Who can pull my beard ?

Well, every body knows the story of "Who can pull my beard ?" of Krishnadevaraya and Tenali Ramakrishna. It had to be none other than the king's child itself. 

Here is the new version of the story. Who can sleep in between me and N ? None other than Chinni !!! Unless and until another chinni arrives. No, its not a hint.

She likes to sleep in between us. If at all she is made to sleep beside wall, she definitely jumps and occupies her favorite spot. The bad thing about this spot is, she pushes both of us on her either side and captures a huge space, leaving very little for both of us to sleep comfortably. In the morning, either me or N have a back ache.

Yesterday night, I tried a trick. I shifted her to the wall side, after she has slept. There was a smile on my face and slept happily. 

Suddenly, I felt somebody is holding my hand, turned around to see Chinni hopping over me and wants to occupy her favorite position again, Oh god !!!. I just pretended to sleep, she didn't care. Calmly crossed me and squeezed herself in between us. I had no option other than shifting myself to the corner, near wall. Looked into my phone, it was 4.30 am.

I have a back ache today :(

My new car Nissan 370Z

Yeah, I got a new car, Nissan 370Z. Have a look

The on road price is $199 :)

Toysrus is one just amazing place for toys. I am not promoting it, but recommending a visit if you are in HK. It unleashes the kid within you. 

Chinni couldn't control herself at all, neither did I control myself. She grabbed toys at every section, leaving behind the ones she had picked from the previous section. Chinni had smiles and smiles and smiles for an hour. Every interesting toy she found, was brought to my attention by pointing her finger at it and asking me to buy. Wish I could buy everything she wanted. Not that I can't buy, but she throws it away within no time. That's how children are. So I had to be a little careful and choosy.

She was so hungry after we came out of the store, that she barged everything handed over. Neither did she realize she was hungry nor did we realize she might be hungry, inside the store.

There are toys for children at every age. If there is a kid inside you, there is one for you too. This beauty, Nissan 370Z grabbed my attention in spite of several Audi, Merc and Toyota models. And it has remote too. I told N that I am not giving it to Chinni :)

Message of the blog: Bring out the kid within you and let it enjoy.

Aassis

A month ago, Morning around 8.45, dressed up, picking up my bag with lunch box in it and Chinni gives a sad tone sounding like "where are you going ?, I will also come with you !".

Present , Morning around 8.45, dressed up, picking up my bag with lunch box in it and Chinni waves her hand saying "byeeee" after throwing away couple of flying kisses. Ask her where is pappa going ? she promptly replies "Aassis"!

For those who still can't guess what Aassis is - its "Office".

Well, that's not all. The reluctant bye is always there. It all depends on her mood. Along with flying kisses I would get kisses on my cheeks if her mood is absolutely fine. Else I will get a crying send off. My legs disobey moving forward listening to her cry, though it doesn't last more than a minute.

And if pappa is not in viewing distance any time during the weekend, where is he ? aassis! Aassis is Chinni's favorite place for pappa.

In the evening, the door bell rings and I can hear Chinni running (her leg chains tell me) to door yelling "pappa .... pappa".

Message of the blog: Pappa loves you a lot honey, no matter how much you love, kiss, irritate, hate or annoy.

Annoyed

Chinni annoyed a lot over the weekend (or was she annoyed of us ?) Both of us were kind of fed up with her requests and demands. There were requests which turned into demands, when not fulfilled.

It all started in the evening and Chinni slept crying, ending the day tragically.  Don't know how to manage her some times, be it either playing with her, meeting her demands or consoling her when she is crying. Things go out of control as she starts crying and drastically refuses to listen anything.

What do I do when she throws away my mobile ? kiss her, embrace her with love, scold her, convince her not to repeat, tell her its wrong or slap her ? Believe me, I have tried every possible way I know of, except slapping, which I never wish to do even by mistake. But she never tends to listen whatsoever. Little does she understand that what she is doing is wrong.

But why does she throw mobile ? There are several reasons behind this act. It could be out of anger, when she is too much excited or when the mobile is just lying on sofa where she wants to sit.

Well, poor mobiles (mine and N's) have suffered a lot and still serving their purpose. General there are 3 pieces when thrown - the whole mobile which is glued by screws (I thank the person who invented the screw, else I was screwed), the back panel and the battery.

This time it was not mobile which flung out of her hand, it was the TV remote. It also split in 3 pieces, the whole remote as one part, the batteries and the back panel. The batteries caught her eyes and that was it. She started finding all devices which could possibly have batteries in it. She brought AC remote and asked me to remove the back panel. My mobile was another victim. I don't how does she guess, simply amazed and puzzled.

I simply refused to remove the battery from mobile and hell broke down. She kept crying intermittently until she caught deep sleep.

Have you witnessed Lightning?

First of all don't confuse it to Lightening, there is a huge difference, but I am referring to Lightning, the one without "e".

Well, most of you might reply saying "yes", no wonder everybody does during a bad weather or in rainy season.  I witnessed it too, this time the difference being a fierce lightning, so fierce that my heart beat rate plunged more than couple of times. It was yday night. 

The bigger question here is "Have you captured it?". Aahha, most of you might answer "NO" and here comes the difference, I happened to captured it in a video, it was really difficult to snap it which I attempted more than 10 times. Lightnings are very fast, they show up and leave before the message from your brain ,"click", reaches your finger on the camera.

Here is the footage of lightning. Watch the video completely, if possible, or else don't miss these particular timings in it - 0:08, 0:29, 1:07, 1:41, 1:53, 2:03, 2:26, 2:35, 2:57, 3:00, 3:04, 3:52, 3:57, 4:06.... uffff, please figure out the remaining :)

All copyrights reserved ;)

Definitely can be a Chef

Empty mind is devil's workshop. 

Russell Peters was so true in one of his show telling a guy can sit, stare at sky and absolutely think nothing. His mind can be totally empty, no thoughts ... nothing ..... would be running. I have gone through such situations several times when the devil playing its role asking me "what would you do if fired ?". 

Looks like I have found the answer, a Chef !!! after preparing delicious onion pakodas without N intervening until they were ready to eat, over this weekend. Believe me, even Chinni complimented saying "mast" when asked "how are the pakodas ?". Its was not the first time I had cooked something good, ever since I started looking out for job the experiments have been going on and fairly have been successful. I can say the art of cooking is in my blood as my Mom cooks finger licking food be it either special dishes or the routine ones.

There are varieties of dishes I can prepare, but all of them being vegetarian, egg being an exceptional if that falls under non-veg category. Dishes ranging from daily needed to the special occasional delicacies, from sweets to spicy, from breakfast dishes to dinner platters ....... have hands-on experience in cooking all kinds of stuff.

Many of you might say "gosh, please save me from kitchen". But what drives me to cook is the compliments I get after people have tasted the dishes. They bring the smile on my face, makes me happy and I become lighter for a moment. 

Isn't my wife lucky ;)

Message of the blog: Learn to cook, it can help even when you don't have job !

Parenting Skills

Striking the right balance between home and career is increasingly important. Amazing to know a company realizes this and offers tools, information resources to assist managing the challenges of balancing employee's life at work as well as at home.

Parenting skills was such session organized a week ago. Missing this opportunity, being a Dad of 1 year 7 months kid, wouldn't be the right thing to do. In fact, it was an opportunity to brush up the known skills and know the unknown ones. Everybody learns technical skills, communication skills, managerial skill and ever wonder you would need parenting skills too. Believe me, it is truely difficult to understand your baby. The more you know better the relation. And there is no ending to know your baby, it just doesn't end. As the baby grows the needs, demands, desires, behavior, attitude ...... change on a daily to monthly to quarterly to yearly basis. 

I am here going to put together what I learnt in one hour session. Not the entire stuff but the basic five love languages that every parent should learn and understand.

• Words of Affirmation
• Quality Time
• Gifts
• Acts of Service
• Physical Touch

Words of Affirmation can be accepting what your child does either right or wrong. There is a learning curve at every stage. Young and elders commit mistakes often knowingly or unknowingly. But children do it unknowingly most of the times. Accept it and correct it. Affirmation could be in other form of appreciation, encouragement in public or private. This is really important. Don't always compare your kid with the best ones, (s)he definitely interprets as "I don't have the ability". Appreciate your child for what has been done, giving a pat on the back can increase confidence and bring up the best in him.

Quality Time is as much and more necessary as the affirmative words. Children need your attention all the time, a 100% is what expected. I have noticed the same in Chinni. Recently Nanda brought this to my notice, after my return from office I used to open up my laptop and scroll through the luring networking sites eager to know what my buddies are upto. Chinni would be pulling my hand asking for something, ignoring which tears rolled out a few times. Ignorance came because she used to drag me to kitchen searching for an interesting thing almost unknown to herself. Quality time is what Chinni expects from her dear pappa, so would your child. Practice a few things like create 1:1 opportunity, do activities together, maintain eye contact and follow bed rituals like singing songs, telling stories or could be anything that your kid is interested in.

Don't you love gifts ? Everybody does. I still expect gifts being the major earning resource of my family. Time has passed by and its my turn to give instead of expecting. Gifts can bring a new smile on child's face, get away with happiness and loads of love towards you. This little smile can cure your tiredness, stress and tension too. No need that it has to be expensive every time. Just a word that pappa will get chocky in the evening way back from office lit up Chinni's face.

Acts of Service is what we all do. But do you do it the right way? For example helping your child in his/her studies, cooking the favorite food, getting involved in what (s)he is interested in a new skill, drop and pick up from school could be some of them. Services never end, that's an on going process till death. Doing it with a little care, love and passion makes a huge difference.

Kisses, hugs, holding hand, playful gesture, a pat on back for good job are all indeed part of the fifth love language, Physical touch. We all shower love and happiness when they are doing good. The same applies when your kid is struggling. You need to give your shoulder, your support in bad times.

Every child may or may not require all of them and may need them in different quantity. Its entirely up to you to understand which one is needed by your child. Some times compensating gift with quality time is just not the right way. Gift and time are totally different for any individual.

So what do all these five love languages preach ? Fill up the Emotional Love tank, speak the language that your kid understands and perceive as love. Finally, a touching video to watch, didn't find one with English sub-titles (Please let me know if you get it). The child steals some money to buy his father's 1 hour, since he earns $500/hr, to attend a function at his school. Father punishes before listening to him and regrets later.