On The Eve Of The "THE DAY"

Child Labourers and Beggars

Today I was catching up with Timepass and this post of her reminded of an incident. Few years back I was in New Delhi and I was sitting in a Blue Line Bus at ISBT.The bus was waiting for a few more passengers before it starts.

Sometime later, I saw a small boy , not more than 10 years of age , dragged himself to the bus.His legs were handicapped and he was dragging himself on his thighs. He was begging and asking for some money for food. I am ususally against beggars , except for the people who are too old or too handicapped. I gave this boy 1 rupee, probably I wanted to give him more but I just restrained.

The bus started moving and the conductor yelled at the boy to get out of the bus.But the boy paid least attention and kept begging. The conductor got furious and he just lifted the boy by his arms and dropped him out of the slowly moving bus. For a second I was furious and fuming at the conductor though I did not say anything. I thought no one can be more inhuman to throw a handicap child out of the bus.

But that was a momentary thought. What I saw the next moment left me numb. I saw the boy , stood up and abused the conductor and ran away. I felt, I am a fool on earth to pity someone and give my hard earned money. Yes, that was only one rupee , but then I gave it with a feeling of helping a little handicap boy and I realized that I was cheated. I wondered why that boy could not find a better job. Ofcourse he was talented for he fooled 50 people in the bus and in a city like Delhi , then why did he choose to beg. And that too , not the easy way. Dragging yourself on thighs on the roads is definitely not easy.

Makes me think something else too. We are all against child labour. Correct ?Then what do we want from the orphans , who have no one to take care of them. Oh yes, we want the society to adopt them and give them a better life. But will that ever happen ? And even if that happens, do we know the deadline ? How do these kids survive till then ?With a population like us , we have more orphans every day than adoptions. Do we expect these kids to sit hungry and wait for someone to adopt them , be it the parents or organizations. Or do we expect them to beg for their food , which again is against the law.

I genuinely feel that we should not stop these kids from doing the work they are capable of.Ofcourse there should be certain kinds of jobs which should be banned for them.We dont stop kids to act in TV ads and movies. Those kids who earn for their well-to-do parents. But we ban the labourers who wish to earn their bread.

I think its better to earn then to beg, even for a child. This will make them confident and self dependent. Your thoughts are welcome ?

Of My Phobia

Do you remember yourself being scared of something , since you were young and without knowing the reasons of your fear. I have had two such fears ever since I was born. Yes, even before my memory lasts.

I am scared of Buses and Horses. Yes I AM. In my late twenties, I still AM. 'Why?' is what I could never know. But yes I did ride a horse and I did ride a bus ofcourse. Funny part is , I am not scared of any of the two , while using them. I mean, when I was riding the horse I was not scared. And I am not scared when I am inside a bus.

But my mom told me that I used to cry at the sight of a bus and it was always tough to handle me at a bus stand. When I was young, I remember my heart beating fast at the sight of a running bus.My friends would laugh at how my bycycle would go off the road , when I would see a bus coming.

Same it was with horses. When a running horse's feet tap on the road , I feel the tap in my heart and on my head.

Things did improve as I grew up. I am not not THAT scared of buses anymore. I did travel in DTC buses in delhi for 2 years and that helped me wave off 99% of my fear. But still sometimes I feel a slight increase in my heartbeat , when I see a bus , while I cross the road. If thats a Truck , I don't mind :P

Could it be that I was run away by a bus in my previous birth ..hehehe..sounds stupid ..but well that can be the ONLY reason.

Whatever it is , since childhood I have been making a concious effort to get rid of this and success has been coming slowly. Still have to work on horses though :D

Do write about your Fears and Phobias , if any ?

Birds and the Bees Tag

Oh Dear JLT , why did you so this. I always prayed to avoid this tag. When I was tagged I thought of wrting a formal apology. But then I thought, I should not quit , so let me just do it. Here it goes :


On a Saturday afternoon or in any late evening,
when there is silence and the baby is sleeping ,
HE and SHE will find a corner,
And hope the time lasts forever.

Yes thats it , you know I am not too innovative at ANY thing.. :D

P.S : I may decide to take this post offline in a few days.

Ohh..BTW ..whoever wishes to be a sport and make it public can pick this up ....

College and Friends

About 8 years back, S took admission in a PG college.It was her Day 1 in college. She was having some butterflies in her tummy. She was perhaps one of the last person to join the class and she had to pay for that.After about 15 mins , a girl came to class in a Sari. She had a pleasant smile and was looking lovely. The entire class stood up to say Good Morning. S, confused, joined everyone. S was thinking , is this lady a faculty or a senior. She was told that her name is J and she is a senior. J asked S to give her introduction and S followed religiously. Then she was told that this was not the correct way of giving introduction and S followed the instructions. Suddenly everyone started laughing. WHY ? Her classmates played a prank on her. J was from same class and Sari , that was the dress code for wednesdays :P.

Soon the class was full and there was a faculty. A was another girl in the class. Next day another female joined the college , her name was S1. Now it was a class of 40 students and S was one among the four girls.

J was a simple girl , with a sweet smile and a pleasing personality.She was not extraordinarily beautiful , but yet had a charm that could win n number of friends.She stayed in a hostel.

A was exremely thin , simple , but sharp and witty. She was a day scholar.

S1 was quiet and shy. She believed in not messing with anyone and just to the needful. She again was a day scholar.

S , well she is the storyteller and you all know her already. She was a day scholar too , but she stayed with her Uncle.

They were all different , but yet they had something in common , which led them to a great friendship. They shared an good chemistry and always complimented each other. J would run into some problems due to her irresistable charming nature and she would have A and S for her rescue. J and S1 would compete with each other for "who will be the topper" and A and S would closely follow. And together they would give a complex to the boys. S1 and S would drive A and J to their places and to markets on their 2 wheelers. Ohhh , there are some hundred stories like that.

Now , time has passed and as they graduated they progessed in life. They are happily married in different corners of the country. They have not met together for atleast 3 years now. J and S surely met , but that too about 1.5 years back. But atleast on days like today, they still think of each other. Like now , S is thinking, "Why is A not picking her phone ? Is she in some problem (God Forbid) ? Is she out of station? Did he changed her number ? Is she just sleeping ?" She is thinking , if there is any other way to wish A , A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!! Happy Birthday dear friend.

Secret Desires

Few things I would like to do once(atleast) in my life

• Go to a lonely hilltop/island/forest for 3 days , stay in a hut , with all greens round.Ofcourse the hut should have all basics and I will take Anupam along.)


• Fly high in a hot air baloon and click pictures.


• Paragliding.


• See a snowfall except in movies.


• Get drenched in water on a beach.


• Go Rafting with Husband (Done rafting once, but want to go again with Anupam.)


• Travel in a Cruise.


• Ride a Water Scooter.


• Visit Goa, Kerala, Kashmir and Leh (Ofcourse do photography)


• Take Aryan to Disneyland.


• See a Cricket Match in Stadium. I am not a Cricket crazy ..but just want to feel the excitement.


• Wear a beautiful black evening gown and look gorgeous. (I did mention this before I guess, and I know this will never come true ..coz I need a figure for that :P)

That is it I guess , but wait ..I won't even mind a trip around the world :-P

Where did it come from ?

Today at lunch time , one collegue found an insect in the food. We all had a good time , wondering where it came from (if that was a Company property or Vendor's) , pitying the quality of food and discussing ways to complain (some of us took pictures of the bug ..thanks to mobile cameras :P).

This incident reminds me of an old incident. While on vacation to my Tauji's place, I went to have a glass of water in a summer afternoon.I took a fresh empty glass (IT WAS EMPTY) and took water from the water dispenser (which had a tap). And as i drank the water I saw in the glass...eeeeeeeeeeeek...the glass fell down of my hands , I jumped at my place and I felt pukish. There was a small lizard in the glass ..yuck! Still can't believe it , that it fell down in the glass from the roof while I was drinking and I did not realize. Then where did it come from ? There is no other logical explanation.

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi to All

Birthday Plans :(

This year beginning , when we saw the calender to find out that a leave on my Birthday , makes it an extra long weekend, we thought we can go for a vacation then. Our most awaited destination for a vacation has been Goa. And so we thought of a Goa trip. But with the situation today I had to turn it down. About 15 days to my Birthday , things are not as I expected.

Aryan is just up from severe infection and still in recovering phase.Don't know if he will be able to take the stress. Plus with 4 leaves taken during his sickness , one more seems costly.

Aryan is still on bottle feed , and I am not sure how to manage hygine while travelling.

Aryan still does not walk. I expected him to walk by now.

No , I am not blaming it to him. Just that I don't feel confident. Some of you may say , I never will. Others will say I am not sporty enough.But then my instincts doesn't allow me.

So , probably my Birthday will be jsut another working day. Lets see.

Language Problem

Our mother tongue is Hindi and I know no other language except Hindi and English. And that is what we use to communicate with Aryan , mostly Hindi and sometimes a little English. Aryan goes to a day care and the owner of the place and most of the maids over there are Tamilians. Some of the maids are Kannadica. So what should Aryan do ? At this age my little sweetheart has to listen 4 different languages. What does he pick ? Another problem is , if he picks a word in Hindi , the maids will not understand him and if he picks a word in Tamil , we won't understand.Anupam and I have been thinking about this from quite sometime and this has driven us nuts. How will Aryan learn to speak in such a situation ?

Names of Love

Nicknames tag passed on to me by Kodi. I have always loved nicknames and I myself have many. I think nicknames are nothing but an expression of love by our near and dear ones. Some of them are temporary while others stick forever.Ofcourse , at a certain age , we can find them embarrassing, especially since they do not suit the age and time then.Even I know a few 50 years old Baby(s) and Pappu(s).So I always thought I would get Aryan a nick name which will not get embarrasing with time. But we could not stick to a nick name for him and so though he has many , none of them is a permanent one.

I know there are different school of thoughts about it and probably thats why Kodi's Mom called it as the most embarrasing tag ever. So I dropped the idea of writing this post on Times of Aryan. Since Aryan might grow up with a different opinion and would not like to read this post.

So here I go with all the new/old temporary funny / not-so-funny nicknames of Aryan.

Nanmun - Before he was born and before we knew he was a HE or a SHE , we called him Nanmum (Little one) This one lasted till he got his actual name. People who have not been informed of his real name (Friends/Relatives who contact us once in years), still know him as Nanmun.

Vishu and Veduu - As per horoscope , his name should have been from the letter 'V' , so this is what we initially thought of calling him.

Aru - Shortened version of Aryan.Anupam and I somestimes call him by this name.

Chotu (small) - Aryan's Nana, Nani and Mamu usually address him as Chotu only. Definitely I do not want this one to stick with him.

Meethu (sweet) , Betu (son - malformed from 'Beta') and Pyaru (Lovable) - Aryan's Taiji coined all these terms and his dada dadi also calls him Betu.

Baeboo - Aryan's Papa calls him Baeboo , a malformed version of the word Baby.His dadi loved it and picked it.Definitely I do not want this one too to stick with him.

Kutti Baby - His caretaker calls him with this name.

Editted to Add :
Ganja Man - Anupam started calling him this after his Mundan and this still continues since Aryan has less hair.

Puchu Baby - Another name given to him by Papa.

Bhaiya - His Nanu -Nani calls him Bhaiya ..strange isn't it..even I think so.

RoluPolu,Sonu,RajaBeta,Chuha (rat), khargosh(rabbit),Teddy Bear are some more used by me once in a while.

Now I pass this on to Trishna , NanhiPari ,JustLikeThat and WhatsinAName.

Dreams Untold

Yesterday night Aryan was scared. I guess he was having some scary dreams and every time he woke up and clinged to me. So I thought what could those dreams be and that reminded me of my dreams.So, inspired by NM's recent post , here I go with a few of my most weird and funny dreams ever. These have no relations to pregancy though.

In my school , in my college and sometimes even now , this one (with some variations) have made me wake up a several times.

I have an exam today and I am already running late. My Rickshaw puller did not turn up. Its raining and I cannot get any transport. Finally I manged to reach school. Our school is strict on dress code and timings and so I got a good scolding on being late. But when they were just letting me in , they realized that I am without any shoes. *Phew*...They told me that I cannot come in without shoes...BARE FOOT :O And I stand crying , for I missed my exam.

Next one wakes me up with a jolt , more often than anything else.

Its a dream where I see myself fall down. Sometimes from bed while sleeping and sometimes from stairs and sometimes from buildings.

Last but not the least. A recent one and the most weird one.

About a month ago I saw that we have a baby monkey in house.The monkey stays like my kid. He sits in my lap. He eats and sleeps next to us. He talks like us. He is my FIL favourite and my FIL gets angry when someone scolded the monkey for something.

Just then Anupam woke me up and I was like ..Ohh I wanted to see the full dream :-We laughed long about the dream , since my FIL hates pets. I wondered if it was Aryan dressed as monkey :D

Now , what do you think about this being a tag. Come on , share your dreams with us. I tag Naina, Moppet's Mom, Manasi, Rdbans and timepass

Why ????

Why do we have to be stuck in a traffic jam daily ?

Why do all the VIP(s) have to travel through the most chaotic roads of the city at 9 AM or at 6 PM only ?

Why they cannot be directly helicoptered to their destinations , if its impossible to alter their schedules ?

Why does a common office going man has to suffer for four hours (due to traffic piled up) for their 15 mins travel ?

Why do men (sometimes women too) have to take so much stress due to all this traffic chaos ?

Why do we not understand that this unneccesary and unimportant stress will do no good to traffic but a lot bad to us ?

Apprehensive About Milestones

Aryan is almost one year and 2 months old.He is not yet walking.He pulls up to stand with support and moves a few steps with support , but he never attempts to move without support. Some say thats okay while others say he is late.

He speaks only 2 words clearly , which are Mumma and Papa. There are 2 more word like sounding noises ,"bahar" and "aaja". But only I claim them to be words.

I have spoken to his doctor about these issues and he said , we have nothing to worry as yet. So, why this post ? Am I worried at the back of my mind ? Am I apprehensive ?

I do not know if I should believe in Jyothish (astrology) or not. But quite recently my father's astrologer friend said Aryan will walk only when he will be 1.5 years old and talk when he is close to 2 years. Since I admit , that despite of having a logical mind , I do believe in astrology to some extent at the back of my mind , I should no longer be worried. Especially when both the doctor and astrologer speak similiar.

But probably I am even more worried now. One reason is the social pressure. Whoever calls these days , asks us with great confidence "Aryan must be walking now ?" and we have to say no. To which they will console us , "Oh that its ok" (Though they never sound convincing).
Now with 4 more months to go before he actually walks (as per the astrologer , if thats true), I am not prepared to address all those phone calls. Plus we have a vacation planned in November , when we will face all the relatives. I am not prepared to address and bear with their apprehensions about my son.Nor do I have any valid answer ready for them. I definitely do not want to say about the prediction , since even I am not fully convinced by that.

Another reason ofcourse is the fear of unknown.I do not trust astrology 100%. Doctor said nothing to worry as YET. Four months seems like four years to me.

Probably only time will answer my fears. Meanwhile , I can do nothing much about the apprehensions , both mine and of others.

Fighting over the bottle

I was planning for this since quite a long time.But I did not have the courage. So each weekend I would have one of the following excues ready."He is not well today","Guests will be here , we don't want a cranky baby that time","We have to do some unavoidable shopping, he will trouble without milk" and what not.

This weekend though I decided to go for this, without a second thought.So I started on saturday morning.He had just one sip and then we compromised for a slice of bread instead of milk.He had his lunch and slept well and woke up to have 2-3 sips of milk.We again compromised with alternate foods.Bed time milk is his favourite though.He cried for the longest 15 minutes of my life.He begged and complained and was furious , but nothing worked with the bad momma , who sat still with a glass of milk. She kissed and patted but did not give him a bottle of milk.My little baby slept without milk and I cried with a broken heart while I fed him with a bottle of milk ,as he slept.

That was not all , he woke up with some bad cough.But mumma's heart did not melt.Morning went without milk.Early in the evening though mumma was about to give up and was feeling pathetic when the little sweetheart came and kissed mumma.Soon after , he had about half a glass and that again made his mumma a little confident.

I have a bad habit of feeling happy a little too early.Not a single sip at night.I took off for today.I was optimistic that half glass may turn to one today.But not a single sip since morning.At around 3.00 he had a few sips through straw but that was all.To add to this ,now he is not having milk during sleep too. Can I feel more miserable in my life than what I feel today. A hungry little baby sleeping next to me and I being a BAD BAD MUMMA.

I feel like quiting.Not that I did not feel like this in past 3 days , but then I had a satisfaction that he is not left out hungry.Now that he is hungry since morning and had only half of his lunch , I feel miserable. I always thought I will not give up because then he will know how to get his things done , but then I guess he already knows that.

Please God Help!