This Blog Has Been Removed

Yes that was the message I got when I logged on to see my blog yesterday.
The blog had disappeared from the face of google. Was not even appearing on searches. Neither on my dashboard.
When a scheduled post did not appear on my email, I got suspicious and logged on to the blog. Imagine the shock. Colour draining from my face, stomach cramps and restlessness and crankiness and all that. I rooted around, did searches, mailed to friends to check the blog. Looked for the xml I had saved yonks ago and could find only a word document of posts.

And dear Monika called from Lavasa the moment she heard of it. So sweet of her. Like a mother hen she did lots of virtual clucking and hand holding and smsing into the evening and adviced me to go to bukvorm who put in a very strong word to those who matter. Soundest advice I guess as perhaps that worked because blogger forums had a very negative picture of getting back your blogs quickly.
Parallely I went to blogger help and posted a request to bring my blog back to life in their forum and also logged my blog name on their spreadsheet.
I called google and they assured me that going through the help forum is the surest and fastest way to get the blog back and that there is no contact person to whom I could voice my concerns.
Meanwhile Cee the expert put her head on to it and gave me lots of links to go through and offered a massive help to try and figure out things for me.
I bugged people, cried on their virtual shoulders, pestered everyone including the husband to work the magic through his team.
Friends mailed me asking about the site.
Thank you all of you for missing the blog as much as I did. I realised how important it is to me. Even though I have a back up of all posts on a word file and on email and comments on the email, it is really not the same - because the blog also is made of comments in real time. I couldn't possibly post back all comments on each post.
I agonised the entire night. And had vivid dreams of typing the url and finding my site back in action.
This morning I woke up and straight went onto the site. Voila, it was back.
The first thing what I did was-
Go to dashboard settings- basic- blogging tools
and Exported my blog onto an xml.
The xml took some time considering the years of work and loads of pics on them.
And then I made a private blog (yeah blogspot again as this seemed the simplest and quickest at that point of time) and imported this xml onto it. Being a private blog, it is not open to spam comments which could be a reason for blog removal or perhaps some maintenance issue where my site got caught.
Now I am evaluating a few options-
1. Put an alternate blog version on wordpress.
or
2. Go to my own domain.
What say readers?
Meanwhile as a standard operating protocol, I will back up my blog every week. And import it to the private blog.
Comment moderation would help? Atleast I can avoid spams being posted.
I went through my emails & spam comment inbox in blogger and rooted out spam comments and deleted them dilligently from the blog archives.
The world seems a happier place today.

The N8 Arriveth

First of all, Thank you Nokia people, it has been worth the wait.

Last Chirstmas, I got a mail saying we would like to send you something from Nokia and a little something for my family. To be honest I thought it was a spam, it sounded so suspicious, send us your address and all that. In these days of mailbox spamming, we have learnt to look a gift horse in the mouth and count all its teeth and all that.


So when this mail came, I very hesitatingly sent my office address and then did not hear from them for some time. Then a mail came asking did you recieve your gift. So that made me really believe in them and the real waiting game started.


I guess there were hitches at customs, the much awaited gift went back and was duly dispatched this time to my home address- I got more trusting as the email exchanges increased.


And finally yesterday the much awaited parcel arrived all the way from US..... drum rolls, dhan te naan....



This lovely leather case hold the gift. (And Tejas doesn't want to stop holding the case)

This is the lovely pop up picture book, it made me go back to my younger days when I had 2 such picture books that were much treasured.

The story of Tim & Jenny who are having the enviable task of deciding where to go for a vacation. They ask around for suggestions to all and sundry and they finally realize that the best people to ask is each other, your loved ones.

And finally the last page that invites the reader to pull up the flap to reveal the Nokia N8 smart phone in the window. I almost made a mad scramble to prise the phone out of its window then just in time discovered the tiny blue ribbon that easily pulls out the case like a drawer.

And there it is, Nokia N8, with full gear.

That's the very very high pixel camera....ooooh

The key message in the story, or rather the moral of the story is that Ovi's your voice navigation facilitates one to record the directions in one's chosen voice into the N8 smart phone. This and the Ovi maps are lifetime free.

The kids fell in love with the book. And are happy that I gave them the book so generously. I read to them last night and Tejas planted a sudden kiss on my cheeks. Something tells me it is because of the book but he said because I gave him dinner!

pic courtsey - google images

I got the black phone but a little part of me says, why didn't I get the sexy green one or an orange.

So let me try and break into the phone with the sim card and write about the Ovi. Till then, watch this space!

Akshaya Patra

No child in India shall be Deprived of Education Because of Hunger.
Indiblogger initiative to blog about Akshay Patra is as follows
Your blog can help feed 50 children now.
Read about The Akshaya Patra foundation here.
Blog about their cause and urge your readers to support it. Give them the link to make a donation online.
Submit your post on IndiVine.
For every valid blog post, Akshaya Patra will be able to feed 50 children.
The contest
2 winners chosen by Akshaya Patra will be flown to Jaipur on an all expense paid weekend trip, where you get to visit the kitchens where the food is made, and do other touristy stuff.
The winners will be announced on the 15th of Jan, 2011.
Each winner can bring along a friend/spouse/special someone/parent/sibling/dog.

Now That Makes Me Feel completely Jobless

Neighbour's Kid R- What are you making?
Me- who was loafing around doing absolutely nothing- Nothing!
R- Then make cakes
(the unsaid was of course- don't roam around uselessly, do something useful)

But then- since he is my biggest champion - the one who can charm my cake off my baking pan- out of my greedy hands, I take it as a compliment!

NalandaWay

NalandaWay works with children from challengign situations from the poorest districts in India, helping them raise their voices and issues through theatre, visual arts, music, dance, radio and films. Over 5700 disadvantaged children and young people in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir in India are involved in their projects. Their interventions have helped them learn creativity, life skills and self-confidence to create the lives that they truly want to create.

NalandaWay’s Art, Arattai, Aarpattam (AAA) is an annual children’s art, music, and theatre festival. The festival provides a space for children, families and teachers to have new experiences of the arts, to experiment, to challenge, to be inspired and have fun together. The festival has been a great success past two years. Last year more than 110,000 children participated in the events and competitions across Tamil Nadu, and over 12,600 people attending the concerts and the film festival. This year would be the third edition of the festival and will focus on the theme “Right to Speak” and “Right to be heard”.

The festival is conducted every year in partnership with UNICEF. The festival will be conducted in 32 districts and over 3000 cities, towns and villages across Tamil Nadu. Over 1,00,000 children directly and over 10 million children and families would be indirectly impacted by this festival. The festival will be conducted in partnership with corporate sponsors, schools, colleges, grass-root level NGOs, self-help women groups, community-based cooperatives, consulates, international cultural centers, television channels, FM radio stations, newspapers, magazines, cinema halls, concert halls, Corporation of Chennai and Government of Tamil Nadu.

Target Audience
Children aged between 5 – 18
Mothers
Teachers
Event Name: Arts Carnival

Date: July 16th, 17th , 18th

Venue: DakshinaChitra

This will be a three-day carnival which will be held at Dakshin Chitra, a cultural heritage centre in Chennai. Workshops on storytelling, book-reading, pottery, claymodeling, Kalamkari etc., will be conducted by professionals, for children between 6-16. The workshop will encourage children to creatively express, experience, andentertain using various art forms.

Event Name: Children’s Film Festival

Date: July 19 – 23 and July 26 - 30

Venue: Film Chamber, Near Gemini

A festival of blockbuster children’s films such as UP, Kung Fu Panda, Finding Nemoetc.Event Name: “Sing Along by Krishna Iyer and Jeeva”Date: July 24thVenue: Museum Theatre Krishna Iyer and Jeeva [story tellers] will present stories and songs for children.Jeeva will entertain with her stories and her mime; and Krishna and her lively teamwill present some foot-tapping numbers.

Event Name: “Tale of Haruk” – A Korean Musical

Date: July 24th

Venue: Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall

For the first time in India, TUIDA, a performance group from South Korea will beperforming “The Tale of Haruk”. This play has won the Best Play, Acting, Playwright,Art Directing Prize at 2002 Seoul Children's Theatre Award, and received ravereviews for its experimental spirit, elaborate and creative set-designs.

Event Name: “Super Singer Juniors” - LIVE

Date: July 25th

Venue: Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall

Vijay TV’s super singer juniors will be performing popular numbers from TamilCinema.
Art Arattai Aarpatam 2010: Programmes

Event Name: “Adventures of the Green Ogre” – English Musical[Based on the character “Shrek” by William Steig]

Date: July 30th

Venue: Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall

This is an English musical. The play is directed by popular theatre personality MichaelMuthu. He founded BoardWalkers in 1991 which consistently picks and promotesyoung talent from the city colleges. His famous productions include Biloxi Blues, God,Sleuth, The Hairy Ape, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Pied Piper of Hamlin.

Event Name: “Kuravanji”- Kattai Koothu[By a street theatre troupe from Kancheepuram]

Date: July 31st

Venue: Pitty Thyagaraya Hall

This will be a street-theatre type performance in Tamil by Kattai Koothu a troupe inKancheepuram.

Event Name: “Ali Baba and Forty Police” – Tamil PlayBy Nalandaway Children Theatre Group

Date: August 1st

Venue: Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall

Ali Baba and the Forty Police is a funny adaptation of the age old Arabian tales “Alibaba and the forty thieves”.

Indus Ladies Mommy Blogger eBook

For the upcoming Mother's Day, IndusLadies are planning to compile a elegant list of all Indian Mommy Bloggers and send it to our entire 90,000 members. In addition, we would also be making this list available to our 6000 facebook fans and twitter followers. (Note: If you blog about your family, kids, parents or parenting in general, you qualify)If you blog inside or outside Indusladies.com, this would be a good way to get the word out about your wonderful blog to the entire membership of Indusladies.On Mother's Day, we ask that you make a blog post requesting your readers to download this compiled list of Indian Mommy blogs. If you would like your blog to be included in that list, please email (to partners@indusladies.com) the following as soon as possible and before 6th May.
1. Your blog URL
2. Your blog Name
3. A 5-8 line description about your blog (or about yourself as a blogger)
4. Link to 3-5 of your most popular blog posts.We hope to hear from you.
Please forward to your fellow bloggers as well. Indusladies Team.P.S - If you have any questions, please email partners@indusladies.com.

Some of my recent smart comebacks

Creep- that dress was not at all looking nice on you
Me- ahem- you are talking about my most favourite dress

Creep who comes to work half an hour after me- if you come after 9 am they will mark half day for you
Me- that was because somedays when I come in the office will be so empty and all the lights switched off in the rooms that I go back thinking it is a holiday. The Security has to call me back to work

Creep who tells us that the company will fall down if you are absent takes leave
Me- Where were you yesterday, the company has started falling, ladies toilet has already fallen (was destroyed for renovation)

Sumo Troll

The Sumo honked crazily when the Swift was trying to cross the signal. It honked yet again when the Swift was taking a left turn on the busy road.
"Ah well- let him pass"- thought the Swift.
And then the Swift honked the Sumo's ears off for about a km.
It so happened that the Swift found itself in front of the Sumo who was yet again honking.
The Swift decided to trick the Sumo.
Hovered and zigzagged on the busy road till it reached the signal that soon turned yellow from green.
The Swift short across and the Sumo was left angrily rotting behind the red signal.

*Evil Cackle*

No Petrol

Ok so i have also experienced the sinking, dragging, pulling feeling that the engine exudes when the tank dries up. Last week had been extremely hectic with the birthday planning and Shanghai visit. And the fact that both had to be planned and executed simultaneously left me with little time to even think of other things.
Which meant I never noticed the steadily diminishing fuel tank.
And at a point, in the middle of the traffic, to my utter horror, the car started dragging, the engine spluttered and groaned and as my brain began registering that the fuel could have dried, my eyes flashed towards the fuel meter conforming my fears - I gave a cry of despair and tried in vain to steer the car to the side.
Hindered by a parked car I could not achieve that on time and the car stopped blocking traffic behind me.
Just the kind of mistake a woman would make. Cliched but true - as I did it and I am a woman. Roar Roar by the way.
Anyway, when crisis happens call mom or hubby is my rule. Here hubby seemed the most useful person to call with a potential to come as a knight in shining armour and easily because this happened just 3 km away from home.
Then I walked out of the car and gestured for people to come and help me push the car to a corner.
No body came.
People cursed and gestured at me instead.
A gentleman in his 60 s came over and took the matter in his hands. Told me you steer I push. I hesitated seeing his age but he insisted and helped me steer the car to the side.
Shame on you those auto drivers, bike riders and sundry other passerbys who did not raise even a finger to help but just watched as an elderly gentleman struggled to help a damsel in distress.

We Are Living Parenting Online

A nice way to summarise the efforts of us Mommy Bloggers. (Thanks!)

I do not know if my kids will read them when they grow up
They may get embarrassed at points with the TMI I do regarding their "achievements"
They may accuse me of breach of privacy
They may just call me what a jobless Mom you were.

Whatever...
The important thing is that I am most certainly enjoying doing this. And I do hope they will appreciate it one day.
They may not take it as their bible/ reference because they are my clay to mould and what I think as the right way may not be the right way for other parents!

And oh yes, when I asked them why are you plucking leaves, they answer-
"I am not plucking from our garden naa?"

On Wedding

Says the eloquent madmomma...

It’s only at a wedding, that you realise there is no perfect love, but you can aspire to it. And as you look around, at the congregation. A sea of expectant, smiling faces, you know that they’re there for a reason – to watch you make the biggest commitment of your life. That if you walk away from it today, you take away that little bit of hope that each one of them invested in you when they came there to be witness to your union. That each one of them believed in you and in that vow you were taking. That on your wedding day you sent back each one of them with a little strand of hope as you walked down the aisle glowing and radiant with happiness. That if for no other reason but this, you have to put aside annoyances and irritants like ‘he argues with visitors’, ‘he doesn’t bring me flowers anymore’ and ‘he wakes up with a finger on the remote control instead of on me’!

Lovely Na?

Bother Brother

Sis tells to Brother-Restrict access to my wedding albums on orkut/ facebook
Next day Bro tells sis- good you asked me to restrict access- someone tried to access the albums after that and failed
Sis- who tried?
Bro- ITW (yours truly who has joined orkut just to search for a particular friend and facebook just to play the word game and that's all)

Linking Up With Dreams

So I dreamt about my college friends one night, got nostalgic and the next day, on an impulsed googled for one.
Can you imagine my surprise that I discovered her whereabouts in 2 clicks - reached her on Linkedin and found that she is in Chennai!
A flurry of phone calls to her workplace led me to the answer that she quit 3 months ago and if I would leave my name and number they would reach her out and let her know of my contact.
I spent the entire morning kicking myself for not dreaming earlier and being my persuasive self with the (ex)workplace. Finally got through the HR who reluctantly but immediately gave me her mobile number.
I called her and the conversation went on like this-
Me- Is this RR?
She- Yes
Me- from xYZ college? B city?
She- yes
Me - now guess who you bad mad woman
She- keep talking I will try
Me- Guess who lives in Chennai
She- I only know ITW lived in Chennai years ago
Me- She still lives in Chennai
She- How stupid...
Me- Do you know why I searched you out? because I dreamt about you
She- Oh, you still have these wierd and funny dreams!
(Oh God- she remembers what I had forgotten- rather I had forgotten that my vague, lucid dreaming was so famous back in those days!)
And so we blah blah blahed .....and went on to discover that we live within shouting distance to each other!
Now mind you, we were talking after 12 years and getting in touch after atleast 10 years and what do we say to each other- mad? bad? stupid?
We met for a long chat and catching up at Checker's and left with promises of "more to come"!

Silly Question of the Day

Random mothers - look at them, they are twins, they are wearing identical clothes.
Proud Mamma overhearing- Yes they are fraternal twins
Random Mothers- no they look alike.
Proud Mamma insists- that's because of their hair style (belch, hair cut)
Random Mothers agree- and also dresses...
Another random mother in the group- both are boys?
Proud mamma- yes
Same random mother- Both are yours?
Proud Mamma- ??????

Unlearning for Learning Disability

March was declared the month for learning disabilities and a host of bloggers have followed up with posts. Go through them and the links in each of those posts for a comprehensive idea.

DISCLAIMER
I do not have a clear first hand experience of learning disability but I would like to leave behind some thoughts from what I have gathered out of my interactions with other parents and reading articles on this subject.

For every parent, his/ her child is the best, the most perfect and nothing can ever be wrong with him/ her.
- Therefore even if one parent is able to sense that there could be a problem, more often than not the other parent remains in a denial stage for quite some time.
The denial could manifest itself in various forms like blame, envy, anger, guilt, fear, depression, comparisons, forced change of scene to see if there is a change in the kid or obsessive gathering of information to prove that the child is normal, in the meantime missing out the obvious signs.

- An important first step for parents would be to come to terms with the condition, deal with their feelings and build a support network from school/ doctors/ friends and relatives.
Without meaning to, children and relatives could be really cruel at times- there are situations of isolation, criticism, teasing, comparisons not only in school but also at home/ social settings. Most important would be teamwork of both parents.

-Unlearning what parents have learnt about parenting from mentors, books, other parents and tailoring their parenting style to suit their child- working out alternative learning methodologies, loking at new learning opportunities or situations, flexibility of approach, a higher threshhold of patience.

-One must trust the school & doctor but it's always ok to be assertive about what one instinctively feel may be right for the child. And of course rely on their own research and assimilation of the same keeping their child in mind.

-Changing/ Lowering standards of perfection- whether it is housekeeping, cleanliness, homework, behaviour, timetables.

-Observe keenly the child's primary learning style and adapt to the same.

-Homework in style- Forget about steretypical, straitjacketed methods- look for alternate strategies and support methods- computers, tutors, make it a game, study buddy, parent becomes student & child becomes teacher game...whatever floats your boat. Just innovate.

-Stop trying to be a super parent and measuring self worth just through the child.

Floral Cheer

Finally the garden is a happening place now with some blooms showing themselves up.
I leave a few pics...

Plumbago

I Have Absolutely No Patience For...

People who drive rashly inside the building compound. And neither do I have patience for people who do not instruct their taxi/ auto drivers to drive slowly within the complex.
I repeat you morons...KIDS WILL BE KIDS. THEY DO NOT KNOW THAT A VEHICLE COULD HURT THEM. It's you, an adult with so called maturity who has to understand that it's elementary that you drive dead slow inside any building compound. Haven't you seen that speed limit- 20 within any complex? Open your eyes then.
My friend Kiran writes a chilling, blood curdling episode of her child being almost run over by an actor.
Now who else but a parent can understand what it feels as Ceekay puts it.
Rather, I am sure any random person will understand how it feels but this "actor" who had the "grace" to apologise only when literally strong-armed by the father. Coward. As Dips puts it- speaks of absence of common courtsey in this public figure in particular?

Eve says- the incident is much more frightening as it happened inside the apartment which offers more security

Talk about curbing the joys of growing up.

The madmomma & Sue as usual say so well what we all want to say- ill mannered and dangerous who has the shit ingrained so well that it cannot be beaten out of him!

Off Course it's Personal

Because he is an Indian
Because the song is in Indian language.
It is about each one of us. anyone standing upon or even away from Indian soil!
A friend says it is important to be in an important project in US to get an Oscar.
Can't beat that logic and can't argue that sentiment that after this, he deserves bigger awards for his other scores in scores of Indian movies. But the truth is that Rahman won. And that's what that matters.
To me it is well deserved because he is music in totality. His success is not a fluke. It is consistent. The award is incidental. It is global recognition to his work. Jai Ho is just a medium of the recognition.
The award may be his luck, being a part of a huge project and all but his success is not. It is repetitive. Year after year he has given us music that touched our soul, stirred us, forced us to foot-tap, dance and hum with it.
He has given us variety, away from the humdrum affair. His music has cut across language barriers, techniques and convention, his singers have crossed state borders...He is the true Indian in spirit and karma.
So how can it not be personal.
So that's why Milady Kiran, not just you, I also have tears in my eyes and I am sure there are scores of others pulling out their hankies & tissues, seeing Rahman win the Oscar!

The husband and I connect on Rahman's music because it has transcended across both languages. The moment I mention the music is by Rahman in a Hindi movie, his attention is sparked in that movie and I can bet the last hair on his head that he will buy the music of the same.
I would be lying if I say that Humma Humma or aye udi udi did not stir my imagination at a multidimensional level or that Vande Matram and Bharat Humko did not send shivers up my spine and caused tears of pride to prickle behind my eyes.
So here are my other favourites...
Dil se re- not just because it's a movie that I watched with the-then-not-my-hubby, but the fact that it's totally soul stirring
Is there anyone here whose foot doesn't tap to Chaiya Chaiya or tell me you never danced to mujhe rang de ?
Is language a barrier in Jiya Jale? Or Konjam Nilavu? Or in the music of Rhythm?
Expressing tiny wishes in Choti Si asha in a hugely impactful yet melodious way? How many of us thereafter did not think of our life dreams in these terms?
Whether it is Maiyya Maiyya or Barso re that sends you into a frenzy or a aye hairathe that creates vivid imageries of lazy, sunny afternoons with the radio playing softly in the background, Guru is a keeper.
If I have to talk of Taal, I want to mention each and every song, but it's the percussion that takes the cake for me- isn't it something on which you can fit in either a classical or a western dance? Though offcoures Jungle mein & Ramta Jogi are my favourites.
Yuhi chala chal gives fresh lease to my desire of being a singer! Hell, I am even ready to get into a truck if that makes you sing like this.
I can't decide whether it is ghanan ghanan that lifts my soul more or Mitwa?
And I so behko on behka! ...
*floats away humming kaise mujhe ...*

Defining Torture

You drop some Andhra mango pickle masala on the front of your kurta.
You make the best effort to scrub off the stains with detergent.
Later, in office, you are busy at work.
Typing furiously .....
The delicious, drool inducing aroma of the Andhra Mango pickle masala gives your senses company.
And you are surrounded by stuff like biscuits and cereal bars which are related to your work.

Leafing Through

-A hurriedly jotted down number- nameless...wonder whose was it...temped to call up and check...
-some random notes by a colleague who didn't have a paper on hand...
-few pointers for possible blog posts..jotted down at a client place..
-Various styles of signature...
- random doodles...artistic florals, leaves, just circles...a knife...a cup...a face..what was I thinking?
- PNR number...
-product codes...
-SMS check -in number for Jet airways

What's jotted on the last page of your notebook?