I feel bliss!

The baby is sleeping
The cooker just hooted its three whistles, which means till the next 20 mins (till it cools down), I have no work in the kitchen
I finished doing weights
I tucked away the laundry
That evening call at 6.30 got canceled

Now I can peacefully sit for the next 15-20 mins (or till the baby wakes up, whichever is earlier) and get some work done.

I feel happy, one of those rare 20 minutes of stillness in the evenings! :)

Madness

Today was one of those days. When the day disappears in a whirlwind of tasks. From the morning, to now, it has been one thing or another at work. Escalations, tracking, meetings, more meetings, multiple meetings at the same time where I am needed in all, so apologizing to some people for not making it, calls, and all the rest of the good stuff. I just cleared my Inbox full of tasks. And today the son finishes 11 months. In 11 months, I think this is the first month milestone that I was not home some part of the day. Somehow all the months so far I have been working from home on those days or it fell on off days, or I took off specifically. Today I couldn't do any of that.

Well, anyway, at one point of time I was feeling stressed. Then I just took off for an hour, did the usual stuff with the son, bathing him, feeding him, etc and got back the mind to a threshold of peace and started again. Helps focus, this tactic. Else you are going from bad to worse ;)

Card Tower

One of those rare off days today, thanks to Raksha Bandhan. And all the more pleasant since I had no inkling of an approaching holiday till yesterday morning, when sitting in one of those meetings, I was enlightened by my peers about it.

The son usually loves to bulldoze through the blocks tower I make for him. He patiently waits till I am done with it and then goes and gives it a fistful, scattering all the blocks around. He rather enjoys that kind of sport. Boys, I tell you. Will be boys.

So I thought today, given I had the time and leisure, why not make a card structure for him like I used to when I was young. We used to take my Dad's business cards and make a tower out of it. My dad taught us how to do it. The more houses on the base we went, the more triumphant we felt.

So today, I did this for the son. Initially it was impossible. I was only able to get ONE pair of cards standing and the minute I put one next to it, all four cards would collapse. I thought, although it's been a while, I couldn't have become so rusty. So then I figured it was probably the slippery floor and tried it on the sofa. Modestly going for four "houses" in the base. Voila! I did it!

And the son happily obliged too!

Fiver..

Today, it is five years since Subhash and I got engaged in a formal ceremony. I remember that trip as if it was yesterday. I had just joined Cisco back then, a few months into, and I didn't have enough vacation to go to India. Subhash's brother was getting married and I knew his parents would be happy if I'd be around too. Plus I wanted my parents to visit me in California, so I thought, I'd go on a quick one week trip and bring my parents back with me. I took a PTO loan (which my manager graciously approved) for one week (couldn't afford more, I'd have to visit again within 6 months for our own wedding) and off I came.

After I had bought my tickets, Subhash's parents said, well, if you are going to come anyways, let's get you guys engaged as well. So, there, I was going to have a formal engagement ceremony, something I never planned or accounted for :)

And what a week it was! Shopping, packing, sorting stuff, collecting tickets, checking visas etc etc etc. We finished my parents preparation in marathon time. My aunts and uncles and cousins came up to Hyd from Bangalore to attend the engagement (again, something on this scale, I never expected!) and so the morning of his brother's wedding was spent in receiving them at the station and then rushing to the hall, not bothering how I was looking or how I was dressed. Attended his brother's wedding and rushed out as soon as I could excuse myself, since I had some 100 other tasks to finish. The same saga continued through the next day and as a result I went to my engagement looking drained and dirty. How I draped the saree, how the hair was looking, god knows. I just finished some marathon driving around the city Kukatpally-Secunderabad-Kukatpally-RK Puram and so was in no shape to think about appearances. A couple of our JNTU friends could also actually visit us. And there is one picture we took with them, in which I actually can see the dirt on my face from all that driving ;) ;)

But finally it was done. We were blessed by all and got engaged in a ceremony that was so formal, that I still cannot believe it all happened :) Ohh, of course, I got a nice engagement ring too ;)

Five years, already!

Info overload?

Subhash sent me some newsletter he has subscribed to about the baby's week-on-week development. There was some nice stuff in it (he subscribed, not me, see that?)

As usual, it gave me the jitters. For whatever reason, I am very nervous to read these things. When you know that these 100 things should happen this week, it is easy to get upset when one of them doesn't. At least that is my temperament. So I avoid these self-help books like the plague.

When I was expecting, a lot of friends suggested we buy the bible "What to expect when you are expecting". I somehow shied away from it. Then we asked Dr. Kini if we should get it. He said he'd take us along the path and so there was no need for the book. That day I was sure he was the doc for me ;) And, of course, I never bought that book.

To date, I stick to the philosophy of listening to the doc and the doc alone. Any questions I have, I call the son's pediatrician. And no one else. No internet. No books. I don't even browse out of curiosity. Because you never know what information you get back. Too much information makes me nervous. What to believe, what not to believe. What to execute, what not to execute. So I keep it simple. Call the doc. Ask him. Do what he says. Trust him. To suggest the right thing. I did my research (very little of it) while looking for a doc. Not after :)

Temples and crowds

In the last three months, I have had two harrowing experiences at temples. One was at Tirumala and one was near my aunt's place at Raja Rajeshwari Nagara (Mysore road).

I believe a temple should be a peaceful place, where people respect others' need to pray, maintain silence and you can really focus on the one thing you are there to focus on. The GOD.

But these two experiences left me wanting never to go back. The crowd. The jostling. In Tirumala, it was so nasty that the son started to cry as soon as we entered any line. He was so fed up with the noise, the commotion, the pushing and prodding.

The same in the Raja Rajeshwari temple. Years ago (more than a decade now) when I used to regularly go to this temple while visiting my aunt and when this whole nagara was not so full of people, with sparsely populated blocks and so on, it used to be a good experience. But now, all you are left focusing on is, how to get to the priest and take that harathi without causing a stampede. Or how to protect your 10 month old, (who is sleeping on you, with confidence that you'd see him through) from people who are in a mad rush to go somewhere and don't care if they kick an infant in the process.

I didn't pray in these temple visits. I was too busy battling the crowds. This is not what a temple visit should be like. I am certainly not going back in a hurry.

Whats up

I sat down to blog and then I checked my Inbox. There was a mail asking if I'd been busy. Someone was missing my updates!

Talking to people is always like a sounding board, you hear what is hidden in your own mind. I was trying to explain to someone I knew, about why I was not blogging. When I discovered that it is not so much not having time to write as to not knowing what to write. Days are a whirlwind of one thing after another. Work, baby, work, cooking, work, baby, work, something else. And so on, you get it! But I am sure I'd write SOMETHING if I had something to write about. But there you go, nothing but mundane routine. No new observations made, nothing new or exciting seen/learnt ;)

Today is my son's first Independence Day. I am glad he was born in a free country. So I said a silent word of thanks to whoever was responsible for it.

Yesterday Subhash and I stole off to dinner. Alone! Thanks to his parents, we left the son at home after feeding and putting him to sleep. We tried Zen (@Leela) and it was super. The food was just right. And we got some alone time after a long long while and got talking (like we used to earlier). It was satisfying. I didn't realize how much I missed it till last night :)

Friends came over yesterday and today. Today's folks just moved back from the US. It is great that so many from our gang back there are moving back. Bangalore is the next Bay Area for us. We have a substantial group here now and catch up with some or the other of them every weekend!

As usual, exciting and nasty things happening at work. Some days are battles, some days are peaceful.

All in all, life goes on as usual.