Fevers and Flu's

This is the time of the year when most parts of India are in a grip of one or other fever or flu. It is because of sudden temperature variations and then because of uncleanliness on roads and surrounding areas. My daughters were having viral fever first and then I contracted eye flu from somewhere. It has been 7 dyas but still my eye flu is not going. Some people are suffering from typhoid or from dengue (which is a deadly disease). but even though everything is happening no one bothers. May be that is why we are still a developing nation and will never become a developed nation. because there si no proper planning for anything. As Indians we take every moment as it comes.

After a long time

It is after a long time I am trying to write something. It has been a hectic life for me with my wife and kids also busy with their work. I will post some photos in near future. But this time the news is that Ananya has started reading. now it is she who tells me everytime"papa when are we going to study" and i answer "afterr some time". Aahana is as usual trying to walk and falling down. She doesnot stop and now she has learnt a few hindi words. Day by day her language is improving.About sonika she fell down from the scooter and had bruised legs so she was at home for the last 8 days. Nothing new but will update after sometime.

Ahmedabad tour

I was away for a while. Actually Sonika had a three day training on "Fashion Styling" in Ahmedabad, a nearby state. So i thought it will be good opportunity to visit somewhere else with kids. Well the first shock was temp. which was very high coupled with high humidity.And with kids it was difficult to go outside. Sonika had to go in the mroning and come by 6.00pm. So my job was to take care of kids. And Aahana does not stay without her mother. So it was the job of nerves to keep her busy. well I used to show her TV for a while, then bath both the kids and then give her milk and try to make her sleep from 111 am to 1.00pm because at that time Sonika used to come. and then again give her milk at 3.00pm so that she sleeps upto 5.00.But really it is difficult to control kids.
About ahmedabad it is a city for trational clothes. so we purchased some clothes. Ananya needed bangles and sandles which i brought for her.here are some of the photos of our ahmedabad trip.And yes we went to Mcdonald's also which is a craze here. besides this joints of Barrista, cafe coffee day is here and Starbucks is also coming.

Latest update

I am a confirmed laziest person in the world. i don't try to post the blog regularly. But the problem does not lie with me entirely. Actually whatever I write I can do during office hours only since i dont have internet connection at home. Also it takes aeons to upload the photos. It was just one morning that my Aahana was sitting and i thought to make her tiger. well she liked herself when she saw her face.
I have brought a guitar from US which I never had chance to use here. Although i don't know even a A of guitar but sometimes just to make my wife and kids happy I try to show them my guitar. but ananya and Aahana are so fascinated with music that they just want to take it from my hands and use it. So they got two guitars as gifts and here u can see our "Guitar Family". So we are just enjoying being together, taking our guitars out and make some noise so that no one even tries to come near us to hear our music. Apart from that, life is normal. we are having a season of mangoes and u get a lot of varieties of mangoes. So we are eating a lot of mangoes also. And now the monsoon is going to start where it rains throughout day sometimes and the temperature dips a bit low. But this is the time when all type of diseases start spreading because of humidity.

So soorrry

I am really sorry for being so lazy in posting new thoughts. well the part of problem lies in my lazy attitude and the other half lies with our internet which was down for the last so many weeks. well after u have been in US and used computer 24x7x365 days, and then suddenly the internet is down think how boring and frustrating it becomes. On personal front Ananya and Aahana are enjoying their time and giving a hard time to us. because we both work and that too in the opposite directions of the city,we had no one at the house to take care of them. hence we keep them in creche from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm. and when we come you should see the smile on the face of Aahana. I think that is the loveliest smile in the world. And then she starts her usual crying and tantrums and doesnot want her mother to leave her even for a single second. And whne i start music then it is dance time. I am trying my best to upload videos of their dance but again the internet speed dampens my spirits.

Sorry for late update

First of all let me feel sorry for not updating my blog for a long long time. But I have a reason for that. i was busy in shifting to the new house (Yes I have constructed new house) and then I had taken two three days off from the office and here in India having internet connection at home is not that much popular. But I am thinking of taking it now since I feel handicapped without it many times. But I miss the internet speed of US.
To tell you what I did besides shifting which was offcourse a back breaking job. I went with my wife for seeing a movie. It was a typical Indian movie. Well about our movies, it is full of romance, drama and tragedy only. You dont have to use your brains while watching movie. While going to movie, we went to Pune University and there I took this picture of my wife with my new mobile (yes I have brought a new mobile Nokia 7630 and it is costly approx. $250). Since the university is so green and calm I thought of taking her picture. One more reason was that I have been biased in uploading pictures. i upload pics of my kids only and never of my wife so I thought of changing the trend and this is the start. But I am never satisfied with the pictures of my kids so i am uploading one more pic of Aahana. She looks really scarry ET style. i liked this picture. So will you all. And yes I will be uploading some pics of the dishes in India and also about the traffic (which is horrible here) in future.
About my kids, Ananya is having holidays so everyday her first question in the morning is "Mumy/papa will u take me to ur office". She is getting really bored and about Aahana (well she gets up early in the morning at 5.30am) I take her to nearby park for sometime. She is mostly interested in unscrewing things and give her anything she tries to open it first. And yes she has started calling me papa but sometimes if i am not listening to her then calls me muma. And she likes bike rides so much that in the morning she shows me where the key is and by sign language wants me to drive her on the road which sometimes i have to do.

One friend left

Well i am late in posting something new. Sorry for that. The latest news is that Ashok (Godbrother of Sonika) left to other state for job on saturday. To tell the truth, he was of immense help in every aspect. Even when I was not here he took care of my kids and Ashok, Asha have been with us for the last 8-9 years. Although you miss a person who has been so close to you but I think the worst affected is my daughter, Aahana. I left to US when she was 5 months old and after that it was Ashok only who used to take her care. And in the morning Ashok used to take him out and thenplay with him till 8.00 am and she will listen to the songs in his car. So now in the morning she wakes up and asks for "mamu" (Hindi word for the brother of one's mother). Sorry for not uploading the photos of his departure in the morning but in a day or two I will upload them.
Now about my timetable. I have to get up early in the morning (6-6.30 am) to play with Aahana since she neer allows her mother to work in the kitchen and upto 8.15 am I have to do that. Then go the office by 8.45 and come by 6.00 om and after that it is again Kids time. It is either teaching ananya or playing with aahana. Dinner by 9.30 and then during night whenever aahana wakes up, my job is to bring milk for her. So u never know whether u are asleep or awake. Anyway life is like that "Thodi khati, thodi mithi" means "Somewhat sour and somewhat sweet"

Ananya's Holidays

Yesterday I had to take a day off because of two reasons. one was that my head was spinning maybe because of excessive heat here and the other and most important reason was that Ananya's school was going to be closed for summer holidays. And it was Glendoman quiz time for her. So I went to see her performance and also to talk to her teacher about her performance. her teacher said that she is smart but she does not concentrate on studies (well her father also suffers from the concentration problem). I feel that she is smart but since I was not here there was no one to take care of her studies. Now Sonika is teaching her everyday for one hour and she is showing some progress. About Aahana or bubu, the literal meaning of her name is "First rays of Sun". well she is like that because she wakes up everyday by 5.30 and then u have to run after her and she never stays still. She has started recognising me and has started calling me "papa" and mostly when I am playing with Ananya (Shunnu) she comes to play. So one problem is solved.
I have not started some serious work till now. Mostly because I dont feel like working because of excessive heat and also it will take me sometime to adjust to surroundings.

Sick Time

Well with the increase in heat, children are affected by various types of illnesses. In my case, my younger one Aahana is affected by cough and a bit of dyssentry. She didnt sleep throughout night and because of that Sonika was not able to sleep also. About me, I came to office on bike and because of that my head was spinning throughout the day and today also. i feel that after living in Madison for a whole year under less temperature, i am not able to bear the high temperature. I have also constructed a new house and we will be shifting to the new house very soon. As soon as we shift, I will post the snaps of my new home here. Nothing more to pen, except that i feel sleepy throughout the day and my stomach has started inflating which I tried hard to maintain at madison. Let me see after how much time I will get fat again.

Parenting

Parenting is an art and everyone cannot do that (That is what I think). It has so much responsibilites that sometimes one thinks whether kids are important. i have stayed away from my kids for one year and it was a year of total loneliness with no one to bother you. I had so much time for lab and also for my own hobbies and even then I used to think how to spend time. I had to plan even next hour about how to utilise that because you dont get anyone to talk to you everytime. But when I came back and saw my kids, life has become so busy. I don't have even time to think about next week leave the next hour. Yes, when they do not sleep uptil late, when u have to run after them so that they do not fall down and when they do not allow you to watch any other channel except cartoon, I become sometimes irritated. But when you see their smile, their innocent questions, their small small demands, you feel that yes kids are important and that is what makes your life special. but getting up in the midnight and bringing milk for my younger one sometimes annoys me but when she says "papa" in her babyish language, I really forget that it is midnight. Sorry I didn't say first that I have two daughters. one is Ananya and she is 5+ and other is Ahana and she is 1+. i had brought one goggles for Ananya and yesterday she broke it and today she was telling me "papa when u go back to America, bring me the new ones" and i had to say yes. I want to share one joke with you guys. Some two three days back i was showing Ananya some snaps and was asking her whether she would like to have an American mummy. She looked at me and replied seriously "papa that is Okay but I will not be able to talk in English with her". these innocent replies makes you feel satisfied in life. More in next. I am planning to go for a vacaion with my family and am trying to work out the details. And then I will be able to upload the photos of different facets fo india, an amazing country. Meanwhile, i am uploading some photos of my kids because my friends love to see them.

Rain and Kids

It was after a long time that we had rains at least for a brief period. So my kids just went out to enjoy the rains. When the temp. outside is near to 105F then getting rain is a big relief. I am attaching some photos of my kids enjoying their rain. besides this, there is nothing exciting happening in my life. yes yesterday i went for shopping, movie and lunch outside. we had parathas and paneer burji and saw "provoked". This movie is based on the true story of an indian lady who was oppressed by her husband in UK and ultimately she killed him. The movie was good, at least my wife liked it. I wanted to see "300" but maybe some next time.

First Days

This is the our first meeting after my landing in India. As we all know how much hungry one is after travelling continuously, so we went to have a pizza (I like pizza a lot). And then after reaching home, it was kids time. My elder daughter was so happy to see me and her presents. And nowadays she follows me everywhere and says "papa, now you will not go anywhere without us". And my younger daughter, she still stares at me and tries to contemplate who I am. but now she has started giving me a smile and coming to me. Especially when I click her photos, she is in all attention for that. On work front, well it will take some time to get tuned to the new regime of work.
i am adding some photos of my kids also for my friends to see.

Back to India

Let me first tell u about my trip back to India. I am a dumbhead and this was confirmed by the fact that I didnt know that I was flying Chicago-London-Mumbai and came to know only when I boarded the plane. I had thought that i am flying Chicago-Frankfurt-Mumbai. After nearly 20 hours of flight and no smoking (Well I am a smoker but will not be in couple of days) I reached Pune (my place) on 29th. My wife was there to receive me and yes to all myfriends (in US) I hugged her since it is not a common thing here. My elder daughter was very happy and my younger one (whom I had seen when she was only 3 months old) is still staring at me and thinking who the hell I am. Besides the hight temperature (40C), jet lag and my battle with leaving smoking, life is trying to get normal. Today i took my breakfast at 5 am because my biological clock is still to be reset. Well i enjoy and am enjoying very moment of meeting my wife nad kids. Sory for not posting the snaps but wil do so in near future. And the usual comment I am getting is that I have become weak and some people are really worried about my health since i have lost almost 35 pounds.
I will keep u all posted about India now in due course of time.
Once again thanks to u all for giving me so much love, care and affection.

Emily's Party

I cannot describe how happy I was to get the farewell party at Emily's house. well it was fun and I felt special to be there. She is really such a sweet heart to talk to and also with her fiance, Levi it was hilarious and sweetest moments I ever had in US. I can definitely say that Americans are very loving anad caring. Well she had prepared Eggplant Parmesan, Lemon cake and chocolate cake for me. And I liked the way she did everything. The house was so good. And when u enter her house, u feel so much happiness and warmth since the house is so artfully decorated with so many ethnic things. She and Levi has such a good sense of aesthetics. Then I met her mother and brother, Elliot. and we enjoyed each others company so much. I stayed there overnight. I wish i had more time to be in US and talk to them more. Maybe I can come to US again and it will be my wish to be with them. Emily and Levi, I love u both for giving so much attention, love and warmth to me.

Last moments

well since I am reaching my time of leaving USA so i am having farewell parties. And these are some of the photos of some of my farewell parties. I enjoyed them a lot and came to know how people feel and how I am feeling now. It is time to pack baggage and go to ur own people but i will remember my time here. Sometimes it was fun and sometimes stress. But overall a good time for me.

Count down

I am leaving to India hence the title count down. Overall it was a very good time for me here in US. i learnt many things. About science, culture and relationships in US. Although everyone in India has this mind set to go abroad and I was also curious to visit out of my country. But after coming to other place you feel that your country is a nice place to live. It is not I didnt like it here. I made some really good friends with whome I shared my joys, sorrows and my inner thoughts. Now the time has to come for shopping, farewell parties and yes offcourse which i hate the most. This is the time when I miss my wife most because she is expert in packing the baggage. And I miss her. Come on it has been one whole year wthout seeing my loving wife and two beautiful daughters.

Boring Weekends

well when u dont have anywhere to go then ur weekends become boring. At least that is what i think. but as the weather is getting nice i think it becomes very refreshing. well here are some puns and jokes which i enjoy to share with u all.

Where do watch makers go to unwind?

I used to make doughnuts, but I quit the hole business.

She was allergic to wheat but still ate bread. I guess she was a gluten for punishment.

The anesthesiologist’s wife was a knock out.

A pediatrician is a doctor with little patients.

The cow just gave birth. She was decalfinated.

What do you call a stupid cloud? A nimbus-cell!

This is from Puns and Jokes for Groan Ups by the late Saint Louis University meteorology professor, Dr. James Moore

February the 16th

Well this is my first posting. So I am in Madison and it has been almost 10 months and i have to spend 2 more months here. Today was the normal day with lot of work in the lab. (well i am working in a lab) and the weather is so crappy. If you have come for one year to new place , one cannot even buy a new or used car since u know that u have to go. So it is everytime, wait for the bus in this weather, to go home. Life is all about lab and apartment with nothing in between. It is difficult to even go outside.