give you local anesthesia”. And no, they do not quantify ‘little’. They also never tell you that ‘little’ is only applicable till the time the local anesthesia thing is working. After that, you are on your own.

Posted on July 13th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: anesthesia, dentist, extract, painkiller, tooth, wisdom. Comments: 7

There were quite a few hits and misses before Aleena became potty trained, literally. Like the other day when I’d taken her along with me to a market without a diaper, quite sure that she would not do anything messy, she proved me wrong. While I was at a shop checking out bedcovers with this girl in my arms, she gave a missed call (you know what I mean). Everybody heard it and smelled it too. As you can imagine, I was petrified. This was a signal for the big job which was coming.

Posted on June 2nd, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: diapers, hits, kids, misses, potty, share, stage, trained. Comments: 7

During the last few years the number of channels on our TV have increased to a level where we have lost count of them. With the channels going 24X7 there was a big inflow of all kinds of programs. Most channels had some kind of fitness related programs in the morning. Some channels had some swamis or babas delivering sermons, singing bhajans or even some gurus teaching yoga. Something on every channel for everybody’s taste. I realized that all of a sudden every one wanted to catch our attentions. Our eyeballs were suddenly becoming very important. On the spiritual front not just the number of programs but even the number of channels exploded like never before. And some of them were rather too blunt and in your face. Your spirituality was being thrust on you. To my bewilderment I found my mom and after marriage my mom-in-law listen to these discourses and bhajans pretty regularly, something which I found rather difficult to get myself to do on a daily basis. And they were not the only ones doing this. Gullible as we are, I found millions of Indians across every town, city and state following some religious preacher or the other. It was as if the Hindu society was being divided all over again. And this time it was based on babas and swamis.

Posted on April 14th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY, Feelings, India calling. Tags: baba, faith, Patanjali, pranayam, Ramdev, spirituality, Swami, yoga. Comments: 14

I rather liked the “Amul Butter” ad where they call IPL as “Injured People’s League” what with many key players in all the teams having injured themselves in one way or the other. My sympathies with them, especially their moms if they are recuperating at home. I very much connect with them as I have had a very own, little injured people’s league at home. Though the person injured is having a tough time but the one looking after them has it even tougher. And lately I have experienced it so many times that I can call myself a veteran at nursing injured people or rather brats.

Posted on March 30th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: bandage, chocolates, heal, hugs, injury, IPL, kids, smile. Comments: 2

As always, Holi brought a riot of colors not just to our lives but more importantly to our bathrooms as well. Because by the time we finished having our baths today the loos were a complete mess, as you can very well imagine. Even the soaps have become unusable. Hahaha!!! Jokes apart, on a more serious note(?) Holi, though slightly different for us from last time, was great fun nonetheless. I say different because after having moved to our new house it was no longer possible to go to our parent’s places because they are rather too far now. Instead, we got together with all our friends and had a blast. All of us assembled in a swimming pool and as you can guess most of us got wet

Posted on March 1st, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: beer, blast, enjoy, Holi, party. Comments: 1

Getting into a house is an experience in itself. As soon you enter the new house you feel you are intruding into someone else’s domain, as there are still some tell tale signs of the previous occupant. Everything about the house is new and unknown and you look at everything very critically, the first few minutes. Once you move to the bedroom or the kitchen, the two most important parts of any household, your mind automatically starts visualizing where you are going to place what. And as your future bedroom or kitchen virtually appears before you, you start connecting with the house. The condition of the house is another factor which helps in connecting with it. If its neat, the connection is instant, but if on the other hand the house has been left in a shabby condition by the previous occupant, you really take time in envisioning the house as your future abode. I have been quite lucky so far to get clean houses. But then I always make it a point to leave behind a neat and clean house, whenever we shift. So I guess if we do good, somewhere in some form it comes back to you. Having seen the house and deciding to shift in was a very easy job. The real action follows after that….?????? In shifting from one house to another, one does get uprooted for a couple of days, hence the urgency to settle down into the new one.

Posted on February 28th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: b'day, help, house, job, party, shifting, warm. Comments: 3

We would be rather naive if among the numerous confabulations which reverberate in our monotonous regimen we chose not to coagulate our symptomatic priorities in our subconscious existence so as to mitigate any conflicting preponderances which may permeate to vitiate our environment.

Posted on February 15th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY, Feelings. Tags: bed time, constructive, creativity, food, innovate, message, moral, stories, traffic. Comments: 10

Now with Aleena being almost 17-odd months old things are a little manageable and everything was going well. We had just got over umpteen parties we attended or had thrown for our friends for Christmas and to welcome the new year. I was just sitting back asking myself when would I get over this feeling of tiredness and sleepless nights when Manish casually asked me if I wanted some change in my life. And I swear, being a fauzi kid, change is something I grew up with. What with change of places, houses, schools, friends, people in general and what not all. Though change is something I thrive on but it is always accompanied by butterflies in my stomach, not for anything else but in anticipation for the unknown. The very idea of something new gives me hope for something good. So, I was game when Manish suggested we move into a bigger house, now that both the girls needed space and I could also do with a separate study. I was actually very happy at the idea of having a study of my own where I could work undisturbed and Mansie and Aleena will not flick my stationary, my table will be untouched and I would find things where I left them.

Posted on February 11th, 2010 under AUTHOR'S DIARY. Tags: feelings, moving, neighbors, packing, shift. Comments: 12