WhatsU(Ap)p?

I landed on that space and instantly I was recognized by quite a few and I became omnipresent in no time. When I got used to the culture, I pulled my besties aside.

Someone shares some information. When others hear that, they convey the same to those around them. Everyone is eagerly waiting for something interesting to happen and when that happens, all become busy talking about the same thing in different voices & emotions. This is their basic culture.

You can be present in various rooms (as I said omnipresent) and you can simultaneously be a different person in each of the rooms. This is the beauty of the space. 

Many change their faces and punchlines often.

Whatever happens some people never miss to wish you every day.

There are few unique personalities there. Some prefer to talk to you privately and so ignore you in the gang, while others might be the opposite.

Everyone keeps talking… keeps talking… talking… and then silence… silence for many days.

Occasionally, someone will speak and then leave. Nobody hears it either. Or occasionally some might hear it whenever they want to.

Most of the time, no one wants to talk. They just peep in and leave silently before someone hears their footsteps.

But some gangs are there, doing khoobh-maujh-masti whenever they can, if not often. For some, that space is the best entertainer and the stress buster. I am glad that I fall into this category and have a few such gangs or individuals.

So WhatsApp errr Whatsup friends? :-)

Inime marappiya..marappiyaa?

I tried to login to my FB account in my new mobile. No wonder, I could not, as I do not remember the password. I tried all possibilities like khul ja sim sim, thirandhidu seese… but could not. When I tried ‘forgot password’, it says it will send mail to my yahoo account, which I have not checked since few years.

But without losing hope :D, I tried to login to yahoo, but again I cannot give the right password. There I tried to use ‘forgot password’, it gives me phone number, which I think my earlier number. "Why God? Why me?"

Again I came to FB, tried forgot password and chose I don’t have account with yahoo and then it asked me a secret question. Oh My! To unlock that I tried several versions like tamil, english, tanglish, acronym and yes I got it right at 4th trial. Thanks God! I was able to reset my password successfully this time. But the account got locked for 24 hours. Just now I logged in again. :-D

Whats with the age?

We may not really feel our age but some instances make us realize that it is growing. Some of them are here.

When we,

• Start quoting examples from our life for different situations
• Quote an Illaiyaraja song to suit a particular situation, but the listener is not aware of that song
• Start liking “magaali” pickle
• Our niece ask us about the recipe of ONLY traditional dishes
• Start giving least importance to heat injuries (சூடு) during cooking
• Noticing children’s transition from “mom knows everything” to “mom knows nothing” (thankfully this has not arrived yet for me)
• Find Sidharth Malhothra is too handsome but as he is so younger we cannot feel the same crush like we used to have for Surya, Ajith or SRK

If we ponder about it, we cannot behave for a particular age (Is there any concept something like this?).

We behave like,  

• Teens when we talk with our school/college friends/cousins
• Matured / responsible when we are with relatives
• Buddies with our children
• Kids with our parents

So what is our exact age? Don’t think too much about it. It is just a number which keeps increasing. That’s all.

Niece!

Niece or nephew is one of the most special relations one can ever have. My niece is also very special to me. She is Sahana. She is an “arundha vaalu” when she plays with my daughter. Otherwise she is so matured. You cannot see her get surprised. Funny thing is you do whatever to surprise her, but you can still see her just calm and express in one word “its good”.

She is so intelligent, very accommodative, very adjustable in nature etc etc. I can bet no children of her age can be so co-operative to their parents. Very disciplined brought up.   

Here are few funny incidents I remember about her when she was just 5 years old. She came on a vacation from US when I was 7 months pregnant and she was curious to see the baby inside me. I said “darling, you cannot see the baby as it is inside my tummy.” I guess she got intimidated and immediately responded “Yuckyyy…why did you eat the baby athai?”

When she again came next year for vacation, my baby was 7 months old. I guess she would have thought she can play with the baby like she does with her friends. But she was bored in 10 mins with the baby and she said “athai, give the baby to paatti and come… lets play”.

Again another time when my baby got cold & cough, my niece asked how did the baby catch the cold. I told her may be because of the shampoo bath that I gave her. She got intimidated and asked me “Athai, why did you feed shampoo baath to baby?”

And a couple of years ago, I was telling my niece that I used to write letters in post cards or inland letters to friends and relatives when I was young like her. She innocently asked me “how did you send those letters… with the help of pigeons?”. She made me intimidated this time. I wonder what she thought of my age!

Chak de India!

I happened to see an interview of actor Nargis Fakhri on some tv channel last weekend. I hardly know about her but only her English accent drew my attention to see that program, when I was flipping between the channels.

She shared many things about her. As future plans she said she wants to do farming and wants to have lots of pets. When asked about wedding and having children of her own, she said she may not want a child of her own. She may adopt one or donate money to an orphanage. I think most of the Westerners think like this.

I have never heard of any western couples who lives together,

• Without an understanding between them
• Without self-respect and mutual respect for each other 
• Longing to have their own children
• Feeling lost with their children's love marriage
• Saving most of the money he earns by buying property / gold and live a poor life.

India is known for its culture, but most of the time culture turns into a pressure on humans to lose self-respect and happiness. Indians should understand these things:

• Live for today
• Don’t participate in a rat race to earn money
• Enjoy the life with the money you earn
• Go on a family/friends tour. Spend time with family/friends.
• Self-respect is important. Have it and let others also to enjoy it.
• Wedding is not compulsory. 
• Having children of your own is optional. Society's pressure is more on this. The result is so many infertility clinics make huge business.
• Help others. Respect elders. Be a good human being.  

If we want to see changes, then every individual must get the right attitude and the broad mind.

Lets hope and wish for healthier generations ahead.

Chak de India!

Happy Friendships Day!

Life of Women,

Till 25 years – No compromise on anything. Studies, Career & Friends are THE world.

After Wedding – Learning to compromise. Responsibility starts. Family & career becomes the priority in order. Distance with the friends starts & grows steadily.

After Child birth   – Family becomes the World. No “me” time at all. No time for friends. No career.

When the child is getting older – The child is busy with his/her own world of studies and friends. Family responsibilities are at its peak for us. Only at this stage we realise something void and slowly try to get back the contacts of the lost friends. Luckily we get back the contacts at some stage. (This generation kids are lucky, they can never miss anybody's contacts.)

Then we make time frequently to speak with our evergreen friends to recall the past, the laughter and chat the present, the future, the crap etc etc. We understand that only with friends, one can be the real “me”. I am sure we are never going to break these contacts again ever.

Happy Friendship Day & Week to all my friends!

HDFC Netbanking Only for Women?

I think only women can use hdfc net banking for online transactions. Because he never sends the famous One-Time-Passwords for every transaction that we do, instead he asks a couple of questions for validation. Of course we can choose those questions. I have chosen questions like What is your wedding date? What is your spouse birth date? What is the brand of fridge that you own? Etc etc. 

How can men remember answers for such tough questions?

Nanbenda!

Honestly saying we had no big expectation for the movie and so there was no big disappointment. We just wanted a light movie to have some fun with family and so we chose Nanbenda!

You cannot expect suspense, twists & turns in such movies. But surprisingly this movie had 4-5 such scenes. Just that you have to be a bit innocent to feel such twists : D. Udayanidhi delivers the dialog, but we hear it in Santhanam’s voice. I mean those dialogs did not suit him.

When in a crazy mood, I can laugh madly even at the drop of a hat. But this movie tested MY patience. I was really amazed, when few persons from behind our row were laughing out loudly for everything, I mean for nothing.
  
Nayanthara was gorgeous and all her costumes & make-up were nice. The song Nayanthara was also good. Cannot digest (manasey aaralai) Sherin, in such a cheap small role opposite to Santhanam. How beautiful she used to be!

Taking Manasa to movies is so much fun. Those cinema chairs, because of her least weight goes back to its folded position. So we have to place a couple of hand bags along with Manasa to make the chair stable. And she has this special talent to whisper loudly. So when the theatre is calm (viewers get confused what reactions to show and in some stage they go silent), she whispers and all hear her loud voice. :D     
   
The entire team has tried hard to make another OK OK (though the result was just OK) and the two heroes has also tried hard to make us laugh and in return, we should also try hard to laugh. :p 

I am not sure about the reason, but when we ask about the name of the movie, Manasa says “I feel awkward (she used the tamil word ‘asingama’) to say the movie name”. May be should we take this as the movie review?

Boredom

Ever since my childhood, as far as I can remember, I never have experienced boredom. I was busy with studies and extra-curricular's. Friends, library, books, TV & music were my entertainment. I remember few days in my teens when I never wanted to go out or even to watch TV, if I had books. The books can be any novels, weekly magazines or even deepavali malar.

After wedding, top-to-bottom chores & job kept me engaged. After baby, she became my world. Of course work from home also joined a bit later. During this phase, there was no time for friends, chatting or entertainment. Even then I was not feeling bored, as I was occupied with something or the other.

Whenever possible I used to read books, watch cinemas online, blog, twitter or face book. But even these interests kept changing. So gradually I lost interest to blogging (I was not sure what to write. In Tamil they used to call this state as “sarakku theerndhuduchchu” :D) and twittering (I had to think too much to be unique in every tweet, so obviously it did not fit me & also I cannot freely talk to people who I don’t know personally, but that is twitter’s main culture).

Now somehow I manage to allot time for everything right from job, house chores, Manasa, chatting with friends & relatives, Whatsapp & FB and youtube for movies. The only thing I need to catch-up is listening to songs, like how I used to before.

Of course I needed a break from routine several times, but when it comes to routine, I was not bored.

But why am I sharing all this now? Because of late I frequently started thinking about what would be my pass time activity in my old age.

Few elderly people, for example my mom or even my MIL, feel loneliness and boredom most of the times. Only TV or talking with someone makes them happy. And the major reason is they don’t have any responsibilities other than keeping them healthy, which is not so interesting.

As I am witnessing such persons, I started to wonder about my old age. I wish I should not feel boredom or loneliness even in my old age.

Allexperts Answer

My Question:
Hello Doctor,

I am Sudha from Chennai and this is regarding my 5year old daughter. 

She frequently gets cold n cough. Most of the times, with just Citrezine syrup, she is not getting cured. So I give her antibiotics also along with it. Azithromysin or amoxyline etc for 5 days, twice a day.

My doubt is is it harmful or not advisable to give anti-biotics frequently? Say I gave antibiotics last month for 5 days and again this month she got cold and can I give her antibiotics again this month?

Please advice.

Thanks

Doctor's reply:
Hi Sudha,

Yes, unnecessary use of ANY medicine, including antibiotics, should always be avoided as it does more harm than good.

Most cold and coughs in children are viral, and antibiotics have NO ROLE in viral infections. If your doctor prescribes antibiotics everytime the child has cough and cold, I would strongly advise to look for a better doctor in your area, since the doctor is not doing justice to your child. 

IF, on the other hand, you are using antibiotics on your own without consulting a doctor, then I am sorry, you are not doing justice to the little one who has no choice but to trust you. You breach this trust everytime you give ANY medicine (including cough and cold medicines which are schedule "H" drugs: to be taken strictly under medical supervision) to the little one without consulting a doctor... (I have purposely said all this since I often see antibiotics and even cough and cold medicines taken very lightly by parents...it's great to hear from parents like you who have raised such an important question)


Best wishes,
Dr. Puneet Kumar,
Kumar Child Clinic, Dwarka,
New Delhi, India

மதராஸி டா!!

சில கோவை வார்த்தைகள் நான் இங்க வந்து கேட்டது - ஒட்டுக்க, ஈக்குமாறு, கோட்டு, ங்க போன்றவை. இது தவிர கிழக்காலே, மேற்காலேன்னு திசையை குறிப்பிட்டு வழி சொல்வது. நமக்கு left, right, stright தான் புரியும்.
இங்கயே வளர்ந்தவங்க, பெரும்பாலும் வயதில் பெரியர்வர்களுடன் (maid, watchman, சில auto காரர்கள் etc), பேசும்போது, பலமுறை "ம்ம்?" "என்னது?" ன்னு "ரிப்பீட்டு" கேட்டுகிட்டே இருப்பேன். அவங்க என்னை பத்தி என்ன நினைச்சிருப்பாங்ககுறதை நீங்களே யோசிச்சிக்கோங்க. அதே சமயம் நான் "peter" பொண்ணும் இல்லை. நான் ஒரு அருமையான (!?), அஃமார்க்கான (??) சென்னை பொண்ணு (சரி..சரி..பேரிளம் பெண்'ன்னே படிங்க).

மெட்ராஸ் பாஷைதான் சுலபமா புரியுது - மெர்சல், பேஜார், கலாய்க்குறது, ஒருதபா, கப்பு, டபாய்க்குறது etc.

மதராஸி டா!!


Few Kovai terms which I came across are: Ottuka – together; Eikkumaar – broomstick; Kottu – kadaisi; and the very familiar ‘nga’ slang as in yenunga.

And one more is they use kilakke..merkke etc words to show directions. This is actually fine but for me I need to do few quick home works mentally to understand them. First I need to mentally equate it to English directions and then comes the trickiest part. When someone says turn “merku”, I get confused and I need to see sun literally to understand the directions. Left-right-straight is the only the coolest guidance which I can understand. :-D

When talking with proper Kovai based (rather elderly) people, they might think I have some hearing problems, as I keep asking them ‘hmmm?’. And my mind starts singing the Rajini song “repeattu ”. I am not a ”peter” girl either.

I am a proud Madrasi who very well knows “Madras bashai” like mersal, bejaar, kalaaikkuradhu, oru’dhaba’, andhaanda, gappu, dabaikkuradhu etc etc.:D

So what about you? :)