The ubiquitous question!

It has been nearly 2 months since I moved from Indore to Noida!

Having spent 7+ years in Indore and then moving to Noida, the comparison was inevitable, but so was this question. Log on to any TV Reality Show during elimination round, or, move on to any news channel, interviewing some grieving soul; you will get to hear the question: "आपको कैसा लग रहा है?"

The answers, force me to think about the difference between Indore and Noida. Depending upon the situation (& whats crossing my mind), the answers to similar questions vary, drastically. Here are a few examples:

You're driving at 80 kmph. How are you feeling?
Indore - I'm thrilled, because one rarely gets chance to cross 40 kmph
Noida - "मुझे डर लग रहा है"! In fact, I'm freaking out because cars are overtaking me at 100+ kmph, from both sides

Tonight you have a function to attend at a friend's place.

Indore - Its just 3 km. I might as well walk.

Noida - I could've reached Ujjain if I had to travel this much distance in Indore.

You're stuck in traffic jam. How are you feeling?

Indore - It has been hardly 10 minutes (besides, it happens once in a while)

Noida - It has already been 1 hour (thankfully, we are at least moving)

What do you want to have for breakfast?

Indore - Let's have some poha. Light breakfast lets you focus on work.

Noida - Lets get chhole-bhature. पेट भरा रहेगा तो दिन में खाने की टेंशन नहीं रहेगी. 

When do you plan to go to Lucknow?

Indore - Don't know, no reservation available in Indore-Patna Express for next 2 months (because it operates weekly) 

Noida - I'm choosing between the trains, which one has better facilities & is mostly on time

Let's go for a walk.

Indore - Too much dust

Noida - Too humid

Both the above answers translate to - I want to watch TV at home!

There is however, one question, answer to which hasn't changed:

"What are you plans for the weekend? "

Indore / Noida - "Movie जाना है" :)

No!

No! Thats the latest buzzword in our house.

From the time we get up in morning, till the time we get back to sleep, this word keeps being repeated like background music in Ramanad Sagar's Ramayana. In fact, "No" has broken all records of being repeated.

Interestingly, "No" doesn't come alone; it is always accompanied by another word (which happens to be a noun) - "Piku".

If you happen to spend 24 hours in our house, you would hear the words "Piku, No!" countless no. of time. I tried counting them once, but gave up after 50th occurrence :D

If you are not a parent yet, then you probably might wonder that how many nuisances can a 1.5 years old throw; or maybe we are over disciplining the kid. Well, here are some frequent scenarios (by saying frequent I mean any scenario can repeat as frequently as within 5 minutes):

- Piku, No! Don't throw onions out of window
- Piku, No! Take sleepers out of your mouth
- Piku, No! Don't throw your toy in commode

- Piku, No! Don't put your finger in the switchboard!

- Piku, No! Put the cushions back on the sofa, & the sheet on the bed, & the newspaper on the table
- Piku, No! Give me my wallet back. No, don't disperse the credit cards
- Piku, No! Put the mobile down... on the bed... no no, don't throw it on the floor.... OK, give me back the mobile pieces from the floor
......
If you're a parent (or have a young kid around), then I'm sure you can also quote countless scenarios.

There are a few good thing also. First - now I know whats the proper place of various items in my home, earlier this knowledge was available only to wifey :)
Second - we are becoming much more tolerant for everything. If something or someone is not working properly, we react rather coolly. Kitchen mixer not working - OK, most of the things are not working properly. Electrician over-billed us - OK, at least he fixed the switchboard within Piku's reach & cut-off the power supply. Maid doesn't clean properly - OK ,things were anyhow going to get dirty. Too much corruption - OK, at least they work after taking bribe. Our kid doesn't even accept that. Tension over border -OK, we are already tensed. Meteor coming towards us in 2012 - OK, our home already looks like as if hit by a meteor.

You might have read "having a kid makes you parent", my version is "having a kid makes you patient; very patient"!

कैद में है बुलबुल!!!

This was the title that came to my mind, after spending nearly 24 hours with Piku after nearly 1 month. Yes, my family is back from Lucknow trip. We traveled back from Lucknow to Indore on Sunday.

So, it started Monday morning. Around 6 AM, I heard Piku chanting alternately "Papa..." and then "Mummy....". Sluggishly I responded "what happened beta?". He pointed towards the door saying "ba". Since I couldn't decipher the code "ba", I (nervously) woke up wifey for help. She told me that this is one of latest additions to Piku's vocabulary and it translates to बाहर.

Spoilt (for good) by the healthy lifestyle of his grandparents; Piku had entirely forgotten my preachings ( i.e. get up only when it is absolutely necessary) and entered into habit of having a walk early morning. I was taken aback; it took me nearly 2 years to knock this habit out of his mother, and now him!!!

Anyhow, I managed to keep him (hence myself) in bed for next 2 hours. Later, when Piku saw me putting on shoes  when I was getting ready for office, he brought his shoes also, tugged me & said "ba". Me & Ankita had to try hard to ensure that he stayed indoor.

Later, after returning from the office in evening; before I could enter the door, Piku came hurtling towards me. I spread my arms affectionately to hug him, but he ran right past me saying "ba ba ba"....
That was when I thought "कैद में है बुलबुल"!

Visit to Lucknow - the flip side :(

While I was returning alone from Lucknow last week, I had a feeling of mixed emotions. As anyone would expect, some part of my heart was jumping & yelling with excitement: "freedom...." & every time some part of my brain was modifying that yell to "freedom.... is temporary".

However, I had no idea that both these feelings were about to be washed away with nostalgia pretty soon. When I unlocked the door & stepped into my home; something hit my foot. I saw that it was one of Piku's toy; a duckling fixed atop a slightly heavy ball. You might have seen toys that have something filled at the bottom so that they're always in standing position, despite all punches & kicks. So as soon as I stepped in & hit it, it started revolving around my foot. I felt a jab in my heart because sometime back (i.e. before Piku learned to walk), Piku used to do this whenever I returned from office. He used to move around my feet, uttering words in his own language. I felt a lump in my throat as I visualized my kid cajoling me to pick him up. Nostalgia hit me & it hit very hard.

Since we had left in a hurry while going to Lucknow, so the place was still flooded with things that constantly reminded me that I've to stay alone for next few weeks.

Visit to Lucknow

Last weekend we went to Lucknow; which happens to be hometown for me as well as my wife Ankita. Quite expectedly, Ankita decided to stay there for sometime; so the journey towards Lucknow had 3 members whereas the return-journey had just me.

Itinerary was supposed to be like this- Indore (via Taxi) -->Bhopal (via Train) --> Lucknow.

So, on the way to Bhopal, Piku had very limited space for movement; which made him very annoyed within 15 minutes after starting our journey. To make him feel little comfortable, we decided to remove his nappies (if you don't know, most infants enjoy being without nappies). As a result, for rest of the 3 hours, he was travelling wearing only a vest & I was travelling wearing clothes drenched due to Piku's sudden nature calls.

Hence, when we boarded the train at Bhopal railway station, we felt a sense of relief because now Piku had sufficient movement space. However, our relief didn't last more than 5 minutes, because now he had way too much space to move where he wasn't suppose to move. Since, the time was already 10 PM so our best strategy was to put him to bed as soon as possible; but, our attempts to make him sleep started resulting in disturbances in co-passengers' sleep.

Final sleeping arrangements had two sleep-deprived grown-ups crammed on a single seat & an infant occupying entire berth.

A day after office

This is typical conversation between me & Piku when I get home after office:

Me: Peeekoooooo....
Piku: Papa aa gaye!
Me: Kaisa hai mera bachchaaaaa...
Piku: Papa aaaa gggaye!
Me: Kya kar raha tha mera bachcha...

Piku: Papa aaaa gggaye!

Me: Haan beta, papa aa gaye
Piku: Mummy mummy mummy
Wifey: Haan beta
Piku: Papa aa gaye!
Wifey: Achha....
Me: Aaj isne "jyada" pareshan to nahi kiya
Wifey: Ummm.... haan.... nahi.... wahi usual...
Piku: Papa aa gaye!
Me: Chalo; main fatafat change karke aata hoon
Piku: Papa gaye!

When my kid walks

In my previous post I wrote about the joyous moment when my kid took his first steps, & I also mentioned about the tiring moments that followed. This post talks about some of those "other" moments.

Earlier we were constantly worried with the thought "if he continues to crawl, he might hurt his knees"; now we are constantly worried with the thought "if he falls, he will hurt his head". Ironically & sadly, our former worry never turned into reality whereas latter keeps occurring every now and then.

Since, walking is Piku's newly found hobby, so wants to keep doing that all the time. Top of the chart activity is tripping over stuff that is usually invisible to us. Second position goes to throwing unimportant objects like mobile phones, remote controls, watches etc. at unpredictable & often unreachable locations (unreachable = uncomfortably reachable ). Third favorite is to make us walk after him, continuously, accompanied with multiple sets of our toe-touching exercises to pickup stuff (it seems that he wants us to be back in shape). Fourth one is to search for sources of garbage, dirty water etc. & play splish-splash until we dispose the material (I think he is on mission of cleanliness). Another favorite is to chase tiny insects right to their habitats (or outside our habitat). The list is long, very long.

It won't be wrong to say that he wants to keep walking while eating, drinking, even while sleeping. Wondering how does he manages to do the last one? Well, when put to bed, he would immediately recoil like a spring to standing position and then start strolling on the bed. He would stay in motion unless-
a) we again make him lie down
or
b) he becomes too sleepy to continue walking

For either of the actions, he would bounce back. This pattern would continue to recur until he is too sleepy to spring back. When this happens, walking gets converted into rolling. Eventually, he would go & fall asleep near his mom's feet; and the scene looks like visual version of age old phrase " माँ के चरणों में स्वर्ग होता है! "