The early days

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..

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..

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 ???

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

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 ?

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?

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

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

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).