Shyam's Blog

Our son plays with black ants. I am always checking to see if he missed out to identify the type of ant and if that ant turned out to be red ant! I wanted to know why an ant bite hurts. After hunting on the net, I found out that it is due to formic acid produced by ant. In Latin, Formica means ant. Easy solution to reduce ant bite pain is to wash the area with soap.

Visited Cubbon Park today to show our son a glimpse of train. Kids' train in the park is nice and enjoyable for kids. Our son enjoyed it a lot. The park is nice with a huge area. Only thing lacking is good maintenance. There could have been more stuff for kids to experience. Right now, there are basic things like slides and seesaws. A few rides and shows will surely make children enjoy. Temperature was high and it was little hard to bear the weather. Respite was - it is exam season for kids which kept them away from this park. Come next week and the park will be full all 7 days in a week. For someone who wants to visit: Park is open from 10 am to 6pm. Entry fee is 5 per adult. Kids - free; Train ride - 10 per adult, kids - Rs. 5. Train rides stop at 5:30pm. Mondays - Holiday. 2nd Tuesday of the month - Holiday. Food/snacks is available inside. You are welcome to carry your own food/water. Parking (cars and bikes) is available in plenty - Rs. 15.

Recognizing alphabets for our son is always a game. He now recognizes 20 of them :). When I saw it for the first time, I was surprised to see him easily pick the alphabet from the heap. While the above one is for him, below chart is for IT savvy people :). Got this chart online.

Whats in a name? 'Everything' - infact, confusion and fun! In the past few days, we are getting calls for "Dr. Shakunthala Devi". Mom is in US, so, had to turn down the callers :( Story 1: Caller 1 (female): Can I talk to Dr. Shakunthala Devi? My wife: Sorry, she is not around. She will be available after few months. Caller 1: Oh.. is it?? I had talked to her few days ago and she had told that she would give an appointment for me. My wife: You can contact Dr. ... . She can answer all your concerns. Dr. Shakunthala Devi has handed over all her cases to Dr ..... Caller 1: No.. no.. I don't want anybody else. I need Dr. Shakunthala Devi only. My wife: If you want, you can contact Hospital A.. or Hospital B. They will help you in suggesting other doctor. Caller 1: I am confused here. Am I calling Dr. Shakunthala Devi number who is an Astrologer? My wife: Sorry... nope.. wrong number! Story 2: Caller 2 (male): May I talk to Dr. Shakunthala Devi? My wife: Nope.. she is ...

What do I see through the window? I see Microsoft. :) I was actually looking at the Old Airport (Bangalore) which reminded me of the times when I used to land there on beautiful mornings. Dad used to drive home from the airport in empty roads early in the morning. A feeling of satisfaction was there moments after landing and also while driving through the city.

ನಮ್ಮ ಮಗು ನಡೆಯುತಿರಲು, ನಾವಿಬ್ಬರು ನೋಡುತಿರಲು, ಓಡುತಿದೆ ಹಗಲು-ಇರುಳು.

March 4 was declared as Bus Day in Bangalore to encourage people to take the city bus and decongest the roads. I think people thought the other way - "Bus day means, give buses a break to rest in depot/garage". Below picture explains.

Before flying to the US, dad had given our 15-year old music system for repair. He had told me that repair will be complete in 3-4 days and I had to make the payment and bring the system home. Today, I got a call from the local repair guy that the system is ready. I went in the evening to his shop and this is what transpired: Test run 1: ShopGuy (SG): Our audio tape is old and faulty. You might not get nice sound here. Once you take the system home and play it with your tapes, it should work fine. Me: OK. Play the tape, let me see. Vidyabhushana's songs were sounding like a female singer! Surely, the tape player is not repaired. SG: No sir. I had already told you that our tapes are in bad shape. You go home and try or get me your tape and I will prove it. Test run 2: I had to come home to get my own audio tape. Instead, I headed to a nearly audio store and requested for a test audio tape. The shopkeeper there was familiar to me and he obliged. Me: Take this tape. Got this from the ...