Look Who Just Turned ONE!

Hey there,

 Long time no see...

 Milestones are so important in life. Looking back when you are old these give you reasons to look back and smile.

As I turned One last week, almost everyday leading up to my first birthday was a milestone. I was on to something new everyday. Yup my folks were going crazy about whatever I did and I was being very nonchalant about it. I mean, is walking really such a big deal? Picture this, my grandpa "goes for a walk" every evening, if that isn't a big deal, then why is it when I walk? Well, I guess walking for the first time is.

I am yet to figure out how not to fall every time I try to take a few steps. I have fallen so many times that I think my backside has become flat. I saw someone on TV walking with a long stick in his hand. I wish I could ask mom or dad to hand me one of those for balance.

Oh yes asking which is actually "talking" is one more thing I wanna talk about. People around me need to take a break and let me progress in my own time. Asking me a hundred times to say Mama or Papa will not make me blurt out the Oxford English Dictionary in an instant. Please!

Talking of dictionary, my vocabulary is slowing growing day by day. And for god's sake I know that the thing on the ceiling with blades and a rotor is called fan. It is used in summer. How many times do I need to point my fingers to the ceiling every time I am asked "where is the fan??"

Oh god don't even get me started on pointing fingers. When you ask and I point finger, its good! But when I point my finger to the "3 holes on the wall" (the one with a switch next to it) why does all hell break loose? People start shouting as if they got some electric shock.

I have slowly come to realize that my parents and their parents are weird. When I started standing, crawling, walking etc they were so happy and now when i want stand up to reach out and feel somethings like glass vases, telephones, pens etc they have started placing them on higher surfaces out of my reach. First they encouraged me and when I started doing it they try and stop me.

 I have also realised that when I was smaller and used to sleep a lot, everyone used to wait for me to wake up to play with me. Now it seems, all they do is to wait for me to sleep so that they can do own stuff. Gosh, what is wrong with them??

At the end of the day, in all their weirdness I love the fact that they love me so much. It feels amazing to be lifted in their arms and be cuddled. I feel the pain in my parents' voices and see that glint in their eyes when they say bye to me & go to their offices every morning. I simply smile and try to hide my emotions. (Else they will want to stay back and stop making money. Then who will buy me gifts??) I am sure the whole day they keep thinking about me as I go about doing my antics at home  and I keep waiting for them to be back and hold me in their arms again. The look in their eyes when they see me again in the evening makes my day. There is no substitute to being pampered.

Anyway its been a long-ish post this, as I had quite bit to say. You know I have been away turning 1 this whole time. Let me get back to growing up and crossing more milestones.

Until then (pointing the ceiling) - there is the Fan!

Cheers,
Vivaan

Hello Life!

 Feels so good to be writing again. Have been wanting to write so much but my dad wouldn't give me his Google password to login to the blog, since I spend most of my time with mom - maybe he had his reasons. And he says he wanted me to cross the 5 month threshold to blog again, like I am buying that.

Its been hell of a 5 months. For the first couple of months it was so cold that I felt I was better off where I was earlier even though it was getting awfully cramped. Talking of cramped, most of those cold months, I spent in so many clothes that its not even funny. And the less we talk about those heavy blankets the better. I mean come on, the poor little kid is learning to breathe and all, and he has to deal with those heavy blankets!

And off late the world has become so hot that most of the time I am not wearing much; which seems sensible. Wonder why other people don't follow the same. Ahem.

Haven't seen much of this big bad world as yet as I have spent most of my time sleeping. I get a feeling that as you grow up you anyway lose sleep on trivial issues,  so make hay while the sun shines. Anyway, the best thing about sleep is waking up at odd hours and making parents lose their sleep. Apart from sleep there are 2 other things that I have been doing crying & drinking (milk-type not the other-type). There is a well thought-out strategy:

When I feel hungry -        I cry
When I feel sleepy -         I cry
When I wake up -             I cry
When I pee -                     I cry
When I take a dump -       I cry
When I take bath -            I cry
When I am bored-            I cry
When I am scared-           I cry
When I burp -                   I cry
When I fart-                      I cry

This common response to almost anything I do or I want to do or I don't want to do or my parents want me to do, makes them go bonkers. But I wonder how my mom gets the reason of my crying bang on EVERY SINGLE TIME!!

Another interesting thing that happened was that I started to roll over. Again, not the ROFL type but just rolling over type. Plus the trick of using my legs to push myself ahead is so liberating. And I hate it when my parents play tricks with me by placing huge pillows in my path when am on the bed.

Lastly, it is amazing how my parents' faces light up by seeing a simple toothless smile of mine. Since they are going through so much just by having me around, I try to give this one incentive to them when I am not crying. :)

Until next time.
Love,
Vivaan
(Remember how I had hoped that they give me a good name?? let me know if you like it)  

PS: By the way, am not such a cry baby.
 

I am the New Kid on the block!!

Hi there, 

 I came into this world on 6th December 2014 at 10:45 AM. I was crying as hell and I wonder what everyone in the room were so happy about. I also heard sounds of "Push, Push, Push..." I was like, huh! they already want me to work?? It seems they were not asking me to push after all. There was this beautiful lady in the room who I believe was not looking her best and it was as if her eyes were trying to express a thousand things at once. As she saw me, her cheeks were lined with beautiful little tears of pearls. It was joy, relief, pride, tiredness and satisfaction all rolled into one. Such was her effect on me I immediately felt as if I was in the right place, but I cried anyway because I guess that's what we new-born are supposed to do. More on her as we go on.

It felt weird breathing for the first time. The air seems to be heavier outside. As I stopped to look around, those weird happy people picked me up and threw clothes over me. They cleaned me and took me outside. It was then I met a handsome guy who was all smiles. As he came closer and picked me up, I noticed a glint in his eyes and I know those were tears. Something tells me that this guy and the lady I mentioned earlier are going to be my most favourite people in the world. 

Soon I was surrounded by both sets of grandparents and both of my cute aunts, I am sure these are the ones who are going to pamper me as I grow.

Within the next 15 minutes there was so much frenzy around, these relatives of mine started putting their hands to their ears and started speaking to invisible people and thanking them. I wonder how they were doing it. I guess it is going to take some time for me to come to terms with this world.

Anyway, I am just happy soaking in all the attention and adulation. I took some time out to update this dormant blog that my dad used to maintain. Did you notice the new look & feel? I did it :D, not bad for a first timer isn’t it? Oh and I also wanted to change Kartik's Korner to Kartik's Kid's Korner :P. Now that I have taken over the reins from him, I will try and update this blog as and when the time permits.

Until then,

Happy Living!!

Signing off, 

New Kid on the block! (I hope they give me a nice name)

Driving Right?

And then I landed in France, rented a car and drove on the "wrong" side of the road and it was fun!!

See!! This is what happens when you stop blogging for months together and then when you attempt to write a post, you wont even last for 140 characters. (those using twitter will understand better. for others, click here)

Now that you have a general idea what this blog is going to be about, let me take you back on how it all happened.

So I am in the middle of February this year, making elaborate plans for my birthday, which involves expecting gifts from my family and then taking them out for dinner (depending on the gifts i get...). There comes a news from my office that I may have to go to Italy for a meeting at FIAT, Turin. I was already under tremendous stress planning my birthday, and now I had to chalk out an itinerary for my upcoming trip to Italy too. After much speculation, I succeeded in making the itinerary, which looked something like this, "Fly to Turin, Italy on 28th Feb - Spend 4 days - Fly back to Delhi".

When everything is set, life has a strange way of leaving you puzzled. My French colleague who was supposed to meet me in Turin, Italy met with an accident instead. And in the process, broke his arm and came up with a brilliant plan. The plan involved making my itinerary go haywire and making me go on a driving frenzy for a week. But I was not complaining as I was getting to drive in Europe for the first time.

Didn't I speak about the connection between life and puzzles earlier? So there, again! Now I had to cram in the process of making an international driving license too. Dealing with Indian Government Authorities is a cakewalk as long as you are able to pull a few strings. Pull a few string and shell out a few bucks, I did. And I got an International Driving Permit made in 15 minutes flat.

And then I landed in Strasbourg, France where my heavily bandaged friend came to receive me and handed me the car keys. I felt like a Bollywood hero who came back after successfully completing his studies abroad and his dad came to receive him with a swanky new gift. By the way, no offence meant to my friend, he isn't as old as my dad.

Driving on the right side of the road was not much of a task as it is something that traffic in Noida often forces you to do and the upside was - no incoming traffic. But the flip-side were the laws which had to be followed. It is such a hard thing to do for us Indians, isn't it? Oh yes and honking was a big No-No. We Indians think that the Horn being right in front of our eyes is reason enough to press it even when we encounter a speed-breaker.

Well, a few initially hiccups later I was a pro and the 600-odd KM drive from Strasbourg to Turin via the beautiful landscapes of Switzerland was a dream. Here I definitely felt like a hero from Yash Raj films but what I was sorely missing was my Heroine, my wife.

All the fun and the beautiful vistas aside, the biggest take-back for me has been the civic sense shown by the people back in Europe. The dedication with which they follow the rules, come-what-may, is commendable. Correcting a society starts from correcting yourself, and since my return I have pledged to do my bit and not break any traffic rule as long as possible. (considering my trysts with Delhi Police, I shouldn't be breaking any rules anyway).  

Lost and Found

The terms Find, Search, Look-For etc are primarily associated with search engines these days, google to be more specific. But Google isnt the place to look for stuff you lose. Wouldnt it be cool to have a search engine where you can look for the stuff you misplaced?

My wife loved the new entrant in her life so much that at times I felt jealous. Months passed, her love affair continued and bond between the two strengthened. Meanwhile, after many failed attempts of winning back my wife I had conceded my position to the new member. But alas, destiny had other plans. On a fateful wintery day of November, something terrible happened that left a deep void in her life. She was running errands and "it" dropped off from her jacket pocket without her knowing. Yes "her precious", the snazzy mobile which she bought a couple of months ago, was gone forever. It was a sad end to our love triangle. 

The next stop for us was Gumshuda Talaash Kendra, Nayi Kotwali, Daryaganj. Which reminded me of the Doordarshan notice in which a female, who herself looking lost, gave the description of the people in such a way that no one would want to look for them. (Kad - 5 foot 6 inch, Chehra - Gol, Rang - Saanwla etc etc). Everytime the description was the same, as if the guy got lost over and over again or was never found. Hang on, we had lost a "thing" and not a "person".

So a little searching on the web told us that the third best chance of getting back the lost mobile is  to lodge an FIR at the police station. Of course, the second best would be when the person who finds it calls you back (yes, it is more probable than cops finding it) and the best chance of getting back the lost mobile would be not losing it at all. My wife being the eternal optimist decided to go to the cops. Any sane individual would term this act as blatantly stupid but it's always worth giving a shot. The conversation went this way:

My wife: I lost my mobile phone yesterday. How do I get it back?

Cop: naya phone lelo!! (With an expression that had "case solved" written all over it). 

A little more of prodding and pushing resulted in the cops relenting and letting us know there is something called "noida cyber crime cell". A visit to this "office" left us pleasantly shocked (!) as it was an un-police station. There was a young-ish cop with a laptop, solving cases online. He was genuinely interested in solving our case and he asked all the details, the most important of which was the IMEI number. Armed with an FIR copy we left that place, feeling a little hopeful even when we knew that the probability of find a lost mobile phone is like finding a gumshuda Chinese guy!!! (for those who didnt get it, all chinese look the same - no offence meant to my oriental friends).

 

Lot of days passed without any news from the so called cyber crime cell. But we kept tabs on the status by frequent calls to the cops. My wife's distraught mood was as if someone had gone through a terrible break-up. She refused to use or like any other phone which was not "Samsung Galaxy S Plus". And then one fine sunday afternoon, i received a call from the cop, he said nonchalantly "aapka phone gum hua tha na, mil gaya hai aake le jao". My happiness knew no bounds. When I broke the news to my wife, she thought I was kidding. A frenzied jumping session, a quick dash to the market to get a box of Ferrero Rochers, and a mad drive to the cyber crime cell later we had in our hands our mobile phone in perfect working condition. To our surprise the cops didnt "ask" (or demand) for anything and refused to accept chocolates too. Hats off to those guys!!

 

So that my friends was how we lost and found our mobile. There have been a few other losts and founds too since the last time i blogged, the list goes like this:

 

-  I lost myself in mundane life and found the will to blog again

-  I lost my bachelorhood and found married life. (which is a bliss)

-  I lost all hatred and found respect for Noida cops (at least the cyber crime ones)

-  And finally, I didnt lose anything but I found my best friend in my wife :)

 

She is "The One"

I knew she was out there somewhere
But where, I had no clue.
Tried to find her in every girl I met,
but "he" made someone like her too far and too few.

Parents arranging my meeting with her was a little awkward,
But subsequent meetings were something to which I was really looking forward.
What followed each day was talking to her for hours on phone
As I got to know her better, I found she was someone I had always known

Then came a day when we got engaged,
It didn't matter if it was love or arranged
for I knew that she was "the one" with whom I'll spend the rest of my life,
The girl whom I would soon call my wife.

Excitement is hard to contain, as I imagine my future with her,
Each minute, hour and day will be something I never experienced before,
The beautiful company that I will have, is more than what I ever asked for,
I hope I fit the bill and be her "sapnon ka rajkumar" :P

Word by word as we write our book,
Brick by brick as we build our house,
Step by step as we start our walk,
Stroke by stroke as we paint the canvass,
Breath by breath as we live our life,
May our bond become stronger and life will be an adventure as we base it on this strange emotion called "love"

PS: 16 hours is a long time to spend on a train,
I look at it as more of a loss than gain,
I didn't want this time to go in vain.
So I try to give words to my feelings, by taxing my brain.

PPS: As I post this on her Birthday (with her next to me), here's wishing her the most wonderful birthday ever. And I promise to make her feel on each day of her life as special as she feels on her birthday.

Marriage - Is a Relative Term

What kind of a girl are you looking for to settle down in life??

I usually wake up in the morning to sounds/questions like, "Kartik, wake up!! Its 7 AM!!" or "Kartik, don't you have to go to office today??" and sometimes to, "How come you are up so early?? Its only 12 O'clock". But definitely not to the question mentioned at the start of this post.

As soon as I am out of bed, I prefer to brush my teeth first and then talk. Keep asking me a hundred questions and I will just nod. I simply don't like to talk without brushing my teeth. Recently in Bangalore, when I was asked this question by a distant relative of mine, the first response that came to my head was, "Umm.. Maybe someone who brushes her teeth in the morning!!" But I resorted to a smile, because it makes other people wonder what you are thinking.

You cross 25 and all hell breaks loose in the family (extended family to be precise). All the relatives start behaving as if they were born to fulfill their ONLY (cant stress this word enough) purpose in life, which is getting you married off. Suddenly, even before you know that a particular person is somehow related to you, he has a marriage proposal lined up for you. The relative of mine who raised the above question was my mother's mother's cousin's husband's brother.. phew!!! (or something like that).

In a large family gathering, knowing that I had crossed 25 a good three years ago, caused a mini panic. There was a frenzy as if people had some deadline to meet and now they have three years of work piled up. I don't know why Indians are so obsessed with marriages. It is fun to attend a function where all the relatives have gathered to celebrate but imagine the state of the guy at whose expense all this occurs. On second thought, if the population of this country is any hint to go by, I now see the obsession with marriage ;)

Well, happiest people are those who are happy doing what they want to do. So its in best interest of everyone to not meddle with anyone's business. It is ultimately my decision to choose the person I want to get married to (provided that person chooses me too :P) and I just let all the weird stuff happen around me and enjoy while it lasts.

Not that I am getting married anytime soon, actually I don't even know whom I'll end up with. But I am sure everyone has to go through these weird times once in their life. Like I said, Enjoy while it lasts!!