I have after a long break joined the gym all over again. January however I did not do it seriously. I went to the gym only 4 days. There were two reasons for this: (a) Since I go in the morning slot waking up at 6 am is a pain. At that time I am having my best sleep and I hate it when the alarm rings. To make getting up more difficult its pitch dark outside as if it is the middle of night. (b) My niece arrived and I got a happy vacation of a week.
Not wanting to waste my money any more I have begun to go to the gym properly from Monday onwards. I am now going to a new gym aptly named Endurance which I find is better than the previous one I went to. It is way more spacious, has good equipment and its membership is very reasonable. The best thing about it is that they have many instructors whom they have divided around the floor depending upon what kind of exercise you want to do. So you always have help whether you are working out your upper body, lower body, abs or doing stretching. They even have specially designed batches where you can actually have fun while exercising which you can freely join.
A counselor drew up my chart of exercises to carry out. I have been told to note down every time what weights I use, how many repetitions I perform and how many km do I cover during cardio. After a month the counselor will review it and based on the progress may change my chart setting a higher level of workout.
I was reminded that I must maintain my diet something which I haven't done in the last 2 months. Luckily I have not put on too much weight which people had scared me that I will do instantaneously the moment I stop going to the gym. The good news is that some of my friends have been telling me that they think that I have lost more weight even though thats not the case. It feels great to hear such remarks but I am not satisfied. So I have begun to follow my earlier diet chart again.
For the end results wait for my blog entry a month from now.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
I am no longer the youngest!
This is how my elder sister declared I would be beginning my latest post. She was right on target because that is exactly what I had thought when I saw our little one. On the night of 19 January I was gifted with a niece and was simultaneously overthrown from my position of being the youngest in the family.
It was just like the movies. Daddy and I arrived at the hospital just minutes before my sister was to be taken to the OT. I managed to wish her best of luck. I refrained from holding her hands because mine were so cold out of nervousness. As she was taken inside the OT we all waited with bated breath. Some 30-40 minutes later my brother-in-law (BIL) was sent by the doctors to buy some medicines. While he was away Daddy and I heard cries of a baby and we exclaimed that this must surely be our baby. Then the doctor called Daddy and informed him that the baby was a girl and both she and the mother were doing fine. What a relief it was to hear those words!
After this we shifted base to a room in the private ward. Sometime later Ulka was brought in on a stretcher. I noticed a chaadar kept untidily besides her. I was about to put it aside when suddenly the nurse picked it up carefully. Wrapped in it was to my utter surprise my niece!! As I set my eyes up on her for the first time I was filled with an immense joy. I had never seen anything so sweet. She looked so tiny and fragile that I instinctively felt like protecting her. At the same time I was too afraid of picking her up. In fact it was only on the sixth day that I got the courage of holding her in my lap.
The next few days were such a delight just watching the baby. All she did was sleep and feed. Once in a while she would open her eyes, look around and then as if bored with the scenery would doze of again. What efforts once we (my sister, BIL and I) made to wake her up as it was feeding time. We tickled her, moved her hands, cycled her legs, talked to her first sweetly and then sternly but to no avail. Finally we left her aside ignoring her and thats when the baby woke up crying loudly. Then another day baby decided to wake on her own. Moments before that she stretched herself completely which now according to the latest update has become her characteristic. While sleeping she loves to take her hands out of the blanket she is bundled in. There is this very cute photograph of hers in which she is asleep with her hand right below her chin. And another in which the blanket is thrown on one side, her legs are crossed on another side and hands are stretched up... what bliss!
The two questions that were raised since the baby arrived were who does she look like and what name will she be given. As far as the first question is concerned the baby seems to have taken after her father. But people say that her features may change as she will grow up. My sister and BIL took some days to finally decide on a consensus name for the baby. We were told that they were going to call her Mandavi, after the river that flows in Goa. We are pretty sure that the baby will be able to carry this name which one day will probably get shortened to the more stylish Mandy by her friends.
Lots of Daddy's relatives and colleagues told him that his perspective to life will change on becoming a grandfather. But its really me who is feeling somewhat different. Not surprising because I had never seen that small a baby at such close quarters before. Its unbelievable the emotions that I never knew existed were stirred inside me thanks to the small wonder. I suddenly want to do everything good and right otherwise what will Mandavi think of me. I have to behave as a "responsible maushi" from now on.
:)
It was just like the movies. Daddy and I arrived at the hospital just minutes before my sister was to be taken to the OT. I managed to wish her best of luck. I refrained from holding her hands because mine were so cold out of nervousness. As she was taken inside the OT we all waited with bated breath. Some 30-40 minutes later my brother-in-law (BIL) was sent by the doctors to buy some medicines. While he was away Daddy and I heard cries of a baby and we exclaimed that this must surely be our baby. Then the doctor called Daddy and informed him that the baby was a girl and both she and the mother were doing fine. What a relief it was to hear those words!
After this we shifted base to a room in the private ward. Sometime later Ulka was brought in on a stretcher. I noticed a chaadar kept untidily besides her. I was about to put it aside when suddenly the nurse picked it up carefully. Wrapped in it was to my utter surprise my niece!! As I set my eyes up on her for the first time I was filled with an immense joy. I had never seen anything so sweet. She looked so tiny and fragile that I instinctively felt like protecting her. At the same time I was too afraid of picking her up. In fact it was only on the sixth day that I got the courage of holding her in my lap.
The next few days were such a delight just watching the baby. All she did was sleep and feed. Once in a while she would open her eyes, look around and then as if bored with the scenery would doze of again. What efforts once we (my sister, BIL and I) made to wake her up as it was feeding time. We tickled her, moved her hands, cycled her legs, talked to her first sweetly and then sternly but to no avail. Finally we left her aside ignoring her and thats when the baby woke up crying loudly. Then another day baby decided to wake on her own. Moments before that she stretched herself completely which now according to the latest update has become her characteristic. While sleeping she loves to take her hands out of the blanket she is bundled in. There is this very cute photograph of hers in which she is asleep with her hand right below her chin. And another in which the blanket is thrown on one side, her legs are crossed on another side and hands are stretched up... what bliss!
The two questions that were raised since the baby arrived were who does she look like and what name will she be given. As far as the first question is concerned the baby seems to have taken after her father. But people say that her features may change as she will grow up. My sister and BIL took some days to finally decide on a consensus name for the baby. We were told that they were going to call her Mandavi, after the river that flows in Goa. We are pretty sure that the baby will be able to carry this name which one day will probably get shortened to the more stylish Mandy by her friends.
Lots of Daddy's relatives and colleagues told him that his perspective to life will change on becoming a grandfather. But its really me who is feeling somewhat different. Not surprising because I had never seen that small a baby at such close quarters before. Its unbelievable the emotions that I never knew existed were stirred inside me thanks to the small wonder. I suddenly want to do everything good and right otherwise what will Mandavi think of me. I have to behave as a "responsible maushi" from now on.
:)
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Taare Zameen Par
Taare Zameen Par (TZP) was one film that I was looking forward to see, it being the directorial debut of my favourite actor Aamir Khan. I finally got a chance to watch TZP on Sunday. It turned out to be a really wonderful treat.
I simply adored the expressions of kids that were caught on camera while their Principal was giving a speech in the morning assembly. I loved the scene where Ishaan's mother notices all his wounds while the neighbourhood Aunty was complaining about his misbehaviour. I could feel Ishaan's anger, pain and loneliness at having been sent off to boarding school as punishment. I cried along with him as the song Ma... played in the background. While the art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh's entry brought a smile on my face. How he slowly but surely manages to bring about a change in the attitudes of other school teachers, softens Ishaan's parents' hearts and also helps Ishaan realize his true potential forms the second half of the film.
The beauty of the film lies in its simplicity and naturalness. This wouldn't have been possible without the new kid on the block Darsheel Safary's wonderful portrayal of Ishaan; the refreshing story spun by Amole Gupte, the writer and creative director of TZP; the tight editing of Deepa Bhatia which never let the film slip away; lovely expressions of all the children captured by the photographer Setu and beautiful lines penned by the lyricist Prasoon Joshi. The two songs that touched my heart are Maa... main kabhi and Taare zameen par.... (Click on the links to read the Hindi lyrics and their English translations.)
A big round of applause also goes to Aamir Khan for his acting as the caring teacher and for his outstanding job as a director. I am sure his contemporaries and peers must be left exasperated. Here they are sweating out building 6 pack abs, getting 31 stars to appear in a song and spending crores for publicizing their films, while all Aamir Khan needs to create history is an 8 year old boy.
Aamir Khan succeeds in keeping everything about the film real which is why the audiences have connected so well with it. Though TZP is the story of a dyslexic child, people have on their own understood that the difficulties which Ishaan faces in school are encountered by many children. TZP tells us without how its time we stop breeding children as if they are race horses. It makes us realize that all we need to give kids is love and care to show them how special they are.
Taare Zameen Par is truly in Aamir Khan's own words a film dedicated "to children, and childhood."
I simply adored the expressions of kids that were caught on camera while their Principal was giving a speech in the morning assembly. I loved the scene where Ishaan's mother notices all his wounds while the neighbourhood Aunty was complaining about his misbehaviour. I could feel Ishaan's anger, pain and loneliness at having been sent off to boarding school as punishment. I cried along with him as the song Ma... played in the background. While the art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh's entry brought a smile on my face. How he slowly but surely manages to bring about a change in the attitudes of other school teachers, softens Ishaan's parents' hearts and also helps Ishaan realize his true potential forms the second half of the film.
The beauty of the film lies in its simplicity and naturalness. This wouldn't have been possible without the new kid on the block Darsheel Safary's wonderful portrayal of Ishaan; the refreshing story spun by Amole Gupte, the writer and creative director of TZP; the tight editing of Deepa Bhatia which never let the film slip away; lovely expressions of all the children captured by the photographer Setu and beautiful lines penned by the lyricist Prasoon Joshi. The two songs that touched my heart are Maa... main kabhi and Taare zameen par.... (Click on the links to read the Hindi lyrics and their English translations.)
A big round of applause also goes to Aamir Khan for his acting as the caring teacher and for his outstanding job as a director. I am sure his contemporaries and peers must be left exasperated. Here they are sweating out building 6 pack abs, getting 31 stars to appear in a song and spending crores for publicizing their films, while all Aamir Khan needs to create history is an 8 year old boy.
Aamir Khan succeeds in keeping everything about the film real which is why the audiences have connected so well with it. Though TZP is the story of a dyslexic child, people have on their own understood that the difficulties which Ishaan faces in school are encountered by many children. TZP tells us without how its time we stop breeding children as if they are race horses. It makes us realize that all we need to give kids is love and care to show them how special they are.
Taare Zameen Par is truly in Aamir Khan's own words a film dedicated "to children, and childhood."
A prosperous new year
2008 is actually turning out to be a prosperous new year for all research fellows. We have finally got our dues. Our salaries have been significantly increased. As the actual order had come nearly a year back, everyone was awarded arrears accordingly. Suddenly many of us found ourselves rich on 2nd Jan as we discovered that a lump sum had been deposited in our bank accounts. Having never laid eyes on so much money before people were left wondering how to spend it.I want to make a trip outside India. I want a stamp on my passport. Any suggestions for the destination? :)
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