WORLD AUTISM DAY - INDIAN MARRIAGES

When I visited my cousin brother 5 years back. I was excited to meet his son who was just 2 years old. I started to talk to him.(actual names changed)

"Hi Ashok, "How are you?"

(No response)

"Hey, I got this toy for you. Do you like it ?"

(No verbal response or signs)

I was bit surprised. For that age, you should atleast get a some sign language response. During my stay for 2 days, I saw that he just plays on his own. He doesn't act on any of the commands. He don't respond. He didn't act as a normal toddler. I asked to my cousin, he said "he is just 2 years and he will change when he grows?!. Also the difference in languages making him difficult to start talking.. ". That was his response.

After couple of years later, I read an article about Autism. I was really taken back by it and can correlate with my cousin son. I called my cousin immediately and talked to him about it. He then said,"Yes, we also came to know its a disorder named Autism. We are starting to see a theropist and trying to see what they can do".

This a true story and it is now more common in many families these days. As a father now, I can really feel the pain these parents go through. As a parent, we all except to play with our kids and see their cute smile and childish response for our child play. Thats not the case with these kids. The stories sometimes makes my heart cry. I don't know what to do other than pray to god.

Today, April 2nd is designated as World Autism day. I decided to post this blog to make it aware to as many people to help and pray for this kids. Here are some explanation.

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How many of you aware of Autism?

One in 150 kids has autism according to survey. It's not really a mental disorder as many think. It is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills.

What causes Autism?

There is no known single cause for autism, but it is generally accepted that it is caused by abnormalities in brain structure or function. Brain scans show differences in the shape and structure of the brain in children with autism versus neuro-typical children.Researchers are investigating a number of theories, including the link between heredity, genetics and medical problems. In many families, there appears to be a pattern of autism or related disabilities, further supporting a genetic basis to the disorder.

Early Signs of Austims:

Some signs to look for in the children in your life:

• Lack of or delay in spoken language
• Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
• Little or no eye contact
• Lack of interest in peer relationships
• Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
• Persistent fixation on parts of objects


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Indian Marriages

In many sections of our country, there is a tradition to marry the close relatives like neice marrying her uncle or nephew marrying his aunt. According to some research, that may be one of the causes for Autism on kids of thos marriages because of the same blood and genetics mismatches. It is not proven 100%. But I feel that may be reason my cousin's son Autism. My cousin got married to his close uncle's daughter. Because of this one, I strongly opposed my late grandpa's proposal to marry my uncle's daughter.

These kinda of marriages might work out well most of the time but sometimes it creates complications not for us for the kids. I have seen many kinds in this kind of marriages just in my relatives circle. Why do we have to make our kids suffer?! Instead we can be precautionary and avoid this circumstance of putting a child to ill fate. That is cruel in my perspective.

Also I feel as educated we are as a country. We should strongly try to be aware of this medical conditions and try to educate parents, friends who has kids that are growing. An early dediction of this disorder can help great extent in way to rectify it.

I felt thankful to God for my son who is normal and we should be. So Please do take a moment to pray for these kids at this day. Just my kind and humble request.

Check my other website on Money @ Money really matters

Toddlers Tantrum and Mantrams...

Parenting is an art involving tough act every moment.


I am sure many of you(parents) will agree to me 100%. Many of you know my Junior, Master Ashwin from previous blogs (Trick or Treat,PEEK-A-BOO:My Son, Me and Fun things...) He is closing in on his 2 year mark(3 more months). He is a busy Toddler and experimenting various tanturms upon us from his valise everyday. He is been handful especially to my wife. From the time he wakes up till he sleeps at night(except small nap in the afternoon), he is a busy bee keeping us in our toes all the time.

It made me to wonder how come our past generations (grandpa & grandma's) manage to give birth to 7-8 kids and that too in a row and able to handle them. Just take my parents, I have 4 uncles & 2 aunts in my father side and 5 aunt & 3 uncle in mother side. Thats reasonably good example for a biggie size family. That to most of uncle and aunts are pretty well settlement in their life. Thats a big accompliment by their parents.

It's amazing and I salute my grandpa's and grandma's anytime. I know there are lot of reasons it could have been possible those days but still as a parent its a tough tackle both mentally and financially. Take the current similar example in America. Americans are either this extreme or the other extreme. Some couples don't even kids till they die but some have 3-4 kids(one parent not talking about 2 parent). They just never bother to care about number of kids. Once its start, its just kept on coming. It doesn't matter whether they are wealthy enough or not. Somehow they manage to make it work.

Being a parent for just one kid itself is like too much to ask. I know some might come with an argument that kids these days are pretty smarter then old generation(including our generation) in all aspects which obviously makes things worse. I would have to agree to that. I guess its the gene.

As a parent (at works), we are learning everyday. Everyday something new pops up. I learnt that being a parent is a balance between being good, bad and ugly sometimes. You can't always be good because they tend to take you for granted after sometime and try to test our testrones going beyond their limits.

With my son, we are seeing a big change for the past 6-8 months? He started walking when we were just worrying about it. After that, he never stops for second and we are now thinking when will he stop running. He picks up things like Parrot and catch us off guard all the time repeating some words we accidently quote. He just tried to prounce his first word "THAQU" 3 months ago when I told him "Thank you" for bringing me back a ball. That was so cute and he just caught on it. Now he can speak lot more words pretty clear and everytime it makes us sparkle a smile. Thats all really good and cute until he take us to our extremes.

He now wants try playing my drums, work in my laptop like me, walk like me and talk like me. He is just a COPY CAT. Check out the video which I took like a month ago. He is the first to claim stairs before me and stands first to play drums everytime I go to do my practice. I have to wait until he is done for my turn. Otherwise there will be big tug of war starts. How is that?!

There is no more freedom of talk for us. I always have to think twice before I do anything or say anything. I am learning tips every day from the magazine "PARENTS" I subscribed just for this purpose to educate myself. I learnt that this is the age brain starts to develop and grasp things which will last untill they die. It's between 2-4, what they learn things stick with them has habit sticks for longtime to come. So I want to be very careful in implanting any bad things.Lets say for example "Fear factor". I don't want to teach him the fear of darkness by scaring or booing him to death. Thats what happened to me when I was kid and I still couldn't get over it.


Also at this time when the memory is developing, they have very shortterm memory. You need to keep repeating things which will finally get into their brain and stay. They just grow as a person who need to be repeated constantly which is sometimes irritating but we got to do it to get to their head.

Blogger Ranjini, one of my best blog friend is also my best advocate on this parenting topic.Whatever you learn from books and friends, praticals is always tough than theory right?! When he starts crying by throwing his tantrums for silly things that where he frustrates especially in the public place. I really don't know what to do. I understood, its might seem silly for us but for them its the way of getting things they wanted and desire to have as they can't talk to express their feelings. I tried to use the Mantra I learn by deviating his attention to something else. Some works but not always.

At times no Mantra will work other than the hand work if it goes beyong my limit. I can't stop other than hitting him which I don't want to make it has an habit. Thats bad for me and him. I feel bad what else is the option. My wife really don't like me spanking but she also don't know any other way at these situations.

I know there is always school of thoughts. one "Adi othavramathri annan thambi othavamathan" (Hitting helps better than siblings" and other one, "Pat the back and get the work done". You know the 2nd rule doesn't work all the time.

Here is another video with his act just taken lastweek. Trying to help me when I was working on my front garden.

As first time parent, we are experiencing this parenthood in a really mixed feeling. I am sure having lot of fun with my son but at the same whenever I get pushed to an extent by testing the patience and streching our nerves, its really hard to control our anger. We are trying out different methods like Time out (famous in US) by asking him sit alone and try to stop crying. He picked that up pretty quick and starts to obey it.

We know this is a stage and it has to pass on until that time we have to struggle as a parent and at the same time enjoy cute things without worrying much about the Tantrums but keep abrust with our Mantras which might come handy.

I always welcome any constructive critisium on this topic and happy to take any new techniques(mantras).


Check my other blogsite on Money at www.moneyreallymatters.com

Whats up with Gold?

Gold is one of the precious metal never lost value for all these years, I should say centuries. It's been the craze of human race from the day it was found. This yellow metal always retained its magnetic power to attract both men or women. It's metal for one reason Britains stepped their foot into India to capture hold of the country.

Gold has been considered as a good investment thats the main reason in India they gave gold ornaments as a dowry to the bride which can be used if necessary for the family. Its also used to pass on the wealth from one generation to another.

Enough of Gold history. Let me get on the fact. Look at the chart below. Last year around the month of Jun, it started to slowly raise and hit a lower high and pulled back on Sep again to $650 range(Rs. 800/gram 22 carat). After that it never looked back and started to soar supported by subprime crises and later by weak economy.

Nobody really expected the yellow metal to claim this high close to $1000(Rs.1250/gram 22 carat) within just 8 months and its not looking to stop anywhere soon and aiming for higher highs every day. Its all because of the weakening dollar pushing the inflation and recession is on the brink.

Check out the 5 year chart below, it has come a long way from $300. If somebody would have invested in just 10 bullions for $3000, now its worth $10000. Just calculate the return which is 225%. Wow, who don't want to get that much return. You and me can't predict the economy that pushed GOLD this far. But you surely make a wise choice to buy it when its affordable and it will never let you down.

Short term Trader:

Gold has become an attractive commodity for the trader these days with market fluctuating so much dropping prices to more than $10 dollars a day. It is very good traders vehicle to put money for a short term and get a sweet lump of return in just few months. It really You can boldly make the decision to buy some gold as short term investment and reap the reward when it gets up to $1100 or $1200. But be cautions and brave enough to withstand some ups and downs on the way.

Check out my other Money related posts at Money really Matters

Recommedation:

Long term Investor

Don't buy now. What goes up faster is set to come down 2 fold faster. Gold will eventually come down to a price which is afforable to conservative consumers. It will sure to pullback to $700 - $800 range or much lower(Rs.800/gram 22 carat). That time, don't hesitate to catch the train. It will be a good investment for long time to come. The 20year chart below is the evidence.

(Chart courtesy: http://www.usagold.com/)

GANDHI AND LOCAL TV CHANNEL IN USA

I was peddling hard like every other day at gym around 6.45am trying to sweat out. Its my habit to watch news and get a glimpse of the happenings. As some of you might know(read my blogs), gym was my musing place to spark new topics to be pondered upon.

Today, it was an interesting one. While I was watching the Local new channel. There was a flash news running underneath and I happen to catch the part of it. "Gandhi who lead the non-violence movement to fight againt Britain was killed..." I was like, what in the world they are flashing this news now. I really couldn't get hold of the full flash news. From that time on, I was trying to put the pieces together to find the relavance of that news while working out. Finally I got the answer while was ending my work out in a silence mood. Its JAN 30. Yes, its Jan 30th. Whats the important? Its Gandhiji's rememberance day.

I know many of you are like me. We just run with the flow and even forget best friends birthdays. Why go that far? Even forget our own spouses birthdays. No wonder we forget about Jan 30. Life just gets its toll. I am with you folks. I am glad I saw the news and atleast thought about Gandhi for a bit and remembered him. Most surprising is that the news flashing in the local channel. I didn't see anything about it in CNN or Fox (big news channel). If it is not for the channel to flash it, I wouldn't have just not know about it.

Take away, its really encouraging to notice that Gandhiji fame has come a long way to be part of an American's life to remember his death. On the other hand, a Indian(many like me) forgettting Jan 30 and to be reminded. Is it a shame or just take thats the way life when you are immersed into own world.. I don't know..

-PEACE-

It's that time of year again!!!

"HOH OHO, EH"

Santa is coming to town pretty soon...

Are you still waiting to draft a letter to him saying, " Dear Santa, I've been good this year because I have nice people always surrounded me all the time... "

Many of you might be struggling to find some nice things to say about you. Hoping and wishing some good things in return to be showered by him. But you might have lot of good things in your list. Don't worry!! You still have time to make up.


December is the time of the year during which holiday mood sparkles in everybody's face(atleast USA & Europe). December is a season for many wonderful things.

Its the Season of Joy,
Season of Giving and
Season for Memorable moments to Cherish!!!

I know many of you might be busy shopping gifts for their loved ones and some might be trying to spend more time with their family and friends. Everybody has their own traditions.


For the past few years it’s been my tradition to involve families, friends, neighbors and now my fellow bloggers on a Holiday Charitable Giving Campaign bringing on the Holiday Spirit during this time of year. It's that season of year again!

As an update, last year we had a wonderful Holiday Charity Raffle campaign (Dec 2006) and able to raise a reasonable amount with many of your gracious contributions. That small help went a long way to make a difference in lives of 3 young kids at Sevalaya, a charity organization in India. We were able to sponsor entire one year of their day to day needs and education expenses.

To continue this tradition like past, I already started my Holiday charity Campaign for this year and its halfway with lot of kind hearted people kicking into it. You can also join hands to make this holiday season another cherished one. This year we are planning to Step it up a notch by either sponsoring 3 more kids or donate some part of the fund to OpenIndia which also have projects directly dealing with kids education back in my city.


So please grab this fine opportunity and start your holiday season in a lovable way by showering the gift of any amount. There is no limit to show your love to these kids.

Every dollar we contribute can help feed a kid for a day or help their education. No contribution is small so any kinda of contribution is really appreciated. It's just an opportunity to join hands together to help and make a difference in others life.

NRI's: You can make online contributions visiting site http://ucanhelp.chipin.com/help-orphan-kids or send me an email at ucanchipin@yahoo.com for more information to send a cheque or other mode of contribution. I also kicked of a Charity Raffle for local Houston people, check it out at http://ucanhelp.chipin.com/holiday-charity-raffle

Others, you can make direct contribution/donation to sevalaya at their website http://www.sevalaya.org


Don't just think about making difference, Just do it!!

LADIES TERROR OUTING

I knew this would change everything but as I stood there transfixed, I felt helpless as the scene unfolds like a thriller in front of me. I just didn't have no option other than leaving the scene as quickly as possible without getting caught at the mad rush. I ran as fast as i can holding my life and praying GOD to the nearest exit I found. I was engulped in to a panic mode like every other person running next to me. That splashy shopping mall suddenly become death trap with people running like sprinter in the race track all over the place. Within just minutes, parking lot is filled with heads all over the place and I can see the relief in everybody's face. I rolled around my head to check on my friends and they all are here next to me.

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As a Single just closing in on to be 33 next month, I only have few good friends left to hang out as many moved out of state getting married. Even the one's live close to me seems to be content with their own happy world. So we only get to meet once a week instead of frequent outings like Sex and City girls. Its been our undocumented tradition for the past 2 years, to meet once a week at some place nice to spend and share our lone time together. Today, we decided to meet at the cool nice mall near our place. We usually plan our agenda ahead so we can enjoy the time in a good way instead of fight it out. We all decided to meet at Salma Aunty's Appearel shop in the mall which is next to the Video games stall. I got to the mall first right around 6pm and waited for my other gals. Slowly one by one showed up giving all kinds of excuses for late arrival. We hugged and shared our well being. We shared the agenda and set out to have lone fun time. We did some window shopping, chatted a lot about guys during our dinning. We were planning to a movie and just waited in a common waiting area next to Salma Aunty's store. As we were waiting and chatting with Salma Aunty, we heard a big conversation starting burst loud. We immediately turned our attention to it and tried to find whats going.Not even half minute after that, we heard gun shots from that side. We all don't know what to do. Everything starts to unfold so fast. We tried to find the place where the shots came from so we can escape. Finally we get to see the gun man far away with an hostage on his hold. I knew this would change everything but as I stood there transfixed, I felt helpless. With Salma aunty, we all immediately rushed to next closed exit before he turns his attention to us. As we got out, we saw the police cars all around the place in just short period. We were asked to leave the spot as soon as possible.We all hurried to our cars and left the scene as soon as possible. It took me a while to get over the panic mode. As I soon I reached my apartment, I switched on the TV to check out. I found out that the gun man killed 8 people including 4 female and shot himself. We were so lucky that we got out quickly.That incident changed everything in our life. It took us months to get back together again on our usual routine but its never the same. We decide never to meet on a crowded mall or spot.

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(Story based on Mall Shooting in my town)

BLACK FRIDAY IS UPON AMERICANS...

Whenever my friends ask me about some buying tips(as they know me as great deal finder) especially on a cheap laptop or deals on camcorders and Digital Camera's, I would say "Hold your horses till Black friday"

Some might wonder what exactly am I talking about? Whats is Blackfriday?

Obviously, there is no justice asking this question at this forum as many of you don't know about it. Thats where this blog comes in.

Blackfriday is the hot topic of this month in any American news forum or chat rooms or phone conversation when November rolls around. Its not about religion. Its also not about any historic rampage or riot. Its definetly not about horror stories. Its all about fun Shopping spree friday(I see ladies faces filled with great joy ) Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - is one of the busiest shopping days of the year for the nation's retailers. It has become a modern tradition in America that next day of Thanks giving is considered one of the deal breaking days of the year.

Usually American's believe Thanksgiving weekend kicks off the Holiday Season. As it arrives, it also comes with an obligation to have a big fat wallet to satisfy the gifting needs for the upcoming christmas. So almost every american family kicks of their gift purchases for christmas(to present to the loved ones in a way to carry on the tradition) from that weekend. If they can find them for a good deal, who will every say NO.

Nobody can beat Americans on Marketing. Taking that essence of gift buying and adding the marketing gimmick, big retail stores started this Blackfriday shopping tradition by blowing off the prices on certain items and bring on the shopping fun to attract customers. Let me share by showing how exactly it works to give a glimpse of fun.



Before the week of Thanksgiving(Nov 3rd week), many big retail stores announce their freebies, cheap deals on attractive items like electronics, computer related, home related as their Blackfriday specials. In past, People usually get this list from local newspaper as special on the day of blackfriday or flyers sent via snail mails. Nowadays these lists are made avaiable in secret websites like Blackfriday info, you would go thru the list and find out what you exactly want are in sale and make your own list. These website allow you even create your own list and take a print out. Once you have the list, families get together and plan who want to go to which location. Its like a Mission Project BLACKFRIDAY. They split out and start standing in the line in front of the stores from midnight without minding the shivering winter cold. You can see the mad rush of people waiting below.

Usually they have big organized queue in many places with police patrolling. As stores open for sale around 7am, everybody tries to get in with an attitude to get whatever they need. Its will be fun to watch that scene. They jump all around to find the items and don't care about others. Once you got them, wait in line to check out.

Even some people plan intelligently and come with a kid or partner who stands in the check out line while another one hunts for the items. That way, they can quickly check out otherwise you end up spending an hour waiting in line to get checked out.

Once they purchase the items on sale, its not over yet. Project just 50% over. Now they need to check those items and sort out the bills to send to Mail-In rebates. There are certain deals that are called Mail-In rebates.


What is Mail-in rebates?

Lets say the item is usually cost $100. They sell it for $75 with $50 Mailin Rebate. You will pay $75 at time of check out and you will get back $50 via mail. If thats the case, you need to apply for the rebate via mail with all the items required like reciept and purchase proof to get it. You eventually get your money back, God only knows how sooner. Companies also makes money when people don't send the proper proofs and miss out on mail as not many people are good at it.

You gotta take chance to get these deals but they arYou might think its crazy but its cool if you really want to buy big expensive items. In my past 9 years being year, I been to atleast 5-6 Blackfriday and caught the mad rush to purchase some good stuff. Its a win-win if you plan properly. Otherwise you end up buying unwanted things just for the sake of getting it free and never use in your life time. Thats the trick. Stores use this opportunity to get rid of items which doesn't sell well as freebies and try to make money out of it.

This year, mad rush is for LCD Flat TV's, as usual computers and iPODs.

Are you ready to join me this year for the Mad Rush of Blackfriday?

Dollar Vs Rupees -The Currency Fight

Like past few weeks, whenever I happen to see the exchange rate comparison in the evening news, I see the US dollar value dropping day by day instead of going up which was the case in the past. Its surely grabing lot of attention these days among the economist and traders all over the world.

Just in few months, dollar value has gone down around 35% pairing with most famous currencies like EURO, YEN, JPN and SWISS. Like every other NRI, especially I was watching very closely Rupee (Rs) over US ($) value. It seems in just last year or so, US dollar has come down 7 to 8 over the Rupees. As an Indian, I am happy to see that Rupee is gaining strength but on the other side as an NRI I was bit concerned.

A simple chart to shows the real drop for the last year which was widely from 45 to 39.

Why Dollar weakening?

In general the weaking effect of Dollar can be contributed by various factors like government, market forces of supply and demand for a particular country's currency, interest rates, inflation, and consumers' expectations about what will happen in the future. At present financial experts seems to point out the feat factor on lot of economical aspects like Housing market crash, consumer slow down, oil price increase being the culprits. They predict that the collapsing dollar will dramatically accelerate U.S. inflation and will pressure upward U.S. long-term interest rates.

I am sure many of you might have seen a popular forward email about India becoming a super economic power with a reverse trend happening like,

• Americans waiting in big lines at the Indian Embassy for work visas
• Value of Rupee goes up lik 1 Rupee = 45 dollar
• Americans take telephone interviews for Indian Jobs
  
  

We already seen most of it happening right now except the dollar value reversal. Looks like the days are not too far for that one to be true.

In yesterday's news, Financial minister P.Chidambaram commented that "US dollar weaking is really good for India as it benefits India in lot of ways while our trader and exporters are struggling with it. Buying price of oil is little cheaper and also it really slows down our inflation rate".

Is this a Good news for Indians or Bad one for NRI's? I somehow have a mixed feeling on it. May be its a good news as we see Rupee is gaining strength over Dollar. But in lot of ways it really hurts the Indian Export industry and NRI's very importantly.

How does it affect really?

Because of the Dollar value weakening, the buying power of the dollar has gone down and you end up buying less compared to a year back. So exporters who get paid by dollars are seeing crunch in their profit margins. This really makes big impact when you are competiting with other global countries.

On the other instance, NRI's investing back at home will have major set back. For example, past year if you can buy 4.5 lakhs worth of property in just $10000 now it needs $11500, an increase the dollar spend. Similary if an NRI is sending money back home an average $1000 yielded 43,000 rupees after commission but not only yield 39,000 rupees. On average 8% decrease in the yield. I knew lot of NRI's who wanted to take advantage of the high interest rate in India, so converted their money and saved in Indian Banks which also helped India forex. Now with current dollar value reduction, NRI's are losing lot of money on conversion day by day which surely not encouraging the savings idea in India.

Overall, Dollar weakening is really good think for India on a broader outlook but it does truely affects many Indian exporters and NRI's in particular to a large extent. There is a lot of hope that its just a short term trend and should revert back pretty soon as its all part of a cycle.

I greatly welcome any thoughts on this subject from true financial experts.

Deepavali - Lights Happiness in all faces, different ways...

Deepavali (Deepa-vali) as its called in southern and Diwali as in the another parts. Whatever we like to call, its an unique festive season which lightens up our spirit with a great deal of joy and happiness in all our lifes. It's a grand finale of all festivals as I like to call. A unique thing about this festive time, people all come together shredding out their differences to celebrate with enormous amount of happiness. Its not just a festival anymore, its a phenomeno that brings a light of hope and peace among all of us.

Everyone from a small kid to good old grandpa just looks out for this wonderful festival time for many reasons.

For kids

Holidays are always fun for them, Diwali eats and beats it all out. They just wait to unlease their tailenders and ready to start their non-stop engines to work extra powerful. They pretty much start their countdown as soon they hear about deepavali in TV's and initiate the process of pestering their parents for crackers. As its gets close to just 5-7 days away, they couldn't hold their horses anymore and just dig thru the pile of crackers to experiment them one by one holding a stock for big day. They get their training on how to crack the bombs from their older ones and never hesitate to test their skill set.

For Teenagers

Its a good break from their busy exam schedules to hang out with friends and family. Its not just about firing ordinary crackers for them anymore. Its all about show off time. Its time to show some hard earned skills like throwing the bombs lighting in the hand (which is too way risky), sending rockets from hand and much more. They just love to spend some time in front of the TV to get updates on the recent movies as they been in their own world of mocking with the school books.

For ladies

Its a big shopping spree season with all the stores announcing big sales. (guys know its just a sale game)TV ads spike up their interest lot more with some attractive offerings. They start to look out for great deals on home appliances, sarees and ornaments. Whether its buying a new refrigerator or small mixer, they think its the right time to get a right price. Its also the another time of the year when ladies get busy making some delicious foodies which can only home made. They get busy making authentic sweets like Aadirasam, sooji, papadam, chakri and list goes endless. They love to show their pride in making this sweet tastes perfect and as traditional.

For Men (in India)

Its all about bonus time. Lot of hard working men, expect a big chuck of bonus to hit their bank account. Big list of wanna have's are already drawn up by the better halves and its time to bring those promises to life. It's the time to give importance to tradition or make new one like buying new clothes or bring a new thing to home to lighten up loved one. Its also when a week before Diwali every men walks like king with their pockets full and after a week its life as usual.

For Grandpa's and Grandma's

This festive season is all about meeting their loved ones and playing with them. Some work harder looking out for any mischevious acts done by the kids so they have a safe holiday time. For some diabetes grand ones, its big teaser time. They can't eat any sweets and they get teased by the little ones showing off eating those delicious ones. But they get to taste some snackies if their teeth can munch them.

For NRI's(like me)
Its another usual work day except for some if they get to take leave. Its time of year the mailbox gets busy sending and recieving emails from friends and families wishing "Happy Diwali" sharing the happiness virtually. Some might not have time to make sweets but some might be lucky with all delicious sweets made by their lovely wives waiting to be tasted.(you hardly work thinking about it) No permission to fire crackers except you sneak some sparklers inside home if you happen to buy them during July 4th.

Deepavali/Diwali lightens up different people in different ways but its always brings a unique sense of peace, joy and Happiness within us all. Whats Diwali for you?

Happy Deepavali/Diwali to all my fellow bloggers !! May this day brings great Joy and Happiness in you and your loved ones.

TRICK OR TREAT!!!

I heard lot of crazy stories about westeners especially Americans. They do crazy things to have fun of any kind. I only get to see and experience when I got here. Especially, its true during the Halloween time. Halloween is celebrated on the last day of Oct. If you google it, you will be able to find out different versions of its history and how Halloween came into practice. I am going to stay away from the history part of it.


Basically, Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Its the time of the year that spookiness gets out of hand and people are licensed get to act and show their scary behaviors. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses", carving jack-o-lanterns, and viewing horror films.


At end of Fall season around october time, fun of Halloween starts. Many residents decorate their lawn and entry ways in a spooky way like pics below,

Trick or Treat

This is been a traditional activity during the Halloween night(Oct 31st). Kids and even adults dress up in costumes of various horror characters like vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Recently some costumes are also based on themes other than traditional horror, such as those of characters from movies and other pop culture icons. Many people just take it to extremes with their imagination and dress up so wild to look so realistic spooky characters. I even dressed up like scare crow character from the all time famous family movie Wizard of Oz.

After the dress up, kids with adults supervision go in groups door to door inside their neighboorhood asking for Trick or Treat. They are suppose to go to the house only that has have patio lights switched on welcoming trick or treaters. OK! What does it mean Trick or Treat? If the House owner has a horror trick, they can show and BOO the kids. If not, they have to treat them with chunks of candies. otherwise, they can expect some horror stuff happen to them.

My little boy started his first Halloween lastyear when he was just 4 months dressed up as little elephant(dumbo) and now his 16 months and can walk too. So why miss the fun ?!

Here he goes dressed up in Pumpkin costume ready for his Trick or Treat, cute huh!!

Walking with his mommy for his Trick or Treat

Kids who came to my home for Trick or Treat.

Isn't the Pooh looks so cute ?! I just boo'ed them and treat them with lot of candies.

After the trick or treat, kids just thrilled to research on different types of candies they got during the trick or treat. My son is getting trained here by his mommy,

Check out my Halloween album for some more pictures. I enjoy these kinda fun activites. Its always fun. My wife is one step up ahead. She already shopped for the next year costume in Halloween after sale.



Did you have fun reading this blog?

Do you work like Donkeys?

We all work hard, actually too hard these days. Sometimes it gets worse with the layoffs and budget cuts. We get overloaded and dumped with too many items to tackles at a short work time(taking over blogging time). Especially, at the information age, when almost everyone in every office is a knowledge worker, we're actually paid to process information. And since there's an infinite amount of information, there's an infinite amount of work. For everyone.

If you think that your boss is probably giving you enough work every week to fill three weeks. That may also because you are letting him do it. If you work a certain way, it could also fill only three days. The point is that people who feel overworked in some respects choose to be overworked.

I found some 5 good tips/choices that will help avoid being overworked like donkeys. I can practically relate these tips to my own ways of working. Actually I was just following them without knowing they were few best practice.

Here are the tips for you,

1. Force your boss to prioritize. Because processing information is not an objective task, you can do a good job or a bad job or any kind of job in between. Which is to say that you don't have to do a great job with everything. You can't, right? Because your boss is giving you too much work. So you have some choices. First, you can try to force your boss to prioritize. Say to him or her, "If you want me to do project z perfectly, then you need to get projects w, x, and y off my plate." Maybe your boss will think project z is so important that he or she will clear your plate. But most likely, your boss will say, "Forget it. You need to do everything." This is an open invitation to start experimenting with cutting corners.

2. If your boss won't prioritize, do it yourself. Please don't tell me you don't believe in cutting corners. It's the layman's term for prioritizing, and you probably perfected it as a way of life in college. In fact, cutting corners is what college teaches best. Over the course of a semester, you were assigned sixteen 400-page books to read, plus you had to write papers about them. You also had to show up for classes to find out what was going to be on the tests. Of course, there was no way you could read all 6,400 pages you were assigned -- that would be impossible in the allotted time. So you figured out what you could skip. You determined that the best way to get out of the reading was to go to the lectures, because professors lecture about what interests them, and their tests reflect their interests. Now back to your workplace, where you have too much work to do. Here's how the losers handle it: They complain about being overworked. They keep accepting more work, and trying to do it perfectly, and complain. And their bosses keep dumping it on them and saying there's nothing they can do about the workload. Meanwhile, neither of them is prioritizing, neither of them is taking responsibility for the situation, and each is blaming the other. If you boss insists on giving you more work than you can do, you should start cutting corners. Do everything very quickly, and ignore the idea that it needs to be done perfectly -- it can't all be done perfectly. Your boss refuses to prioritize for you, so you'll have to do everything as best as you can.

3. Get comfortable with ignoring some tasks. For some of you, even doing things less than perfectly will take too much time. In this case, you'll have to blow some stuff off. So experiment and see which things can fall through cracks without anyone noticing. You already do this. Someone at work sends you an email demanding a response. But before you have time to reply, another recipient does so, so you just delete the original message. Try this approach with work you're not a central force on and see what happens.

4. Stop complaining before it ruins your life. I can already imagine the comments flying about this column. Some of you will say that you'd be fired for following the above advice. But what's your choice? You've already told your boss you have more work than you can get done in a day, and he or she didn't scale back. Do you want to continue to just complain about it every day? Probably not, because complaining is toxic. Besides, do you really want to work 15 hour days to get extra work done for a company that doesn't respect its employees' time? Why should you give up your personal life because your boss can't prioritize? Instead, take control of your life and create a situation where you stop complaining about having too much work. If you're fired for not doing all the work, you probably didn't want to work at the company anyway. And if you're not able to scale back, consider that you might over-identify with your job to the point that you're working harder than you need to because you can't imagine not being perfect.

5. Take responsibility for being overworked, then change it. OK, suppose you love your work and you're happy working 15-hour days. That's fine. Just don't complain about it. What I'm saying is that if you complain about having too much work you should look in the mirror -- it's your own fault, and you can change the situation by drawing boundaries at work. Be an adult by taking responsibility for your time, and complain only when you have a solution. Star performers don't talk about being overworked, they talk about time management. The best time managers excel at it because they're good at figuring out what they don't have to do. The best time managers have the confidence to say, "I'll still be a star even if I don't do that task."

This is great advice from someone who's succeeding in an area where most people would succumb to information overload. Clearly, the way to do good work is to know when it's time to not do it.

Negligence might not be choice in many profession but not for the IT people.

Source from Yahoo Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007, By Penelope Trunk

Don't Blink, Life Goes Faster Than You Think

In the past 2 days, I hit upon this song titled "Don't Blink" more than 5-6 times. It may be just a coincidence. Morning and evening whenever I traveled in my car, this song just pops up from my favorite Country music FM channel.(Texas is famous for Cowboy type Country music. I liked this genre especially for the down to earth lyrics!)

I was like why in the world this particular song just happens to play whenever I turn on the radio. I thought may be the timing was just in sync. But still it was weird and I didn't want to discard the hunch. May be the repeated occurrence of the song is for purpose and its trying to convey something to me so badly?

So I started listening close to get the full essence of the song. I was right. It was trying to remind me some important aspect of life which we happen to forget in our busy life. I think I might be in due for a reminder.

Here is the full song lyric, Click to watch the video

Artist: Chesney Kenny

Song: Don't Blink

I turned on the evening news
Saw a old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today
Asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said "All I can say is."

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half"
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I was glued to my tv when it looked like he looked at me and said
"Best start putting first things first."
Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can't flip it over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth

Don't Blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half"
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

So I've been trying' ta slow it down
I've been trying' ta take it in
In this here today, gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife

Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half"
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster then you think
So Don't blink

Naw, don't blink
Life Goes Faster Than You Think
Don't Blink...

The song can be easily related to anyone's life. Its so real and practical. Take my son in our life as an example. It seems just few days ago he came into our world. Now he is already making impressions in our life being just 1 and half year old. It will be not soon that he would be big boy going to school. It all happens fast. Doesn't it ?!

Some more good stanzas really worth dwelling on.

"Best start putting first things first."
Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand

You can't flip it over and start again

Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth

Ain't he totally right about it. Put first things first and hourglass can't be flipped over. Its not in our hand. I wish I do have the control.

Many of us with the way life takes us tend to forget what comes first and just go with the flow missing the moment. But its good to reevaluate now and then to put things which need to come first, first. Because we never can go back in time unless we have a Back to Past machine. We all got the present tense, past is already gone with the wind.

So I've been tryin' ta slow it down
I've been tryin' ta take it in
In this here today, gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

Time flies fast. I hear that all the time and many of us Sigh on it big time. I don't know whether its because we are so occupied with day today activities. I felt that days go faster than it used to be. I really thought at times that we should slow it down and take it in.

Grasp the moment, breath the fresh air, play with kids before they growup older, play silly games and have fun with the counterpart whenever can and just be live the life and enjoy the very instant of it.

Isin't an interesting song to ponder upon !! I figured thats just the reason for it to hit on me repeatedly.

DON'T BLINK, WE ALL GOT ONLY TODAY TO LIVE AND CHERISH. DON'T YOU THINK !!

Negligence: A Nasty fact, costing lives.

Talking of negligence, it happens all the time in India. People just don't care for others life like every other human which differentiates from other beings. Especially people like doctors, lawyers whose profession really affects one's life and who are in a position with more responsibility doesn't seems to emit their sincerity. Their main motive these days seems to be money, if something goes wrong badly their first instinct is to cover up not affecting their image.

Let me share a bitter story which was shared by my wife. There was couple who came to Chennai from Singapore for a vacation. They also planned to check on their daughter's tonsils as referred by their singapore doctor. They were told that you can do simply in Chennai because of all the facilities available. So they went to the well-known famous Apollo hospital in Chennai. The doctors recommended for an immediate operation.

As we all know tonsil operation is small minor one these days of technology advancement and they also thought the same way. No risk for life. But it all turned out other way around, the doc did something wrong by cutting some nerves and poor girl died. Who paid the price for the price ?! Obviously the parents who lost their only child. Doctors hesitated to reveal their fault and finally told the parents about it. They couldn't believe what happened. Fate has its way. Hospital pitched in to coverup the doctors mistake by offering money.

They can only offer money, they can never bring back the child's life. Nobody can ever replace a life.Hearing all about, my stomach just bloated and don't know what to think about it. I am sure everyone has a story like this one.

The people who work in important positions who decides the life & death of someone should be so much sincere and take responsiblity for their act. There can't just be careless. Mistakes do happen but not at the stake of someones life.

Attitude towards life has to change, thats the way to go to bring a change in the society. People should start valuing the life. Don't blame of the population for everything. Its the individual nature how to respond and be responsible for one's act should change.

People should start caring each other and think of WE and just ME, a selfish factor.

Schools, Sex Education & Birth Controls.

I was shocked to hear a news in today's CNN headlines. A school in Maine(northeastern US state) is planning to propose a health program to give out Birth Control pills for the Middle schools students between 6 and 8 graders.

Don't you think its ridiculous? I thought its way out of league.

Here is the news in detail for you to digest:

Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will consider Wednesday.

The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing condoms as part of its reproductive health program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers.

If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle schoolers are ages 11-13.

Lets take a deep dive into it and analyze a bit more.

The above news clearly shows the sign of schools encouraging kids to have sex in their schools. Way back the sex education was made compulsory for middle school and up. Now giving out birth control pills just starting out. I don't know where the US school system is heading?!

On the other end, there are still schools out there in many states, they can't even give any first aid medicine to kids. If a kid is sick at school teachers aren't allowed to give out any medicine at all - not any aspirin or Tylenol. You never know what allergies a kid might have. And for kids who have to take a prescription, even a pill for acne, they must have a doctor's note and go to the office to take it in front of a designated secretary. They can get in trouble if they take medicine on their own. You see both extremes.

But many school officials support this program because of the Sex intercourse rate has increased to record high in recent years at the middle schools. Its better to safe then sorry and protect the kid out of Child pregnancy danger. Thats a valid point as well.

A sixth grader student who is just 11-12 years old, not even got a clear understanding of whats sex means and how to handle it. It's like test the waters when you aren't absolutely sure about your swimming ability. Secondly handing out pills to children going through puberty, when their bodies are in the process of maturing, that effect their hormones? Also Birth controls has lot of side effects at the most which can trigger heart attack in early age. Considering the above facts, its not really an encouraging news for parents.

Don't you also think Sex education is one major reason for the high Sex intercourses rate in middle schools. We talk to them about sex and kindle their interest. They are not going to stay put like old ages. In this age of time, kids are smart and fast. They just want to try it out. So there you go. They try it out and end up getting pregnant.

Its all scary talk about kids getting pregnant at the age they should start thinking about playing and growing up in life for a better future. When the kids get out of home, they are no more in control of parents. They are their own masters and they control their activities. So its hard to keep an eye out of kids.

Just for that reason, giving out Birth Control pills is too much out of limits. But I feel condoms are ok. Thats fine, as long as there is education to go with them and abstinence is put out as the ideal. BC pills, no way!!!

As Indians living out here, we already think the western world is getting way out of limit especially with Schools shootings, Sex education, sex intercourse in school and list goes endless. Many parents already went back to India when their kids were old enough to go to school to avoid the sending their kids to US school system. It like you are running away from the problem, there is always problem where you go. But as per the parents, they took the right decision for their kids.

This brings an important topic of adding sex education in our India school system. After seeing the aftermath and side effects of sex education, many might feel that we should not incorporate sex education in India. My take, I strongly feel that we should go ahead add to the High schools to a certain extent to educate them on the factoids. I know how tough to not know about it. Many will concur with me.

There is always going to 2 sides for a coin. Its always going to be a tough choice to decide which side to pick. Whether sex education with all sorts of consequences or nothing to keep the kids the ignorant like past. I would vote for better education than none.

Whats your vote for?

YOU AND UR SLEEPING POSITIONS (FUNNY)

I have come across many ways of determining one's personality. Simple one using their stars but more complex using certain answer selections of analystical questions. First time, a funny method to figure via one's sleeping position. If you already seen it, sleep over it.



These images are so funny with their explanations. I did see some positions that matches some individuals including me came not even close. You can try your luck to see whether your position give a good outlook

Looks like a Superman Personality

This one is Nerdy...












May be a forced Bachelor position...









Poor guy







Watchout Lady







Nervous nimbsoul

Love lady

A rich CEO type







Wow!! My son sleeps like this at time







Sometimes, I do sleep in this position.. am I narrow minded

Did you figure out yours?!

Source: Forwarded email from my sister

Are you a Duck or an Eagle?

Harvey Macky - Well known motivational speaker. Author of the New York Times #1 bestsellers Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt.

Wally - A cab driver

*******************************************************
Harvey Mackay was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a car pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.

He handed Harvey a laminated card and said:

"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement."

Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:

Wally's Mission Statement :

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest,
Safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment .

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."

Harvey said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."

Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke."

Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal , Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As they were pulling away, Wally handed Harvey another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio."

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

"Tell me, Wally," amazed Harvey asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?"

Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd. The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm. '"

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.
I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Great service is a matter of choice. You could either quack like a Duck or soar like a Eagle. It doesn't have to be service, it can relate to anything. It can be the way you act for certain situations like work environment, about life, future and so forth. Its upto us to be DUCK or EAGLE on each occasions.

Who would you prefer to be?


*******************************************************
I recieved this valuable worthy email from ISKCON mailing list. Thanks to my friend who taught a good lesson.

Go Lean with Green

I love vegetables, thanks to my mom who made that habit on me. Especially I like to eat green vegis like Beans, Avaraikai, spinach, herbs which are very rich chlorophyll good for you. Going Green is good for health. Going green can help reduce your risk of cancer, protect your heart, trim your waistline, and even make you happier.

Bean Poriyal

Crisp green beans make for a great side dish. Bean's Poriyaal is one of my all time favorite. Easy to cook, doesn't take a lot of time at all. You can see beans poriyaal served in most of authentic wedding lunch. Here is my quick Bean Poriyal recipe for you to try it out.

Ingredients:
Fresh green beans 2 cups, chopped finely
Mustard Seeds (as needed)
Half cut Onion
Urad Dal 1/4 tsp
Dried Red Chilli 1 or 2 halved
Fresh grated coconut 1 tbsp , for garnishing
Oil 1/2 tsp, Salt to taste

Method:

- Heat oil in a pan. Pop mustard seeds.

- When they start to splutter add urad dal and Red chilli.

- Add onion to it. Let it fry until light redish color.

- After that add the beans, sprinkle little water and Mix well.

- Cover and cook for 8 - 10 minutes or until the beans are cooked.

- Add salt as needed and Finally garnish with coconut and serve hot with any meal.

I also like to try out some recipes from American Cancer Institute. They suggest really neat items good for our heart.

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Herbs

This recipe incorporates delicious sautéed tomatoes and aromatic herbs, adding lots of flavor without additional fat. The onion provides sweetness and, combined with garlic, add a variety of phytochemicals to this colorful dish.

Tasty Green Bean Saute

Ingredients

1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 large ripe tomato, diced, or 1/2 can (7 oz.), diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp. minced fresh basil (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. minced fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
3/4 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed, or 1 package (10 oz.) frozen green beans,
thawed Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

In a nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato, basil and oregano. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the green beans, cover and cook for 6 minutes, until the beans are crisp but tender. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 54 calories, 2 g fat (<1 g saturated fat), 10 g carbohydrates,
2 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 7 mg sodium.

I always like to sprinkle my blogs with foodie ones, now and then especially with dishes I liked the most. Because I am fond lover of great healthy food. Hope you can try and let me know how you like it.

Sources: American Cancer Insitutue email. Photos from web.