Post#100: Distance....

This word has been on my mind a lot lately.

For the baby, even a second away from her feels like galaxies apart. At night, she hugs me tight and sleeps with me. Sometimes she sleeps on me. I am only left wishing she was closer. I could stay awake all night watching her sleep. Often (like in the picture above), she has eyes only for me, and how I love that!!!! Distance is a strict no-no in this mom-baby relationship.

For my sister, I am lucky she resides on the same continent, same country, and same state as I live. She has a life of her own where she lives, and can visit me on a short notice. We talk over the phone and email everyday. I am content with the distance between us at the moment.

For my mom and dad, the last couple years have been a blessing. I've lived away from them for way too long, and the amount of time I spend with them is never enough. The way they take care of their grandbaby is beyond words. We do have issues living together, but I would rather deal with the issues than the stress and worry of having them live away from me and grow old without me around them. Distance is difficult to deal with in this case.

For the husband, we live together in harmony. There is no physical distance, but at times, there is emotional and mental distance. There are things we agree upon, and things we disagree. However, the good surpasses the bad, and that makes it a happy healthy relationship. The baby has brought together a bond which forces us to always be at our best behavior, and only be positive towards each other. Distance (whatever form), in this case, is at an acceptable level (currently).

I wish my bapuji lived closer to me. I also wish my husband's siblings lived closer to us. There are few more people in my family that I care deeply about, and I wish they lived closer to me. Although we are physically apart, we are emotionally connected. Distance makes the heart grow fonder in most of these cases.

My friend P, who lives close to me but not in the same town, is someone I am very fond of. I really miss my daily interactions with him and sometimes I am fed up of always sharing with him over the virtual medium of phone and email. We both lead an extremely busy life, and it seems we never get enough time with each other. I definitely wish he lived right next to me :). Distance kills me in this case!

I have a close friend from college with whom I recently reconnected. There was a reason why we were not in touch, but after so many years, I felt we could move on and initiated an effort. We used to live in the same town and work for the same company all these years, but we never talked or met. He has now moved far away, and that makes it so much easier to get back in touch again. Distance, in this case, is a welcome blessing! Ironic, isn't it?

When I make new friends or lose old ones, I always go through a wave of emotions. When friends move away, or when I move places, it's difficult. It's a relief to have some people out of your life, while it's painful to part away from the ones with whom you share a special connection with. Distance, in this case, is relative!

As I said in the beginning, this word has been a lot on my mind lately. And this post was an effort to pen down some of the thoughts going through my mind.

This is my 100th post on this blog. I don't write often, and so it's taken quite some time to get to the first century. I've enjoyed my journey in the blogosphere so far, and I hope to continue until I can :)!

My very own VH1 Top 5 for April 2011

I've been listening to the following 5 songs a lot lately.....the baby loves the Bruno Mars video as well :).

I mostly get to know new songs by listening to the radio on my drive to work and back. I have an iPod and an iPhone  but I hate updating it with new music (sad, I know) so new Bollywood songs never make the list. For Bollywood, I totally rely on friends and family. However, songs from a couple singers like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Mohit Chauhan are always good, so I listen to them often.

1. Adele "Rolling in the Deep" - This girl has some serious chops. Her Grammy winning song "Chasing Pavements" is also one of my favorites.

2. Bruno Mars "The Lazy Song" - This guy comes out with good stuff. I recently wrote a post on how I was humming his other song "Grenade" all day. Check out the video of this song - it's sooper cool :).

3. Jennifer Lopez "On the floor" - Great song and video. I like J LO more as a dancer than as a singer. This song is a remake of "Lambada". Another song which copied the same tune is the Bollywood song "Sochna kya jo bhi hoga dekha jayega" (I like this one as well).

4. Black Eyed Peas "Just Can't Get Enough" - I just can't get enough of this song....love Fergie and WILL.I.AM! And he works for Intel now - how sooper cool is that!!!!

5. Enrique Iglesias "Tonite" - Most of his songs (that I like) are so sensuous. When I am in the mood, I love listening to all of them. This one keeps playing on the radio often and I quite like it.

Do you like any of these?

Dolphins and The Cove

I watched the Oscar winning documentary "The Cove" last night. Many people had been raving about it and it was on my list of things to watch for a long time. One word review: "WOW"!


The documentary is about trying to expose one of what the filmmakers see as the most cruel acts against wild dolphins in the world in Taiji, Japan, where dolphins are routinely corralled, either to be sold alive to aquariums and marine parks, or slaughtered for meat. This activity takes place in a heavily guarded area known as "the cove" where no one is allowed (from IMDB).


First up, kudos to everyone involved in making this documentary. These people took great risks while carrying out their mission successfully.


Two world class freedivers (Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Kirk Krack) helped with this mission. I had to google freediving in the first place. Mandy-Rae can go down to 300 feet in one breath of air and come back up on her own....that's some serious skill worthy of 8 world championships under her belt.


I did not know dolphin meat was so high in mercury. They wanted to feed this meat to children in Taiji and other perfectures in Japan as school lunch. Thank God it did not get approved. I didn't know that dolphin meat was sold either, but I have come to assume that people can eat any form of meat if given a choice. After watching this documentary, I'm so glad I'm a vegetarian. Also most of the time we prepare meals at home, so we know what is going into our body. 


I also learnt many new facts about dolphins. Their smile is nature's greatest deception. In the wild, they travel 40 miles a day. The most fascinating fact is - in the water, dolphins can see right through you. They can see your heart beating. They can see your bones. They can see if you're pregnant. The best sonar we have compared to dolphins seems like a toy, isn't it?


Dolphins and whales do not automatically breathe air, like humans. So they can end their life by not taking their next breath :(. That's what dolphins in captivity do when life becomes too unbearable for them. All of us who go to Seaworld and other aquariums to watch them perform should think hard about whether we are doing the right thing by supporting these institutions who hold these mammals in captivity.


The filmmakers says 23000 dolphins are killed in this cove every year. What a sad sad situation. After watching the documentary, I read articles on the internet on what the progress is so far, and what little I can do to help. I'm surprised the International Whaling Commission is not doing enough to stop this slaughter. Even if some of the facts are exaggerated, this is clearly a major issue and I hope it gets resolved before the next whaling season that begins in September.

Movies

So finally, after a long long time (~10 months), I watched 2 movies. I got a free Netflix account for one month, and streamed them online on my laptop.


The first movie I watched was "Listen to your heart" which was released last year. A friend recommended it. It was a moving story. I did not like the ending as much, but overall I found the movie to convey a great message. I am particularly attracted towards people who are physically challenged, and its fascinating to see how these people go about living their daily lives. Adversity truly makes one more resilient. This movie also reinforces the fact that we should enjoy the small things in life...and live in the moment, in the present, as much as possible.


The second movie I watched was "Salt" which was also released in 2010. I am a Jolie fan, and a big time fan of spy thrillers. The only TV series that I have been a huge fan of in the US is "Alias" in which Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan were CIA agents. This movie was very much like Alias. It has everything that you expect out of an action thriller and Jolie does a fine job. I liked it more coz it brought back memories of Alias. We had a small group at work who used to follow the series religiously, and after every episode, we would have a lunch time discussion on what we liked, what we did not, what will happen next, how the plot should evolve, etc etc. Sometimes we would go back and watch the episodes again after the discussion or before the next episode airs. I did not have a DVR during those days, so when I missed an episode, one of my colleagues who always recorded it would transfer it on a VHS tape for me to watch. The wait was always killing :).

You know how sometimes you are waiting to do something you haven't done in a while and you are disappointed when it actually happens? I'm glad I did not pick two awful movies to begin with. Both were light ones....and short....and well made. I watched them after the baby went to sleep, and didn't have to stay up very late either.

Now I want to go watch one on the big screen.....will have to check out the summer releases of 2011. Till then, netflix will do :)!

A Day at the hospital

So if you read my previous post, you must have read about my weekend plans. Life seldom goes as planned. This weekend was just another example.

My dad passed out - three times - fell down and injured himself - in the middle of the night on Friday....and we had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. He has epilepsy, which means he has a history of seizures. He also takes cholesterol medication, coz genetically my entire family produces more cholesterol than average...and so is always at a higher risk for a stroke. So with these two risks, he was admitted for a full checkup at the hospital to make sure it was nothing serious.

I was in constant consultation with my cousin who is a cardiologist over the phone, and his tips were very valuable.

We were all anxious throughout Saturday....tests kept running but results were pending. When we finally got most of the results, we were relieved to find out that nothing major was going on. The neurologist also visited late in the evening and diagnosed it to be a minor issue.

But he still had to spend the night in the hospital - coz you see, most seizures for him occur in the middle of the night. So they had to monitor him for 24 hours to make sure this episode would not recur.

Dad was admitted in the same (the only one in town) hospital where I spent 4 days recently when I delivered the baby, so it was all too familiar.

This time around, the emergency doctor and other staff were quite good. But the communication channel between them and the regular hospital staff is kind of broken, so its very important to be your own advocate.

After spending about couple hours in this environment, the sound of all the monitors gets to me. I think babies must feel this way with white noise. It numbs the brain.

The patients in our ward were all seniors. Most of them were frustrated, and wanted to leave as soon as possible. One particular guy was walking around with an IV and each time he met me, he told me he would leave the hospital at noon, whether or not the doctors discharged him.

When I think about or observe the nurses at the hospital, I always wonder how they manage to work 12+ hour shifts. Especially when it's the graveyard shift. They also have family and kids just like all of us - and they would have had to adjust so much to be able to work. It is indeed a noble profession to be in.

The picture at the beginning of the post is of dad undergoing an EEG, where 25 electrodes are placed on his head, and a couple on either sides of shoulder. The technician who did this test has been doing this for 25 years, and is the only one in our town qualified to do so. She has great job security :).

We spent about 36 hours at the hospital, after which we were happily discharged. I hope we have a clean bill of health for the rest of the year, and beyond :).

Friday Fill-In 1

Friday evenings these days are boring. I am so tired after a full week at work and caring for the baby and managing a host of other responsibilities, that all I think of is when I will sleep :).

Reading posts from some of my favorite bloggers takes away some of the monotony...and while doing that today, I thought of doing a Friday Fill-In post myself. I have never done one before and always wanted to try it out.

So here goes....


1. For me, it was _the best moment of my life (when my daughter was born)____.

2. _I'm hoping to rent a DVD tonite____ at my local supermarket.

3. Behind the sound of the wind in the trees, I heard __the roar of thunder___.

4. __Skydiving___ is something I always wanted to do. {hoping to do it this summer}.

5. When it was over, __my butt was really really sore (35kms bike ride from Old Folsom to Old Sacramento and I did not wear biking shorts - big big mistake)___.

6. __I've been through many tough times in life so far___ but I never felt alone.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to __making chaat then watching a movie___, tomorrow my plans include __gym class with the baby and running weekend errands___ and Sunday, I want to __either go to  Six Flags or relax at home___!

Try Friday Fill-In out...it's not as easy as it seems, but fun!

Wordless Wednesday - 1

This was clicked right after we both woke up last Saturday :). Every morning, she snuggles into me and gives me countless smiles....so much better from the days I needed an alarm to wake up - These are precious moments!