Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

No icon's passing affected me so much. May be it is living in the valley where these giants stroll like everyone else -- it almost makes it feel like a personal loss.

Dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck most of the time. With just the right amount of arrogance and authority to snub bullshitters. A very humble past. Syrian biological dad. Catholic biological mom. Given up for adoption. Grew up in NorCal. Went to highschool in Cupertino. Lived in Palo Alto. A few blocks from us. Personally distributed candies to kids on Halloween many years.

Built and marketed the Apple computer. The mac. NeXT. The iPod. The iTouch. iTunes. The iPhone. The iOS. The iPad. And in between all that, Pixar. And in between all of that, being ousted from his own company only to be b(r)ought back. To lead it from the brink of disaster to become a company bigger than Microsoft + Google. Quite possibly the only company with an undeniable cult following.

Visionary. Innovator. Genius. Changed the face of the modern world.

RIP Jobs. Looks like the angels need your inventions now.

Stay Hungry. Stay foolish.

* He ended his commencement speech to the graduating class of Stanford 2004, saying he borrowed that quote from an old Palo Alto catalog.

Too many babies!

Too many babies in the house. And I'm not even talking about the Scout and the Minor*. I'm talking about me! I want to throw a tantrum right now about the lack of sleep, about not being able to give my 200% at work, about doing a half-a$$ed job at housekeeping, about not being able to eat when I want to and sleep when I want to, about not being able to exercise and a million other mundane things that have become luxuries around these parts. Right now I'm just trudging along and waiting for the day when the two of the *real* babies turn 3 and 1. I hope by then we will be able to figure out some semblance of a life. Will be back in 6 months then!*

* - Yes, renamed Vic to Minor. Like MiM said, Vic was soo not an average name. :)

** - Many thanks to all of you for checking on me from time to time. We are doing fine in general but juggling one too many things, that's all. Sending many good thoughts to all of you as always.

Excuse me, kya re?

Mein do bachhon ki maa re!

Yes, baby Vic is here.

Born: 20102010 (ddmmyyyy)

The nurses were more excited about the date than us. They literally pushed me to *push* before the start of the next day.

Scout's reaction: "Hi baby! How are you?"

Vic's status: Eat. Sleep. Poop. Pee.

My status: What more could a second-time mom ask for? May be a killer figure. Ha?

10 point update

1. Thanks to everyone who pinged about my whereabouts to make me get off my butt and post.
2. About 4 weeks to go to the D-day. Things are fine! Nothing much to write home about except work has ^peaked^ since I'm taking off soon.
3. Baby names are being short-listed. That's the minimum amount of prep we need to do before he arrives I guess. Should tell you much about the general lack of preparation here.
4. We are thinking of ourselves as parenting experts and being so relaxed about everything this time around. I'm sure the second one is going to be poles apart from the first one just to teach us a lesson.
5. Got professional house cleaning done for the first time using the whale-like physique as an excuse.
6. Scout talks nineteen to the dozen and is generally an easy-going toddler. But he reminded us that he is still very much a toddler by having a major major mother of all meltdowns at one of the parent-teacher meets in his daycare. I really understood what parents mean when they say they want the earth to open up and swallow them that instant.
7. Nesting instinct is kicking in. I NEED space-saving STORAGE SOLUTIONS.
8. My masala dabba is forever lacking stuff these days. If I remember to buy mustard from the store, I forget to buy jheera or something like that. Waiting for the mom to get here to fix such stuff.
9. Was thrown 3 babyshowers, many thanks to friends and co-workers. This second one better not complain about any lack of attention.
10. FB feeds flooded with Endhiran fandom. Anyone going to the FDFS?

Alright, folks! That's all from here. Nothing exciting really, and I hope it stays that way for a few more weeks. See you around!

How not to compliment a pregger...

1. Wow! You are big!
2. Wow! You look ready to pop!
3. You have some face weight, but don't worry, it will go away after the delivery!
4. You are having two boys!? Have fun!
5. Lucky you! Your husband does so much around the house.

Fill in the blank.

By the 3rd week of Oct, the "About me" section on the blog will read:

"Wife to GIJoe. Mom to Scout and _____. These are our stories."

And it ain't going to be a Girl Scout I'm afraid.

Attix .. fall down.

This is how the Scout reads Asterix. He points to Asterix and says "thiss Attix" and then he points to an unfortunate Roman legionary, that can be found in almost any page fallen down with a bump on his head, and says "uncle fall down", opens the next page and the same thing repeats "Attix".. "uncle fall down".. "Attix".. "uncle fall down" till he flips through the pages and closes the book.

Is there hope for this kid?!

Against gender stereotypes

Starry tagged me on this one. I hope I'm not repeating stuff that has already been said in the blogosphere considering that this tag has spread like wild fire, while I have been sitting around fanning myself. Anyway here are some stereotypes (none of which are ground-breaking) that I don't conform to:

1. "Good wives wake up earlier than their husbands, wash hair and do Tulasi pooja before starting the breakfast routine". -- I have never ever woken up earlier than the GI.
2. "Women do not talk about breast-feeding". -- I have educated a few men (including the father) about the benefits and difficulties of breast-feeding.
3. "Women should not talk loudly and should mind their own business" -- I have shouted at queue jumpers, litterers, rude auto-drivers while other people looked on.
4. "Girls are thrilled with branded gifts: dresses, bags, shoes, perfumes" -- I literally shouted at the GI for gifting me an LV bag for a milestone birthday and insisted on returning it. (I digress but he then spilled the beans and told me that knowing me he would never invest in a real LV. He had a friend buy a really good fake for me from Hong Kong. Reminds me of this saying in Kannada: "If I can slither under a carpet, he can slither under rangoli.")
5. "Women are high maintenance" -- I'm extremely tight-fisted about money spent on self.
6. "Women cannot promote themselves at work" -- I do not feel embarassed when talking about accomplishments at work when asked.
7. "Girls cannot handle a joke and might cry" -- I can handle raunchy, explicit jokes and slap you back with a rejoinder or two when in the right company.
8. "Girls lurrvee cute guys" -- No, thank you! I like my brooding, intense, smart-mouthed men in movies (and real life) than the goody, goody chocolate heroes.
9. And these.
10. And ahem last but not the least, "Girls don't like to to turn it on" -- ahem, if we were to take the analogy of a car, we not only know how to turn it on, we have been licensed to drive for years now and can drive on scenic routes and high-ways, in rain or shine, to heaven and back. ;-)

Some stereotypes that I conform to:

1. I strive to be a good cook, organizer and host and beam when I'm complimented on these.
2. I cannot eat until people with higher priority (children, older folks, preggies, guests of honor) at a party have eaten.
3. Have so far been extremely lax in investing my money.
4. Go all out to be a good daughter-in-law (or so I think).
5. If I'm angry with the GI, it's his problem to be sensitive and figure it out. I'm not going to help him by clueing him in on what's going on in my mind.

Would be good to get the mom, mil and grandma to do this tag. Shall try. Meanwhile any one who hasn't already done this wants to take it up?

Vacations, aunts, cities and such..

Went away for a week to the other side of the country. Got pampered endlessly by the aunts around there. Aunts are the best! No two ways about that. However I'm peeved that the Scout was like at priority-0 for them while I was at priority-1 or something like that and I cribbed to them about how intelligent women like them must not let themselves be charmed this way by a two-bit little thing. They said grandmas / grandaunts are supposed to be that way and shut me up. Asked me to instead go cool my heals and eat a mysore pak or carrot-halwa or one of the many other goodies they had cooked for us. They also turned out to be eager (and inexpensive!) babysitters for the Scout, so I shouldn't be complaining about anything really except may be the heat around there. God, the heat! Did it seem like we were in a pressure cooker or what? I have lived in the NY area for a few years and know how the summers can be around there but I seem to have become a complete bayarea convert now. I know! I know! Us, bayarea folks crib if the temperature happens to be anywhere but in the 70s. Anyway, the Scout had a blast with the family and on the outings. He had a great time running behind a biiiiigggg bubble maker in Central Park and dancing with this impromptu hiphop group there. That is what is so cool about Central Park. You can be sure that at anytime of the day or night there will be some thing or the other happening. That is what is so cool about the whole city anyway. And the eats, what can I say that has not already been said about the eateries around the city? And the parties? We went to this beach party by the Hudson, over-looking an impressive skyline. As the night settled in, the lights in the buildings turned on, shimmered in the reflection on the water, peppy music played and the tempo got going. Unbeatable! And the fashion sense around there? I was thankful I took a few of my skirts and strappy sandals (one in magenta and one in white if you are interested :P) and still couldn't look even half as chic as the people around there. Uhuh! You know, Frisco is nice and all, but I sure have a thing for NYC as well. Forget about beaches, mountains and other destinations, I love cities especially this one. Sigh.. double sigh!

Dear bloggers, I turn to you for therapy.

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Red marker blogathon: You are giving an exam, is it?

Following the posts at MFT's, Starry's, TPL's and Sue's blogs...

Red mark 1: Wrongly formed question tag.

"You are a good boy, isn't it?"

"You don't want to go, is it?"

Argghh! OK, now that I'm done with the screaming, here's my explanation on question tags.

Question tags are sentence structures where a statement is ended or tagged with a question. The verb used in the question tag should be the negation of the verb used in the statement.

So the correct usage of the above two would be:

"You are a good boy, aren't you?"

"You don't want to go, do you?"

Go here to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question

=================

Red mark 2: Do you give or take an exam?

"I'm giving my board exams in March"

No, you are not giving any exam. In fact you are taking the exam and if anything it is your professor giving you the exam! Duh.

=================

Bonus red mark 3: out-of-out

With all this exam talk, how can one forget the "I scored out-of-out" statement. Gah! Out-of-out seems to be a direct but totally nonsensical derivative of "100 out of 100". If you did get an *out-of-out* in English, please have your paper reevaluated.

Tag: Guilty or Innocent from the ajji's POV.

Minal tagged me sometime ago to do the "guilty or innocent" questionnaire. And like mim, I'm afraid me doing the tag wouldn't even be half as interesting as washing the dish rag. Again mim came to the rescue. I decided to ask my ajji to answer the questions like mim had done for a tag a few months ago. So here goes..

Rules Go Like These ——-
RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks! (Sorry I have blatantly broken this rule!)
RULE 3- Copy and paste this into your notes, delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.

[Note: The explanations / anecdotes next to the questions are in the grandma's voice and I have translated them from Kannada]

Asked someone to marry you? Innocent. But there were girls in my secondary school class who threw love notes across the wall to the boys school..
Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Innocent
Danced on a table in a bar? Innocent. bar-aa? I haven't even been to a coffee bar that you kids go to these days.
Ever told a lie? Guilty
Had feelings for someone whom you can’t have back? Innocent
Kissed a picture? Guilty
Slept in until 5 PM? Innocent. Tuu kathe. (You donkey!) I'm lucky if I sleep until 5 AM
Fallen asleep at work/school? Guilty. I think in 7th class in home science.
Held a snake? Guilty. When I went to Jog falls with my father when I was 10 years old. We even saw a tiger there.
Been suspended from school? Innocent
Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent. But I did help our neighbor out once in a while. They had an idli-chutney restaurant.
Stolen from a store? Innocent. What kind of question is this?!
Been fired from a job? Innocent
Done something you regret? Guilty
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Innocent. It only happens if you drink coca-cola.
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Innocent. But I made a snowman with my grandchildren in America and I saw snow when I went to Badrinath-Kedarnath.
Kissed in the rain? Innocent.
Sat on a roof top? Guilty. Every summer when I put sanDige (pappadums) to dry.
Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Innocent. Why so many kissing questions?
Sang in the shower? Guilty. I always say a shloka.
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Guilty. I have bathed in the Kavery, Tunga and Ganga.
Shaved your head? Innocent. But they made my mother do that when my father died.
Had a boxing membership? Innocent.
Made a girlfriend cry? Innocent.
Been in a band? Innocent. But I sang for my school's Carnatic music competitions.
Shot a gun? Innocent. Your grandfather used to have a rifle when he surveyed the forests for the government. I don't think he ever carried it with him though.
Donated Blood? Innocent
Eaten alligator meat? Innocent. They eat that?
Eaten cheesecake? Innocent. I don't like cheese.
Still love someone you shouldn’t? Innocent
Have/had a tattoo? Innocent.
Liked someone, but will never tell who? Innocent.
Been too honest? Innocent. I don't understand the question.
Ruined a surprise? Innocent.
Ate in a restaurant and got really bloated that you couldn’t walk afterward? Guilty. In Raghavendra swamy matha.
Erased someone in your friends list? Guilty. I stopped speaking to one of our neighbours.
Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Guilty. For school drama.
Joined a pageant? Innocent
Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? Guilty
Had communication with your ex? Innocent
Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Innocent. But I got married three days before my metric exam.
Got totally angry that you cried so hard? Guilty. After 2 days of marriage I dropped a dabba of flour in the kitchen and I was so mad at myself. I was afraid what my mil would say although she was very sweet.

======================

Anyone wants to take this tag?

Also, acknowledging these awards from the ever so generous Shruti and R's Mom. Sorry for taking a few months(!) to put this up, but thank you muchly, as always!

Random film industry nomenclature post

Since the blog world seems to be kinda slow all of a sudden I thought I'll stick this random post up. Not that I write profound, non-random posts when the blog world is not slow.. :P

So.. anyway.. tell me this if you will:

Why are the Southy film industry names so confusing?

So you would think the Tamil film industry is called Tollywood i.e 'T' for 'Tamil'? But nooo! It is called Kollywood for Kodambakam?
So now the Kannada film industry cannot be called Kollywood because the Tamil one is already called that. So the Kannada one becomes Sandalwood! Ah, how fragrantly fresh!
Only the Telugu guys have it easy. T for Telugu. T for Tollywood.
I recently realized that mixing the names up in a group situation can be very very dangerous unless you want to be berated about it the whole evening.
Hmph! Wonder what the Mallu industry is called.

Newton's laws interpreted

If Newton figured out gravitation when he saw an apple fall from a tree, he must have figured out inertia when he saw a child idling through the morning routine.

Case in point:
* If the Scout is taking a bath, he wants to continue with the bath till the water freezes over.
* If the Scout is eating his favorite breakfast (fruitloops or raisins or bububu (blueberry)), he wants to continue eating them till the box is empty.
* If the Scout wants to run around in his diapers, he is going to run around till the evil mommy chases him and drags him to get dressed.

I guess, the "greater force" that Newton's laws talk about is the mommy here! :P

This day, Apr 2009
Number of gray hairs plucked from head: 1

Today
Number of gray hairs plucked from head: 5

And that sums up my answer to questions like: 'HBD. what did u do?'

The things you do for your kid..

As part of my parenting duties, I single-handedly ate one packet of MnM's and a million jelly beans in the span of 30 mins.

Why?: So the Scout doesn't make them his dinner. What better way to hide them than eat them? ;-)

Lesson learnt: Jelly beans are so damned hard to resist. They come in a million flavors and colors. There are dotted ones, ones with tiny splattering of colors, multi-colored ones and flavors like strawberry cheesecake, pinacolada, margarita, bubblegum, cotton candy, mint, mocha, coffee, orange, lime, pomegranate, cherry to name a few. How does one stop without tasting everything, eh?

Of grandma's house and treasures left behind..

What do you do when you see this and remember that a more exquisite one existed in your grandma's house? Or when you see brass pans and remember that larger versions of those were actually used to cook in ajji's house on special occasions and they looked as if they were polished everyday. Or when you see London's guard dolls at a friend's house and remember that even finer miniatures of those existed in ajji's house. Or when you see dainty china with gold engravings and remember that tea was served in similar, daintier cups in ajji's house. Or when you see an old Kanjeevaram and remember ajji's saree that she stitched into a langa (pavadai / silk-skirt?) for you when you were six and a salwar-kurta for the older cousin. Or when you remember the big joint family that ajji mane housed, almost breaking at the seams, but managing wonderfully most of the time. Or when you remember the food, the glorious food that was served with a dollop of home-made ghee (flavored with beetle leaves) in one corner of the plate for every meal. Or when you remember the recipe book that ajji sometimes peeked at, even though she did not need any recipe book. Yet she saved that book and thought it was the authority on cooking, just because it was her grand mother's 3rd grade school textbook! What do you do when you know you can only savor these memories but never go back? What do you do then?

I dream of...

thankfully.. not Jeannie.

These days I dream about topics I could write about on this blog. Trust me they really feel like juicy, witty, profound blog worthy topics in my dreams. But I can't remember them the minute I wake up. Very frustrating. Usually my dreams aren't about blogging though. In the past I have had this one recurring dream where our families are opposed to our marriage and they are making me 'see' other guys. I'm thrashing about only to wake up and realize 'hey! relax. I'm already married to the one' and what a relief that is. I go back to sleep in peace. I have had this other dream where I'm late to an exam in primary school or middle school perhaps but my school uniform is not ironed, I can't find my pencil box, I don't have my books, my bicycle has a flat tire and so on. I'm really perplexed about this one because I'm known to be a cooler-than-thou exam taker. The other interesting aspect of my dreams is that they are mostly in mute. I don't speak. People in my dreams don't speak. But we are telepathic. I know exactly what everyone is thinking or feeling. Sometimes I really really need to say something in the dream to save the situation but I just can't. I try to say something but it feels like my lips are sewed together. At such times I wake up and feel glad that I'm not in said situation. This might be because I don't talk in my sleep. May be if I did talk in my sleep, my dreams would have been talkies. I have never had nightmares or scary dreams though. I have never had any demons chasing me or lions trying to eat me etc. My dreams are mostly mundane, day-to-day stuff. I have even dreamt of solving some work related problem and I seem to solve it with ease in my dreams. Sometimes I do remember the solutions and they actually are implementable! Yeah, how exciting, not! I have dreams where I'm falling though, but I don't have any context to these falls. I'm just falling, that's it and I wake up with a jerk and that dream is over. There's some myth that if I don't wake up before I land, I'm dead. I guess I have woken up alright so far!

What dreams wake you up?

Happy Ugadi!

Ugadi 2009 (Virodhi samvatsara) feast by the mater.

Ugadi 2010 (Vikrutha samvatsara) uhuh feast by uhuh me.

Still, there is hope for this year I think. Happy Ugadi!

Reading list

[Feeling really blah, and thanks to Chox for kicking me out of blah-dom. :)]

Read 'Dreams in Prussian Blue' by Paritosh Uttam who is a friend. Liked it! I think it is good literature and at the same time entertaining. Good job from a first-timer, especially someone who isn't a blogger. Some of his short stories (available on his site) are very well-written too.

Reading 'Arranged marriage' by Divakaruni and feeling very 'blah' about it. I read her 'Palace of illusions' and couldn't figure out what the ga-ga was about. So I decided to try another book to see if I was missing something. But uhuh, I just don't seem to be in the same zone as her. I think I'm done with the types of Lahiri and Divakaruni and I don't mean it in a snobbish way. I sincerely think I can't read them anymore though.

Also, thanks to the Scout, we are reading 'Brown Bear Brown Bear' and 'Thakkita Tharikitta bouncing ball' and 'Barney goes shopping' like a million times every day. Those are the running favorites right now. I have started distracting him with other books now just so I don't get a headache out of reading the same things again and again and again. But the child seems to love them more everyday.

That's what we have been up-to in the reading department. What have you been up-to?