Atul update

Atul is 1 year 9 months now! Sigh! Time flies. It’s always hard for me to do this post but writing about him is a pleasure. I could write loads about him since he is my heart and my life, as of now, revolves around him absolutely. The sad part is that the daily physical therapy does not seem to help his physical development and now he is officially having CVI, seizures, hypotoned, and hearing impaired. In short he is my sweet little vegetable. We are working with the only sense that is left which is smell and with this he manages to fill our world with his cute smiles and babbles when he senses us near him. Adi’s smell seems to be the dearest as atul babbles non stop when Adi hovers around him like a mosquito. Right now Atul is on his fifth medication as he successfully overpowered the rest and emerged a winner. Seizures have become a part of his and our lives. Looks like it is here to stay with us. The docs consider his case grim, as they don't see much improvement (both motor and intellectual) since seizures have taken control of his brain and he is not responding to any medication. However he is still a happy, quiet, non-fussy child compared to the typical ones thus giving me lot of time to do other work which includes not having to hurry my lunch, not having to run out of the toilet unlike the clingy toddlers etc. There are times when I miss the typical toddler but when I see Adi getting into trouble, I relieve myself thinking that at least I don’t have to handle complaints in Atul’s case. As days pass by I realize that it's going to get tough on us physically but seeing him give that wholesome, blissful, charming smile will keep us going.

Many of my friends would like an update about Atul and I know they ask out of concern, but I do get uncomfortable talking about him so I prefer they rather not ask than see me in tears. I wish they all read about him here which could spare me the trouble of having to explain the same things over and over again to different people. Anyway I'll try my best to provide regular updates. Here is Atul’s latest video

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Leave letter

Adi was moderately sick with cold yesterday and this is nothing new, the only exception being that I was feeling a bit laid back or plain lazy. I declared a day off for him on his pretext though he didn't wish for. Today he insisted upon writing a leave letter and since he saw me procrastinating, he settled down to write one. This was how he put it...

Dear Teacher
I was not just having a cold. I was having ear infeksion.
So I could not come to school and cobon park.
I am very sorry.
Now my face is



TO

Awww...such a cute letter and it sure made me feel guilty. Incidentally this is his first letter to the teacher. Fortunately I was relieved to see his dairy today which said field trip is postponed to tomorrow.

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Nostalgia

...sets in today and I jog my memory to the four years of my engineering course, something which I always thought was not my cup of tea. However I enjoyed every bit of my time there, with THE GANG. The girly gossips, bunking classes, watching movies just few days before semester examinations, the dhaba expeditions with three of us on a tiny Sunny scooter, the dutch parties, the heartbreaks upon spotting the handsome guys accompanied by GFs, the constant air removal of our computer maam's scooty (the best revenge for her ruthless gaze), the hours of gossip in front of the chat bakery covering everything form wishes to politics, the incomplete song we sung for the insignificant competition, the laughter after that, the wonder at how few of 'em managed to top the class even after having double the fun I had, the antics we indulged in trying to imitate all our lecturers - the most famous one being the lady who came to our class to just dictate notes (I still wonder how she got her PHd), the crazy new year party where we experimented our first take on alcohol and the fact that I spit it out wondering how guys enjoyed it though things are different now ;) courtesy hubby. SO what did I learn during those four years in summary will be anything other than instrumentation.

Thank you GANG for making it such a memorable time. To be frank I don't remember my last moment there. Was it walking out with my final year mark sheet happy with at least a first class???

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Suspense

No! This incident was not covered by NDTV. My sis was the reporter and it happened near her home. Her son was playing cricket with a couple of boys, which included a 4 year old. All of a sudden an SUV emerges out of the blue and almost collides with the boy. A man leaps out of the car, grabs the boy, dumps him next to him and speeds away. All this happens within a fraction of a second and one sensible alert boy among the gang notes down the number on the number plate. A few minutes later the little boy’s grandfather comes in search of him and the bewildered gang hastily pour out their heart. The grandfather listens carefully and returns. Now all of them contemplate that the old man would have headed to the police station when suddenly the boy who noted down the number realize that he forgot to mention about it. So, the gang, along with my sis hurries to the little boy's home to provide the precious information. To their surprise, they find the grandfather reading paper and the rest of the family members busy in their own world. My sis approaches the grandmother and enquires about the boy. The grandmother happens to exchange meaningful glances with her daughter while trying to convince my sis with a suitable answer. From her conversation my sis realizes that it's the father who kidnapped the child. I am sure you guys must have guessed the cause.

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The swollen with pride music tutor (SWPT)

This specimen comes to our apartment complex twice a week and terrorizes the kids and adults to learn classical music. She claims to be "THE BEST" and never forgets to mention that "some or one" playback singer(s) in Kannada film industry are being trained by her. The two invisible horns on her head get prominent when she demands to empty our parking lot for her car if she doesn't find a lot in the visitor parking area. An year back when Adi was not yet 6, we got to meet this rare breed. She agreed to come down and grace us with her knowledge after a wee bit of compelling. She declared the cut off age as 6 and those below will not be allowed to join. However I decided to try my luck and I dragged a dispassionate Adi to meet her. There were couple of other kids and mums around as I got into the clubhouse. To my utter dismay I saw the SWPT auditioning the kids. Whoa! this is going to be tough as I had to get Adi to sing. It was Adi's turn and I asked him to sing a rhyme. Adi did complete justice to it and the lady said she wants to hear a movie song. What the heck! I begged Adi to sing Dus Bahane (that being the only song he knew then and only 3 lines). Adi plainly declined and so did she. A year later I get to hear tales about the way she intimidates the kids if they forget lines or cannot articulate the hard lyrics of a Sanskrit song. But the adults do claim that it's helping a few kids who otherwise tend to slack. Hey, what about the humiliation? Does the kid suffer from that? I am not sure if anybody thought of that since kids are sensitive when it comes to getting shamed in front of public. Should she not be using the terms good, very good or best to convey her opinion in a constructive manner? Couple of days back my friend mentioned that she is contemplating on starting another batch. Adi is 6 now and the brat needs to be tamed??? Questions pondering in my grey matter!

Will Adi get tamed to an extent where he will hate music?
Will the SWPT influence him in a positive way as MIRACLES do take place??

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Devil's Advocate

Starring my hubby!! On a lighter moment contributing for his office magazine.Click on the image to zoom for those who have vision problems :P

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NDTV talking about the brave new world of blogs

Barkha Dutt of NDTV discussed about the new world of blogs in her talk show yesterday. It was graced by the presence of some popular bloggers across India. (Unfortunately I was not considered popular and so I dint get invited .I am angry about that barkha) .). The aim of the talk show was to ponder on whether blogs could be regulated.. Now without a debate, I would say that it is impractical and I would recommend readers to make a choice of blogs they like to read or ignore, so they can regulate it from their end. I would not like an external medium to regulate something that was basically created for the sole purpose of personal expression.
There was this girl who kept her identity anonymous and discussed intimate things on her blog and many read it , revisited her and wrote sick comments though they enjoyed her blog for a fact. I entitle this group as cowards. Barkha claimed that some blogs did engage in fabricating stories on people and I would say , it’s upto the people to make the right judgment after reading such blogs. A young gay blogger finds it easy to express his feeling on his blog than sharing the same with his parents or friends. A journalist in the show said that he is bored of saying stuff that others want him to articulate and so he finds blogging a means where he can express his own thoughts about something he strongly feels about be it discussing about his neighbour’s refrigerator or some other lame thing whithout worrying about getting edited. Like barkha put it, “Blog is definitely a small car with a bigger pollution”. It does have many advantages and drawbacks .To strike a right balance is the query here and as far as I am concerned, I still haven’t had the courage to blog something that I strongly feel about. Few years from now may be different.

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Meet the class teacher

And finally I went to meet Adi’s class teacher for the first time after school began. I joined Adi in his van along with his friends and our ride was fun err hassle filled with adi and friends busy drumming each others head followed by complaints pouring in from all sides about ruining each others hairdo. I was the targeted object for coming up with justice, which I badly failed at since I also ended up drumming everybody’s head. While that was done, we reached school and we were a bit early. We said bye to the others while Adi led me to his class. His class teacher hadn’t arrived yet, and as I entered the class few students who were already there, stood up and said good morning. Ah! Now I can play class teacher for a while I thought .I smiled and mumbled good morning while they sat and I was contemplating about what to say then.. Adi was not aware of my plans and he was leaping around while others were watching him with wonder. Just then another student came in and she stood near the door and said, ”excuse me maam”. I said “YES! GET IN”. Whoa! That was fun. A swift sense of power tickled through my body and I wanted to play a bad teacher. I started asking everybody their names and they meekly responded one by one. Another student stopped near the door and I looked at her and asked “why so late”. Her face was a mix of uncertainty and alarm. I made her stand there for a while since she was figuring out the best excuse. Just when the fun began, a smiling tall hefty lady walked in and unanimously the kids stood up and said “good morning” whilst it was my turn to be puzzled. I figured she was the class teacher and I talked to her for a while letting the kids in a “guess who I was” mode while I took leave. FUN!

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Clogging leading to Annoyance

One and all is aware of traffic in bangalore and I would like to cite about how worse it is in front of our apartment located on Old Madras Road. There has never been a day when hubby dear has not complained about trying to pass that road without getting stuck for at least half an hour owing to the bottleneck, which is the K.R. Puram, railway bridge. Last year the road widening work caused congestion and after completion of this, the bottleneck created much more congestion with double the number of vehicles getting stuck under the narrow passage of the bridge. While many industries have their own staff buses, hundreds of IT professionals, who work in ITPL near Whitefield, prefer to use their own vehicles because of their flexible working hours. The difficult driving conditions make their working days longer.

As The Hindu newspaper quotes it
Jurisdictional problems have made matters worse and delayed timely repairs to Old Madras Road. As far as policing goes, the Bangalore Traffic Police have authority up to K.R.Puram. The road on this stretch comes under the limits of different police stations, Ulsoor, Indiranagar, and K.R.Puram. Beyond it, the Bangalore District Police have jurisdiction till the road enters Kolar District The traffic congestion is expected to ease to some extent after the new Benniganahalli flyover is completed and the cable-stayed bridge is opened to traffic. Until then, road users have to take deviations along the narrow temporary bypasses. The road itself is partly maintained by the PWD and partly by the National Highways Authority of India. The former appears to have neglected its role.
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The traffic police have tough time regulating the vehicles during peak hours, which is almost every other hour on Old Madras road. Accidents have become a norm on this road and not a single week passes without news of a person dying or getting hurt. The two wheelers feel like they have entered a death trap with the impatient truck, taxi and bus drivers trying to make their way either by running over them or tripping them for a minute advantage. Life has no meaning in their dictionary owing to the irksome traffic.

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Something Missing

Its 4.30 A.M as I look drowsily at the clock, hmmm I can sleep a bit more and I twist around to get some sleep, 4.45 a bit more, 5 a bit more….somehow I keep twisting and turning around on the bed till 6 a.m and finally I haul myself out of the bed to fix some milk for the baby . He drains it down in a flash and now I have to get myself to make some breakfast for adi who is staring school today. Now you know the cause of my restlessness. It’s the first day at school ,the first time that adi is leaving home by 7.30 and so I get busy. I pour the idli batter into the idli plates and leave it to cook while I brush my teeth . Thank god! I had planned it earlier since I have some sambar for the idlis in the fridge. I go to the bedroom to wake adi and aju. I nudge adi saying good morning and he leaps off the bed,strides like a monkey saying” ‘O’ I got to go to school today”and oh! How lucky I am to have a son who does not lazy around saying that he wants to sleep a bit more though I complained about the same habit few months back :P. In a blaze he brushes his teeth ,takes bath and settles down to have his breakfast. I want him eat it up quickly so I demand aju to assist him. At 6.40 my cook comes in and says” wow the breakfast is ready. How nice”. I fancy slapping her on her butt since I had told her to be on time yesterday and she didn’t bother. But now I have got used to these ladies and I don’t wait anymore. I tell her “hey! don’t be so happy. Make some chapathis for adi’s lunch “ and she gets to work. I go back to label some schoolbook, which I had covered last night and the time, is 7.15. Quickly I dress adi in his brand new uniform and he is all excited since everything is new, the school uniform, the bag, the lunch bag, box, shoes, socks, and his favorite water bottle. When ajith tries to pep him up a bit more by saying “hey all new for you”, adi snaps back saying “yeah! A new tummy ache too”. He runs to the toilet to poop” and more than him, I am relieved. Hastily I pull up his shorts and its time for the van .We run down and all his friends are there waiting for the van with their parents. The van has not arrived yet and that leaves us time to whine about the traffic which must be delaying the van. I must add that our van driver has been very punctual last year and all of us were planning to increase his remuneration to keep him happy while we see it arrive. Some kind of telepathy seems to have happened as, the minute he parks the van, he gets down and talks about his pay. All of us agree in unison although we would have liked to say it first. Finally the van leaves with our kids waving bye bye and after some more gossip, I return home to find something missing …..or someone missing….

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