Bangalore to Detroit...I did it :)

Bangalore to Detroit is not the highlighting part.....'WITH A LITTLE ONE' is the major part :)
Well...as my facebook update announces, I have now reached Marysville in Ohio,US.
I travelled alone with my son all the way from Bangalore to Detroit..and this little blog is all about its highs and lows :)
As soon as I knew I would be managing my little one all alone in the journey of around 24 hours...I must admit I freaked out. Then as there was no other go...did all the preparation possible to keep things under control. Google came to help as always in churning out different write-ups other moms have written while travelling alone with a baby/toddler. Most of their tips definitely helped.A big thanks to them. I had the maps of Bangalore, Frankfurt and Detroit airport almost printed in my mind.....did not want to loose anytime searching for anything...But did any of it help? You will find out soon :)

My first flight was from Bangalore to Frankfurt. Sacheth (my son) was feeling fresh at that time, so did not have much trouble in fulfilling the formalities at the airport. He fell asleep as soon as the journey started, and continued sleeping for a marathon 8 hours....Good or bad? Well....good for the co-passengers...good for him...and not soo good for me :) As he was on my lap full time, I was almost immobile the whole flight....just moving my hand to gulp down something now and then. My seat was just after the pantry (I am not sure what is the name actually used for that area....)After serving the first set of snacks, the flight attendants kept some water and lot of chocolates in that area and vanished. It wasnt personally served, and so I couldnt eat it :(. I was quite hungry already....and the look of some delicious chocolates increased it even more. With the condition I was in, I could only count how many times every person came there to take their chocolates. There was one gentleman in blue who made around 12 trips to the pantry.Everytime he was there he would drink a glass of water and grab a fistfull of chocolates into his pocket and fade away from the scene.Hmm.....his love for chocolates surely beats mine!Nothing more worth mentioning in the first leg of the jounrney...

We had around 4.5 hours wait time in the Frankfurt airport before we boarded the flight to Detroit.
My first flight landed in the B terminal of the airport and my next flight was in terminal A. With the help of some officials, I could find out that I need to take the sky train to reach there.Took the train that came to reach there....but there was some confusion and I missed the stop. Train came back to the earlier station where I had boarded. A manager or guard whoever he was in uniform came up to me and asked "What is your final destination?"...."I need to reach the gate A62"....He said "Next stop" and held a firm face without any expression....Not sure if he was thinking if we were taking a joy ride.....or may be plain helpful but couldnt convey it through his expressions.But to be frank Sacheth was really enjoying the train ride, and I did not mind as we seemed to have all the time in the world.But after the strict instruction of "Next stop", I did not dare have a repeat trip and got down. Got down and started towards my gate. During the walk is when I realised that my bags werent as light as they seemed when I strarted the journey. The backpack, a side bag on the right shoulder, Sacheth in the left arm and a cross bag which had my passport, tickets and other urgent things were all seeming like a mountain each. I found a trolley, put my bags on them and tried to make Sacheth sit on it too to relieve my hands for pushing the cart. But he seemed to be feeling a little insecure...so just refused to let go off me.With him in my hand, I couldnt push the trolley too.So put back all the bags and walked my way towards the gate. I was praying badly that there be no gate change, as I had no energy left to go to some other gate. I was hungry, and Sacheth was cranky so couldnt really explore the shops there to find something right to eat. All the shops nearby seemed to be selling meat....and I thought why am I a vegetarian?And that was just a passing thought :)


Second flight first half, Sacheth again dozed off comfortably....and I wasnt feeling sleepy :( I watched Golmaal3 instead.When the movie was over, I was feeling sleepy and Sacheth got up all fresh :) Keeping him engaged and entertained and yet not allowing him to move around was challenge in itself. But somehow managed that too. One needs to have a lot of patience while dealing with kids of this age....as they dont understand what you say...but very well understand when you are angry at them and start crying even louder. With this, by the time I reached Detroit, I was more mentally tired than physically. The wait of even 5 mins at each counters after arrival seemed like eternity. Finally I saw my husband smiling and waiting for us....he relieved me of all the luggage I had....it was such a relief. And that broad smile on Sacheth's face on seeing his dad is unexplainable....and all the tiredness of the journey just vanished....And I felt like jumping and telling...."Aah...I made it..." Yes I did it :)

Did I just scare off anyone planning to travel alone with a baby? Dont be...this is a test that you will never get to do on yourself. Its a test on your mental strength, physical strength, how long can you stay hungry, how long can you stay without using the restroom in a cold weather...its a journey worth taking.....go for it :)

Long since I wrote....

Its been long since I wrote
since I wrote to my heart's content
With so much of time gone unused
I hope in future I am not gonna repent
I might repent, as I am just loosing touch
The fingers moving once so easily to express
are resisting when I want to tell so much
I am fearing, the little writer in me is murdered
as the words I use seem so weathered
A lot of reading is what I now need
to be encouraged to give my blog a feed.

Aaja Bachpan?

We have all read many variants of the line 'Aaja bachpan ek baar phir' from different poets time and again......But is bachpan worth giving a call?

Well for me, NO!!! I am more than happy ...

C'mon guys being carefree and all is ok.....but just imagine, if childhood returns to us with the age of less than a year....we wouldnt even be communicating properly then. I see my 6 month old son cry for something....but only he would know what he is crying for...He might be having an ant biting him, and we think he has stomach ache and try to soothe him out of that....GOD no...not this stage of bachpan for me!

What if it returns at a stage when I am just going to school....well I would hate going there and would still be forced to.....no..I dont want this stage to return too!

What if it returns at a teenage.....hmm..most dangerous..whatever you say...ppl would just ignore saying..teenage!!!..not this stage either...

well after this age.....I dont call it bachpan.....

If you ever want childhood to return....dont call for it (not that it would listen to us ;)) just re-live it with a child growing.....and thats exactly what I am doing right now....

Never ever have I been so busy and yet so relieved in my life before.

So...this would mean a break to my blogging for sometime, as I gear up to catch up on some responsibilities....

I will have to learn to control my temper....else I cant get my child do it.

I will have to make sure I dont miss to brush my teeth at night, else I cant get him do it!

I cant just lie down and watch TV.....else he will do it too..

I will have to control my urge for chocolates....else....

GOD....being a parent is sooo difficult!!! Give me the strength..

Praying...

Ritha Hegde

1 hour of tension......

Ocotber 13th 2009
It was a normal day in office with the usual set of escalations, cribs and deliveries. Back home from work also had been the usual set of activities. Had cuddled under my blanket by around 10:30 and was driven away to sleep land in 5 mins…..something very usual again…. But something that happened after 45 mins from then, was not something very usual…

“Tring Tring……Tring Tring…..”
I opened an eye to see who was calling me at this time..My cellphone flashed – Anirudh Das calling….I couldn’t think of any reason why he would call me at that time…By the time I could answer the call, the ring had woken up my husband too. I picked it up and said – “Ya… Anirudh!” I don’t remember what the earlier lines that Anirudh said were, but my husband murmered…."oh your project!!!" and went back to sleep.
Anirudh was continuing on the call....“Ritha..Nishanth got a call from Vishal’s mobile. It seems he has met with an accident and is admitted in Vittal Mallya Hospital. We will be going there now.”
“Whaaat????”
“Oh you were sleeping!....sorry sorry”
“Nooo problem”
These had kind of woken me up completely from my sleep and I walked out of my room. From the living room window I could see that the rain was lashing outside. I talked.. “Take an auto Anirudh, don’t take your bike….its raining very badly outside.”
“Ab Ritha is waqth kahaan se auto milega….koi baath nahin….we will take care”
“Ok…drive carefully…. and keep me updated”

I don’t know what made Anirudh call me for this, but to be frank, I have no complaints either.
I sat alone in my living room trying to digest what he told me. Thoughts rushed in my mind..Vishal did not directly call…somebody else called Nishanth…that means he is not in a very good condition….Sent out a small prayer to God too for his well being.
Then thought we should try to contact his roommates atleast….Messaged Anirudh – “I think we should try calling up his roommates also”
After sometime, Anirudh had reached Nishanth’s place….all wet to pick him up and head to the hospital. Nishanth called me…"Hey Ritha, this is about Vishal..Anirudh told you everything right?"
“Ya Ya Nishanth tell me”
“Do you know any of his roommate’s or friend’s numbers?”
“Hmm…no actually….but I have Ramit’s Pune number… he will know someone… you can call him and check” (Ramit was in our project earlier, and had quit the company now for his MBA in Pune. Ramit was Vishal’s roommate when he was here)
“Ok can you send me his number.”
“Ya I will send it now”
“Alright Ritha….we will check”
I sent Ramit’s number to him…

Nishanth calling…. My cellphone flashed again…
“Ya Nishanth”
“Ritha…someone called again and they are telling a different hospital name now…Bowring or something.. he was talking in kannada…so could not make out properly also”
“Do you want me to call on his cel then?”
“Ya I think that will be good”
“Ok I will call Vishal’s number and get the details…I will call you back”
I dialled Vishal’s number….and someone cut the call..
I tried again…that someone who cut the call, picked it up now….
Below is the translation of what we talked in kannada
“Hello…actually we got a call from this number that there was an accident”
“Yes Madam…how many times should I tell? Why is no one coming? The body is here only!”
“Can you please tell me which hospital?”
“Bowring Hospital”
“Where is it?” My Bangalore knowledge is still very poor…I learnt later that it is quite a famous government hospital.
“Government Hospital Madam….Bowring Hospital…shivajinagar. Please come soon. By the way who are you?”
“I am his collegue…is there a ward number or something where he is?”
“No No….Body is outside only as no one has come….only when someone comes, checkup will be done.”
“Oh…..ok…. people are on their way….will be reaching soon.”
“Ya Ya come fast…and you can collect the mobile from Shivajinagar circle police station.”
“Ok..ok..thank you”
“Please don’t call again and again…we are on duty”
“Ya ok…but if we are not able to find it or we have any doubt…we will call again…please bare with us”
The guy did not respond and simply cut the call…

I called up Nishanth and told the whereabouts of the hospital.

Hearing my panic voice over the phone and getting hospital details, my husband also came to the living room. He said… “don’t take so much tension…do you also want to go?” I said… “No that is ok….Anirudh and Nishanth are going….they will tell me”. My head was reeling with words…"body lying outside"

I called Nishanth again – “Were you able to reach Ramit?”
“No not yet…trying…”
Few more mins passed…
Nishanth calling….
“Ya Nishanth”
“Hey Ritha..I talked to Ramit….he said Vishal is fine and he had talked to him an hour back.. Vishal apparently lost his mobile phone at around 10 in the night today…looks like the person who stole it met with an accident!”
“Whaat?? Oh god….anyway give me his roomie’s number…I will talk to him and sleep”
Nishanth passed on his roommate’s number to me and finally I got to talk to him.
“Could you not block your sim Vishal???”
“I did actually…they said it will take 2 hours….so in sometime I think it will get blocked”
So finally what we thought was a tragedy….ended on a happy note.
Not sure what happened to the thief in hospital…..dont know if that was a real call also or not….hope everything was good at his end too…

Thus ended the unusually panicky 1 hour………which shook away sleep off many people associated with Vishal that night.

Start Pessimistic!

Hmm…what a thought… let me explain :)

Its just about some experiences I had in my life after the ‘marriage’ phase of my life. A dear friend of mine is getting married soon and she had sooo many questions for me….I had put down my thoughts in a mail to her and thought why not put it here….share my thoughts and ofcourse as usual…bricks n brats invited :)

In my spinsterhood, I always thought that when I get married, the husband I have would be very very cruel…..something of the type present in that movie of Aishwarya Rai….there was that real life story made into movie na…I cant recollect that name now….jist is….the most terrible husband, beating up his wife for any small thing etc etc. I thought my mother-in-law would be of the typical saans type…”Kalmuhi….&*%$% .... This lady stole my son from me!” or may be “This is what your parents have taught you!” My husband’s sisters, bhabhis, brothers and all would be ever-ready to plot against me and waiting for me to do a mistake and tell it to the whole world(too much influenced by the Ekta Kapoor soaps!). And ya, my father-in-law to be of very very disciplined nature and would shout and yell at me for putting a little less salt in the sambar!
I don’t know if I am just plain lucky to have got all the above notions wrong…..but this is also true that no one is always bad.

Try this out….you start off like this, and keep your mind wide open to see the right things. One small good gesture of their’s would make you feel really really good. Expectations maan….keep them low. Like someone said, “prepare for the worst and hope for the best”, low expectations can help you prepare for the worst.

Do you ever feel one little joy in your heart when you cross a road like Hosur road in peak traffic hour? (not at the signal….generally crossing in between when vehicles are rushing in). It might seem silly….but I do… my teammate says…I walk on the road expecting each vehicle to come and hit me. Probably that’s the reason, I feel happy when I cross it alive :).
Be totally pessimistic and be ready to see any good and 99.99% of the chances you wont be disappointed.

When I get a surprise call from my hubby dear that he is at home before me, and he is planning to put the milk on boil, why do I expect him to turn off the stove when its boiled? I come home and get the baaad stench of burnt milk and all my expectations are blown off….rather burnt off!!!

Why someone else? I have seen myself only thrashing away hopes of so many people, when I dressed up like an idiot to a family function, where many of my new family members wanted to proudly introduce me to their friends and family. Way to go before I improve upon this still!

Hey, I got the Aishwarya Rai movie I was talking about…..Provoked is the movie.
Why did I expect SlumDog Millionaire to be a ‘wow’ movie? I watched it with so much of excitement and it did not live up to my expectations…… Be pessimistic!!! Sometimes it really helps…

All in all dear, if you see that you are hurt by a person, think what has gone wrong from your side….after all the person on the other end is not that bad, as you can see her/him loved by sooo many others….and you are loved too…so it could be just some thought that did not match the frequency of both…..fine tune it….you both will rock…..there will be resonating sound (remember our physics lab in PU ? experiment on resonance?)


All said and done, its your life….hold more friends than foes, more smiles than grouches….

Oh maan….just got a mail…not a good news for the project….aaaaah my day is gone….. wait why did I start cribbing? I think more than anybody, I need to go back and read my post again with all that heavy philosophy!

Have a good day!

New Year... Problems....Resolutions...

I found three topics really interesting to pen down on....
New Year..... Problems....and Resolutions...
Nothing connected to each other.....but may be they are.....let me see...
First of all.....wish you all a very happy new year....a year full of pleasant surprises.....a year full of smiles....a year full of blessings.....a year that would be really full of memories for years to come....
one second...hold on...
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k....I am back now.....had got a call......naaaaa not any friend/relative wishing Happy New Year...... some Insurance related...."Would you be interested in our offer" call.... Hmm....with my usual tone I said...."No not interested"......the lady on the other end replied...."Ok Madam...no problem....Happy New Year!" Aaaaaawwww I should have talked in a little softer tone.....but it wasnt intentional also :( I hope that poor soul gets many many customers who would want to take her offer.....my new year wish for her......
With this, I think I should make a resolution to be more kind to people when I talk.......dont know....sometimes situations turn out the way you dont want it to.......Ok....Ok....nothing happened now.... I am Ok....very much Ok.... I thought I will make a resolution that I wont eat chocolates for the complete month of Jan09.....reached office, a cubicle mate offered Toblerone and I gobbled it......then all that I told myself was...."OH!" and then..."Itna cheating tho chalega yaar!"......Hmm I have a problem....what to do? I love chocolates/icecreams/some sweets/chat items/.../.../... the list will continue;to put it in one word "JUNK". Everyone has problems......no, I am not talking about the major problems....terrorism, pak, hamas bombings.....yes there are many....but we also have so many which are great ones at some point of time, someone wants to go on a trip with friends, but the manager is hell bent on not giving leave..."I saw Karzzz in PVR!!! Paisa barbaad"....see the problems...aur suno....My friend cribbing that she is bored of eating upma every morning for breakfast...and ask me who cooks at her home....its she only who cooks...now what problem is this!!!!!!One more saying..."Rithaaaa I lost my ATM card again"...hmm there is a serious problem... someone is desperately trying to reach to her crush....but the call is not going thru....see problem exists......and in many cases, the problem persists...
With all this as part of life in 2008, we have stepped into 2009.....We dont know what's in store (dont ask me which store..medical store or retail store......Did you shout NO PJs????)

Enjoy your year ahead....if Resolutions are a problem...just chuck them....leave it....one of my friends has put in her status message : "Resolutions!!!" sounds so broken... Do you like the sound of someone breaking a piece of chocolate with nuts??

Lazy Sunday....

Do you feel the same too?

Lazy Sunday...

Waking up at eleven in the morning
Freshening up, but still yawning
Hunger is more and the energy low….
“Should I have breakfast or lunch now?”
Who cares about it anyway?
Life feels a waste sometimes on this lazy Sunday….


Pick up the laptop to check for mails…
Routine of checking new movies never fails….
Sit with friends and discuss just anything
Fight to watch your favourite show on tv
and end up seeing youtube videos and enjoying..
Life feels fun sometimes on this lazy Sunday…

Gobble up something in the name of dinner…
Play that last game online and declare yourself a winner…
Complain that the weekend is getting over….
Promising that we will not waste a weekend ever..
The promise which is kept never….
Life feels philosophical sometimes on this lazy Sunday…

-- Ritha Hegde