Shyam's Blog

Cradle Ceremony was done on Dec 27th for our son. Below are some pictures. A stone is first put in the cradle and then the baby! All the ladies gathered sang a few songs for the baby. For the whole evening, our son was sleeping without being disturbed by the people gathered. He woke up once everybody was gone by 9:00pm. Stone in the cradle Lights setup for the cradle Decoration of cradle Baby's official first time sleeping in the cradle

"Name, Place, Animal, Thing" - this was a popular game we played as kids. This game was on air yesterday on Radio City. It is a game of writing items belonging to each of these categories AND all starting with the same alphabet. Eg:"Rahul, Ranchi, Rat, Roses". One more rule, there is a count of 10 within which each player has to fill in the details. Getting an alphabet is done by player on round-robin basis. Player starts from A.... and other player says, "Stop". The counting player announces the alphabet to start filling the items. This is more a general knowledge game and helps kids know various places, animals, things. Also, makes kids to think fast.

It is automatic collage with 5 persons in this picture. Only baby's face is visible clearly.This is taken through the car window when baby and mom were brought home for the first time.

Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has a history of 220 years! It is said to be the oldest institute in India. It has its history linked to East India Company which set up a center for Astronomy in Madras by 1787. Back then, Astronomy was more connected to navigation to travel from Europe to Asia. Kodaikanal is on the World map for its Solar Observatory. It is again, one of the oldest Solar Observatories in the world. How did I get to know all these? My FIL is a Scientist there :).

Baby's first grip on mom's finger.

Today is our 1st Wedding Anniversary according to Hindu Calendar. We were gifted with a baby boy this morning :). Isn't that the best gift one can get for a wedding anniversary? Indeed!

In here, if you organize a challenge to win Rs.100, 101 people turn up to take it up. That being the case, a pair of brand new Nike shoes is sure to vanish in minutes :( My wife and I went for shopping couple of weeks ago to Forum Mall. I got a pair of Nike shoes as I had discarded all my shoes while returning from the US. I had used it couple of times since I bought it. This week, I had to leave my car for a couple of days at the service center for a small dent. Unfortunately, the shoes was left in the car. This morning, when I wanted to wear that new shoes, its gone! I lost my new shoes :(. Till now, the car repair was thought to be expensive. But now, a pair of shoes was more expensive than the repair. Final bill: car repair+lost shoes = Rs. 15,000.

Song of the day! Click here to listen. Comedy one! Please don't adjust your audio.

Today's special - Chomai It was Chomai special at home today. This is made out of rice flour. With a laborious process lasting for 3 hours, it was worth eating it. I don't know the exact process. In general, it involves steaming rice flour and creating rice dumplings. When the dumplings are ready, they are pressed in a hand rotated presser to get these home-made Indian rice noodles. A chutney is prepared to it with white plain noodles to get the spicy taste. Video has been recorded and will be put online shortly!

To be frank, there is not much time sense here in Bangalore. For the first few days after we returned, I was always mentioning to people about time - "what time shall we meet?", "when is the meeting scheduled?", "what time is the party starting?". I have realised that time doesn't matter much. All it matters is the presence. Atleast, "better late than never" is the principle. Seeing this trend everywhere (even in Office), I was really curious to ask people about their view. The 'people' here I meant, the one who worked outside India. Finally, I got my answers - they too felt the same! One more thing to add - people at work take it too personal when it comes to projects. If there is a comment made by someone from some other team, the manager thinks that the comment is targeted towards him and tries to retaliate ASAP. Better thing would be, to take comments in a sportive way and try to improve the team/project plan. With all these, ther