Reissue/Renewal of passport before expiry date in Bangalore:

If you have a valid visa in the old passport, you have to apply in the regional passport office. It is better to apply before your passport expires as tatkal is not allowed if you apply after it does.

Steps are very simple if you have all the proofs required.

Take an online appointment. This can be taken only between 9:30 am till 12:30 pm everyday for the next day. 150-180 tokens are given for a day. Follow the instructions for filling up the forms diligently.

While filling up the appointment letter, ensure that your name is filled up correctly. You can fill the full name 'fully' or fill up the first name and then fill up the surname in the next field. Other wise, you will have the surname repeated twice.

Similarly go through each and every field value properly before you submit. You can also correct those entries before paying at the last counter, but it is better to review it while applying to avoid any hassles.

Apart from the appointment letter (without this, you will not be let in), copy of first two and last two pages (include the ECNR stamping as well), application form, I had taken one copy of following documents along with original.

- BSNL bill for address proof.
- PAN Card
- Voters id - for checking if I can apply on tatkal
- Degree certificate

When you enter, you will be directed to counter #1 in the first floor for tagging. It is the righmost counter and you will always find a queue there. That person will check all the documents based on the type of application, staple it in order and will ask you fill up the form to be sent for police verification. I was asked to take another copy of all the documents. Photocopiers are available if you come out of the passport office, walk to your right for a few metres and cross the road. If the person at the tagging counter tells a correction, get back to the same counter after you correct, until it is given back to you with no comments.

Once tagging is done successfully, sit and wait for your turn in the next counter. Token numbers are called out and gets displayed in two or three places in the hall.

In this counter, all the originals are checked. If you want to apply in tatkal scheme, you need to inform the person at this counter and any corrections in the appointment letter also needs to be mentioned. If the application is in the normal scheme, i think you will be asked to pay the money in the next counter, and you will be done.

If it is tatkal, there is another person who checks everything once again, and you will be asked to meet the Assistant Passport Officer (APO) in room 11. She will tell you how much you need to pay and when your passport will be despatched. After that you will be sent to counter 8. When I went, the tatkal queue was longer - obviously as the time taken in tatkal is 3 days while the normal one takes 4-6 weeks!

Wait for your turn, pay the money, get the corrections done, and take the receipt that will have the file number.

Using the file number you can check the status online. If there are mistakes, even at that time, you have the option to correct the details as applicable. On the day stated by the APO, you will get your passport.

I had made a BIG mistake though it was just a letter change in the passport. When I filled up the online form, field capturing the Sex was having a default value of 'Male' and I had not changed it :(. So here goes how the correction needs to be done!

Correction in your passport:

For this also, fix an appointment. It is the same process, only in the 'type' you will select it as 'Misc services'. Check the faq for more details.

Fill up the form . Proofs differ based on the correction. Once the tagging was done, I was immediately sent to APO. I think it was mainly because that I applied in Tatkal and had got a correction to be done. APO sent me to the regional passport office who is in the second floor.

For my case, the seceratary called the correction officer. He had a chat with me to understand the correction, made me wait to get the original application, then gave me a slip saying that am supposed to come at 4 pm to the collection counter the next day.

I went there the next day and waited at the collection counter. There are no tokens/queue. You have to wait till your name is called. Names that were called first on that day were all those 'special' cases is my guess. None of the correction cases passport was with him . He then took the file numbers from our receipts/slips and went somewhere. Got a couple of them and distributed. It was like giving orders for hot samosa's and wait for it to be taken out of the pan to your plate... My turn came at 5:45 pm. I checked and rechecked and finally I had my passport! It is a reissue on the old application with this correction with no charges applied as it was in the tatkal scheme. Otherwise any mistake from the applicant side costs 500 Rs.

There was one corrected passport with entries smudged. That was re printed and given in a jiffy!

I hope the information is useful for people who are applying for passport. My first attempt through an agent costed me more than a years time when I gave up and tried and learnt the process myself and got the passport. I feel it is better you do it yourself as the process has been made much easier than it was before.

Our other kid Zeta, who is a labrador. She came to our house when she was 39 days old. She has completed one year today...

On this occasion, here is a poem that my husband learnt when he was small and remembered suddenly last week. Thanks to the net, we got the full poem.

My Dog

Have you seen a little dog anywhere about?
A raggy dog, a shaggy dog, who's always looking out
For some fresh mischief which he thinks he really ought to do.
He's very likely at this minute biting on someone's shoe.

If you see that little dog, his tail up in the air,
A whirly tail, a curly tail, a dog who doesn't care
For any other dog he meets, not even for himself,
Then hides your mats, and put your meat upon the top-most shelf.

If you see that little dog, barking at the cars,
A raggy dog, a shaggy dog, with eyes like twinkling stars,
Just let me know, for though he's bad, as bad as bad can be,
I wouldn't change that dog for all the treasures of the sea.

- Emily Lewis

Watched a few TEDtalks @TEDIndia that is happening in Mysore. I used the livestream by indiatimes. It seems that they are doing the live stream only on the first day and last day. I hope with today's response they change their mind and do it for the other sessions as well. Speed was pretty decent.

Facebook had a provision of updating status there, which several people used it like chat window and asusual there were some spammers. Attitude of some of the people who were commenting there was really bad. So after sometime I stopped looking at it. Anything anyone says people had negative comments immediately. They were commenting about their looks, their accent - it almost seemed like people were not listening to what the content or what the speaker was arriving at, but were there just for the heck of it.

Some of the comments indicated that these videos will be uploaded in ted.com by mid December.

I watched sessions starting from Pranav Mistry. I had watched the TEDTalk by Pattie Maes in TED.com about sixth sense, but when you hear it from the guy who has done it, it was a proud moment for every Indian. When he finished his talk, there was the first standing ovation of the afternoon @TEDIndia. What he told in the short interview later is that though several companies approached him, he has decided that sixth sense should reach all the masses and anyone should be able to make their sixth sense and hence he is going to make the software available as opensource in a months time. Thats going to be some kind of revolution. Information anywhere, anytime, and just about anything using any gadget you possess... Wow.

There was a second standing ovation, this time for Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev(Isha foundation), who was introduced as the 'Mystic' man. I've some respect for the yogi's, but somehow, all these gurus of this generation fail to impress me. This is my personal opinion :). One thing to be told - Speeches they make really are TOO good. He could hold interst of a well educated audience for 18 minutes. And he was humorous - "In a contest of Divine Vs Dosa, Dosa wins hands down" and the likes...

The last one was music - wonders it can do to people by Anil Srinivasan who is trained in Western Classical and his friend Sikkhil Gurucharan who is a trained carnatic vocalist. The presentation was not very great though the message was good, but when they let their music do the talking, it was just amazing. Gurucharan sang 'Aasai Mugam Maradhu Poche' a song by Bharthiyar. (Anil was saying this is about the yearning of the poet when his mom passed away - he says "why do I have eyes if I cannot see the one thing that i want to see"- I'm yet to figure out the complete lyrics and see if it indeed means that) and the next piece was 'Sheerabdi thanya kagu Srimahalakshmi kini' an Annamacharya Krithi. I never thought a carnatic song would sound so divine with piano. Gurucharan's voice was so soothing and the piano in background was just right and I was glad that I chose to spend that 18 mts online. Very very nice finish.

I clogged all the groups I access through my gmail when I tried to send invite to all my 'friends' in orkut to facebook!

This is what happened. I was in one of my vetti moods and I saw a link in facebook that said that you can get in touch with all your orkut friends. Off late, I seem to be more active in facebook - even though, from my point, orkut is simple to understand and work with! - I thought why not try this to get all contacts here.

Followed the steps that were given in the link

- Logged into orkut
- Clicked on 'Friends'
- clicked 'Export to csv'
- It gave me the standard 'donut' message - should have stopped here, but i think it was my fate that I should go through this :(
- Repeated the 2nd and 3rd step
- File got saved

Accessed that file from facebook.

It told me that I'm connected to some of them, not connected to some of them.
I happily sent invite to all those who are part of facebook and not connected.

So far, so good.

Then it told me that some of them are not part of facebook and I should invite. I did not bother to check the ids (obviously because I'm supposed to have exported only contacts from orkut and not from gmail as it turned out :(), happily clicked on invite all...

THen I see mails flying everywhere - official mail id, my husband's office id, groups that I've subscribed to... Bah! so much for trying out something new!!!!!!!!

I tried sending apologies for couple of the group ids as initially I could not understand what happened. Then I ditched.

If you are part of one of those groups, please forgive me. My sincere apologies for spamming your mail box...

I only wish I had a better profile photo ;)

Feeling bad about couple of things...

one - Kim is ignoring me completely...Rejection from your kid is the worst feeling even if it is momentary.. I should actually be feeling good that I can do something that I want in that time I would have spent with her. But heart doesnot listen - asusual. Am just telling myself I should not shout at anyone as a result. this too shall pass and I will better tomorrow (she will also)

second - she did not get through Deens. first lot of names is out, and hers is not there. Looks like it is becuase that she did not speak a word. That day morning she was pretty ok. We told her that she should answer if anyone asks her questions, but it was a long wait, we ourselves got irritated. by the time we entered the Principal's room, she was all hungry and sleepy. I just hope she will get admission elsewhere.

Hope it is a better day tomorrow.

Heard about two deaths in office. Somehow it upset me so much, am still thinking about them...

One guy's mother passed away a month back after struggling with cancer. Yesterday his sister's (she is younger to him) husband met with an accident and passed away in the morning. They have been married only for a year now.

Other one - this girl, her parents and her younger sister went along with the other doctors(around 15 of them) who work with her dad (who also is a doctor) went to an amusement park, dad had an heart attack - unfortunately none of the other doctors where around to administer a CPR - passed away. How tragic! He had been healthy and the family had least expected this..

May their souls rest in peace and May God give enough strength to both the families to handle this.

My paternal grandmother is once again in hospital, this time specifically for the blood transfusion. Her first one happened in August when we went to emergency becuase she was having fever and breathlessness which we associated with her asthmatic condition. It turned out that her haemoglobin was as low as 6 and the reason after a bone marrow test was found out as leukamia. She was there in the hospital for 8 days, had three units of blood transfused and got discharged.

My husband, my brother and I were told by the doctor that the condition will detoriate very fast because of her age (She is 84) and if she wants to make any trips we should get that done in the next twenty days :(. He said she cannot be treated with intense chemo as she may not react very well becuase of her age and also that we should not put her through major pains. "All we can do is to make it less painful and easy for her" he stated. We all are grown ups, have some level of maturity, know that our grandmothers are getting older and they will die one day, but someone is predicting it, it is REALLY REALLY HARD to digest. Breaking the news to my dad was my job. I had to take a day to digest what was told and then told him as well. It was shocking for everyone at home in the beginning, but we all came to terms with the news as days passed. We treated her as normally as possible and did not tell her about this. Maternal grandmother's heart attack, her hospitalisation and her coming to stay with us also helped in a way as the focus shifted.

Just after a month after her last transfusion, on Thursday, from 12.1 haemoglobin count has come down to 7.1. We have admitted her yesterday for the blood transfusion again. Even though we all are trying to joke about it, I can feel the tension at home. I myself, am feeling afraid. I am trying to tell myself she should be ok. But my head tells me that she wont last long. On one hand I want her to live, on the other I dont want her to suffer too much. As my husband says "The greatest gift that you can get from God is that you are living normally one day and just pass away the next. It might be painful for the near and dear ones, but for the person who dies, thats the best that can happen". I agree with this completely, thats why most part of me is now thinking, that she should pass away without suffering. Whenever that happens, may God give us the strength to handle it.

Watched lots of movies in the flight and watched a movie in theatre after a long time..

Here are my comments:

The Proposal:

My kind of movie. The romantic kind with humour and ofcourse happy ending! I just loved it!

Hangover:

Superb stuff. Very light and again lots of humour.

Rab Ne Bana De Jodi:

Movie was good. But I did not like Shah Rukh playing this role.. Looked so old and just was not right!

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

This was one of those stories you watch but dont remember one bit of it! Such strong story line :). I seriously dont remember what I felt after watching this movie. I guess I just killed some time watching it!

JaiVeeru

Typical Hindi 'shtyle' movie. Liked the Veeru character for the Bindas attitude.

Unnai pol Oruvan

Tamil movie. A remake of the hindi movie 'Wednesday' which had Anupam Kher and Nasruddin Shah in the cast. Tamil version has Mohan lal in Anupam Kher's character and Kamal Hasaan in Nasruddin Shah's character. A serious theme but had right amount of seriousness and humour (if I leave out some of the over emotional dialogues that Kamal had towards the end). Liked it very much. Sruti Haasan has done the background score. Non intrusive stuff. Good! But with the amount of English dialogues may not reach the rural audience. I guess it is not meant to be. One of those where subject is serious but you dont get a headache at the end of it :), May be it is because it runs for only 2 hours.

Watched it in the Fame Adlabs in Forum value mall. Small theatre, very comfortable seats.

In San francisco, have you ever paid less than half of the taxi fare for a ride from Bay area to City ? Are you saying 'Nah, that is impossible!'? Wait till you read this incident below.

Our friend lands from India on a Saturday night for a week long meeting starting Monday. Obviously he wants to spend the Sunday usefully by visiting San francisco city. He collected all the details to go from Hyatt Summerfield suites to Pier 39. His plan was to take a taxi till Belmont and take the train, blah blah. He called for a taxi to go to Belmont. The driver asked him about why he wanted to get dropped at Belmont (Am sure that till date he is regretting asking the question :)).

Our friend tells him the need for doing this. The rest of the conversation is as follows:

Driver: Why dont I take you to the city. You can pay me 5-10$ less than the meter.
Our friend: How much will it cost?
Driver: around 80$
Our friend: No, no, I cant pay that much. my budget is very less
Driver: How much can you pay?
Our friend: Not anything more than 40$
Driver: Pay me 60 $. I will take you
Our friend: No, no... I cant
Driver: Will you pay 50$?
Our friend: Last and final, I can only pay 45$
Driver: Ok.. I will take you.

They reached the destination. Our friend gives the driver a 50$.

Driver: How much should I pay you back?
Our friend: 5$

Poor fellow! He gives the change, curses himself for offering a ride to our friend and goes away.

Is it hard to digest? I know, I know, I felt the same way when I heard it the first time.

And the story doesnot end here - Our friend comes back to the hotel and we all met for dinner. The other colleague who was with him narrated the whole incident to us and while we were all looking at him with total disbelief, this guy says "haan yaar, The driver made me spend 45$ while I would have done this trip for less. Thats why I did not give him a tip". Hah!

Are you asking me if our friend is a Gujju? You are absolutely right. Who else can manage such a thing in a foreign land???

Kim's third birthday party is over today. Even though her birthday is tomorrow, we had the party - may be I should call it a get together - today itself as it is convenient to everyone and that too a lunch as we needed some breather to get ourselves go to work on Monday.

When we decided on lunch, we had no idea how tough it would be to come up with a menu that can be classified as lunch but also is palatable to the children. Thali and Sadya and sappadu were out straight away because of the number of kids. After a few discussions and checking out various options, finally we ended up with mom-made curd rice, cook-made fried rice, sambhar vada and mini jaangiri from A2B (adyar ananda bhavan), cup pizza from niligiris/masala bread, rose milk, eggless minnie mouse cake from cake walk and potato chips from hot chips.. As it sounds it was hell a lot of food that was around and we felt that it kind of satisfied everybody.

Bro made the invite this time as well with the limerick by Mallu and was appreciated by all. We had mentioned in the invite that people can start coming from 12 onwards, but were still blowing balloons when the first kid and family came in. Luckily they were one of those pretty cool sort of people and so we could make them join in the prep activities...

Since there were only few kids who could understand any of the games, the 5 minute musical chair with laptop's volume for music and 4 kids was not a big hit. I decided against conducting one more game. We cut the cake, had food and I had lots of fun especially because somehow I was not too tensed about anything - may be growing up does that to you ;). Kim is the only one who was dull from the moment the whole thing started till the time we came back home. She was alright before and after!

Several good things - we got some oppurtunity to meet our friends, relatives and the neighbours and socialise a little bit, had fun in the process of planning and shopping (ofcourse the wallet got a lot lighter!!!!), and cleaned up the house - because of the party.

At this point if you ask me will you have a celebration next year for Kim's birthday, my answer would be NO... Ask my aching limbs :)

I never thought other than the birthdays and anniversary, I will have another significant date in June that I will remember for sometime to come!

Mallu landed in Bangalore from New Jersey on 12th June morning. On 15th (Monday), I went to office asusual, I got delayed for lunch because of some training and I was going to my seat when that call came. The lady on the other side introduced herself as Dr. Rani and asked if Mallu landed by the Air France flight 192 that landed on Friday early in the morning. I said yes. She said that two of the passengers who travelled with him has got detected with Swine flu (H1N1 Virus). She was asking me if he has any symptoms of flu. I confirmed that he did not have any. She told me that the incubation period for this is 10 days and hence we need to get back to her the moment we feel that he has got any signs of a flu! The call was made to me as Rajesh's phone got lost in the taxi from airport.

I being the so calm and composed (?!!) person, started worrying and almost broke down thinking about the consequences if Kim has caught it and about the kids we played with during our niece's birthday party. From then on till his test result was found to be negative on Wednesday night 8 pm, it was one hell of a feeling! I was told by my boss to go home immediately and work from home until Mallu is tested.

On Tuesday after the medical officers gave us a letter, we went to RGICD(Rajiv Gandhi Institue for Chest diseases) and were there till 6 pm for getting the tests done. There were people who were tested positive and who came for getting themselves tested. We had taken Kimaya as the medical officers asked us to get tested as well (both myself and Kimaya had viral fever just then and were left still with cold and cough). After going there we realised that it is a hospital treating all kinds of things like SARS, TB and air born diseases and I was more worried now about Kim than before! A throat swab was taken for Mallu and the docs told us that it will be sent to Pune that night and we were to call them on Wednesday to get to know the result.

I was praying to all Gods that I know and Mallu was quarantined at home. Finally after the agonizing wait, at 8 pm we got to know that he had not contracted H1N1 and both of us were sighing with relief!

In the process what we got to know is this
- H1N1 is like any other viral fever. You get all symptoms - fever, running nose, cough, headache like a normal viral fever
- Like any other virus this also doesnot have any cure
- It is feared because it is highly contagious and people who have to be really careful are the elders, kids below 5 years and the ones who have got respiratory problem as it leads to other complications that can be fatal.
- basic precautions like closing your mouth while coughing and washing your hands as required will prevent it from spreading.

June 11th

It is our sixth anniversary. All along, I should be truthful to say that it has not been an easy journey. It has been filled with ups and downs, love and hate, happiness and sadness but the final feeling that remains is contentment and happiness of the life that we have shared. I thank god for giving me such a life partner, a friend who I can share anything with and pray to him that he blesses us with many more such years...

A Girl has a different life before marriage - friends, family, hobbies etc., etc., From birth till she is married, she leads a different life.

When she get married, atleast in south India, she is strongly advised that she should adjust to everything at her in-laws place. She starts considering his family and friends as hers (dont know whether they think the same in most cases :)). When she is adjusting to all these, a few months, is gone without spending much time with her family and friends. Slowly months become years. First the parents push their children for marriage and then start with the gyan about why kids should be had at the right time etc., etc., and feel so happy and thrilled when they have one. (Again I dont know if the couple feels the same way). After that it is child, husband and the family. And then there is work also to add to the fun.

If it is love marriage, then the years that she has spent going around with the guy is again a period that eats up into the relationship that she would have had with friends. When things happen - marriage, kid, promotions - for a period till the novelty wears off, it is great life. Then suddenly the mid-life crisis starts - what is happening in life, why am I unable to connect with people I used to connect earlier, Is this kind of living the purpose of my life, always stressed and irritated etc., etc., There are some who kind of find the threads back and start living happily. There are some who divert themselves into something more constructive and learn to live the new life. There are some who become unhappy and create a unhappy family.

Some suggestions:

Keep in touch with your friends. Find new friends whom you can relate to and share your thoughts.
Re-kindle the love for the hobbies that you had - be it music, movies, singing, dancing whatever
Take care of your health, eat healthy, do some exercise regularly. If that fails, it adds to the frustration
Control your temper. There are times when a small mole becomes a mountain without anyones interference because of the words used to hurt the other party. It is better it is avoided.

Finally, it is easy to be happy. Just take a few baby steps with out getting into why-should-I-do- why-cant-he-do-the-same game.

After writing this, I did a google search and this is what I found about mid-life crisis!!!!

Finally I've acted like a responsible indian citizen and I've voted. The want has always been there, but becuase of moving from one state to another for the last 14-15 years I could never vote.

This time we diligently filled up the voter id forms (thanks to the apartment association for co ordinating), missed the first few dates for collecting the id, went on the extended end date (will we ever change?!!!), collected our id cards as the first step.

Last two days spent some time on finding out the candidates (of various parts of bangalore. I should say that it was really tough to figure out which constituency we belonged from the net!) and reading their manifestos.

Went to the booth in the evening as we had to attend a close relatives wedding in the morning. Slightly irritating bit was with your voters id, they could not trace you in the list. They spent some 30 mts shuffling through some 'n' lists to say that we need to go and check out with the next set of guys whether their list had our name! Finally we could find someone we know who kind of recommended for us and also for the congress candidate in the process :) in the next stall and those guys found out our numbers and gave the slips with the serial number and part number. Lesson learnt - it is not alone your id that is important, but also the part number and serial number.

Went inside the hall, got the ink on my index for the first time in my life, did the deed and was all smiles when I came out.

It was another day of general chat during lunch and this is what I've found out. Based on the number of people who participated in the conversation and number of people I can generalise - but to be politically right ;)- I will say that this is what most women do these days:

We take the help that our husbands do to keep us happy for 'granted' big time!
Then we get upset if someday he forgets to do it or relax as he sees no necessity for that task on a holiday or weekend.
Feeling is more of self pity that you have to do what you have to do while he is whiling away his time than he has not done what he normally does!
We expect that if we dont put our shoes in the rack properly, he should do it without pointing out the mistake but at the same time we cant stop ourselves from being angry, upset, use a very unpleasant tone to point it out and on top of it all expect that he should not get angry when he leaves his used clothes on the bed!
Be very patient with any kind of people at office and come and outburst at home and shout at the kid and the husband!

So what am I saying? Is it our own doing that we have so much stress at home and office? May be... think about it. A little easy going attitude and a little respect for the dear ones can go a long way.

A R Rahman has done it. Being the first tamilian to get the honours! OSCARS for the best score and best song 'JAI-HO'.

We salute you Sir! You have done the nation proud and the entire Tamilnadu happy.

I dont know how much I like Jai-ho over many other great pieces like 'Chinna Chinna aasai, vande mataram, Vennilive vennilave, ennavale, en swasakatre and many other super melodies.

What I heard recently in the theater that gave me goose pimples is our national anthem by ARR - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftD3gDA-5S0

8th March 2009:

Genuine mistake - Not mentioning about Mr. Resul Pookkutty who got the Oscars for Sound editing - one that has happened to entire asia in 80 years. Hats off Sir.

Am fuming since afternoon today. Reason is this - my cousin sister lost her kid at the last minute as the umblical chord went around the neck of the baby. She was due for her delivery on 25th. Today morning she felt that the baby is not moving. She is educated enough to figure out what that might be, but thought that she will not alarm her mother yet. Waited for a few hours and at around 10:30 had asked the doctor whether she should come for a check up given the situation.

Doc has said, 'No problems ma -may be you will get pain now (?!!!!) so you can wait and then come. Dont worry!'. But my cousin thought that may be she visit the doc in any case and so she and her mom landed up there.

Doctor has checked and then told that the heart beat is feeble, had admitted her in the hospital telling them that she will do c-section. Wont people show some kind of urgency when you detect the situation as 'diminshing fetus movement'? I saw nothing happening when I went to the hospital (I dont know what I should call this place, it is a house converted into a hospital) - my cousin was lying in a cot with her mom, my mom and another aunty around her - every one else kinda know that the baby is gone and they were not ready to tell it to her yet. No nurse, no monitoring and no action. Doc is busy seeing her regular patients. When I went to check with her about what is the condition, she shouted at me that she has already told people and I should go and talk to them to learn what it is! To top it all, there was a power cut and her c-section operation was waiting as there is no backup power of any sort. I agree that pregnancy is not a disease but then it cannot be treated like this either!

Power came at 2, but till 4, operation did not start - must have thought anyway this baby is gone , atleast let me get my daily money - Maddening and saddening. I really really wished that she had stayed in Bangalore for her delivery. Atleast there would have been a try made to get the baby alive. I am told that this one was a beautiful girl child.

We can say all that bull s*** about 'may be this one was not destined to live in this world', ' may be it did something in its last jenma and thats why it did not live', 'may be it is better this way than to have the child for few days, few months, few years and then loose' and so many things like this - but think about this, it is pure ignorance from the mom, mom's parents and the doctor(?!) which has caused the life of this little one. Think of all the dreams that the parents had for the child and the relatives. I can only shed some tears for everyone who is going to be hurt and the little one who saw the world only from the moms womb.

I used to get very irritated about people talking about 'small towns - it happens like this and that' as I'm from one, but today or rather from now on - I will have to think twice before I say anything to defend that statement.

Old and the new....

My grandmom (maternal) who is 78 years old, reading about solar eclipse that happened on 26th Jan in my brothers laptop!

Year 2009 - we have a labrador pup at home from 30th Dec last year - 40 days old and has been named Zeta. Kimaya is out of town spending her holidays at her grandparents house. Am hoping that she will like Zeta and they both will become great friends...

Wish you all very happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous new year 2009!