Parenthood v2.0

Sometimes it is when you experience something for the second time that you really get to enjoy it fully. That is the case with fatherhood as well. The first time (at least in my case) was a flurry of activity for the first few days. Also, since I was posted quite a distance away from my hometown, weekend visits were impossible.

This time around, I am just a couple of hundred kilometers away (though interestingly due to the ‘express’ nature of this delivery I could not make it on time – will touch upon this later). Also, since one has ‘been through this, seen that’ one gets more time to enjoy the moment.

I suspect the reverse is the case for mothers. Since they have no idea of what they have to endure, the first time they are rather like innocent lambs being led to the sacrificial altar. The second time around since they know of the pain, they dread it in the weeks preceding the event.

Coming to this specific delivery, as indicated earlier, it was an ‘express’ one. My wife had gone for a regular visit to the doctor. As per the doc, the baby was in the correct position and was ready. She suggested going to the labour room right away. (I suspect the fact that the doc was on leave for the next couple of days had something to do with the decision. The doc mentioned that she would have to leave by 6 PM to break her fast and then someone else would take over. My wife decided to try to meet the 6 PM deadline and pushed harder! At 5:11 PM on 29/08/11 (within 4 hours of the visit and less than an hour of getting admitted), our second daughter was born.

Meanwhile I had been informed and had started from Trivandrum. However due to the condition of the roads and the nature of the traffic, I could make it only by 8 PM just in time to see my wife being wheeled into the room.

The final word has to be my first born Nandana’s. The big sister was seated next the baby and looking at her in wonderment. On seeing me, she clasped my hand and led me to the new born and exclaimed to her ‘look vava, look at him, this is our father!’

Thank you Nandu for the introduction

Wednesdays

At my daughter's school, every Wednesday is theme based. The kids wear colour dresses to school on Wednesdays.

The teacher specifies the name of a fruit in advance - the children are to come dressed in an appropriately coloured dress and bring the aforementioned fruit. During class they talk about the fruit, sing a nice song about the fruit and learn its spelling as well. An innovative and hands on way to learn.

Last year they started with simple fruits like mango, apple, banana etc. Once they started venturing into exotic territory, the children were spared from bringing the fruit. I remember asking my wife ' What if there is a jackfruit day ?!?'

Well, this year they have moved on to vegetables and no - the kids do not have to carry vegetables to school !

Yesterday evening my daughter came back from school and told my wife that next Wednesday is 'Chimpanzee day'. Puzzled, my wife quizzed her again and got the same response. She thought that maybe they have run out of vegetables and moved on to animals now. But chimpanzee for a choice of animal first up ? Why on earth did they not start with simpler domestic animals like cat, dog, cow etc which are easier to spell as well ?

Then my daughter let it be known that the teacher mentioned that on 'Chimpanzee' day they would stand in line, sing a song, make a flag - and the best bit - everyone would be given candy.

It was then that it dawned on my wife that Nandu was referring to 'Independence' day !!

Advance Independence day wishes to all of you !!

Walter Mitty moments

Walter Mitty is a fictional character in the famous short story ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ written by James Thurber in the nineteen thirties. This meek hero of the short story was prone to day dreaming. In his day dreams, Mitty was endowed with extreme skills and performed heroic acts (e.g. air plane pilot, ace surgeon, super spy etc.).

When we are little, most – if not all - of us have a lot of fun indulging in ‘Walter Mitty’ moments. This blog entry was triggered by one such incident. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and after a heavy meal, I was reading the magazine section of the news paper and had almost dozed off on the sofa. My daughter was playing alone in the corner and amusing herself chatting with imaginary friends. She was not aware that I had stopped reading and was following her banter. Her role play was so realistic that it seemed like she was having a conversation with an actual person. This triggered off memories of my childhood…

My cousin and I were (still are) crazy cricket fans when we were kids. We used to listen to radio commentary of test matches. Later in the evenings we used to mimic the commentary. In these ‘matches’, Gavaskar would almost always hit centuries and Kapil Dev would bowl deadly out-swingers! Our commentary sessions used to last up-to an hour at a time till we got bored and moved on to something else!

At the start of the vacation season, I used to travel quite a lot by ‘Express’ bus from Trivandrum to Ernakulam. At the time my heroes were bus drivers and I used to closely observe them in action from the front row. A favourite past time for a couple of summers was fantasising about driving a make believe express bus.

In 7th standard, my new friend (a new comer to my school) was literate in ‘pop’ music. More likely his elder brother used to listen to Rock and passed on this taste to him. This chappie lent me a couple of cassettes of AC DC and Pink Floyd. For a time I used to fantasise about being an electric guitar playing rock star dressed like the chap on the cover of the AC DC cassette! AC DC fever lasted about a year. Years later when I listened to an AC DC song, my connection with the band was renewed ! The Pink Floyd bug on the other hand lasted through my childhood and even today I am a Pink Floyd addict.

The extended stint of the Walter Mitty syndrome through my childhood is not surprising considering I was a single child. Maybe it was to compensate for lack of a sibling. As time passed, somewhere along the way I lost the ability to day dream....

Maybe day dreaming is not as bad it might sound – even for adults. A small dose of it might be the medicine for lack of creativity. As adults we lose the ability to dream and are too realistic and too ‘sensible’.

Impressed !

I was so impressed by a device that I came across today that I thought I would blog about it right away. My brother-in-law got me what is labeled as an ‘In-Car MP3 Player & Wireless FM Radio Transmitter for USB Flash Drive & SD Card with 12V Lighter Plug’ from Bangalore. Sounds quite impressive right? Yet in terms of looks, it is a compact metallic device with a few buttons at the front.

What is impressive about this fancy sounding compact device is what it does. I have an old mp3/CD player in my car. It also plays FM radio. When I changed cars, the mp3 player came with me to the new car. When I enquired about making my car USB ready, the mechanic told me I would need to buy a new player.

Now what this device does is that is plays mp3 music from an USB stick or an SD card. All that one needs to do is to plug the device to the lighter plug in the car and tune the FM radio to the same frequency! Sounds cool, right? No need to burn CDs anymore. All you need to have is a couple of USB sticks with your favorite music.

This is a great device that is in the market at the right time. Already most new cars have a built in USB player. This device is a boon for those who have those old CP based systems and want to have a cheap alternative to buying a new system.

First Strike !

No! I am not referring to Jackie Chan’s movie of the same name nor am I using this phrase in the nuclear context nor is this a reference to any sporting action.

I am referring to today’s dawn to dusk motor strike. Barely had the new cabinet (Kerala State Government) been sworn in than we had our first taste of Hartal/Strike/Bandh.

The motor unions gave the call to strike to protest the petrol price hike and the public complied with the call- more out of fear for life and property than anything else.

A sample of things to come in the next five years perhaps?

Did the petrol price come down at the end of the twelve hours of inactivity? NO

What else was achieved by the strike other than loss of productive time and money? NOTHING.

Will those who call for these Hartals learn anything from the experience? NEVER

There is a saying in Malayalam which states that even if you put a dog’s tail in a straight pipe, it will still be curved when you take it out of the pipe. How apt!

Every cloud has a silver lining. On the personal front, Hartals are the only occasions when I clean my Hero Honda bike and use it for my daily commute. Else it is tucked away in a corner of the garage and left to rust. A Hartal once in a few months keeps my bike clean and in running condition.

Memories of TCL (Thirumuppam Cricket League)!!

The IPL is meandering on and this constant exposure to Cricket on Television brought back memories of childhood – thought I would share an interesting Cricket related moment with you.

During our summer vacations at Thirumuppam (then a sleepy village an hour’s drive from Ernakulam) we used to play cricket in the late afternoons. There were two small teams in the ‘League’. On one side were my first cousin and me (we were around 14 at the time). The opposition team had a couple of younger first cousins and 2-3 other kids (distant cousins) from the neighbourhood (average age around 10).

Though outnumbered, we were bigger and stronger than our opponents and always insisted on the same team. Naturally they were no match for us and the results were almost always a foregone conclusion. It was like a matchup between India and Bermuda!

Whenever the opposition would raise their voice against the injustice in team formation, we would pacify them with the carrot of ‘double batting’ – each of their batsmen could bat twice. Not that this made much of a difference – it just delayed the inevitable.

Things changed with the induction of an ‘overseas player’. This kid (roughly our age) was the son of the brother of the pujari of the nearby temple. He had never played cricket before and wanted to join us. We – the ‘League commissioners’ - said why not? It was deemed that he could join the ‘chottas’. We were sure our dominance would continue.

What happened next knocked the wind out of us - the favourites. This kid who had never held a bat in his life before turned out to be a cross between Srikanth, Sehwag and Pathan. He had the recklessness of Srikanth, the hand-eye coordination of Sehwag and the power of Pathan. He could not hold the bat properly and had only one shot (expansive swing of the arms) in his armoury. But that was enough – each delivery we bowled disappeared. If he favoured the top of the coconut tree the first time, the next time it was targeted at the ‘Moovandan’ mango tree. If Shastri were there he would have said that it was raining ‘DLF maximums’. There was no way we could even hope for a ‘Karbon Kamaal catch’.

My cousin and I took a ‘Maxx mobile strategic time out’ and discussed the options. Those days we used to listen to radio commentary quite a lot and prided ourselves in our knowledge of Cricket. It was decided that one of us would bowl ‘fast in-swingers’ while the other would focus on ‘orthodox left arm spin’. Unfortunately for us the ‘overseas player’ was not knowledgeable in ‘in-swingers’ or ‘orthodox spin’!! He treated every ball the same way, same shot, same result. We were completely demoralised.

The hiding continued over the next few days (our attempts to change the teams were met with stiff resistance from the ‘chottas’ – even the offer of double batting did not work). Respite came after a couple of weeks in the form of the ‘overseas player recalled for national duty’ – the kid left Thirumuppam to spend the rest of vacation at his maternal grandparent’s place.

Thankfully next summer there was no sign of the ‘overseas player’ – not that we were particularly eager to check on his availability!

Dream come true

If the current IPL lacks zing due to its timing (scheduled as it is just after the World Cup), it did throw up a few surprises and helped uncover a few gems.

At the start of the tournament we had a relatively unknown Paul Valthaty bursting onto the scene with a quick fire century (120 off 63 balls). Since then the public have been expecting him to emulate that act in every match. Valthaty’ story is one of grit and determination. He had been injured in an under-19 world cup match (in 2002) and almost lost his eyesight. After getting cured he worked hard at a comeback finally doing so in 2009. He was part of the Mumbai squad and also the Rajasthan Royals squad for the past two years. In IPL 2009 and 2010 he did not do much except warm the bench for most of the time.

But what a turn around he has had since he joined Kings XI this year! Today he is spoken of in the same breath as big hitters like Uthapa and Pathan.

If Valthaty’s story is fascinating, Prasanth Parameswaran’s story seems straight out of a fairy tale! Inducted as a nets bowler for the Tuskers just a few days back, he impressed the coach Lawson so much that when there was a replacement opportunity Prasanth found himself in the squad. A couple of days later, he played his first match and the rest as they is history. He deservedly got the man of the match award as his dismissal of Sehwag was the most significant contribution to Kochi’s victory. Sreesanth did the translation during the post match interview. Good to see another Keralite do well. Hope he eventually makes it to the Indian team at some point.

Post script – Dada is back ! Yes he is ! Read in the papers yesterday that Saurav Ganguly has been inducted by the Pune Warriors as a replacement for Nehra. Well Pune does indeed need some inspiration – they are currently languishing at the bottom of the points table. It remains to seen whether the Dada magic will work for Pune.