Trying to get back!!!

I know i have taken almost an year's break and i can find so many excuses too for the same...
But i do have to say that motherhood, relocating to a new place, setting up house, the lill one doing new new things etc has kept me busy for sure...And now when i try to atleast check my mail, my lill boy hates it :P Ohh ya he is one attention seeking, possesive little loving devil for sure.....

So, slowly bit by bit, i am gonna try to return to the world of blogging...Wish me luck :) (And i do have to do it while he sleeps and thats a tough task for him :( )

A new year, a new beginning, a new step in life!!!

This happens to be my first post for the year 2010. So wishing you all a very happy New Year and hope that it is the case with everyone and that all of you have started enjoying the new year…

Well I do have to say that this was indeed a very very long break for me (I have never taken such a looong break from the world of blogs before) and it was indeed very necessary to take it. The year 2010 is a very memorable year for me and it has already brought me lots of pain and joy and specially the date 01/01/2010 i.e. the first of January is extremely memorable for me… Ya as many of you already know it; my little one arrived on this particular day. And now this bundle of joy and pain was worth the wait I guess ;P

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, my expected date of delivery was 24th December and so mostly everyone thought that it would be a Christmas baby… Well since nothing happened on 24th and since my doctor told that I might have to wait for a few more days I enjoyed that day by going out for shopping and watching a movie… Then for Christmas I guess I did go to church and all, but honestly I really don’t remember and can’t seem to recollect whether I went to my cousins place for dinner and the whole works or whether I stayed back at home…hummm

Well guys before I go any further, I really have to mention the fact that I want to keep this a happy post and will write about all the gory facts and about the pains of this New Year in a totally different post. And I also feel that it’s best not to mix the feelings of joy with the pains and disappointments of 2010 which has just started…

Well I will just say that my pains started on 31st December night or rather in the evening and I finally delivered my little one on Jan 1st night (that also close to 10 pm). Even though I did face some problems during delivery I have to thank God that I got my son safely other than the fact that he has a red mark on the left side of his face which happened due to delivery trauma and which the doc says will disappear in a couple of years.

Day by day he is proving to be very naughty, sweet and already has a very aggressive mind of his own. But I do truly have to say that he is very sweet and cry’s the house down only when he starts to feel even a weenie bit hungry. And if we are late in giving him his milk, we do get a tongue-lashing (at times) or a lot of sad complaints in his own language while he drinks his milk :) hehe, well I am starting to enjoy motherhood which is certainly not easy and does tend to make me crazy at times and drives me up the wall… I am ready to pull my hair out at times, but I also do get my extremely happy moments too…

Right now, I am down in India and I guess it was ok and fun to be down here again… But guys I truly cannot stand the heat and same is the case with my little one…. Both of us sweat like pigs and I sit and curse the heat and keep telling that I want rains, that too heavy downpours… Well I did get my rains in between. To make up for the frequent current cuts, my father-in-law did get a generator so that his grandson won’t have to suffer the heat too much as it was an extreme change of climate for the little one…From the cold cold winter to smoldering heat and humidity :D

Anyway, thank the good lord that he has adjusted well to the climate change and is doing ok now… I do have to say that babies do have some (I would rather say a lot) tricks up their sleeve. When the current goes, he stops drinking his milk and stares at the fan… He will keep doing that until the current comes back or till we switch on the generator.

Well now he has entered his 4th month and his antics are growing day by day. God help me to keep my wits about me and am thankful that hair colors are available to cover my gray hairs that will keep increasing as the days go by…. I know that life and motherhood does have its ups and downs, I just hope that I will be able to cope well and in a sensible manner. As it is, since my hubby and in-laws do tend to get upset and alarmed too often if anything goes wrong with the little one, I have to keep my wits about me and have to be the cool one. (Even though I might be alarmed myself, I certainly cannot show that and my fear and can only keep hoping to God that nothing is wrong and that the baby is crying for silly issues only…. Phewww easy to say only!!!! )

So here starts a new phase in life for me along with a new year…. The other facts will come in later posts as I just want to stick to the happy facts right now. I just hope that I will be able to snatch some bits and pieces of time in between to update my blog and also to catch up on blogsvile….

A combination of topics!!!

Well this post seems to be mixture of things and I am just typing down anything and everything that comes to my mind. As always I have been intending to post something and as usual I have put it off. How typical of me now!!!

Well, one main reason was that unlike during the earlier days, I was not getting enough opportunities to blog hop or even pen down a few words for my own blog due to work and some situations.



One thing I badly wanted to do during that period was that I wanted to pen down a few things about the movie ‘Pazhassi Raja’ as soon as I saw it, but kept putting off that too and finally ended up chucking the whole thing off. I do know there was a lot of praise and criticism for the movie, but it was good anyway. I did however feel that some element was missing and do not know what exactly it is…

Even though I am a Keralite, I certainly do not know much about the proud history of the state. Well u really cannot blame me for that as that’s the situation with our school systems. Another reason is that due to having done part of my schooling abroad and later part of it even though I did study in Kerala and all, I didn’t have to deal with Kerala History at all due to having followed the CBSE syllabus and all… Well one thing I can say I am proud of is that I learnt to read, write and speak Malayalam on my own and the toughest was learning to read and write. Well I won’t say that I can write well, but can speak well anyway :)

So at least watching a movie like ‘Pazhassi Raja’ made me wonder about the history of Kerala and all the brave people who fought for it etc. Although certain facts may or may not be correct in the film, we do have to give the film its due credit. After all it’s more of a film in this current era and not some autobiography or something… The film was picturised well and I did like it although I did feel that some of the foreign actors could have done better. Another thing is that for a Malayalam movie, this budget itself was way too much, so I really do have to say that they managed really well with whatever was available.



Now moving on from that topic - it’s December and even though the weather is turning cold and all, I do enjoy the holiday season and mainly the mental feel of it all. Well ya true that we won’t get much of a holiday feel and all coz we are in the gulf and there is no holiday as such for Christmas. Another sad fact is that Christmas will be on a Friday this year so most people will not be able to take an extra day off, but in another way it’s good for all those who won’t get off days anyway.

I guess it’s in India and other countries that we feel the festivities and the mood of the holiday season and all. I just love looking forward to the colourful holiday season, the celebrations related to Christmas and new year, the excitement that is seen among everyone, looking forward to the end of another year and the start of a new one hoping that it will be filled with wonderful things etc etc…

Another new thing for me this year is that life is going to take another turn and stepping into another phase in life is certainly a huge step and at this point very frightening for me. Motherhood and its responsibilities were a distant thought for me and suddenly I am faced with the realities of it. Well I guess the full shock of it will be set on me only after the delivery and the after the arrival of the little one. That’s when I am going to really really wonder what I have got myself into for a lifetime :)

Well, thanks to all the dear friends and well wishers who have already gone through the experience, they all are trying their level best to calm me and are telling me that’s it’s ok, no problem; it’s a wonderful experience and so on; I sure do hope that will be the case and that I will be able to deal with everything positively.
I am now finishing my 38th week (that is 2 weeks past my 9th month) and have around 14 to 15 days until the due date that my doctor has officially given. Basically the official date is for around Christmas and God only will get to decide the exact date. So I’m hoping to work till the end of next week if everything goes according to schedule and all.



Moving on again to another topic – I watched the Malayalam movie called Swa Le (short for Swantham Lekakhan, Staff Reporter) 2 days back and liked it a lot. Even though my brother and hubby were not at all interested in watching the movie, me and mom dragged both of them and my dad along and went for the movie. My poor tired dad as usual had a peaceful sleep during the whole movie while I saw my dear hubby and brother laughing their heads of on hearing some of the jokes in the movie. Ohh ya I (the devil in me hehe) did make them admit that it was a really good movie :D
I am not giving a review or anything about the movie as it will depend upon each person’s outlook and taste. I certainly am not saying that the movie is a huge thing or anything and even though it opened with such expectations, there were some flaws and all. But still it did provide me with the necessary entertainment.

In case any of you want to know what the story is all about, here is a small description:
The story set in the late eighties (a time before the 24-hour news channels and mobile phones) mentions about the big dailies of Malayalam, its fight over circulation, their staff reporters trying to do something overboard to support something anew, exclusive for their news papers etc.

This current generation which is used to the technology, will find it hard to digest the fate of many working with specific deadlines. Same was the case of the news man who had to really travel distances to fetch and create scoops and stories. ‘Swa Le’ has Dileep as Unnimadhavan, a committed reporter of Janachintha, chasing for stories, with an ill mannered part-time photographer Chandramohan (Salim Kumar). He has signed for a seven year bond with the small daily, which is in full throat activity to increase the circulation. With his meagre salary, Unnimadhavan finds the going tough and struggles to find enough time to devote to his pregnant wife Vimala (Gopika), who is staying in a rented house away from the city in a quiet village, that also across the river, with no proper health facilities and transportation. Since they married without the consent from her parents, and his parents r deceased there is no one to help them.

Things get worse as Unni is sent to report the state of a famous writer Paalaazhy Sivashankara Pillai (Nedumudi Venu) who is in his death bed. As he is asked to stay at the writer’s house daily till 3 am, until the last edition is out, Unni has to face the problem of having his pregnant wife all along at home, the problems she is having and all such things, but has to keep it all for himself due to fear about facing legal action from the paper if he leaves his job and so on. The movie goes on to tell how his struggles with time and emotions, finally provide fruitful, making him a big name in the media business.

The movie has succeeded to illicit some lighter chuckles all the way with the sensitive handling of the subject and with the honest narratives and plenty of inside jokes about the industry of the period. Dileep makes a cake walk through the role of Unnimadhavan, depicting the struggles of the working journalist with flare. Gopika also did a good job, even though I felt that her role did not have enough to do in the movie.

I guess that’s enough explanation about the movie right?

I am so happy to know that a very good and close friend’s short film ‘My Paper Boat’ has been chosen to be screened in the Copenhagen summit. And another amazing fact is that it competed with films from very experienced directors etc and has been the only short film from India to be chosen to be screened at the summit. Another thing is that I am also so happy to see many of his hard work paying off and happy that he is slowly being able to realize his dreams step by step.

Here is a link to the write up that came about them –

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Chennai%20to%20Copenhagen&artid=oEJL5ark2AU=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=

Here is the link to the campaign site:
http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com/

In this u can view the short film My Paper Boat

I guess I better stop writing now as I might go on and on about a few things and also about lost dreams and all :P

Swine Flu or AH1N1

Photo Caption: The injectable version of the swine flu vaccine is shown Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 at Broadmoor Elementary School in Miami. The Miami-Dade County Health Department launched their H1N1 vaccination campaign Monday after having received their initial shipments. (AP)

I have been doing some extensive research about swine flu for my company and have suddenly come across so many facts which are indeed alarming. Up until now, I chose to ignore the disease all together to a certain extend so that I wouldn’t have to live in fear every day. But now when I read more and more facts, its alarming fact indeed and cannot be just ignored. None of us can ignore the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the swine flu pandemic "unstoppable".

Here are a few facts:
According to a review of the current epidemiologic data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- between 1% & 10% of people who develop swine flu require hospitalization. The new data was discussed on 27–29 October at a meeting of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. Up to 25% of hospitalized people are admitted to intensive care units, and between 2% & 9% die. Pregnant women make up 7% to 10% of hospitalized patients.

The pandemic virus has infected millions globally with more than 6000 documented deaths and likely far more. The swine flu vaccine has been tested for only a few weeks on a few thousand healthy children and adults, including very few pregnant women, so we don't know how safe it really is for pregnant women, children and adults with chronic illness even though they are being specially targeted for vaccination by government health officials. There is also very little information about how safe it is to give swine flu vaccine with other vaccines, including seasonal influenza vaccine.

What is all the more surprising is that - Swine flu has driven up the price of horse meat in Mongolia, closed schools across Afghanistan and Ukraine and sparked a quarrel over whether detainees at the US base in Cuba should be vaccinated. Swine flu has also gone on to hit an isolated tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle and more than 1000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela are believed to have caught the flu and it is feared that the flu will sweep through the area and kill many as these people do not have resistance to such introduced diseases.

Well look at the far reaching effects this flu which has travelled all over the world in such a short span of time and created such chaos. It is certainly a worrying factor that new new diseases are being introduced into the world and they are becoming unstoppable too. How do we live in fear everyday of our lives?

In my present stage, I am also too confused about the vaccine and am certainly not confident about taking the vaccine shot even though the health minister, other cabinet members and senior Ministry of Health officials were the first to receive vaccinations in order to show to the public in Kuwait that the vaccine is safe. I mean on what guarantee do I take that vaccination? How can I be sure that it won’t affect me or the baby for sure? How can I get the guarantee that no long term effects will show up later? With winter just around the corner, the climate has already started changing and many are down with the seasonal cold and flu which makes it all the more alarming as Swine flu is going to spread all the more.

Well the world just seems to be getting scarier by the day to live in with new threats, new diseases, new problems and all the kind!!!

Unhappy!!!!

It’s been quite some time since I have blogged or blog-hopped for that matter. I really missed visiting the regular blogs that I read and I have been itching to write about many things too. Many a times I did start writing about all the things that I openly wanted to write about, but had to control myself midway as I knew that posting it wouldn’t be a good idea. I guess if the wrong people had read it, they would certainly have taken it in the wrong sense and that would have been a disaster (not that it mattered much to me!).

Anyway, I am really unhappy at present and my mental state has not been too good as I was feeling so low and depressed the whole of this past week and would have been happy if things had gone the way I wanted it to. But it doesn’t look like that it will and that makes me wonder about what I really want right now…

Luckily my spirits did cheer up after chatting about the problems to a few close friends who did give me all the support I wanted and told me all the right things. And boy am I lucky to have at least these good buddies to speak to even though they are in different parts of the world. Thank God for small blessings like these :)

I don’t know when, but I do have to find some time to visit all the blogs that I want to and I have already found that I have missed many posts which I know I’m going to enjoy when I finally sit down to it. Ahh I wish I could write a bit more openly so that I could really take a few things off my mind and be free of it. Anyway I am giving in to some things for the time being and hope that I can solve it and be rid of it in the near future, but am only wondering how I will put up with all that till then…

Anyway let’s see how things turn out and I do hope that things will go well soon enough. I guess I have to be more positive about things and try to portray a more positive image. But my main problem is that when I have been hurt really bad by somebody, its difficult for me to smile at that person the next moment and behave as if that person is the best person in the world. It will take me a few days to let the matter go and then only will I be able to smile openly… isn’t that always better rather than keeping so much bitterness in the heart and then behaving artificially on the outside? Well I hate backstabbing and all those things….Well looks like I am starting to blabber which I shouldn’t… I hope that I will return with a happy post soon!!!

Genetic /other disorders high among Arab population

After quite a long time I have decided to write about something serious and that has absolutely nothing to do with me. I know it might sound boring, but I have been thinking about this particular topic a lot mainly because I found that there are a lot of genetic or that kind of related disorders among the Arab population and it’s very alarming to find it at such a high rate in a small country like Kuwait.

Ok I certainly am not an expert on this topic, nor have I done much research into it and I certainly cannot claim that this is 100% correct because it’s just an observation made from a normal human being like me and I certainly am no doctor. I certainly am not hurting anyone’s feeling, patriotism and such in the long run as this is just based on some firsthand information that I received.

Once I found out about this common occurrence of disorders among the citizens here, I started looking it up in the internet and also talked to a few Kuwaiti friends and they told me that there is an alarmingly high rate of disorders like ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders); ADD (Attention Deficit Disorders); MS (Multiple Sclerosis); Autism; Dyslexia etc among their people… Another set of common medical problems that I have found among the Kuwaitis are – Diabetics, Obesity and various forms of Cancer (Lung, mouth and breast cancer being the most common).

Some facts that I know for sure are – I do know many Kuwaitis who suffer from ADHD, ADD, Autism, MS etc and since every other person I see seems to be suffering from obesity and diabetics I cannot tell that it’s a huge thing anymore. But I certainly would like to know why the above said are common among the Arab population.

I did some more reading up on it and found that one common cause that most researchers, sites say is that: Inbreeding is the most common cause of genetic disorder among Arab population. Well, since the practice of interfamily marriage is still relatively common among Arabs because of the structure of the Arabic society I guess that sure seems to be the main reason. But I guess they don’t have much of a choice when it comes to marriages as they have limited options to choose from and unlike India which has a huge population, Kuwait does not have such a variety to choose from :P

MS seems to be common among the women and ADHD/ADD is now common among the children. I guess obesity and diabetics must be mainly due to the life style, the kind of food they consume and so on. But one thing we do have to note is that the younger generation has become very conscious about health and body weight and so on and I know so many who are so adamant about going to the gym to be in shape. I guess the change is mostly due to their exposure to the western countries and growing education levels and so on. Another fact that has to be noted is that most of them are marrying foreigners too (even though it’s for various other reasons). I guess that will certainly reduce the common occurrence of such problems.

I do guess that a lot of publicity has to be given into this matter so that people take more notice of these facts and try and do something to get a healthier next generation. A lot of programs have to be conducted to create the necessary awareness and it has to be targeted at all sections of society so that the message reaches all. I do know that the government and other agencies have started doing a good work towards this and there were several campaigns about breast cancer awareness, awareness about the harmful effects of smoking and so on. I just hope that the good works goes on a much stronger note.

Wow, more reading up seems to have confused me and now I am hearing about new disorders and stuff. I just went through another study which showed another set of common disorders seen in Kuwait and they are:
•The Bardet-Biedl syndrome - which is a ciliopathic human genetic disorder that produces many effects and affects many body systems. It is characterized principally by obesity, retinitis pigmentosa, polydactyly, mental retardation, hypogonadism, and renal failure in some cases.
•Laurence-Moon syndrome - is a rare hereditary condition associated with retinitis pigmentosa, spastic paraplegia, hypogonadism and mental retardation.
•Meckel syndrome - (also known as Meckel-Gruber Syndrome, Gruber Syndrome, Dysencephalia Splanchnocystica) is a rare, lethal, ciliopathic, genetic disorder, characterized by renal cystic dysplasia, central nervous system malformations, and hepatic developmental defects.
•Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) - is a severe recessive X-linked form of muscular dystrophy characterized by rapid progression of muscle degeneration, eventually leading to loss of ambulation and death. This affliction affects one in 3500 males, making it the most prevalent of muscular dystrophies. In general, only males are afflicted, though females can be carriers.
•Phenylketonuria (PKU)- is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by a deficiency in the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). This enzyme is necessary to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine.

And I guess I better stop about new diseases and their meanings as this is no medical blog or encyclopedia… (Courtesy of explanation about the above diseases from Wikipedia and images from google images)
I guess by now I would have managed to confuse many of you with this post, but I just wanted to write about it ever since I have known about these facts…

Baby Bloom Everywhere

Looks like its baby bloom time all around me… Suddenly so many of my friends seem to be having babies or have just had their little ones recently... And so many including me are in the waiting line too!!!

It sure is fun to read all the emails about the latest news, the latest happenings in all their lives and its sure does give me the creeps too when I wonder how I will be able to cope with all this. Anyway, it is certainly wonderful to get reassuring replies from everyone telling that we will cope fine and all :)

Humm well hope that their words come true and that we will cope well with the new changes in life. When I think about it more, it sure is freaky like hell to think about what a change it is in life and that we have to suddenly become more responsible. Well I don’t mind the responsible part, but this is just not any responsibility. You are becoming responsible for another human being for the rest of your life, you have to plan so many things in life now and now it will have to totally become a separate family thing like your child and spouse will definitely have to become first priorities. Well I hope I can work it all out… Phewww!!!

It sure was a very hot summer here but now the temperatures have started reducing and it sure is a relief to have a cool breeze in the evenings at least instead of the irritating hot blasts of air… I sure did enjoy the slow life and lesser timings at work due to the summer in Kuwait and also mainly due to the fact that so many people travel out of the country and life becomes slower and roads become less congested. To top it, we had Ramadan also recently which made life all the more slower and I sure enjoyed it because of the really short work timings which gave me amble time to reach home early, rest more etc…

The unexpected long holiday for Eid was another added blessing because my aunt and uncle had come down from US and life got so hectic last week as it was get-togethers at different places for us and it all went on from early in the evening to the wee hours of morning. Every day for those 6 days we used to reach home only after 3:00 am and luckily I was able to stay in bed till afternoon next day. It was only my poor dad who had to wake up every day at least by 6:30 am so that he could attend the phone calls and then go to work and all.

Now Eid and all are over and it’s back to the old work timings and all. I sure don’t enjoy that too much and plus the roads are back to being congested too. But ya life is like that and we all sure have to cope up with it. Winter also will slowly start creeping in and suddenly out of the blue it will be so damn cold to do anything… That’s when we will start complaining all the more about having to wake up to go to work, about not having central heating and all that nonsense. (Well the main signs of winter creeping in here now is – its winter clothes everywhere and the summer ones are all on sale and stuff and not the climate… that’s why I said out of the blue it will suddenly be so cold!)

Anyway I am looking forward to a good and pleasant climate and also waiting for some positive changes which has to happen really soon and keeping my fingers crossed so that some things will work out real fast… I just hope that the things I want will work out soon and God will certainly listen to our prayers!!!

Another Blessed year!!!

Wow I can’t believe that another year in life has passed by so soon and it’s not like I’m getting any younger or anything and I certainly do not want my school and early years back… Well I would certainly love to have my post graduation years back coz it was so much fun :)

Anyway, I know that I have to thank the good Lord for the blessings that happened in the past year/years and am especially thankful that life is going on OK and that things went good so far… This year will also add another great change in my life and ya I’m certainly going to step into another phase in life soon… ‘Motherhood’

Pheww don’t ask me how I feel coz I seriously do not know and I do not know if I am looking forward to the coming years and sleepless nights… I just hope that I will be able to handle everything well without making a wreak of myself and others. Ya life has to move on and it’s the various cycles of life that is taking place. But it all also depends on how we handle things too right and that’s the only part where I’m a little worried…

Anyway, even though yesterday was a great day in life and all, my hubby darling was not able to make it here for my birthday thanks to the Jet Airways pilots strike… What else can I say about it? Anyway I just heard that the strike is over and hopefully the services will resume today and hubby will make it here tonight…

Just hoping and praying for a few good years ahead :)