Atleast Google before DIY

Yes, a tiny post on hilarious DIY(Do It Yourself) screw ups that I have come across. Most of us have had this experience of being toured around in an 1100 to 1500 sft space called home leaving us with lastimg impressions.The guide is so mellifluous about this space as if it were born from thy very own hands and crafted to perfection. This always makes me thank deity Santana Lakshmi that she didn’t bestow on us the power to design our children. Shudder!! Coming back to the point, when I am staring at some masterpiece I’d really have to bite down the urge to ask “Couldn’t you atleast consult Google?”

Simple DIY screw ups that I have come across are:

1.       Bar lights: Please do not use 0-watt bulbs and holders. There is something called as spot light. Kindly use these.

2.       Wall Canvas: Is supposed to be used on a plain wall not divided by doors and windows. And must be highlighted using focus lights. Unless you crop someone’s vision too along with photographs, this for sure is monstrosity.

3.       Children’ room: Children are gullible, not you. Spiderman is good on the fan, but spare the starlights on the ceiling. And for heaven’s sake leave the wall in a single color. The kid may go color blind you enthusiast.

4.       Paneling: Is good when it is done to complete a cabinet. But not good if the only un-paneled space left is the ceiling and flooring. Mighty claustrophobic I’d say.

5.       Furnishing: Oops!!! This tiny post can expand if I begin writing on this. Let’s just say, trust your architect. She/he has not done this degree for nix. And much as you appreciate your own taste, it wouldn’t harm to use professional help and if nothing then Google atleast :D.

So, for those of you who were asking me how my apartment is shaping up, please call the one who is actually doing it :D.


PS: If I ever choose(read afford) to build a house, I will ask Mr and Mrs Hari Ahluwalia as to who their architect was. In my humble opinion, their house is what I can call a dream house.

PPS: The next time I visit them, I'll be sure to take some pics of the interiors and post them for the greater good :).

The Duck Addict

Mummie's new best friend

Mummie’s new best friend has just turned one and a half. It seems like yesterday that Mummie was all praises for this extremely adaptable and calm 14- month old. Well, yes! A lot of that has changed in these 4 months. The accolades remain though ;)

18- month old Pari now loves a lot of new things. She has learnt a lot of new things and her vocabulary is amazing for an 18-month old and Mummie cannot help predict that her new best friend will be a writer someday. When Mummie sees Pari looking into the mirror trying to put on make-up, she marvels how feminine her best friend is turning out to be. But when it is WWF time, Mummie seriously does a lot of re-thinking about mirrors and feminine crap. So, apart from recognition, vocabulary and perception… Mummie is really soooo bored of the IQ meters. The only meter Mummie ever bothered about is the fun meter, well try telling those statistics that to the grandparents huh!. But then maybe you have to track those parameters if you really don’t want to be out-smarted. Mummie tried getting Pari jealous by saying ‘Appu Atta naadi’ and Pari simply responded by saying ‘Teja Mama naadi’. 1-0 Pari-Mummie. Ok um so where were we, hmm… apart from recognition, vocabulary and perception, being a stickler for time and food a trait which she has taken forward from her 14-month stage. However brinjal is dropped out from her list of eatables and so have goodday biscuits. Her getting ready to go out checklist now includes chapstick and sunglasses. Well Mummie’s too. Once when Mumie was putting on kajal, Mummie tried to mimic the kajal stick for a chapstick on Pari and got that look ‘Are you serious? Kidding right?’ Pari helps keep Mummie in check you see. See that is what best friends do. You can afford to be goofy and they will humor you :D. She senses when Mummie misses Daddy and silently hugs Mummie and points to the laptop saying Daddy with the cutest heart melting smile. And well in turn Mummie is her punching bag if she has had anything sugary before bedtime.

Pari now has new books. Apart from the bow bow book that she finally tore apart (just about the time Mummie was wondering if Pari would ever get naughty), she now has a meow book, a tinkle tinkle song book and a colors book. Now Mummie converses mostly in English while Pari refuses to follow suit. So when Mummie says shoes, Pari looks up and says ‘Cheppulu’. She has that quirky look in her eyes, which if Daddy had shown Mummie, he would be spending few nights on the couch. But then Pari is Mummie’s best friend and she can do that right? Pari has a keen sense of music. Once Mummie played ‘Aiyvin Aiyvin’ and Pari was adamant to hear ‘Dooba Dooba Anjali Anjali’. Then Mummie tried ‘Sheila ki Jawani’ and whoa!!! It was an instant hit. So Mummie realized that she probably needs to learn groove all over again.

The supermarket is probably Pari’s next favorite place after anywhere outside. She loves grocery shopping. She walks over to the fruit aisle and picks ‘appul’, ‘banana’, ‘boppay’ and ‘gapes’ and Mummie gets to choose one among them to take home for the week. Then over to the bikkitu aisle, no choices allowed here. Mummie and Pari pick the same ‘Hide n Seek’ J.  Pari reminds Mummie that all girls need one ice cream a week to keep them happy and Scoops it is on Saturdays or Sundays. She knows how ice cream keeps Mummie happy and well you know Pari chooses the best flavors. Well, that is not what Mummie thinks when she has to eat Mango, but thankfully Pari never chooses Strawberry. Mummie and Pari have their share of altercations over who gets to operate the Microwave oven, who gets to ride the bike, who gets the read the newspaper first , who gets to watch TV, who gets to hold baby Pranitha first, who gets the bathroom first, who gets to peel onions and who gets to talk to daddy first. On all except the last two accounts Mummie wins.

Pari is developing a lot of traits that are common in the age group of 1-4. Being fussy, wanting something specifically, repeating actions that keep warranting a ‘NO’, wanting to go out with friends who come to meet, pouring water on the kitchen floor and a lot more. Mummie thinks it is very similar to what Daddy does except for pouring water on the kitchen floor. Since yelling did not work with Daddy; Mummie is now thinking of innovative ways to get Pari to understand how things should work. Albeit Mummie is not doing a great job, she does yell at her best friend to make her stop. After a few minutes of silence and a pause in the offending piece of action, Mummie gets that heart melting smile again. Though Mummie has that overwhelming urge to smile and hug, she resists. That is what best friends do right?

The guy who bought a BOSE home theater system...Almost!!!

How are ill omens good for you?

Haaaachoooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Sniff. Oops! I’m sorry let us begin.

Did I just spell out Avada Kedavra? Well yes of course. I have spelt out the ‘S’ word. Oh my god! Now I must close the MS-Word application. Sit still for 30 mins. Drink some water and then reopen this document. This is called ‘Ashubhaarambh’. As my profile reads I can hardly understand any of this, and I’m not here to provide any explanation or chastise anyone practicing these traditions to counter the ill effects of these omens.  Some of which I personally have done. Why? Habitual, situational or rather if someone is staring down neck so you might as well do it before the drishti burns a big hole at the back of your head.

Somehow I find a lot of fun involved in these tiny little traditions. Some are fictional and some true.

1.       I really love to have my husband take a handful of salt and rotate it all around my head. Makes me smile at that goofy expression my husband puts in as a special effect. Those precious seconds make me feel as if I’m a trophy under going a gleaming process. What a terrible way to compare, I know. Sometimes I make him do it for fun ;)

2.       You have a train to catch at 5:00 PM.  It takes about 3600… well seconds to reach the railway station. It is 4’oclock already, you are just about halfway packed and… ‘Haaaaachoooo’. I leave it to your imagination. Trust me it is amazing fun to lose those precious few seconds here and run helter skelter at the railway station bulldozing about  30-40 people on the way and losing count of ‘excuse me!’. Epic fun I say!

3.       Now then, there is this guy who’s been trying since ages to settle a score with our only natural satellite a.k.a  Moon. It so happens that our Moon bhai ratted out on this fella and had him severed mid way as he was gobbling down a perma-living nectar. Poor fella, hadn’t heard of cloning yet. So that is our Rahu. And periodically he tries to gobble up Moon scientifically termed as Lunar Eclipse, which is apt considering how loony we all get during this time. No talking, no eating, stay indoors, do nothing except breathe.  Some fools go out there and take a photograph. Let her get a pimple on her nose tomorrow, I’d love to say “I told ya”.

4.       Then one day I come home to find my kid bawling out her lungs. My maid chides me the moment I step in. “I told you, never dress your girl in red. Now see what has happened.”  Well one can blame me if my daughter achieves a killer cute quotient in red J . After all it isn’t everyday that dear Red gets look so beautiful. It happened that Red did decide to grace me that instant. As I picked my child, she pulled my hand towards her mouth and bit my finger. Well, now red was on my finger. Thank you red, you told me my child was teething.  Just so you know it ain’t just red, my kid’s cute quotient is all time high in any color including au naturelle J

5.       “Where are you going?” Silence. “Get me some water. How many times have I told you not to ask where people are going specially if they are leaving on an important job”. Ok. After a few days, “Are you going out?”. Pause. “Yes”. “Can I come along”. “NO”. “Why? Where are you going?”. Silence. Stare.”Get me some water and how many times do I have to tell you not to ask people…”. After a few more days. “Going out?”. No answer. “Hey can you hear me?”. “Are you going out?”. No answer… LOL, that really felt good.

6.       Meow… mew mew mew. “Screeeeeeeeeeeech!!! Take that away Vasudha. You know I have an to meet the new boss today. Oh God!! Now I’ll have to bathe again.” 25 minutes later, door opens, Mew mew…. “Screeeeeech!!! Why can’t you shut her somewhere”. “Im trying , I’m trying…”. I was left holding the struggling kitten in my arms and searching for a place to hide her.Ah! the shoe box was perfect. So that day we went to the hospital to get scratch treatment done for my cousin and I was left googling to find a way to declaw kittens. Needless to say the new boss was one nasty wart. Oh well I told you so.

7.       And one fine day, well it was not so fine. We had this big meeting lined up with client and we were to pitch in with the plan to bag the support functions for a project that we had implemented for them.  We had the meeting scheduled at 11:00 AM. I sent out all the invites and was pretty happy with the Attendees responses, till horror of horrors started at me from the calendar. In accordance with the panchangam it was rahukalam (Rahu’s lunch time) from 11:00 to 1:30 PM.  Dear god, I was shuddering in fear. With bated breath we entered the conference room, only to find that our client was delayed as his flight was still circling above the hyderabadi skies for the fear of disrupting Rahukalam. Whew!! An hour later our client landed safely and the meeting was postponed to 3:30 PM. Yes I checked, no doshas. Yep, we got the deal alright but not without a hundred epithets being hurled at us for having screwed up the implementation part. Just then I noticed, the meeting had extended and Yamagandam(Yama’s potty time) had begun. I began shuddering again.

Dear reader, please do add in your contributions and versions of how much fun these ill omen countering tactics or traditions are and show all those, e-pundits with a satirical take on these, how they are missing out on all the fun.

A cellphone for mommie

Well, one would have thought that the market researchers and mobile phone manufacturers would have developed such a cellphone by now. Most of the low-end cell phones today offer a lot of the baby proof features, however I think they have failed to test certain highly important scenarios. For all the mobile phone manufacturers out there, I present these in my latest post.

Test Scenarios:

1. Throw the cellphone in a bucket(upto 60L capacity) and pull it out after 20 seconds.
2. Put the cellphone in the microwave for 20 seconds. Check the device responses at following settings for 20 seconds: 900,780,560  and Grill.
3. Throw the cellphone in a bowl of hot rasam/soup or some porridge.
4. Put the cellphone is the refridgerator and remove after 30 minutes.
5. Slam the cellphone on the floor. Pick up the pieces, re-assemble and test from step 1.
6.The litmus test however is to put the cellphone in a washing machine full of clothes and on a full cycle. 1
    hour 45 minutes later if the device is still working in pre-wash condition, you have the winner.
7.No touch screen,please I couldn't bear the massacre.

Now let us move over to the software. Why? Oh!dear, I'm sure you would have noticed that a 10 month old can successfully unlock your cellphone and send messages to all the contacts whose names start with an 'A'. In my case it is 'Adaddy'. If not, well then I have the smarter kid.

Now since I am a software engineer and I understand the importance of clear requirements, here goes:

Assumption: You are using a basic model cellphone that does not have a touch screen, wifi, bluetooth or any other data exchange feature like push mail etc supported by the network provider.

1. A key/setting to disable send message.
2.A key/setting to disable delete message.
3.A key/setting to disable make call.
4.A key/setting to disable accept call.
5.A key/setting to disable reject call.
6. Allow manual override of such setting with a key/pattern.

Mommies/Daddies reading this post are most welcome to add their requirements information and test scenarios. Please do not suggest behavioral correction techniques, they won't work.

A Grandmother's handbook for raising babies

Ideally this post is supposed to be written by my mother. But since she has probably misplaced her reading glasses and cannot handle any key other than the ones on a BSNL landline phone, I on her behalf am writing this piece.Which, is also why I get to insert my own comments too.Grandmothers generally have more patience as a grandmother than when they were mothers. No! they will not believe this. And they firmly believe that as a mother they definitely brought up their daughter better than how her daughter is now bringing up the child.Yet one cannot refute the fact that child brought up in presence of grandparents grows to be an empathetic,social and well behaved individual. A grandparent's lap is the safest and the happiest place in the whole world.

Granny: Once the child is 3 months old you must begin this training. I cannot word it, the graphical representation as below should suffice.This way you get to time the potty. Once the child can sit buy a small potty seat and get your child to sit on it timely.

Mummie: It works! And saves a lot on diapers. I've been saving on diapers since Pari was 8 months old.
______________________________________________________________
Granny: Massage the child from head to toe with gingely oil and let it sink in for an hour. Coat the child with gram flour and turmeric and wash it off with hot water. It will enhance your child's complexion and strengthen her bones and muscles. Also it is helps in getting rid of body hair. After his apply homemade(granny made) kajal and bindi. Kajal will make your child's eyes big and bindi will ward of evil eyes.

Mummie: The whole massage thing is good. Color enhancement is crazy because no amount of gram flour can alter the genes. I cannot comment about hot water, but after such a rigorous bath the baby sleeps till lunch time :). Also languo or body hair on a child does fall off a few months after birth. Big eyes??? Kajal, no matter who makes it,does not have gene altering capabilities. It may be provide some soothing effect on the eyes, but I'd rather not poke my fingers into my baby's eye. And warding off evil eyes... go figure. But yeah a baby with a large bindi does look scary.
______________________________________________________________
Granny: For treating cough and cold take a betel leaf and apply some castor oil on it.Place a blob of moist turmeric on the child's head and place the betel leaf on it. It is said to generate heat and dry the wind passages. Also a small amount of ginger powder in milk once a day will keep these maladies away.

Mummie: It works only if your child allows anything to remain on her head. Also if she happens to be too finicky about the taste of her milk, then god help you.
______________________________________________________________
Granny: To treat heat boils take a small amount of ghee on your palm. Put a few drops of water and mix it till a very white thick  forms. Put this on the boil.

Mummie: It is a winner. However I still recommend visiting the doctor since babies are prone to immunity problems and some cases may require an antibiotic.
______________________________________________________________

Granny: To prevent your child from vomiting milk burp the child after every feed. Do not put down the child for atleast an hour after feeding. In older children say playschool age, check their hair for lice. The only reason to vomit is if they have lice in their hair.

Mummie: Bingo!!!
______________________________________________________________

Granny: If the baby refuses food or has loose motions and fever, first check her mouth. She could be teething. 5 small balls of a homeopathy medicine 'Calcariaphos' will help your child to be comfortable through the teething process. Also there is something called 'Tilsm Moti'. This is tied around a child's neck and is said to make the teething comfortable.

Mummie: Right on all accounts except the Tilsm Moti. Yet I have tied that around my child's neck and probably will be recommending the same 30 years down the line.
______________________________________________________________

Granny: If your child is crying at night and if the child has a cold then you know what should have been done.Else try giving the bottle if she refuses then check the diaper. Many babies find it uncomfortable in the diaper or may be crying due to the begining of a rash. If even after removing the diaper the baby is not comfortable this means baby has colic pains. Take some coconut oil and apply it around the navel area in circular motions. Put a warm cloth over to alleviate the pain. Also the baby may be relieved after passing urine and sometimes this unrest disturbs the sleep and they get cranky.

Mummie: I bow to thee!
______________________________________________________________

Granny: The moment you see your child reaching out to stand up, these traditional walkers will help them to develop a correct posture and help in strenghtening their muscles. Also avoid extensive diaper use lest your child develops a unusual gait. Instead of doling out on those platic walkers, buy these.

Mummie: I don't know about the unusual gait, my kid was hardly allowed diaper at home.But yes, the walker thing is awesome. I bought the standard confinement one for my peace of mind.And then all my troubles began when Pari soon became confident to walk and refused to sit in the walker.
______________________________________________________________

Granny: Teach your child early on the right way to drink.Get the child used to a glass to drink water or juice. Start with a small silver glass and pour 2-3 ml  of liquid and mimick drinking from it. The child will follow suit.

Mummie: YES!!! I would have otherwise spoilt my child to depend on the bottle for everything.Silver or not ensure that glass is lightweight and has a broad lip.
______________________________________________________________

Granny: Ok I'll stick to the habit here because this could be whole post otherwise. Sing songs and tell interesting tales to keep the child engaged while feeding. Make each morsel a tiny rhyme to go down. Show her pups and leaves and when she looks in fascination shove a morsel in. PPS: Lots of ghee is a must.

Mummie: I think a child should be placed in the high chair from the age of 5 months onwards. Also, the child must be encouraged to feed herself. But then who has ever considered  my opinion anyway.

**************************************************************************
Granny: Never yell at the child. You know she is a lot better than you were at her age. You always drove me nuts. Be gentle, don't starle her. Tell her gently.Your baby is such an angel, you should learn to be patient.

Mummie: 100% true. But mom she was putting her finger in the plug socket.

Granny: Sigh!I need to teach you how to baby proof a house.
*****************************************************************

This handbook is expandable and will be updated to add all the learning in the years to come.Contributions are welcome.

Kolams

I love drawing kolams. In telugu the term for it is 'muggu', but it reminds me of muggers(as in studies and as opposed to mugger mugger of American slang). Hence Kolam it remains.

The beautiful patterns made on the courtyard of your home with shell dust or rice flour have a lot of traditional significance. I do not know the history. I just love drawing these and I love they way they enhance the welcoming to a home. Kolam is the beginning of festivity. The color and design and oh the competetion to have the biggest and the most beautiful one on your courtyard, hmm lovely memories. Standing outside with a bat in your hand, to give a whack to that fellow who hit the ball on to your kolam... priceless!Squirming within everytime someone steps right on your kolam while walking into your home, and then serving them a glass of water with the most murderous stare... mmhmmm.

 Kolams are highly mathematical in nature. Connecting the dots is not all about a kolam. The way to do it what creates a masterpiece. Continous practice at a kolam will teach you infinite patience to see a design evolve. I think it is great way to master hand-eye coordination, considering that in today's world 30 year olds cannot draw an egg to look like one.Though it has been years since I drew a kolam on my courtyard, considering I had none thanks to apartment style of living, it still brings me profound peace and happiness when I view these patterns. I have a record of all kolams I drew during my teen years, and today while hunting for some papers these to fell straight into my lap.

A few kolams that I drew long long ago:

And a few I drew today in mspaint:

                                                                              .........sheesh gimme shell powder any day!!!

Hell's Kitchen-Survival Guide lines

Disclaimer: Not to be mistaken for the popular cookery show. Not applicable to people who can cook or assume that they can cook.

If you are reading this then either you are in hell or on the receiving end of it. Since you know where you belong here are a few survival guidelines for the ones in it. It so happens that people belonging to an era that you’d never fathom existed will descend soon. Pleasing their taste buds and ensuring your mental peace is a task to be accomplished, but that cannot be done without the amino acids seeping out of your eyes. Now dispensing all the heavy talk, it is actually quite simple.

 

1. Take any vegetable or leaf or dal, (even grass works though I have never tried, you can at your risk), sauté it till it is just dead. Put it in a grinder with more than generous and bordering on ulceration amount of dried red chili. Throw in quarter of amount of tamarind and salt and whir it till it becomes a red pulp. Caution: Please exercise caution while opening the grinder lid. The weak nosed and lung-ed may suffer mild asphyxiation.  And for garnishing, add the regular tadka material and go for either of the hit combos: Kadipatha-Hing, Garlic-Coriander. Ensure that you have used atleast a quarter basin of oil for this purpose. After all, taste is all that matters. Voila! You have just successfully survived the south Indian hell’s kitchen.
2. Well everything here begins with 4 large anniyans.( No, not Vikram sweetie! It is how Onion is pronounced). So with four large ann oops onions, some ginger-garlic chili paste and any vegetable that can be pureed 90% of you job is done. Throw all this with vegetable/meat/dairy/pulses  of your choice in a pressure cooker with half a ton of garam masala, a ton of oil and 6 whistles later…Lo! Your master piece is ready to be served with garnishing of ann oops onions and coriander. Simpler right? Voila! You have just successfully survived the north Indian hell’s kitchen.
3. Ah! Now how can we forget dessert? Custard powder in milk, boil,cool and pour over fruits. Very english and nice too. Easier still is to pour sweetened condensed milk, if you are richer. Nope, you want to go the traditional way, put milk about half kilo ghee, grated veggie or rice or semiyan in a pressure cooker and 6 whistles later…  add sugar and more milk while hot and stir. Garnish with heart stopping amounts of ghee fried nuts and we have a winner.

Point being if you are fishing for compliments on your gourmet skills, this guideline is not for you. And if you want to be let off easy and nice then my dear girls this is your survival code. And for those of you who think this is gourmet, Amen!

Congratulations! you have successfully completed the Hell's Kitchen-Survival Guidelines online classroom training session. You may print this page for future reference.

Being Jobless..

                                           ...for a woman means just 1 job lesser.

Men will never stop...

There is something about Pari

“Animals and children tell the truth they never lie. Which one is more human there is a thought now you decide… compassion in the jungle, compassion in your hands…”

When we brought Duke into our lives, these words echoed through our souls. But then Duke is a completely different child. He is extremely belligerent, over zealous, stubborn and madly in love with us. Bringing up Duke was one helluva experience, but that did not deter us from wanting to have a child. It is often said that being educated and informed you must plan your child well. I had no plan financially or emotionally. I wanted to take this new life as it came. I believe this is how 99% of the world’s parents have their kids.
When Pari was born the comparisons to us were obvious. As she is growing all comparisons are fading away. I think she is made differently from either of us. She is adapting herself to her environment. There are so many things different about Pari I’ve realized in these 14 months:

1. Since her birth, I have not seen her once kick a fuss about her feed. Her staple was milk and she immediately graduated to regular cuisine with a brief stint with cerelac. No formula milk, no processed food. She eats her veggies, it I who still fuss around.
2. She loves being surrounded by people, specially the ones she knows. She knows all my friends and can identify even their pictures.
3. The first word she said was thata and very clear and specific. I tried teaching her amma, but she simply said thata. This was at 8 months age. Later on, based on necessity her vocabulary has developed from a span of 4 words to 40 in like a month. She asks for bobba, paalu,ballu and lets us know if she has to use the bathroom. What we did not understand were: mummie aalu,daddu aalu,harry aalu and babi aalu. Later we understood, it was ‘I love you’.
4. If I am working or anything, she does tend to pull my laptop. But most of the time she is pretty occupied by herself. If we are watching a movie she is there in a corner, pulling her toys or reading her book. She even watched “Appalraju KSD” is relative peace.
5. She climbs the stairs to go and play at the landlady’s house. Once sleepy she comes back home. Our maid monitors her from a distance. Pari is a very careful kid. She is not the kind to risk getting hurt from known things. Also her resilience to pain is good. I once mistakenly closed the door and her finger got in the way. It swelled badly and yet after the initial 15 minutes of fuss she barely remembered it.
6. She immediately took a liking to the pets in the house. Duke, Jimmy and the kittens. So much that whenever she wants to see them and knows that they are not around, she asks for book. The picture book with all dogs in it.
7. In this period of 14 months only twice I and Guns have had an all-nighter. Once was when she had a bad nappy rash and the other was after Ravi anna’s wedding, the poor kid may have had body pains.
8. Her keen observation for day-to-day things is so enchanting. If I say “Pari let’s get ready”, her checklist begins: “Bottu,gajulu,paalu”. Once all these are catered to, she goes and picks up any handbag and is ready to go.
9. If she is sleepy, she demands her bottle, takes her rug and finds a bed to sleep. I stopped singing her lullaby or trying to make her sleep since she was 7 months old.  If we are sleeping she isn’t sleepy, she can still keep herself busy. A week ago when both me and Guns were dozing off in the train, Pari was silently playing by herself sitting beside me. My co-passengers were so worried and kept vigilance. Later we were told on very strict terms, to keep our damn eyes open with the kid in such public places.  At home too, since 9 months onwards we stopped keeping an eye over her once she is asleep. If she is awake and can hear the TV, she simply climbs down from her bed and walks over to us. Her senses are pretty good as she can navigate in complete darkness following only the fluorescence light from the television.

1. She is a born foodie. If I make anything that please her taste buds, she demonstrates the same but saying “aaaammuuu” and dancing like hell for the next half an hour. Otherwise, the offending piece of food, lands flat on the floor. And the most lovable thing is, she shares her food with everyone around. Be it as precious as chocolate or ice cream, she always has her spoon out for you. If you have to feed her, she will expectantly look into your cup and give you a cute smile that says… “One for me please.”I am still stingy about sharing my ice cream and Guns still snatches food off my plate. Of course, she does become restless, if you don’t offer her any and yes she will scream if you still don’t give her that one spoon. Come on I think that is highly justified :D.

There are many other things that make Pari different form either of us. I do not think she is determined to be different. After all, what will a kid know? She is born different. Sometimes we both think that she is made keeping in view our low threshold for tantrums, extremely low patience when it came to feeding. Our policy is: “You don’t want to eat, well we are not forcing you either”. I guess she may be worried that we may miss her mealtimes if she is too fussy :P. Also, the fact that we ourselves cannot be too vigilant, she has learned to climb and get off the bed/sofa for her own good. She is resilient enough considering the fact, how rough we are. Oh, she does have her share of pestering for food and attention, but she does like being left alone and I couldn’t agree less with the timing. I do not know if it is the genes or it is situational or that all kids in this generation are manufactured this way, but I am surely very grateful to god for such an amicable child.

Developer's guide to choosing an apartment in Hyderabad - intuitively

/* Created by Vasudha M on 04/24/2010*, ver 1.4/
Class Home Apartment
Function Mybal()
Case Location
When India return 0 /* Not surprising */
When Onsite return X amount /* Good Job onsite*/
End
Function Familybal()
When Inlaws return X
When Daddy return 2X
End
Function BankLoan()
Return (Amount that amounts to a comfortable EMI and which covers 99.99% SP of apartment)
End
Budget = mybal()+familybal()+bankloan()
Case Budget
When unlimited location = [Lodha Bellezza,Lanco Hills,Any damn hotshot hill]
When between 40 to 45 lakhs Location = [“Aparna Sarovar, Tellapur”, ”Aliens SpaceStation Manikonda”, ”My Home Jewel, Miyapur ”]
When between 30 to 35 lakhs Location =[Aparna like at Madinaguda,Jewel like at Miyapur, Aliens like at Nizampet]
When between 20 to 25 lakhs Location =[Niampet,Bachupally,Lingampally] - Likes
 End
 End
And that is how we programmatically narrowed our search to where to look for a suitable apartment. But please don't rule out the inituition factor here, since it easily saved us  close to 60 man-days of effort. Here goes how... 
On the last Sunday of a hot April month, at 2:00 PM we set out on our thunderbird to search for the apartment that could be purchased within our budget. Every apartment built will be sold; there is no doubt about that. The issue is whether or not you are buying it. We were very disheartened to see the apartments that fit our budget. They were poorly designed, no amenities other that car park and lift, sad quality of construction. The ones that were decent over shot our budget by 5 lacs in some cases and in other the promise of delivery would be somewhere in 2012. You never know, the world might end by then. Also in due course of these 2 hours we realized that we might as well be buying a brick and stones structure in the air, but to live in it happily we did need certain amenities like a gated community, gym etc. Maybe we had to extend our budget or maybe we had to delay purchasing the apartment. With this thought in mind we headed back home. On the way from Bachupally to Nizampet we saw gated community called “Prime Meadows” with villas and flats for sale. It looked very nice from the outside. I wanted to stop and have a look at the flats available for sale. Guns drove ahead saying “It will not fit our budget, we have wasted enough time”. I agreed and we drove about 100 mts ahead, when this inituition of mine kicked in.I asked Guns to stop and turn back. “Let us just have a look; one more apartment will do no harm”. He agreed. Again, all the 2BHKs in Prime Meadows were completely booked first and it so happened that the gentleman who booked 103 liked the 3BHK better and went ahead to buy it leaving this the only unsold 2BHK. Call it luck or coincidence we were offered to take a look.So by 6:00 PM on the last Sunday of a hot April month we knew we would be buying this apartment.

PS: This is an open source code, please feel free to contribute :D

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