Bunch of Morons

Rant Alert!

A string of untoward events have been taking place for a while now and I blame it on fate. The foremost was just after Ganesh celebration. A prospective client who had signed an agreement to buy our two bedroom flat unexpectedly decided not to and broke the news exactly a month after signing the paper. We were shocked at his abrupt change in mind as he was still looking for better options after getting into an agreement with us. Hats off to his guts to do so, especially after cautioning us against marketing our home for a better price. I get a feeling that he must have looked for other options even after getting engaged to a girl! I am worried about the one he is married to. Hopefully he isn’t reading my blog.

 Jokes apart, the bit that irked me most was the process that led to signing the agreement which in itself was an elongated and laborious one. He claimed that, it was the first time that he has been investing in a property and so the apprehension, which was at least tolerable. To my surprise, he walked in with a measuring tape the day he came to check out our home, to measure the dimensions of the house as he said he doesn’t trust the document. When that was sorted, he bargained over the price and the upright hubby budged to his terms. Hubby isn’t the negotiating type and wanted to avoid many rounds of conversation. He then wanted to check the authenticity of the documents. That took a couple of days and he returned satisfied. Finally he is ready for the sale agreement during which we clearly mention that the sale deed would be done only after 2 months during which time our new one would be ready. He agrees willingly and fixes the date for the agreement. This was followed by the process of fixing an advance amount to be paid for reserving the flat. That was only a meagre 2% of the entire amount. I was stupefied when he said that he could only disburse 0.1%. For a moment I wondered if he was picturing buying a couch. However hubby sensed trouble and preferred calling it off. We decide to step out of the deal while this man pursues further and manages to negotiate at 0.25%.” Dumb us “We agreed just to get him off our back. 

The rest of the story is predictable. He kept looking for better options within our own complex and unearthed one. He got back to us saying that he came across another one, which has 20 sq. ft. of extra balcony are and demanded his advance back. Ahem! He thinks we are clowns.  

The next incident doesn’t affect us much as this did. We had procured 15 bags of sand for civil work in our new flat. It arrived on a holiday and our labourers weren’t available on that day to store the bags in our working site. It was placed on the side of the approach road without much hindrance to the movement of vehicles. The plan was to move it as soon as the labourers return the subsequent day. By then, an overly vigilant member in charge of cleanliness of our apartment who is known for breaking rules himself walks up to the security and orders them to dump all the sand in the play area without verifying with us. When questioned about the hasty act, he declared that personal belongings should not be placed in the common area even if it is for a day. The funny part being that this man resides in the ground floor and for years his potted plants are lying in the common area. The irony!

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Moving :)

Newsflash: We are moving to our new home, a 3 Bedroom flat within the same complex in a couple of months and this means more breathing space, being within the comfort zone, same friends and a very happy Adi. But yeah! Am going to miss my cozy 2 bedroom home where 8 years of my life seem to have gone by in a flash.
Taking a trip down the memory lane reminds me of how exited I was 9 years back when Ajith booked the 2 bedroom flat in CG . I was pregnant with Adi and we were living with my parents for a while as we had just returned from US for good. Ajith rejoined SAP after our return and it was a fresh beginning for us. The plan was to move after Adi was a year old and I remember celebrating Adi's first birthday a month after moving into the apartment. It was a rough start initially as our area was kind off secluded and construction of the second phase was just beginning and that meant more dust. Adi kept falling ill during the first three years because of the polluted air but got immune to it after a while. There were very few stores around then and to get essential things on a daily basis was a challenge. I was lucky enough to find a store that delivered grocery at our door step. But there was no stopping after that. Within a year of our stay here, super malls and software hubs became our neighbors and now this area is one of the most sought after spots in Bangalore. Four years later Atul joined us and our little family was happier than ever. Although it was heartbreaking to discover Atul's disability, this home helped me see the beauty of the innocent face that smiles up at me everyday, wiping away the minutest stress I feel. Many an afternoon was spent with the three of us lying lazily on the bed, me and Adi on either side of Atul, showering a thousand kisses. Well, that'll continue as long as we have a bed :).Each day Atul keeps me company as the other two leave to their respective destination and I cant imagine life otherwise. It’s like he is a part of me that cannot be de-tached.
Also, am going to miss the play area view from my balcony as it was fun to watch little kids play, fight, laugh, and cry all at the same time. Besides it was so easy for me to monitor Adi from here when he was little. He was a shout away incase he got into trouble.
This home saw me through a lot of emotions, joy, sadness, arguments, tears, excitement, anxiety and what life without this. It saw me through my kid’s infant hood which is the most important part of their life. I can still visualize 2 year old Adi shooting his way on a toy car all round the place, I can see him hiding in a little green basket which held his tiny nappies, I can see him trying to reach the kitchen counter in an effort to touch the forbidden items, I can see the little man trying to carry a big plastic doll double his size and tripping over it. I can see him running aimlessly and landing on his face on the hard marble floor. GOD! Thank you for all these moments in this sweet home. This home will have a very special place in my heart as the most adorable period of my kids life was spent here. Few months from now, I will carry these emotions to a new home and I am sure it’ll be special in its own way. With new hope and aspirations, I am looking forward to my life in the new home which has two balconies facing the pool. That sure is going to interest Ajith ;)

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Adi's Big Day at Delhi

Adi’s dream came true and finally has his hard earned laptop all for himself and we are so proud of him. The prime motive of this trip was to attend the SOF award ceremony which was scheduled on 30th May where Adi and other toppers were being invited from all over India to receive their awards. If it was not for this, we would never consider making a trip to Delhi reason being, Delhi in itself cannot be treated as a quiet retreat and secondly the weather was absolutely not favorable considering the weather-wise pampered Bangaloreans. However, we booked our flight tickets a month earlier and after much debate over how to make the best of our trip, we decided to make a 4 day trip to Delhi which would give us time to explore the neighboring attractions too, the closest being Agra.

As the day of travel approached, Adi fell ill, which slashed our excitement by half and we even considered canceling our trip when his fever reached 102 the previous day. However the helpful doc gave him a strong antibiotic and suggested to carry on with our plans as it was not all that serious. Well the plan was, Atul would be taken care of by my mom while we go and have a good time. I wasn’t all that rest assured by leaving Atul behind and taking a sick Adi. My mum told us not to worry about Atul and while I was confident that she would take good care of him, it was Adi I was worried about considering the heat in Delhi. But as it was a once in lifetime occasion for Adi and for us, we opted to GO.

So we set off early on the 27th morning and Adi did well throughout the flight, plus point being that he ate well as compared to what he would have done at home. Thanks to his opinion that anything other than his mama’s food is appetizing .It was 3 PM when we landed Delhi airport and the minute we stepped out from the air condition airport environment onto the road looking for our prepaid taxi, the heat wave struck us with a vigor that took us by surprise. It was like we were suddenly pushed into a tandoor. The 5 minute wait was enough to burn our skin and as we stepped into the AC taxi, it was paradise. On our way to the hotel, I was trying to coax Ajith into canceling our trip to nearby attraction but he convinced me that Adi would do fine wandering around than being locked up within the four wall of a hotel room and so I gave in praying that all would be well. We rested that night in the hotel room and the next day we booked a taxi to took us round Delhi. Will take you through some pics


Rashtrapathi Bhavan


Birla Mandir


India gate


Parliament House




Qutub Minar


In front of India gate


Red Fort


Rajghat

By the end of it we were exhausted and after a scrumptious dinner of parathas , palak paneer and pepper chicken , all three of us slept like babies in our hotel room . The alarm went off at 5 AM as we had to catch the Bhopal Shatabdi express (fastest train in India, I am told) to Agra at 6AM. As we reached the station, I must say it is one of the worst I have ever seen. Let me warn you all never to look at the tracks as they are covered with shit and smells awful. Dirtier than Chennai , Bangalore I must say is comparatively better than these two cities. Mind you, am not talking about the Metro station in Delhi which I heard is the best of its kind. We wanted to experience the AC chair car on Shatabdi which is quite popular and it was definitely a pleasant journey to Agra which is four hours away from Delhi.As we got down at the Agra station we were received by this huge mob of tourist taxi drivers howling and fighting with each other to grab on to tourists like us especially foreigners. What irked me most was that, there were these two little beggar girls who were pulling each other’s hair with an intensity which could snap their necks off. Both were howling, crying and a man who tried to interfere to make peace between the two got scratched badly. Now I know why these people go back and give a bad picture of India. We managed to get away from this mob and booked a prepaid taxi to tour us round Agra. The first destination being Fatehpur Sikri which is a city and municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The historical city was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571 until 1585. Though the court took 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was unable to sustain the growing population.[1] The surviving palace and mosque are a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site itself is a ghost town.


Inside Fatehpur


Fatehpur entry


Agra gate


Another capture inside Fatehpur


Most historic buildings in Agra are built using red sandstone. An example of this window grill carved in single block of sandstone


Anarkali's escape route after facing Akbar's ultimatum


Graveyard (Kabar) for the men in Akbar's palace. Women and kids were buried inside the buildings. We could see even a two foot long kabar, probably that of a toddler from 1500s


In front of Taj Mahal


Taj Mahal


Taj Mahal main dome as seen from the compound entry gate


Taj Mahal - part of the facade


Agra Fort


Mumtaz Mahal's kabar - Each flower on the white marble is made out of multi-reflector stones

We had to head back to the station by 6 PM to catch the train back to Delhi which was due at 7 PM. It was 11 by the time we reached Delhi and again we slept soundly not to mention that Adi did extremely well all through the journey and we kept him hydrated throughout the trip provided he ate well too. Fever was gone and now we had to deal only with some mouth blisters. Good enough bargain!

Finally the day arrived and Adi jumped off the bed early in the morning with anticipation carved all over his face. He chanted laptop for the whole 3 hours until we reached the venue . It was a beautiful morning and we were at the Chinmaya Centre of World Understanding auditorium dot 10AM. It was a huge place and was decorated very well for the occasion.We were received by the SOF volunteers and as we entered the reception we saw a group of equally proud kids and parents. On entering the auditorium, the kids were asked to sit on one side of the auditorium while parents sat on the other. The dignitaries soon followed and the function began and we got to hear some inspiring speeches of these dignitaries followed by prize distribution and lunch. The pics will explain the rest.


















After returning home to Bangalore we unpacked his precious gift to find this beauty





Adi Khush hua :)))

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My Personality :)

Typealyzer is a tool that tells the personality of the blogger by analyzing his/her blog. Here is what the tool concluded about me :). Try yours

The analysis indicates that the author of http://vidyamystie.blogspot.com/ is of the type:
ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

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Summer Update

Time is flying and I don’t want summer to be over yet. Waking late in the morning and lazing around with the kids has been the order of the day and I would like to hold on to it a little longer. Also, not having to plan the day when it comes to food is luxury.
Weekend outings to water parks, and other local attractions, catching up with friends and family are spoiling us. Swimming in the pool late evening is refreshing. What more could I ask for especially when we decided to spend this summer at home in Bangalore and not visit granny in Kerala which is the case otherwise. Summer has been pleasant in Bangalore so far and I am glad that we visited granny in the month of December else we would have been sweating out in Kerala, struggling with heat boils.
Managing Adi is not a problem as his friends in the apartment are available 24/7. After breakfast, he is out by 9 in the morning fooling around with a bunch of likes and tries to make it by lunch, peeking in with a guilty face for not having come for milk and snack break as promised. The brat is capable of starving the whole day just to loiter with his friends. Watching him and his friends dive or fly or flip over into the pool gives me dreadful dreams, all part of the parcel I guess.
We had been to Wonder La (Water Park in Bangalore) a couple of days back with sister’s family and a friend .It was fun.The water rides were definitely a welcome break to cut the summer heat.Sliding down those steep, curvy water slides was a thrilling experience and the wave pool was best of all as I loved it when the the waves hit our back giving us a massaging effect. We did get into some gut wrenching dry rides only to come out dazed and disoriented. Will share a couple of pics here except the water rides as we could not handle the camera in water :)

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Another feather in Adi’s cap

Adi is in 2nd grade now and this academic year is coming to an end. He will be 8 in May and I would like to summarize the year that passed by for Adi, for it was special in many ways linked to his academic achievements. On a meek note, let me begin by saying that his truly won a couple of competitions held in school but the cream of the cake has been the Science Olympiad foundation SOF tournament which is a qualitative and quantitative assessment of kids at the national level (for more details refer SOF) in order to build up the scientific and IT talent pool. Hmmmm it’s too early to use such complicated terms for him but as of now I am proud of the way he cracked it.
Well! There is short story behind this. Sometime in October, one day he returned home from school and very casually asked me for some money. Money! I heard and I bombarded him with a thousand questions. He took out his diary and showed me the note which was about the SOF. I had no idea what it was then and the note said, please register for cyber, science or maths Olympiad exams by paying some XX amount for each. Adi pestered me to pay up for all three, but I flatly refused and told him to enroll only for science and maths. Well the little man was counting chickens before being hatched and he was already dreaming of the three laptops which is the award for the topper of SOF and that meant ranking within the first 500 (national level lemme stress) in the first level test after which you get selected for the second level and if you rank first at all India level then you get a laptop and cash award from some eminent personality of India  and my boy wanted that (High ambition for the little body and mamma dear cannot bear to see her little boy carry such heavy load) . And so the next day I sent him some money and asked him to promptly get back the remainder. But the little man turned out smarter than the dumb mother. He paid up for all three and bought a chocolate for his girlfriend and himself with the rest of the money and came back home without a sign of remorse. The mad me whacked him exactly thrice for not obeying and vowed to send the exact amount in future!!
Coming to the point 
The First level SOF took place in the months of September, October and November.
Adi ranked 241 at all India First level for the Cyber Olympiad and 438 for science Olympiad respectively and got selected for the second level in both.
His second level Cyber result is out and ladies and gentleman, mamma is proud to present her 57 ranked boy even though his truly self is depressed that he did not stand first and will not get a laptop. But Mamma and dada are very proud of his achievement as he has no idea what it means to stand 57th at All India level and he is entitled for a cash award for being within the first 500.
The second level science Olympiad result will be out in a couple of days I will keep you all updated about the same.
Hope I wasn’t bragging but I don’t care even if I was in this matter  as this blog is for my kids.
Buuri nazarwaale aapka mugh kaalle!!! Will translate the meaning of this sentence in my next blog ;)

Edited to Add : Update on Science Olympiad second level results and guess what people
He ranked 2nd at All India level :))) and his dream came true. A laptop as the prize for the genius ;) and mama is soooooo haaappppy :X:X

Below are the cumulative records of the same mostly for my reference later ;)
Cyber First level result

Science First Level

Cyber second level

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