Tid Bit from My Diary

Only a few moments ago, it seems a precious little miracle happened in our life as our beautiful angel was delivered. Today she sits next to me discussing what would protect the soft skin of a baby.   It was a brilliant idea, I thought to have a family discussion on a subject like this. Moreover, it provides an excellent opportunity for my daughter, a second grader to participate and brainstorm on a topic. We started by asking ourselves what was most important for a baby. There was no surprise in that. It was sleep, we all agreed as they sleep for the best part of the day. Babies, however have shorter sleeping cycles compared to adults and it gets even shorter if she became wet and uncomfortable. That is one of the reasons why we keep a waterproof material for the baby to sleep on. The most common practice is a rubber cloth topped up with soft linen. “Is this comfortable” I asked the house and it was a "No” in a chorus. “The baby wakes up in the middle of the night cry...

I am getting intimidated by the demanding and commanding nature of all with whom I have association these days. I agree that I have requested for a wakeup call in the morning but when I open my eyes and give a pat that task should be considered completed. There is no need to keep calling me again and again like a nagging child. That's one time when I feel like throwing the phone away and teach it a lesson but only the price tag even with those sleepy eyes keep me from doing that. I collect all the resolution it takes and get ready for work get into the car. As soon as I switch the ignition on, the car starts beeping to remind me about the seat belt. I say “Thank you very much” and move on. As I continue with my journey, there it goes again beeping at a much higher pitch. I say “shut up!” you did your duty now let me too have some rights to decide. It gives a damn and keep beeping which I ignore for some time and finally give in as the score goes love - two. I reach off...

"You won't believe who was sitting next to me at the coffee shop this evening!" a friend came and told me today creating the drama he mastered over the years. He later told me that in the table next to his sat a man without a phone in his hand or even a laptop in his table. According to him it was quite odd and was quite certain that he was deranged as only they could act like that. While I knew he was trying to be funny, deep inside me I knew it definitely was a rare sighting in today's world. Such individuals are few and far in between. The world has taken giant leaps over the past century and left behind the old ways of life. The Generation X of the world who was largely responsible for this change are fast turning into senior citizens challenged with the impacts of their own revolution. Some of us are stuck in the middle struggling with the new way of life while still romanticizing with the past. We conveniently blame our smart phones and other gadg...

“Not everything that happens in our life could be explained by our common sense or knowledge or for that matter known science” Ron reflected quite engrossed in his thoughts as Ana looked on. It’s been long since the last time they sat together talking about past. Ron always had lots of stories to tell and while he insisted that those were all his life experience, Ana believed most of them were either borrowed from others life or simply made up. “Today, I will tell you about an experience I had almost 15 years back but don’t ask me to provide any explanation as I have none” he said in the beginning and started to narrate a journey that he and his friends took to and from Dubai. That night Ron accompanied by 3 more friends were heading towards Dubai border. It was a long weekend ahead and they would be visiting Dubai for the very first time. Quite obviously they wanted to take advantage by driving through the night so that they could spend the maximum time there...

What is a mental illness? In common man’s term, it could probably be defined as the lack of balance of mind or brain. In other words inappropriate thought process and action that result in the affected individual’s failure to cope with life’s ordinary demands and routines. Early indicators are changes in mood, personality, habits and social interaction.   Medically there are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness. Some of the most common types are:  clinical depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. Like all other illness, mental illnesses too vary in severity ranging from moderate to severe.   This could develop due to external stresses, internal chemical imbalances and genetic factors or after some accident. But many affected individual succeed in coming out of this illness and learn to cope with the conditions with proper care and treatment.   However, the biggest obstacles that prevent people seek profes...

The winter before last we visited the Andaman Islands. We bought our air tickets early followed by booking for our accommodation in a government run hotel called Andaman Teal house. Incidentally this hotel did have a web page but no online booking facilities, making us to use postal and fax services. The price was too good to be true for the location, view and our expectations. We were once again reminded that if something seems to be too good to be true, it's probably not true. Early next morning we moved to another hotel nearby as a stop gap arrangement since the Teal house did not offer the type of accommodation we got used to. We also learnt that the diversity of India also transpires to the functionality of its tourism industry and if you are visiting Andaman, you better coordinate with a travel agency. We spent the day visiting the other islands and relocated to a place called The Park hotel early next morning. Though it was not the brand that we all know, it fin...

When I was a young boy I was restless like others of that age, eager to grow up and be independent. We wanted freedom; we wanted to break free and not constantly told what to do by parents, teachers, siblings and all other elders. Childhood was bliss and reasons for joy were in abundance. There were nothing that was not worth celebrating while we particularly looked forward to the festivals. The festive seasons started with Saraswati puja in February and ended with Christmas and New Year in December. The days would pass counting down the days from one celebration to the next one. All in all it was chasing the next event in the calendar and enjoying life throughout. As the numbers in the calendar kept changing, we continued to add years to our age and life got a new meaning. Life became front loaded with responsibilities as we stopped growing up and started to grow old instead. Those dark hairs now got transformed to a combination of salt and pepper. It’s only a matter of ...

Last week we went to Mc Donald café for a cup of coffee Latte and when they served it we were pleasantly surprised. It’s called Latte art of coffee art and I have seen such pictures earlier. But honestly, I never had an opportunity to drink a painting of sorts. The coffee tasted good and the artwork added the little extra that gives us happiness. Conventionally the decoration is done by pouring the steamed milk on espresso coffee to generate the foam and creating a pattern on the surface of the drink. This art is particularly difficult to create due to lack of consistency in the top layer of the foam. A little google-search enlightened me further.  I also discovered that a company called “Steam CC” has developed an appliance called “Ripple Maker” which can print incredible beautiful and artistic foam prints like the one above. Read more here .