Friday Fun – Chutku at 22 months

The little fellow has become more than 2 hands full! Looks like Im the only one who can handle him right now. Mom,Dad,MIL, hubby all of them think twice before accepting to handle him even for a couple of hours incase I need to go out. Here’s how it goes if I say I need to go to out for a couple hours (even to the parlor for a 10mins eyebrows job!)

Dad “Im not going to commit to taking care of him-I cant run behind him”.
Mom “If Dad is also at home then I think I can take care of him for half day, but he wont eat with me…”
MIL “I can take him to the park for 1/2 hr –  get all your work done by then, at home he wont stay with me!!”
Hubby “(Resignedly) OK, I will stay at home… (a couple mins later) Where are your parents going? They will be back before you go na? (A couple more mins later) Hmmm… I think I will call up my mom and ask if she can come…(some silence later) – do you *really* HAVE to go today only? Cant you go next weekend when your parents/my mom/my dad (or someone else) can be at home…

So such is the situation with the little monster right now…

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He has become extremely expressive – LOUD and clear – yes, loud being the operative word. He wants what he wants only and at that moment only -totally stubborn – be it the horsie, the shoes (he sometimes even sleeps with shoes on and we need to remove it after he sleeps). Doesnt want to eat means No Amma-no appacchi, Doesnt want to sleep – No Amma, no cheep, Wants cartoon – A,B,C catoooonn. His Thatha should not remove his specs, appa should never sit next to amma… the list is endless!

If Ajji comes – he knows she will take him out in the pram – so as soon as she comes he will not even allow her to step inside and remove her shoes – Ajji,come,baa Ajji, paammm (pram) and creates a scene if she doesnt go immediately.

He is not feeling too well for over 3 weeks now 😦 lot of phlegm and cough and he wakes up from sleep.The other night he was tossing and turning and hubby thought that maybe he was feeling hot – so he removed his socks – immediately the little fellow sits up in bed – sits crossed legged in front of his Appa and begins to cry – socksssuuuu, socuksssuuuu with closed eyes – hubby too is confused in sleepy state, looks at me not knowing what to do – I said – put his socks back on – as soon as he put it – the little fellow just fell back on the bed – in hubby’s place and there was no place for hubby to sleep. So I tell him to come and sleep in Chutku’s place (next to me,by the way) immediately the little fellow begins to push him from that place-“Naanuu (me) ,no Appa no cheep”. At 2.30am in the morning does it happen in your homes too? – hear a child crying and 2 adults laughing.That is his level of possessiveness for me…

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And all my worries about him talking have just vanished into thin air.Everytime we talk he picks up some new word and begins to use it. These days he is making small 3 word sentences too – Amma naana aithu (Bath), Amma come amma,chit (sit), puttu paapa cheep (puttu paapa – himself)!! He wants me most of the times next to him while he sleeps.

At the day care, they say Aa paNNu while they feed the kids – so in the bus, he eats half a biscuit and  then says “Amma, aa paNNuuuu” and shoves the left over piece in my mouth while Im trying to control my laughter!

I’ve already written about his Theetha aunty here. Now, this theetha aunty has told him that if he sits down between seats there will be mosquitoes which will bite him – so even in the car now, if he sits down even to pick up something he says “Thoyye,theetha aunthy – thoyyee” 😛 (thoyye = soLLe=mosquito in Kannada)

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Some stolen moments:

Some mornings (very rarely) if he doent wake up by 6.30 – its my job to wake him up – and I just LOVE doing it with kisses. I keep giving him kisses until he wakes up.He opens his eyes, smiles at me, stretches himself and then raises his hands saying “huggiieeee” and I just melt into those arms 🙂 for as long as those arms are around my neck – I forget all about the morning hurry…

Sudden bursts of love has my face smothered with tiny fingers pinching my cheeks and unlimited kisses,pulling of hair and sometimes even biting!

Since my parents are here,we have shifted to the upstairs room and while the little fellow is all confident climbing the stairs, getting down scares him – so if he wants to get down he calls me “Amma, baa, Amma,come” (with actions) and he will get down 2 stairs holding my fingers and then he just stands there and says “Amma, yetha, peech yettha” (yetta – carry) and I realise that my toddler is still my baby which I can savour for a few more days/months until he begins to push me out to learn everything on his own!

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Couple more months until he turns 2 – sigh! My baby is growing up so damn fast! 😦

And oh yeah,can anybody confirm  – Do the terrible two tantrums begin from 22nd month itself…

Jagjit Singh – RIP

I know I am a week late but I didnt want it to be never… So, here is my small tribute to the man whose songs were what exposed me to ghazals. And they all hold a special place in my heart – both because of the lyrics and the soulful way he has sung them too.. These songs are what they are because he sung them and more often than not I sing these songs in family gatherings that has brought in appreciation.

This ofcourse *has* to be on top… Wow the lyrics and Wow the singing…

Aakaash ka soonapan mere tanha man mein…

Zindagi dhoop tum ghana saaya…

Rekhaao ka khel hai mukkaddar…Rekhao se maut kha rahi ho…

And finally, This one that also has Aamir Khan… Hosh walon ko khabar kya…

All these songs are on the iPod and I can listen to these on repeat on a really bad day or a reflective day and the mood lightens up…RIP Jagjit Singh…

Killing Dreams – Is this an abuse too?

I wanted to write a post on women violence and incidents I’ve heard off but then I got to know about a colleague yesterday afternoon which got me thinking on these lines – do read below and let me know what you all think too…

I have a young colleague – she’s about 23/24 and she has been working for about 3 years now. An only daughter with 2 brothers she is well educated,pampered and given wings to fly… She has built dreams to be a career woman – sees herself where she wants to be 10 years from now – be her own person and in a top position in an organisation, dreams of giving her parents the best health care available, buy her own home her own car… All dreams that any self confident person would think of. She has slowly and surely built confidence in her abilities with the higher management, has been vocal about wanting to travel for long term onsite assignments and her VISA processing had begun when I first met her about 6 months back.Infact, when I first met her – that was what I really appreciated – here was a girl who knew where she was, where she wanted to go – what she wanted from her life and was working really hard to get there.

Today, she is crying – her dreams and aspirations are all but gone down the drain…Why? Here is the story:

About 5 months back, she announced that she was engaged to be married in July. When we asked her about what happened to her dreams of onsite assignment she said everyone was aware of it and had ‘agreed’ to her pursuing that dream even after marriage. Everyone – her parents, her in-laws and her fiance’. She was sooo happy that her plans were appreciated. Initially she had even refused to get married until her onsite assignment was completed. But then like all parents of girls there was some emotional drama and push for her to consider marriage and her parents promised that they would keep the other party informed about her onsite opportunity. And on their part – they had. The would-be MIL and the fiance’ were all for it. They agreed that he would get married and go back to the US where he worked while she stayed here until the VISA processing got completed, would go onsite (Canada) and they would visit often until she could move permanently to US once her onsite assignment was done – which would be another year at most…

The wedding happened, she got a dependent Visa, and he went back, she continued to be here and commute between here and her in-laws/parents places over the weekends. Her Canadian VISA and work permit came too about a couple of weeks back and then the troubles began.

As it stands today, her MIL did not want her to go onsite on work. She wanted her to join the son immediately and start their ‘married-life’ from now. The fiance turned husband she was so confident about now says do whatever my mom tells you – come and start life with me here – I want you here… Her own parents say – do whatever the MIL and husband say – your married life is more important than your career… Quit and join your husband. Its good for you…

It would’ve probably been easy to join the husband for someone like me – really – because I’m not really so career oriented – I do the best I can at work… but for that girl – her career is her dream, her identity, her passion – so she is having a hard time now…She has tried convincing her husband that it will work out – its a matter of 1 more year.. their bond of marriage is yet to start and its a matter of time before they are together… but it doesn’t seem to be working…

Here are my thoughts:
1. The same dreams and aspirations – if it were the man – would’ve been appreciated and all support given to him – so why should this girl’s dreams be crushed now?
2. If this is what they wanted – why didn’t they make it clear on day 1? She would’ve refused the proposal (she had before for the same reasons) and not gotten into this mess…
3. Who is to be blamed here? I’m a nobody to ask where it all started – but where ever it all started – shouldn’t the husband and her parents who had made promises support her desire to go onsite? She is not doing anything wrong – is she? Why don’t they consider the heartache they are causing this girl by changing  their decision now?
4. Why should that girl’s decision be changed and manipulated now by other’s desires and decisions?
5. Would the husband quit and join her where ever she is? – Why not? Why should she be the one compromising?
6.She has worked hard and fought harder to get this opportunity – now after everything is set and she is due to travel in a couple of weeks, if she backs-off – what happens to her impression and good-will in the office? Will she not loose face big-time?
7. Now what is the girl to do – kill her own dreams of a good career,quit and join the husband? What of her own life then? Someone else said – if she compromises now, she will always have it on her mind for the rest of her life- and I agree – its a shattered dream…

How many men have followed their dreams of travelling and either left their wife and kids here or the whole family has shifted along with the men – to fulfil the man’s dream? The woman quits her job and follows the man to take care of him/his kids and family…

How many men have you seen doing it for their wife? Again and again and again – the woman in the relationship has to “let go” and compromise…

I’m not angry, I’m just very sad. Sad for the situation that girl is today and no matter what she decides she has to go through a lot of heartache…  

Is there a sure shot Passport to a Healthy Pregnancy?

Women’s Web is hosting a contest:

and I decided to participate too… I had never put up my birth story or my pregnancy story here and I kept thinking it was too late – but what better opportunity than this, now? 🙂
 
Where do I start… Lets start from the very beginning – I had a miscarraige in the 10th week of my first pregnancy. And after that I was paranoid at every stage…
 
So,when the home pregnancy kit showed a blue line and we took the day off and excitedly/nervously ran to the gynaec. She asked me if I was sure or I wanted to do the test again and I said I was sure. So, she asked me to come back in the 10th week to do my first scan and ensure that things were smooth and that we can hear the heart beat… In the meantime – I think sometime around the 8th week, Hubby had an accident and Im not sure if that was the stress or implantation, I had spotting. So, we ran to the doc again and got a scan. This time around, the scan doctor was pretty happy with the growth and so she asked me to come back in the 10th week again so we can make sure that the heart beat was heard. 10th week – I was such a nervous wreck that the scan doc joked that my heart beat without the scanner was so loud that she would not be able to hear the baby’s! When we first heard that beautiful sound of gallopping horses – we recorded it and hubby had tears in his eyes. We were SO happy… But the pregnancy wasnt without its stress…
a. There was some goof-up about my age and the blood reports came as a high risk for Down’s syndrome – so my Ob-Gyn asked me to get another scan and blood test done at a specialised scanning center and take the opinion of that doctor – so for the next 2 weeks-I was paranoid until the results came normal.Because of all these confusions my Ob-Gyn was extra careful and asked me to visit another very famous center at the 20th week for the scan. -That was a horrifying experience-The doctor was unfriendly and didnt give me any inputs and neither did he show me the scan images. I was terrified. Then I couldnt control it any longer and directly asked him if all was well. He just nodded his head and told me that his receptionist would give me the reports!!
b. My Granny passed away when I was about 7 months pregnant – I had BP fluctuations for about a week during that time and I was asked to relax.
c. After the 7th month Seemantham, when I went for the 28th week blood test- the ob-gyn said I am a border line case for GD! Then I was asked to meet the endocrinologist and Iwas told that since I was Not diabetic I could control through my diet and was put on a diet – He was surprised that I was eating 3 chikoos and 1 full pmogranate in a day – Chikkoo apprantly are extremely high in sugar content! “Eat everything in moderation – dont skip anyting, but dont over eat either”
d. During the 3 trimester I think I had a scan every 2 weeks because the doctor was not happy with just ‘feeling’ the baby – she kept thinking that the baby was very small for the number of months and because she had already seen so many fluctuations in me, she told me that she was being careful.
 
Oh! And all these months I had to lead a hectic project where I had to even do the manager’s part of the work too and he was most unhappy that I was going on maternity leave at that time! So, I was putting in 12hr days almost 4 days a week until the 7th month and after the BP fluctuations episode I had to bring in higher management to be taken off the project so I could do my 9hrs at work and leave… by the time I was ‘slowly’ relieved from my role – I was already in the 9th month.
 
Finally, on Dec 22nd – which was my due date and I had absolutely no signs of labor, I went for a check-up and that was the first time I told her that I havent felt the baby move since the previous night. She checked the heart-beat and though it sounded OK she asked me to get admitted. She discussed the situation with hubby and me and In her words ” Under normal circumstances, I would’ve given it another week, but in your case, because the baby is small and you are on controlled diet for GD, I think the baby is not getting enough nutrients and I would rather have the baby out and feed it outside than leave it inside and keep getting worried if its getting all the food it needs and if its growing well. Get admitted and I will induce the labor”. I was so practically unprepared!

We rushed to the hospital,finished the formalities (some confusion and they took me staight to the labour room assuming I was in labour!) and she came, checked and induced pain – all in about 1 hr time. It was around 10.30 am in the morning. By about 12, I was getting a little more pain when she came and checked and told me that the baby’s head was still floating and was not in position and it could take about 24hrs of labor – and in all this 24hrs if she finds even a bit of destress to the baby she will do a C-section. I got worried and Mom was petrified!We asked the doctor if I can have a C-section right then. After a lengthy discussion with the doc,.hubby and me – the doc finally agreed to do the C-section at 1.15pm. I believe she even told hubby that I should’ve given ‘normal’ a shot but then when she took Chutku out at 2pm and gave one look at him she told me “Right Decision R, I dont think this little fellow could’ve withstood the 24 hrs of labour, he is so small-no wonder his head was not fixed yet”… Purely instinct on my part here…

With that the pregnancy story ends but the ‘tips’ are here:

1. Read – Through all the tests and scans I used to read What to Expect – it was always on my bedside table. It used to give me an idea of what was happening inside me – whether what I was feeling was normal or I had to be concerned. It gave me information on every thing I wanted to know. And when I would be stressed or scared awaiting some result – reading about my baby’s development gave me positivity…
2. Talk to your Ob-Gyn – Ask every doubt you have. Its your body and you have a right to know what’s happening. I used to read/google and ask her a lot of questions. She would always ask me after the consult,with a smile – Ok, so where is your list for today… I always had questions and she always answered them practically. She never gave me false hopes – she told me-Im not your mother (oh! she didnt look like one either! she must just be about 45yrs), Im your doctor-I will tell you medically and practically what is happening to you and how you need to handle it too… She gave a lot of value to my emotions/ feelings/ thoughts and words… She always boosted my confidence.
3. Trust the Ob-Gyn – Im stressing this here again – through all the hormonal fluctuations/multiple second opinions that she herself suggested/scans – I had complete trust in her ability – she exuded the calm and proficiency of knowing what she was doing…

A few from the doctor’s mouth:
1. Eat healthy, eat for yourself – your body will demand what it needs and eat at right intervals. Do not eat for 2 like they say. Eat everything in moderation – forget papaya – even banana if overeaten can cause harm…And a couple of slices of papaya causes no harm – and its rich in antioxidants…

2.  Work until the due date – no harm unless explicitly told to rest. But dont stress-walk for 5 mins every 1 hour – if you’ve never excercised before – no need to stress about it either…Walk aroung your campus once before lunch, take water/loo breaks every 1/2 hr – helps prevent back aches/swollen feet.

3. Scanning doesnt harm the baby – you are not doing it everyday! And its better to be safe than sorry (And from personal experience, I know how disasterous it can be-a cousin lost her baby inutero which could’ve probably prevented if checked and scanned on time 😦 )

4. If you HAVE to take a crocin – its OK, no need to panic about it – but that doesnt mean you can self-medicate either -talk to the doctor before you pop in any medicine…

Finally – this one time – trust your instincts – Yes, sounds unscientific but if you feel that something is not alright – then 90% it *is* not alright…And there is no harm in consulting the doc at that time – and a good doc will definitely not ridicule and will definitely make sure that you are physically and mentally fit too…

For all the to-be mommies – Enjoy the attention you get now and Stay Healthy!!

Friday Fun – Chutku’s travel tales…

We travel home by the office bus in the evenings – Chutku and I. For about 4 months now this has been the routine. And he just loves it! Loves the goodies people give him to eat, the attention he gets from a bus load of people, he enjoys the journey on most days – as long as there is not much traffic and we get down in about an hour and 15mins time – yes, he begins to get really restless after that.Some of our travel tales here for posterity.
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One evening, he was in full josh and suddenly hit my friend sitting next to us. I asked him to say “Sorry”. The look he gave her: “Why the hell should I say sorry to you?!!” pouted and turned back to me. I kept insisting him to say sorry again. His reaction – trying to pacify me and change the subject – “Amma, bacchuu, aatttuuooo, lightu”. I realised that by being persistent its not going to work so I left it at that for some time. About half hour later when our stop came, I told him, come lets get down and when he happily climbed on to me, I told him – “Im not going to get down from the bus if you dont say sorry”. He understood that I meant business, looks at her – gives her a killing smile and tells her “Cholliii” and then looks back at me, says” Ummmm” pointing to the door. I could read his mind: “OK,lets get down now, I’ve done what you wanted anyway,I want to get out of this place before you hit my Ego again…”

I have to give credit here – But he loves that G aunty and misses her when she is not there “theetha aunty yelli?” and he walks the length of the bus, comes back and makes a face with his lower lip out indicating that he didnt find her in the bus anywhere 😀 and if she IS in the bus, he just gives has a shy smile first and then begins all the drama… And this G aunty carries the forgotten umbrella, 1 shoe that has fallen off while getting down and even the sippy cup home (this girl isnt married and gets royally teased in her PG for carrying all these home) and promptly returns it back to me the next day with a promise that I get her an ice-cream – which Im yet to get!!

Now how does this kid know Ego so early on? Saying sorry is so difficult this early? I dread what’s in store for me 😦
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A day of really bad traffic and rains about a month back and I’ve been getting back to back calls from my manager and he doesnt like it one bit that Im not paying any attention at all. Thankfully a nice guy is sitting next to me in the 3 seater – just indulges him and starts talking to him, gives him his mobile and lifts him. Guess what happened next? – He threw the guy’s mobile phone on the luggage compartment on top of the seat!! And the guy was shocked! I had warned him earlier not to give the phone but he didnt understand the impact of the statement then. He just plonked Chutku next to me, got up jerkily and thankully his mobile was not damaged. Now the little fellow thought it was all a game and wanted to do it all again! :-O Now whenever he sees me in the cafeteria that guy asks – “your mobile is fine?” to me 🙂
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All guys in the bus are Maama and all ladies are aunties – ofcourse, he looks at some girl and decides to call her Akka! Trust me – he already knows how to woo them girls… gives them an impish grin, call them akka, pout and give them a flying kiss – and Lo! There they all are- melting at his feet!!! No amount of warnings from me works at times and he peeps in-between the seats in the front – calls them and asks them to make him listen to music “aaaaaa” or for anything they might be eating too!! *I guess they are all wondering if I starve him 😦 *

And Oh! The maamas all have their duties – some of them just give him a Hi-Fi, some a handshake, some make him listen to music,some show him the iPad and I remember one guy showing him some cat on the iPad where if you hit the screen the cat will fall, it will get tickled – something like that… And he was sooo smitten by it that day that he was unwilling to even get down from the bus and long after we went home also he kept asking ” Meow yelli?”
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This is the latest in the Embarass Mommy series: Happened on monday.  Loads of traffic and traffic jam and its past our time to get down. We are stuck at one signal where the engine is switched off,everyone in the bus is frustrated and closing their eyes and my son decides that THAT is the right time for a concert. He gets (rather wriggles) down on to the aisle between the seats, stands facing the back of the bus (I was sitting in the 2nd seat of the 50 seater) and starts loudly “Naayi mari naayi mari thindi beke…” I try to shush him with my finger on my lips and he says more loudly “Ammmmaaaaaa,shssshhhhhshhhhhhh, Naayi mari naayi mari….” Sigh! I wished ke bus ki bottom phak jaaye aur mein wahan se vanish ho jaaooo…
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Some titbits:
We had another kid coming in the same bus and my what fun it used to be! Both of them want the same sippy, same biscuit, if one spits the soggy chocolate from the mouth the other one also has to do the same, sudden lavvuuuu – with hugs and kisses galore then the nextr instant pulling hair and hitting and tears and it would take both of us mommies to pry them apart! I miss those days…

The minute I tell him we will get down, he hands me my purse handle, looks down to ensure Im wearing my slippers, hangs on to me with his arms and legs around me, and starts waving his left hand calling “Auuttttooooo, auutttooooo” the way I do it…

And finally, he has a huge fetish for people’s shoes – before the bus starts he walks up and down the aisle checking if everyone’s wearing their shoes and God forbid, if someone has removed their shoes and put their feet up – he points at the shoes, looks up at them and says” Chhhoooossssssss, Chapppiii chhooosssssssssssssssshhhhh” and wont come away from there until the person has slipped the shoes back on. Initial days I would get embarassed and apologise but these days until the bus starts nobody dares remove their shoes, and those tht sit next to us or in that row – dont dare to remove it until we get down! 😀 -problem solved!

Oh! Im loving these bus travels with the little fellow 🙂

Concept of Vacation-to stay available or not

Ofcourse again RM’s post triggered memories and thoughts that instead of hogging all her comment space (I DID leave a big comment there though!) I decided to put it here…

I worked at the client place for about 8 months in the US as a contractor from my first company. Fortunately I was the only person in the team who was a contractor and the others were all the clients themselves. So, my lead, the Subject Matter Expert (SME) were all quite older to me and very confident of what they were doing. Including their vacation time or their time after work.

I’ve seen that the general trend there is to get to work really early by about 7 and leave by 3. And those 8 hours they do only work -they hardly take many breaks… My lead was one such guy. A Baseball fanatic, a family man with 4 kids – he would be at his desk by 7 and leave sharp at 3.We used to have project production releases every fortnight on friday nights which I would do it from home at midnight and the rest of the week we would all be on high alert for any issues because it was all about a lot of company money transactions… After one such Friday release, the first 2 days were fine and then the we  caught a bug on wednesday at 4pm. It was something major at the business level and we are all desperately trying to get it resolved when we realised that my lead is missing. Then the manager called him like 5 times but there was no response.
The next day the guy walks in coolly and gets into this meeting where the manager asks him where he was and that he was *needed* yesterday for the issue which we somehow managed to get a work around, and he says: “You know C, that wednesdays are my Golf days – I leave by 3”. My eyes grow wide! And then when the manager says he could’ve atleast picked up the call so we could call him back: “Oh! I dont take any office calls once Im off for the day, I have a family and my own life-dont expect me to take office calls once I leave work, unless I mention myself that I will work from home!” By this time my jaws have dropped to the floor.

Here I was, refused leaves and comp-offs for working even on saturdays and sundays gettign hardly 3hrs of sleep because of the work pileup… I realised that I was plain stupid! I did not know where to draw the line and how to put my foot down…

That was when I realised how we ‘fear’ the organisation, the manager we report to or even how we dont know how to compartmentalise work and home/family. How to switch-off from work once we leave from work – either on a holiday or just home!

And there is also a big part played by the higher management itself. In the US if you cite your personal problems/if you inform that you will not be available – even if you are going gambling to Vegas (Yes, I said it and they were cool about it!) they respect your personal space and refrain from calling you even. They understand that you have a life beyond the work space. And it is necessary to unwind/ actually live life outside the 4 A/Ced walls of the office.  Here once you reach a ‘level’ you need to be avaliable 24/7.(This was told to me by a senior manager when I told him my son was sick and I had the mobile on silent at 10.30pm in the night.) And that ‘level’ is for everyone from 6months to 16 years experience…

So, who will break this trend? Trend of working 12 hrs everyday all 7days of the week? Trend of expecting to be available when you are on a holiday?

Now, I have begun the trend myself, at the cost of much ire from the seniors – Trend of NOT being available over weekends/holidays/ even after 6pm in the evenings.Come what may!

The Birthday weekend and the Nava raatri

Havent actually been the greatest 😦 Yeah, sad but true… With all the carpentery work going on at home and our availability – rather Hubby’s availability limited to a few hours even over the weekends, times have been hectic.

We finally got the wardrobes done for our home over the past 2 weeks, real big thanks to Sangi who gave me the contact for the carpenter. (See, what a great advantage blogging is? been telling this to the hubby for over 2 weeks now 😛 ) He seems to have done a decent job, only time will tell about the quality now though… Since we were away the whole week – we hardly got a chance to see what and how they got the whole thing completed and the final assembly HAD to happen last saturday, 1st – my Birthday. So the whole day went with 10 men coming and going around the house and we also decided to get bathroom fittings for a room that we had left initially – finally!! And THAT was the highlight of my birthday – the much needed completion of really necessary stuff…

To give due credit to the hubby he offered to take me out for dinner, spoke to my parents to take care of the little fellow while we went out but I was so exhausted by 7.30pm that I wasnt upto getting ready, packing stuff for the little fellow and going out at 8 in the night. (yeah, sometimes I wonder how old I’ve gotten that 8 seems late to me!!) so a quiet Pizza dinner was had after putting the little fellow to sleep. Peaceful…

And then the festivities – with all the carpentry work, the little fellow has fallen ill with bad congestion and throat infection,inflamed tonsils and all. And the icing on the cake? Hubby’s most awaited project release is happening this week until 10th – monday. *sigh* I think This is what is called *Chappar Phad Ke*? and he had to go to work even yesterday – Vijayadashami. So away, the little fellow and me were packed off to Mom’s house, which was a blessing *ofcourse!* while cousins and aunts visited, Chuktu despite his high fever opted to run around and entertain everyone… Yummy pulao and gulab jamoons (dont ask how many-including hubby’s share!) were had taking advatange of the fact that Chutku prefered his Ammamma and Thaatha to put him to sleep,rock him,feed him – basically everything. Now this is what I would call a better Bday celebration 🙂 (Yes, it was my star Bday yest)

So, what do I look forward to this year? – Definitely better health all around for all of us. Better work/life balance for both hubby and me (Awaiting some good news on the work front which will hopefully ease some stress) and the BESTEST – My parents shifting with me. Yippeeeee!Thats what all these couple of weeks have been about – preparing the house for my parents shifting with us for the next 1-1.5yrs  while their house gets a complete demolition/re-building 🙂 

There, now I go off to another hectic weekend, shifting, rearranging and adjusting – this time with my parents’ stuff… Happy Weekend everyone – Keep the high spirits up! The festivities have begun!!!

Violence Against Women/ Women Against Violence – Awareness Month

Remember the CSA initiative in April? Now the same core team has come up with another very valuable initiative to spread awareness on Violence against Women.

Here’s what they have to say on the initiative:

We are cognizant with the fact the subject on violence against woman is very huge and includes multiple aspects. To ensure that this awareness campaign is effective, we have limited our scope to the following aspects….

1. Domestic violence – Physical violence against the woman by husband/partner and other family members

2. Violence against girl child including deprivation

3. Sexual violence – including marital rape, date rape

4. Emotional/psychological abuse

5. Dowry related violence including Bride Burning

6. Female Infanticide

7. Acid attacks

We, the core team, would be delighted to have your support for VAWM Oct 2011. The plan is similar to CSA April 2011. We have a blog (www.vawawareness.wordpress.com) on Violence Against Women where we invite guest posts, expert posts and anon survivor stories. We also would urge bloggers to post on this topic on the blog all through October, first announcing the awareness campaign and second, posting on any aspect of this topic they feel strongly about. We also have a twitter handle (@VAWMonth) which will tweet information about VAWA and invite experts, NGOs, counsellors, etc to take questions.

Do let us know if you would be interested in participating, and how would you like to participate. Also, if you have any leads to NGOs or organisations you think we should partner with do let us know.

The email to write in to is vawawareness@gmail.com.

So, go on, spread the message, give your feedbacks,contribute… Lets help spread the awareness and do our tiny squirrel’s bit…