Days at NICU - 1

I was discharged from the hospital a couple of days after the delivery. But my little one had to stay back at NICU. The wait was indefinite as coming out solely depended on him passing some tests! Barely stepped into the world, my baby had to prove himself fit to go home...insane world! Sometimes I felt it was good for him to be there as the nurses at NICU took wonderful care of him in a sterile environment. It was bad for me, to have delivered and not have the baby by my side. I just wanted to breeze through the days and have him home.

The 2 days I was at the hospital, the baby was just a block away. I used to drop by as frequently as possible. Though he didn't have any major issues, he had these 4-5 nodes attached for monitoring his heart rate and other stuff. And was being tube-fed as he was yet to learn to latch. He had his own cozy cubicle and a bassinet. He was so tiny that the nurses used to call him a little peanut!

After I was home, I started pumping breastmilk(BM) and carried tiny bottles to NICU for the baby. We were visiting him twice a day. The hospital was 5 minutes away, meaning we could be there at the drop of a hat. We were so occupied with the new adjustments that we forgot to get him some clothes until there was a note on his cubicle board "Mommy, can you bring me some clothes?" And so, the baby wore his first dress on Day 5, which was also our 5th anniversary! The cute blue onesie had wordings "Mommy loves me" :) A month ago, I had ordered t-shirts for our anniversary that read "Mom-to-be 2012" for me and "Proud Dad-to-be 2012" for S! Well, we did wear the T-shirts, striking out the "to-be" part :)

He was weighed every day. Initially he lost weight and got back to his birth weight by Day 8 which most of the babies normally do. The weight gain was in terms of 5-10 gms per day. And there we were cheering for every single gram gain :)

NICU stay was a learning phase for me as well. I had to learn to breastfeed him and he had to learn to latch on. It was only the beginning and we had to face quite a hardship. His first test was to bottlefeed/breastfeed for straight 36 hrs and not lose weight. We were taking teeny tiny babysteps in that direction. Breastfeeding can be tiring for the babies as they need to put some effort to it.

The nurses used to give bath to the baby every alternate day. The first time I saw him take bath was on Day 6. The nurse effortlessly held him in one hand, moved him from one hand to another, flipped him over while giving him a bath! To this day, the video amazes me. God, was he really so tiny? I was soon to try giving him a bath with the help of the nurse. I almost trembled with fear, trying to handle the baby. That was not easy!

Day 7 was Mother's Day! The previous night we stayed back at NICU and celebrated by cutting a cake at around 12. S gifted me and MIL with some cute teddies and photoframes. The next day, when we visited the baby, there was this little card on the table that had my son's footprint. Another cute moment :) My joy was boundless. The nurses had made it special for sure...my first Mother's Day gift. Another priceless gift, the little one peed on us while changing :D

Day 8 was special because I saw my son smile for the first time. We also tried bottlefeeding him for the first time and he drank about 15 ml. Another yay moment!

During our visits, I did a lot of skin to skin with the baby. The nurses were particular about it. I realized that it gave a lot of warmth and a sense of security to the baby. And I felt super good too, in the warm embrace. I had my personal bonding moments with the baby that way. As per several studies, skin-to-skin is believed to be very beneficial for the baby. Glad to have tried it.

Oh the name! Shall save it for the next post :)

PS: I had scribbled notes everyday, while at NICU. That's how I remember what happened each day.

Birth Story of my little fellow - 3

Over to the Birthing Suite at 8:40 PM.

I had to go through the tormentous process of getting up from the wheel chair and sleeping on the bed. By now, my screams were in high pitch, whenever the contractions hit. I remember glimpses of staff peeping inside to see who was screaming. S and my MIL were by my side constantly, trying to calm me down. S says even today that it wasn't me screaming, must be some bhoot or chandramukhi :D

The nurses weren't helping me get over the pain either. I remember begging one of the nurses to do something, to give me epidural, to get me out of pain. Unfortunately, she said "There's no way out Honey. You have to push". They checked my dilation and I was already 10 cm dilated! No wonder, the pains were monsterous. I had passed the window when I could get the pain medication. It was too late. I continued screaming to the top of my voice and wriggling in bed. The nurses were trying to tell me something but I was in no mood to listen.

Inbetween the contractions, I could relax a bit. That's when a nurse yelled at me, saying I was wasting my energy screaming. Instead I had to divert my energy to push. That made complete sense to me. The very next contraction, I channelized the pain in a better way. Everyone around me was surprised. I had got the technique! phew!

From then on, I wasn't screaming. I started pushing hard. When I was close to delivering, the delivery team walked in. The doctor with his assistants, helped me further. My MIL couldn't see me suffering, and S asked her to leave inbetween. We couldn't put her health in jeopardy. I was so exhausted during the process, I had no energy left. But the thought of seeing my baby kept me going. And S was by my side supporting me all this while.

At 9:44 PM, I heard a tiny squeal! Our little bundle of joy had arrived. S and me were living the moment we were dreaming of since ages. That was the most precious and beautiful thing I was holding in my arms, my baby :) A miracle, I feel at times. Without the divine intervention, it would not have been possible. There were countless times, when things weren't happening the right way. But one perfect moment made up for all the pain endured. Touchwood!

Sailing through the magical moments, I did not realize that my pain was long gone. They had to take the baby to NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)as he was born early. He had to be monitored for any irregularities. The post - delivery process was so fast that I was wheeled back to mother and baby care unit as early as 10:10 PM. On the way back, I peeked into NICU to catch a glimpse of my new love. Later, our family got together to celebrate the little one's arrival :)

All's well that ends well. And so the beautiful day passed by unfolding tons of surprises and life-long memories to cherish.

Birth Story of my little fellow - 2

The maternity ward was transparent with glass doors. The nurses would drop in from time to time to check my blood pressure and temperature, also to check if the baby's heartrate was okay. S and my in-laws took turns to go home and freshen up. Meanwhile, I had my lunch at around 12:00 PM. The mood lightened in the room and we relaxed a bit knowing the baby was doing good. I still had no pains.

I had my ultrasound appointment at 1:40 PM. S wheeled me downstairs to the ultrasound room. To my luck, the lady who was to take my ultrasound was probably an intern. She would see something on screen and rush to her seniors for advice. She did this forever! We kept asking her if there was something we should know. She would give us a smirk and tell us that the doctor will look into the report and talk to us. As far as she knew, it all looked fine. After a gruelling long session, we got back to the room at around 3:30 PM. I was tired and took a nap.

The nurses kept dropping by inbetween. One of the nurses told us that the doctor reviewed the ultrasound report. He did not see any issues and so, that's it for today. He was to check back on me tomorrow. He didn't even pay a visit. Expecting an uneventful night, we were still discussing about S dropping my in-laws back home. They wanted to hang around for some more time. I had called my parents while I was in labor assessment room. I tried to sound as casual as possible and told them that there was nothing to worry about. I kept calling them from time to time to inform them of the updates. They were worried.

My dinner arrived at 6:00 PM. And just when I finished it, I felt a steep pain. It didn't last long. After about 5 minutes, the pain came back. I held the bed railings hard. The pain went away again. This continued for 30 minutes and we informed it to the nurse. The nurse asked us to get back to her, if the contractions got severe and 4 minutes apart. The contractions got really severe and I was finding it hard to control. I don't even remember when I started screaming! The pains got worse at around 7:45 PM. I had been recording my contractions in my phone all this while. 7:45 PM was the last contraction that I recorded, after which I just threw my phone out and struggled in bed with the immense pain! S on one side of the bed and my MIL on the other side tried to pacify me but to no vain. The pain only got worse. This continued till after 8:00 PM when the nurse arrived. She must have heard my screams :D She checked me and made arrangements to take me to birthing suite!

She asked me to get up and sit on the wheel chair. WTH? I was going mad and crazy with pains. S and my MIL helped me somehow with the move and we were on the run the very next second. My pains were getting unbearable.

Birth Story of my little fellow - 1

My world changed when my little one arrived on May 7th last year. He chose to arrive quite early (6 weeks before expected date!) We had no time to think or react to the happenings. I had read a lot of birth stories before. Mine was different.

My in-laws were visiting us then. They wanted to be around when the baby arrived. My parents were planning to visit just before the delivery. Thinking there was still a lot of time, we were putting off the baby shopping. Finally, one fine weekend S made some time. We headed all the way to Buffalo to buy baby stuff. The shopping was never ending. I picked up anything and everything that I liked! We stopped by Niagara falls and the casino, while on the way back. After a eventful saturday, sunday was relaxing. In the evening S and me took a long walk, talking about how our lives would be changing because of a little someone. Little did we know, that we would meet this special one the very next day! After the walk, I retired to bed early as I had to go to office the next day.

Sleeping gets difficult during late months. Turning and changing sides used to be so hard. At around 4:30 AM, I tried changing sides and felt something. I froze for a while to realize what was happening. My water broke. I didn't know what to do. Panic hit me. It was not even close to my EDD. I finally mustered some strength and put my hand on S to wake him up. All I could say was 'water'! S thought I was asking for water to drink! He woke up casually and started walking out to get some water. I yelled at him and said that my water broke! He switched on the lights and took a while to grasp the situation. He ran to my MIL and brought her in. She asked me not to panic and held my hand. Let alone the hospital bag, I didn't even have the emergency phone number handy! My mind was blank and so was S's. He finally got hold of the number and called them. The hospital staff asked us to come in right away. I was scared to even stand. Somehow managed to walk down the stairs and to the car. My MIL and FIL quickly got in. S drove the car to the hospital which was 5 minutes away.

He dropped us outside the hospital and went to park the car. I was wheeled in to the labor assessment area. The lady at the counter failed to notice my worried face. She must have been dealing with such cases everyday, I suppose. She coolly asked me for my health card. Darn! I wasn't carrying it with me. So, S had to go back home again and get my wallet.

Meanwhile, they put me in a room and started monitoring the baby's heartrate. The baby was fine and kicking much to our relief. They confirmed that the water had broken. We waited for the doctor to show up which took a good 3 hours. The nurses kept dropping by inbetween assuring us that it was going to be okay. One of the nurses really motivated us a lot. I can't remember her name but she made us feel safe. Thanks to her. She mentioned that they had delivered babies as early as 27 weeks and that the babies are all hale and healthy.

The doctor arrived at around 8 AM and examined all the reports. The baby was doing fine. I wasn't even having any pain or anything. She said that there was no going home now. She was optimistic that we could wait atleast 2-3 days before the labor kicked in. She asked me to go for an ultrasound. She said something that greatly relieved me of my guilt. That the baby decides to come out whenever it wants to. Physical activities like walking seldom induce a labor. All the while, I was blaming myself that I over strained myself and so my water broke :(

I was moved to the maternity ward at around 8:20 AM and given a private room. The ultrasound was scheduled in the afternoon. They did not check my dilation as they feared infection. So, I was put on IV and left to relax in the room.

Welcome 2012 :)

A year gone by since I wrote a post on this blog! Better late than never, a very Happy New Year to one and all...

2011 has been a roller coaster ride with lot of happenings in the personal front, both good and bad. Lost two of my uncles (maternal and paternal). Adding to the grief, S lost his Grandpa. We hardly went on any vacation nor did we celebrate any festival in 2011.

Fortunately, the last quarter managed to turn the cards and it's been better since :) Arrival of my nephew (Lucky) in October was a very joyous moment in the family!

2012!!!

This time I celebrated my birthday with friends and family. Thought it could turn out to be boring but was very special. I actually enjoyed cutting the cake and rocked at the New Year Party! (I don't really like cutting cakes, end up doing it only for the sake of S)

After 3 long years, we have planned a trip to India! It's a long vacation of 2 months (Feb and Mar). Looking forward to spoil myself and get pampered by family!

Hoping 2012 would keep me in good spirits. I surely will have a lot to write in my blog this year, especially after I come back from India :)

For now, waiting eagerly for the vacation to begin :D

Welcome 2011 :)

And so the New Year has begun with a lot of excitement. I couldn't have asked for a better start than a full fledged vacation to Hawaii. To be specific, I snorkeled my way into 2011! Thanks to S, everytime I end up saying that this is my best birthday ever....:D

2010 was fabulous in it's own way with perks like parents visit to our home, plenty of travel/vacation, not to forget the much relieving Canadian PR, US visitor visa for 10 yrs and the likes. I explored and pushed myself to do new things like Tennis, Swimming, Grooming myself (if that counts) etc. A pleasant surprise is that S has indulged himself into blogging and has gathered quite a following in a very short time! All I wish is that the same zeal continue through 2011 and rub on me too :)

And here goes my wishlist for 2011!

Cook more, Eat more, Pray more, Travel more, Learn more, Exercise more, Watch more movies, Party more, Love more, Enjoy more! Yeh Dil maange more..;) I also want to add more Confidence, Discipline and Organization at home and at work.

Finally, I wish for best of health, wealth, spirit and happiness. Wish you all the same guys! Happy New Year :)

2010 Travels - 6

Remember the song from Roja movie ? "ye haseen wadhiyaan..ye khula aasmaan". The same song kept ringing in my ears throughout our trip. Epitome of beauty, out of the world experience etc etc are too mild expressions for what I had seen and cherished at Calgary and Banff!

Of all our trips through the year, this was the most well planned and executed vacation. All credit to S. We managed to see quite a lot of places within 3 days. I made all the bookings way ahead and we were quite excited about the trip.

The day we landed in Calgary, we picked up the rental car and drove into the city. The downtown, Chinatown, a walk along the lake occupied a part of our day. We visited the Telus World of Science Museum which was hosting a special show about Einstein and Darwin. Museums are generally boring but this one was different. A peek into the lives of these famous scientists was definitely interesting. They had displayed the personal notes of these scientists along with a lot of other information. We also watched a movie about Australia continent. The movie was not 3D but more like a planetarium setup with the screen enlarged vertically above our heads and horizontally wide to cover our view completely. It felt as though we were right there in Australia. Loved the unique movie concept.

In the evening we visited the famous Anagha Dutta Temple at Calgary. Though it was not the visiting hour the incharge was kind enough to let us in. Mom and dad were so glad to be visiting Goddess Anagha especially during Navratri.

Later on we headed to the Calgary tower and enjoyed the city view in the dusk. The glass floor was fundoo and it felt scary everytime I stepped on it. What if it breaks?

All of us were dead tired and a little jet lagged but we walked all the way back to the hotel. Moms are moms. She prepared dinner after we reached the room! We had food and hit the sack soon after. We were travelling to Edmonton the next day via Drumheller. Lots of stories on the way. Later...

Oh by the way,I bought this good luck bracelet made of goldstone beads at Calgary. Things seem to have worked well in my favor then onwards and I have been wearing the bracelet ever since! Talk about superstitions :D

Well, for now...
Albert Einstein's Marks sheet


Einstein with Mom n Dad


Calgary Tower


Calgary City View from the tower


The glass floor

2010 Travels - 5

Let's talk about beautiful Ottawa today!

Ottawa, the Capital City of Canada is rich in culture and architecture. The city is a perfect blend of ancient history and modern outlook. The famous Rideau Canal connects the Ottawa city to Kingston city. The Parliament building nested on a hill besides Ottawa river makes an awesome view. We went up the clock tower of Parliament building and enjoyed the exquisite view of the city.

Another seasonal attraction of the place is the tulip festival. Though not as huge as the ones in Keukenhof, Germany, this makes up a considerably good rendezvous with different colored Tulips...

Below are some of the glimpses of the city!

Front view of Parliament Building



Old Church Building



Fairmont Chateau Hotel



Annual Tulip Festival

2010 Travels - 4

CAMPING AT SAUGEEN:

Our friends group here in Toronto go on camping every summer. Consistently since the last 3 years, this camping has been a huge hit with all the folks and nobody would miss it at any cost. Even to the extent that we had 2 pregnant ladies (over 7 months!), 3 senior couples and 3 babies in the group who made it inspite of all inconveniences!

S volunteered to scout for a good location and book the cottage this year. He really struggled a lot to put things together for the gang, the results of which we were yet to see.

With all planning, finally we set out to the camping site on a late Thursday evening. It was already getting darker and no sooner we took a detour from the highway into smaller roads. As we moved along, the roads got narrower and so the human population. We could only see the signboards posted. Pretty soon the road ended and we were on a muddy path. After about a mile, we figured that we had to move further up to reach our cottage. After few deviations, we finally saw the cottage. The cottage looked huge from outside. From inside, it was the most creepiest building I had ever seen. The building was 2 floors with a kitchen (cutlery included), library (??), living room, biggggg dining table, backyard deck and plenty of bedrooms and a huge dorm in the basement. TV, tt table, play toys for kids were other attractions! The rooms were all hidden in all possible corners and it took a good 30 mins to discover the entire cottage. Not bad at all! We thought, for a gang of 35 + kids. The owners had tried to make the interiors as spooky as possible with all ghost, demon books. The cottage was amidst the woods and the only building in the locality for atleast a mile's radius, all for us for 3 days! Sooper :)

The fun began as we ran to choose the beds. Me and S chose to sleep in the dorm, which was cool as we had a boisterous company! It was decided that each family would cook twice in the 3 days, so that everyone gets a chance to cook and to relax, rather than having a single cooking team. It was amusing to watch everyone take part in cooking, not to forget the yummy dishes that turned out!

The guys were hell bent on enhancing the spooky factor...so they set out on a late night trek into the woods. The girls made a plan and sent me along with 2 other girls to go along with them. The purpose was to keep a watch on their activities and bring them back home soon. We girls barged right in middle of the group and wanted them to escort us as they walked along. There were absolutely no lights and the guys were coming up with all weird ideas just to scare us! Ultimately we all ended up having a lot of fun on the trek.

In the mornings, we played a lot of games outside in the ground. We also managed to visit a falls nearby. Boy-oh-boy! The trek down to the falls was so exhilarating. I was surprised to see Mom coming all the way down to the falls! Love her spirit, absolutely.

There is no dearth of lakes in Canada. We went to one of the beaches and chilled. The second day we headed to another lake again but for a different experience, the kayaking and canoeing. I was so excited about the kayaking thing that I got on the boat and asked my friends to push me into the waters. I was stupid enough, not to ask them how to maneuver the kayak to change directions. Hence, I kept moving forward and forward until I was far off from the shore. Now I got really scared and didn't know what to do. I tried turning the kayak slightly, but it would start toppling. Thankfully, one of the guys came to my rescue and taught me the knack. The irony was, he fell off his kayak while going back :)) In no time, I was on myself and did quite a bit of adventure over the water. Later on, picked some canoeing with others too. Had a blast that evening! One of the canoes had actually capsized putting all family in water....but it was only at the shore! :) Dad was so thrilled to kayak and Canoe. He enjoyed it a lot.

Back to the cottage, we had an awesome camp fire. We all sang and danced the night out! There were birthday celebrations too!

On the last day, everyone was so sad that they had to leave the place and head back. The parting ceremony itself took so long because everyone kept hugging :))

That's our group with the cottage behind!

And so the camping was a great success this year.

2010 Travels - 3

Just an hour away from home is the world famous Niagara Falls. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited this place in the last 3 years. But the bewitching beauty of the falls never seizes to amaze you. My in-laws and parents rated Niagara Falls experience as the best during their trip! Especially the boat ride to the horseshoe falls. The boat zooms so close to the falls that we can't even open the eyes due to the heavy showers. The enormity of the falls is simply amazing. The Canadian view is more elaborate as against the USA view. Having seen the falls from both ends, I vote for Canada anyday!

Apart from the boat ride, the journey behind the falls is mind boggling. Thanks to technology. You can take a walk behind the falls and feel the power of the falls up close. I have trouble watching the falls from behind. The turbulence and the harsh sound bothers me somehow. Nevertheless, everyone enjoyed it to the core.

The emerald colored waters and the rainbow is a sight to see.



The Niagara city is colorful with fun activities and large casinos. My MIL is an ardent fan of slot machines! We really had fun playing at the Casino :)

THE AFRICAN LION SAFARI

As the website boasts, it's us the visitors caged in the car, while the animals roam around us freely, including lions. The best moment of the drive was when a lion and a cheetah brushed against our car. Thankfully, the monkeys spared us! It was fun to watch the Ostrich beat the window glasses with its beak. I still can't forget the way the Giraffe bent to eat the carrot we offered. I find Giraffes very cute :)And so are elephants! The Elephant show was superb with all the elephants performing various tasks. One of the elephants 'Maggie' painted a T shirt with different colors! There was also this bird show where the parrots spoke words like hello, how do you do! Super fun....

There were peacocks roaming about freely within the premises. One of the peacocks, unfurled it's feathers right in front of our eyes, displaying it's rich beauty. We couldn't ask for more when the peacock did it several times!


The Safari has always been our favorite hang out, our close encounter with wildlife.

2010 Travels - 2

Las Vegas is a man made heaven on Earth. The lavishness and extravaganza of the place appeals to you quickly. There is a sense of celebration and excitement in the air, anytime of the day and year.

We were there for 4 days and we couldn't see the entire strip of just 6 KM! Can you believe that? We only made it to half of the strip. We would probably rent a room on the other side of the strip this time, so that we cover the rest.

The word CASINO brings back n number of memories to me...the ringing slot machines, black jacks, wheels of fortune, poker what not. Gambling being the prime activity, we indulged so much so that I alone had lost $300 at the end of the trip but fun unlimited!

Besides gambling, the spectacular interiors of each casino left me spellbound. Each Casino is unique and stylized beautifully. There's an entire New york city including the Statue of Liberty and Brookyln Bridge. There's also the world's second largest hotel MGM. True to their symbol, they have real lions in there for people to see! There's a pyramid (Luxor) too. It seems the flood light on the tip of the Pyramid is visible from the moon. We stayed at Excalibur which was a castle! Paris paris has mind blowing interiors with sky and buildings. It really feels as if we are in Paris streets. There's a ride up Eiffel tower (yes! There's one Eiffel tower too) from where we can spot "The Bellagio Fountain Show" in the night. The dancing fountains took my heart away :)

Sad that we didn't take any roller coaster rides as it was too chilly and we did miss Grand Canyons.

That's about Vegas and West Coast!

Moving on to East Coast, we visited the Capital City Washington DC in March. On the banks of Potomac River, the city stands in pride with all white government buildings and plenty of museums. Smithsonian Museums - We saw the Hope Diamond, which origins from India. The big blue diamond is one of the largest in the World. We also saw a 3D movie about Ocean bed which was super cool. The art gallery carried paintings and sketches by Pablo Picasso!

The white house looked grand and I believe I saw the US president, Mr. Obama in the fleet of black cars that entered the White House (It could be my illusion though!) It was World Women's Day and there were celebrations at White House. Many privileged women waited at the entrance to meet Mr. Obama. It was a sight to see...

The Capitol Building looks so much like our Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. It was even more elegant in the evening with all the lights.

The Washington Monument stood tall, shaped like an Egyptian obelisk. I am yet to figure out the significance of this monument.

Pittsburg City - We often visit the famous Balaji Temple in Pittsburg. The temple is on top of a hill. It's a bliss to be in the temple and pray the Almighty. Makes a huge impact on me everytime I visit this temple. Divine.

Our travel series continue in Canada from here. The gorgeous Niagara, the fun African Lion Safari, Ottawa City, ultimate camping experience at Saugeen Country, the breathtaking locales at Calgary and many more to follow. Stay tuned!

2010 Travels - 1

2010 has been the year of travels. We were literally on wheels. Especially with both the sets of parents dropping in at Shagun, we couldn't ask for more.

The year started with a bang as I celebrated my birthday amidst thousands of people on streets at Vegas. The best birthday I could ever imagine. Vegas left me spellbound and made it's way right into my favorites list. But of course, so was the entire west coast of USA. Los Angeles, San Fransisco were no less. Amazing places! Even before I boarded my flight back home, I was damn sure that I would be going back there again.

Each city carries it's own unique identity. Let me tell you all about it...

Los Angeles is all about HOLLYWOOD. Every street, shop is named after Hollywood. The moment we walked out of the airport, the tall palm trees caught my eye. They stood on the sides of the roads as if they were welcoming us. They were everywhere! And there stood the HOLLYWOOD sign proudly on Santa Monica mountains, boasting of it's glitz and glamour. We visited the Hollywood studios and Disney Land. Disney Land is every child's dream! If only we had enough time, we would have enjoyed more at these places. We also went to SFMM (Six Flags Magic Mountain), a theme park with high intensity rides. For the first time in my life, I actually got scared in one of the rides 'Dejavu'. One heck of a roller coaster that was!

Hollywood walk of fame has this innumerable number of stars on ground with signatures from Hollywood celebrities. We ran like little kids all over, trying to find our favorite stars and pose for pictures. The Kodak Theatre guided tour was splendid, the place where the Oscars happen every year.

Apart from all this vibrance, the city also has a calmer side to it, i.e., the beaches. We headed to Malibu on one of the days and had fun playing in the Pacific Ocean. Malibu hindu temple was a surprise add on! Fabulous temple that is.

Apparently, "City of Angels" is too mild a name for the bright and beautiful Los Angeles!

As we drove from Los Angeles to San Fransisco, the route was spectacular with hills and nature. The moment we entered San Fransisco, I had already fallen in love with the place. Till date S teases me that I can't list many places in San Fransisco, that made me fall for it. But a strange connection did happen. I had a sense of familiarity with the place. Probably one of the reasons could be that I had grown up watching the golden gate bridge in "Full House", if you know what I mean.



The pacific ocean was too enchanting in deep blue. The ride on crooked street took the cake as we swayed in the car everytime the car took turns. The city itself is on hills and hence, the roads go up and down. The fisherman's wharf was bustling with activity and we missed taking a cruise on Pacific as we were late. Luckily we took the city tour bus and enjoyed the sight of San Fransisco in the dusk. The city skyline looks mesmerizing from the other side of Golden Gate. I still regret not being able to see the bridge in clouds, which I would one day! hmmmm....

Wait for my next when I tell you about Las Vegas and a lot more places!

Train fun

When we moved to Toronto, we used to stay in downtown in a small cozy apartment which was hardly 15 mins away from my office. Later on we shifted to Toronto suburbs.

Now, I take 2 trains to reach office. One is the double decker train that travels above ground and the other one is a subway that travels underneath. Together an hour journey. Of course, the same way back home too. That makes it 2 hrs per day.

Initially, I was petrified by the amount of time spent on travelling to office. But now after about an year, I have got into the groove. And the travel amuses me with a variety of experiences each day. And of course, I sleep through half the journey. I'm so sleep-trained by now, that I open my eyes just before I get down at my station. The other half I entertain myself with a wide variety of things starting from reading newspaper, solving sudoku or chanting vishnusahasranamams.

I have come to realize that this personal 'Me' time is so relaxing for the day, where I don't have to think about my work at office or my chores at home :)

Well, there is a flip side too!

The double decker train travels to downtown only in the mornings and back to suburbs only in the evenings. That limits the travel to only office hrs. I cannot leave early. Also, I got to be on time otherwise the next train is only after 20 mins!

Thankfully, the subways are more frequent (2-4 mins). But, the main problem is with the operations. You never know. They would dump you in the middle of nowhere and say that there are no more trains enroute! Or they would drag you through the route in such a slow pace, that a snail would have reached the destination by then. And then you miss the next train....phew!

My train tales are galore...

The other day me and S were still in the car when we saw the train arriving in the station. The traffic to the station is always at it's peak. Everyone wants to catch the train. S drops me and I run without looking back. There is no easy path to the train. I need to cross a fleet of stairs down and up before I make it. I ran like I was competing in a marathon! The driver had already announced that the doors were closing. In a snap, I jumped into the train and the doors closed right behind me. There was a great sense of accomplishment in me as I had missed my train on several occasions in similar situations. The onlookers had this 'You made it!' expression on their faces! They had completely got my feeling :)

On one such cases, I came running to the station, but the train was gone. It took time for me to realize that the train was on the otherside of the platform :( Sigh! By the time I saw that, the doors were closing.

On the contrary, the day is perfect. I come to the station on time and all. But the train is late :( And especially in winter, it's impossible to stand for a couple of minutes in the biting cold.

And then there are days when I forget my pass. One of my friends taught me to request at the booth that I shall show the pass the next day. I tried the same trick. But the person won't agree. He asked me to pay. Being the smarty that I am, I told him that I had the pass in my purse and I forgot my purse at home. He had no choice but to buy my reason :D

Zillion thanks to S, he gifted me an iPhone recently. I'm already an addict. The journey to office has started to seem shorter. There's so much to do with my iPhone...

And I'm not complaining at all....;)

Phew !!!

No...I did not make any new year resolution to blog regularly! (I know, it's March already) Everytime I make a promise, I've been breaking it. So, I don't intend to make any promises.

As I revamped my blog, I just realised that I enjoy reading blogs rather than writing! The list of blogs that I follow seems to just grow and grow. I've been so busy reading all the blogs that my writing has taken a backseat :) Seriously, all you bloggers out there, you are doing an absolutely amazing job. I love your blogs! Keep up the good work and keep inspiring the lazy blogger in me.

On the contrary, I feel special about myself, as I am the only one of my kind!...I am feeling better now :D

House to a home

It's been a month now at our new nest "Shagun". Fun to set things up right from scratch :) Lovin it...totally!

Niagara and Marineland

It was a gloomy day and I couldn't get good shots of the Niagara. Nevertheless, some interesting captures...

Cute miniature tribal dolls at a store


Eyes of an idol (inside a game machine)...What do you think it's saying?







At the Dolphin show in Marineland...This one's a hungry seal!

Dolphin jumping high

Dolphin Pout...Cute!! Aren't they?

Spring Blooms


Water Droplets collected on glass facing Niagara falls....

The naughtiest brat I have ever met...Naani(my friend's son)

Beautiful Elora

Just 1.5 hrs away from Toronto, Elora is a beautiful small village situated on the Grand river. If you are thinking that the name sounds similar to Ellora (Aurangabad)...Well, the village was indeed named after our very own Ellora. A British official inspired by Ellora named it so. (Source: Wikipedia)

We found Elora a perfect getaway, as it's so close to Toronto and the countryside is enchanting and refreshing. The village is so laid-back and people are very friendly. It's a good place to explore especially for people interested in arts/crafts, culture. We also saw tourists taking a ride in carriages driven by huge horses. We are planning to go back to this place again in Autumn for the lovely fall colors.

Apart from the village, the main attraction is camping/ picnic and water activites in Grand River. I was keen on going for tubing as it sounded something new. We reached the conservation area and rented a pair of huge tubes, helmets and life jackets. We had to walk for almost 20 minutes to reach the river. We thought that there would be a guide at the site to tell us how to go about it. But all we found was a bunch of spectators and hobby photographers waiting for us to take a leap into the river! The river looked kinda dangerous with fierce rapids.

The questions that popped in our brains...
What if we fall off the tube? Where is the end point? How to get out once we start off? What if there are huge fish inside ??? (this one was my concern :P)

Anyway, we let down all our inhibitions and ventured into the river slowly. I made S sit on the tube and pushed him through :D.... Off he went along with the flow. I couldn't spot him after some distance. Soon after, I tried maneuvering myself with my hands and feet. I was so bad at it that the tube kept going round and round instead of catching the stream. Absolute entertainment for the watchers! :))

Meanwhile S came back for his next ride down the stream. I was so relieved to see him! This time he helped me around with the tube and soon I was in rough rapids trying not to fall off the tube. It was a super cool ride and I loved it!
I realised that the water was hardly knee deep and we could get off and walk back at any point. This made me go for few more rounds of fun tubing. We were left completely exhausted.





The after Effects of tubing:
> I successfully got my first coat of tan for this summer
> My shoes got a nice, clean wash...:D
> We were so thrilled to jump in that we forgot that S had the digicam in his pocket. Yes...the digicam got soaked in water. It is not working but we are hopeful that it might after it dries inside.

We walked back to return the tube and accessories. S held the tube on his shoulder and carried it. I thought that was a bad idea and advised him to roll the tube along the road effortlessly. Brilliant eh??....actually not :( I was rolling the tube (like we used to when we were kids!) and the tube went "BOOM". It hit a sharp stone on the road and burst. And I stood there speechless...

Jungle Joy

DAY 2

S was happily sleeping and I was struggling to sleep as I had slept right next to the windows! Sheesh..! Apart from the main entrance to the cottage, there was another entrance towards the side which directly opened to the bedroom. Suddenly, I heard that bedroom entrance door knob twist and turn. Somebody was trying to break in. I was in a fix, if it was just my illusion or for real! I hid myself under the sheets and curled up to close my ears and eyes shut tightly. The noise sealed and I heard footsteps as if someone were walking towards my window. The main entrance was beside the window. So, this stranger, whosoever, unlocks the main door and there is no more noise. I was completely in shock and woke S up. He too was awake by now as he had been hearing the noise. He quickly went to the hallway and checked out if anybody had come inside. But there was none! It couldn't get more spooky than this. S advised some words of courage to me and slid back into deep sleep :( You can imagine my plight for the rest of the night!

Only in the morning we got to know that there were 2 more houses in the building with the same entrance. Without recognising the main entrance in the dark, our neighbour had tried to unlock our bedroom door and then somehow figured out the main entrance. This was it! Overnight, I had taken a wild imagination tour beyond bounds trying to guess the reason behind the noise :P

With a deep sigh of relief, I got ready for the next adventure in the woods. This time we had two guides along with us who took us through an exciting journey into the forest. We had to drive a few kilometres into the forest. The guide kept us entertained with a lot of information about the forest, the species and whole lot of things under the Sun. What we didn't know was Haliburton Forests are privately owned by a single person, whose father bought the forests way back in 1960s for about 6-7$ an acre! He has his own set of ecologists, environmentalists to maintain and control the forest equilibrium naturally. There is a mill in the premises which uses the forest wood to generate electricity and lighting for the foresters.

We parked the vehicle at a point and trekked from there to reach a lake. Any water activity, I am always thrilled. We had to paddle through to reach the other end of the lake, which was fun! After canoeing and hiking for a while, we reached the spot for canopy walk.

A tiny suspended bridge at a height of about 70 feet lay in front of us which was less than a foot wide. This bridge linked from tree to tree and spanned for half a kilometre. The delicate bridge could hold 3 people at a time and moved incessantly with every step. We were given a brief training about keeping ourselves connected to the cable running overhead with hooks, just in case we fell off the bridge.



The walk on this bridge was the most amazing experience and we couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate our most important day!

The thick forest canopy underneath was a feast to the eyes and we were bewitched!



The bridge ended in a tree house overlooking a lake. We spent some precious time watching the beautiful sunset. Didn't feel like coming back at all....but we had to, eventually...

We came back to the base camp and bid goodbye to Haliburton soon after.

On the way back to Toronto, Guess where we sneaked into?



No Loss..no gain...!! But FuN UnLiMiTeD....

Off to the woods

We chose to sneak off to the remote forests for celebrating our Wedding Anniversary! An unexpected adventurous outing which had a lot of surprises in store for us...

We set off to the destination on the early hours of Sunday. With our new Merc, the drive was penultimate bliss. After some point, the number of houses and people started deteriorating. It was just plain forest with blind curves and wavy roads going up and down. The GPS had chosen to guide us through a short cut and we ended up in a spooky road off the highway. We couldn't even spot other vehicles in the road. It was just us in the mysterious road. There were huge Rocks, thick trees, ponds on the sides of the narrow road. To fight back the eerie feeling, I tried tuning in some local radio station. There indeed was a channel and a voice came in "Welcome to Haliburton...Canada lives here". Me and S burst into laughter and we are still laughing at the ironic statement!:D

We were finally out of that road (saw the name towards the end...it was BobCagyeon Road!) and we made our way to the Haliburton Forest Reserve. Since summer has just arrived here, we were the first guests for the season. We checked in at around 2 PM and the forest incharge briefed us about the forest and the activities. We were given a map of the forest with all trek routes, driving routes, cycling routes, camping points and lakes. And we were given a pair of keys, one for the cottage and the other one for the toll gates along the driving route deep inside the forest.

First thing, we visited the wolf centre as it was about to close. How much I hated the sight of those wild beasts!



Later, we planned to take a drive in the forest with the map in hand. There were north, east and west roads. We decided to stick to north road lest we miss the route. The roads looked something like this..



The sign boards at every split were over informative :D



We drove along very slowly and concentrated on spotting some animals in the forest. We were told that there were wild bears, packs of wolves and many more animals to look out for. It seems the animals would observe us right when we enter the forest and keep an eye on us until we leave. This was something scary...I had to get off at some points to unlock the toll-gate and swing it parallel to the road. S would drive in and I would lock the gate back and run to the car. As we delved deep into the woods, my locking/ unlocking skills depleted and my heart pounded at the slightest noise around. Being the smarty I am, I promptly passed on the task to S while we drove back..:D

We managed to spot colorful birds, huge squirrels, a turkey and a deer...tuff luck. Well, we did see tons of mosquitoes and flies! We took a break at a lake on the way. We couldn't stop but admire the beauty of the nature at its best.

We drove until we reached the


Right about turn and we drove back to the base camp. It was getting darker and the one and only restaurant in the premises was already closed. We chose to drive to the nearby Haliburton village for our dinner. Luckily one of the chinese restaurants was open and we had a hearty meal.

Back to the cottage and we hit the bed!

A little after 12, I heard something...
- END of DAY 1 -

The "last" names

When someone new is recruited in my department, the manager makes sure that the person is introduced to each colleague personally...and I have noticed that a new member joins when I am having a cold!..it's wierd but true!!

Yesterday, a desi-looking guy was introduced to me. But I least expected that his name would turn out a Thomson...why????? Certainly, I couldn't question him that.

Reminds me of my newbie days. Specifically, the last names that I encountered here and the devil in me flashes with some funny thoughts and I laugh my heart out..:D

Hopkinson (Hopping Pumpkin's son!?)
Chang (Ching..chang...choooooooo)
Killick (click click!!!!)
Tsang (I'm tempted to ask, if this person is a relative of Huen Tsang...but have not asked yet)
Casciato (Sounds so much like casatta icecream!)
Lipinski (Lips and skiing!??!?..)
Saupan (What Pan??)
Largey (is there a smalley?)
Giglio ( I never knew that the second G was silent until I heard someone call..Thank God!...the name is so giggly :P)
Light (is this person so bright?)
Feaver (I'm already sick)
Cummings (goings..:D)
Zoschke (I still don't know how to pronounce that!)
Trezzi (a double zz??? wow!)
Cozier (You can't be so cozy at office!)
Hoyte (This person comes and tells me, everytime I get a call from a new person, I know it because they pronounce it as hoyteeee..which I am not! and the devil sayz so r(he)ight :D )

Wonder what they all think about my tongue twister last name???

Disclaimer: This post contains real last names but fun intended!