What Will I Miss, Being Pregnant???

I wrote this post a while back and enjoy reading it now...Hope you enjoy it too...

Now that I was nearing the end of the pregnancy. Little Cupcake could come any time in the next month, but I’m expecting her to be on the later end. Let me see if she starts out by living up to my expectations. I have mixed emotions about the end of this stage. Many people ask me if I’m ready for it to be over. At this point I’m not, but I’m also excited for the birth. Since I know the end of the pregnancy is inevitable, I made a list of things that I’ll miss about it. Maybe I can use this list to motivate me if I decide to do this again.  

Hair – Thank you pregnancy hormones. I can’t really say for sure that my hair is fuller, but man it looks pretty. So either it really is fuller and healthier or the hormones actually have the effect of making me delusional. Either way, I’m happy.

Long finger nails – Apparently, pregnancy hormones can increase growth in your nails. Nice! My nails are so flimsy that they break easily and then I have short boyish nails for a while. They still break a lot, but now they grow back so fast I only have short or uneven nails for a couple days. Of course, I don’t enjoy the extra maintenance involved in trimming my toenails, especially since it’s tough to reach them, but it’s worth it if I finally get to have girly hands.

Feeling less guilty about taking care of myself – This one probably shouldn’t be on this list. I should never feel guilty about taking care of myself, but I do. I also know that if I continue to take care of myself after the birth, I’ll be creating a healthier environment for our baby and I’ll be better able to attend to others’ needs when I’m needed. Therefore, I’ll miss having an obvious physical reason for taking care of myself, but I’m also going to work every day to remember that I don’t need an excuse to address my own needs.

People being nice and offering help – When I was at the grocery store the other day a woman saw me lifting my baggages and asked if I needed help because I had a bundle up front. I didn’t need help at the moment since I was using it as an opportunity to practice squatting, but it was so nice of her to offer. Sometimes it can be a little embarrassing when people offer to help, but it’s so heart-warming and builds my faith in random strangers.

Ultrasounds – It’s like we get to spy on the baby when she thinks we’re not looking. That’s right, cutie pie, we saw you playing,rolling,twisting. You didn’t know you were being filmed, huh? We even have pictures that we can use to embarrass you at your wedding. We’re gonna be great parents then.

Always knowing where my kid is – Right now, I have a decent amount of control over her safety. I know where she is at all times, she can’t run out into traffic, and I can step into the other room without worrying what she’ll get into becauses he has to come with me. Thinking about trying to keep track of a toddler is scary.And then when she is a teenager and comes home late I can say,”You were so much easier to keep track of in utero!..Its really tough now."

No crying or fussing – Sure, sometimes she can get pretty squirmy, but I’m still able to sleep through it. It’s easy to provide for her needs when the umbilical cord takes care of most of them automatically. Learning to decipher her cries could be tricky. 

Being told I’m a superhero for doing the most basic things – I get the general sense that people think it’s great that I’m up walking around. Maybe there are too many horror stories floating around that imply being pregnant equals months of pain and misery. I do feel lucky that I’m not on bed rest and that my many aches are manageable.

The anticipation – She’s been hanging out with me for months, but I have very little idea what she looks like and almost no clues as to her personality. I’ll be happy to find out, but I’ll miss that excitement that comes before opening the present. 

Having a cute (huge) belly that makes people smile.

And as a bonus…. 1 thing I won’t miss:

Peeing in a cup before every doctor’s appointment – There are a lot of them! 

DREAMS, Do they haunt you or you haunt them ???

In my conversation with many people, I felt that most of us are resigned or rather content, to living the DREAMS of other other than their very OWN.It is also true many ignore/suppress their own dream.They don't believe they can fulfill it (I am no escape to it too).So the consequence is many of us struggle with their dreams or their adjustment/ postponing of the dreams in order to lead this lives.

So there begins the story of every ordinary life, which is, you can say is cushioned or companioned with DREAMS.Without it,life has no meaning.And with it,life is confused (you just don't have a dream they are numerous.And even you accomplish one the next is pipe lined,there is no end to it ).We begin the journey of life with a dream.With small attempts,the dream slowly becomes a wish...And then again with the passage of time the DREAM to WISH fades into EMPTINESS.

But why ????

In my personal opinion its all about the "F" word...Don't be mistaken I meant to say it as FEAR...
I was questioned Fear of what??? You name it...There are in multiple forms...But then I wonder its FEAR or AN EXCUSE to live our DREAMS.

Happy Dreaming !!!

KDramas & KMovies

Annyeong haseyo...I am really addicted to these kdramas & kmovies (Korean Drama & Korean Movies) for quite a while now...Thanks to Manisha nani..It was just like opening myself into a new world,getting to know about the beautiful country,South Korea,the Korean culture,traditions and the language...Besides that even figured out they follow or try to imitate the American style in every aspect of their lives...
Excellent scripts with wonderful performances and amazing songs has really made me passionate about these Kdramas...My watch list so far goes like this :-The-1st-shop-of-coffee-prince,women-of-the-sun,goong-s,bad-couple,powerful-opponents-kangjeok,super-rookie,wonderful-life,the-vineyard-man,one-fine-day,hello-my-teacher,full-house,boys-before-flowers,modern-housewives,autumn-tale,queen-of-housewives,good job good job,...And n number of Kmovies...Still have a long watch list...Thanks to the wonderful site :- mysoju.com and all the Korean translators who provide the stubs which really helped me learn and understand the language to some extent...
The words I learnt :-annyeong haseyo/anyunhaseo - hello;annyeong higaseyo - goodbye;bangapsumnida - nice meeting you ;gomawo/gomapsumnida/kamsahamnida - thank you ;viane/biane - for sorry;kumapta - thank you na - i;nuh - you;omma - mother;appaappa/ abogii - father;unni - sister (female speaker);oppa - brother (female speaker);noona - sister (male speaker);hyung - brother (male speaker);yabo- honey; oppa - honey or close man;dong saeng - younger sibling (regardless of the speaker's gender);harabuji - grandpa;halmuni - grandma;ajussi - mister;ahjussi - old man;ahjumma - old woman;imo - aunt; sam chon - uncle;sun saeng nim - teacher;gyo soo nim - professor;sun bae nim - senior;sah jang nim - president (i.e. company);chingu - friend;nam ja chingu - boyfriend;yeoja chingu - girlfriend;
aein - lover;yobo - husband/wife; saranghae/saranghaeyo/saranghamnida - iloveyou;bogoshipda - i miss you;crome- like see u or bye (sumthin like that);mwo - what;waeyo - why;haengbokhae - happy;pae goh pa - hungry;miane - sorry; jung mal/jjin jja - really;mola - i don't know;musunsuriya - what happened;gan da - i go;ga ja - lets go;kalkke/kabolkaeyo - ill go first;michutsu - are u crazy;araso/arata/algesumnida - i understand;na wa - outside;palli - faster;kwenchanayo - are u ok;moragu - what did u say;yogiyo - here;angurae - isnt it;ji be - home;orenmanida - its been a long time;ottokae - how;otthae - how is it;gu rom/mullon - of course;ba bba - busy;kugon - that;got - this;onje - when;hajima - dont;keuk jung hajima - dont worry;pi gon hae - tired;pyong won - hospital;ne/ye - yes;ani/anio - no;chulte andwe -never;pilipin - Philippines;ho ju - Australia;mi guk - America;wat ssuh - im here;butakhaeyo/chebal - please;jal ja ra - goodnight;jal ga - take care/see you;choahae - i like you;choa - good/fine;hana,dul,set - 1,2,3;beautiful - ilpyun;yeoboseyo - hello (on the phone);ya! - hey;charaeso - good job;olmayeyo - how much;sinbal - shoes;juseyo - give;apayo - hurt;yaksok - promise;choshimae - be careful;opso - nothing;gunyang - just;gu rae - (oh..i see or really) ;ma ja - you are right;masheekaeta - yummy/delicious;gu rae so - thats why;tthaemonae - because;je gum - now;irumi - name;irumi moya - whats ur name;na do - me too;kunde - but;wae gu rae - whats the matter;sashirun - actually;pi mi - secret;uri - us/our;a gi - baby;chorom - like;babo - fool;
And even given a chance in this life time or if I am that fortunate would surely travel Seoul and visit this wonderful land in the east... Kamsahamnida....

P.S.:- Penning this post has been over an year for me now...

GLBT

Wiki says "LGBT (or GLBT) is an initialism referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people।"For a very long time I was unaware of the fact and just wondered what was it ???I guess these were private talks during my childhood when my parents and the people of the generation talked about it in closed rooms away from children and young teens...But with the gradual passage of time,when I was in my 20s and got a chance to be out of home, then only got to know what did all that mean...Even though very frequently heard it in Odiya as Maichiaa and wondered who were they...Have seen them mostly when we travelled by train in my childhood days is what I remember...But these days, children aged 4-5 even know what is all that...Thanks to media...I dont know whether to thank the media literally or not...In the process of educating our children, I sometimes feel they are given more information prior to their age...And these days hindi movies like Dostana,Straight,Dev D bringing up directly the closed rooms topics (as I think) publicly...And people have fun and enjoy it and laugh it off...Seriously this hurts if you give it a thought...Has laughter become so cheap and it sells around these topics...Cant we find other ways to laugh off ???Even if some person is GLBT, doesnt it hurt their feelings...Reserving their rights in the Parliament or electing them to the Assembly or Parliament doesnt solve the matter...Indiviuals need to respect each other keeping all the fun apart since its a matter a of indiviualistic identity,self pride...Then I was wondering where has all this impact come from...In the process of simply imitating the WEST ,where the civilization is completely different along with the cultures,has profound impact on us...My watch list of such movies include the Oscar nominated Philadephia by Tom Hanks, 2009 ,oscar nominated MILK for best feature film and best actor has profound effect on the people here...What hair raising performances by the actors, wht wonderful scripts...State of California and many such states at United States has come up with laws for publicising Gay marriages and their rights...People of this category are fighting hard and people of all catergories respect all that rather making fun of them...One has to realize hard and have to be thoughtful since its not one's own mistake that one is in the category of LGBT but its the Creator...Then who are we to laugh it off or side them off from the society???My nation has to work hard on it as I feel since people are miscommunicated and in the process many families cant be helped to resolve such social issues for the sake of being boycotted...Have to give in some serious thought...

Day Light Saving and The Time Zones

OMG...Its so confusing eventhough there are tatics of handling all that...But eventhough thats the case I have bugged my partner, hell lot of time until I had my hands on the Day Light Saving calculation and the varied times zones at United States Of America...While I was working in India, I was familiar to this Day Light Saving & varied Time Zone funda evenif I felt pretty awkward..But we didnt have the problem of turning the clock an hour ahead or an hour later...We had clocks in our bays which told wht time it was in which part of the world as per our client locations, i.e like Japan,Philipinnes,California,New York & Chicago...No confusion at all...In India,the whole of the nation falls under one time zone usually referred to as IST (Indian Standard Time) and no Day Light Saving funda...

So many a times I pondered why,when and how Day Light Saving got it existance ???Thank God !!! Google helped me resolve my quest and then I opened myself in a world of numerous answers to Day Light Saving...Basically this convention of DST is of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.The birth of this idea was first brought by the author of the proverb, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise",i.e Benjamin Franklin but Londoner William Willet pushed this idea to Great Britain...According to the American English "Spring forward,Fall back" (also "spring ahead ...", "spring up ...", and "... fall behind") helps people remember which direction to shift clocks.For further queries,I just love this site which resolves my quest on DST :- http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html. Hope it resolves urs also...
And one more interesting fact I got to know "Arizona State" does not observe Daylight Saving Time , except in the Navajo Nation, located in the northeastern region of the state.And even got to know that India once upon a time used Daylight Saving Time,chk this out :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DaylightSaving-World-Subdivisions.png.%20With

Now coming to the varied Times Zones Of United States Of America...They are catagorised into 6 types :-
1)Eastern Standard Time,EST
2)Central Standard Time,CST
3)Mountain Standard Time, MST
4)Pacific Standard Time, PST
5)Alaska Standard Time, ASKT
6)Hawaii-Aleutian Time, HST

The EAST believes in changing oneself as per the TIME and scriptures speak how powerful is TIME or the so-called "MUHURAT" plays a distinctive role in deciding every stage in an indiviual,right from his birth till death...But, then the WEST, where TIME is switched on and off as per the indiviual ease or the federal laws ...So ultimately its the humans here on this part trying to bind TIME in their clutches by changing time on clocks, watches,... Many computer-based systems can shift their clocks automatically when DST starts and finishes, based on their time zone settings. Thanks to "zoneinfo" and "Microsoft Windows".Its sounds awful turning your watch when you travel across USA and in Spring lose an hour of sleep but sounds great in Autumn through winter to get an extra hour to grab ur sleep...

With many of my questions answered yet I find it to be ambiguous eventhough the ambiguity have been answered with the help of varied explanations and justified reasons yet still I have this: hadn't been there no Daylight Saving, then wht ???And why do a single nation (like USA) have so many time zones, can't there be just one time zone, whtz the need ???

Mexican Cuisine

Welcome to the world of Burritos,Fajitas,Tacos,Nachos,Salsa...
What do you feel they might be ???Names but names of wht ,of dances,places,culture....Oh !!! Come on they are the name of foods...Yes, I said food...They are all a part of the Mexican Cuisine...

My introduction to this Mexican cuisine was a day to remember...By then I had been in Texas for more than three months and we had bought a Kia Sedona Minivan from a car dealer and the car dealer treated us a lunch for closing the deal...Oh ,I am diverted from my topic...Nash (the dealer) took us (me and my partner) to a nearby resturant called Chipotle Mexican Grill...I had no idea what to eat for I had the fear that I would land up eating pork or beef instead of chicken and veggies...I raised my concern to Nash and he helped choose my food...Actually I took the same stuffs as he did for he also never had anything other than chicken, to which I believed blindly...Nevermind, but the food was awesome ...To my astonishment,I can never ever think of something so wonderful at such a reasonable price tag and that too the same type of mirch masala we have in our Indian cuisine...I just loved it...The bowl had rice,black beans,shredded roasted chicken,fried and sausaged veggies like the onions, bell peppers and other lots of green veggies,different spices...all mixed together...Take my words you will just love it...And you have a lot of options to choose among the ingredients you want in ur dish ...Then there began my hunt of trying out different mexican delicacies but excuse me no pork,beef,steak plzzzzz...I have tried out Burrito ,Chicken or Shrimp Fajita,Burrito Bol,Tortilla,nachos,Quesadilla,Tacos,Guacamole,Salsa...Each of these have a lot of varieties in it...

There might be many other Mexican resturants but I love eating out at Chipotle and Taco Bell...I feel filled both in heart and in stomach...And its worth it...These two resturants have very interactive websites, that I love...Chk it out :- http://www.chipotle.com/
http://www.tacobell.com/

Mexican cuisine has its varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices and ingredients similar to that of Indian cuisine...Far off in this unknown land, I found the same spices as that in my native...I and my partner carry with us a wonderful idea of opening up a franchise with Chipotle somewhere in India,if they haven't ventured India...Hope it works out...And if not then, do please try to taste something when you are here ...You will surely love it...

Apart from all these,to those who drink cocktails would be familiar with Tequila and Margarita...These are two famous Mexican cocktail drinks...But sorry,I have no idea how they taste...Haven't tasted them yet...Par thoda taste karne ki chaha hai...

Size Zero

I have a bunch of friends who are Indians settled in America,i.e Desi's @ Pardes...My friends are too picky about what they eat and its not becoz they dont like the food but its becoz of CALS,i.e CALORIES...They were really surprised to hear that I never calculated my Calories intake per day and have never ever set up myself for a DIET CONTROL Regime...Even I was astound how did it matter and now that I am married and even have a few extra pounds everywhere, what the heck about it ??? But slowly,I too was a part of it.The Americans are very concerned about CALS even if you would find the world's fattest person exists in this nation...Go to shop for groceries or shop for some meals at the store or online, you would surely find the Nutritional facts and the Calorie Intake Per Serving bolded everywhere...While in India, I never too the pain to read all that but now I am here at US, its what I look for sure along with the prices per lb...So this craziness has take me over and no matter what I am enjoying it...I am now so much into it that even my chewing gums are no escape to it...they are all the sugar free gums...;-))
Besides that,these days you find lot of programs,drugs,belts,strips when you browse the internet or read a magazine..."Reduce 5 lbs in 1 week."Weight loss Instant Tip"...bla bla...Do that really work ???Even though I havent tried any such stuff on myself till date...I just wonder how has this fever taken over everyone so quickly???Why have looks and size matter so much these days???I always thought it mattered the most to the glamor world,the skinny fashion models...
I understand to stay fit and healthy is much more important this size zero which may atimes lead to malnutrition or some other problems due to severe work outs and so...Is everyone aware of that or are we just following the trend???But that doesnt mean that I am against this Size Zero factor...For looks do matter a much and build up ur confidence and empower you...And even I want to have a beautiful body for which I am trying for...So stay fit and healthy, in my opinion, is what is called Size Zero...What do you say ???
Some days ago,my brother aged 24 was diagonsed with High Blood Pressure and he has been on medicines for high BP...Such an early age to be into such kind of stuff just alarmed me...So,it goes out for all everyone :-Eat the food you love but preferably healthy,fresh ones...Control ur diet when you are unhealthy or feel you should keep a check to it without alarming urself and everyone around you with diseases...Go for work out even if not the strenous ones then go for a walk, a jogging as often as you can...If nothing works out, look at ur Before & After pictures and judge urself...Size Zero,Calorie calculator,health tips everything is on onself and ones attitude to stick to it for its your own body and its just you who fall into it knowing or unknowingly...Keep a check and never try to look too skinny or too huge but healthy...Life is all about imperfections but perfections are atimes very very essential...Have a fit,healthy and perfect body not to show the world but for yourself...The ball is in ur court so either keep it or toss it, its ur choice buddy !!! And even the choice is mine even though I am tempted by KFC Chicken,ColdStone Creamery IceCreams and Cakes,mouth watering biriyanis,italian pizzarias ,fast foods, junk foods and coke...;-))Bhai funda dena aalga baat hai aur temptation rok pana dusri....