Miss u EFI

i think i will be more senti tomorrow than today,as its my last day in efi,i dont think i would be comfortable in blogging or brave enough to write that i am geetting relieved today ,Today is my last day in EFI and this cubicle is no longer mine.

I have lot many things to write about this efi,3 yrs back i joined efi ,i had to quit in the middle,then once again i joined back in 2006 ,now once again i had to quit.iam always grateful to this company and if given an opportunity in future ,i would prefer to work for the same.i dont know any specific reasons ,but iam comfortable when iam here ,this is a home at work.

These pics are for my remembrance:

This cubicle is where i feel like sitting in my home :


some times i had a feeling whether iam not capable to work outside ,thats why i stick to the same concern for years,so i tried searching out, i gotplenty of offers with excellent package,but finally efi has won with my poll over other companies.

even though professionally i have not learnt much ,personally i have learned a lot.
iam a person who believes that personal life counts more than the proffesional one.
its more important to me than the work i do at office.
iam not launching any satellite ,where if iam not there some x or y orz could do the same job,much better than me.so if its for money alone , then i would like to strike out the balance between career and sahm.

my prefernce is towards being a SAHM than being a working mom.I strongly believe when iam at home ,it will definetley make some good difference in my child life.
that is what we want as parents.

if compromise is on money then we are 100% ready to do that ,thats why this decision at this point.
i would like to be a Good mother and good wife ,than being a good or excellent performer of some xyz company.

view are different from person to person ,some will say the quality of life changes with double earning,i strongly disagree to that,it depends on the outlook of life u have .Its funny for people who live in a cranked single room with no bedroom also to talk about the quality of life.quality of life doesnt mean the restaurent we visit in the week end or the malls we see when we pass by .

it depends on ultimately what u get out of the life ,if ur happy ,calm peace ful ,then ur quality of life is good ,its not on the material pleasure we get,not by the car we travel,according to me quality of life is judged by the internal peace and the loving atmosphere around us.that aroma should be felt.

Miss u my dear friends

okie today its my mom and dads wedding anniversary day.my wish to god is "Please bless my parents with good health ,happiness and long life"



god Bless

Happy Birthday NANA

This wish is for my nana and not ashus nana.Tomorrow is my fathers birth day and ashus birthday is very close to his birthday and i wish ashu should also be similar to my nana in character and behaviour wise.even my hubby agrees for that.
No exaggeration ,he is a great father and Iam blessed to have him as my father .

He is a man of principles and moral values and have never seen him compromising in the values of life.
He is a busy bee and you cant see him taking a short nap even on sunday after noon for more than half an hour.
He keeps himself enaged busy for the entire day and active participant of the social activities,whether its local temple committe or the Resident assocation.

I have never seen him shouting at people,even when he is provoked he is matured enough to handle things .I have never seen him being tensed the patience he has cant be described in words. my nana never spent money on buying expensive things for him,some times he ignores to buy the most necessary things for him,he feels happy by giving the same to us.

Being a single bread winner of the family ,he gave me and my sis. an excellent education with all comforts.Its all my father and mothers hardwork ,what iam now.


whether its diwali ,my birthday ashus or hubby birthday he never missed to buy dresses and it will be given to us whenever he meets us.

before my marriage for every festival he will get me and my sis. a minimum of 3 dresses ,but he never think of buying a shirt for him.That age we didnt realise his sacrifice ,but now when i think of that ,i wonder ,such a great father i have ,iam the most fortunate person.Touch wood.now the same goes with my hubby ,even he wont spend money for his luxury whether its before marriage or after our marriage.

but now iam pushing him to buy atleast things which are required ,not for luxury ,but for necessity.

so far my nana was thinking abt us ,now his whole concebtration is towards his little grandson.
even we forgot that tomorrow is ashus nakshatra birthday ,my father has arranged for a homamm in ashus name in a temple in chennai.my mom says happily that they were planning to visit the temple at tomorrow 6.00am.i know that palavanthangal temple is quite far for them to reach at this 58 years in this cold weather.
But still they want to do that for their grand son.so the sacrifice still continues.

even my parents opted to bring up aswath in chennai,but we said NO,bcoz its our responsibility and we dont want to trouble our parents in this old age.we dont want to do kudarai savari (escaping from responsibilites)on them .

I dont know how in which way i will repay the things they did or still doing for us.
Only thing i can do God "Please bless my parents with good health and happiness"
They neither need any money nor interested in material wealth ,they have a calm ,peace-ful life and pray god to give the same for the entire life,as they deserve it.

Being away from my parents ,I would have a sense of satisfaction , if my parents were really happy,it doesnt matter if i stay with them in the same house or at miles away from them.

"WISH U A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA"

ps:i dont think my father will read this blog ,but i would always pray god for my parents health and peaceful life.and wish kadavul (God)will grant the same bocz they are GREAT PARENTS and GREAT HUMAN BEINGS AS WELL.

Tirupathi Darshan

Last year we celebrated ashus first birthday with ayush homam and hosted a party in baghini.this year we wanted to celebrate in a different way by visting Tirupathi on his birthday.
we faced a lot of hurdle last time when we went through package tour so our choice is to do the advance booking and plan as per our convenience and always wanted to be in comfort zone.

so we booked the tickets on nov 2nd at
TTD Information Centre
16th Cross, Vyalikavel
Bangalore - 560 003
Ph:080-3445432/3315361

Reserved my darshan time from Chowdaiah Memorial hall near Shankey Tank.
The counter at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall is open from 10 AM to 1 PM and then from 2 PM to 4 PM. I was surprised to see a long queue and it took 45 minutes for me to reach the counter. Also everyone wanting a darshan needs to be finger printed and photographed in person.
we have booked Archanananthara Darshanam (AAD) darshan that happens at 5:30 AM on all days except Friday and costs 200 Rs.Archanananthara Darshanam (AAD).Its not at all hard to find out things there. Everything gets pretty much obvious once you get there :)
reached tirupathi on 28th morning by train from bangalore and we were allotted room at Sapthagiri which is little far from temple.around 11.00 am ashu and his nana got tonsured and we were left with plenty of time as our darshan is on 29th early morning ,so we planned to visit akasha ganga ,papavinasam and venugopala swamy temple.
we hired a taxi and onthe way we bought a cap for ashu.i liked the one in orange color so without asking ashuof his choice i started bargaining with the shop keeper.
meantime ashu is pointing his fingers on some other one and started saying BOO BOO BOO.
i thought he was asking for a hat with flower as he normally says flowers as boo boo.
but this time its not flowers its the BLUE COLOR CAP.
poor ashu ,wondered how smart to pick the color of his choice in this age and he got the boo boo cap finally.

next day we reported at vaikuntam complex at 4.45 am ,but ashu was crying in that chill weather ,even after wearing thermals i felt very cold and some how managed in the Q.

we had a nice darshnam and left thirumala at 9.30 am ,to catch the airavathi at 12.15am which we have already booked and reached bangalore at 5.15 pm.

its always advisable to book the darshan tickets before hand so that any last minute hurrey burrey can be avoided.

this blog is for my friends who were enquiring of how to book tickets at bangalore.

have a nice darshan.
God Bless

sathya narayana pooja

keeping beside ashus play school tantrums,now its about the Sathya Narayana pooja we did at our home on sunday the 25 th nov.
as usual everything is out sourced starting from breakfast,lunch and the pooja as a package,and we dont want to take any tension like whether we bought enough flowers,fruits,will the coconut be good?how much do we need to buy?
where to buy?,who will help,can we do bargaining? .........

everything comes as a package now except u and me,so better to avoid any mess and its true every bdy would love to be calm and cool .
pooja went very well and its like our long time dream come true as we are longing to do this once aswath was born.anyways its good it happened atleast by now.

very few of relatives and more of friends attended the pooja ,the total head count was expected to be 40 ,but it turned out to be 60+.
we had an immense sense of satisfaction and happy that god gives us the opportunity to do poojas and wish to do the same every yr. if possible.
since it was a get together with family and friends ,why not to celebrate ashu's second birthday on the same day atleast by cutting the cake .

its my idea to get a cake in the shape of car and ordered it and it was promised to be delivered on 25th morning and good it was deleivered on time.

here is ashus cake:



ashu in his new suit: gifted by his Ramya pinni(my sister) on her first salary.



Total mast and majaa and ashu had lots of fun,and kept my father on toes through out the pooja and the next everybdy in my office started singing aswaths puranam,obviously its expected with this naughty brat.

Independent 2yr old baby--crazy mom

Ashu seems to have improved a lot in play school ,"he stops crying after 10 minutes Mam,now he got adjusted mam",this is how teacher says to me when i throw hell lot of questions on her.
sorry i cant help,i have to find out whether ashu eats or not?,whether he passes sussu in toilet or in his dresses?.I know he plays with other kids ,no need to ask that question,may be i can ask whether he troubles all the kids by displaying his affection with hugs and kissess,hhuuh,sure it will happen with ashu.

i have seen him lot many times without any inhibition he will get along with anykid he sees in the mall or restaurent ,may be he got this from his father and for sure not from me.

I accept i tend to be reserved intially ,but later if i feel comfortable and like their companionship i will be a good friend for sure.but his nana will easily get along with others.
now a days we used to ask him what he learnt from school,he tries to sing the BAA BAA Black sheep song,like BAA BAA BAA,BAA.(u know its too much to expect a 2 yr old baby to sing a rhymes )still its fun to listen to him and the gesture he makes while singing.
sometimes i think am i too crazy to send him to play school and is that bcoz we both are overenthu ,we push him like this???
but i have my justifications also,he needs some exposure and that doesnt comes by watching the cartoon channel all the time or any mega serials my maid watches when we are not around.
ofcourse maid cant communicate in english all the time and we expect rather,but we can arrange for something which gives him the little exposure in this little age ,Thanks to god ,we are affordable for that and we dont him to be super fast ,super intelligent,super and super in all.
but wants him to enjoy the little he is along with other kids and the basic and important thing he should and must develop is being INDEPENDENT.

I know ,its too much from him,As mad as a hatter ,but a little effort from the independent parents.

we (myself and hubby) dont depend on any body as such in our life so far,in all sort of thing we do,its bcoz of my husband i have learnt how to be independent,i can say iam still in the learning process only,he has fine tuned me ,he has refined me ,tries to bring the best out of me, a multitude of transformations has come into me thru him. Gods gift to me and touch wood iam very proud of myself what iam now.
and its one more feather in his cap

Ist Day to Play school and Nana Birthday

Nov12th is an important day ,reminds me of two special things ,one being hubbys birthday and another is ashus first day to school.

Ashu at play school on vijaya dashami day:




Proper schooling starts on Nov.12th after diwali holidays and on the first day he dressed up in pacca formals and some clicks on our mobile(we dont have patience to take the camera out ,do the settings and do the clicking) so always its mobile cam. pics...




after getting scoldings from nana to stand properley:





With his new cycle(Diwali gift from Nana and amma):


On 11 th evening i forced my hubby to take me to a mall (to buy some secret gift for Bday),but as soon as we entered the mall ashu asked for pastries and overenthu parents we tried to finish the full one ,atlast ...he did VVVVV---Vomit.
Irritated and upset of him,we left the mall without buying any thing ,no window shopping also..

Next day he went to play school,we dropped him back to home at 11.00am ,we left for office in a hurry.
On the same evening by office cab dropped me at 7.00 pm,so i thought should get him a cake atleast, so i went to the near by bakery and got a cake for him.
Hubby came at 10.00 pm only bcoz of his work load,surprise surprise ,surprise for him

Diwali Celebrations!!!!!!

Diwali at Bangalore:
Back from pune trip on diwali hubby got lot of goodies for ashu,remote contolled Aeroplane,dresses ,eatabelss.....
This time we invited my parents to bangalore for diwali as every time we used to go to chennai for festival.
sweets preapartion started from wednesday and i took off on wednesday and friday ,so totally bunked office for 5 days...

Mom prepared murrukku,adhirasam,ribbon pakoda,rava ladu,gulab jammoon.Now i decided i should do something ,so that i can also say i prepared sweets for diwali ,showoff.

Day before our office gifted us a dry fruits pack for diwali,so i thought i will do Badam alwa ,but every time we have to heat the alwa while eating ,so i decided to mix gram flour a little and make it as a Badam Cake ,thank god it came out well ,to my surprise:-)

ashu is not that much interested in carckers and was curious to close the door whenever people fire crackers outside,but still i went with my father and bought sparklers,flower pot ,some crackers for hubby ...

This time we celebrated diwalion friday instead of thursaday as hubby came on thursday evening only.after doing Kedara gowri pooja in the nearby temple ,we relaxed at home and had good food.

Later we decided to go to movie ,but dont know which movie is screened where ,finally ditched ashu with thatha and avva, me, hubby and my sis went to ATM ,
I likeed the song Maduraikku pogatha deee.

Next day it was saturday ,i had a long time plan to visit the Airport road Shiva temple,so i proposed it and evry bdy agrees ,so we went to the temple in Kempfort.

ashu started jumping out of joy on seeing the cartoon characters standing outside the shop.

We miss u Nanaaaaaaaaaa

I was impressed by the curriculum presented in one of the baby site for toddlers.
It includes Letter of the week,Theme words,read aloud,music,indoorgames,speech and vocabulary(shuld do this at bathing and dressing time like shirt is red,pants are blue ).

The title indoor-games captured my attention and made me curious to learn abt the indoor games which i can play with aswath.

Game 1:Cleaning Up? or Maybe Not!
you should have a basket and toys spread over the room and u should show how to put them in the basket,now dump them out and start all over again.

ashu:when i tell ashu to do that he wont listen ,but when his nana is around ,no need to even utter a word ,he will do things automatically as expected.
he will put all his ABC blocks back in his Toy Box.

Game 2:Arranging the Blocks:u need a set of blocks and show ur toddler how to stack a tower 2 blocks high,then tower 3 , continue as much u can.

ashu:he wants to arrange all the blocks one over the other and move it from one place to other by dragging the base,if anything falls he will starting crying....
if it doesnt fall he will clap his hands and tries to showoff .

Game3:Climbing the stairs:
ashu:as far as climbing is concerned he started doing that when he was around 18 months.we were at marathalli house,where we have a balcony and it will lead to stairs and no longer u keep the door open ,u can catch ashu in the middle of the stairs.

by now he is trying to climb the dining table thru chairs and open the water tap on the Bubble top and letting the water to floor ..

Game 3:Hats Galore
Use summer hats and winter hats, sports hats, rain hats, job
related hats, and so on. Your toddler will love trying on the different hats. Be sure to put them on your own head as well, as your toddler will like to see how they look on you.

ashu:ashu tries with his moms bindi and keep it in his face and enjoys looking his beauty in the mirror.he tries to wear the goggles and make me wear it and cries if i remove it even after 20 minutes also.i should wear it continiously ,till he says ok,u can remove it,...god save me on those instance.

Game4:Cereal Transfer

This is a game for fine motor skill development. Find two containers that your child will find easy to put his hand in and out of. Fill one of the containers with some dry cereal. Show your toddler how to move the cereal from one container to another.

ashu: ashu enjoys doing the same with noodles and semiya uppma,where he will tranfer noodles from one bowl to another plate and from the plate to bowl.
sometimes if i give water in one glass,he will transfer it from that glass to another glass,so carefully ,but goshhhhhhh almost everything will be spilled out...

Game4:Telephone Talk

For this game you will need one or two toy telephones. Just have a fun pretend conversation with your toddler on the phone. Toddlers love to imitate and talking on the phone is a favourite.

ashu: ashu enjoyes talking over phone and tries to respond to the other person.
my seeing his face expression we can make out .he enjoys talking to my father in phone and whenever he picks the phone he will shout out loudly THATHAHHHHHHAAA....


Game 5:Line up the Shoes

Start with a pile of shoes and show your toddler how to place them together in pairs and line them up along a wall. Don't
worry if your toddler doesn't match up all the pairs, but placing them in a line should be a fun task!

ashu:
He got 4 pairs of car in diff.colors,now he will arrange the cars of same color together and will say dirra ,but gradually started saying as ca(r)sss (here r is silent).

Game 6:Cars Go Down!

For this game you will need some toy cars and a ramp of some sort. You can make the ramp with a board, or a tall book. Watch the toy cars race down the ramp.

ashu::Nana and ashu love to play this and they use a black board as a ramp.

Game 7:Ball Play

You can roll the balls, carefully pass
the balls, or gently kick the balls around the room. You can line up the balls in size order. You can also comment on the color of each ball. There are always
ways to bring learning into regular play. Just keep it fun!

ashu: he wants both amma and nana to play this with him.rather than he kicking the ball he wants us to do that ,if we sit after running behind the ball for 15 minutes also he wont excuse ,till he gets diverted with some other toys he make us do that.

Game 8:Advanced Peek-a-boo

For this game you will play a very simple version of hide-and-seek. You can call to your toddler from another room, and as she gets close to you jump out and say peek-a-boo. You can hide behind a chair or door. Have fun!

ashu: we used to hide ourselves and will be extreme happy to find out.
joy has no bounds ..

he likes playing with ballon and asks me to throw the ballon over the fan and claps his hands.

Now a days he started saying a single word for each and every thing and that magical word is Appeel(apple)

whenever his nana talks to him over phone ,he will ask few question

nana:a for ???
ashu: Appeel
nana:what is ur name:
ashu:Athu
nana:are u a good boy? (when he started saying yes i framed this question:-))
ashu:Yesss
Nana:Do u like to eat food??
Ashu:No.

most frequently used word is thanks ,irrespective of if he gives something to some one or some one gives him some thing.
Ashu is already missing his nana(i hope nana also miss him a lot) and waiting for Thursday to come sooooooooooon..

Any way he got his Diwali gift as a Cycle from Amma as per nanas recommendation.I will write abt the cycle next week ...

loyeee or lorry !!!

we dont have any dedicated time to sit with ashu for reading ,but whenever we find time we do it with full enthu ..even ashu is excited and has a passion for that.
yday me reached home at 7.15pm and we (me and ashu ) sat for reading.
he doesnt know which book to start with so broughtall the books .

But he was more interested towards a chart of vehicles which i got from a local store last week.the speciality is all the vehicles are not mere images ,but with projection ,as how the real vehicles be ,which you can feel by touch.

he pointed the Bus and said buus and again on Lorry he said loeeyye

There is Cycle there for which he did action like how we drive the car.

On seeing the train on chart he pointed to the toy train which i had kept in the showcase which is out of his reach.

onpointing the car he said dirra,now i corrected and said Car,that reminds him of his nana(father) and started saying Nan,nan,nan....

I want to get his attention back and asked him where is ur hands,he happily showed his hands.then as usual nose,tongue ear,hair,fingers....

now i want him to realise things which i draw in paper,eventhough we have a black board for him ,i sometimes avoid using it bcoz ashu tries to chew the chalk.
I drew sun on paper and asked him where is sun he pointed it and asked him to repeat it along with me and he did that.....
me so excited and now i should learn proper drawing atleast my son should understand what iam trying to draw............

Athu:
for the past one week he started saying his name as ATHU
If somebody asks him "what is ur name" ,he is replying back as ATHU(thanks to ramya my hubbys sis)

Time is always 2:
if we ask aswath what is the time he will always say 2 and simultaneously shows 2 fingers .
so last week one of the uncles taught him a question for his answer??????
yes obviously the answer is 2 and the question is How old are you -?
so the answer is a perfect one as 2

----Lol (cnt.)

Websites for Toddlers

Iam always interested in the hunt for websites which specially focus on Bits and kids crafts.Last week when i was googling i landed up in a blog of a home schooling mom.she is doing home schooling for her 2 yrs old toddler,and the way she does that is mindblowing,and i have an envy towards her and would like to do the same good work like her and really appreciate her efforts ,she is definetley a professionally qualified teacher but a SAHM(stay at home mom).!!
and here goes the link http://mommytaught.blogspot.com/

some of the websites which i feel is useful for babies in the age group of 2-5 is

Your Baby Can Read www.yourbabycanread.com
There is a yahoo group called as teach your baby to read ,its worth joining this group as we have lot many moms to share our ideas /views

http://htrusty.googlepages.com, http://www.theclassicalmommy.com/index.html
--for more bits
http://www.abc-kid.com/
Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes in-http://www.mamalisa.com/world/
for healthy habits for kids:www.hhhkids.com
www.sgparenting.com-info on Glenn Doman reading.
for preschool activities:
http://www.redshift.com/%7Ebonajo/preschool_activities.htm#Leigh

for preschool kids:
http://www.abcteach.com/
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
http://www.creativescrapbooking.com/abclists.htm
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CreativeHomeschooling/
http://www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/filefolder.shtml


for school going kids:
http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/gallery.html
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/owlmouse.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
excellent site for school goers :http://www.infovisual.info/(age:8-15)


For toys:
http://www.ebeanstalk.com/

Printable and downloadable free stuff:
http://freestuff4kids.net/
http://www.childcareland.com/


homemade books:
http://wiredforbook s.org/kids. htm
http://www.activityvillage.blogspot.com/

I sincereley beleive that learning is a never ending process and it would be useful for ashu even when he starts going to school,may be by then he himself will browse and get the info.:-)

Ashu joined kidzeeeeeeeeeeeee

yday being vijayadasami day we took ashu to kidzee play school for admission.
we were enquiring this play school for a long time and they suggested they could give admission for him once he completes one year 10 months.now he is going to celebrate his second birthday on Nov.29th,so we thought this is the right time.

I spoke to a miss whose name is sheebha ,she gave brief intro of the school,curriculum and ashu will be having his classes from 12th of novemeber (his nanas birthday).cool..

normally he shows bye by waving his hands alone and only by signing,but it was a gr8 surprise yday when the miss asked him like

"sweet baby,little boy say bye" thats it ashu opened his mouth and said BYYYYYEEEE

gr8.. job we wondered and preparing ourself mentally for his play school,rather than preparing him.....

after reaching home we had some my hus cousin staying with us overnight,so we went to Mc Donalds for burger and some had pizze corner in Pizza hut ,which is also present in same food court.

Ashu Started Reading

Yesterday when i reached home ,i saw ashu was little restless,and was running here and there with out knowing what to do.
so i thought i will sit and read his books with hime for some time .
Isat on the floor and asked him to open his book shelf,first he tried opening ,since he was not able to open he called me.
i helped him and he took all of the books out .One book containing list of vegetables,one with fruits names,rhymes,one with vehicles name like that he has got a collection of around 25-30 books .
There is a book titled as Good Habits ,where a boy will sleeping in a bed and rising in the morning and the quote says"Early to bed and early to rise"
ashu on seeing that boy will say "ANNA"
next it has a pic. of a boy brushing the teeth,he will also imitate like how we brush the teeth.
like what ever he understand he will do that by his action,this is quite common whenever we start reading the books.

There is a Alphabet book which gives picture of 10 things for letter A like Apple,aeroplane,ant....

Normally i prefer to teach A for Apple and not Alligator.
I was teaching him A for apple,
B for Ball
He jumped out of my lap to bring his Ball.

yday to my astonsihment he started associating with whatever he saw in the book.

C for Comb
he started doing action like how we comb the hair ,that too continously out of excitement!!!!
i was really happy and i said c for cat.
Now he ran to the bed rom to bring the magnetic cat which is sticked on the steel wardrobe.
Now imagine me ,iam in the air,cant control the joy
but still want to finish till Z so i saidd for Doggy

he made strange face expressions that Dog will bite you.E for elephant and he shows the big elephant kept on the Tv.G-Girl which he calls akka.
It continues till S where he was a pair of shoes and said NAN(way he used to call his father)
i said yes these are Nanas shoes ,then he smiled in a way that he also agrees with me......LOL.

Amma ,Amma,Amma...

last saturday night we slept in the living room as our bedroom fan has got a shortcircuit problem,so we slept in the living room,as my hus badly needs a fan while sleeping.
Morning when we woke up he realised his Vest is inside the bedroom,lazy to getup and take it by himself(he knows if he tells me i will take another 15 min to bring it for him),he asked aswath to bring it for him.

aswath listend to what he told and ran very quickly to the bedroom,but iam scared here ,bcoz i have kept the water jug inside the room,i know about ashu ,given a chance he will pour the water over him and on the floor.I dont want to do any cleaning or wiping early on sunday morning(8.30 am:-))

but i was wondering what he is doing there till now ????,wow,to my surprise
he came out with my hus vest and locked the door properly and gave it to my hus.

we applauded him and he deserves it also.....
what made me really happy was he did it when it was least expected from him.


That instant we were really proud of our cute ashu kutty.


Sunday night:
we were about to sleep on sunday night after enjoing the weekend as the next day is a working day at 10.30pm.
I heared ashu calling me ,normally he will call me as appa and his father as Nan.

ashu:appaa
me:yes
ashu:aappaa
me:hmmm
ashu:appaaa
me:enna
ashu appa,appa
me :turned towards his side and asked,yes
ashu:bend my head towards him and kept his mouth like a piggy and kissed me

oh now i felt so bad ,i should have responded the very first time he called me.
Felt like flying in the air for that moment and hy hus ,who was a silently watching this also got a kiss from ashu.

Ashu ready for Play school

Finally enquired about kidzee play school over the weekend and planning to enrol him by vijathasami.On our first visit to eurokids/kidzee we were told aswath is not eligible for play group till he completes 1 yr 10 month.now he has completed 1 yr 10 months and dont want to delay it further.

we still have some practicle hassels ,dont know how to overcomethat .ashu used to sleep till 8.30 am in morning ,but his cab will reach our place at 8.45 once we put him in play school.

so we started waking him up at 7.00am but poor ashu is going to sleep at 9.00 am .once myself and my husband leave home at 8.15 am,he was playing for a while ,got pissed off and sleeps in the sofa.

Really it going to be an adventure if we were successful in making him go to play school on a regular basis.

myself and my hus were eagerly waiting for D day.will let u know the leelais of krishna very soon....
tc ..

Krishna Jayanthi 2006 & 2007

Iam planning to blog about this krishna jayanthi and Vinayaga chaturthis for a long time.

we are always curious to celebrate festivals and poojas at home as it brings a sense of satisfaction.moreover since ashu has got his surname as krishna we are delighted to do the celebration.

Last year (2006) it was on our marathahalli house and this year its on our new apartment and this was the first time we celebrated krishna jayanthi in our new home.

we did morukku ,thattai at home and some sweets were bought :-) from Adayar Anand Bhavan.

I took an optional holiday and on that day morning i felt like i should prepare some sweet on my own.

so i called my mom to know the proceedure for preparing Mysore Pak.

yes i got the recipe and i started doing it as per my moms instruction ,To my surprise It came well and every bdy praised it ,which i myself cant believe till now.

The only thing which iam not happy with the sweet is its more crisper ,i think i should have poured more ghee any ,wil implement it in the next attempt,what u say?

Last year aswath was dressed up like lord krishna,this year i didnt do any spl dressing for him as i prepared sundal at evening and was very busy in making the arrangements for pooja.

some snaps taken this year:

South Canara Tour

We decided to set off on our long awaited pilgimage/tour to temples in Karnataka.

This trip was a wonderful one ,we enjoyed to the core and we had a nice darshan in all the temples.Lots of browsing and googling about the temples and timings were quite informative for us during the trip.

Before we start for the trip we were conscious about two points one is we should stick to the timtings and and another making aswath (my son) comfortable where ever we go.

After celebrating vinayaka chaturthi at home the same day night we left to shimoga thru Volvo from Bangalore.we have one of our uncles staying in Bhadravathi so we went to his house to freshen up ourselves.he has booked an Innova vehicle for us and he gave us some tips and contacts before leaving ,thanks to him.

Our intention is to visit shringeri,horandu,dharmasthala,kukke subramanya,Kateel,Udupi,annegud,kollur,murudeshwar,idigunj,Gokarna.we knew that the plan is little hectic but still we managed ,. and finally we did it!!! :-)


On 16th morning sharp at 6.00 am we left bhadravathi and started our journey towards Shringeri Saradha Mutt,the whole way is through Wester Ghats and it was really amazing to go thru ghats .The driver is a kannadiga ,he has got excellent driving skills and he made us feel safe and comfortable for the entire trip.

My husband has got Motion Sickness so he felt very Uncomfortable while travelling thru the Ghats,he had Continous vomitting but some how we managed it.
He avoided taking food while going through Ghats .

We reached shringeri at 8.30 am and we had the darshan of Saradambal and did kumkuma archana there.There they do a seva called akshara bandhanam for kids in the age group of 2 to 5 which is to enhance their reading and writing skills,since aswath was only 1.10 he was not eligible for that.We clicked some photos there and had breakfast and left shringeri at 9.50 am.

our next halt is at Horanadu annapoorneshwari temple and its around 75 kms from shringeri and the driver shivu told it will take a minimum of 3 hrs as its completely through the Ghats. There are several waterfalls enroute.

Around 12.45 we reached Horanadu and we had the darshan very quickly and we did kumukuma archana also.The goddess was so large and tall and she looks very beautiful in Silver KAVASAM

This time we want to have meals in annaporneshwari temple so myself ,and parents had food there ,but husband was reluctant to have any food as he was sacred of vomitting while going back thru ghats.we compelled him atlast he just had a sip of Limca(itsnot real limca ,its a soda type drink).
In the mean time my father forced him to take some tablets which stops vomit.

we left horanadu at 2.15 pm and started towards Dharmastala which is around 120 kms from horanadu and we reached there at 5.00 pm.we had some tiffin since my husband doesnt eat anything now he had some tiffin.we went to temple for darshan but we were told its at 6.30 pm.

we took a room for 1 hr and relaxed for one hr. and once again left to temple around 7.00 pm.we stood in the Q for 20 minutes.
In Dharmasthala,they dont have any spl tickets every body has to do darshan thru general Q only.by then aswath was almost tired and he started crying while we were in the Q.

we had the darshan of manujanatha swami and they told to remove aswaths shirt also.we came around some 8.10 pm and immediately we left there and started towards
Kukke subramanya temple.

We reached kukke at 10.30 pm and stayed at akshara lodging house where sachin tendulakar stayed when he visited the temple. The rooms were pretty clean and good and we had dinner in mysore café.

Morning we had darshan at 8.15 am and did little shopping and we left kukke and started towards Kattel Durga Parameshwari temple.


kateel dura parameshwari is situated in between rivers and its running in all the four directions around the temple.we had the darshan there and did kumkuma archana and left towards UDUPI SRI KRISHNA temple.

On the way we had lunch. udupi krishna temple opens at 5.00 pm only but we reached there before 4.30pm so driver suggested us to go to beach so we went to Malpe beach and aswath enjoyed a lot there.

we had a nice darshan of sri krishna there and its not crowded so had a peaceful darshan and we visited another temple called Anantheswara temple next to krishna temple.

Then we decided to leave to kollur around 6.30 as its in the middle of Ghats , on the way we visited Annegud vinayagar temple.The temple was about to close and the last seva for ther day was going on when we reached there.

we had a quick glimpse of the vinayagar and started moving towards Kollur Mookambigai.now aswath started crying in the car as he was really bored of travelling and it was really hectic for a baby of his age.

so myself and my husband started singing Rhymes for him and he kept silent for some time and finally we reached kollur around 9.45 pm and had a light dinner and stayed in a lodge which is near by.

here we didnt shop around for the best hotel/lodge as we have decided to stay very near to temple as we need to do the tonsuring for aswath the next day morning.

Next day aswath and his nana did the tonsuring and we left for darshan around 9.00 am to temple and we had a nice darshan there and we did archana and we did some shopping and we are back to car by 10.30am.

we are late by half an hour as our next destination is Murudeshwar and its 60 kms from kollur and we reached murudeshwar by 12.30 pm we had a excellent darshan and the poojari perfomed archana to our satisfaction. about murudeshwara its really a scenic place and excellent attraction for tourists.
Spending more than a day at Murudeswar would be advisable for anybody planning to go on this trip

we didnt have any lunch here as per our plan we need to reach gokarana and should leave to shimoga by 5.00 pm from Gokarna.

but on the way to gokarana ,there is another temple for vinayagar in Idigunj and the driver forced us to visit that and we went ther around 2.30 but unfortunately the temple was closed so we did the gopura darshanam and bought some photos of vinayagar .In idigunj the vinayagar was in standing postion and its really a good place to visit.

we started towards gokarana and reached gokarana by 4.45pm and temple was opened at 5.00 pm and we waited for 15 min.One thing that makes me feel bad was the way the poojaris behaved in gokarna.They were running behind people only for Money.They literally started demanding us for money.They said arachana will be done based on head count for each it will cost 50 rs so totally it will be 250 ,My husband said do arachana in my sons name for 50 rs otherwise leave it.

They did arachana for 50 rs and demanded kanikai also,he gave 10 rs and we left the place as more and more people keep approcahing us for money.


Gokarna has got a nice beach also but due to time constraint we didnt go there .On the way back to Bhadravathi its full of mist in the ghats and thanks to the driver who drove very safely.
we reached Bhadravathi 10.45 and our volvo is at 11.45 so we relaxed once again in mamas home at badhravathi and reached bangalore at 5.00am.

After a long time ,now iam back with a bang.

My last post is on my visit to Thiruvannamaalai,then we visited Kings Sanctuary of nagarhole .
It was really a wonderful and memorable visit as we had a lot of fun and the entire trip we enjoyed a lot.

we hired a cab to reach Nagarhole which is few kms from mysore and we had already booked the resort thru some agencey.

the evening we reached there asu started running behind the ostritch and birds present in the resort.

we had dinner and we slept well becoz of the tiring journey we did from bangalore to nagarhole.Next day i went for a morning walk in the resort as both nana and son were having a deep sleep.

I started walking out of the resort ,even though my husband has instructed me not to go out as its dangerous outside ,bcoz animals would be wandering around the resort. Yes i walked for 5 minutes and i was scared to move any further and returned back to resort.

Then we went to cafeteria to have cafe and break fast.as usual asu has made lot of friends in the resort.as soon as we reach the dining area ,people working there will come and take him away.

Next day Morning asu played with his nana in the swimming pool and it was sure a rare moments i clicked it in my camera.

we planned to have a wild life safari on the same day so after having Lunch ,the resort arranged for a wild life safari.we had hopes of seeing Tiger ,elepahant ,Bison.....

so with a great energy levels we started for the Safari,below is one of the pics of vehicle thru which we went for safari.

some pics of elephants and deer in our camera

Next day we went to Tibetian temple near the resort unfortunately we cant enter the temple as its closed by the time we reached there so we took some snaps and back to resort for packing as we have to reach bangalore at leats by 8.30 pm.

On the whole we had a nice trip rejuvenating our energy levels and next day we are back to work:-)

How much Fine I need to pay ?? can u tell me

I had a unique expericence while trying to include my spouse name in my current passport, which i would like to share with everybody .i got my passport in chennai before marriage and it includes my fathers name.Now i want to include my spouse name in my passport ,so that i can apply for asu(my son) passport.so to begin with first i submitted my forms under miscellaneous services in the brunton road passport office of banaglore.

first day we reached there around 9.30am we were standing in the Q till 12.10 but the service is upto 12.00 noon and they have closed the main gate.To our dismay we came back to home.
After 2 days we planned to reach there by 8.30 am ,but actually we reached there at 8.45 ,i was standing in the Q and my husband went for parking the car.

This time we got in to the office ,we had all documents with us starting from address proof from my office to ration card .verification phase was over,but still they gave me a PPA (personal particulars application form ) to be filled up.

In ppa they have two columns which states that if a person is not residing in the current address for not more than one year,he should give his/her previous address for police verification.
i was not resding in my current residence for more than a year,so my husband said we will not give the application today as they will do police verification in both the places for which we have to go to local police station 2 times.

we will submit enough proof of address,by giving a bank account from a nationalised bank aso that we can avoid police verification.so my 2nd attempt to file the application is also failed.

now its my 3rd attempt we submitted all the documents stillllllllllllllllllllllll...............now also they told me to submit the PPA form HAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
what to do we submitted the form and came back praying god it should be cleared properly.

Then lot many things happened my husband went to France for a week training and my mom came to my home for helping me.

now one day i got a call from a police personal that he has come to my home for passport verification.now i rushed from office to home ,i dont want that person to leave my home as it will further get delayed.

He did nothing just got Rs 50 from me and asked me to come to nearest police station and i said i will come once my husband is back to home.

That day came and its a sunday mornming we both went there to meet the station writer at 10.30 am.
one constable said please come around 4.30pm in evening as we are doing the shifting from 1 st fllor ground floor.
so we left and went around 4.30pm he verified my docs and said get me a xerox of ur telephone bill,pancard xerox,photo copy of husband passport,this that,this list goes on and on.

we said YES we took a photo copies of all the above and went back at 5.15 pm.
Now he misplaced my application somewhere and he was searching all the while and we were watching and dont know exactly is going on.

Finally he Got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.he said ur application is here(what an invention stupid).i was thinking to myself.
now he went outside of our room and we were waiting.............................
One more writer came to that room and he asked "Application sikkidha?"I said to myself yes yes sikkidhe nee paise sikkuma nu yosikkira correcta?

he called us to his table and he said

"oh There is a problem in ur application ,u dont have a address proof of one year"This is legally, medically,personally officially,this way that way not accepatable"

so if u knowANY XYZ in banagalore commisioner office u push this otherwise ur application will be REJECTED.he uttered this word and put his head down and seeeing my papers again.
Yes he got it ,he got the address proff certificate issued by my company and iam in IT
what else he want then??????????????????''

he wrote something in kannada and got my signature and waiting for us to ask whether he need any fine to be paid by us ,Yes Fine its not Bribe.he is collecting fine from me as i dont stay at one house for more than a year.
Yes FINE of700 is PAID by my husband and we are waiting for the next stage .

i dont know how much fine i need to pay till i get my passport and my sons

have any idea of how much i will pay if so please let me know the Fine Amount(once again iam saying its Fine and no BRIBE).

Temples in Tamil Nadu

Today i came across a tamil e-paper site.It gives an excellent information about temples in Tamilnaduhttp://www.dinamalar.com/koil/temples.asp.
Information is quite useful for people who have more interest in visting temples and spritual tours.
They have categorised temples as amman ,pillayar,siva,vishnu temples and also suggestions were given for temples to visit based on the problem .

This link is useful for people who wants to visit temples .

visit to Thiruvannamalai

we are planning for a long time to visit thiruvannamalai,but due to some reason or other it got delayed ,finally we made it on last friday..
yes friday is Good friday and i applied for an optional holiday in my office.
all of sudden around 9.30am we (myself and my hubby) thought why dont we go to temple today.?
Its for tonsuring aswath's head.

My husband went for booking the tickets as we really dont believe in stepping out of home with out reservation.he called me around 10.00am from the booking counter as one ksrtc bus is available at 1.00pm and rest of the buses were starting after 9.00pm.Intially i had a hesitation how can i do the packing in 2 hrs ,but still i said yes , go ahead and do the booking.

In the mean time i started packing ,first its aswath....staring from cerelac,NAN,his diapers,dresses,flask with hot water and the list goes on and on.

since its a saturday we had brunch and left home at 11.15 and took an auto .reached majestic safely.
my husband bought a one litre water bottle and my favourite tamil magazine aval vikatan. aswath was watching here and there ,and he was totally enjoying the horn sound of buses and people moving here and there.

we spotted our ksrtc bus and it started sharp at 1.00 pm,even though its half filled.i packed a box full of rice for asu's lunch at home.

now the fight started between asu and me,he dont want to eat and only thing he wanted to do peeping his head outside of window although its very dangerous .for us its dangerous and for him its a sort of enjoyment.

Finally we decided not to force him,bcoz if we force him our dresses will get spoiled ,what else Vomit...
i took my aval and started reading and after an 5 hrs journey we reached thiruvannamalai.
we checked in Hotel arunachala for A/C double room.

Then once again we started feeding aswath ,thank god the we got all local channels and ads were coming every now and then,bcoz asu will eat only on seeing ads.

Then around 7.30pm we just walked around the temple and bought some ballons and cassettes .
came back and had dinner.slept well.

Next day morning we had coffee and went for tonsuring his head.First my husband got his tonsuring get done,then its asu.
he cried a lot and we both are not able to control him,finally we got him a car which is his favourite toy and he started playing with that.

we came to room and i gave bath to him,and dressed him and started feeding him with idly which we ordered.as usual he didnt eat idliies then once again with the help of sun tv ad i gave him some ceralac to eat.in the mean time my husband came out finishing his bath.
Its my turn ....

The we got dressed up properley and went to restaurent to have breakfast,but all of a sudden we decided not to have breakfast and we both had some fresh juice.

we went inside the temple with archana items which we bought in the petty shops,first we had the darshan of ambigai and then sundareshwarar.
for sundrashwarar darshan we were standing in the Q for 15 minutes,and we were allowed to sit in the area before karpagraham for 5-6 minutes and we had a good darshanam of the arunachaleshwarar.

The darshan was really good and we came outside and brought some murrukkus and adiraasm and came back to hotel.

we dont feel like eating any heavy lunch ,so i ordered for curd rice ,my husband ordered for
Bissibelabath(ellam namba sambar sadam than) but unfortunately he got Biriyani:-)
still he had that.

we checked out at 3.00pm we decided to take a bus before 4.00 pm as its a 5 hrs journey to banaglore.

we got a Tamilnadu state bus at 3.45 and my husband took 3 tickets instead of two as we know we need some extra space for aswath .Even if we book the entire bus also it will not be enough for him....
some how we reached bangalore watching gilli and thalaphti which they screened .

we enjoyed the trip on the whole and it was quite memorable.

en first ullaral

This is the first time iam writing a blog.
Quite thrilling and interesting and one important thing is i dont know what to write.....
i used to read quite interesting blogs like vettipayal,santhospakkangal ,gee,imsai arasi.
today morning while having coffee with my husband ,he said you dont u start writing a blog by yourself.I said NO ,i dont know anything on what subject i will write a blog???

I came to office ,as usual i was going thru some of my favourite blogs and some thing tells me
you start a blog and let us see how it goes...................

so this is my first one,let me see how it goes.......................