Lullaby

All parents would have committed this monstrous crime against their child at one point or other. I believe we all have been corrupted by the mid 90s tamil movies that have a village backdrop. The common unifying factor in all these movies would be infants crying in the village. Enter our portly hero singing a lullaby. Precisely when the song ends all the children would go to sleep. I sure wish I could have put my son in that village. He would have given our hero a run for his money.
In our house at the first sign my son shows of going to sleep, I take him from the missus with a assured glance. I take him to a separate room lest I terrify her. Then I would bring out the inner artist in me at full flow. I serenade him with a whole bunch of philosophical songs that ponder on the Heavenly home to the Beatles. No full stops there. I bring out a lot of special effects , runs what not to my audience of one. He will start with a glance of "What is the issue with this guy" to "O My God Why me". And in spite of my concert would go to sleep.
At this point of time my wife will take over. She knows if I continue with the same enthusiasm he might wake up with nightmares. She will start the mothers only patented lullaby that goes with just a single sylable and humming a tuneless tune. Well its kind of effective. Of course anything after my solo recital would be music from the heavens.
Well speaking of lullabies my special favourite is the one by Eric clapton.

Good night my angel time to close you eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say

I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Where ever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away

Good night my angel now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay

And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark and deep
Inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me

Goodnight my angel now it's time to dream
And dream how wondeful your life will be
Someday your child will cry and if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart there will always be a part of me

Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die that's how you and I will be

The kings Singers version of the song is superb. You can view it here.

Of course it is nowhere near mine.

911 - 108

Yesterday night was an unforgettable night for me. Around 12 midnight my son woke up crying. He normally does that when I am just sinking into sleep. Thinking it was his usual histrionics my wife took him up and began soothing him. What followed next was terrifying. He started gasping , shuddering and held his neck at an unnatural angle. His eyes went wide and he stared unseeingly at us without breathing. I tried to soothe him and my wife tried and we were at our wits end and something pushed me to call 911. The person who attended the call took all the details regarding the condition and just my apartment number and within 3 minutes a cop with emergency kit was in my doorstep and in another 5 minutes the ambulance crew was there.

Thankfully he was well by the time and was starting to look at them like aliens. They had a look at him and wanted to know if we needed to be taken the hospital. When we assured them it was okay they left after giving some medical advice. The police man was the last to leave after ensuring everything was fine.

Three things struck my mind after this episode

1. We are in a foreign country alone with nobody to guide us. The only guidance we have is the Grace of God and the prayers of others. I do not have a clue as to what I would have done if my son did not become normal. I still shudder to recollect the same.

2. The second thing is 911. The thing that amazed me was the speed of response and the way in which they responded. When a few minutes can make a difference between life and death 911 is a lifesaving process by providing emergency services in that precious few minutes. I have begun reading about 911 and its history in the US and I plan to put it in a separate post.

3. Whenever such a thing happens my wife would begin to insist on returning to India and I pointed out her with smugness that such a service is not there in India. Most cases we tend to have a biased attitude when comparing US and India.Each country is unique in its own way. However returning to the main issue I had to eat my words when I came to know we have a similar service 108 in India. Its not available in all the places.However its a start. It has been pioneered in India by GVK EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute) and it has a current fleet of 1900 ambulances across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa, Chennai, Rajasthan,Karnataka, Assam Meghalaya and Madhya Pradesh. When you call 108 it would be received by a state of the art call center and they handle Health emergencies, Crime and Fire.
Considering the population factor 108 has some way to go. However its a sterling initiative and we should be proud and supportive of such efforts. Believe me I know the terror of the ordeal when no help is available during your darkest hour.

I have given the EMRI website details below

http://www.emri.in/content/view/24/59/

Halloween - Trick or Treat

Halloween has come and gone. Since this is my second time in the US I was not surprised to see the Pumpkin decorations and ghosts outside the houses here in new Jersey.But i was quite unprepared for Trick or Treat. As a Halloween tradition children go from house to house asking Trick or Treat. If you do not treat them with sweets they would play some trick on you.That's how if works.

Well Saturday evening I was watching a movie with my wife and my son was sleeping. Though its a Indian neighborhood we do not mingle that much. I was slightly surprised when my door bell rang. When I opened it there were two small witches and a skeleton standing outside. It was the kids from the neighboring houses with their moms and they cried Trick or Treat. To say I was embarrassed would be the understatement of the year.I stammered out a sorry and explained that I had forgotten about the whole thing and did not have any sweets. The two girls smiled at me and turned away. The little kid dressed up as the skeleton glared at me and said Trick or Treat again. His mom dragged him away. But not before he fixed me with a "What a idiot" glare. As he belongs to the little ruffians league in my neighborhood I shudder to think what kind of a trick he is going to play on me.

Black Friday - US Aadi thallupadi

I recently came across the term black Friday when going through some of the deal websites. I initially thought it was a horror movie. A little research gave some interesting insights. Black friday is the Friday after the thanksgiving week in America and it is the starting of the traditional holiday shopping season. The term originated in Philadelphia in the 60s from the police department who coined this not so affectionate phrase to mark the crowds, traffic jams, general trouble that comes with the start of the shopping season.

By early 1980s the retailers gave a new dimension to the term by giving the new theory that this day signifies that their losses (Generally marked in red ink in the accounting books) turn to profit (Marked in black). The activity starts as early as October when different retailers start announcing the deals.The day itself would be characterized by people staying overnight in malls so that they can pick up the deal items that would be stocked by the retailers. There have been stampedes gunfights on the day over the past years.

Reading up on this info made me think back to Aadi sale that happens in Tamil nadu,India. The aadi season which falls in mid july to mid august is considered to be an inausupicious time during which people do not buy anything new. To offset this a huge discount sale was proposed by the retailers such as pothys to entice customers to buy. It has progressed to such an extent that in the last few years this season is the time when the sales is huge.

You will not be able to enter Tnagar ranganathan street which is the garment hub in Chennai. Huge crowds, jam packed stores, huge traffic hold ups are a common feature of this season. Unlike the web advertising for black friday you can see a lot of hoardings, TV and radio adsfor Aadi.
Both aadi and black Friday have a lot in common.Both of them reflect the resourcefulness of the retailers in drawing customers.

Be thankful to Him

God worked miracles

Was just thinking a while on what to write next....when something in me gave the idea of sharing few testimonies. To be frank, I'm not a perfect follower of Christ....but a simple lover of God. I do not pray every mornings and nights but i pray many a times a day for everything. I've not shared any testimonies to date. God has performed many wonders in my life still.Then why am i not still sharing it with anyone???? I've questioned myself like this many times. So just thought why don't I use this blog as an opportunity. I ll share a few here...

My very first testimony would be to Praise God for giving me a wonderful mom and dad. Without them i wouldn't have known God. They brought me up in the best way. When I was a child I still remember my mom say, "when u do something which you are not supposed to, Jesus will cry for you. So ask Jesus sorry for the thing you did and He ll forgive you". I pray God that I should be as my parents were to me, to my little son.

For the first of half of my life God guided me through my parents.But that day i didn't know I would be blessed with a loving husband and a caring in-laws for the res of my life.When time came for me to get married my parents asked me how i would like my husband to be. Truly i didn't have any particulars but the only thing i told them was, "I want my mother-in-law and father-in-law to be kind as you are to me". I knew not whether this will happen. You know what happened, I was blessed more than what i asked for.Praise the Lord. I can call my mother-in-law as my next mom and father-in-law as my next dad.How blessed am i to get them.And my husband.....oh i have no words to explain his love and care to me. Everyday i ll Praise God for giving me such a loving family.

Most recent of all, i would like to Praise God for having blessed us with a sweet little boy. And recently when we moved to US God was with us through all trials and sickness.We as a family are thankful to Him.