Baby highs and lows

It was Sunday early morning 6th of July, , 2008,an emergency , and Meera, my sis,drove mom ,dad and me to the maternity home just 10 minutes away fom home. Reached the maternity home and a few tests and scans later, decided to go in for a C-section at 8:00 am.spoke to Gans who was at mumbai airport boarding a flight for b'lore...he asked me to hold on till he touches down B'lore...I smiled and told him I'll be ready with the gift when he touches down....At 8:12 am, a cute lil Bonny boy was born and half hour later I was shifted to my ward...the nurse brought a small bundle covered in soft white towel and showed the bundle to me...though I was sadeted I could see wide eyes staring back at me and surveying my face closely...I couldnt believe my eyes...this cute package had been creating havoc inside me for the past nine months and now he is finally out in the cold world....then Meera's mobile rang and I could hear Gans scream on the other end "hey I recieved Meera's sms...i am so sorry, I wasnt around for the C-section".An hour later, Gans just appeared from nowhere and planted a kiss on my cheek and cried on seeing our lil bundle....Mom, Gans and Meera immediately got on the job of caring for lil one...I was too sleepy even to keep my eyes open...the baby needed to be fed...the nurses suggested a local dairy's milk to be given fighting protests from mommy and Gans who insisted on either a high quality milk or formula....I tried feeding him the second day but was too sore from my surgery so he had to be given something else apart from mother's milk..and the nurses again suggested the local dairy milk....the next day the bonny boy turned into a bony boy and the weight loss was vey evident.we were worried but the pediatrician assured us that there was no cause for concern as weight loss is common....we werent convinced and meera and gans drove him to a neo natal speciality hospital where upon examinaton he had to be admitted to the ICU.Apparenty t was a severe case of dehydration and bacterial infection due to something he was fed with.The docs sounded the "critical" Alarm....it hadnt even been 72 hours for the lil one and his life was in danger already....of course, these facts were hidden from me for reason that I was under recovery myself...but Gan and Meera ran from pillar to post for different scans and blood tests for the lil one, he was under heavy medication and drips from his third day...the joy we were reveling in two days back turned into our life's biggest nightmare.I was separated from my baby winthin three days of his birth and the lil one stayed in ICU FOR 5 DAYS.Two of which being extremely critical.The day the doc gave us the "Out of danger" sign , we were so relieved we were taking him home afterall....he was going to live...

u can imagine the agony and truama all of us would have been thru...am blogging this really unpleasent episode only to tell all those reading my blog that please take care of ur precious one as soon as he/ she graces this world...if the mother can feed then please go for it the first hour itself and if she is unable to feed for some reason then give him doses of formula only even if the docs insist on some cheaper brand of milk.....coz ur baby deserves the best...

When Big is Beautiful

Well , am finally at the stage where i may have to wait for just 2 weeks for my bundle of happiness to arrive....enjoyed shopping for the lil one , clothes , cradle, toys and all.....

There waz a time when i was getting bigger, I would look myself in the mirror and give a snarl, but the getting bigger in pregnancy makes me wanna show off my bump....the bigger I get the happier i feel and for some strange reason, Gans is also ga-ga over the bump, he looks at it proudly and if I even try and wear clothes that might camouflage the bump, he flies off the handle.....

This is the only time when you are forgiven even if you put on 10 to 15 kgs.....who sayz only small is beautiful......

Maternity excitement

Havent blogged for a while now....hey by the way, thanks Sree for your concern , am doing just fine my dear girl.....its just that the third timester of the 9 and a half month ordeal is taking a toll on my general fitness.....the fatigue and the heaviness...I call it the the 3rd trimester jitters...and also the excitement of the fact that I will be seeing the face of my sweet angel in just 11 weeks......

well, its amazing how the maternity period can be so difficult yet so enjoyable....the heart burns , heaviness, vericose veins, and numerous discomfort but just thinking of the miracle that you will be holding in the end make the effort worthwhile.....

I have only been daydreaming about my baby in the past few weeks....have become such a zombie....but guess this phase is one of the sweetest phase in ones life....Gans is very excited too...and has been collecting info on how hw can help during labor....

A Tale of Two Cities

Am presently enjoying my maternity break at my in-laws place back at Jamshedpur, the steel city. Frankly loving the attention, loving being overfed ( appetite seems to be an unending saga), but just detesting the "much bigger me" and have resolved to get back to my original size at least a month after the delivery.One thing that I am enjoying the most though is the quiet peaceful town that Jamshedpur is.What a respite from the noisy, dust spurning city that Mumbai is.Living in Jamshedpur almost feels as if I have descended onto an uninhabited land, untouched by dust, pollution, crowds most importantly TRAFFIC.

Most People living in Mumbai would surely agree with me when I say the peak hour trafiic in Mumbai in a hot summer day can be equalled to a third degree torture.Ok maybe I was going too far , but definately second degree torture.Waiting on the endless Western Express highway for the antline of vehicles to budge when the suns rays burn your skin, the sweat soils your clothes and the dust and grime makes it impossible for you to convice those nosey parkers that you bathed in the morning.You enter the well lit corporate office and the snazzy rooms with clean walls looking like a drab apology to your posh surroundings(yeesh! how I hate to be in that position). Anyway, bottomline is, Mumbai gives you all the patience you need to live in conditions unsuited for basic comfortable living.The city teaches you to grow up, put up with consistant honking and pan spitting, smell of rotten garbage and sewage, in short , it teaches you to put up with a lot of shit.

Thats why coming to a small clean township like Jamshedpur, you feel as if you have descended in somesort of a luxurious resort.The peace and quiet, the clean roads , non honking and non pan spitting public, and a meagre 4 to 5 vehicles plying on roads canopied by tall green trees seems like such a luxury fit only for the king to enjoy.You hardly find dusty and chipped of concrete multistories huddled with people breathing down each others necks. I have only seen independent houses with beautiful gardening spaces .Looks like everyone here has acquired a flair for gardening. The Roads are lined with tall trees to provide shade when it gets too sunny.And at a given point in time, there are only 4 to 5 vehicles plying on the roads.Inspite of these luxuries that the jamshedpurians enjoy, my ma and pa-in-law say that the traffic is bad, and the dust is killing and pollution is at a rise.

It hit me then" my city may not have given me all the basic comforts required for a peaceful life, but what it has definately given me is the patience to take the discomfort" Since I am not exactly living in the lap of luxury, I am satisfied with even basic requirements for a comfortable living.

In the name of God

Will not feed you with another dose of movie review....but watched "Khuda ke liya" last weekend and simply loved it...words cannot be put to understand the experience ...if you are looking for something sensible , hard hitting and gets you fodder for those thinking cells, "then dont miss it".......

“It was the best of times; It was the worst of times."

I wonder how many of you have seen the award winning movie" Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi". Friends kept telling me not to miss it but the lazybones in me never got around to pick up the CD. Last weekend, with nothing much on my agenda, I asked Gans to pick up the CD for me. The curiosity about people raving was too tempting to resist. And it was truly worth the watch.

In short, the movie, as quoted in some review “is how three extraordinary people change the course of their lives in a span of 10 years during the Indira Gandhi regime and Emergency." I would like to rephrase the jist in a more lay manner as “how 3 extraordinary people follow their individual dreams, realize the dream they are living turned out to be nightmares”

The opening lines of the title song says it all"Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi ki har Khwaish pe dum nikalen"

I agree that life never follows the course you plan for it. Most of have seldom fulfilled living the dream we dreamt. I agree circumstances, lack of grit and determination, have an important part to play in not realizing that dream. But sometimes there are instances when the dreams are all fulfilled and realized only to discover later that the dream you lived and realized has ruined you.

Coming back to the movie. The movie kicks off at a time during the late 60s (Indira Gandhi Regime) with agitations against corruption, Satyagrahas by Gandhians, wannabe power mongers of the then "Infamous Youth Congress", confused bourgeoisie youth wanting to embrace socialist and communist ideals, the starry eyed middle class youth infested with ambition and ruthlessness in their journey to prosperity, and of course last but not the least the dangerous nexus between beaurocrats, businessmen and bum lickers of politicians. Plot revolves around 3 strong determined individuals who have their lives carved out for themselves. There is Siddharth, the son of a retired high court judge, who is chasing the communist dream, the starry eyed Vikram, son of a Gandhian, who dreams big bucks and the doe eyed Lady of steel, Geeta, whose dream is to support her lover, Siddharth at any cost.

Eventually all the three Delhi University graduates pass out to follow their individual dreams, they live their dreams.Siddharth joins the Naxalites and is a geurilla fighter for the oppressed somewhere in Bhojpur, Geeta, married to an IAS officer, leaves him to follow her dream of supporting Siddharth in his struggle and Vikram bags a huge contract of converting a Dilapitated Palace into a Five Star hotel and there is no looking back, before he knows it, he is a sucessful businessman. All of them have realized what they wanted to. Then comes the dread of emergency and indiscriminate arrests of all and sundry, this brings their well nestled lives to conundrum, and la....before you blink they are shattered and Vikram is left demeted with Geeta to care for him in some godforsaken village where she teaches in an elementary school and Siddharth is left nowhere after the disintegration of the Naxals, and is studying medicine at the age of 35.They lived their dream but dreaded it.

I know most people during the 70s were fascinated with the concept of Socialism and political awareness was at its peak among the youth.Most Delhi Universitietes harboured a dream to be a Naxal or a member of the communist movement.There were communist groups formed in the hostels.Colleges became political battlefields.Those were the times when awareness and rebellion was at its peak , so was oppression and corruption. The movie beautifully captures the romance and the passion of that era, when people had a purpose beyond just making money and flying abroad.

In Dickens’ words “It was the best of times; It was the worst of times."