Golmaal - one after another

What are your thoughts on Rohit Shetty's Golmaal series, Singham and now Bol Bachchan? I will admit, I liked his first Golmaal, I mean the movie. But he thought he has struck gold with a franchise. He blatantly copied a yesteryear movie called 'Aaj ki Taaza Khabar' starring Kiran Kumar and Asrani. I was surprised none of the reviews mentioned this. Anyways, the original with lesser known stars was much better. The third Golmaal bore a striking resemblence to a comedy serial 'Family No. 1' featuring Kanwaljeet Singh and Tanvi Aazmi. I gave second and third one amiss, only catching bits and pieces on the TV. But I saw enough to comment on those movies. Singham was way over the top for my taste and goes with the same formula which every actor in the running today is falling for. Put on a moustache, some gravity-defying stunts and throw in a coy heroine and some over-the-top dialogues, and you get a 100 crore movie. And the director starts feeling that he has arrived. I am most depressed by the trailors of this new movie called 'Bol Bachchan' conveniently starring Abhishek Bachchan alongwith Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan appearing in one song to give much needed push to Abhishek's career! The most depressing part is that it is supposed to be a remake of that Amol Palekar-Utpal Dutt classic 'Golmaal'! Ah, and I heard somebody is remaking that classic 'Chashm-e-baddoor' too. Why God? Why?

Puraane Paap

I remember one Diwali night, as usual we went out quite late for crackers etc. It must be around 3.5 years back. With rangoli inside and outside the house, diwali poojan, going to neighbours'place with mithai; it gets really late by the time we actually get time to relax. I have never been a fan of bursting crackers. It only amounts to wastage and pollution. Nevertheless, that particular Diwali I was accompanying my husband and some friends. We went to the far end of our society for some aatishbazi. After one of us fired a double sound or probably a chocolate bomb, a couple came out into their balcony in the building closest to us. They were really angry as they had been trying to put their baby to sleep but the baby started howling again because of the sound. And the time was well past midnight. At that time I clearly remember I was quite angry because I thought we should be free to do what we want to do. What can we do if their baby was not sleeping. It was their problem, not ours. Nevertheless, we left thereafter, with a lot of grumbling.
On this day, I know what it means to put a baby to sleep. And therefore, I take this opportunity to say a heartfelt sorry to that couple and their baby for my insensitivity. I often think about this incident when my son gives me a hard time while sleeping. Consider this a confession!

Setting an example for your children

I happened to catch the trailer of this new movie 'Ferrari ki Savari'. Sharman Joshi goes up to the traffic cop and asks him to give him challan for jumping the red light. The cop says but nobody saw you. Sharman says his son has seen him, and kids learn from their parents!
Ok this issue is close to my heart. I strongly believe in 'practise what you preach'. Especiall for kids, in this big world, parents are their first school and young minds are impressioned by what they imbibe from parents. So these days I am vey conscious of myself, always double checking on my behaviour and actions. The list is very very long. Right from disciplinary things like brushing twice daily and throwing garbage only in the bin, to behavioural ones like not bitching about people and things, appreciating little gestures and life's blessings, helping others, and I would also like to tone down the importance we give to materialistic things like bigge car is bette or new mobile or new gizmos, etc. The more gaga we ourselves will be towards gadgets, gizmos and shopping, the more attention and importance our children will give to these. 

Facebook addiction

I am one internet and Facebook addict. I am connected the whole day. I am neither interested in giving my updates, nor in minute-to-minute updates of others. Actually FB used to be a great medium to get the latest updates on things you are interested in like new books from different publishers, new activities for kids, new offers on websites you frequent, newsbites from publications you follow, new issues hitting the stands of your favourite periodicals, to name a few! But recently, I came to know that FB is going to charge these entities some amount so that their updates would be visible to those who follow them. That is going to be tricky. I don't think non-business entities are going to pay, and we will suffer. Now we will have to check out individual pages for updates I suppose. 

Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di

There are many things which I don't like about myself but there are a few things which I am quite proud of! It is the dedication with which I commit to things.

Till the time I finished my graduation, after having dropped the idea of doing fashion designing, I was not sure about what to do careerwise. I have always wanted to write but I wasn't too confident about it at that time. My brother suggested MBA and I quite liked the idea. I applied for many colleges because I had already dropped a year, since I did not appear for CAT during my final year. To cut the long story short, I dedicated myself to the preparation whole-heartedly. For the first time in my life, I even heard my mom tell me, you have been studying for too long, why don't you take a break! I got many interview calls and I took admission in the 2nd college I cleared. There wasn't time to wait to finish off all the calls and then decide. I have no regrets. It was a good college and I met my future husband there :-)I was obsessed about Advertising and in one of my first few posts on this blog, I have discussed in detail how I landed the only Advertising job I wanted, on campus.While I was working in Mumbai, my then boyfriend, now husband, was in Pune. I think Neeta travels should have offerred me annual membership discount for the number of times I travelled between the cities!I quit my job 1.5 years back, but all the time I spent in that Marketing Communication profile I did my best. I am sure my ex-bosses and ex-team members also felt the same way about my dedication. I would always be straight forward on what was possible and many times I pushed myself hard on meeting some difficult deadlines. Because the exhilaration of a job well done is something else. I always reveled in the glory of finishing my commitments successfully.I had been nudged covertly and overtly several times on when we wer planning to start a family. We were given examples of how couples were barely taking 9 months to produce offspring, we had taken way too long. As if they are going to take care of my kids! Anyways I was always clear, I want a baby only when I can offer him all my time. I was not going to compromise either on my job commitments or responsibilities towards my child. He deserves my attention and time. I quit from my job because I wanted people to remember me for the good work I had done, and not somebody who struggled to strike a balance and live every moment in guilt. I have my limitations. I can either be an excellent worker or a good mom, in my standards. I cannot be both with perfection. With due respect to all working moms, it is strictly my opinion and honest admission about my priorities, which are mental peace and perfection. In the last 1.5 years, I have never missed my job, neither have I regretted my decision. I do crave for a break once in a while but I am thankful to God that I have been given this opportunity to spend so much time with my baby. These moments are priceless.

Satyamev Jayate

For the nth time, I don't watch TV much. But I did catch Satyamev Jayate's first episode. I was very cynical about it, you know, somehow I still feel Amir Khan is eventually getting into politics! But that's not the point. The first episode was promising. An issue which public empathizes with, some statistics, some startling facts, crisp editing, peppered with emotions; the programme was good. I watched the second episode online as I was busy at the time. The issue was closer to my heart, Child Sexual Abuse.
I have read a book called Bitter Chocolate by Pinki Virani on the same subject. It is a difficult book to read but I recommend it to every parent. We need to confront the issue to address it. And most of all, we need to trust our instincts and our kids. They can tell a lot, through words and their behaviour, but we need to pay attention. Of course, we are busy all the time, but childhood is such a tender and precious time for children, we need to do everything possible that our kids should only have fond memories of those times. We owe it to them.
Coming back to the show. I don't know if it can change anything, atleast the presence of a celebrity like Amir Khan definitely provides these issues attention. Any positive change is a step forward, so we shoukd stop criticising just for the heck of it!

Upbringing

I was never the one too much into kids. I never thought much about parenting either, until it fell upon myself. After having baby, I started to have some strong opinions about things, instinctively.  I am a strong believer in leading by example so I try my best to correct the thins within myself, which I want my baby to imbibe. He still may not, but kids often idolise their parnts because tey do not have any other reference point in the beginning. They look upto their parents. So if I have to inculcate good habits in him, I need to practise those myself. And I am all for it.
Secondly, I do not want my baby to grow up with certain traditional prejudices like girls do certain things and boys do certain things. Our upbringing has been conditioned in that way, sometimes my thinking is also clouded by such prejudices but I quickly correct myself. For example, I don't believe in pink being a girlie colour and blue being a colour for boys, or say girls play with kitchen stuff and boys with guns or cars; you get the drift?
I have always said enough number of times and on enough platforms that TV does more harm than good, to kids as well as to us. If ther was no TV, we would be spending more time together as a family should, doing things together. TV just eats up all the attention and time. Kids will grow up anyways but we will lose wonderful opportunities to bond together. Because bonding happens gradually, not one fine day!
P.S. I am yet to get a keyboard for my Tab, until then please bear with typo errors. It is difficult to type an entire post on touch screen, in fact, I blame it for not posting often enough!

Full time babysitting and First Birthday dilemma

I am back after what looks like ages, but frankly I was always around, never got onto writing anything here though!
The other day I realised I have been home since last 1.5 years. My blogs don't reflect much activity though. As all parents of babies / infants / toddlers would empathise, being the primary caregiver of one, single-handedly for most of the time, is one of the toughest jobs in the world; definitely 100 times tougher than anything that I did in my 5.5 years of corporate job!
As my husband pointed out the other day, our lives did not change much when we got married, but after having baby, we can barely recognise our earlier life! In short, it is very, very tough, overwhelming and sometimes I break down too with sheer helplessness but make no mistake I wouldn't have it any other way. The little bundle of joy, which sure he is, makes it all worth it.
But I do miss a break sometimes. Imagine being with an infant 24X7, who needs constant attention otherwise he might get hurt, you need to be on your toes all the time. So I don't even get to read all the amazing books I keep buying. Whateve time I get even now, I end up reading parenting articles on my Tab. Ah mothers! they just want to do their best because creating an individual is a big responsibility, and as they say childhood is like clay, you need to be careful because the imprints will remain forever.
My life pretty much is on hold, I hate to admit, but yes. Of late, the exertion has also made me unwell and I am sort of recuperating at my parent's place. After much investigation, I was found deficient in Vitamin D.
Meanwhile, I am also thinking about the little one's first birthday. I have evry intention to not celebrate it because I think it is stressful for infants. I have not found any kid enjoying his or her first birthday. Period. It is more for the parents than for the kid! I want to give my baby sime nature experience because a. I think he enjoys looking at birds, trees, skym etc, and b. kids generally enjoy nature. So I am just exploring some options. Good thing is hubby is not too hung up on first birthday party too.
I think from 2nd birthday onwards, kids start enjoying the party and friends. Right now, we should just avoid. I am looking for ideas at the moment for some nature experience. I am open for 2 day trip too. In any case, we haven't been out and about for 2 years now, not counting the trips to both sets of parents.