Breastfeeding mistakes which I did...

I have had ups and down with my breastfeeding journey(still do)....and I don't want anyone else to face the issues like me...well in my case, I was hospitalized after 15 days of giving birth and my baby had been formula fed for quite sometime...it was real difficult and stressful for me to get her off the formula and I see lot of moms these days facing this issue too, so writing this blog which hopefully helps mothers like me out there especially new moms.

I don't want moms to make similar mistakes like me and hopefully can this can reduce their stress.

Not doing my research early.
Despite of being internet savvy generation, I did not do any research about breastfeeding. I never thought it would be this difficult and comes with its own challenges. In India, every mother breastfeeds their child, its like second nature...so I just thought it would be second nature for me as well. Turns out its not...

Never considered pumping.
I have heard about working mothers pumping at office and thought I would do the same once I start full time work. I got our pump for free from insurance and I packed it up, put it aside thinking will need it later. Turns out I was wrong and lot of mothers are exclusively pumping. When I finally decided to pump, I didn't know how to use the pump and wasted few days thinking pump is not working.

Started re-lactation late.
When I came back from hospital, I was weak and got my strength back after few days but I was still not ready to breastfeed. I was having catheter and my mind was totally stressed out with when I will be fit again. After a lot of suggestions from my husband and friends, started breastfeeding again, but I should've started it sooner.

Did not pumping more often at night.
When on catheter, it was difficult for me to walk, so I would pump at 12 night and than 6 in morning. But that routine continued for sometime even after I got well. Meanwhile if my baby is hungry, she was formula fed.

Never considered breastmilk could be stored or freezed.
Again being traditional, I always thought giving baby pumped milk within 4 hours. So I would not pump again unless it's required.

Did not pump on schedule.
I was breastfeeding/pumping on demand and when I realized that the baby needs more and needs to be supplemented with formula, I never tried pumping on set strict schedule. It took me a lot of time to wean formula because of that, especially at night when I have very low supply and I am tired. But as soon as I started pumping on schedule, my supply got increased.

Not eating proper food.
Again due to lack of knowledge. My elders suggested a few things but I was not taking it seriously. Also, amazon has tons of lactation tea, drink mix and tablets. I realized fenugreek is divine. So if it suits u, eat in any form u like, leaves, seeds or laddus. Apart from that, I started having oats in breakfast and shatavari powder with milk at night, which created its effect in 2 3 weeks.

Stressing out.
Ok, I know it's very overwhelming having a baby, so many ppl in the house and sleeplessness. Not to mention baby blues and being frustrated for not getting enough milk supply. But u need to trust urself, it requires lot of patience and there is no magic wand. The process takes sometime, u just need to feel proud of urself. Also ask ur partner to make u feel good, l know it sounds silly but he will be able to build all confidence in u. Have a laugh, go out for a walk, pray regularly, meditate, read whatever makes u feel good. Eat what u like. I used to watch favourite comedy series while pumping/breastfeeding and these days I play laughing game with my baby, I dance with her and sing with her.

Not having baby sleeping in my room.
Since I was not well initially, she was sleeping jn grandparents' room and we did not move her to our room due to pure respect for them as they were used to having fun with baby in their room. As a result, I never got to breastfeed her during the night. She has been always fed pumped milk/formula from bottle and till now it has been a habit. She cries hysterically at night whenever I try to breastfeed.

Feeding her from bottle from day 1 and not knowing about nipple confusion.
Again lack of knowledge from our side. Plus hospitals in America never educate these things, they directly feed formula when momma's supply is low initially and never tell us to feed using spoon etc.

Not speaking up.
It has happened many times that family members would feed her formula because she is hungry and crying and I am busy sleeping/in meeting/eating and I didn't like it many times but did not speak up until long time out of respect.

Starting full time job early.
As soon as I got well and my maternity leaves were over, I started working as we have planned to take remaining leaves for vacation in India but I still regret that. Working full time has stressed me out and I am exhausted at night which affected my supply.

Consulting lactation consultant very late.
In US, most of the insurance covers lactation consultant, but I was not much aware about it but after getting few basic tips from her, I felt very confident about lactating with increased milk supply.

Not having a right mind-set

We all know that babies make u awake and u will be weak after delivery but how exactly post-partum period is, u never know unless u experience it, u won't be able to tell. Again research about post-partum pains and problems beforehand so that your mind will be set with expectations. I personally feel that house full of people with everyone having different opinions about baby and everyone sleepless bound to have fights. It's very common to have fights with ur partner, with ur mother over smallest things. Important thing is to set correct expectation in ur mind and with ur partner that both of u temporarily will have very less sleep and need to find time during the day to sleep and eat.

Not consulted doctor/hospital early when needed

Post-partum is overwhelming and if you are in lot of pain, consult ur doctor early and do go hospital if u feel its needed. Due to corona situation, we were very much afraid to goto hospital to do proper reports and went only when my pain was too much to bear, this eventually affected my supply too.

Not having so much of fun time with baby.

With my full time job and family taking care of baby, I never found time alone with baby to play our lil games. Lot of websites talk about skin to skin and nursing vacations but nobody talks about establishing that bond. Now after all family members have left, I am able to find lil momma-baby time which has made me super confident as a mom.

Trust me all mommas out there, if you follow these lil tips, ur breastfeeding journey would be smooth and stress-free and u will be able to increase ur milk-supply in very lil time.

Letter to my mom on her retirement

વ્હાલી માતુશ્રી,

મેં મારા જીવનમાં તમને ખૂબ ખૂબ મેહનત કરતા જોયા છે. તમે હંમેશા અમારા માટે સર્વશ્રેષ્ટ જ ઇચ્છયું છે. તમે ભલે કામ કરવામાં તનતોડ મેહનત કરતા, પણ અમારા માટે હંમેશા હાજર હતા, અમારા જીવનની દરેક ઘટમાળમાં અમને સાથ આપવા, ભલે ગમ્મે તેવી પરિસ્થિતિ હોય. તમારા બલિદાનો અને સ્વાર્પણ ને લીધે અમને જે આ સુંદર જીવન મળ્યું છે એ અમારા માટે હંમેશા પ્રેરણાદાયક રહેશે...

મને ગર્વ છે કે હું તમારી પુત્રી છું કેમકે તમે ગૃહિણી અને આધૂનિક વ્યવસાયિક નારી નું શ્રેષ્ઠ ઉદાહરણ છો. આખરે તમારો પણ આરામ કરવાનો સમય આવી ગયો, હવે કોઈ સમયની પડાપડી નહિ અને કામનો બોજો પણ નહિ અને માથાકૂટ પણ નહિ. તમે તમારી સફળતાના હકદાર છો અને હવે સમય આવી ગયો છે આ સફળતાને માણવાનો અને તમારી જાત માટે સમય કાઢવાનો.

આજથી તમારો દરેક દિવસ શનિરવિ જેવો છે જેમાં તમે એ બધી જ નાની-મોટી ઈચ્છાઓ પૂર્ણ કરી શકશો જે તમે તમારી કારકિર્દી દરમિયાન ના કરી શક્યા. તમારી આ નિવૃત્તિમાં મમ્મી, હું તમને એ જ કેહવા મંગુ છું કે તમે અદ્ભૂત છો અને હંમેશા યાદ રાખજો તમને દુનિયામાં પ્રેમ કરવાવાળા લોકો હાજર છે. જીવનના બધા જ બોજા મુકો અને નવીન જીવન માં હળવાફૂલ થઈને પંખીની જેમ પાંખો ફેલાવો. તમારો ખૂબ ખૂબ આભાર અને તમારી નિવૃત્તિ અતિસુંદર રહે.

Mere ghar ayi

मेरे घर आई एक नन्ही परी
चांदनी के हसीन रथपे सवार

उसकी बातों में शहद जैसी मिठास
उसकी साँसों में इत्तर की महकास
होंठ जैसे के भीगे भीगे गुलाब
गाल जैसे के दहके दहके अनार

मेरे घर आई एक नन्ही परी
चांदनी के हसीन रथपे सवार

Submit your app to apple for development/testing

• Create apple developer account(99$ per year)
• Goto keychain access in MacBook. Goto keychain access->request certificate. Enter email id(aka apple developer email id) and a name and choose to save on disk and save the certificate.
• Go to member center from https://developer.apple.com
• Go to certificates section -> all. Click on '+' icon to create a new certificate, choose ios development and upload new certificate there.
• Go to app identifiers and create new(from '+' icon). Choose explicit app id and need to provide unique bundle identifier from your Xcode project. If it's not unique, it will not accept.  You can choose all services that you like. 
• Add new device. To get a unique id for the device, connect mobile/iPad with MacBook. Go to xcode->window->devices and choose your device to get a unique id. Add any name and unique id to add that device
• Go to provisioning profile and create new for ios app development. Choose app id and certificate. Download provisioning profile. Double-click it and it will open your project in Xcode.(If it does not work properly, you need to restart Xcode and go to signing section of project in general tab and choose the profile or apple id)
• Choose a generic device in ios simulator section. Go to product->archieve.
• After archive is created, go to window->organizer and choose archive and export. (You can also export it for specific devices). This will create .ipa file and also create an ad-hoc distribution profile in developer member center. (In case, it does not create distribution profile, you can create it by yourself from apple's development center).
• Click on upload app. This will upload the app to the app store for testing. It might take some time and you will get email notification of whether it was successful or failure with ways to fix bugs.
• In case you need to fix bugs, follow the instructions on provided in the email. You need to change bundle version from Xcode before archiving it again and re-uploading it.

Using TestFlight:

• Google iTunes connect and login with the developer account.
• Go to myapps->add a new app. Provide same bundle id as used before. Other information can be random.
• Go to users and roles from top-left navigation and add testers' apple id email there. They will receive an activation email.
• Next, go to testflight tab and go to internal testing. Select app version(might be shown as processing for some time, you need to wait and refreshing). 
• Next, select app, you might get the message of encryption. Tick yes yes and go next.
• Then select users(which were activated in users and roles) and hit start testing
• All activated users will get an email with instructions for testing.
• They need to download testflight app on their iPhones and redeem the code provided in the email.
• Once that is done, users will be able to download the app in their phones to test it! 
• Wow. It's Done!!!

Cards of wild game

'World of balance' is a gaming solution which includes lots of single-player and multiplayer games. The theme of 'world of balance' is animals and their food chain and all games are conceptualized using that theme. The game lobby is used to login and interact with other players or join their game-rooms.

Cards of wild is part of bunch of mini-games from 'world of balance' game stack. Its a 2-player game where both players are given deck of animal-cards to play with. The cards can attack opponent's card as well as his/her tree('tree of life'). Each card and tree has specific health points and using animal food chaining rules one has to attack opponent. Whomsoever kills the tree, wins the game.

We have a game-lobby server which is common for all the games and Cards of wild has its independent server which receives all requests related to our game. We used unity as game-client and Java for server development. Our game runs on android devices as well.

Github wiki: https://github.com/worldofbalance/wiki/wiki/15.-Cards-of-Wild

Github organization: https://github.com/worldofbalance

Rules for playing Cards of wild: https://github.com/worldofbalance/wiki/wiki/15.-Cards-of-Wild#game-overview

Android apk: https://slack-files.com/T0MJR5JMN-F1A84GJ1Z-7e30545b88

Game demo(best viewed in full screen):

I was team-lead for this game as well as server developer. Main challenge for this game was to refactor existing code. 'World of balance' game-stack is developed over years by students taking multiplayer game development class. I sincerely appreciate their efforts to develop all the components of client and server and make it distributed. Especially card of wild(COW) had excellent class hierarchy in-place and I could totally understand developer's vision but lack of comments, documentation, version control system and Unity's limited debugging capacity made it difficult to grab at first. Also, each game did not have separate repo or folder and client files were scattered over different folders and repetition of same files made it even worse.

Client code was combined and server solution was independently working and that was a problem! Because server was independent, it had all common code like login repeated. So I had to merge it to existing repo for making it more manageable but still run it individually! My team-mates who were working on client side also had hard time with Unity.

At the end, it was a learning experience since I had multiple hats on my head. Apart from team management, their communication and meetings, I took initiatives in class for organizing server code or implementing simplified client-server communication logic so that other developers can also get benefits. We did pair-programming for hours with team-mates first time and it was fun. I took deep dive in gaming world this time and got to know how little things like colors or sound or placements of objects matters! 

SuperRaibowReef

TankWars game application

Cooking with mithu

I think there was one and only one event when we all 5 together cooked! That was on Friendship day(Excuse me Chashmish for dates) when we got together at Chakli’s place when we all got together at night on Friday, talked, played dumb charade and cards and decided we all will cook something like full meal-roti, sabji, rice, dal and desert(sheera) but we ended up eating sandwiches!!! JJJ

We all woke up late that day. As usual, Chashmish woke up very very very early. I always tell her a cock-who sleeps early, wakes up early and starts shouting ‘kukdeeeeeee koooooookkkkk’ at others and make them wake up early too… J Then she woke up Lali and Chakli-2 good gals in our gang who never say no. Then they all dared to wake up me and my sis at 8am who usually wake up at 11am in holidays. After a lot of rebels and shouts we finally got up. We all had nice tea together and decided what should we do for cooking.

Chashmish: What else? We decided yesterday no…full meal and desert.

Chakudi(yawning): No yaar, lets cook something different, we all eat this every day.

Lali: Maybe sheero, puri and bhajiya(a full meal).

Chakudi(with her eyes wide open): Noooooooooooooooooo. I don’t want to do any hard work. Let’s not waste much time in cooking. Let’s cook something which is easily done so we can play or chat.

Chakli: Then we can cook sandwiches.

Me: We don’t need to particularly ‘cook’ sandwiches. And only sandwich will be boring and it will complete too fast, lets make cake alsoJ

We made ‘list-of-things-to-buy’. Chakli and Chashmish went out to buy them meanwhile we 3 did some other important work(like switching on computer and tv, eating etc J)

Now making a sandwich should be easy process especially with 5 people doing it, but its not when 5 people are doing 10 kinds of different sandwich :)

Lali wanted fat-free version of sandwich, Chakli wanted 'normal, practical' version, Chashmish wanted full-fat version, I wanted some out-of-the-world version and Chakudi also wanted some non-existing kind of sandwich. We cut different vegetables for different versions and Chakli's big kitchen soon became a mess with 5 of determined not to leave any corner clean!!! :)

Finally, the process of making raw material got over and process of making cake was started. Nobody was baking expert(actually nobody was cooking expert!!!) and we wanted to try Chakli's new microwave, so we prepared a basic batter and put it in microwave, but that first trial turned out to be a disaster as the cake was as good as a stone...ha ha ha..(we never got idea of checking on internet...). And in the process of making disastrous cake, we again messed up kitchen! Now Chakli took control of situation and prepared cake with her mom's tried and tested method and finally it turned out to be delicious.(Oh, we have someone who knows something about baking :) )

We had our lunch wholeheartedly as we did lot of hard-work(in cleaning the kitchen :D) We played for a while and left for home in evening. It was always fun when we were all together. Hope some day we can meet like this.

Aren't they beautiful?

Love these lil fantasy of nature. Check them out...

My Flora Photography

Some videos...

My first video which I created....

Dedicated to mithu group....

This is my fav one...last video I created...

Sadly youtube degraded the quality :(

Some photoshop...

Before:

After

Rose before:

After:

My wedding pic before:

After:

My Friends' Wedding

Hmmm...long time....I am shifted to US and I can't believe this year gave all of us so many shocks and surprises!! Only one year before, we were all pulling legs of one another thinking what will happen in their marriage and how would their kids behave, but now at the time of wedding, we are miles apart. And since my mithu group has started, the most enthu person about other's(and her own) wedding was Chashmish. I remember when we played Future game(a game in which we guess a future incident with a card, and imagine it will be correct for whomsoever having the matching card), Chashmish got future that she will be the first one to get married and she started dancing like anything :) with her 'Mane jaldi jaldi koi shodhi apo ne'...(Please find some lover quickly for me)

Look what God did Chashmish! I think you found your love earliest than rest of us!!! You should have said, "Mane jaldi jaldi parnavi apone...'(please let me marry quickly)...lol. Anyways, whatever happens, happens for good. Two of my bestest friends of our gang getting married...wow! Even you could not have imagined that you would be getting married in this year. And I could not have imagined that you would be getting married in this year without me being there...

As with you, I myself have imagined lots of things regarding your wedding. "I will buy this...I will wear this...I will specially prepare dance on this song with my friends and Chaku will choreograph for everybody....I will surprise you with this thing...I will take 15 days leave and be at your place for helping...I will do a long mehendi...I will pull your legs when you will be posing for couple photos...I will definitely steal jiju's(brother-in-law) shoes and will ask for big amount in return as per custom...I will take lots and lots of photos and videos...I will do garba and party all night...I will be the 'Anwar'(the one who sits beside bride on wedding) and manage all your gifts...I will come with you for shopping or suggest you where to buy and what to wear...I will ask for bachelor party...It would be like 3 to 4 days of celebration...And I will eat all the sweets :)...I will tease jiju with your 100000 names..."

And lots and lots of thoughts I did when I imagined your wedding all these years. But hopefully all other friends will fulfill my absence and satisfy my thoughts. I know you will look great on the day of wedding and reception. Lets see if you beat jiju in good looks that day! I am gonna ask all my friends for your pics and videos, and as soon as you get the originals, post it to me. I even asked jiju to do live feeding but it doesn't seem possible as it needs good wifi and all. But hey, me and Rajan are thinking of keeping awake that day(and our night) and hear live commentary on whatsapp. Chaku, Komli everybody will be there for handling all the things. You maybe lil nervous and tired but hey, this day only come once in life so enjoy all the attentions and luxuries you get fully, you will feel like you are a queen giving orders to your kaniz (servants). And don't call jiju 'Tame sambhlo chho' in front of everybody...lol :)

And to my dear jiju...'Gor' farmaiye...

Its really hard to call you 'jiju' so I would stick with what we all are used to call you-Pario :) You are lucky to have her and so is she to have you. In our mithu group, whenever she got angry, we would say - 'If you put pan on her head with oil, it will start boiling instantly'. So beware! And never ever ask her to make coffee for you, you will regret later(I am telling with my personal experience :P). And since I knew about you, I had lots of dreams already of your wedding.

In mithu, I used to narrate my one of the dream. Chashmish fought with her husband and just when I arrived, she stopped speaking. Jiju looks at me, smiling, indicating her anger. We all set down to go out in a car, but still she doesn't speak. Jiju looks at me as if saying - "Don't worry, she will melt in some time." I generally ask her what happend, and she starts pouring out her anger with her typical teeth-grunting sentence - "Tane khabar chhe aje ane su karyu!!!!"(You won't believe what he has done today!!!!)....ha hahahaha...

Another incident we used to imagine in mithu group that whenever Chashmish wants to cook anything, she will first call her hubby to ask, "Where is this, where is that"? And still unable to find it in kitchen. After 8th call, her husband will get frustrated and himself ask her not to cook coz he will cook himself for them :D

Chalo wish you a very very happy happy married life from me and Rajan....hope all your dreams come true....Have super fun....

Lastly my signature song:
Hum hai raahi pyar ke, phir milenge chalte chalte.
(We are voyager of love, we will again meet you while walking through life)

Bidding goodbye to dear friends

It’s only a week since they have gone but it feels like our big Pune gang is separating day by day. Almost two months ago we all were together planning for holidays in May for my wedding!!! But then life has to go on and who knows one day we all might come back together in Pune itself! Yes, I am talking about two dear friends Niks and Pario whose chitchat has always been eternal part of our group.

We had a grand farewell party with all beautiful deserts. Niks and Pario were on hot seats. They talked all funny incidents about how Niks had no train tickets due to Pario and when ticket checker came, Pario was waking up everyone except Niks :P Then some over smart dude(banda:)) harassed them all the way with his exaggerated talk. Then we discussed how our children would be like. Hit’s will have tattoo already inscribed, Pario's child will just keep on smiling without reason and Niks' child will slap him with 'hove' and Kend’s kid will just be posing for pics of himself. We also had fun talking about the recent incidents of police and missing bike where Niks was trying to speak in excessive English with local Policeman and Pario just laughed without any reason and Hit was looking down for Niks thinking that he would be lying on land with his half ribs would have been already broken.

I started a thread on whatsapp regarding their farewell gifts and with no surprise I got disgusting suggestions like shampoo to Pario and deo for Niks :). We cut out the boys' suggestions and decided the budget and went on to buy similar wallets for both of them. Niks was going first on coming Sunday. We had a great breakfast on Saturday morning made by Banda(here Niks) himself :). After having good dinner we all sat together and asked Niks to have a farewell speech. I started video recording of his funny anecdotes about each person. For me and Rajan, he said all good things and congratulated us for future assignments. For Pario, he pulled his legs saying that Pario is 'dude' and he mixes with girls group easily and he is fond of ladybird cycle, but his mixing capability will lead him to success. About Kend, he said that he is actually born in London and very sophisticated and will surly go to US with the hard work he is doing. Same for Komli and Khetani. For Chashmish and Chakudi, he said that both are fun-loving nature and 'healthy' in terms of food just like him (who cares for ppl who think they are fat):P Whomsoever Niks was desribing, he always stated that the person has clarity of thoughts. For Hit again, he made lot of fun of him that he is 'champlo'(nosy) and 'dhyan behro'(deaf by heart) and will always have one or more evades for not doing things etc etc. But yes, he is a 'Stud' and can make girlfriends easily. Ha ha ha...anyways he concluded that Hit is really cool guy and has good sense-of-humor. To this, Hit poliety replied, "Hey but you didn’t mention my clarity of thoughts and success path?" :D

Anyways after this we stopped video recording and remembered some funny incidents. We remembered all bike-exchange and recent bike-stolen incidents and how boys went to-and-fro for searching. Then they said how Hit's alarm will ring at 5am in morning and harassed everybody, and how Hit and Kend harrassed Niks by knocking doors at 3am night and playing radio loud :) All became nostalgic by remembering the parties, fun, breakfast, lunch, dinner, weekends, movies, diaries and this and that.

Next day morning, when Niks was packing things, we wrote something in a diary for him and packed the gift and diary in his bag secretly. We bought some sweets for him and bid him goodbye. He became lil senti I think. When he discovered the gifts after reaching Mumbai, he was overwhelmed and did senti whatsapp to us :)

Next weekend Saturday, it was Pario's turn. On Friday, we took a long video of him, narrating some incidents when he came to Pune and he had to walk miles wherever he went. Then all boys narrated incidents of their bizarre college roommate who had weird habits of cleaning room whenever he slept. Next day, we did same for Pario as we did for Niks but in better ways. Chakudi prepared a great decorative book and we prepared some questions and ppl had enough time to answer them in detail. However, he doubted many times when he saw colorful pens everywhere in the house but we tried to hide things from him as much as possible. The problem was he was coming here and there in every room whenever we were secretly writing. We bought sweets for him(which we finished at home itself J) and we were on time leaving for bus. But all of a sudden, Hit called and asked us to copy his important data from Pario’s laptop. When we started, the windows said ‘half an hour to go…’. We were shocked and cursed Hit for his last min reminders. We almost reached the bus-stand when bus was about to leave!!! Anyways, I took some last moment pictures, and bid goodbye to him. Pario was also being lil senti and Hit started acting of a crying woman. Ha ha ha…

Now that house of Vasant Avenue seems so lonely but each room of that reminds us of one or the other funny moment when we all were together.

Komli Bday

Our girl’s gang new member – Komli. She is so cool-sometimes looks like college teenage girl, sometimes proper lady like, even sometimes behave like a kid! On her recent birthday, I –the initiator - started thread on whatsapp that what should we do and cake and things like that. Initially, I got angry on Khetani(her husband) as he was not answering. But then I realized that I entered his other number in the group. Anyways, I later coordinated with Khetani for cake and everything and we finally decided to sing a song for her individually. Fortunately she came late that day from office and we had plenty of time to decorate her room. We decorated her room’s balcony curtain with ribbons, hangings and other colorful things. Khetani- the electrician- arranged some lights on the top of balloons. Chakudi -the artist- quickly prepared beautiful ‘happy bday Komal’ letters with few sketch-pens. Rajan – the manager- was helping everybody. Amity-the traveller- was on her way to Komli's home even after long office hours. Vibrant cake(selected by Khetani) was already hidden at Vasant Avenue(other friend’s society) –just in case Komli comes and opens the fridge. When decoration almost got over, Khetani started to get ready as if he was going on a first date :P He took bath, shaved himself, changed to decent cloths and then started spreading perfume all over!!! We all murmured – “Wah Khetani Wah!!!” (Bravo Khetani).

We called our friends to come. When they came, we started taking video of their singing. The purpose of this was to dedicate a song for Komli, but all were singing randomly. First we asked Khetani to sing, he sang a Gujrati song “Nayan ne bandh rakhine…” He was signing it so seriously that I and Chakudi started dancing on this in background :P Next, Kend sang and danced on a Hindi song. I and Rajan did a couple dance (with Rajan’s funny add-ons in song). When it came to Pario, instead of singing, he started with some dialogue – ‘Harry Potter, Superman, Batman all ready to go….’ Then sang some song of all super heros. When Amity arrived, she started to sing like a small kiddo “bar bar din ye aye, bar bar dil ye gaaye…” we all laughed at her and put her out of camera, and started to sing and dance on our own remix of this song (With of course, Pario and Rajan coming in between with ‘harry potter is flying…huuuuuu….batman on his wings….’).

Komli has already arrived and have been waiting out in drawing room. We all banned her from coming inside bedroom till everything got ready! Though she tried really hard to push the door, but nobody can win with CID’s Daya (here Chakudi J) at opposite corner. So she put on her laptop and started singing wildly as if taking revenge…he he he…then she applied facial and changed cloths and all that…At 12 am, our rest of the friends with cake arrived. We were just arranging candles and all, again Komali started to push, ‘it’s my bday, it’s my bday ye ye ye…yippeeee’. Finally when everything was ready Komli could enter the room and before we all start, she herself started singing “Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…la la la laaaaa”. She kept on singing like this as if reminding us that we also need to sing!

Then we all set for DJ dance on latest Bollywood songs with Khetani on the floor with his unique style. This was followed by couple dance of Khetani and Komli, Chashmish and Chakudi. When we all were finally exhausted from dancing, we sat to view the videos we have prepared. We laughed at our own selves by seeing the way we were behaving and doing madness. When Khetani’s video came, we laughed like anything coz his video was taken upside down!!! He was sitting and singing seriously in video and me and Chakudi were dancing in the sky :P My God! That was so funny.

We had some snacks and dispersed at around 1am night. Next day morning, we all got together for lunch as usual. We decided 'to have' lunch at Vasant Avenue and not 'to prepare' coz we knew no material will be available where boys are staying. We gals decided to prepare Komli's fav food items. We knew that she loves Kheer, so our Amity prepared it. I prepared sabji. Cook prepared roti and we all got together. Even after fufilling our tummies, we wanted to have some more good food in dinner. After 1 hour of discussion, we cooked Pau Bhaji at Vasant Avenue only, and it tasted really good as we have already learnt how to cook good with lesser facilities :)

And the day went on like this. But now really we are lost at ideas to arrange for new themes on each birthdays. We are still trying to make it fun. We used to celebrate bdays on a vast level but now it is getting really difficult to make everyone available under one roof. Still we are trying. Next is Kend’s bday. Last year we gave him a big card which had 15 different types of dogs on it and we’ve written our names and his other friends’ names on each! Hope to see more surprises this year too.

Welcome back to my blog

My my...writing after a long long time. Lots of thing have happened, lots of status changed(and address too :)) since my first blog.

Starting with me, I am in Pune...happily married. My husband Rajan Jethva is from Jamnagar, Gujrat. He is currently working in Infosys. I am working in Amdocs. We stay in a rented home. Hectic schedule start everyday coz my home is 25km from my office and I just wait for weekend to have good sleep. But I think every IT guy whether he/she do or do not have work, wait for weekend everytime.

Now for our mithu group, My friend Chashmish and my sis Chakudi, both are working in Pune itself. Amity and me are in same company. Chakudi is in Cognizant. Both are single still :) So we gals rock here @Pune. My other friend Chakli is married and staying with her husband Nishan in Banglore, she too is working in IT company very far from her home. So we many times talk on phone in bus. But now she is not as free as she used to be(like me :)), so we can freely talk only after evenings. And as we are 'girls', our freely talk usually extend till an hour minimum :P. Her husband i.e. our Jiju(brother-in-law) is really cool and the pair perfectly compliments each other. My friend Lali is also married with a guy called Archan and staying in Bharuch, doing tutions. I have written previous blog about her wedding here. She is not much in touch.

Everybody is pretty busy in their life and we can't meet as much as we used to meet in college days. But I miss them. In my wedding, Chakudi and Chashmish created a video for me with all friends pics and I cried a lot missing them like anything. But apart from Lali, we 4 gals still do conference call on bdays and discuss on mails regarding bday gifts.

I had a rocking group at Mysore, Infosys similarly I have a whole new group here at Pune. My husband, before marriage used to stay with his friends. Hit, Kend, Niks, Pario to name a few. And there's a couple Khetani and Komali, they all are now part of our big 'Pune gang rocks' group. Here also lots of ppl came and went and still going to go. Almost every weekend we all get together and make meals together or go out. We all celebrate birthdays like anything, decorate house beautifully, order stylish cakes, have dance and games program and take funny videos...my God! I am fond of taking videos, and we have like 40gb of pics and videos of us!!! Everybody is earning in good companies. Once in a while we have a bachlor party(for married ppl also :)) for gals as well as boys. So me enjoying days in Pune.

So here I am. I have lots of topics to write, hopefully pen it soon.
 

Dreams Unlimited - 8

Ruju: Try giving it to your husband and I will record his face expressions…hey next question will be how many songs need to be renamed in Chakli’s laptop? :D
Chakli: And for you, the first and last question will be how much disk memory you have used in photography and video recording…
Ruju: Ah, because of my video recording hobby, you ppl got mithu video which is getting played all-time in collection room. Remember that day, Chashmish was frustrated and I showed her our old video and she burst into laughter. I am source of all good things, you know…
Chakli: Yeah yeah, I know and because of it, your hard disk is full always and you keep on asking for space in others lappy.
Ruju: You should thank me for that baby. I am planning to create an online backup for it…
Chakli: Infinite online backup is not available dear, and it’s not safe anyways.
Lali(before they start any further ‘computerized’ discussion): Hey, look in the movie, finally heroine realized…
Chakudi(in her mind): Hope it now ends…

She checked how much movie is still left with remote.

Chakudi(dropping her jaw): What? 1 hour of torture still left? Will heroine take 1 hour to tell hero? Had it been in real, hero heroine would have had child till now…uffffffff…

Lali: Heqwwhehe…Easy, easy Chakudi, for you I think we should ask to your to-be husband, “When was the last time you did not shout?”
Chakli: The ans is obvious, never !!! hihihi…
Chakudi: And Lali, for you I think no ques-ans round will be there because you will all the same thing, “I will be comfortable with whatsoever it is…you decide”
Lali: Oh come on…
Chakli: I found another question for “mithu test for Chakudi”. “When was the last time she woke up before 11 o’clock?”
Chakudi: Why should I wake up early if there is no work?
Chashmish(Miss must-wake-up-early rebelled): You must wake up at least at 7am. You get refreshed you know…
Chakudi: I am not a cock like you who wakes up at 5 o’clock to do “Kukdeeeeeeee koooooook” and wake up others too.
Chashmish: Oh and I am not so lazy like you who wakes up at lunch time! Then eat breakfast at lunch time, lunch at snack time, snack at dinner time and dinner at 12 midnight !!!
Chakudi: So be it, that’s my schedule…

Before they go into details, suddenly a sad song started in movie which was hifi classical. Chakli was enjoying the song…

 

Chashmish: Now dnt tell me this is a sad ending movie…

Chakli: All movies do not need to have happy ending, it has to have realistic endings and sometimes sad endings are practical.

Ruju: Ah, forget it, I don’t remember any of your fav movies having happy ending. Hey this can be the next question for ‘mithu test for Chakli’-which is her fav movie that does not have happy ending?

Chakli: And for you, the question will be-which was the last sensible movie you liked not having hathods and masala of Bollywood?
Ruju: Aha, and what will be the question for Chakudi who watches all horrible k-serials too?
Lali: For Chakudi, the question should be – how many times does she watch Rodies and Splitsvilla on m-tv?
Chashmish: And that cloth buying rate question you told for me is also applicable for Chakudi. Whats her cloth buying rate? a) 1 cloth per month…
Lali: Just 1 cloth per month??? Don’t put impossible options!
Chashmish: heheeheh…ok, option a) 10 cloths per month…
Ruju: Just 10 cloth per month??? Don’t put…
Chashmish: Impossible option, yeah right. So maybe we should start with 100 cloths per month…
Chakudi: Hey hey hey, when did I buy 100 cloths per month? You ppl are exaggerating.
Lali: Remember last month you went to that mall almost every week. So next question will be in accordance, how much money does she save after chocolates, ice cream, shopping and movies?
Ruju: That’s easy to answer – 0 rs. Heheheahha
Chakudi: How dare you say that? See I have a lot of balance in my account.
Ruju: Oh really? How much?
Chakudi: Let me see…(after checking her mobile bank-her eyes were widened, she started speaking slowly like a kid) well, see it will not be obviously so big as you ppl.
Ruju: And we are not expecting the same. Tell us, but still, how much?
Chakudi: See, I believe in enjoying life and doing all fun things and that requires lot of investment.
Lali: Yeah yeah, you are the only Ambani of this house :P…Still we have not received any input regarding balance J
Chashmish(understanding why Chakudi was avoiding the ans): Chakudi, I know…(then suddenly started reciting a song) baat jo dil me ho, keh bhi do, keh bhi do…aaaaaaaaaaa(tell me whats there in your heart, Chakli was getting disturbed in her movie)
Chakudi(said slowly, seeing downwards): Its six…ty…four…rs(64 rs)
Rest all: WHAT?
Ruju: You call it a ‘balance’?
Chakli(her concentration from movie is broken again): What what? I wasn’t expecting six thousand four…
Lali: It’s not 6004, its 64…
Chakli: WHAT?
Chashmish(saving Chakudi): See, finally movie got over. I will need some tea.
Ruju: +1
Chakudi: +2
Lali: +3
Ruju: Lali? You and tea? See, Chakli, your movie was head ache to Lali too.
Lali: It was a lil boring Chakli this one…though acting was really good. I think next time its turn of Chashmish for movie.
Chashmish: Hehehe…diplomatic Lali, why don’t you directly tell her that it was the worst movie ever and you won’t be able to bear any of those next time J
Chakli(in her mind): Will put even slower movie next time, let my turn come…

All went for tea, at tea table.

 
Ruju: My God! It’s already 4 noon! You never know when the day gets over. When are leaving for shopping? Which hotel are we going tonight?
Chashmish: Are its only 4, it will be hot outside. We’ll leave at 6.
Chakudi: Nooooooooooo, what the hell are we going to do till then? Pls dnt say that u ppl are going to write diary.
Lali: Anyways, you will take 1 hour to get ready…where are we going for dinner anyways?
Chakudi: Lets go at Dominoz pizza…(looking at diet strict Lali) Lali, you can have pasta.
Ruju: No no, I think you also should not go there, u ppl not do any exercise and eat cheez like anything.
Chashmish: Hey, I go daily for morning walk.
Lali: Slowly doing walk in morning for half an hour is not so great exercise baby. If you really want to do that for exercise purpose, do jogging or …
Chakudi(before any other lecture starts): Ok, ok lets goto…hmmm…goto…hmmm…where…yes, let’s have sizzlers today! I have heard that the Siz hotel is very good, Lali you can have veg salad types sizzlers for you. So done?
All(thumbs up): Done..
Chashmish: I am going to my room, I want to arrange these cloths and..
Chakudi: How many times a day you arrange things in your room?
Ruju: heheheahahha…a) 10 times hahaha b)100 times…heheh c)

Rest all rolled over the floor. After sometime all got together in their ‘collection room’. This room, they have specially designed to hold their artworks. It was like a museum and literally contained historical things which they were collecting from their childhood. Drawings, books, diaries, letters, cards, show-pieces, newly tried recipies, essays, childhood’s books and lot more. It also had lots of things ‘online’ like their glittering names, songs they have sung, music they have created, their pics collages, special emails and pics and other data. There was one big projector which continuously used to play ‘mithu video’ – a beautiful video of theirs which combined all their madness and special pics. The projector was connected to main server computer where they had backup of all their laptops. There were lot of special artwork and frames hanging on the wall. There were 5 mugs which Lali has gifted to everybody. There was a big red wall in which they have written their nick names and other punch lines and notes. One section was only dedicated to painting where they had painter like big stand and brushes and pallate. The painting section contained all variety of colors you can think of. Chakudi used it the most to draw her cartoons. One section in the room was dedicated to writing and reading with connecting door to library. It had all kinds of pens and different kinds of colorful paper with special revolving sofa in front of a big window directed towards their garden. Writer can just sit on the sofa and observe the nature while writing. Next section was ‘best from waste’ which had all other stationary to make beautiful show pieces, candles, teddy bears, flowers, flower vase, boxes. One small section for clothing and stitching with small sewing machine. Another big section was only for music. They bought the best sounding woofers and other mixer instruments like DJ with a mic. They had all the music instruments – drums, guitar, piano, harmonium and what not! Chakli daily used to do practice on harmonium. Another section was filled with all the sports instruments. There was a big cupboard which was used to put their diary pages.The room was filled with happiness and hobbies.

Lali(looking at Chakudi’s latest drawing of cartoon): Its lovely, same as picture. Tell me, its reminding me of that ‘disney hour’ serial I used to watch daily.

Chakudi: Oh yeah, mickey, mini, alladin, Donald…you remember a cartoon called gummy bear? And who can forget that ‘telspan’ with Balluuuuuuuuuuuu…I recently drew Mermaid in my drawing book.
Lali: Hmmm…that’s cool. We have artists in this house- painter, writers…ahhhhaaaaa
Chakudi: Which cartoon character you liked?
Lali: Whatsoever my sis put on channel J Nothing specific.
Chakudi: I think mini mouse is suitable for you – calm and cute.
Lali: Oh! Thanks for the compliment buddy. And what will suite Chakli, Chashmish and Ruju?
Chakudi: Chakli…hmmm…let me think…Donald, nooooo, yes Olive JJJ
Lali: Olive? Whos that?
Chakudi: Are you don’t remember that popye cartoon..(now singing)popeye the sailor man…pieeeep pieeeep. His girlfriend Olive. The one which has the body size like 1 finger.
Lali: Hehehheheha…don’t tell her otherwise Chakli will beat you with her beak and fly from the house.
Chakudi: Olive was like her only. She always used to shout when villain traps her – POPPPPPPPPPEYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEE and popeye would say in his typical singing style – Ollllllllllliiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvveee
Lali: Oh yeah yeah I remember! The spinach man and his wire like thin girlfriend…(comparing her with Chakli in her mind) Oh My God! Chakli and Olive…hahahahahah… (Shouting aloud to call Chakli) Hey Chakli, we discovered a new name for you!

Dreams Unlimited - 7

Chakudi: Finally, now let me tell you what will happen. That letter will go to wrong hands-maybe her parents and then they will ask the girl to forget him and they will fix her marriage with villain’s dumb and stupid son, lock her in a room. Hero will come on horse, fight for her with villain. Parents will realize that he is a real hero and happy ending…

Chakli: Oh please, this is not your masala action movie.

Chakudi: Ok, so maybe this letter will go to that other supporting heroine who loves him, she will dream that he also loves her and write him back with acceptance. Hero will dream that actual heroine loves him. There will be a song for their misunderstanding dreams and at the end the supporting heroine will give 'kurbani'(sacrifice) of her love and again happy ending…

Chakli: Nothing like this will happen. Stop predicting common stories.

Chakudi: I am telling you, only this will happen. And if my words come true, will never ever watch your movies.

Lali: Chakudi popat, see that letter finally went to actual heroine only. And now she is shying. Here comes a song…

Chashmish: Pls fast fwd this song at least…I can’t bear this much slow movie. Chakudi you are right, there should be a ban on Chakli’s movie.

Chakli: Hey hey, how can you forget that I have showed you some excellent old movies which you like very much and recite their songs everyday ! And I even liked this movie also, 100 times better that Shahrukh’s dil to pagal hai where his pathetic…

Chashmish: No no no criticism about dil to pagal hai, it is a very good movie and every normal human being likes it.

Ruju: We are diverting from the topic of mithu test. I found a new question: How many liters water has Chashmish already drained out of her tears? a) 10 liter b)

Chashmish(off, they are back again): 100 liter, 1000 and 10000 liter…right? And we will ask this question for Chakli: ‘Which is the oldest movie Chakli has seen?’

Chakudi: No, we should ask, “What was the year when that oldest movie was released? a) 1100 AD b) 1100 BD c)… ”

Lali: Whats this AD and BD?

Chakudi: AD means after the birth of Jesus Crist, when the calendar year actually started, BD means before the birth… means very very old.

Lali: Hehehehe…those days movies didn’t exist in the world honey.

Chakudi: Yeah but who knows, Chakli might have a movie from that time also…old forgotten in history...

Ruju: No, no in Chakli’s ‘mithu test for Chakli’ we should ask, how many rules she has broken?

Chashmish(Thank God the topic was diverted now to Chakli): hehehehehaha. Arre, the answer will be in –ve :D We should ask how many rules she knows…

Chakudi: No no, we should ask how many unknown rules she has self-created? Like, we should talk only about technical topics in lecture, we should eat food only in recess-not even medicine even if we have headache, we should not talk to each-other when we are in the different lab even if sitting opposite to each-other.

Chashmish: Hehaheaheha, we should not leave our lab or classroom during lecture even if teacher allows. :)

Chakli: Jaaaaaaaa, you ppl are good for nothing. I never do these things.

Ruju, Chashmish: Lierrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Chakudi: You do it for yourself and make us follow that too.

Lali: Hehehaha…next question will be how many diary topics she has left half-written?

Ruju: Are Lali, that’s easy to count. Find all the topics of her hand-writing from diary and that’s it. All are incomplete! :D

Chashmish: Hey, next question will be when did she last reply with sms?

Chakudi: The answer is obvious, never :)

Chakli: Bussssssssssssssssss…let me watch the movie now.

Chashmish: Why why? When your turn came, you started watching movie and for me you were suggesting questions, hmmm? No, no, that’s not fair. Our next question will be where is her mobile?

Lali: Actually, where is her mobile? Chakli, where is your mobile?

Chakli: Hmmm, let me see…Last night did I put it at my bed or my cupboard…? I forgot.

Chakudi: Now only her to-be husband can find. :)

Chashmish (angry): How can you forget your mobile? You don’t receive any important calls and if we ask you say ‘I forgot…’. Seriously for you next question should be “What was the last thing you remember?”

Chakli: Are but, why do I need mobile at home? Only you ppl insist otherwise I dnt much care about mobile…

Chashmish: How can you…?

Lali(interrupting): What will be the passing criteria for Chakli?

Ruju: 100% because all questions are easy to answer. Hey, next question will be, “What was the last thing when Chakli gritted her teeth in anger?”

Chakli: And the answer will be right now when slapping all of you.

Chashmish: HE HE HE…Chakli there will be no effect on 60 kg like us with your 30kg weight.

Ruju: Eyyyy, I am not 60kg ok? Hey look, that hero is finally proposing her.

Everybody switched to movie again.

Chakli: You know what, I don’t think in true love anybody needs to propose or something, it’s something that you understand…

Chashmish: Boli boli…Ms Most Unromantic… next question will be “What is the last romantic thing which she supported?” and what is the definition of true love for Chakli.

Ruju: Not true love, Practical love :)

Chakli: Think about it; did our parents ever proposed to each other? You don’t propose doesn’t mean you don’t love.

Chashmish: Ya, but there should always be romance, proposing, making food for them, giving gifts, meeting in secret, giving rose makes us feel special.

Chakli: I think rather than giving cute gifts, they should invest the money for future saving.

Chashmish: Sav kachro kari nakhyo!(Its so aweful) I pity your to-be husband. Hey, I got another question, “What romantic gift will Chakli give to her to-be husband?”

Ruju: A pair of socks :D :D :D

Chakli: Jaaaaaaaaa nakami, that’s a very practical gift because all men loose it and they need it everyday.