When I was a kid, my parents bought us new clothes for very special occasions:
* Festivals : usually Ugadi, Ganesha Gowri habba, Deepavali ... sometimes for Sankrathi
* Birthday : No questions asked ... all my birthdays they bought me new clothes
* Important Family event: Like wedding of a very close relative
Rarely there were other occasions like when we going on a holiday or after securing good percentage in exams I would get new clothes.
And boy, there was superlative excitement each time I got new clothes. I don't remember ever going shopping for my clothes though. Somehow anything my parents bought was accepted by me. My sister got clothes for the same occasions as well, but she preferred selecting her clothes.
Today, I longer wait to buy clothes for occasions... may be I buy them before a vacation, but thats about it. There is no more charm ... in fact there is no more charm is getting gifts any more. Heck ... no one gifts me ... If I need something, I have to buy it myself :)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Its a boy !!!
Its a boy ... its a boy ... jump with joy jump with joy !!!
Yes my kid sister delivered little baby boy this afternoon at 12:21 pm. (8lb 1.9 oz, 20.5in) Mommy and baby are doing just fine. The labor lasted about 20 hrs from start to finish ... all is well that ends well ... and we have a lovely little fella in our family now :))
Congratulations sister ... I'm proud of the determination and strength you showed during labor. May God give the little one the best of health, wealth and happiness !!
Yippeeeeeee .... I am a DODDAMMA !!!!!
Yes my kid sister delivered little baby boy this afternoon at 12:21 pm. (8lb 1.9 oz, 20.5in) Mommy and baby are doing just fine. The labor lasted about 20 hrs from start to finish ... all is well that ends well ... and we have a lovely little fella in our family now :))
Congratulations sister ... I'm proud of the determination and strength you showed during labor. May God give the little one the best of health, wealth and happiness !!
Yippeeeeeee .... I am a DODDAMMA !!!!!
Monday, October 20, 2008
A milestone reached ....
Oct 15th will be an important day for me and my second daughter .... apart from being my aunt's wedding anniversary falling on the same day ... my daughter rolled over successfully on this day. By rolling over I mean, turning to her rides, lying on her tummy, successfully lifting her head and freeing her hands completely and stretching them forward.
She had been trying the same for couple of days ... but once she figured out the process ... she took a day or two to master it and now every time we put her on the mat, she rolls over :))
Its harder for her on the carpet .... but she is pro on the mat :))
Its official ... 5 days short of 5 months she rolls over !!
She had been trying the same for couple of days ... but once she figured out the process ... she took a day or two to master it and now every time we put her on the mat, she rolls over :))
Its harder for her on the carpet .... but she is pro on the mat :))
Its official ... 5 days short of 5 months she rolls over !!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Car Sale
This April we bought a new Toyota Sienna ... rather husband gifted the same to me. With a 2 car garage already occupied by our 2 cars, we had to sell one of them. After a small discussion around which car to sell, we decided on the Honda. Honda being the first car bought, (husband referred to the same as "Darling") it was a hard decision to sell it. It was the car I had my first trip in the US, it was the car that I dare to drive around in the busy US traffic. I was quite emotional when we put up the ad on Craigslist to sell the car.
The car had to be sold soon since there was no room for parking in the garage and parking spaces in the apt we live does not permit owner's car parking ... its for visitors' only quipped the lady when I tried to request the homeowner's association. Anyways, within couple of days of the ad being posted, there were responses for the car. One lady came by, took a test drive and promised to stop by in the evening with the money. But for some reason chickened out in the last minute. Then this Indian gujju guy came. He took the car for a test drive and also took it to AAA to get it checked. The mechanic who checked the car gave it Thumps up all the way. The carfax report gave it high 87 score. (average was 76) The gujju guy also verified all the Car services paperwork. (we had religiously serviced the car ... not once had we missed it). He put his negotiation skills to best use and tried to get the price down. He also played the "I am a student" card (he had been working for the past 6 months though). Anyways, the car was sold to this guy at a reasonable ($50 less than KBB). I was sad and glad at the same time. Took pictures alongside the car before it went away from our parking space. All paperwork was completed. (paperwork was handled by AAA ... thats quite a nice service)
Two weeks into the sale, by then I had my second daughter and this gujju guy came to our house one evening all of a sudden. He demanded the Car service paperwork. By then we had got rid of most of the papers since it didn't matter to us anymore. He threatened to call the police if I didn't hand over the paperwork to him. Apparently he had disturbed husband at office by calling him and demanding the papers. Husband had asked him to come over the weekend and not disturb him at work. Immediately after the call with my husband this guy decided to show up in our house and demand the papers. I for one had other important tasks like handling my daughters on hand and did not care much about his threat to call the cops. I calmly responded him to go ahead with his call ... and that we had completed the required paperwork while we sold the car.
This guy dialed 911 right then. The folks responding asked this guy to go out of our house and wait for the cop. Within minutes a cop showed up at our front door. The cop was a calm smart young officer. Our conversation went like this:
Cop: Did you sell the car to this guy?
Me: Yes
Cop: He is asking for service paper ...
Me: I don't have them handy .. I can try to look for it over the weekend.
Cop(looking at the guy): There ... you have it ... she is going to look for it
Guy(trying to threaten me again): Officer I want to make sure you understand this ... she is saying weekend, but she will never give it to me.
Cop: She does not need to. The pink slip paperwork is already taken care of. She has no obligation to give you the service papers anymore.
Guy:(now slightly ashamed ... but trying to put on a brave front): Make sure the papers are ready this weekend, I will come and collect it.
Me: If I find them, I will post it, no need to come here.
Cop: Thank you M'am ... sorry for the trouble.
Both of them left. As I watched from my room window, the cop seem to give a long piece of advise to the guy before both of them finally drove away.
As for us, we were very disappointed with the attitude of the gujju guy and never bothered to look for the papers. Infact we had joking been contemplating calling the cop ourselves if the guy showed up over the weekend. We could have lodged a complaint of mental harrassment :)) Anyways nothing of that sort happened and the weekend remained uneventful.
ps: this happened May 08 ...
The car had to be sold soon since there was no room for parking in the garage and parking spaces in the apt we live does not permit owner's car parking ... its for visitors' only quipped the lady when I tried to request the homeowner's association. Anyways, within couple of days of the ad being posted, there were responses for the car. One lady came by, took a test drive and promised to stop by in the evening with the money. But for some reason chickened out in the last minute. Then this Indian gujju guy came. He took the car for a test drive and also took it to AAA to get it checked. The mechanic who checked the car gave it Thumps up all the way. The carfax report gave it high 87 score. (average was 76) The gujju guy also verified all the Car services paperwork. (we had religiously serviced the car ... not once had we missed it). He put his negotiation skills to best use and tried to get the price down. He also played the "I am a student" card (he had been working for the past 6 months though). Anyways, the car was sold to this guy at a reasonable ($50 less than KBB). I was sad and glad at the same time. Took pictures alongside the car before it went away from our parking space. All paperwork was completed. (paperwork was handled by AAA ... thats quite a nice service)
Two weeks into the sale, by then I had my second daughter and this gujju guy came to our house one evening all of a sudden. He demanded the Car service paperwork. By then we had got rid of most of the papers since it didn't matter to us anymore. He threatened to call the police if I didn't hand over the paperwork to him. Apparently he had disturbed husband at office by calling him and demanding the papers. Husband had asked him to come over the weekend and not disturb him at work. Immediately after the call with my husband this guy decided to show up in our house and demand the papers. I for one had other important tasks like handling my daughters on hand and did not care much about his threat to call the cops. I calmly responded him to go ahead with his call ... and that we had completed the required paperwork while we sold the car.
This guy dialed 911 right then. The folks responding asked this guy to go out of our house and wait for the cop. Within minutes a cop showed up at our front door. The cop was a calm smart young officer. Our conversation went like this:
Cop: Did you sell the car to this guy?
Me: Yes
Cop: He is asking for service paper ...
Me: I don't have them handy .. I can try to look for it over the weekend.
Cop(looking at the guy): There ... you have it ... she is going to look for it
Guy(trying to threaten me again): Officer I want to make sure you understand this ... she is saying weekend, but she will never give it to me.
Cop: She does not need to. The pink slip paperwork is already taken care of. She has no obligation to give you the service papers anymore.
Guy:(now slightly ashamed ... but trying to put on a brave front): Make sure the papers are ready this weekend, I will come and collect it.
Me: If I find them, I will post it, no need to come here.
Cop: Thank you M'am ... sorry for the trouble.
Both of them left. As I watched from my room window, the cop seem to give a long piece of advise to the guy before both of them finally drove away.
As for us, we were very disappointed with the attitude of the gujju guy and never bothered to look for the papers. Infact we had joking been contemplating calling the cop ourselves if the guy showed up over the weekend. We could have lodged a complaint of mental harrassment :)) Anyways nothing of that sort happened and the weekend remained uneventful.
ps: this happened May 08 ...
Friday, October 10, 2008
Jet Airlines and Lexus Car
Jet Airlines is canceling its flight between San Francisco - Mumbai beginning Jan 09.
I remember the end of May when my cousin had excitedly told us how decent the flight fair was from SFO to Bengaluru. She was visiting India with her family to conduct the marriage of her first daughter. She had several expenses to take care of and so the low Airline fare proved a boon to her. She mentioned that during the promotional 3-day period, they had managed to get 5 tickets for the price of 3 tickets had they travelled by their regular Singapore Airlines. The prices sounded so tempting, I wanted to book tickets to India immediately ... didn't matter that our plan of visiting India next year was still in not solid. Our neighbors booked flight on Jet Airlines as well. They sent that their experience was not bad at all. The baggage restriction on the flight was reasonable as well.
So we had almost made up our mind to fly via Jet Airlines during our next trip to India. The only hitch was that we had to change airports in Mumbai ... but we were ready to take up that challenge.
Now the flight is being cancelled ... guess without shedding the extra bucks we are not destined to make our India trip :))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note, did you know that there are self parking cars? Apparently Lexus offers this as an optional feature in one of their sedans.
Click here
I remember the end of May when my cousin had excitedly told us how decent the flight fair was from SFO to Bengaluru. She was visiting India with her family to conduct the marriage of her first daughter. She had several expenses to take care of and so the low Airline fare proved a boon to her. She mentioned that during the promotional 3-day period, they had managed to get 5 tickets for the price of 3 tickets had they travelled by their regular Singapore Airlines. The prices sounded so tempting, I wanted to book tickets to India immediately ... didn't matter that our plan of visiting India next year was still in not solid. Our neighbors booked flight on Jet Airlines as well. They sent that their experience was not bad at all. The baggage restriction on the flight was reasonable as well.
So we had almost made up our mind to fly via Jet Airlines during our next trip to India. The only hitch was that we had to change airports in Mumbai ... but we were ready to take up that challenge.
Now the flight is being cancelled ... guess without shedding the extra bucks we are not destined to make our India trip :))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note, did you know that there are self parking cars? Apparently Lexus offers this as an optional feature in one of their sedans.
Click here
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Nepali Goddess
Nepali Goddess ??
I am in the state of shock ... right now. I don't know what to say or write except that I am sad .. very sad.
Sad not just for the little girl's future, but also all the tests mentioned in this article.
I have not witnessed this personally nor do I have a Nepali friend to check with. But if what is written in the article is true, then I am at loss of words !!
I am in the state of shock ... right now. I don't know what to say or write except that I am sad .. very sad.
Sad not just for the little girl's future, but also all the tests mentioned in this article.
I have not witnessed this personally nor do I have a Nepali friend to check with. But if what is written in the article is true, then I am at loss of words !!
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