Worry No more!!

[Disclaimer: If I am sounding like a gyani person here ready to dispense advise - that is not what I want to do. Rather, I just want to share my experience with all and it may help someone dealing with similar stuff as mine]

Do you worry a lot?  The answer is probably a big yes for about 95% of the people. We mostly worry about few things that may or may not happen in the future. For people in jobs, they worry if their boss will get mad at them; whether they will get through their promotion; whether they will reach at work on time and so on. As a researcher I worry if a particular experiment will fail; if we will be able to purchase one particular thing or not [it is true for govt. organizations]; whether my presentation will go well or not; whether my paper will get   published or not. But believe me, if you keep track of the worries you have in a day, you will notice that about 80-90% of them dont happen!! In many miraculous ways you may be getting hold of the things that you wanted or worried about.

I can give few examples here: When I joined  here, I was wondering if I can buy servers, how can I pay my students, how will I run my lab with the meagre contingency money I have. But slowly, all of these worries proved futile. I got some money un-expectedly, some grants un-expectedly and all students with fellowship. What more can I ask for? I have also seen when I worry for an instrument, somehow, something better lands in course of time. All that I do is stay aware of them. So, my suggestions for all is what you worry, may not happen 90% of the time, so take it away from you. Instead enjoy your present and give 100% to it. You may want a thing to happen in a particular way. But believe me if you dont waste your time and keep working towards it, you will get better things than what you wanted!

Just my 2 cents!

What should you do in a shop?

Have you ever been to a shopping mall and have roamed around endlessly? Well then you are on the right track. I have seen a lots of women love cloth shopping. They go to a mall and can try out endless number of clothes and finally emerge out of the shop with one or two clothes that would have taken them just few minutes to decide and buy. But they would have spend the whole day actually in the mall. I am not complaining about this, since this is a pleasure many of the women really enjoy doing it. I am a completely different species in this matter. A single minute spent in the shop without purpose really irritates me(I am trying to calm down myself at the moment against this irritation, but have not gotten over it yet). In any case, now I am trying to understand what makes people be in the shop for a long time and deciding on what they want to buy. I can guarantee you that people who spend a lot of time in the shop are not always wise shoppers. They are just plain indecisive. I am not saying what I am doing right either. I have no patience, I see one product just grab it and leave, where as it will be more useful, if I saw all the available products read the descriptions carefully and chose the right one. But instead I just leave with what I want and many times don't know what are really available and what I am missing out. On the contrary, people who spend a lot of time in the shop do get to know all about he product, but are not sure what is best for them. So, they waste a lot of time. Today we went to fruit shopping, I saw the fruits I wanted to buy and my husband was just aimlessly picking things. He saw me finishing shopping but was still looking around things. I went to the check out counter and saw a long queue and decided to stand in a lesser crowded self check out counter. My number came, but this man was still aimlessly looking at aisle as if time has no value. I kept looking at him waived but he did not see. Finally I checked out came to him and said lets go. He got really mad that I did not wait for him. I am mad too. Just venting... These lazy shoppers....

Launching a Political outfit

Often "good" people stay out of politics - reason, politics is a dirty game, politicians are all dirty criminals etc. etc. This reminds me of Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in people". Do we care to be the change we associate with politicians? In a democracy, politicians are the people who rule us and determine the future of the country we inhabit. The best part of democracy is we are the ones who are given lot of power to choose the people who we want to rule us. But unfortunately, most of the educated mass stay out of voting in the pretext of "Politics is a dirty game" or "all are corrupt whom to choose". Sure enough, we feel the present day ruling and opposition parties are bed mates, and they join hands with media to fool us "public", so what can be done? Is there no hope for a country like India? Here are my thoughts on launching a political outfit looking at the roaring success of wikileaks. It leaves no doubt in me that information and internet together will be able to change the world in the coming days if used correctly with of course public participation and awareness.

Lets launch a political party called as "Democratic Party Of India" which is truly democratic in all respects.

Do You believe?
Its enough in the hands of present day politicians, we need something new and different? That change is possible in India? Do you freak out with the sad state of affairs and random corruptions? Do you think we together can bring about a change? Do you have that passion, patriotism that can put country's well being before anything else? Clean people in politics is not a myth? Election can be contested without money laundering? Transparency in election and governance is possible? King makers are not required? People can directly choose who to be the prime minister?

Then you are in... Welcome to the party.

Here is what you need to be in order to be a member of the party:

1. Should have a alternative career. In other words you should have other skills that should be taking care of you had you not been in politics.
2. Should be a graduate at the minimum and should be above 21 years of age.
3. You should be a dreamer to see India as a world leader in IT, infrastructure, safety and security, science and Technology, prosperity.
4. You should be tech savvy and willing to update your skills very frequently.
5. Should be adaptable to change.
6. Should NOT be associated with lobbyists or pseudo secularists and should stay away from partial tainted reporters.
7. You should pass a test comprising of aptitude, logical reasoning, quantitative test, language and International affairs and problem solving, honesty and patriotism.
8. You should vow by simple living and at no point should indulge in overspending.
9. You should act as volunteers to safeguard the interest of the nation over anything else wherever possible.
10. Members should be able to run election using the power of internet, the party will have no funding for that.
14. Once you win, you may choose to quit your jobs to serve the country or continue with it. If you left your job, you should vow to live with the salary offered to you as pension as an former member of parliament or member of Legislative Assembly.


Salient Features of the party:

1. Prime Ministerial candidate will be chosen by people.
2. There will be surprise polls in the internet to evaluate candidates.
3. Web 2 will be used for communicating between members and people.
4. There will be space for each party member with their brief bio and their aptitude score along with their evaluations.
5. People(non - party members) can log into the sites and create space for themselves.
6. Internal party Poll results will be made available at the all the time.
7. There will be several departments/sectors in the part and each member will either belong to the sector of their expertise and interest. All these sectors will work closely with each other in building strong and quality members those will be the future torch bearers of the country. Sectors are; tech sector, admin sector, science sector, education sector or overall party management sector.
8. Party tickets will be issued for a constituency on the basis of candidates qualification, ability to solve the problems in that area. Each member of the party and common people can come forward to vote the candidate. Poll results will be public always.
9. Party will not contest on vote bank popular policies, minority appeasement etc. If we loose it is OK. Remember we don't make a living out of politics, we are just here for safe guarding our country. So, convince people why they should vote you and what is the outcome of your win.
10. We will stand by Common civil code.
11. National interest takes precedence over anything else.
12. Party will promote all kinds of green and renewable sources of energy.
13. Party will ensure new forest lands are created and wild life is preserved.
14. Rural areas will be developed with renewable energy and road transportation.
15. Road network will be improved.
16. Internet accessibility and power supply will be ensured in rural areas.
17. Water harvest will be the primary goal.
18. New cities will be created with proper infrastructure.
19. Education will be primary right of every child.
20. Safe drinking water supply.
21. Industrialization.
22. Criminals will be controlled very strongly.
23. Legal housing for all.
24. Everybody files tax.
25. Everybody has a uniq id.
26. Health care for all.

Party Organization:

Party will be comprised of the following wings:
1. Executive committee: This will typically have 1/10th of the total number of party workers and these are the people elected by other party members.
2. A party president, who will be a visionary with impeccable records and will give direction and will lead the executive committee.
3. Tech wing: Will implement new technologies into party functioning and will be able to train members from time to time. They will also provide and shape up party guidelines into making tech savvy policies for the nation.
4. Science committee: This will have professors and scientists with reputed publication records and they will guide the party in implementing party policies on scientific growth and development of the country.
5. Education committee will from time to time revise educational policies for improving the nations education.
6. General administrative body: these are the people with impeccable records of keeping law and order and ensuring good and fare governance and making party policies in that direction.
7. Healthcare wing: Will have doctors.

There will be a central question bank and everyone can submit questions to the bank with answers. The questions will be categorized and will be stored with a ranking algorithm in the order of their difficulty. Members can take their scheduled tests online and the questions will be properly randomized in order to reduce bias.
Orientation programs will be common requirement and each member has to take it at periodic intervals to stay up to date at their convenience. Members are also welcome to view their opinions in terms of blogs in the specific issues of their interest.

The concept of god and hindu atheism

As we grow up, we get influenced by people around us - mostly our teachers, parents, siblings,  friends etc. We as hindus grew up with umpteen number of festivals, pujas and celebration. For us every season brings about some flavor/valor. We never questioned, just got accustomed to it. We believed in god. Now that I am in my late thirties, I am into thinking what all this religious upbringing meant in real terms.

The other day, I was interacting with a little girl - about 9 years old. She said when she is in trouble she prays god. Sure, that is what we all do. For us god is the savior. With the same logic, if we have no problem, we don't even remember god!! So, what god really is? Does s/he even exist? If so who created god, as there can be no denovo origin of anything from no where?

Lets now analyze what we were taught. We as hindus were taught to believe in multiple gods, in nature, in animals, stones etc. For us everything is symbolic - for example Ganesh represents knowledge, Saraswati represents eloquence, Lakshmi represents wealth and Vishnu is the overall powerful god and so on. If you look at any abrahamic faith(That supposedly descended from Abraham such as Islam, Christianity, jewish), they simply abhor this practice of polytheism and call it as paganism.

We also believe our karma is our god, and in other words our hands are our god. So, the deep meaning of all these messages is that there is no such person as god( or at least it has not been proved so far). So, god could be a symbolic meaning or a positive energy which we derive by doing good karma(feel good factor), which in other words boosts our confidence in doing certain things that we would not do it otherwise. When we pray to god, we certainly get some confidence and energy which we use in performing our duties in a better way. And religion teaches us to believe that god helped us in doing so. So, in this circumstance our karma is our god. We worship nature. For me worshiping is another way of appreciating things. So, I worship/appreciate nature for everything it has for us. We also worship animals for they are part of the ecosystem and very much integral part of the nature. We worship stones because it could be symbolic god. We are taught god has no form or shape, it is just enormous amount of energy that is floating around in this universe. There is no heaven or hell it is our karma that leads our path in this life and the sufferings are symbolic hell and the pleasure and happiness is a symbol for heaven. I don't believe in rebirth since I consider once we die, we are gone. Every cell of our body is alive when we are living, but all of them die the moment we die. So, the idea of every living being having a soul is not at all appealing to me.

So, I would say, hinduism is the path that led to atheism in the first place. I am a proud hindu atheist that believe in god when I am in trouble!!

"Had Allah been the only God, it would not have been possible for man to find another God to worship. And had Allah been confident that there is no other God except him, he should not have been jealous of another God. For example, let us imagine a village where there is only one well as the source of fresh water. Hence there would not have been any difference whether the villagers drink water from a glass or from a pitcher, or from a jug. And as there is not an alternative source, it must have been derived from that lone well. In a similar manner, if Allah knew that there is no other God, he would have been confident that people will not find another God to worship."
"
But the behavioral pathern of Allah suggests that he is not confident that he is the only God. He seems always to be suspicious that there may be another God and people may worship that God instead of him and thus they may create a partner to him. So the scared Allah warns man not to worship another God or create a partner to him and says, “Say, ‘people of the Book, let us come to an agreement: that we will worship none but Allah, that we will associate none with Him, and that none of us shall set up mortals as deities besides Allah” (3: 64) [tr: N J Dawood (only the word God replaced by Allah].
In this context, it should be mentioned here that, as the Hindu God is confident that He is the only God in this universe, He does not become jealous of another God and says,
Ye api anya devatâ bhaktâ yajante úraddhayânvitaḥ z
Te api mameva kaunteya yajantyabidhipûrbakam zz Bhagavadgitâ (9: 23)
“O Kaunteya (Arjuna), even those who worship other gods with devotion (bhakti), they do really worship Me, though the rite differ from the norm” (tr: R C Zaehner). The Hindu God does not become angry and say, “you have committed the foulest sin by worshiping other gods or associating partner (shirk) with Me and I shall throw you in hell fire as a punishment for this sin, because He is confident that He is the only God, and no one could find another God to worship."
"He is therefore always scared that a member of his gang may slip out of his grip and start to worship that real God, the real ruler of the universe. So he has enforced strict law that if any one of his gang tries to desert the gang, he should immediately be declared an apostate and put to death. One should also notice that, this is the standing rule of every other underworld criminal gang. If any member of the gang leaves the gang, even with the intention of leading a decent life, the other members of the gang murder him instantly due to the reason that he may disclose the secrets of the gang."


- Radhashyam Brahmachari

The Antulay Hypothesis

On 26th of Nov. 2008, an untold, unseen, unthinkable thing happened at our very own Mumbai. That is the day my husband Pramod was suppose to arrive at Mumbai airport past midnight. I was in Bhubaneswar at that time and did not know what happened in the night of 26th. On 27th Pramod was suppose to catch an early morning flight to Bhubaneswar. When we got up from sleep at 5.30 AM in the morning, I saw yahoo news in internet and was kind of shocked.. I was bit worried because the same day Pramod would have arrived at the airport. But, nevertheless without anticipating any foul play we went to pick him up at the airport. The flight he was scheduled to board was delayed by a few hours. We waited till the flight landed. We scanned every person getting down from the plane but they were not looking like Pramod in any ways. We waited and were there till the last person took her luggage and left the airport. Now we are very worried.. Don't know whom to contact and how to get some information. Somehow after trying for few hours we finally got the news that he did not get into the plane that day. We had a sigh of relief. But was that a relief in anyways? I was thinking about the hundreds of people that were victim of this barbaric act in the heart of the city. My heart went out to the family members of the victims, the brave police officers and the victims.

At that hour someone from our own cabinet ministry makes a statement saying "There is a conspiracy theory behind ATS chief Karkare's killing". Why did he go in the opposite direction while everything was happening at Taj and Oberoi.. Whether there is any sanity or sense in these stinking statements, I was surprised to see countless news stories highlighting Antulay statement. There was a clear division among people - those that supported Antulay and those that criticized . To my horror I saw almost always the supporters are Muslims. Not a single muslim came against Antulay at least among those that commented the news element. Where as some pseudo secularist hindus supported Antulay too.. Now, I wonder in this country of ours, what the lives of hindus are going to be in coming say 2 decades. The people who conducted blasts all over India were almost forgotten. Now everybody's focus is on Malegaon blast that killed a few people. For a change they found another muse "A hindu Terrorist". What an amazing piece of discovery!! Indeed, everybody makes such a hugh a cry over this, that makes me really sick. We are getting away from the real trouble. What we are seeing in Malegaon is mere retaliation to what we have been through for centuries. For heaven's sake, hindu community has been a target of many wrath right from Muslim invaders to Christian conversion missionaries. At this hour atleast we should stand united instead of acting like a "Jaichand".

An encounter that caught and killed few armed Terrorists in Delhi also cause a huge furore about the innocence of the people that were killed. I wonder why this type of dirty politics always being payed and why are we tolerating this ever so silently? It is time for us now to act and vote the party that look less devlish among all the devils.

Jai Hind

Recovering badly infected windows system

Suddenly something bad happened. My computer downloaded some deadly virus, that did not let me open any windows having anti-virus software. I tried restoring the system, and the option seemed to be switched off. Basically the virus has taken over my system completely like a real virus. I tried using some tricks like choosing setup options on boot time and changing the windows to a previous normal boot option. This failed. I tried booting the computer in safe mode, and that also failed. Now I can't even boot it. I get a blue screen that says windows has shutdown for preventing any further damage.

Now the only option seem to be available for me is to do a system recovery and in that process to be prepared to loose all data and softwares installed by me. While that is an option still available, there are several great discussions on web that tells how not to loose data while doing a system recovery. Here it is:

While I am seriously considering what is said in this web site, I am intrigued about what a windows XP setup CD is like. I don't find one that could have come with my computer. Now looking up at the web (here: http://old.bink.nu/xpbootcd/, I found this great article. While this article describes in detail about how to creat a bootable CD, I will describe here my experience:

1. Downloaded bootsector for XP.
2. Extract your XP ISO file with winimage (or ISO Buster) to D:\winxpcd
For this I got the iso file from the microsoft site:
here it is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2fcde6ce-b5fb-4488-8c50-fe22559d164e&displaylang=en

I download Iso Buster from the following web site. Since winimage is not free and the available version also is not compatible with windows 7, I passed it.
http://www.isobuster.com/isobusterdownload.php

Burn CD
However, to burn CD, you have to follow the following instructions if you are using windows 7 with latest Roxio software.

Our living world

As a scientist I feel a bit guilty when I write things on politics, religion etc. I Feel much better when I write articles on general science or wellness. This is an article I intend to post for children to introduce them to the living world.

According to definition a living organism is a system that is capable of reacting to stimuli, reproduction, growth and maintenance as a stable whole. Over the last few decades many new terms have been added to qualify a particle to be living.

Classification of Living world:

The living world is broadly classified into 2 categories:

1. Pro-karyotes(pro- primitive, karyon - nucleus)
2. Eu-karyotes

Pro-Karyotes:

These groups of organisms have a very primitive nucleus in their cells. The nucleus of these organisms have no well defined membranes, nor do they have any membrane bound structures inside the cell. The prokaryotes often represent bacteria and archaea. Often there is very little difference between archaea and bacteria but metabolically they have some striking difference to put them into separate groups. Both archaea and bacteria are single celled organisms but may colonize. Bacteria and archaea often have members that can grow in extreme conditions such as higher salt concentrations, hot springs etc. They have certain enzymes that are biologically active at odd temeratures, pH, so they are economically very important. Majority of bacteria are known to cause disease in humnas and other higher life forms.


Eu Karyotes:

Eu Karyotes are a large group of organisms with complicated cellular structure. Each eukaryotic cell has several membrane bound structures such as nucleaus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, golgi apparatus, lysosomes, dictyosomes etc. to carry on several metabolic functions. Eukaryotes are often multicellular and they range from simpler forms like Amoeba to complex creatures like humans.

Nanavati report on Godhra

The incidents that took place in Godhra in 2002 is a well publicized event and led to many furors including a feature film called 'Mr and Mrs Iyer'. Where it is largely blamed that the hindus killed muslims and created sympathy for muslims. It is really hard to believe that hindus are actually capable of killing people without being instigated. The whole thing goes like this:

It was largely believed that the Hindu Kar Sevaks were burnt alive by some Muslim miscreants by burning the sabaramati express. This is a case of burning people alive and destroying national property. The government covered it up well by instituting a puppet panel led by justice Banerjee which said the fire is largely by an accident. Recently another panel was constituted headed by Justice Nanavati. The Nanavati report is now public. The Nanavati panel says this was a very well planned event where "140 litres of petrol was purchased by Razzak Kurkur and Salim Panwala to execute the conspiracy, the Commission said adding that according to eyewitnesses, Shaukat Lalu and Mohammad Latika, had possibly opened the sliding door connecting the S6 and S7 coaches and entered S6 through that door". It further says " that stone pelting continued for 10-20 minutes to prevent the passengers from coming out of the coach". According to this report One Hassan Lalu had thrown a burning rag which had led to the fire in the S6 coach.

On the conspiracy, the report said it was hatched at the Aman Guest House on the directions of Maulvi Umarji and executed by Razzak Kurkur, Salim Panwala, Shaukat Lalu, Imran Sheri, Rafique Batuk and Shiraj Bala.

"The conspiracy hatched by these persons further appears to be a part of a larger conspiracy to create terror and destabilise the administration".

Well now it is us that need to evaluate the situation. I simply don't understand how the so called secular parties justify such actions by the muslims. Look what they have done to this country. They have reservations for muslims, they let them have madrassas whenever and wherever they want, they spent countless resource to protect them, spend tax payers money on Kashmir. They protect them when they attack innocent people with bombs. They largely publicize what the terrorist family says or think to create sympathy. They give shelter to terrorists.Which country allows this? I wonder if this trend continues we will soon be governed by terrorists. There will be no developments, there will be mass killing and all the hindus will be forced to convert to islam.

Our great country which gave birth to this great religion and was peaceful for so many years has been destabilized. This land of Hindus is going to be converted to a breeding ground for terrorists and terror. Its time that we rise and try to nip this in bud. Lets shun all the political parties which play this pseudo secularism card to destroy this great country. First they allowed division and now they are promoting further division.

Look at what some muslims think: they think it is our job to breed like rabbit and it is the job of the government to feed them. What kind of logic is this?
It is time that people rise to the occasion and choose what is best for the country. Jai Hind..

The story of Bhasmasur

While we were small we had the opportunity to learn lots of stories from hindu mythology. One such story is the story of Bhasmasur. Bhasma : means ash + sur : mean demon. Once upon a time there use to be a devil called Bhasmasur. He was an ardent devotee of lors Shiva. Lord shiva is the god who fulfills anybody's wish without a flutter. One need to really pray him well. So, bhasmasur was praying very hard for lord shiva. Finally lord Shiva appeared and asked for a wish. As the devil had all destructive ideas he asked he should be able to destroy anyone by putting a hand on their head. Without much thinking lord Shiva granted his wish. Then the demon becoming very powerful started torturing everyone. The whole world became a unsafe place because of his presence. Nothing could be done and the human race was under great pain. So, all the humans went and appealed lord Shiva to go and take back the wish, which Shive could not do. He however suggested that he would go and convince bhasmasur to leave the path of destruction. Irked by Shiva's coaxing Bhasmasur kept running behind Shiva and threatened to destroy him... Ironic right.

Recently there was bombing in Islamabad's central point where a suicide bomber ran a truck full of explosive killing as many as 100 people. This story reminded me of Bhasmasur. Terrorism is somehow rooted in Pakistan and the terrorists are getting all kinds of logistic, financial support from Pakistan Government. Now the story has turned something like Bhasmasur. The country that empowered terrorism is getting a victim of terrorism. Ironic isn't it.

Being a mom of a almost 2 year old - what it means ....

My Adorable daughter Ada will turn 2 in November, but I consider her 2 already - partly because [touch wood] cognitively she is behaving like one. Well what it means for a scientist mom like me? Well a lot... It means, I cant work at home (she always wants attention), I cant go do exercise, I can't do yoga, meditation, I am bruised at many places - without noticing, I have an ear infection - hurting bad but cant see a doctor, my personal grooming is in a new low, my house is unkempt, I cant pursue my hobbies, write papers and the list goes on and on. Well, then why people want children? The only reason is probably children grow and the change that happens to them over a period of time and to watch that is priceless... Nothing can actually replace that happiness. Not even the activities I mentioned that I am missing out could replace that.

My life now revolves around my  little one. Whether she has enough supplies at home, whether she is fed on time, taken to school on time, dressed on  time, taken to park, whether or not she is taught new things daily, whether she is shown books and good activities. Once I pick her up while on my way back from office, I dont even get few minutes to change, because she will constantly ask for me. I get a lot of happiness when she kind of misses me :) :) I check my face book only after she sleeps but that has now stretched to 9.30 PM and I am also down by then. I cant read the news paper nor can I read a book or watch TV. I have not done my eyebrows in months, I have to buy clothes for me. I dont remember when I had breakfast last time at home. I barely manage a bite or so in the night.

Now I am in a lowest personal mental health. I get irritable a lot. Sometimes she constantly cries for something and that drains me out. Most of the time her crying spell ends after she screamed enough, rolling on the floor, then I go and lift her and hug her... Earlier I believed the adorable 2 year olds that were fun to play with, now taking care of her demands is not fun enough. It needs lots  of patience and maturity. Till now I have not spanked her, but cant tell how long I can refrain from that.

Sharing a recent video of her :)

And yet again another Taxi strike....

Kolkata is notorious for strikes. We have already faced few strikes right on the days when we have to take a cab to Railway station, airport etc..

Today is one of such days, when a taxi strike has almost killed me. I started fro home, getting Ada ready for her school. That itself is a tough job, since I have to give her 2 breakfasts, clean her after potty, give her bath, take her to park, do shopping for home and get myself ready - all of this before 9!! I have no choice left but to do it. I got myself ready and left the house, carrying 12 KG baby in one hand and a 5 kg basket in another (carrying all her essential stuff for the school) and my own office bag. It was scorchin hot outside.

I looked around and no taxi, then I decided to walk little farther because after the turn which is about 200 meters from home, generally taxis are parked there. I crossed  the turn with all sweats and paining hand. No sight of any taxi. I decided to walk 500 meters more, because there is a possibility of finding taxis there. I reached there with great difficulty, taking two short breaks to breath and wipe my flowing sweat. My poor baby thought mama is struggling so when I made her stand cutely she hold my hand and walked little. But because of the rugged path, she fell. I could not see  that again lifted her and started walking gasping for breath. It was too hot and sunny. When I reached the 500 meters destination, still there were no taxis. I was begining to get frustrated. Then I saw a shared auto which generally goes half way through, I decided to take that and offered to pay him, twice the fare, so that he will not squeeze another person in. There, one of the passengers said that there is a taxi strike. I was not crest fallen. What to do? I am half way through, but  the remaining half is also not easy. I have to walk another 500 meters carrying 17 kgs worth stuff to get another auto and then walk another 300 meters to go to school!! I had to do that and I did it again walking carrying my daughter. I told her today is taxi strike and she repeated 'tasi stike'. It was cute to hear that. Finally I crossed the main road and waited for another auto. Luckily that auto was empty and I negotiated with him, if he will take me out of his way and drop at the school gate, I will pay him 5 times the fare. He agreed and took me to the school gate. There I saw no one was there! It was about 5 to 10 AM (The school does not like late comers and strict rule is re-inforced). Since it was 5 minutes to 10 and they agreed to take her in. meanwhile my poor baby did not want to go and was constantly pointing me to go out. Finally wailing and screaming and crying she went in. I just hate to see her crying when she goes to school. I wish I had another option. Now the next struggle will be to bring her back home. Now I know she does not have diapers and has to be purchased and I am sitting in my lab and venting myself through this blog....

Respect to all mothers.....

Today is the second mothers day to me after Ada and I made some plans yesterday that I will go out with Ada and pramod and may be pramod will give me flowers and a card on behalf of Ada.. And yeah none of that happened :) I am finally sitting with my iPad to have a blog post that is long over due.

Time just flies and as a mother I know my day begins with Ada and ends with her. Morning to our surprise Ada woke up about an hour later ( at 6.30 am) all smiling. Then we had the ritual of her milk followed by first breakfast, in between playing with her entertaining her. Then little bit of Zumba and little pranayama. I did sit today to start yoga, but could not start. In between numerous time Ada will come with her books and will ask me to read it to her. Then her ritual of potty followed by bath. Then her second ayah comes and leaves also for good, leaving me to do all the dusting. Then it is already 10.30 am. Time for Ada s second breakfast. After it gets over at around 11.30, I am already thinking about lunch. Lunch is cooked for her and along with rhyme, she finished her lunch at around 1.30 pm. She decided dot skip her nap session today. We tried several times but it did not work out. Next thing was for us to have lunch. Then I realized there are lots of clothes in washing machine lying to be washed. So I set that up. Then started pressing Ada's clothes ( tomorrow to school day and they demand evey cloth need to be ironed) . It took me a solid 2 hours to finish ironing. Then there were some of her clothes without buttons and some with stitches gone, I started stitching in hand. By then it was already time for Ada's first snack. I squeezed a rosogollah in milk, boiled it for sometimes and then fed her( this is one of the ecommended snack by her nutritionist).  By now I am already tired but the young lady is not. The moment I went to lie down she brought in my sleeper to the bed. Then I ended up playing with her. One hour later she is hungry again I fed her some puffed rice( again a recommendation by her nutritionist) now she is showing signs of slowing down. We discovered a flat tire on our car, so pramod is busy fixing it downstairs. Next thing Ada wants is to take her by the window, so that she can enjoy boys playing football. Fine, I obliged. Then our cook is in, I ask her to start doing coking then my your lady asks for biscuits and the moment she has it, she falls asleep... Finally some time to myself. I went ahead to take a shower and brush ( yes on holidays I brush only in the evening). At about 6.30 pm, I am planning to have some tea, Ada is up again and crying. This time I hold her and gave her some milk and finally after holding he rfor 45 minutes, she slept again.
Now with her maid gone, I have to do her cooking, so I boiled milk and cooked her food. At 9.30 pm, I am done with chores for the mothers day. I am now wondering how people manage with multiple babies. Hats off to all mothers.