FW: Meet the parents

Shrikant saw this article on HindustanTimes ePaper, and thought you would find it interesting. You can find it at: 'Meet the parents'

Shrikant also sent the following message:
indications for us to be - .oh-so--prepared

HindustanTimes ePaper - Digital replica of Print Edition.

move baby move

bujju said today that the baby is active..
it's the 27th week... to be expected
and also that she wrote in Tamil.. good begining...

i hope the baby learns more than 3 languages by the time it is 4

Indore had its first pre-monsoon rain day before yesterday
the power cut is still random
the water supply is still screwed up.. wonder where that city is going to go.. and how amma pappa are managing so much difficulty

i want to be with bujju and spend time with the baby.. i am as such not having any work on hand.. transition and handovers are happening slowly.. if i start, i will have to take a chance to work from Indore..
as it is, though I have been given a V Good in my rating, I don't know what my increment will be like.. since the variable pay was increased by 5%
take home has reduced..

today had been reading up about the brain development of the baby.. interesting info..

- i still am not focusing on studies...
- Dadar flat might be sold off and i will lose one precious visit to that colony of my birth.. i can't do a thing since i don't have the money to invest in buying it out...
life sucks but i have to rally on

another peek at life

Over the last few days I am back to my routine in Bombay..Internet.. TV… and then sleeping

The thought of studying is making me nervous..More so because I am fearing inside that I won’t remember anything and I will not understand everything

My patience levels are running out … and I fear more.than before...

I need a break from this fear and the only way for that is to identify all that I fear and tackle them each one by one.

I don’t want to transmit this fear to the new life coming up… and I need a solution for this at the earliest. Maybe the visit to the psychologist is a need….

Bujju went to the doctor today.. and said she saw the face of the baby.. that’s an amazing thing. I wish I was also there and was able to share the moment with her.

She says the baby looked like the face of the poster baby we have… that’s an interesting thought… :> how the mind seeks such signs to think everything is well and good…

The doc has said that everything is fine with the baby and the brain development is also good… - that amma was concerned about – but I am not sure how the brain development is possible to see via a sonography…

But there are issues that bother me otherwise too.. there is severe water shortage in our house.. drinking water. Indore is turning into a messy place but unfortunately, the place is such that we have decided to live there for good… well Amma in a way didn’t but papa went ahead – with our silent agreement – to build a house, to ensure we all lived with him. He never thought of the way the future might turn out to be.. and in a way I am also turning out to be like that I am afraid.

Ok, let me use this platform to list out my fears

I am not thinking of the future of our life in terms of

• where to settle down,
• how to fend for kids education and future
• how to manage retirement
• what I should do after retirement so that I don’t end up with no income at all
• what do I do if I am not into IT
• what are the alternative professions I should look for and soon

there are so many more to write but my patience is running out...

there is a huge state of confusion and I need to get some grip on where to start from. I have taken the appointment with the psychologist. It’s a practice that they would eventually pass the buck back to me but let me try at least…

watched the play Chanakya yesterday. Another of those social outings that kept me tongue tied and didn’t get me to explore the deeper meanings of human interactions.

Dadar flat is to undergo renovation and that's another incident that made me go there this weekend. to take pictures of the flat the way it is today.. for tomorrow that birth place of mine will have changed into something totally different...

return trip

as i return back from home.. I am greeted in the morning by a gory accident scene.. have written off and on about this scene on all my different blog sites... so don't want to repeat it here.. but the fact remains that in India, the value of life is diminishing and all of us are becoming akin to rodents..

i hope i am able to teach the baby the value of life and the meaning it has for all of us.. we seem to be losing it bit by bit every day...

the in-laws house

bujju is going to stay with her in-laws from today onwards.. on her own.. as I move back to Bombay for work life...

I am hoping there will be the almighty force that will take care of everything and I leave it up to it to ensure the well being of my dad, mom, bujju and baby

the baby seems to be giving signals to the mother.. and I have to be around to feel that presence..

Hanuman, Sai Baba raksha karo bhala karo

lost in development

this city where i am to get my baby into the human world is lost in chaos...
i hope the baby is able to make its way out of it all...
i need to maintain my sanity
yelled at pappa again... i need to be more patient..

heard your heartbeats

and it was interesting moment... today.. with everyone of the family around... we all heard you baby!!!!
you have a wonderful heart beating to the tune of music.. and you are doing well... wow!!! how technology enabled us to hear you... even before we know what you are like

your mom was very happy... and she said she felt some movements around.. so thats even more enthralling to know...

i have so many thoughts about nature per se.. and how it triggers a pair of cells to turn into an entity which eventually can change the course of nature itself....

we are a family now and we are so glad.. only unfortunately.. pappa missed hearing you. i hope he can feel the same sound waves from you like all of us... you need to live with amma and pappa to appreciate how much love you are going to feel from them...

...i have so much more to write.. its 2AM and i woke up to ensure i didn't miss writing this day!!!

in Baby Territory

began our journey ito the baby territory on Saturday.. on Mom's b'day and landed in Indore on Mother's day... it all seems to be getting in to place...

this is week 22nd.. and now I hope bujju will feel much better without all the tension she had been facing of handling things all on her own
it's going to be tight for me and her ..but i am sure it will be manageable..
more to come after her tests tomorrow...

fatherhood blogs

have to figure out how to be more expressive as a father... blogwise and othewise

have to read up some good blogs and see how people do it

placeholder

change in work

The day began with training - cross cultural sensitivity..
it ended with the note that my work of transition needs to be stopped...
in a way.. i feel happy
in a way.. i feel it might all work out in the end for me to be with the baby when it comes along...
but i am just counting on my stars now for that to happen

bujju has been trying to keep things going - with the limited manoeuvrability she has, she has been keeping the engine rolling.. i sometimes feel that I am being overprotective - lest there is some problem and I will have to shell out loads of money to get the issue resolved.. my complete approach is from the expenses perspective and that is what is keeping me so tied down to not venturing out and do things - do new things - do things differently...

i get to talk to the baby every day morning and evening... bujju acts so cutish when she talks to the baby posters... i simply love the childlike thoughts she has and her tone and at some level, though she knows she is that, she also possesses that maturity that I don't see much of.. she acts childlike but she definitely knows when to cut the crap and get to serious business..

i am hoping of all hopes that I am able to work from Indore during the months of Aug end to Sept end... so help me God!!!

the baby is in the 20th week.. and I am confused.. sometime last week also it was the 20th week.. the calculation shows this should be the 21st...
and that is a huge thing.. there is listening ability coming up soon and sensations will begin to flow in too... nature has this amazing creative power that I totally totally bow down to...
may the good forces be with the baby!!!

bal vaakyam daiva vaakyam!!! - bujju told me this day before yesterday.. she knows much.. the information comes out as needed..
she has this amazing fascination for the devi jatra that happens till Kartik Ekadasi year.. I need to write more about this in time..

for the baby, from my side, i want a mix bringing up of traditional culture and the current 'care-two-hoots' culture but I myself am not so connected with the traditional culture.. so I need to work on that.. and will need to ask bujju about how she wants to bring up the baby...
should be a very balanced mix and I hope I will be able to do justice to my own role
I want the baby to live with Amma Pappa and at least feel that companionship and also with the other elders in the family so that there is some essence that gets transferred.. but time shall only tell..

placeholder

Weekend of unity

The last day of this long weekend...
spent time again in domestic chores.. and no studies.. people would have cracked all their study material in this time.. but here I am
don't know why I am not able to focus on important things..

there was a dilemma in going or not going to Indore.. esp. because I thought I need to spend some time with the growing baby ball.... but then for that I should have planned things well in advance.
Now I can only but rue that I am not getting the time I need to be with bujji in this stage...

there is much to write.. esp. what thoughts we have for the baby now and how this might impact the child later in the future... who knows how much of those thoughts I will remember.. trust she will but then.. the essence of the thought and the fun element will be lost ...

so it is that capture of thoughts that I want to put here... who knows if this will be read at all.. again by me or anyone..
I wrote so much on Xanga.. I don't even read that now.. though Ido want to...
information overload!!!! it's spinning my head.

figured this morning that the Tatkal quota for 8th May is over... how pathetic of me to not figure out that in summer, people will book early and that there is limited quota... If I wanted to be there for Amma's birthday.. it didn't happen this time at least... thanks to my lazyness...
surely, I have the will but a very weak will power to make things happen....
change!!!!

united weekend

Finally the long weekend arrived and it is already the 3rd day of it...
30th was voting day... I voted - for the 1st time in life!!!! after that Voter ID drive way back in 1990-1991
1st - Mayday!! labor day.. state holiday or national holiday.. one of them though nowadays people don't know if it is only a state holiday or a national one... everyone has become so narrowly focused.. the call center girl of IDBI said it is a Maharashtra holiday... even I have lost sense of the days... too bad to be such an absent minded guy...

Have been thinking of spending time with the baby but it never just happening in a way I thought it should.
I am not making time for the baby specifically.. and that I should in the next 5 days..
I want bujju to stay here with me for some days but also the checkup is important..
so she will have to go there but amma says I should not get her to travel so often.. so maybe I will have to keep visiting her oftener taking leave from work!

I have this concern for Bujji because she's feeling or acting scared of things.. which she should be able to handle with time
but for some reason, we get lost in our interactions so much that we just lose out on time and key thoughts to work on... it's this tendency to laze around that is kicking me and her most of the times and we are just not making up for lost time...
she is upset and rues that we didn't have sufficient interfacing in the last 3 years which even i would agree with.. we didn't. even when we are living on our own!!
There is much I thought of writing in this post, but nowadays I am writing because I want to leave a trail of thoughts we have been through.. not so much "we" 'cos I am not able to have bujji's thoughts in place as she expresses them but she has some interesting observations which make me wonder... how sharp the mind can be to be able to observe things with such minute detail and 'remember' them ...
i am happy for her being!! may she and our future be blessed...