Baby Frio Kumar

Well....the most exciting moment for me last week was when I heard that Baby Frio Kumar was here!!!! Yes, the name sounds funny for an American but that was what we called him until now....infact still now!!!! Ever since Jay (my supervisor at ECSS) and Kathy came to know that they were expecting a baby boy the tussle to choose a reference name started. The fact that Jay is mostly surrounded by Indians (many....if not all) at workplace might have motivated him to refer to his would be son as Frio Kumar!!!!! The name is sweet as its a mixture of east and west and because its a name for a baby!!!! Ever since I was a kid I was very fond of new born babies, it has always been a wish to go and see the baby very first day and take him/her in my arms!!!! Phew....I still remember when my brother was born in 92, I wanted to see him so much that I had to give a DAIRY MILK (as a bribe) to the nurse to get into the nursery! However, here its becomes rather very difficult as many people don't like strangers or even the people they know to take their kids in arms....Thanks to Jay and Kathy that let me take Frio Kumar into my arms when I went to see him. Ever since I have been to US, Frio was the first kid I held in my arms and the feeling of happiness was beyond explanation!

A funny thing happened when I heard Baby Frio's news....I came to know in the evening that Baby Frio will be here sometime soon and I called Jay to ask, that what is the news. In my excitement I missed the part where Jay said that he was already there and I asked him, " So do you think, he'll be here pretty soon" and Jay had to repeat saying that he is already here :)..and despite of the repetition I didn't realize in all the happiness that, that was the first thing he told in the conversation!!!!

Just to mention that....whenever I see some lady holding her kid all I can think of is that it is the purest form of love and affection that GOD has made on earth! Its just amazing that how a new life can take all the attention and care that he/she needs without saying a word!!!!

I miss home a lot as far as kids are concerned....all my life back home there hasn't been a single day when we didn't have someone's kid (whether it be a family friend or even neighbours' kid) come and play in our house....I miss the days when I use to take care of the kids and play with them....give them food or just watch them sleep!!!!

On a closing note....in 2 years of my stay in US I have not been happier than the moment when Baby Frio Kumar (named as ELLIOT) was in my arms and Jay clicked that lovely pic of his which you see in the BLOG! Wish you both (Kathy and Frio) a very very Happy Birthday!!!! ( The 12th August, 2007)

MOVING

Moving.....Well its a small word with elaborate work involved. When I landed here and was temping at Jaya's place I was very happy until the day I had to pack my bags and move into my own apartment. It wasn't too large of a distance to travel....2 mins by a car, but bringing the stuff out of Jaya's place, putting it into the car and then taking it to just...just one floor above the ground killed me. On that day, I thought, I will stay in this apartment forever and never move. I promised myself that I am not going to increase the number of things I own even by a unit. But what.... all in vain, by the end of the year, I forgot the first and the most important pledge of not moving, also I more than doubled the amount of things I had!!!!! I didn't realise it until I had to go through the adventure all over again. This time with the amount to be moved the distance between my new and old apartment also increased. I still curse the day, but had no choice. I still remember a funny but dangerous adventure that happened the final night of my moving out. Out of the three roommates I had, one was on internship and other had a new house to setup.... so I and one of my friends volunteered to take care of the furniture that we had.....Oh!!!!!How much I wished that we hadn't taken that into the house just because we were getting it for free, but we did!!! Well...the fun just started when we started moving the big, bulky wooden furniture out of the house. After removing all the bits and pieces, we were left with the most heavy piece of furniture we owned, the "TABLE". It was a lovely wood table with a glass top, however we used mostly the base of the table to store trash paper, books and magazines.....Poor table must be cursing us for such a demeaning treatment we gave it. I guess it must have accumulated all that hatred especially for me, cause I never gave any attention to it while cleaning. The day of moving was the one and only chance for its revenge. Moving that table even one floor down was a hassle and was very difficult because it had no possible areas where we could hold it and lift it. With a lot of effort we got it out of the door, but the real fun started when we had to take it down the stairs. We thought probably holding it tilted or upside down will help us in having enough grip so that it doesn't fall down. All the concern for the table to not fall down was not because we wanted to preserve it or suddenly I had feelings for it. It was all the selfish thought about myself that what happens if the glass falls onto me and that was the only reason of being so cautious to not cause any harm to the table. I guess the table initially did not realise this but as soon as I said that lets hold it upside down, my intentions were known to it.... Amazingly the glass that was so rigidly fixed to the table....as we thought and looked like that it was glued to the wood.....came down in a fraction of second. God!!!!!! I almost screamed in a moment filled with the fear of hurting my friend as I was on the safer side. Luckily, the glass just fell right down and did not slide down the stairs and my friend was saved. I just could not stop thinking that what would have happened if I had been on the other side of the table and what if the glass would have slided instead of breaking into pieces right at the spot where it fell? Since I stationed myself on the safer side, probably the table thought of not taking the revenge but showing me a glimpse of what it was capable of. Moral of the story is that we shouldn't treat anyone like a non living object with no feelings and to remember everyone deserves respect even a TABLE!!!!!!
All the memories of me moving from one apartment to another got refreshed when we had to move our office from Zimmer Hall to Rievschl almost two floors up. Thank god we had a lift that helped us do that!!!! But the fear of the adventure or misadventure as I say a year ago made me so apprehensive that I just volunteered to put the things back in order on to the shelves. Poor guys must have done a lot of work in just one day which was almost 10 times that me and my friend did that night.
Moving or switching places involves a lot of memories especially when it is done with a bunch of people involved, the whole day yesterday was fun at least for me as I should say, with my comments changing from "I don't like this new place" to "Well...it was fun moving and arranging stuff, with throwing trash out....today".
Last but not the least, despite of all the fun...the idea of moving again brings a kind of restlessness and fear in me and I just wish one thing...."Oh God!!! Please not again!!!!!"

Stars around the head

Well....I always thought what will happen if someone bangs hard on my head. Will stars revolve round my head? Ever since I had been watching cartoons, I observed whatever happens to your head (beating, falling down etc. etc.) makes stars revolve round your head. Sometimes even birds come and do that, as if they are all making fun on your stupidity of hurting your head. Many times I wanted to try it on myself but was too scared to do it. Thought, what if I pass away and the whole motive behind the exercise is lost. But I could not believe it unless I personally experienced it. What to do next was the question. While I was in midst of this turmoil, something really funny happened and my journey to the stars reached its destination.

It was a Friday morning, as usual I woke up!!!! Fridays have recently been days of hunger for me. Generally, I thought of fasting....well fasting has different dimensions for different people. For some its a way to please the Lord, kinda bribing him in order to achieve ulterior motives. For me as most of my friends know my secret desire to remain fit, its a reason to diet for a complete day. Though 1 Day dieting doesn't help much but gives me satisfaction of being hungry for the whole day!!!! Anyways....I didn't have the usual Good Morning milk, thought of skipping liquids too, for this Lucky Fri- day. It was a bit cold that morning and I took real hot shower....more than I usually do, too hot just enough not to burn my skin and have boils instead of tan!(Well Indians don't need tanning). By the time it was all done the bathroom looked like a hot water spa filled with steam. I could hear water dripping sound in the bathroom and I was sure that no taps were open. To my surprise the sink had started leaking and I bent down to see if it was manageable problem or we would need experts. Good thing was a simple m seal would do the work, but I didn't have it in hand. A bit disappointed, I stood up and suddenly a vast BLACK SPACE was in front of my eyes!!!!! To my suprise, I could actually see stars revolving round my head! The time period was too short for the birds to fly in!!! But I had the experience of a blackout and stars, something that I always wanted to experience. Childhood wish came true in a very unexpected manner. Amazing!!!! I did not know that it has to be the cartoon way always to experience what I wanted. Despite of all the want for this experience, the blackout freaked me out. For few seconds I went completely blind! After the lovely mishap I promised to myself, no matter what happens I am not skipping the good morning milk, though the resolution to fast (to diet) still remains applicable.
Please be cautious these stunts can be done only by professionals like me!