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World cup cricket -2011

The entire world is done with world cup cricket . I am little late for this post.  I am happy that India won the match after three decades(almost). It  was good to see the enthusiasm on the blogs and FB. I am happy that Indian team lived up to the expectations of their  fans world-wide. I am happy that fans got their money's worth after 28 years. I am happy to learn thru blogs that we were not the only family with crazy game ritual like  my periammas wearing the same saree. Every Indian family have their own crazy game ritual just like ours.  But I am also happy it's over. I am happy that I don't have to see any more world cup related FB status.

It was fun to watch friends transformation thru FB status. They took on new avatars.  My good old friend who is otherwise a wise  and nice women posted this FB status "I am happy that two Asian teams are at the finals".  where was that coming from?.  Was she smoking or what? I felt the racial tone but not sure how other FB'ers felt. Since I've known her for years , I know she took the new avatar of "Crazy cricket fan". This world cup really brought  the good and bad things in people. Good game from cricketers and bad side of Crazy fans.

I was  down with severe cold and head ache for a week. I was cheering CB to go to the restaurants or to Intel auditorium to watch the game live. But he was not at all interested . The guy who used to sit in front of computer throughout the night to get the ball by ball score was not interested.   He is still crazy about soccer. He records and watches every game played by European and American soccer clubs. He watches tennis and Basket ball matches regularly before but not american football . I definitely see a shift in his game watching behaviour. CB is watching american football more than before.In 2008, he watched the "Davis cup" live in portland, oregon . He was lucky to get the tickets since they sold out quickly.

The 2011 world cup cricket brought back lot of memories from school for me. I was a 12-year-old girl during last world cup final in 1983.  It was a pre-internet Era  and all the girls in my class were eager to get a copy of  the "Sports Star"magazine which covered the 1983 world cup front to back. That issue had this  amazing center cover / poster with Kapil dev giving his infamous bugs-bunny smile holding the trophy with his teammates.  Thanks to my mother , I was able to get a copy little early before the magazine reached the book stands. I was the first one to get a copy, so smuggled the "Sports Star" to  my class. I had a friend named Kalpana. S who was crazy about  Ravi Shasthri.  I remember her kissing Ravi shastri's photo in the magazine. Thank god I was not caught because of the frenzy it created in the class room that day.  We lived in a poster Crazy Era. My sister had posters of Samantha Fox and Imran Khan at our home.

My younger sister was four years old and my younger brother was a six months old baby. He became crazy cricket fan and was an excellent cricketer . Fate took him in a different direction. He watched 2011 world cup cricket finals as a doting father to a six month old kutty mol.

This world cup  showed how far India has come in terms of technology and money. In 1983  only  few Indian sports photographer  had  the opportunity to witness the victory in person. In 2011  lot of Indians could  afford steep ticket prices , host posh game parties at clubs and in private residences. 

 I am sure that 1983 world cup team envies the present cricket team,  in regards to the  money they  make now. I can almost hear them say  "f*****g lucky " guys. 

The 2011 world cup Indian cricket team not only got fat pay cheques but they were also lucky enough to have  large crowds of Indian fans living around the world unlike in 1983 . The NRI's celebrated the victory with such pride. The Indian restaurants in my neighbourhood were filled with faces painted with Indian tri color flag after the match for lunch that day.  This is definitely the golden time for Indian cricket team.

 

Fresh start

My laptop was dead almost since last year. It took 10 minutes just to open a folder. Few months back, I resurrected it  with a new OS after taking  a backup of my laptop hard drive.

We  used our home computers (We have two servers on network) majorly for work related and personal stuff. I  had saved tonnes of files/photos, my code, hobby related stuff, favourite website links for last seven years.  I had written lot of blog post and saved it in our home PC.  I wrote majority of the blog post  in 2009 /2010. I have edited and published some of those blog post since January 2011.

Two weeks backs before the world cup cricket finals , I wrote a blog post for which I tried to link a website. When I logged into that blog/website our office computer got infected within a second. My husband has not updated/renewed the antivirus on our office PC for quiet sometime which I came to know after this incident.

It was not allowing me get to any of the hard disk  folders, so I was planning to take the backup files through DOS. I anticipated a couple of hours of work  and had planned to do the update next day . CB checked the infected computer when he worked late that night and immediately sprung into action. He just went ahead and installed the new OS by completely formatting the hard drive. He knew that I stored all my files in that PC, but never bothered to even think even for second before zapping the hard drive.

When I realised this the next day , I broke down and cried. Lot of my friends/family photos were there . Though I back up all the photos from laptop to an external drive periodically , I never bothered to back up my files from our office PC.  When I asked why he did that, he gave me his usual look (a sorry face after doing stupid things)and I gave my usual head shake. Some  days I only wish I am an angrier person  and yell back at people when they misbehave or hurt me.  I only vent with my younger sister which doesn't help my case with CB. She is his unpaid lawyer. CB met my younger sister for the first time when she was in eighth grade. And they share a very special bond. She now officially represents the father son duo on  pro-bono basis.

So here I am , Planning to write fresh post as and when time permits (I get very little time on computer on week days). A fresh start forced by turn of events . 

PS: After writing this post, I used the spell check . I got  "No writing error found" msg. Looks like a good sign to me. 

I don't remember seeing this for any of my posts. Mostly  I publish the post before editing or proof reading it. Even when I save it for future editing, I usually forget about the proof reading part before publishing the post.

When we go out with NR

I’ve always carried most of the items from the list in a bag especially when we go for a road trip for couple of hours to visit friends.

1.  His favorite books


2. Flash cards or photos


3. Drawing books


4. Diego videos and a 8 inch DVD player ( bought the DVD player ten years back but very rarely we used it )


5. His favorite music (MP3 player)


6. His favorite nursery rhymes videos


7. Toys or games


8. Windup toys

 I have a memory like sieve. I often used to forget to take an item or two from the list. From last March ,I just carry just one item in my bag  . Our IPAD.

Wtih IPAD every item in the list checked when we go out. I still take his windup toys along with IPAD .  IPAD has such positive influence in my son’s life. I cannot express in words our gratitude and how much it has changed our life. We can take NR out anywhere and we haven’t seen him cry not once in a new place. A big heartfelt “thanks” to the IPAD team at apple.

 NR would sit in a place and play with his spelling app with such focus that nothing around him bothers him.  NR afraid of loud sounds, confined/dark rooms or unfamiliar places at times. He was so curious about alphabets right from the time he started crawling. He would gaze at the minute print on the label from his toys, swing or his baby gates. Right from eighth month onwards he would always use books in the right way. I used to tease him by giving the book in an inverted position. He would either turn the book or roll to the right side and then keep looking at the pictures.

 Whenever we go for desi gatherings especially birthday parties, I have seen few parents having different opinion about my two-year old using the IPAD.Most people appreciate  my son's good behaviour and compliment him as a smart boy.  But both parties have no idea about the challenges we face on everyday basis. I just give my usual wide smile to the compliments. But I don’t understand the 30-year-old grown up women with kids being bothered by a well-behaved kid. Instead of enjoying the party or looking after their own kids they spend the good time gossiping about a two-year old baby.  Shame on them. Nobody has right to judge other people's kids especially when they are not bothering/harassing or bullying others kids.

 Then I hear the debate about impact of technology on kids. Parents  not spending enough time with kids or  fighting/arguing and disrespecting each other in front of our children or having biased opinion about religion, caste or social status of others have lifetime impact on kids than the technology. How many of us think for second before we complain about our in-laws, friends, or husband in front of our kids? Do you use proper language in front of your kids? Sadly  current generation of parents worry about the cognitive development than the emotional development of a child.

After all ,my two-year old is using technology wisely for learning his alphabets. We never taught him anything or gave him IPAD voluntarily but I do use IPAD as a tool to teach him some important life skills. The people who are near and dear to NR not only agree with us but commend us for knowing  him better.  And being born to parents working in the latest technology , he would have definitely inherited our passion. And I see no issue with that : ).

I come across mothers, teachers, doctors, therapist on daily basis appreciating the impact of IPAD on kids. I couldn't agree more. Like everything else ,it's up to the parents to guide them in the right way.  We are heading in the direction where IPAD in future will  replace class room paper text books.

Here are some of the articles written by seasoned journalists

1.http://www.indystar.com/article/20110417/OPINION03/104170418/To-succeed-explore-best-practices?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7COpinion%7Cs

2.http://blogs.scholastic.com/royaltreatment/2011/03/ipad2-made-for-teaching.html

3.http://e-blahblah.com/index.php/2011/01/1300/

4.http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/10/13/ushering-ipad-into-the-classroom.aspx

5.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/education/05tablets.html

6.http://www.ipadinschools.com/

People who are opposing technology blindly should take a look at the turn of events taking place around us. We are living in the era of wiki-leaks. Within twenty years of embracing technology, India which was considered a developing nation in 1980's,  is leading the world in software technology. 

Anglo Indian friends/families from my native town

We  had  many Anglo-Indian neighbors living around my house during my childhood/school/college years. They introduced me to western- music, fashion and lifestyles. I enjoyed all the delectable cakes, sweet confections from their house during  Christmas.

I loved to watch the Christmas tree/decorations in their homes. I had a secret wish -  to be a Christian during Christmas just to get a gift from Santa Claus. Well ,sometimes our secret wish can come true after many years. I loved the unique interior decorations in the house. My desire for  mid-century modern furniture and home decorations was influenced by them.

Most Anglo Indians from my town immigrated to Australia during my high school years. These are some of the memories of  them from my childhood.

Nordmann family lived opposite to PS mama's (my dad's best friend) house on the first floor . My family lived in the same neighborhood. I used go to PS mama's house often after school especially when my mom was in the  hospital.

Nordmann family had 4 adult kids all in high school. I vividly remember their daily evening routine . They had this huge dining table near the front door and they never closed the doors except at night. I remember seeing Mary amma - the tamil Christian house keeper who worked for Nordmann family, taking out huge cut/blocks of cooked beef from the huge pressure cooker and placing it on a huge plate.  The hungry teenagers usually ate the meat with knife and fork.   I was seven or eight years old girl then. I always ran back to PS mama house when I spot Maryamma bringing the cooker to the table. I hated the smell of meat and I would watch them eating dinner from PS mama's door step.

The eldest one - Cleito was a funny guy. I used to call him Cleito anna (big brother) . He would take a big chunk of meat in his fork just to scare me. Now when my American friends order beef in the restaurant this scene comes to my mind every single time. I had a lot of funny colleagues like Cleito . During lunch outings, they would eat the steak (cooked to rare which look like a raw meat to me )with all funny expression just to make me feel uneasy. 

Childhood never stops at school for some happy guys.  I had a  group of colleagues/buddies at Intel who were kids at heart in spite of having kids.  We got the attention of serious faced techies  at the cafeteria almost every afternoon thanks to our thunderous laughter.  The curious CB used to sit with his team mates (desi guys mostly tamil guys) few tables away from us. Atleast one of them would always come and aske me "Enna  eppadi ragalai everday ? (why so much laughter everyday) .  We had such fun/happy times like kindergartners  though we all worked on core security prodcuts for a world famous tech giant.  I missed them big time when I joined qualcomm.

Mr. Nordmann daughter Sandra’s collection of faux pearls in pastel colors mesmerized me.  I was 8 years old, when I  had a first glance at them lying on a dressing table in her dimly lit bed room . Till date, I love wearing huge colored bead necklaces because of her. She reminds me of sultry actress from American/English movies from 1960’s. She ranks first in the list of pretty girls I knew from my childhood.

Cleito anna's  pet - a white mice . He was like a magician with his mouse. The white mouse would come out of the attic when he whistled to eat the food. He was sad  to have lost that mouse in train while travelling to Banglore before leaving for Australia. He was a gorgeous guy who had this short girl friend. Both were famous hockey players in our town.

My first ball room experience was at an annual Anglo Indian’s New year celebration. I was in elementary school then. Fancy dress competition was a regular event at the new year's gala.  A guy came dressed like leper sitting on a wheeled cart. I stared at him thinking he was a real leper and wondered about his presence in the New Year’s party. I cried out loud when he came closer to just scare me.

I was scared of lepers during my childhood. I heard factious stories from adults about lepers abducting kids. My school was located next to a  famous cathedral in town. And many of them used to line up and sit against my convent's wall asking for money.  Growing up I was very touched by our convent nun's kindness - embracing poor kids in the school and helping the lepers.  This aspect of Christianity made me an admirer of that religion.  And my Montessori school nuns helped us tremendously during my mother's long stay at the hospital.  Two decades later I was married in that famous cathedral.

I remember my favorite baby girl - Kitty Paul from Paul's family dressed like a cute yellow chick for new year's fancy dress competition. She was then a 2 yr old beautiful chubby girl with catchy blue eyes. In 1999, I met her as a beautiful young girl along with her mother Mrs. Paul and Sister Ruthie at the railway station while travelling to Bangalore. My mom and Mrs. Paul were admitted in the same hospital when my mother went for kidney operation and Mrs. Paul for open heart surgery.

Mrs. Paul was CB’s kindergarten teacher. She hasn’t seen  him after 12th grade and could not believe that tiny little guy from her class has turned into a tall and broad guy and married a Hindu girl  she knew well . We were friends with Michael Paul’s family. My father used to call him Mickey Paul.

Rozario's family with seven kids lived just behind our home. They were loud all the time.  They had six girls and one boy. While returning from school every day I would see at least one Rozario kid talking/flirting with the boy friend in front of their house. I also remember their loud parties with loud music. I loved hearing loud western music playing round the clock in their house. Candy a reputed hockey player from this family was my batch mate at college.

During Indira Gandhi's death we were in Chennai enjoying our Diwali break with our extended family. On returning home, we heard the news about the hush-hush marriage Andrea since she got pregnant. She was the prettiest of all Anglo Indian girls from my town and her parents were very conservative people. The marriage took place on fateful day when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Her younger brother was CB's classmate. During my trip back home in 2002 my cousin showed me the infamous hotel in our town which was hot spot for Anglo Indian lovers during those days : ).

My college dress code was liberal which meant Anglo Indian friends wearing backless formal dress, Kaftans and spaghetti strap dresses to college in late 80’s. My college provided us with micro mini divided skirts for sports day parade (inter department parade).  And as a  NCC cadet I had to take part in the dept parade every year.   Every tom, dick and Harry from my neighborhood got a sport's day pass by citing some imaginary sister's name during our sports day parade just to drool over the hundreds of girls wearing micro mini skirts. Our college watchman never allowed us to go outside the campus to get some refreshment after our NCC drill during college hours . My Roman Catholic college had some weird rules like this.

My good friend Anita my collegemate  is a guitarist.  She was a famous guitarist (in campus and in our city) and would play for us during lunch times.  Me, Anita and Nachal represented our department in fashion parade event. Anita for western dress, moi for cotton sarees and my married classmate Nachal for silk.  Anita's dad was CB's french teacher at school. Anita was the first friend to know about CB . She used to call me "saint" during college days . She was pretty surprised to hear that I had fallen in love , that too with roman catholic guy . CB played soccer at school and she  knew CB well during high-school  years.

Anglo Indian friends had a good influence on my life growing up in small town in Tamil Nadu. I cherish the best memories of my childhood thanks to their Christmas and New Year parties and their friendship.  Though CB and I went to different schools, after marriage we  realised that we had many Anglo Indian friends in common. And we talk often about our friends from our native place. This is best part about marrying a guy from your home town who knew your friends too. When I share a memory about our life/friends in our hometown with CB, we both go back to that time.

This week we fondly remembered and shared our memories from our home town. Thanks to FB, I was able to see the pictures of all anglo Indians friends who left my home town in seventies and eighties, especially picture of Sandra N in her late forties and other Nordmann family members.  That night I went to bed feeling like an eight year old Montessori school kid.

Happy Mother's day

Mother's day wishes all the mothers around the world  Motherhood is  a challenge and a gift .My love and  respect goes to all those strong moms out there striving hard to better the families.

My life back in India showed me the courage of mothers who never give up hope inspite of all the hardships they faced. The best was my maid Vasuki amma who worked as mid day meal teacher but worked as a maid in couple of houses to makes ends meet. She had 4 girls and one boy. Today they are all well educated, one even finsihed her CA . She would send her prekg and elementary school kids (both girls) at times to wash vessels if she is late or doing some extra work at other homes. My mom used to get so angry at her for sending the little kids . Since they came in the evening right after I return from school and before my mom returned from work, I finished all the work . It was right thing to do and never thought twice about it. They were just 5 and 8 year old girls but they would have a fight with me for not allowing them to work . They were their mother's little helpers and never felt even bit sad or unhappy but felt very proud to replace their mother. The little girls sang and entertained me when I did the chores. The little girl talked non stop and would mimic this famous dialogue from Director visu's Movie.  A little act of kindness I showed as a fourteen year old girl earned me a good place in their heart. Even today if you meet vasuki amma she will have all good things to tell about me.  Vasuki amma's kids all lead a good life today because they took their responsibilities so seriously early in their life .This was the secret behind their success. They realised the struggle their mother faced to bring them up and shared the burden . Not once I've heard vasuki amma say that she worked hard for the kids but said it's her duty to educate them , feed them well and provide a safe place to live. And the kids happily pitched in to help their mothers. I am sure this life lesson would have made them great mothers.

Ammuma's house

I lived with my Ammuma, appupa, chitha (my mom younger sister) and with two mamas(my mom’s younger brothers) till I was three or 3.5 years old. Then my parents (aka Mr and Mrs. Nambiar) took me away from the favorite place on earth.

My ammuma house was located in a street having a Murugan temple at the end of the street. It resembled the miniature village scene from our “kolu” with two rows of houses with temple at the end of street. Ammuma and myself used to go to the Murugan temple frequently. She took me  with her everywhere she went. My favorite one is the fish/veg market and the grocery store (Nadar kadai) where I got my favorite toffee - Kummercut.

My ammuma’s house had a porch with a cement chaise like the Victorian era ones. Every evening I used to lay there eagerly waiting for my chitha’s arrival from office. She worked in Madras secretariat at that time. Every day she got my evening snack wihtout fail- a bunch of Hyderabadi white grapes and packet of roasted peanuts . I merrily ate my snack sitting on the bench on the front porch while she sipped her evening coffee. Those days every family got milk from local milk vendors. Late evening the balance milk would be used for making curd and ammuma never stored milk overnight. My first mama(maternal uncle)  who worked for commercial tax dept  got my night time milk and Pachanadan pazham ( green banana) from a nearby tea-shop daily.   Aavin milk booths mushroomed in Chennai in late seventies. Like milk/vegetable seller, the Krishna oil seller (Kerosene for the stove) came to every street to sell Krishna oil from his oil drum fitted on a tricycle.  Ammuma's kitchen had kerosene stove and she used to get kerosene from the Krishna oil vendor regularly. On my first trip to grocery store  in US , I was pleasantly surprised to see  gallon size milk bottles in the dairy aisle.

After lunch we used to take a nap together. We had frequent power cuts in those days and my ammuma was my manual fan. I still remember asking her “ammuma vichiri vudu” non stop when the ceiling fans stopped rotating. There are certain special events  which are carved forever in my memory. I can recollect my voice but don’t remember how I looked. My ammuma never had a huge dressing table mirror like the one in my house. She will fan me non-stop with the traditional ola visiri (traditional hand fan). She had all the patience that a world needed. I learnt the virtue of patience from her and from my chitha.

My ammuma came from a very wealthy family from Nagercoil . She was given good education and was proficient in English, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. She taught me to write family members name in English. I remember those times vividly. We used to have this checked patterns on the cement floor. I used to write family members name on the lines on the floor. I don’t know at what age she started teaching me alphabets but I was writing everybody’s name in English before three. My favorite was “Raman Pillai” my periamma’s husband name.

 Later in my life , when I scored good marks in exams or successful in my career my extended family (aunts, uncles) used to talk about my ability write people’s name in english at a very early age. I felt very shy and even little annoyed when this story was shared with visitors because I never thought it was a big deal. Taking care of NR right from birth without any guidance, I appreciate and respect my ammuma’s parenting skills more. I am amazed at my ammuma’s teaching skills. I am not very successful in teaching anything to NR. I am not even able to take his bottle away. Believe me I have tried do that right from 12 months. NR has a mind of his own. He picks up traits just like that if he is interested otherwise he doesn’t want to do anything with it. And I am fine with it. I will lend my hand whenever he needs it. God sends us all to this earth with enough skills to live our own life. I have a strong faith that my son is blessed with his own skills.

And I also strongly feel that my ammuma is my/NR's guardian angel.